"It's a girl!"

[Random NPC]

: Aurelie nodded and adjusted the baby so she could get rid of the gas in the baby's stomach. "Just tell me you learned how to change diapers so you can teach me..."

[Sky]

Shaking his head, Demetrius replied, "With my boys, whenever I went home for a visit, Philomena was always adamant that I use that time to rest or to do the chores she couldn't do herself - fix a broken pipe, leaky roof, etc. etc." Feeling slightly inadequate, he quickly added, "But if you need help, I'm certain that at least one of the other maids could be of help to you. Surely one of them is bound to have had a child of their own."

[Random NPC]

: "Perhaps, and thank you," she said softly. She heaved a mental sigh - wishing for the hundredth time that Demetrius would just tell her the truth - that he would never truly acknowledge his daughter, even if he was part of the reason the little girl was there. A small bit of her had hoped that would happen, that he would put his foot down and tell his wife that he wanted to be part of his daughter's life - but that hope was slowly fading.

[Sky]

Demetrius nodded silently as he allowed a long moment of silence to pass between them. Inwardly, however, his mind was full of a thousand thoughts - the main one being that he knew that Aurelie, even though she said all she need from him was a little bit of money every month, really wanted him to be a central part of her and Léa's lives. He knew that she wanted him to view the little girl as an equal to his sons. And he knew that on some level, Aurelie was blaming Mena for keeping him away. That fact tore him up inside because a part of him knew that his wife would keep him away from his daughter, but he couldn't blame her? What woman, after all, would want to be burdened with having to watch her husband raise another woman's child?

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Demetrius said, "I don't want to be entirely absent from Léa's life. But I can't be the father you want me to be. If I do that - if I try to be a normal father to her - I'll be throwing a constant reminder of my mistake in Philomena's face. I can't do that. I just can't. I love my sons, I know I will come to love this little girl too, and I think great things of you, Aurelie - but none of that compares to what I feel for my wife. I don't just love her - she's not just a part of my life. She is my life . . . I can't bear to hurt her anymore."

[Random NPC]

: Aurelie just sat there, silent. How dare they, the pair of them, treat her daughter as if she was dirt? She didn't care how they treated her - but her daughter was another matter. That settled it. Tomorrow, regardless of how weak she felt, she'd be returning to Linphea - and moving in with her brother. She'd raise the little girl on her own - and without help from Demetrius.

[Sky]

" With a saddened look crossing his face, Demetrius said after a long moment of silence, "You hate me now, that's obvious enough. And you think that I'm a coward for what you view as my turning my back on you and Léa . . . but I'm not trying to do that. That's the last thing I want to do. When I said that I can't be the father you want me to be, I meant that I can never provide you with the 'normal' wholesome family that I once shared with my wife and sons. I meant that I can't pretend that I wanted this to happen. But that doesn't mean that my solution to that is to cut you and Léa out of my life. I want to be there for the two of you not just financially, but emotionally as well - I sincerely mean that. But you can't expect me to just abandon Mena, to tell her that whatever she's feeling, she's just going to have to suck it up and deal. Because that's not fair to her. She wants her family back and I have to honor that; you want Léa to grow up with a father and I have to honor that as well. But I'm only one person and as much as I want to make this right for everyone, I'm not going to be able to do that all the time. I'm a busy man - I'm almost always constantly working so that I can provide for my family. Spare time for me only comes in small amounts and so there are going to be times when I want to be there for you and Léa, but I won't be able to because I'm going to need to be there for Mena and my boys. But there are also going to be times when I want to be there for her, but I'm not going to be able to because I'll need to be with you and our daughter. Yes, it's going to be a struggle, and yes, I will always be thinking of how I can make this situation easier for Mena, but that's just the reality of things. And if we're going to make this work, we need to be honest; we can't have any pretenses. I want to be there for you, Aurelie; I really do. Now the only question is, are you going to let me?"

[Random NPC]

: Aurelie was silent for a long moment, and the only sound that echoed in the room was the baby's gurgles. "It's so easy for you, isn't it?" she started. "You and Philomena both talk about your perfect little family. Not all of us had that!" Finally, walls that she had built up from the time of her mother's death started to come down. "My mother died when I was five, and my father, for all intents and purposes, was dead. So, I never had the happy little family everyone talks about. Do you know what's like in an orphange, where everyday someone finds fault with you or with your siblings because of who your parents were, what you were?" Tears streaked down her face. "So don't talk to me about how perfect your life was with Philomena because frankly, I don't want to hear it!"

She broke into sobs and just hugged her baby closer.

[Sky]

With a curt nod of his head, Demetrius turned and silently exited the room. After shutting the door behind him, Demetrius sighed inwardly as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall outside Aurelie's room. Aurelie was right. He didn't know what it was like to grow up in an orphanage. But she was wrong too. He did know what it was like to not have a perfect family. He did understand loss. At this, an image of his father darted across his mind before Demetrius painfully pushed it aside. Squaring his jaw, Demetrius headed back toward his post; no matter what was going on in his personal life, he still had a job to do.