The Prices I Pay ((MIKE ZACHARIAS X ERWIN SMITH X OC))

Chapter 7

"I'm what?"

"You're pregnant." Reos repeated herself, and remained relatively calm despite how fast Silica jumped to her feet.

"Wh... -" she palmed her forehead and staggered back. "How... how far along?"

"About three to four weeks, I'd say," Reos replied promptly. "I will need you to attend monthly appointments to ensure the livelihood of your fetus. You may continue in moderate training with your squad, but extensive use of ODM gear or over exerting yourself is prohibited. I've also prescribed you some prenatal —"

"Just hang on a sec," Silica choked out whilst moving the hand that had been placed on her forehead to her stomach. "Just... hold on."

"I understand now that this may be a lot to take in," Reos leaned forward to catch her eye. "Given your recent injuries, I assume you're concerned for the safety of your child, no?"

"Is it..." she trailed off momentarily. "Is it okay?"

"Quite luckily, yes," Reos finally leaned back in her chair when Silica lifted her head. "The bullet missed your uterus by a hair, and I was able to stop your bleeding before the fetus could be lost."

"That's... good," Silica nodded slowly and sat back down. "So that's why... does Mike already know?"

"He does," Reos confirmed whilst flipping Silica's medical file closed. "After taking a peek at this, he questioned me, and I couldn't exactly lie when the facts were right in front of him."

"Does anybody else?"

"As far as I know, no," the doctor replied as she stood from her seat. Silica watched as she trailed toward the medication cabinet across the room. "Unless Mike took it upon himself to share it with others. You'll have to ask him once the Scouts return from the Expedition."

Silica remained silent as she stared down at her stomach that had yet to protrude with her pregnancy. Flashes of all of her failed attempts at childbirth played in her mind like a sick movie, and up until this point she thought that she would only ever get to have Amelia.

"You look crestfallen," Reos observed once she returned. She held a pill bottle in her hand. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Silica was quick to shake her head. "No... it's just... I never thought I'd be able to.."

"To have more children?" Reos finished her sentence for her, and after a beat of silence, Silica nodded. "So you have had miscarriages before?"

"Yes..." Silica confirmed without looking up. "And one still birth."

"I see," Reos hummed. "Then that calls for extra supervision. Since you seem to regularly be at higher risk, I'll have you scheduled for biweekly check ups to ensure that you sustain a healthy pregnancy until childbirth. I highly recommend taking it easy and try to refrain from riding horseback until the duration of pregnancy is over. Also, I want you to leave most of the physical work of leading Elite Advancement to Brutus, and for you to merely observe, as you can probably already guess that any future Expeditions for the next nine months are off limits."

"I guess it can't be helped." Silica finally looked Doctor Reos in the eye.

"I'm glad we're on the same page," Reos sat down in front of Silica once again, and handed her the bottle she held onto. "I want you to take one of these vitamins every morning. They'll help greatly in the child's development."

"Thank you," despite her clear shock that had neglected to subside, Silica offered her genuine gratitude. "Medical help with stuff like this is a joke underground... so..."