Subject: [OTL]: [Wisdom/Pryde/MacTaggart]: My Child (PG) Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 21:16:13 +0100 From: Jupiter 2 Reply-To: outsidethelines@Mailing-List.net To: outsidethelines@Mailing-List.net ++++++++ Standard Disclaimer applies. Rhona +++ To Jennifer Colquohoun True and dear friend even if we don't always see each other. ++++++++ "What the hell are you talking about Moira?" "I'm so sorry Pete, but there's nothing I can do." Moira MacTaggart, scientist, doctor and mother looked at the man who had just been told his child was dying. Pete Wisdom's shoulder's slumped as the knowledge that his first child would have it's whole life ahead of it but only for a few days. It seemed a cruel way to live and to die. Most people might ask what they had done wrong to deserve such a thing but he didn't, God didn't exist. It was a mutation, pure and simple. A bloody twisted one at that. "Does Kitty know yet?" "Nae but she'll have to decide if she wants to have the baby or not and soon." He looked through the glass at Katherine Pryde, mother of his child. She looked so happy, like nothing was wrong. To her this was a check up. She was just 3 months gone, nothing should be the matter. *When did anything ever go right for ya? Sodding world's been out to get ya from the start.* The little voice at the back of his mind whispered. *Ya do realise this is all yer fault? If it wasn't for you, she'd be having a normal relationship and normal kids.* And just maybe the voice was right. "Pete?" "Sorry Moira, just thinking of baby names." "That's not funny Pete an' ye know it." Moira was sympathetic, she'd lost her child but she didn't get the chance to say good bye but Pete would. He knew the outcome and had time to prepare for it. Now he was making jokes about it. Could this man go any lower? "I'll need to tell Kitty soon, are ye plannin' on being there?" "No, I need a drink and fag. I need to think about this." He walked out of the complex and to the beach of Muir Island. The sun was shining, a stark contrast to his mood. Everything was continuing as normal. It was like the world didn't know his pain or didn't care that he was hurting. *So, Pete old boy, what are ye gonna do now? Let's think about it. Ye could back in and be the supportive "significant other" or ye could sit out here and wait while Kitty suffers on her own. Nah, ye don't want to go in there do you? That'd make it all the harder. So what d'ye think Kitty'll do? Keep the baby? Have it aborted? C'mon man, stand up for yersel'.* "Screw you." He told himself as the stick in front of his foot took the full force of his anger. +++ "My baby? My baby's going to die?" "Aye." "Butbutbut . . . why? How? When?" Moira sat down next to her patient, gently taking Kitty's hands in her own. They looked at each other both wondering what the other was thinking, what the other was feeling. "It's mutation's already started. Because it's absorbing so much energy from around us, it's metabolism is accelerating to cope with the power. The bairn will age at a rate much faster than the rest of us. I'm sorry." "Is it accelerating now?" Moira bowed her head. "Aye, it is." Kitty sank down into the sheets. The baby, her baby, was going to die and she couldn't do anything about it. Her hand ran across her stomach, she tried to imagine what the infant looked like right now. She wondered if it could tell her what it wanted, anything to make the decision easier. "I want to see Pete." "I'll go and get him. D'ye want someone else with you just now?" She closed her eyes and let the tear she had been holding back fall down her cheek. "No, I want Pete." ++ "Pete?" "Yeah?" "Kitty wants you." Without thinking, Pete picked up his shoes from the sandy beach and dragged himself up to the grass that touched the beach. The scene before him was beautiful, he'd never taken time to look before. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" "Aye, 'tis that." He took his focus off of the view and laced his shoes up. Even the littlest of things seemed to hold some sort of wonder at the moment. "How'd she take it?" "Not well. Pete, if she can't make the decision then it'll fall on you. Can you make that sort of decision?" "I don't think it matters two hoots whether I can or not Moira, it'll have t'be done. She'll hate me either way. Stupid sodding mutancy. Why couldn't the little sod have been born human?" He tried not to cry but the tears ran down his face. His hand came up to wipe them away but he couldn't. Fear prevented him from interfering with his grieving while pride tried to hide his face from Moira. "It's not bloody fair." "It's not." Moira hugged the man, she knew the fear and pain he was going through. Every thing that was going on in his head she had felt herself. She too cried, not for Pete's loss but for her own. She cried for Kevin.