Ben looked over with some surprise at this comment. "Would it?" he asked, because he honestly didn't know. He didn't know much about pregnancies, and didn't know what the practical differences were between a midwife and a healer. Midwifes were there when the babies were born, but that was about the extent of his knowledge on the subject. Was there a certain point when things switched over from normal-healer concerns to midwife concerns? Was Melody approaching that point, or not? He knew things were still early for Melody, and he realized with a start that he didn't actually know how far along Desdemona had been when it happened. He hadn't known there was even supposed to be a baby until it had already gone. Art hadn't said any more about it, and Ben hadn't ever asked.

Should he have? Would Art have wanted to talk about it? He had no template for this sort of scenario, and no idea what Art would have needed or expected from Ben at that moment. He hadn't ever brought it up, but — maybe this was like their last conversation, where they both sort of knew what there was to talk about, but both of them were too chicken to actually say it.