Before The Beginning

Chapter 24: Unforeseen Complications

Begin!

~Beatrice's POV

The first four months of my pregnancy were easy. And by easy I mean better than the last few were sure to be. Sammie made being pregnant look easy; I'll have to mention that when I see her again. We had made the decision to wait until after we had the baby to get married. I wanted to have a real wedding, with our friends and family by our side, and Bertie agreed with me. We weren't as traditional as others in our time, but we didn't mind. Besides, once I was too far along a wedding dress wouldn't fit me anyway. Ah, now I see why Sammie waited to remarry...

Once I had started showing I was recommended to start wearing dresses since sometime soon none of my pants would be able to fit me any longer. As such, I spent part of my time sewing to ensure I had plenty of clothes to wear, and I was welcome to borrow from other volunteers if I needed. Of course the worst part so far was the mood swings. Just the other day I snapped at Bertie for dropping something while he was working, and the noise made me angrier than usual. Thankfully, he understood that I didn't mean it.

Then there was the fact that we still didn't know what to name it. Hell, we didn't have an ultrasound machine here anyway so we can't find out what we're having! I had to take it on blind faith the baby was healthy in there. I certainly made an extra effort to take care of myself too. Our island doctors were less experienced with maternity check-ups, but they were doing the best they could for me. Bertie and I were basically overseeing the entire hybrid project during our time here and we've been unofficially put in charge of the facility as a result. The other volunteers didn't mind answering to us; and we worked hard to be fair. It was the only time I had ever had so many people under my leadership.

At the end of that fourth month though we had a breakthrough! The apples were growing naturally and were ready to eat.

"They look just like normal apples," I commented while examining one. "They even smell like apples still."

"Yes they do Miss Anwhistle," Maya replied, "We tried very hard to perfectly blend it so that nothing gives away their true purpose. Unfortunately, at the moment we only have this one tree so we will have to plant more. And since we don't have a way of testing it on any actually poisoned people we have to take a lot of faith in them working as intended."

"These results are still wonderful! The Duchess is going to be happy to hear this," Bertie said.

"Ike and Hector will too..." I said quietly. "Now, Maya, are there any undue side effects that we should be aware of?"

Maya looked downcast. "Well... there is one..."

I felt my heart clench. Surely we couldn't have failed after all that work?

"What is it?"

Maya sighed heavily and I saw her eyes get glossy. "You remember Briana, she left the island a month ago to have her baby and she made it back to the mainland fine but..."

I didn't like where this was going...

"Before she left, she offered to try one of the first apples we made... and we got a report from her husband recently. The apples are harmful to babies in utero, her child was ill when he was born and they're doing everything they can to help it, but doctors say he might not make it to adulthood..."

I stared at her in silence and even mild fear. "You mean... if I eat one..."

"Yes it could happen to your baby too ma'am; so for the safety of your child I strongly recommend not taking the risk."

I looked down at the basket of freshly picked horseradish apples. How could something that was supposed to help us do so much harm? And in such a terrible way? The thought that these innocent apples could prevent children from living a full life was the most horrible side effect that could have happened. It was an awful thought. These were supposed to be the back-up. The only hope for some. It wasn't supposed to end like this.