Chapter Text
Almost four weeks, 26 days precisely. That’s how long they had been on the run. Running from the Camarilla, running from the place half of them had called home for over a year. Running from where she had left the sharpest pieces of her broken heart buried deep within the mycelium. Tally had never felt more lost. She was constantly sick, constantly exhausted, and constantly feeling utterly and completely empty. Losing Penelope, losing the biddies-her friends- losing Sarah and losing her home in the course of a single day was almost to much to bear. If Tally were being honest with herself, the only reason she was still alive was because she wasn’t about to leave her sisters as broken as she was. Not when they were able to have some joy in their shit situation. Abi had Adil, and Raelle had Scylla back. She didn’t want to be what tarnished her sisters joy, she could wait. Sarah was with the goddess, and Tally knew someday she would be too. It was just a matter of time, probably a short amount of time with their given situation.
Overall the past two weeks had gone as smoothly as they could in the given situation, though the first two had most definitely not. When Abi had picked one too many fights with Scylla and Nicte during that second week after escaping, Tally had had enough. For the first time since Sarah died, she raised her voice. Up till then she had only given short one word answers to questions, but Abigail had crossed a line. She had brought up Sarah, she had brought up Liberia. That broke something in her. Tally forced the whole group to sit down after that fight. Forced them all around the small fire, Nicte and Quinn included, to air out all grievances. They wouldn’t be able to hide from the camarilla, to fight this war if they continued to fight incessantly and she told them as much. Tally kept her own issues silent though, and she knew that made her a hypocrite. But her sisters didn’t need to know the truth about General Alder. This group didn’t need to know how consuming her pain and loss were, that it left her feeling like nothing else remained. They didn’t need to know that she was a liar, that she had lied to them. All of them, even her sisters. For a woman she had lost.
Tensions were still high at times, after all they were traveling on a small bus and making camp in tiny clearings. Small fights were inevitable, but Tally did everything she could to keep the peace within the group. She just assumed that her own issues, her own pain would simply stay shoved deep down into the shatters of her broken soul.
They had made camp in the middle of a woods north of SoCal, near the matrifocal compound Tally grew up in. The thought had crossed her mind, that she was so close to her childhood, so close to her mother. She almost cried, would have actually…until the nausea struck yet again. She quickly excused herself from the camp, before running a safe distance into the trees before leaning against one and throwing up what meager contents her stomach held. Her body shook, her breathing was ragged. She was just about to plop on the ground and cry when a hand clasped her shoulder, a bottle of water hovered just out of her line of sight.
“Easy there kid, you’ve been getting sick a lot." She knew that, once a day at the least. Usually more. "When was the last time you bled Red?” Nicte asked, hesitant. Tally took the offered water, and leaned against the tree her hand had been on. She drank until the bottle was almost empty, as her companion flicked that damned lighter before handing the bottle back. The question had caught her off guard, but she tried to think back. And then back farther.
“Ya know I…I don’t actually remember. I’ve been so stressed, even before-all of this”
“Any chance you’re pregnant?”
She couldn’t help but snort at that, despite all the work they had put in she and Sarah had lacked certain things. Though not for lack of trying, they certainly put plenty of effort into trying.
“No, probably just stressed. That is unless the woman I was screwing had some special skill I didn’t know about.” if the past tense phased Nicte, she didn’t show it.
What did show when Tally met her gaze however, was genuine worry that her joke was going to end up truth, “Hey ya never know kid, maybe the goddess blessed your Union. It wouldn’t be the first time ya know.”
Tally froze, both her mind and her body stilling like a wild animal preparing to bolt.
“No, that’s not-what…what the fuck are you talking about Nic? That isn't possible.” she whispered after a moment.
“Tally there have been a few cases of two female born witches, granted they have to be damn strong witches and the feelings and emotions have to be just as powerful...but they can conceive a child between them regardless of being women or otherwise…not many but it has happened enough to not be that shocking.”
Tally couldn’t see straight, her ears were ringing, she couldn’t breathe anymore. Was the world sideways? The world felt sideways. She fell on her knees and dry heaved as tears stung her eyes, Nicte took pity and grabbed her hair before pulling it back and rubbing her hand up Tally’s back,
“I’m sorry Red I just assumed ya knew”
“NO NICTE, NO I CLEARLY DID NOT FUCKING KNOW!” She was starting to hyperventilate, not that it mattered at this point. “I- That’s not pos-I don’t-I can't be-" She took a gulp of air, it wasn't enough she still felt like she was drowning. "You are standing here telling me I could be pregnant, pregnant with fucking Sarah goddess damned Alders child and no one even knew we were-“ her sentence was cut off as she dry heaved into the ground again. But this time no hand was holding her hair, no one was rubbing her back, no shockingly comforting presence by her side. Nicte wasn't at her side anymore, she had sat back in shock. Nicte just stared at the broken red head in front of her before saying the only thing she could think in that moment, the words that echoed through her brain.
“What the fuck?”