It Had to Be Done

Writers: Cymiri, Heather, Miriah
Date Posted: 10th April 2014

Characters: K'lvin, Bahji, Reeva
Description: Decisions are made, for better or worse
Location: Dolphin Hall, River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 6, day 10 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: E'rae; Follows Watery Verdict

They had sat on the beach to dry and rest, and for K'lvin, to think.
He was glad for Bahji's lack of eye sight at the moment as he
continued to glance over and study her. You didn't become a dragonman
without earning a few gut instincts about life and death and K'lvin's
gut told him that if Bahji tried to carry these babies she would die
in the process of birthing them. **Why waste three lives when you can
save one?** He thought to himself as he looked back out over the
water. **It is Bahji's decision.** He tried to tell himself, even as
he marveled at the dark ugliness that loomed inside of him at the
prospect of losing Bahji. When had he become so attached to her?

With a sigh, K'lvin pushed up from the sandy beach and dusted his
trousers off, "Are you ladies ready to get back to the Weyr?" He
asked, reaching down and touching Bahji's hand as he spoke.

Reeva had watched both of them, slightly apart from the couple. When
he spoke, she simply nodded in response.

She had been quiet, taking Reeva's advice and trying to relax, but her
mind was buzzing. Should she tell E'rae? How would she tell E'rae? He
had transferred, presumably just to get away from her and it hurt. She
couldn't ask K'lvin to tell him, that was obvious. Burst perhaps could
find him and take a note to him, but he'd already implied that they
weren't his, that he didn't want them, so why should she include him?
Her gut twisted a little. Because it was really the right thing to do,
wasn't it?

She was startled out of her thoughts by the touch on her hand and
Bahji turned her head towards K'lvin. "Yes. I suppose so." She took
his hand and rose, brushing the sand as best as she could out of the
folds of her skirt. "I am a little tired."

K'lvin imagined that she must be. Leading her over to where Xmrenth
had waited patiently during the entire process, he mounted first, as
before, then lifted Bahji up, and then put a hand down and assisted
Reeva onto Xmrenth's neckridge in front of the blind weaver.

"Here we go ladies." He said as Xmrenth sprang aloft.

Bahji leaned back against K'lvin with a sigh, taking comfort in his
warmth and closeness. She was tired, emotionally worn out and she
simply didn't want to think anymore. She wanted to curl up on her cot
and just sleep the rest of the day before she had to think about
anything else. Maybe if he had time later, he could join her and just
hold her.

As Xmrenth winged higher K'lvin felt as if his heart had sprang aloft
as well and become lodged in his throat. His hands became clammy, and
he knew that, despite the warmth of the beach area they were leaving,
the cold sweat that came over him had nothing to do with the weather.

"Forgive me, Bahji." He whispered in her ear.

**Xmrenth, take us /between/.**

Xmrenth took up the mental picture from his rider and without
hesitation he pulled them into the black void. K'lvin's arm tightened
around Bahji's midsection as the cold, frigidness of /between/
enveloped them.

"Forgi.."Bahji turned towards him, brows furrowed but before she could
finish
the question, everything went frigid and she felt nothing. She gave a
shriek of
realization. He had taken her /between/! He was trying to kill her
babies! She screamed sobs of denial, but could not hear her own voice
as her hands lifted
to try to claw at the straps that she knew were there but she could not
feel.

The sudden burst of warm air did nothing to stop her screams. "NO! What
have you done! NO!" She felt the arm around her midsection and
frantically beat at it, tears streaming down her face.

**Take us to our ledge.** K'lvin instructed Xmrenth. If they landed in
the Weyrbowl with Bahji screaming and crying then they would have an
unnecessary scene that would be hard to explain. He had just done
something that would probably sever his ties with Bahji, forever, the
last thing he wanted was for a bunch of people to be gawking at Bahji.

"We're landing on my ledge, so don't take off once I get you down. I
don't want you falling." He instructed, using his Wingleader voice,
because he didn't trust his regular voice to work.

Bahji was not listening. Instead, she was in an utter panic, frantic
and beating at his arm to get it off of her while she sobbed. "How
could you? How could you kill them?! Let go of me! Reeva! He's trying
to kill my babies!" She gave a cry of betrayed grief and slumped
forward, her hands covering her face. Not having dressed for between,
she was shaking from the previous frigidity of between and from shock.
And then it started, the cramping...her knees curled upwards in
automatic response. Bahji gave a whimper of denial.

Reeva didn't do panic. She hadn't panicked when 2 of her fingers had
been battered beyond recognition, she hadn't panicked when she'd lost
the man she loved, and she hadn't panicked when her own baby had taken
a fighting chance at pulling them both out the world. Panic was not
her thing.

And so it wasn't a particularly soft reaction Bahji earned, as Reeva
slapped her in an attempt at sensibility.

"Hush child. This will do more harm then help. Be still."

The slap shocked Bahji and with a gasp, she held her cheek, her body
still shaking. Her screams trailed off into soft sobs as she tried to
curl up into a fetal position astride the dragon.

K'lvin snarled, "You don't have to hit her!" He uncinched the riding
straps, wrapped his arms around Bahji, and slide down Xmrenth's flank
with her pinned against his chest. The sobs tore at his insides, but
he refused to regret his split second decision. As a Wingleader and
dragonrider he had to make life and death decisions every day, and
today had been no different. He carried Bahji into his weyr, leaving
Reeva to follow as he laid Bahji on his bed.

