Anything but Sweet

[Abigail Lurken-Mckay]

After spending a week bowing to the porcelain throne, Abigail Lurken-Mckay decided to take a pregnancy test, which unfortunately, was a potion that she had taken a few times in the past. She played with the bottle in her slender fingers, before sipping it. She immediately spat it back out as her face paled. Sweet. That was it. She was pregnant with Christopher's child. As happy as that should have made her after being married to him for a few years, she was absolutely mortified. Her oldest was on her own, grown and doing things her own way, and Neven was in school. The years apart were astonishing, but Abbey had yet to tell Christopher about the one she put up for adoption a year after Neven was born. And she didn't even know who Neven's father was. Though she hoped it was Christopher, since she swore she met him in a drunken slumber once. But that was a fool's dream. But now, she was pregnant, again. At least this time, it was in wedlock... To the her actual husband. She gave away her second daughter because she was going through a nasty divorce, from an already failed marriage. She just prayed her children had a better childhood than she did.

Abbey dumped the potion down the sink, and tossed the bottle into the trash can. She sat on the toilet lid, and brushed her long, brown hair from her face, which was laced with sweat. How was she going to tell Christopher? She was still unwilling to really dive into her past. She came up with a lame excuse as to why she was divorced the first time. Yes, they were just not working out anymore, but then she drank herself into bed with another man. Although, she was not drunk when they first met. And she had not seen him since. Thankfully. That family was nothing but trouble. Abbey placed her hands on her face and felt another wave of nausea hit her. But she did not miss this. She needed to tell her husband about their growing life, but her body seemed to be paralyzed. This was terrible on so many levels.​

 

[Christopher Mckay]

Making potions was not as easy of a job that people liked to believe. First came the making of the potions, then came babysitting the potions until they were ready for bottling and then of course he had to sell them, given some of his potions were not exactly legal that could be hard. Not that he ever let that stop him, he just made sure he had his connections in the right order. Grinning to himself as he pocketed some new ingredients he'd picked up on his way out that morning, Chris returned to the home he shared with his wife, but found she was not in his immediate sight. She was usually quite easy to find, so he was surprised that she wasn't in the living room, or the hallway, or anywhere else she normally was. It didn't take him too long to hear her though, in the bathroom. It sounded like she had been there for a while. He approached the door and knocked calmly on it. "Abs, how you doing in there? Do you need me to put together a potion for you, I got some new ingredients today that should help with the soothing, I know you said the other ones tasted too bitter." One problem Chris had was that potions were almost tasteless for him now. He'd practically lost the use of his tastebuds when he'd started taste testing his work. He had to make sure it was all right after all.

Not immediately hearing a response, Chris frowned and tentatively opened the door. He liked to give Abbey her space from time to time and though this seemed like the time to do so, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Taking one look at her, Chris gasped and immediately moved to support her. "Abs, are you okay? How long have you been sick for?" he shook his head. "Merlin, why didn't you tell me? I could've whipped something up asap, no problem." In truth, Chris probably used potions a little too often, but he hated being sick. He used magic and potions at every opportunity and he always had done so. Recently he'd been more careful in the potions he used given that Neven still lived here when he wasn't at school and so where once he wouldn't worried about warding his lab, he did so these days to make sure Neven couldn't accidentally get hurt by something in there. He trusted Neven never to be silly with potions, but you never really knew with children
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[Abigail Lurken-Mckay]

</FONT>

<FONT font="Verdana">Abbey was too much into her own zone, trying to calm down to hear the knocking at the bathroom door. What her purple eyes did notice was the door opening before her. Her husband, Chris, walked in and saw that Abbey was not feeling the best. He moved to support her, which she was a little surprised on, but then again, Chris seemed like one of the good ones. She lucked out when she met him, even though he was closely related to her new uncle that was married in. It was not surprising in families like hers. Abbey brushed her hair out of her face, grabbing the hand towel and dabbing her face with it, drying the sweat off of it as she was just really hot. “Um, not long. About a week.” Abbey knew that talking would help, and that Chris had a right to know that she was carrying their child. The morning sickness, more like around the clock sickness, was similar when she was pregnant with Neven. She did not have this much with Rhea or her other daughter. Abbey waved her hand in gesture about the use of potions. Unless she went for an abortion, she would not drink anything.

