Midnight Solstice

Chapter 31

Picture: Lorne Morgynstein
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  "What...What...no, I can't be. I'm her uncle." He continued to stutter. "No...there...there has to be some mistake! That's the only way that anything as absurd as this could have happened!"

"Lorne, I've looked over these pictures 5 times now, she has half of your chromosomes. You get half from your mother and half from your father." Afton told him.

"Well check it again because it isn't possible! I never slept with Fern, so unless we did it in our sleep, it didn't happen!"

"There have been rare cases where similar things to that may have happened where one person of the pair...I won't get into the details of that. But that doesn't change the fact that you are her biological father."

   "Okay, I don't think you guys are getting this, so I'll say it again slower. I. Am. Not. Her. Father."

   "Lorne, I know this is a lot to take in; believe me we are just as shocked as you are, but Afton is one of the best doctors I've ever met and he's checked these results more than once. If he were wrong, we would know." I said.

   "And he's got a bunch of fancy science degrees so he knows how to do all that science stuff." Felix added.

   "Fancy science degrees?"

   "I don't know what else to call them, but he's got them."

   Lorne limped forward and stared that the pictures. He pointed to all of the chromosomes that were alike on both.

  "How many chromosomes does one person have..." He asked quietly.

  "Twenty-three pairs, which equals 46 total." Afton answered.

    And with those words he collapsed to the ground. The room was silent for a while. No one made a sound. Lorne sat on his knees in front of the pictures as if the world was ending; which for him it could have been. The world that he had always known just ended right before his eyes.

"How...I would have remembered if Fern and I had done such a thing..." He stopped abruptly. Silence filled the air again but was broken when a loud gasp came from him and he gripped his dark hair harshly.

  "Lorne are you alright?!" I asked out of panic. No answer.

  "Lorne..." He stood up quick and looked around the room, his head snapping in all directions. It was as if he was stuck in a trance. When he came back to reality, he just stared off into space for a while, with his red eyes wide with sadness and realization.

  "Oh my gosh...I..." And then he began to sob. I looked at the others, not sure of what to do.

"What just happened?" I asked quietly. Felix shrugged. I could speak for all of us when I said we didn't know what to do.

"She made me forget." Lorne choked out. "Fern...when we did...you know what, she used her gift to make me forget." He walked backwards until his back hit the wall. He slumped down to the floor and rested his head on his knees.

"So its true then?" Demetri asked to clarify.

"Yes...I never meant for any of this to happen. I feel horrible..."

"It's alright." I went and sat next to him. "I know how you felt about her. You loved her." He nodded as more red tinted tears fell down his face. Tears of blood was the one thing that was the same for all vampires who have been injected by one of Michael's serums, myself included.

"But she always loved my brother more. When he got distant with her when he did his experiments, she would always come and talk to me...but that time one thing led to another and then, before I knew it she made me forget about it and announced her pregnancy with Kat. And the sickest part is that I've always had a weird feeling about that. I guess we now know why."