Into the Ether - Complete

Spring, When New Things Grow: Part 8

Celeste came into the gym for our after-school training, surprised to see me already there punching the shit out of one of the mannequins.

"Stupid... stuck up... royal... bitch..." I was mumbling under my breath, punctuating each word with another jab at the padded figure in front of me.

"Feeling a little tense?" she joked, coming to stand beside me and do her warm-ups. The final class of the day had left not long before, so we had the gym to ourselves.

"Just a little," I muttered, before spilling my guts to her about my fight with Lissa.

"Well you can kind of see how it might take her some getting used to the idea of you and Dimitri," she said, playing devil's advocate. "The two of you did keep things on the down low..."

"I know. And no one other than Alberta saw us after that weekend away together," I admitted. "Although did I tell you about Meredith busting us together in the shower?"

Celeste looked up at me her eyes twinkling, "No!?"

I laughed and told her about our last shower together, Meredith correctly guessing why there were two towels and two sets of shoes outside our cubicle in the Novice's bathroom.

"She hasn't mentioned it since," I said with a little smirk.

Celeste chuckled. "Probably too embarrassed to bring it up."

"Yeah probably. I had my first counseling session today," I confided. "The woman is completely useless. She had all this information on adoption places. Seemed to think I was crazy when I said I'd be keeping my baby. But one good thing did come of it. I realized Guardian Schoenberg knows how to contact the Guardian in charge of Dimitri's mission, so I've asked Alberta to call Guardian Schoenberg to try and get a message to Dimitri to let him know about the baby," I told her apprehensively. "I'm not sure whether they'll be able to get a message to him – and if he'll believe me if they do. But he should know."

"What do you think might happen?" she asked curiously.

"Well, I'm hoping they might bring him back," I said, realizing as I said it how unlikely that probably was. "But at the very least I hope they might let him ring me... This not knowing – it's killing me, Celeste."

She reached over hugged me.

"Then let's hope Schoenberg can get a message to him," she said with a smile.

"I just hope he believes me, and that he wants Junior," I said. "I mean – it's supposed to be an exciting time for a guy when he finds out he's going to be a father, right?"

Celeste laughed bitterly.

"Yeah it is," she said an ugly expression on her face. "I can still remember when I told my ex about Stella," she said, looking around to make sure we were still alone. "He was over the moon!"

My confused look must have said it all. If he was so happy, then why weren't they together or he at least a part of Stella's life?

She sighed.

"Stella's father Patrick and I went to school together. He's not royal, but he comes from one of the more prominent Moroi families. We dated throughout our senior year, but for the sake of appearances, we kept it quiet. I thought it was all horribly romantic, but in reality, it was so no one knew he was making out with a Dhampir," she said mirthlessly. "He was selfish, arrogant, egotistical and a jerk, but I didn't see it. I thought the sun shone out of his ass," she continued, sightlessly doing her reps lost in recollection.

"Going by my due date, Stell was probably conceived on our graduation night," she said, continuing her tale. "He'd spent most of the night dancing with his Moroi girlfriend. He'd promised me she was nothing to him – just a cover for his family. Halfway through our graduation dance he came and got me and said he'd prepared a surprise for me. He took me to a beautiful hotel room nearby. There were flowers everywhere and candles, and it was just gorgeous. He wouldn't even let me get under the covers on the bed – said he just couldn't wait. So we stripped off and did it on top of the bedspread. I didn't realize until afterward that he hadn't used a condom.