The Difficult Decision
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Paula, Eimi
Date Posted: 20th August 2007
Characters: Birigundi, Telemon
Description: Telemon, Birigundi and Rigella's mother has a difficult decision to make.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 15 of Turn 4
Telemon had sent for Birigundi. The young man had gone to his weyr to get some sleep and change clothes and probably bath too.
Meanwhile, he was consulting with Rigella mother and answering her questions.
"Nobody really knows sure why or why her. Some people seem to be more prone to it while other never suffer from it. Your daughter seems to have unfortunate tendency for it." Naerella nodded. She was holding her grandson and spoon feeding him. Because of his deformity, the baby couldn't nurse. Only way to feed him was to pour milk directly his throat with small spoon. It was very slow way.
"What's happening? What's going on?" Birigundi asked, zeroing in on the boy in Naerella's arms. "Has something changed?"
"Yes, it's Rigella. She tried to harm herself," Telemon replied seriously. "She's now sedated and put to restrains."
"Harm herself? How? Why?" Oh shells, Birigundi knew he shouldn't have left. Shardit he should have _known_ this would have happened! "She's all right, isn't she?"
"She was caught by journeyman on duty when she tried to get into the store we keep surgical instruments. The way she talked, the journeyman decided to sedate her," Telemon explained. "Have you ever heard of post-natal depression? We suspect she's got it."
"My poor little girl," Rigella's mother sighed.
"Was this because of the baby?" he asked quietly, reaching out to smooth his son's dark hair. Shards, he remembered she used to want to die. But then she found out she was pregnant, and it had been like a new hope had come into her life...
"Partly. She does blame herself for the baby's problems but part of it is also hormonal. Some mothers do get depressed after birth even when they have perfectly healthy children," Telemon explained.
As if she needed any more in pain in her life... "But... She'll be all right soon, won't she?"
"She needs long term therapy, and that baby needs specialist care," Telemon replied seriously.
"We need to decide what to do with Rigella. Telemon here wants to send her and the baby to healer hall. Since you are the baby's father, you have right to say yes or no," Naerella added.
"The healer hall has all possible specialists. We have few mindhealer's here but they are pretty busy and Rigella needs very intense therapy," Telemon continued. "Of course, we have to wait until the baby is old enough to take /between/." And even then it was uncertain if his heart could stand the shock of ultimate cold of /between/.
Shards. What a choice... Rigella would be separated from the child... But if she really needed help... And if she was gone, it would be just him with the baby until he left for the Healer Hall, and then _he_ would be separated from Rigmor... "I... I don't know... What do you think is best, sir?" **I'm not ready for a choice like this!**
"Even with the risks involved, I would send them both to the healer hall. They have the specialists. The baby doesn't have much chance anyway. Ma'am?" Telemon tossed the ball to Rigella's mother.
Naerella chewed her lips. Oh, how much she wanted her husband were here to make the decision. But she doubted the Rigmor senior would had had easy time with this kind of decision either. As a mother, she wanted to keep her daughter and grandson as near as possible. "I wonder what Rigella wants."
**None of this is what Rigella wants...** Birigundi felt utterly alone in all this. If he sent his son to the Hall now, the shock could kill him, but if he didn't, the wait was just as likely to kill him. "If we waited, the Healer Hall could tell us what we could do here, right? To try to keep him alive until he was strong enough to go /between/?"
"Of course," Telemon replied. In truth, he doubted the baby would survive that long.
Birigundi felt his throat constrict suddenly as he looked down at the boy, struggling for sustenance, struggling to push the blood through his little veins. "Then that's what we'll do," he barely more than whispered. **Any way I choose... I've killed my son...**
Last updated on the October 22nd 2008