Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been days since the mad dash to the emergency room. Faolan was sitting on the steps of the vardo, leaned against the door frame and drinking a beer. He could hear Ellandra in their home behind him, but didn't have it in him to follow her around and pester her to let him listen to their unborn children. After managing to get the whole family sick from some disease he couldn't even pronounce, Faolan didn't think Ellandra quite wanted him around her lately. Even if she did, he wasn't feeling too worthy of her love or the love of their babies, the same babies he'd almost managed to get killed from illness.

The doctors had told them that Ellandra would be fine, but the babies were more susceptible to the disease and likely were already affected, though there was no way of telling now how badly. He knew he could just ask Ziazan to check on them, but he wasn't really sure he wanted to know how bad it was. There was possibility that they were fine, but Faolan couldn't get the cards out of his mind that Grandmother's deck had picked for their children. He'd known something would be wrong and now was too scared to find out the truth.

Sighing softly, he took a sip of beer and watched the people passing by, envious a bit of the happy families wandering about the carnival. He looked down at the steps, ears lowered. A generally happy guy, Fao was unfamiliar with the feelings of guilt, regret, and remorse. Now they weighed heavily on him and he didn't know how to deal with them. There wasn't a person alive that could convince him that this mess wasn't his fault.

Faolan looked back at Elle as she spoke, looking all sorts of guilty and sad. Elle, though, seemed worse off than he was and it damn near broke his heart the way she was looking at him. He scooted to the side to give her room to sit next to him.

"Wanna watch the sunset with me?" he asked softyly.

Faolan put an arm around her, resting his head against hers. "Silly woman, I ain't gonna leave you. Whatever gave you that idea?"

Faolan looked down at her. "Wasn't sure you'd want me in there with you since I'm the one that got us all sick. I mean, at first I was stayin' in the other room so you could rest and get better, then I thought . . . maybe you didn't really want me around anymore." He kissed the top of her head, then nuzzled at her hair, sighing softly. "I wanna be with you, too. I just . . . I got scared."

"I ain't goin' anywhere, wife. I love you and our children too much," Faolan whispered against her hair, closing his eyes. "It's my fault this all happened and I'll make it up to you and the babies for the rest of my life. I promise you that. I ain't leavin', though. I need you too badly."

Faolan shuddered a bit, a sound almost like a sob escaping his throat. "No more tears, please, lass. Please." He set the beer down and gathered the woman in his arms, holding her against him and stroking her hair. "They're alive, Elle. Whatever else might be wrong with them, they're alive. That's enough for me. You're still givin' me children. Besides, the doctor said it might not even be that bad."

Faolan sighed. "You're already drained from the twins. Can't fault you for not noticing you were tired on top of being exhausted. I should've seen it in my own self, though."