Impasse

Maeve had reached the moment where she couldn’t sleep face down, and it annoyed her greatly. She had slept her whole life in that position and now due to her condition it was impossible for her, and it made falling sleep hard.

Maeve huffed and turned around as she tried to get comfortable. Lucien was next to her sleeping peacefully and it annoyed her greatly. He was there when she got pregnant, why did he get to sleep like an angel while she rolled around in the bed? Plus she was still nervous for the fact that she saw that each passing day, despite of her reflexes being on point her dexterity was not. What if another attack like the market one happened?

She was fourth months along which meant that she had still five to go. Amazing

She poked at Lucien scowling “Your son won’t let me sleep” because she was sure that it was going to be a boy, it was her theory and she wouldn’t accept the chance of being wrong.

The constant worrying about the mother of his child was exhausting, of course it didn't help matters that it brought up some serious PTSD around when his family was murdered and he was held captive. There were times all he could think about was what would happen if he lost Maeve and their child, what would he do, how would he ever recover from such a loss. He was trying to not let it consume him, to not just stay awake every night worrying, obsessing. They'd been there once before and he wasn't sure if Maeve would tolerate it a second time.

Of course, once Lucien managed to fall asleep, not even an explosion could wake him up, he slept like the dead. As he lay there, sleeping, lightly snoring, he was only semi aware of being poked. It took him a few minutes to realise he was being spoken to, and even then he was initially responding in a half asleep tone, his words jumbled and not quite making a whole lot of sense at the moment.

Mmmm, put it on my desk. I'll flubber it in the yesterday. Some of his words weren't even words.

Maeve shaked him more vigorously “How I am supposed to leave your unborn child on the desk, what do you want for my to push very hard to see if it pops out earlier?” said Maeve in a clearly annoyed tone as she tried to awaken him.

She was crampy, apparently the midwife told her that random pregnancy cramps were a thing who meant nothing as long as they did not became too intense and continuous. She was also tired annoyed worried and many things so the sight of her husband peacefully asleep while she could not made her mad in a very childish petty way. Maeve rarely was this petty, this had happened in the past but the conversation with Julian still ran in circles in her mind, and the more she thought about it she knew that it was time to move to Antiva to keep a lower profile

And she was a bit tired of hearing gossip about being unmarried and pregnant; she did not care about others opinions but the constant muttering around her was starting to get on her nerves

Lucien rolled slightly towards Maeve, the brain fog slowly lifting, he finally realised that Maeve was speaking to him. Something about putting their unborn child on a desk. What, why weren't her words making any sense, or was he just not awake enough yet to understand fully.

What? Why are you putting the baby on the desk? Wait, you aren't in labour are you?!?! Lucien was too tired to do the maths to realise she was far too short from her due date to be in labour now, but he was still half asleep and trying to make sense of what was going on, suddenly it felt like her being in labour was a good reason to shake him so vigorously awake like she had. He sat straight up in bed and turned fully towards her, a mix of fear and sleep in his eyes.

"I am in my fourth month of pregnancy how do you expect me to be in labour?" said Maeve clearly irritated with the fact that Lucien was not catching up with the situation. She was likely being a bit too harsh, but pregnancy hormones weren't her best ally in making her less temperamental. "I wish I was, that way I could sleep"

She crossed her arms as she sat up straight on the bed “The lack of sleep had me thinking, and I think that it’s time for me to cave in; we should move to Antiva as we spoke a couple of months ago” said Maeve in a lower tone, clearly reluctant to say out loud something that indirectly said that she was not right.

“I know you, and you plan like five years ahead of everything so I assume you have already traveling plan to move to Julian's safe house; I hope it has a nice bathtub and a pretty garden, these are the things I love the most about our home and I am not settling for less in that regard” said grumpily the brunette.

As she reminded him that she was only in her fourth month, he finally started waking up properly and realised how insane what he'd said was. He wiped his eyes and yawned and then relaxed, sitting back a bit in bed. Granted he was still too tired to properly pick up on her temperament at the moment. He raised an eyebrow when she brought up Antiva, enough time had passed that he was sure she was going to just go the entire pregnancy there in Orlais.

