A Cold Hard Bitch Gone Soft? (A Draco Story) ~17~

When you again regained conciousness, you were laying in darkness. Slowly, you reached down to slide your hand along your tummy, and take comfort in the life that was developing there, but you immediatly knew that something was wrong. The bump where your baby was, was gone. You rolled over frantically, and fell out of bed, hitting your head on the side table as you fell. You moaned in a pained voice, as you grabbed the side of your head with one hand, and clutched at your belly with the other.

Slowly, slowly, you got to your feet, feeling a twinge in your stomach, beneath your hand. Where your father had stabbed you, there were bandages upon bandages, that wrapped all around your midsection, that were stained with your blood.

Through the hospital beds, you hobbled towards Madame Pomfrey's office, where you knew she also slept. A throbbing feeling of dread began coarsing it's way through your body, and your footsteps quickened.

"Madame Pomfrey!" you called out, voice cracking, as you neared the door. "Madame Pomfrey!" you yelled again once you'd reached it, pounding against the cold, hard wood of the door. On the other side, a light shot out of the darkness, as Madame Pomfrey arose from her sleep. The door opened a crack, as she peered out at you. When she saw the distraught and worried expression on your face, she opened her door wider, and beckoned you inside.

Wordlessley, you walked in, and stood in the middle of the room, as she closed the door. Madame Pomfrey's office/living quarters, was a small, undecorated room, with a small cot in one corner, and a shelf containing some spellbooks and phials in the other. You weren't sure wether you were suprised about it or not. Madame Pomfrey turned to you, her long graying hair falling untidily about her shoulders.

"What's-" you began, but she held up her hand, and you fell silent. Madame Pomfrey was silent for a long moment. Then, she took a deep breath. "Ms Summers, you should consider yourself quite lucky that you weren't killed. That stab wound went pretty deep." She paused, and looked at you sadly. "You have to understand, my dear, I did everything I could, but...your baby's gone."

The room was silent after she'd finished talking, as you stood there, motionless. After a time, you sank to the floor, and began to laugh, hysterically.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You going to be ok, Lee?" Sam asked, concerned, putting a hand on your knee. Next to her, Lindsay snorted. "Of coarse she's going to be ok! She's probably happy, now that she doesn't have a baby getting in the way," she said, stepping perfectly into Kelsy's role. The three of you were in the hospital wing, with you still in one of the beds, since Madame Pomfrey had insisted on monitering you for the next few days. Sam was at the end of the bed, and Lindsay was to her right. Before either you or Sam could respond to that comment, Draco walked in, escorted by Madame Pomfrey.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Lindsay snapped. You all had looked over at him when he entered. Draco didn't choose to comment, as Madame Pomfrey hadn't yet left, and instead made a rather nasty face at Lindsay.

Madame Pomfrey looked at Lindsay disapprovingly, then looked from Sam to you, with a tender sadness on her face. "I felt it only right to let the 'would be' father in to visit Ms Summers," she quipped. Both Lindsay and Sam huffed, and stood. "We'll talk to you later, hun," Lindsay said, before turning on her heel, and stalking out of the infirmary, with Sam following dutifully off behind her. They still hadn't forgiven you for Draco being the father of your baby (they didn't know he wasn't). You watched them go, waiting until the door had closed behind them, and for Madame Pomfrey to return to her office, before either of you spoke.

"Are you ok?" Draco asked. He looked genuinely concerned, as he walked over to your right, and sat down next to you. You looked at him for a moment, and then looked away to the foot of the bed, and the two recently emptied chairs that sat there.

"I'm fine, Draco....why are you here?" You raised your hand to your face, and pretended to inspect your nails, as you waited for his answer.

"I was worried about you, Lee. Got a problem with that?" Draco said, hard and defensively.

"Yeah, I do," you said, putting your hand back down, and turning your head to look at him. You almost lost your mask for a moment, as your eyes traveled over his face, but you somehow maintained it.

"Well that's too damn bad, because I'm not leaving," he said, snuggling down further into his chair for emphasis. You scooted an inch or two away in your bed in reaction. You saw that he noticed, but he didn't say anything. Looking across the room, you inspected the wall across from your bed. At the peeling wallpaper that needed changing. At the portrait of a waving Madame Pomfrey in her younger years, holding onto numerous potion bottles, one of which was that infamously painful Skellgro.

"Lee, you don't have to pretend with me, you know. I'm here for you," Draco said, slowly and quietly. You turned slowly, and looked at him, your eyes breifly meeting his. Huffing, you turned away.

"Yeah, and to you I guess that means a beating, huh?" You said, stiff and unconvincing. It was a feeble rebuttle, you knew. And sorely overused. Hadn't you already moved past that?

Draco growled lightly. "You're really never going to move on from that, are you?" he said, standing abruptly, voice rising. You watched him, not saying anything. Face blank. Emotions blank. You didn't know what you should be feeling at that moment. Draco ran a shaking hand through his white-blonde hair. "God, Lianna! You KNOW how sorry I am! Are you really so damn cold that you can't forgive? Is that what being a 'Cold Hard Bitch' is really about?!"

You looked at him straight on, and opened your mouth, and when you spoke, it was in a vaguely monotone voice. "I'm a 'Cold Hard Bitch.' Emphasis on the 'cold.'"

Draco nodded his head, not looking at you. But you were looking at him. You could tell from his face that he wasn't happy. "Fine. Guess that's just how it is with you. Just when I think that I'm getting close to you, you push me away." Slowly, Draco turned, and walked away from you. He got about four steps in, when you spoke in an almost inaudible whisper.

"I was going to keep the baby, Draco." You were looking down at your hands, but you knew that he had stopped walking. You didn't look at him. You didn't think that you could bring yourself to meet his gaze. You heard his footsteps, as he walked back over to you, and sat down again.

After a moment, he spoke. "When did you-"

"When the baby first kicked," you interupted. "When it kicked, I knew....I felt it. I felt the bond that we had, that connection between mother and child...I knew that I couldn't bring myself to let her go." You continued to look down. For hours, the two of you sat there. Not once, could you bring yourself to look at him.