Touchy Topic

Writers: Patrick, Rochelle
Date Posted: 23rd December 2006

Characters: Cherlyn, Eleada
Description: Cherlyn and Eleada get into the touchy topic of pregnancies while they wait for a healer.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 12 of Turn 4

Cherlyn sat on the bench outside the healer offices, waiting for her appointment. She stared at her feet often, her mind realing with the meetings purpose.

Eleada scrubbed wearily at her face as she entered the hallway, looking for a place to sit. She wasn't particularly suprised to see someone else waiting there already. It was a weyr after all, and she was hardly the only person capable of concieving. She knew she had -she had done it so often. But she felt safer with official confirmation before she tried riding herself of it.

She slid down on the bench beside the girl. She was young, not much older than when she'd had Adaric, but her knots showed that she wasn't a weyrling anymore.
She looked nervous. "Long wait?" She asked kindly.

Cherlyn jumped, looking up at her addresser. "Oh, yeah," she said meekly and continued to look at the floor. "Almost too long." she whispered under her breath.

Hmm... she was willing to bet it was the girl's first time. No need to make her more nervous than she already was. But some distraction might not hurt...
"I'm Eleada, Gliorith's rider. What's your name?"

"I'm Cherlyn, Lueanth's rider." Cherlyn replied shyly, looking back at her feet.

"What wing?" She asked curously. She hadn't had much of a chance to meet greenriders outside of her wing, although not for the lack of trying. And this girl looked to be the type who would vanish into the wall given the chance.

"I'm in the queens wing." Cherlyn replied "What wing are you in?" "Cyclone." Eleada answered easily. "Are you normally in the Queen's wing? Or did you transfer recently?"
She nodded down the hallway to the healers, assuming that the other girl was there for a pregnacy related check as well.

"No I've been with them awhile." she replied.

Oh. "I just transferred in from High Reaches a few months ago. Are you weyrbred?" She asked curiously.
Most shyer people weren't weyrbred, but you never knew...

"No, I'm Holdbred." **Which means no matter what, if I have a baby, it's staying. I can't do that to myself or mum.** Her eyes began to water at the thought of her mother, now 17 Turns dead.

What had she said? The girl looked ready to cry now!
"I'm sorry." She said guiltily. "I didn't mean to upset you. I was just curious."

"No," Cherlyn said, whiping her eyes on her sleeves. "It's my fault. It's just hard you know." She kicked herself for telling this almost stranger, but she needed to tell someone. "I... I lost my mother really young, I don't even remember her. My father never liked me. And then I was Searched, and now I have to get used to the weyr, and top it all off I'm pregnant.
It's just _not fair_!" She was practically screaming now, but she didn't care. It felt so good to tell someone.

**Whoa!** Eleada almost jumped at the outburst, but she felt her heart go out to the girl. The first time was always rough enough without anything else weighing on your mind. "Hey, it's all right." She told Cherlyn gently, placing a light arm around her shoulders. "The first time is rough, but it's not the end of the world. And you're in the weyr now. If your father doesn't like you, so what? There are plenty of people here who will. Like Lueanth. And me."

"Thanks." Cherlyn sniffed and gave Eleada a weak smile. "I know I'll always have Lueanth. And its very nice of you to care about me that much." Cherlyn's smile widened as her dragon sent her her own reasurances. "I guess these mood swings are just like everyone says they are."

"Yes, they are." She agreed. "I should know -I have three sons and a weyrhold worth of nephews and nieces.
And I wasn't kidding about what I said. I always enjoy meeting new people." After a second's hesitation, she asked quietly. "Are you keeping the baby?"

"I think so. It'll be my first, I probably should keep it." She shrugged. "It's the Holder in me. I can't seem to get rid of that one little shred. 'Babies are what we're made for.'" She grinned to show she wasn't meaning anything by it.

Eleada shuddered. "I certainly hope not. I mean, I love my sons. I'm weyrbred, and I kept my first one too, Adaric. But if I had to bear every child I concieved, I'd be dead by now." She grimaced.

"Yeah." Cherlyn didn't want to say that was how her mother died, giving birth to her. "I don't know as I'll keep _all_ of them. But this one for sure, and well, we'll see."

"Just make sure you _want_ the baby, and aren't just having it because you feel like you should." She warned. She'd seen many holdbred girls fall into that trap. "There's no point in going through with it if you don't."

"Well, I'm pretty sure I want the baby. I mean it _is_ my first after all." Cherlyn actually grinned, a real one. "I'm kind of warming up to the thought of being a mother."

Eleada smiled again, and decided not to point out that as a greenrider she wasn't going to get much chance to actually mother the child. "That's good. If you want the baby, it makes the wait a little easier."

"I sure hope so."

Last updated on the December 24th 2006

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Touchy Topic