Always by your Side - A Descendants Story : REWRITTEN

Chapter 11

It's always those points in life when finally everything seems to be going good, great even, when suddenly life seems to turn right back around and punches you right in the gut.

At first you're in denial, then it finally sinks in that it is happening and then you're just thinking; 'why me?'.

Mal doesn't know why life has it out for her once again. Maybe she's just had too much happiness and prosperity lately, or it simply wants some sensation, but one thing is for sure; she's never in her life been so panicked.

It started the week after they got back from their honeymoon; throwing up every morning, having all these weird cravings but not actually being able to eat anything, and then also the exhaustion after the slightest bit of exertion. It all pointed to one cause...

She didn't want to believe it at first of course, shoving that thought away, but now, after two weeks of symptoms piling up on her and her period also not showing, she realised it's time to just get that test over with.

Ben's gone to an emergency council meeting where actually Mal's supposed to be at too, but she threw up twice in the hour before the meeting, so she told him to just go without her. He did tell her to call if she needed anything, but if he only knew...

As soon as he left, she rushed to the nearest pharmacy and got a couple of tests, just to be sure. Of course she had to go incognito, wearing a wig, headscarf, sunglasses and a long trench coat, and to her luck nobody raised any suspicion toward her identity. As soon as she paid, she rushed out of the story and back to Ben's dorm room. She didn't know how long he'd be gone for, so she had to be quick about it.

"Damn you, mom, for never giving me that talk," Mal whispers to herself, while peeing on the white stick. "I know how hard you'd laugh at me if you could see me right now..."

After a few minutes she takes a deep breath and picks up the stick from the sink. And then she sees two pink lines, bright and clear, no doubt about it. "Damn it, damn it!" she curses, throwing the stick in the sink. Tears are rolling down her cheeks, which she's not even trying to keep in.

Thoughts are racing through her brain, trying to figure out how to proceed from here, what to do, how to handle- anything, really, from this point. But no answers, no solutions, come to mind. It's just in full on panic mode. What the hell is she supposed to do...?

"I'm back!" she hears Ben call from the room.

"Shit," she whispers, quickly drying her tears, then wrapping the stick in toilet paper and stuffing it in jacket pocket, along with the other two tests she'd got.

"You okay in there?" Ben asks, standing by the locked bathroom door.

"Uhm, yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she calls, fixing herself a bit in the mirror.

Then the door opens and she looks at Ben, faking a quite convincing smile. "I'm feeling a lot better," she lies, walking out the bathroom, sitting down on the couch.

"Really?" he asks, not wanting her to get ahead of herself. "If you need to rest, or-"

"I'm fine, really," she tells him. "I promise."

"You promise?" he repeats.

Instead of answering, she just pulls him close and kisses him. "I promise. Should we grab some lunch?"

"Yeah, sure," he agrees. "What would you like?"
________________________________________________________

That same night Mal decides to get some more perspective and takes out the digital test she'd also grabbed at the pharmacy. To her surprise she's only 6 weeks along, while she actually thought that the symptoms suggested she'd at least be two months in.