fiery_ring | (no subject)

(no subject)

Carlotta didn't know what date she was supposed to have her period. But she knew it had come and gone.

Her feelings had turned from terror and emotion to a deep, almost numb terror. She had been starting to feel like she was walking through a bad nightmare, day after day, unable to tell anyone in case that made it all officially true.

And one night, she just couldn't cope any more. She took the bottle of whiskey from Will's caravan - bought before rationing kicked in - snuck it into her pocket and headed for the bar. She'd be back and sober before anyone would miss her.

When she gets to the bar, she goes straight up to her room, and has a couple of drinks. Slowly, her world starts to calm down.

She lies on the sofa for a long while. Then as she gets up to go to the bathroom, her world begins to spin. She feels something hit her head, hard, then everything goes black.

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Demeter hasn't been in the Bar a lot of late, the Winter's too cold but she has been trying to keep an eye out for Carlotta.

When she orders her wine, a note from Bar appears along with the number of Carlotta's room.

Quickly she heads upstairs and first knocks before opening the door and crying out, "Carlotta?!"

Carlotta doesn't reply. As a result of having just knocked herself out on the coffee table.

She spots the bottle first and then Carlotta, who she kneels down beside and turns her carefully,

"Oh Carlotta, what have you done to yourself?"

Carlotta groans and puts her hand to the big cut on her head.

Demeter pulls out a cloth that she holds to the cut,

"Carlotta, can you hear me?"

Carlotta opens her eyes and looks up. Everything is sort of blurry right now.

"Mmm." she says. Possibly this is a yes.

"I'm going to put you on the bed before you say anything else,"

Normally Demeter doesn't cheat very often, today she does and lifts Carlotta to set her down, saying a few words of Greek to slow the bleeding.

Carlotta is quite glad to be on the bed, but she's not entirely sure what's going on right now. Let alone where Demeter came from.

She seems quite drowsy, though whether that's alcohol or concussion is unclear.

Demeter keeps pressing the cloth to her cut,

"Tell me what happened, dear?"

What happened? She's not sure right now. She tries to think...

And then she remembers, and starts to sob. It's no good hiding it from Demeter, Demeter will know.

"Missed my period." she says, wiping her eyes on her hand and trying not to get blood in them. "I'm pregnant an' I'm so scared an' I don' know what to do..."

"Shh,"

She runs her hand through Carlotta's hair and closes her eyes before saying,

"No, you're not pregnant, Carlotta."

Carlotta opens her eyes a bit wider.

"Did I lose it?" she whispers.

Wait, alcohol is bad for pregnancy, isn't it? She starts to sob harder.

"No, child, you haven't been pregnant. Has that been what's worrying you?"

Gently, Demeter hugs her without moving her too much.

Carlotta clings to her, and sits herself up. The room spins and she feels sick, but this is important.

"But I've got all th' symptoms." she says. "We did it three times an' there was millions an' millions of sperm an' Will didn' want t'use the condom because we were married an' I didn' stop him. Are you sure?"

"Trust me, Carlotta, I know. You're not,"

She moves to hold Carlotta tighter since she doesn't look well at all,

"If you'd like someone in the infirmary can do a test to show you that you're not. They probably should look at your head too."

Carlotta nods, but that's not good.

"I feel awful." she admits. "Even more than have f'the last few weeks."

"I'll take care of you and so will Teja. You've gone through so much, so quickly."

Teja, indeed, had been in the forge, when a bold waitrat had come with a message, braving cats, snow, and potential demon bunnies.

Carlotta in trouble??

He had barely banked the fire and closed the door, then bolted up the bypass stairs and towards her room.

"What ails her?" he asks, when he sees Demeter already there. "Is she with child?"

Carlotta grimaces and lets Demeter field the answer to the question. Suddenly feeling embarrassed about the drunken falling over part.

"No, she's not, just worried that she was and she's had a bad fall. I need you to find something to bandage her head before we take her downstairs to the infirmary,"

Demeter hears herself sounding sharp but its tiring. She's a goddess of fertility, Carlotta could have simply asked her instead of worrying herserlf until she was hurt.

"Is that why she ran from me the other week, when I called her 'a married woman and potential mother'?" Teja says, going to the bathroom, and returning with a towel and a roll of toilet paper.

"There isn't anything else."

"Sorry." Carlotta says quietly, looking up at Demeter. "I... I know it's stupid but... it was like if I told anyone it'd be true an' I was jus hopin it would go away... I read lots of pregnancies don't make it through the first few weeks...

I didn' tell anyone."

In a few moments, Demeter has slightly bandaged her head and sighs before kissing Carlotta's forehead,

"I understand, Carlotta, but please know you can talk to me."

"We should take her downstairs," Teja says. "Strange things may happen to those that were badly knocked upon the head. They seem to do well, and suddenly, they will fall and not recover."

Well that's reassuring. Carlotta goes back to looking worried. She's not sure whether Teja's noticed the whiskey yet.