Radio Silence | Scarlett Johansson X OC Daughter

1 | To My Sage.

TRIGGER WARNING: MENTION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

September 17th 2008

Pain, blood and screams filled the hospital room. The lights screamed down at the three women inside it. But was it the lights that screamed, or the woman in the bed?

"One more push." The midwife coaxed.

"I can't." Scarlett gasped, grabbing hold of the plastic edge of the hospital bed with such force that her knuckles whitened.

"Yes you can." The other nurse stepped in, "push Scarlett, push!"

The woman in the bed roared, her chin touching the front of her chest as she mustered all her power.

And then it just stopped. The room fell silent, too silent.

"What's wrong?" Scarlett found herself asking. "Why is it so quiet?"

The woman had made an active choice not to find out the gender of the child. Because she knew that their time was limited and she didn't want to grow attached.

The nurses exchanged worried looks before dashing out of the room with the baby in a small bed. And just like that, Scarlett was alone again. The child she had been carrying in her womb, gone. But mere minutes later, the nurses reappeared. This time they brought a screaming baby, wrapped up in a pink blanket.

"She's okay, Ms Johansson." The midwife smiled widely. "Your baby girl is okay."

They walked across the room, towards Scarlett.

"You want to hold her?" She asked, holding the screaming child towards its mother.

"No." Scarlett screwed her eyes shut and shook her pounding head. "I can't."

"Of course you can mama." The midwife reassured.

"No, I can't."

————

Fifteen years later

Scarlett was sitting together with her two year old son Cosmo on their grey couch. The boy was on her lap, giggling at the cartoon playing on the television. The woman was dressed in a white t-shirt with a pair of grey sweatpants whilst her son was dressed in a green onesie with dinosaurs on.

On this day she gave birth and lost her firstborn. A girl she didn't even want to look at. Even though she thought she didn't want to keep the child after how she came to be, Scarlett still missed her. The only thing she knew about the girl was how her screams sounded as a baby and her name. She knew she couldn't not name her daughter, even though the adoption process was already in motion.

Sage, that was her name. A girl with a good set of lungs that could scream so loud that she got goosebumps. But Sage was gone now, a distant memory that plagued her every year on this day.

Sage was conceived through rape, and that's what ultimately made Scarlett give her up. After being sexually assaulted, Scarlett had fallen into a depression. She despised the child, blamed it for all the negative feelings she was feeling. And yet she didn't feel like abortion was the right fit for her (even though abortion is good and should be legal everywhere).