Not Simply Done

Writers: Chelle
Date Posted: 16th September 2012

Characters: Chupsin
Description: The healer comes home to find something unexpected.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 10, day 13 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: Alivya, Daimhin

He'd been working late and he was quiet as he slipped through the halls, wondering what Daimhin
was up to that evening. Reaching his own quarters, he opened the door quietly, not wanting to wake
her. Slipping inside and shutting the door behind him, he was confused at first. All the lights were on.
Chupsin kept walking inside, wondering why she was still awake. "Alivya?" he called quietly, thinking
maybe she had nodded off without turning them off.

Walking into their living area, he didn't see her. He then checked the bedchamber and he didn't see her.
Starting to get a bit worried since she should be in their quarters at this time of the night, he looked inside
the privy and still didn't see her. Grunting with dissatisfaction, the journeyman put his hands on his hips.
"What is _she_ doing? If this is supposed to be some sort of game..." With a scowl, he walked back into
the main area and headed into the little serviceable kitchen. As he came closer, he saw a leg sticking out
from behind the island.

His brain didn't yet register what it was seeing. Coming around, he saw that there was a body attached
to the leg. The body belonged to his wife. Her eyes were open and she was gazing at the ceiling, but she
wasn't seeing anything. His heart jumped but from turns of experience of seeing this sort of thing, he fell
back into his clinical habits. He bent down and checked her pulse. There was none. There were bruises
from her fall but nothing else. Her belly was still round, holding the child within it but he could tell from the
color she was how long she'd been this way. The baby would have long since suffocated. With the air of
detachment he was used to using, Chupsin searched for any reason why she would have fallen. He couldn't
find any which meant either some sort of apoplexy or other issue for such a sudden death for an otherwise
healthy, young woman.

Now a widow and no longer a father, he stepped back from the scene and walked out of his quarters. He had
to find Daimhin. He wouldn't wake the Lord Holder or the steward. They could find out in the morning. "I can't
sleep there," he told himself airily. Back in his old cot at the infirmary it would be. The place would have to be
scrubbed before he could go in there. "I wonder what Zelanka is going to say," he pondered as he kept walking.

Halfway there, he suddenly couldn't take another step. Chupsin couldn't fall back on automatic reflexes anymore.
His brain had finally shifted through the shock and through the habits and was telling him that his wife and child
were dead-lying there on his kitchen floor. He hadn't saved them-hadn't even had the chance. What point was
there in being such a skilled healer when he couldn't even save his own family, hadn't seen the signs? "These
things happen sometimes," he told himself, but it was no consolation as he collapsed once his knees gave way
and he sat there against the corridor wall, talking to himself.

"Alivya?" he called again for a few moments, expecting her to come walking down the corridor any moment to
ask him why he was sitting there like that. He was cold just like she had been-cold to the touch. She didn't come.
Looking down at his hands, he wished he could go back there, rip her chest open, and restart her heart. She had
taken his child from him! It was there, in her belly, and he couldn't even get it out! She had tricked him into getting
her pregnant, marrying her, and then she did this to him! "Alivya, you best come here now," he growled, talking to
air.

And then his growl turned into a few dry heaves. He was shocked, he was angry, and he was grieving for what never
was and would never be. He had a plan. Now it was all for naught. Life had ripped his plan to shreds. For the careful
healer, this was unacceptable. He was successful and smart. Things went his way. Nothing like this was supposed to
happen to him. "Why?" he began to mutter, asking the question over and over and over before growing quiet. He put
his hands against the wall and pulled himself up, sliding up it. Then, with a resolute look, he started to walk again. He
had to find Daimhin.

Last updated on the September 24th 2012

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Not Simply Done