Strength In Our Bonds (The Strength in Generations Accompanying Book)

Furthering the Family Tree

It was raining outside; it had been completely clear in the morning, but Balamb was known for fooling people with its weather. Hearing the thunder crash outside, Quistis sighed in exasperation (she hadn't brought anything to protect herself from the rain) and turned on some calming piano music. That ought to drown out the noise outside- and calm the bad mood that it had brought upon her.

The door to her office was open, so while she was in the middle of typing up an email, she saw movement and looked up to see Harlan standing in the doorway.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Of course you can," Quistis agreed hastily, hurrying over to where Harlan had her granddaughter, in the carrying case strapped to his chest. "Did you get caught in that rain?"

"Fortunately, no; I made it in the nick of time." Harlan chuckled. "It looks like I'll have to wait it out, though..." His expression fell.

"Harlan, is something wrong?" asked Quistis knowingly. "You never come here on your off days."

"Well..." Harlan sighed, and looked around. "May I sit?"

"Help yourself."

Harlan sat in one of the cushioned chairs by the wall opposite the desk, and peeked under the blanket at his daughter. Still sleeping.

The moment Quistis closed the door and sat at her desk, Harlan said, "We need to talk about Aurelie."

"Oh, dear. Has she gotten worse?" asked Quistis.

"It's been two months now, and I have yet to hear her refer to Mireille by name. She won't touch her unless she has to feed her, and even then, she just holds her to the breast; doesn't look at her, has this detached look upon her face. This upsets me, obviously, but now she scarcely looks at me. She stays in bed all day, and- forgive my transgression if this is inappropriate to say- she's been refusing sex even though she healed more than a month ago."

Harlan took a deep breath. "In short, yes, she has gotten worse."

Quistis stood, and sat in the chair next to Harlan's, also peeking under the blanket. Baby Mireille was practically a female clone of Harlan- red hair, green eyes, even their eyebrows looked stunningly similar. The fact that she looked nothing like Aurelie probably didn't help anything...

"I'm worried," Harlan said, softly. "She isn't eating. Aurelie has always been so thin and light- furthered by the fact that she doesn't consume meat- and I don't want her to become ill. I want her to build a relationship with our daughter, before she's old enough to pick up on all of this."

When Aurelie had announced that she was pregnant, Harlan was overjoyed; he remembered holding her tightly for quite a long time and being so happy he'd cried a little. He recalled Aurelie's eyes watering a little as well, and that she'd originally said it was because she was happy as well (unconvincingly), but that once they'd settled into bed, she'd started sobbing and wouldn't stop, no matter what Harlan did.

Harlan's first mind was to think that Aurelie didn't want the baby, but he changed his mind further on, seeing how diligent she was in tracking her progress- he remembered, specifically, that she had been very worried because her stomach was barely growing, and insisting that the doctors make sure the baby was still alive practically every week. He'd even flat-out asked her, many times, and she'd always say he was being ridiculous and she couldn't wait for their little girl's arrival.

Aurelie was happy when the baby was born; she'd cradled her affectionately, not wanting to give her to Harlan, and told her how much she'd loved her. She was the one who had named her. But a few days later... everything changed. It started with Aurelie's inability to address Mireille by name, or even as a person; Harlan still remembered his shock when Aurelie had said softly, while staring out of the window of their bedroom, "It won't stop crying. Why won't it stop crying?"