“No potions. Um, Chris…” Abbey started, her mouth drying up at the very thought. She placed her free hand on his hand, holding it for support and comfort. He seemed like a great father figure for Neven and Rhea. But, she did not know for sure if he wanted more children. If she could, she would go find her daughter that was adopted out. She couldn’t remember the surname completely, just what it started with. She’d have to look for the papers. “I’m pregnant,” Abbey blurted out, just getting it out in the open. She was not showing, and would not for a while. This was her first period that she had missed, so she could miscarry. There was that option, even though she wasn’t sure she was ready for another with the amount of guilt washing over her, she didn’t think she could get rid of her precious peanut.
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[Christopher Mckay]

Chris looked at Abbey and shook his head. One of these days she was going to start leaning on him, she was really independent and that was great and all, but he wished she would realise that he only wanted to help her. He helped her to settle and took a seat on the side of the tub. He shook his head. "About a week? Hun, come on, that's a long enough time. It could've been dealt with really early." It wasn't that Chris didn't like not being told, it was that illnesses had a habit of getting worse, and Chris was someone that couldn't deal with illnesses, especially given his brother died of illness and no one had quite been able to figure out what it was. One of these days something would happen that he wouldn't be able to deal with and he wasn't sure if he could deal with that. He kept thinking about it until Abbey spoke again, no potions? But why. Chris looked up to ask her why when he noticed she seemed nervous and she reached out to hold his hand. He squeezed it, oh merlin, was she dying? "Abs, what-" Pregnant?

Chris dropped her hand and stood up. Pregnant?! Why hadn't he seen it? He knew the signs of pregnancy dammit, he lived with Richard for years, he'd seen his sister pregnant a number of times, this was ridiculous. He should have seen it. He thought about it for a second, this was the best news in the world. He'd always wanted kids of his own and never thought he'd have them after Abigail, she already had two why would she have wanted more. It wasn't something they spoke about and the age gap, Neven was already twelve what would he say? and Rhea? Chris didn't care though, not really, not when he had this amazing news. He turned to Abi and grinned. He threw his arms around her and lifted her, forgetting momentarily of how she was feeling. "Abi! This is the best news ever! I'm so happy!" He pulled her to him in a tight squeeze, being careful of her torso. He let her go and moved his hands down to lay against her stomach. "How long? Are you sure? Should I bring a potion? I'm so excited!"
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[Abigail Lurken-Mckay]

Abigail let the news settle to Chris, nervous about how he would feel since she had seen this once before. Anger? Disappointment? Fear? All of that was running through her since she did not want another child. Not when she felt like she failed enough as an adult. But, Abbey let out a squeak in surprise as Chris embraced her, and lifted her up. She managed to find the floor with her toes. As he finally let her down after a squeeze, his hands rested on her stomach as she was more or less in shock. This was not what she prepared herself for. He asked how far she was along before she shrugged her shoulders lightly, “I say a little over a month. My period was supposed to come two weeks ago, and I thought I was a little stressed, but had this feeling…” Abbey shrugged her shoulders, before she sank down onto the toilet once more. This was definitely not her first pregnancy, and she did not even know if it would be her last. Considering how happy he seemed, Abbey was sure he would want more. A part of her wanted more, but another part was scared.

“Look, Chris, about the pregnancy. You are aware of Neven and his conception. One night stand and all… Well, he isn’t the only one,” Abbey sighed, rubbing her face as tears started to swell up in her eyes. It still hurt her to this day to have given up her daughter. It was only a few months after that she landed a new job, a stable one. “A year before Neven, I had another...fling. He was handsome, but his lineage was wrong. After a few drinks, we had a thing, for about a week. And I got pregnant. And I gave up my little girl because I couldn’t afford her and Rhea. I was still married too, desperate for intimacy because Luciano wasn’t around. He found out about my affair and divorced me. I didn’t have a job or anything. That was why,” Abbey paused to wipe the tears that had fallen from her eyes. “That was why I was nervous about this baby. I’m afraid that I won’t be a good mother like I wasn’t toward my younger daughter…” Abbey, of course, did not have an affair while she was married to Chris. If anything, he kept her more satisfied and made her feel loved and beautiful. With her ex-husband, she felt more like a burden, everything was forced. This, this was how love should be.​