IV. - integrated

Once we finished with dinner, the more serious drinking began. The music volume increased, and I managed to get myself a glass of champagne. As I reached it to my lips, I felt somebody quickly grab it out of my hands. Harley was standing in front of me with a smile. Without a word she walked past me, carrying my glass away. I felt my heart drop into my stomach as my suspicions were confirmed. Why else would she take my glass of alcohol, unless she knew I was pregnant? Even I wasn't sure I was pregnant, but this was enough to confirm the daunting thoughts in my head and I began to feel out of breath. That's impossible. Hayden is infertile. I can't be pregnant. I can't be. She's wrong. She's never been wrong before, but this time she is. I'm not pregnant. That's ridiculous. I can't be. The room began to spin and before I knew it, I had lost control. It seemed that I only closed my eyes for a second, but as I opened them, I was lying on the floor of the venue, with Harley holding my head in her lap. I could hear voices of people surrounding us as Penelope approached with a wet towel and some water. I saw Harley motion for somebody to come over and my view was taken over by somebody in a black suit. Strong arms carried me to a private room and laid me down on a couch. My head began to clear, and I realised I had fainted. Harley had followed after us and sat down on the edge of the couch, brushing my hair with her soft fingers.

"Evelyn? Can you hear me?" She asked, her angelic voice echoing through the room. I looked up at her with a small nod, before attempting to sit myself up. "No, no. Not so soon." She laid me back down carefully and placed the wet, cold towel over my forehead. "Have you been feeling unwell?" She asked, continuing to brush my hair like my mother had when I was a child.

"I've been working a lot." I said without a second thought. The corners of her mouth slightly curved into a smile before she began to speak again.

"We both know you're not sick." She nodded her head, looking into my eyes. I felt rapid emotions shoot through my body as I nodded along. "You're pregnant." She added on as tears pooled from my eyes. I tilted my head back, embarrassed by my sudden weakness. I had lost control over my emotions as I began to laugh. He's infertile and I'm somehow pregnant. How ridiculous. This is ridiculous. This can't be true. Weirder things have happened to me, this is just another weird, unexplainable, untrue phenomenon. Yup. I am not pregnant.

"But you are." Harleys voice echoed and I quickly looked up at her calm face.

"Hayden... he can't..." I wiped the tears rapidly running down my cheeks. "we can't..." No matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop myself from crying for long enough to form a sentence.

"It's okay, just breathe." Harley continued to brush my hair as well as wipe my tears. "I know Hayden can't have children, certainly not with a mortal, but there's a first for everything." She spoke softly as I continued to cry. I could feel the air being sucked out of my lungs as laughter took over again. No. No. This is ... no. It's not true. It's impossible. It's just not true. I wiped my tears as I continued to laugh. This is just another joke life is playing on me. I knew all along that Hayden and I were never going to be able to have children and I was okay with that. I made my peace with it, despite it breaking my heart. I wasn't ready for a child, but I knew I eventually wanted some, but I was willing to give it all up to be with Hayden. There had been some Gods that had children with mortal human's, like my mother, but Hayden was a King. Not only did he need to marry an immortal goddess, he also had extraordinarily little chance of conceiving even with a fertility goddess. I am not immortal nor a goddess. This isn't true. I'm not pregnant. This is some joke the Titans thought up to play on me again. It's just not true. The only way that our relationship was going to work was by existing as we did. Marrying me was against the law due to him being a King and me being a human. Having a child with me was not only against the law, but physically impossible. He was a strong God. He can't have a baby before marriage. He can't have a baby with a human. He can't conceive at all. This isn't happening.

"How could this happen?" I managed to muster as my crying only seemed to increase. "He can't have children. I'm human. I'm a mortal. We aren't married. He can't marry me. I... I can't... I can't just terminate it... I can't. But that doesn't matter because this isn't true. This can't be true. I'm human. I'm mortal. He's infertile. This is some joke, cleverly thought out by the Titans. This is... this ... it can't be true." I sobbed harder as I could see Harley's eyes glass over. "What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to tell him?" I continued. "I can't." I could hardly breathe. "It's just not true. It can't be true. I can't be pregnant. We're both wrong." I could feel myself hyperventilating further and further, with hardly any air left inside my lungs.

"We're not wrong Evelyn. There's a baby inside you. I can feel it." Harley said, as I sat myself up, to gain more access to some oxygen.

"You're wrong." I shook my head. "We can't have a baby. He can't have a baby, certainly not with me." I continued to shake my head. "If there is... if I am... what am I going to do?" I felt my whole body deflate.

"Shh, it's okay." Harley pulled me into her chest as I cried. "We'll find a way. You won't lose your baby." She brushed my hair, holding me tightly in her arms. "I will speak to Rory. I'm sure he can make an exception. If not, I'm sure Hayden would give up the Underworld just to be with you. He loves you so much. You won't lose him or this baby." She continued to stroke my hair and back, reassuring me.

"No, I don't want that. I don't want him to give up his life and his immortality and powers for me. For us. I don't want him to resent me." I pulled away, wiping the tears from my face.

"This baby is a miracle. He will do anything and everything for you both." Harley cupped my face in her hands, nodding her head. We sat in silence for a minute as I tried to get a hang of my emotions. "Let's get you home to get some rest. I will take care of everything." She smiled, helping me off the couch and taking me to her private car. My heart continued to tremble the whole way home. I couldn't think about the pregnancy without bursting into tears. There was no way to predict Hayden's reaction or what he was going to say. I sat in the car for more than 20 minutes outside of our home. I had to find some type of courage inside me to go in and tell Hayden what was going on. My hands trembling and my breathing rapidly increasing, I stepped out of the car. My whole body began to tremble as I stepped into our hallway and I heard his heavy footsteps coming from our bedroom. I was frozen three steps into our hallway. I couldn't step any further. As soon as his head peeked around the corner, I felt my eyes already welling up. He looked down to his wristwatch at the time, standing across the hallway.

"What are you doing back so early?" He smiled. He was handsome and caring and the love of my life. Tears began to pool from my eyes as I continued to stand still, looking at him. "Eve?" He began walking closer. The hallway was dark and as he approached close enough to see the tears running down my face, he rushed to my side, placing his palm on my cheek, wiping my tears. "What happened are you okay?" He asked concerned. He was so tall I had to lift my head all the way back to look at his face. I opened my mouth, but the words were stuck inside my throat, in a tight knot. "Did something happen? Why are you crying?" His expression grew more worried the longer I stayed silent.

"I'm... I'm pregnant." The silence was deafening as I felt my body collapsing into Hayden's arms.