It was announced at a banquet that I was with child several months later. Osirek told me that a pregnancy with his child, the first at least, was not normal, and it would be nearly a year before I would start to show. Osirek was so well loved by his people that news reached us that people on the other side of the planet were celebrating our upcoming child. I started getting an in-pour of letters from nobles congratulating me and invitations to events and things. I had been invited to a great deal of events since becoming Empress, but this influx was monumental. I couldn't possibly attend them all.
It was a good eleven months before my body started changing, I went through a second heat that was worse than the first one, and then my body started to show little by little. It wasn't until then that I truly realized that this was real as my belly began to swell slightly. Osirek became a little overprotective of me then, and there was a look in his eyes that gave me goosebumps whenever I saw it. It was almost frightening, the hunger in his eyes that transferred into such intense sensation in the night that I couldn't comprehend it.
The style of clothing I wore had to change and I switched to an empire waist sort of dress. Looking at my body and seeing the slight swell of my belly made me cry. It felt like a dream, and I was afraid of waking up from it. Osirek sent a bodyguard wherever I went in his protectiveness. I didn't argue it, it made me feel taken care of and valued; loved.
As I started to get a little bigger, Osirek decided that I should delegate all the minor Empress duties to one of my ladies in waiting so my workload would be lighter. I was not to overexert myself. It seemed Osirek was worried that something might happen. He had seen what I had gone through with my first pregnancy in Rome, so it didn't really surprise me. He would send me food periodically throughout the day, as if he knew when I was getting hungry and what I was craving, though avoiding meat still. I couldn't stomach even the sight of it anymore.
As I finally began to show it became real to me in a way I couldn't have fathomed. Osirek had the doctor check me weekly to make sure nothing was wrong, and I couldn't stop touching the swell of my belly. Neither could Osirek. He was overprotective almost to the point of obsession. I was not attending events anymore, and I had to have a personal guard with me even just to take a walk in the gardens. I didn't argue, though sometimes it became a little bothersome to have someone with me at all times. It wasn't worth fighting over, and I did understand the paranoia.
It was, all in all, an experience I never thought I'd have, and despite growing discomfort, I was happier than I had ever felt in my life. In Rome, I hadn't even known I was pregnant because of the drugs to keep me docile. Now, I got to experience everything. My child's first movement, her first kick, seeing my belly move as she did, my chest grew tight often at seeing and feeling these things.
Stolen novel; please report.
I grew quickly it felt like, after nearly a year of nothing. All of the symptoms hit me at once, though my morning sickness disappeared after the second heat I experienced. My feet and ankles swelled up, I became hungrier than ever to the point my attendants always had something for me to nibble on no matter what time of day it was. Soon enough I could not stand up without assistance and my child was beginning to move and kick.
As my belly grew it became more and more real that I was truly having a child. I could not remember my son who had been stolen from me and all I knew was that the physical trauma from Rome had supposedly destroyed my body. But Osirek had healed me and I felt truly whole. I could not keep my hands off of my belly, constantly wanting to feel my child moving.
Osirek became more attentive as well, taking it upon himself in the evenings to take over from my attendants to help with bathing, and he diligently massaged my aching legs and shoulders every night before we lay down to sleep. I could not easily sleep anymore, and while I could not be intimate with Osirek now he still would touch and tease me to release without asking anything in return. I found that it helped me get to sleep and that I was in less discomfort afterwards. I don't know how it was able to do that, but I was far from complaining.
After almost a total year and a half, it finally came time. I was taking a walk in the gardens when my water broke without warning. I hadn't had any pain, not until after my water broke. Then suddenly I was having contractions that I could feel, and I nearly fell from the sudden onset. My attendants had to catch me, and helped me to a bench to sit down while one of them went rushing to get Osirek. When he arrived, looking out of breath but unruffled, I was holding my belly, and I couldn't help but hunch over as I tried to keep from crying out from the pain. It wasn't the worst pain I had ever endured, but it was unlike anything I had previously experienced. Osirek picked me up, giving instructions to my attendants to send for the midwife and get the supplies that would be needed as he walked with me in his arms into the palace.
* * *
The next evening our daughter was born. Labor was not easy, and Osirek had to lend me his energy more than a few times to keep me and the baby from dying as I found out afterwards. I was allowed to rest, and despite my body healing I did not regain consciousness to two days.
When I did, my daughter was immediately brought to me. She was the most beautiful being I had ever seen. For more than a year I had been pregnant with this child who had been my biggest dream and hope, and Hope I named her then. It may not sound very original in this modern age where it is a common name for girls, but in that dimension, in that age, my Hope was a singular being.
Having heard I'd wakened, Osirek came to see me in a calm rush. He didn't say it, but I could tell that he had been worried. I could see just the barest flicker of relief in his eyes when he laid them on me holding our daughter. He cleared the room before coming over to me, that leader's impassive mask melting from his face as he smiled. He wouldn't show true emotion in front of servants or officials, but with me he would do so now and then, and this was one of those times.
He sat so that he could tuck me into his side as he sat at the head of the bed and laid a hand on Hope's small head. Her hair was blonde despite my red and his black, but we both knew that she was ours. I told him her name, and he smiled again. The way he looked at the infant in my arms was so warm and loving my chest ached. I had never in my life been as happy as I was in that moment.