Ben watched her drink the potion, feeling like he should be doing something but not sure what it would be. He'd contributed just as much to this pregnancy, although he of course hadn't anticipated the consequences when they'd had their liaison. Even so, the burden of physically doing something about it rested entirely on her. If there were any negative consequences from this, they would be impacting her, not him. He'd been so focused on the decision making part of it — the mental strain that she had insisted she was trying to spare him from — that this was perhaps the first time he was really thinking about that component of it.


She drank it; he waited. Nothing seemed to be happening, at least from the outside.

"Come here," Ben said softly, an invitation rather than a directive. He shifted in the bed to make plenty of room for her to sit, and gave her time to move before he spoke again. "What happens next?"