Chapter Text
Two pink lines.
Violet stared at the pregnancy test in her hand. This had to be a lie, she told herself. She grabbed another test.
Two lines.
Another one.
Two lines.
By the fifth test, her hands were shaking. Every single one was positive.
This can’t be happening. Maybe it’s a false positive.
But it wasn’t.
She was pregnant.
Violet stood frozen for a moment, the room spinning slightly, before she slowly slid down the front of the sink to the bathroom floor. Her breath started coming in short, uneven pulls. Her chest tightened. A buzzing filled her ears. She pressed the heel of her hand to her sternum like she could push the panic back inside.
In for four. Hold. Out for four.
It didn’t help.
Her vision blurred at the edges and her fingers tingled. She felt too hot and too cold all at once.
Tarin, her massive black Great Dane, pushed the bathroom door open with his nose. He immediately came to her side, chuffing softly, pressing his weight against her shoulder. Violet buried her fingers under his chin, grounding herself in the solid warmth of him, focusing on the slow rhythm of his breathing until hers began to match it.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince.
She needed a second pair of eyes.
“Rhi,” Violet called out, her voice cracking. “Can you check something for me?”
“Vi? What happened?” Rhi called back, alarm already in her voice.
Rhiannon pushed the door open and stopped short when she saw Violet sitting on the bathroom floor, pregnancy test clutched in her hand.
“Rhi… please tell me this isn’t true.”
Rhi gently took the test. Her eyes widened. Then she noticed the others scattered across the counter. She looked back at Violet and gave a small, stunned nod.
“Vi… we can schedule a doctor’s appointment with Naolin tomorrow. Just to confirm, okay?”
Violet nodded numbly.
At that moment, Andarna, her golden retriever, bounded into the bathroom, tail wagging furiously. She happily climbed into Violet’s lap, completely unaware of the emotional crisis unfolding. Violet let out a small, shaky laugh and rubbed her dog’s head.
“Sure,” she murmured. “We can do that. But what does this mean for my career?”
She had only become a detective three months ago. She was still proving herself.
“They’re going to look at me and just see a pregnant woman.”
“No, they won’t,” Rhi said firmly.
“Yes, they will.”
“No, Vi. They won’t. And if anyone says anything, they’ll learn the hard way.” Rhi crossed her arms. She’d made detective a few months before Violet and carried herself with the confidence Violet hadn’t grown into yet.
Violet swallowed. “I don’t even know if I want to keep the baby, Rhi. Should I focus on my career? Or try to be a good mother? I don’t even know how to be a good mother.” Violet’s own mother was cold and distant; she didnt want to be her mother.
“You can be both,” Rhi said softly. “And I will support whatever decision you make. Abortion or not, I’m with you. But if you do keep the baby…” she gave a small smile, “…they’ll have the best aunt ever.”
That made Violet smile, just a little.
“I’ll think about it.”
“You will,” Rhi said gently.
Later, as Rhi helped Violet into bed, Violet’s mind replayed the past month. The fatigue. Her joints flaring more than usual. The morning nausea.
She’d blamed it on her EDS.
But recently, it had been different. Worse.
As Rhi turned off the light, she hesitated at the door.
“Do you know who the baby’s father is?” she asked gently, curiosity tucked carefully beneath her concern.
Violet shook her head.
She had been single for around a year. She broke up with her ex-boyfriend, Halden, after he cheated on her with his professor. What a piece of shit, she thought.
Her mind drifted back to that night—the night she closed her first case as a detective. The night she had a one-night stand with a man with tawny skin and onyx eyes. She never learned his name.
She fell asleep thinking about the stranger who had walked out of her life before she ever knew who he was.