Shocking News
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Cali, Eimi
Date Posted: 25th January 2010
Characters: Traelyn, B'ram
Description: B'ram shares some rather shocking news with Traelyn.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 2 of Turn 5
Traelyn was pissed. No. More than pissed. She was angry. B'ram had said he'd be back soon, and it was almost a sharding candlemark later! Who _was_ that woman to keep him so long? The question kept on going through her mind, circling over and over again, and the answers that her active imagination came up with did little to ease her jealousy.
Letting out another impatient sigh, she glanced--again--at the closed door. If he didn't reappear in the next few moments she would leave. Why should she hang around his empty weyr if he wasn't planning on coming back?
Suddenly she heard footsteps outside. Traelyn fixed her dark eyes on the door, but stayed seated when B'ram walked in.
He closed the door behind him and walked straight for the cabinet, not even bothering to look at her. B'ram knew what expression would be fixed to her face. "You have every right to be angry, Trae. But it's not what you think. Well, mostly not what you think." He pulled out a bottle of something strong, and a couple glasses as well. "That was Heila. I'm sure you remember her."
"Yes." She had to force the word out, but now her expression was more wary than angry as she watched him with the liquor.
"The part I'm sure you've assumed is that she and I have slept together." Might as well get the worst of it over. He reached a glass out to her, knowing she'd want one. And probably half of the bottle as well. "Atreyn was parading around the Weyr hanging all over her bronzerider like the happiest sharding senior weyrling ever. Heila and M'shan were having trouble. We both just had some issues and misery loved company. Neither one of us was looking for anything but a little companionship. After a couple sevendays my transfer was approved and M'shan got his head straightened out and that was the extent of it."
She nodded, sipped at the alcohol cautiously....and waited.
Well, at least it seemed she was going to let him finish without throwing a tantrum. That was a start. He sat down next to her with his glass in one hand and the bottle in the other. "I haven't seen her or talked to her since then. Like I said, it wasn't supposed to be anything lasting. But apparently soon after I left she found she was pregnant. She can't say for sure, but there's a possibility the boy is mine." Now he downed his glass in one long gulp.
Traelyn blinked, completely taken aback. A son? "Oh, B'ram...."
"It's not certain," he reiterated, perhaps more for his own benefit than for hers. "Like I said, she and M'shan were having trouble, but there was some overlap. He knows it might not be his, and he's fine with that. He's raised him as if he were his own. But lately Heila's been looking at her boy and wondering if he might not be mine. It's hard to tell. He looks a lot like her, but little things, I guess, make her wonder."
"Like what?" she heard herself ask quietly, _her_ mind still stumbling over the fact that B'ram could be a father. Shards, a _father_....
"I'm not sure, exactly. I don't think _she's_ sure. Just little things. He's got my complexion, but so does M'shan. His nose looks a little like mine, but it looks a little like M'shan's too. She can't really put a finger on it. It's just something she suspects. Or maybe something she's afraid of. I'm not sure which." If she hadn't _wanted_ the child to be M'shan's, would she have waited so long to say something?
"Afraid of?"
"Well, yes. M'shan doesn't really know about me. He knows that she slept with other people, but I think she let him assume it was _several_ other people. Not just me. When you sleep with only one person it looks like a much more serious attachment than if there were several drifting in and out of your bed. She might be afraid M'shan would get jealous, or at least wonder what there was between us. That's the sort of thing that could fester in a man. Wouldn't it just be so much easier if it were M'shan's and he never had to learn about me?"
"Is that how you feel about it?" she asked, voice gentle. "You don't want him to be yours?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, struggling with that question himself for the last candlemark.
Traelyn watched him, wondering what it would be like to see him with a red-headed child hanging on to his hand or pantleg. It was hard to imagine B'ram with a son, but not impossible. She shifted, wondering if maybe she should tell him something like that, but not word it so bluntly, of course. Would it comfort him though? Or would it add to his confusion? Shards, she hardly knew what to do--or what to say. To cover the growing silence, she sipped at her drink. For now, she wouldn't--and really couldn't--say much at all.
Last updated on the January 25th 2010