I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 236

It took time for Daisy to come to terms with what had happened. So much that Rukelion worried about her more than usual and urged her to go to therapy.

That was ironic! She had to force him to go in the first place and now he was encouraging her to go. How would she even talk to anyone about this? She had to carefully construct her story so it could have feasibly happened in this world before she even went in.

It helped more than she thought it would. Grief was something therapists knew how to deal with very well. Plenty of people lost babies. She had pretended hers was lost in her car accident rather than being stillborn because if it had been stillborn she would have been able to meet it.

The matter of Ira was more complicated. It was easier to pretend he died in the accident than that she had been the one who did, leaving him to grow up alone in a fantasy world.

Processing her feelings was painful but she didn’t react to therapy nearly as negatively as Rukelion had. Probably because of how familiar she was with therapy at this point in her life. She had been through years of it as a child.

Daisy was able to mostly move on within a year. In the meantime she kept her head up, supported her husband in the changes he was trying to make, and even managed to be happy some of the time.

It was kind of fun seeing him try out various hobbies once he had satisfied his need to write all of his history down for other people to read. He attempted everything from tennis to pottery. His sad attempt at a vase was still used to hold flowers though he hated how ugly it was. She happened to love it because he had tried his best.

Rukelion didn’t find anything he liked in particular but he did end up sticking with a volunteer fire department for a while. He couldn’t only light fires. He could make them dissipate.

He seemed to view it as a sort of penance rather than something he enjoyed but Daisy couldn’t fault him for it. He had to have some way to deal with his guilt and he was helping people. In fact, she was rather proud of him and was sure to tell him so.

He was happy about that. He wanted her to be proud of him.

She was proud of him for so much more than that. He was trying so hard in so many ways to make up for what he did and to be at peace with the world. It meant the world to her that he was doing so much to try and heal rather than focusing on revenge.

Daisy had never loved or appreciated anyone this much. Rukelion had chosen to let go of his hatred even though it was difficult and he still struggled at times. She could tell he was much happier and less lost as time went on.

When he graduated from college she was there cheering for him in the stands when his name was called along with a few of his volunteer fire department buddies. He heard and turned to give her the sort of easygoing grin she loved most.

They all went out to dinner afterward and she was ravenous, eating twice as much as she usually did only to puke it all up when she got home. This was a hauntingly familiar feeling so she busted out a three pack of pregnancy tests she kept in her bathroom to check.

Knowing that her husband would be graduating soon, she had her birth control removed from her arm several months ago. She hadn’t known how long it would take for them to get pregnant since her body was different than Veronica’s and the first time had been unintentional anyway.

Rukelion accidentally cut the circulation off in her hand as they both stared at the sticks in anticipation waiting for the timer to be up. All three had conclusive results. She was pregnant.

She screamed and they both hugged each other and jumped up and down in excitement. Her heart was full even as it ached for the one they lost before.

“We need to get a bigger apartment,” he told her as soon as they had both calmed down a bit. “We barely fit here; it isn’t suitable for a child. I know you didn’t want to move until we could afford that land we want but…”

Daisy shook her head. “That was before. Things are different now. Obviously, our baby’s needs are more important. We can get a two-bedroom one somewhere. The deposit will come out of our savings but since you’ll be working full-time now I’m not too worried.”

Rukelion had already accepted a job as a data analyst with an impressive salary considering he was coming straight out of college. He was set to start on Monday.

“The lease is up in three months, right? We’ll need to make sure we have something set up before then. I’ll take care of everything; you need to take care of yourself,” he said stoutly before immediately looking things up on his phone.

She should have known he would be like this. He had been incredibly overprotective the last time she was pregnant and she was willing to bet it would be worse after already losing her and one baby before.

Daisy’s grim prediction proved correct. Rukelion looked up everything he could about babies, parenting, and pregnancy in this world and he fussed over her constantly whether it be about taking her vitamins or not overexerting herself. He insisted on doing as much as possible around the house for her and she was both gratified and exasperated.

At least he wasn’t locking her up this time. She could go where she wanted to go and do what she wanted to do as long as he was there with her the entire time.

She far preferred that to being followed by guards and maids. It was almost like things were normal except he was more vigilant than usual. She couldn’t really blame him for it though so she did her best to let things slide.

Rukelion was determined to see their child safely into the world this time and so was Daisy. That was why even though she might not be a huge fan of his methods she tolerated them. She knew they had the same goal even if they went about it differently.

It wasn’t as if she wasn’t taking care of herself. She followed all of her doctor’s instructions. Her husband was simply paranoid after so much loss.

Both of them were able to breathe a little easier once they had passed into the second trimester. Things tended to be more stable then. On top of that, they would be able to find out their child’s gender soon.

Daisy had told her husband about how that worked last time and he was especially excited about it. Though his excitement had faded once he hesitantly brought something up.

“Should we stick with the same names we planned on using before or would that be dishonoring our first baby?”

She hadn’t even thought of that. It would be different if they had officially named their lost child then tried reusing it but they hadn’t. It had been speculation the whole time and they had referred to their child as ‘baby’ without the benefit of knowing whether it would be a boy or a girl.

“I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “Do you?”

“No…actually, I wasn’t sure whether I should bring this up or not but I think it’s the same baby,” Rukelion confessed.

Daisy gaped at him. “What?!”

“The heat signature. I recognize it. It’s the same one you had before. I haven’t been around enough pregnant people to tell if it’s a generic pregnancy thing or if it’s soul specific but either way it’s the same.”

She didn’t know what she was supposed to think of that. Her baby. The one she lost. Was it really possible that it had come back to her? It wasn’t completely out of the realms of possibility. After all, her soul had traveled back and forth between worlds.

“How long have you suspected this?”

Rukelion rubbed the back of his neck. “A while. As I said, it’s only a theory. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case I was wrong but I suppose we’ll find out with our next child.”

Right. If the heat signature was the same they would know it was simply a pregnancy thing. If it wasn’t, their lost baby truly had come back to them. What if they were both setting themselves up for disappointment?

Daisy didn’t want to think like that. It was better to assume that this was an entirely new baby than the one they had before. At least for the time being. If his theory was later proven correct that would be great but if not she didn’t want to get upset about it. Any child was worth being happy about.

“I guess we’ll see then,” she said as evenly as possible. “Either way I don’t think it’s bad to pick one of the names we talked about before. Lukas or Roselia still works for me.”

Rukelion nodded and pulled her in for a hug, seeming to understand how she felt.. “Good plan.”