Moths to a Flame

49. Baby Fever

Sebastian pov

Getting home to an quiet home was pretty usual. Except today, today's silence had a certain air to it I couldn't quite put my finger on. Ominis wasn't back yet and Aria is usual upstairs somewhere. Usually she's walking about and hearing the creaking tells me she's there. I could feel there was something different about today. While curious I didn't immediately do anything. I could just be overreacting to nothing. I go about usual and check the kitchen what we have for supper I can make tonight. Seeing there's not much I decided to go to the local vendor and grab some essentials that we would need. Retuning home I still felt that uneasy air. Ignoring it, I continued on making supper. Not long after Ominis came through the floo.

"Hello Ominis" I said joyfully.

"Evening Sebastian" he said come up to me and giving a quick kiss on the cheek. And went to sit at the table to read the Daily Prophet. He flicked on the gramophone and soft music was now playing. I couldn't shake this feeling.

"Ominis, tell me if I'm being paranoid but I can't help but have an uneasy feeling" I say.

"Pardon" he said turning away from the paper.

"Ever since I got home, there's been an air I couldn't place the reason for." I say. Looking back to Ominis he seems to be focusing on something.

"Now that you mention it there is something different" he said.

"So it is not just me overreacting you notice it too" I clarified.

"Yes, where's Aria?" He asked.

"Upstairs I'm sure"

"You don't know? You haven't seen her?"

"No I haven't actually"

"Should we go check on her?" He asks me. "Make sure"

"I was hoping she would come see us, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check" I said.

So he and I made our way up the stairs and then to our bedroom I opened the door. She's on the bed asleep.

"Well she's sleeping, that's why I didn't see her" I said amused.

"Wait what's that smell?" He said.

"Smell? I don't smell anything" I said. We walked through the room the bathroom and all around. I should probably wake her to tell her we're home. Getting closer I hit my toes on something heavy.

"You don't smell that" he said again. Bending down to feel around for what I could have possibly hit my foot on. Lifting the bed skirt up and seeing empty bottles underneath.

"Could that smell be this?" I said holding up the open bottle that is no longer spilling into the floor.

"Sebastian I don't know what 'this' is that you're presumably showing me" he said sarcastically.

"It's a firewhiskey bottle that was opened and spilling onto the floor." I said.

"Firewhiskey of course!" He said. "Wait? She was drinking firewhiskey, she hates that stuff ever since Imelda forced her to play that awful game in sixth year" he says.

"Seems so, curious" I said. I looked back at her.
"But Ominis, it's not the only bottle"

"What do you mean" he said.

"There's dozens of empty ones under the bed, I just happen to hit my foot on this one" I said. I saw look of shock across his face.

"Come we need to talk about this before we wake her" I said. He nods and we exit the room and back to the kitchen.

"What do we do?" I ask.

"Not sure, clearly there's something going on with her if she needs to be drinking and hiding the bottles from us" he said to me.

"But how do we talk to her about it, without upsetting her more" I ask.

"That's the issue I guess" he said. "We have to find out though, shall we try and question her after supper?"

"That sounds like a plan, we can just go from there. If we're very delicate with this hopefully we will find out" I say.

I continued on with dinner but my mind was somewhere else. I could tell Ominis' was too. I just made a simple shepherds pie for us all, with some cooked vegetables.

"Om, I'm nearly done, would you like to wake her and we can get on with all this please." I said.

"Right" he said I heard him stand and go back up to get her. I heard a shout and a thud, some walking around, while I set the table and levitated the pie to the table and I sat waiting for them to return down here to eat.

Dinner was tense, to say the least. Aria was a little disheveled looking today, rather than her usual pristine look. Made me all the more curious. She ate very little and drank lots of water. It was odd. I nudged Ominis' foot under the table. I gathered up the dishes when we were all done Ominis was coming up behind me.

"Ready?" I whispered to him. He nodded and we casually sat back down at the table.

"Darling" I said to grab her attention. She looked at me. I grabbed her hand to hold. "Darling Ominis and I wanted to talk to you about something"

"What?" She said.

"Well this afternoon we came into the bedroom to find you after not seeing you when we came home, and we found this" I said holding up the firewhiskey bottle. "All I wanted to know is why you were hiding them from us. Something is bothering you darling and we want to know what" I finish.

"That's right love, we want to know what's wrong" Ominis added. She looked surprised but also disappointed.

"A couple weeks ago I went to see a healer" she said.

"What!" I said.

"Why?" Ominis said at the same time.

"I thought I was pregnant, but I wasn't. I was later than usual on my menstrual cycle and I thought I was. But I didn't want to say anything in case I wasn't, so I saw the healer and I wasn't. I was so disappointed, but I also felt alone. Because I didn't tell anyone, and since there wasn't anything to tell I didn't want to burden anyone else." She tells us.
My poor wife going through all that by herself. I stood up and pulled her into a hug.

"Darling you never should have had to do that all alone. You should have told us" I said gently trying not to sound accusing.

"I'm sorry" she said starting to cry.

"Love, we're all in this together, I don't care how many times I need to remind you. Our time will come when you least expect it too." Ominis said coming over to us wrapping his arms around us.

"I love you guys so much. I'm sorry I thought I was helping I didn't want you to worry about nothing" she said. "It just feels like our time isn't coming. That I'll never be a mother. That it's not meant to be"

"It's not nothing if it's bothering you love. Our time will come we need to be patient" Ominis said. "I love you both too"

"I love you too" I said. "Our time will come. I'll make sure of it. Between the two of us, you'll be a mother, I don't know when, but it will happen"
She smiled and nodded her head.

"Why don't we go to bed and relax" I suggested.

"You know, I think I would rather take a bath right now, would you mind?" She said.

"Of course not, darling" I said kissing her forehead. "Go bathe and we'll be in bed waiting for you" I tell her. She nods and we all untangle from our embrace and we follow her upstairs.

She went into the bathroom and ran a bath and Ominis and discarded our outerwear and that left us in our knickers, and laid in bed. I pulled out a book to read, Ominis though, cuddled up next me I put my arm around him and continued reading. It wasn't long when a thought popped into my head. I bolted up. I heard Ominis mumble something as I ran out of the room to my study.

It was Rookwood on Ranrok's orders.