Bahji struggled only a little in his arms as he carried her, but as
she was laid down, she slumped with a groan. Her hands went to her
abdomen and tightened. She had been blessedly unconscious the last
time she had lost her child, but this time, she knew what the growing
cramps meant. Her knees curled up tighter and she rocked from side to
side. "Reeva...it hurts..."

Reeva waited until Bahji was safely ensconced on the bed and as
comfortable as she could be under the circumstances, so it was likely
patently obvious that her action was driven by cold anger not passion
as she wrenched at the rider's arm and thrust him away from the
bed-and her patient- despite her comparative lack of size. That icy
anger definitely showed in her eyes, although her voice was steely
quiet and ever calm as she spoke rapidly.

"That, sir, I did in fact have to do. And don't you *dare* for a
single second stand there and lecture me on my job or basic human
decency. When, and only when, you can show me knots to equal my own
*and* explain to me fully the perils of hysteria on the brain and the
breathing of a person under severe distress and in the process of
inner hemorrhaging will I take your attitude any further. And do not
presume you can offer up your bronze or your rank as sufficient
explanation for your arrogance and your disrespect to either myself or
this young woman. Should you imagine I will not seek further recourse
on her behalf for this you will be sorely mistaken, though precious
little victory or solace for her will there be in it.

Your action's here, rider, have been despicable- and know that that
comes from someone who believes this sad outcome was the best decision
to hope for. Do not interfere with me or my patient further. I will
not tolerate it. If you have a single shread of decency in your body,
get me my case from my office now and cease your nonsense."

She turned back to the young woman, urging her to lie back, to try to
relax, with her hands.

"Bahji, please. I need you to listen to me. Don't fight. Just trust
me. I will help you."

"Woman, I suggest you shut your mouth and do your job. If it is a
lecture I seek, I will take it elsewhere. You are certainly not the
only healer in this Weyr, and I doubt the best. You do your job, and
worry about Bahji, and if you can't do so with a closed mouth then I
will find another healer. I will not be lectured, by you of all
people, in my own weyr." K'lvin's nerves would not tolerate any more
of the woman's mouth. No matter what she thought, his Wingleader's
knots did outrank her own, no matter what craft she was, nor how
talented she _thought_ herself.

**Have one of the apprentices bring up the healer's case.** He told
Xmrenth.

The bronze kept himself familiar with one of the apprentices in the
infirmary, a future Candidate he was sure, and quickly relayed for the
boy to bring the case.

"Your case is on its way."

Bahji listened to their arguing for only a moment, her sobs quiet
before she grabbed her ears and finally shrieked at the top of her
lungs. "Stop fighting! Stop it!" Another pain took her and she
groaned, clasping at her middle. She gritted her teeth, drawing her
knees up to her chest and hissed out a whimper. "Oh Faranth...I..I'm
bleeding...I think I'm bleeding!" Her breathing quickened.

The apprentice arrived then with the healer's bag, his cheeks flushed
since he had ran the entire way, "Here is your bag Miss Reeva."

Reeva heard nothing of the man's rant, and cared less for it. He was
an arrogant fool high on his own self-importance and she had eyes only
for Bahji. She grabbed the girl's shoulders, pressing her back gently,
one hand yanking bedding to support her back against the wall at her
outburst.

"Bahji. Bahji, please. I *need* you to listen to me. Only me. You need
to breathe. Slowly and deeply. You will be alright. Everything will be
alright. But you *must* stay with me and you must breathe."

Her eyes snapped to the boy.

"On the table. Get me towels."

As the boy scurried into the bathing room, she was rattling through
her supplies. When the one she wanted jammed, she yanked it free,
another bottle flung unnoticed into a corner at the gesture. It's
contents were hastily slopped into a glass of wine.

"Please Bahji. Drink this. And breathe"

Snatching the towels from the boy, she positioned them as gently as
she could. under the girl.

Hands shaking, Bahji clasped the cup and downed it. She was still in
shock over the entire event, her mind numbing to what was happening to
her. She let Reeva position her but her breathing was still rapid,
though she tried to slow it. It was just too much all at once. The bad
news, the sudden and unexpected /between/, the cold of it and the
pain...her mind was overworked. Her voice was small. "I'm scared...I
don't want this...please.."

"Hush, love."

Reeva's internal urge to rip the bronzerider's smug head from his
arrogant shoulders was fierce, but her voice was soft and soothing.If
the girl went into blood shock from this, she would have the man's
head and nothing less.

Gently, she raised the glass to Bahji's lips again.

"It will help."

It would, both the unfortunate process and the trembling. Reeva had
doctored the beth-root with a concoction that should ease her into a
calmer state.

K'lvin needed air, and space. He walked out to his ledge, the sounds
of Bahji's distress ringing in his ears as he sat down on the ledge,
drawing comfort from Xmrenth's close presence. He felt numb on the
inside. Bahji had wanted those babies, had been willing to die for
them, and K'lvin had taken them from her. Shards, there had been the
possibility that the babes were even _his_. He could have killed his
own children. **It had to be done.** He told himself, but the feeling
still lurked in the pit of his stomach, that he had done irreparable
damage to his friendship with Bahji. She would never forgive him for this.

Last updated on the April 20th 2014

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It Had to Be Done