He chuckled as she mentioned him planning like five years in advance, he considered trying to deny it, but then again he was already planning out things he'd do with his kid in five years so denying it was a useless waste of time.

I may have some plans, like the fact I'm planning time off from the University to write a book while we're there. The fact I've already planned who to hire to look after our estate here while we're gone. So, yea I've made some plans, by my estimation we could be headed to Antiva in three days. He thought about mentioning how he'd hoped she'd come along, but figured it was hard enough for her to admin that he had been right to take Julian up on his offer.

“Three days?” said Maeve, clearly impressed with the speed of Lucien’s planning She knew that her lover tended to plan ahead but she had not predicted how much he had planned already. “Very well, three days; I will have to go to the market to buy suitable clothes for Antiva, apparently it’s way warmer than Orlais” said Maeve as she looked at him. Her expression saddened a little; her dear Lucien who had suffered so much in the most unfair ways. He deserved peace and love, not the madness of her past dragging him down.

“You know, at times I wonder if you could have done better” she admitted quietly “Someone like that girl that was Lucien seeing…Rosalie? Sweeter, with less burdens” said Maeve as she caressed his face “Someone that wouldn’t awake you at night, , maybe a bit less of a bitch like I am at times” she tried to joke in the last part, and maybe it could have passed as a joke if a tear hadn’t trickled down her cheek as she spoke.

Lucien did his best to stifle a yawn and focus fully on the conversation, though he was struggling to do so. He smiled warmly and rubbed Maeve's pregnant belly. It was still hard to believe he was going to be a father, He worried sometimes about whether or not he'd be a good father, but then he knew he'd have Maeve in his life to keep him in line. Besides, how hard could it really be.

It's definitely warmer there, I've been there a couple of times on digs, it's quite pleasant really. Warm days, cool nights. I mean don't get me wrong, my heard will always belong to Orlais, but I don't mind that we'll be staying in Antiva for a bit. He'd quite enjoyed himself the times he'd been in Antiva before, granted he'd been on a dig so he'd been working the whole time, but he'd found the warmer weather reasonably bearable and kind of a nice change.

He raised an eyebrow when Maeve brought up him and possibly having done better, at first he wasn't sure what she was talking about, he was just too tired, but then he realised what she meant when she brought up Rosalie. He shook his head and yawned.

I could say the same for you ya know. I mean now I'm positively brimming with a positive attitude sure, but when we first met I was hell bent on revenge and if it weren't for you I probably would have died trying to get it. Definitely wasn't the poster boy for positive vibes back then. Having baggage is one of the reasons I fell in love with you, because you weren't perfect, because neither of us are perfect. Look I had my share of flings before you, but once there was you, no one else had a chance, it's you, it's always been you, and it always will be you.

“Then the more chance for you to see me parading around in silken short robes” said Maeve jokingly “I have never been in Antiva. I guess that the only thing left is to see it as a refreshing change of scenary; the more I dwell on the fact that I am leaving because of that asshole the harder it will get” added the brunette reluctantly. By now it was clear that staying in Val Royeaux was an unnecessary risk so moving to the safe house was the smarter move.

“You needed me, I could see the man you were under the layers of anger” said Maeve touching his face gently “I doubt I could fall for someone the way I have fallen for you Lucien” concluded Maeve. For her he was the one too. If something happened to Lucien, she maybe would be able to eventually have another lover but she would never love them the way she felt towards Lucien.

“Let’s go to sleep love, now that choices have been made we should just rest in order to get things going tomorrow morning” said Maeve kissing his forehead.

Lucien nodded and pulled Maeve closer so that he was spooning her, briefly touching his hand to her belly, still in awe his son or daughter were in there.

Mmmm back to sleep, yes I can get behind that.... He was practically already asleep the moment he stopped talking.