Melody's announcement was so unexpected that for half a second Ben didn't realize what she was saying. Once he'd connected the word expecting to its most common colloquial meaning, however, his face fell. Pregnant. She was pregnant. His first thought was that this whole charade was for nothing, then — everyone would assume they'd run off together because they'd been having sex for months and she was going to be ruined by an early baby that was obviously not her husband's if she went through with the arranged marriage. A part of him was almost a little relieved that they wouldn't have to pretend to be in love, or even happy — but that was immediately overwhelmed by the realization that in several months there would be a baby, and what the hell was he going to do with himself then?

Except maybe there wouldn't be. Left to his own devices with just the news of the pregnancy, he may very well have come to the same conclusion she had, but following as it did on the heels of the earlier revelation, the word miscarriage sent his head spinning. What did that mean, exactly? What was this potion going to actually do? Did it work? Was it safe? Where had she gotten it, and how long had she been doing research?

How long had she known about this without telling him? And then that lead, inevitably, to the one point of this that loomed larger than all of the others. He wasn't sure how he felt about her pregnancy, or how he should feel about it, and he was equally uncertain about the path she apparently intended to take to address the issue. He knew immediately how he felt about the latest point, however.

"You weren't going to tell me," he said, deadpan, as he looked from the vial back to her.