BLEACHED

131: I can't trust her.

"Looks like luck is on your side." The doctor smiles down at Lavender as he stares at the baby that had calmed down a moment ago after arriving in the hospital. "It's very peculiar how the baby seems perfectly fine... But that was risky as well. You were too far from the appointed nurse and things would have turned for the worst had it not been for your good luck."

Lavender drops her gaze to the child, gently caressing her cheek as she presses her lips together while Penelope stands close to the doctor, staring down at his notepad instead, avoiding all eye contact with the baby.

"You and your child are perfectly fine, but we need to monitor you for a few days, we aren't sure of what would come." The doctor continues to speak, glaring down at Lavender, leaving no room for mercy for her careless behavior. "This time please remain by the appointed nurse's side and do not trick her. You'll not only risk your health and your child's, but also her title as a nurse."

"I won't." Lavender frowns as she clenches her jaw when the doctor sighs and finally leaves the room, giving Lavender some air to breath.

Leaving Penelope alone with Lavender who brings her eyes back to the baby in her hands.

She almost doesn't believe she's given birth to a human.

A little girl.

The jet black hair pressing against her forehead aren't like hers at all. Her natural dark chocolate hair is far from black and Domen is the culprit.

A small giggle escapes her lips as she reminds herself she gave birth to Domen's baby, the clear product of their undying love for each other and the sign of pure struggle just to be together.

The man she'd illegally fallen for.

"I should leave." Penelope said, grabbing Lavender's attention in an instant as Lavender stares at her in panic.

"Why? You still don't like me?" Lavender asks with a deep frown as Penelope is clearly avoiding all possible eye contact with either of them. "You're the first that held her... At least... Stay for her."

"I am your enemy, and so are you to me." Penelope explains as she crosses her arms on her chest. "They'd think I've grown soft over a petty child who doesn't even know the consequences its birth is bringing."

Lavender slowly lowers her eyes down to the baby as she reaches her hand up to the soft silky hair covering it.

The soft soft above the baby's head breathes slightly as though her lungs were in her skull.

Despite waiting for the baby's birth, Lavender still can't believe she's holding her own baby.

A baby her body had been preparing for months.

"I don't want to be your enemy." Lavender mummers as she drops her fingers down to the baby's marshmallow cheeks. "Can't we stop with that already?... I'm tired."

Penelope eases her shoulders and glances off to something in the room, still puzzled by why this woman, despite all the things she's been told about her.

Why is she still insisting?

"I don't want you put in a prison. I'd rather go away instead, if you really don't want me around. I'd hide her identity as Domen's... If that's what you really want." Lavender says in a near whisper, getting Penelope to shift her gaze to the window as she slowly walks to it.

What an attempting offer.

Noticing nearly three new cars pulling  into the hospital gaze, nearly hitting into other cars as they skid across the parking lot to the door.

She notices Domen jumping out of the first car to reach the steps leading to the front entrance, running into the hospital at the speed of light.

A small chuckle radiates Penelope's throat as she turns her back to the window and drops her gaze down to Lavender who is still marveling her child.

"Even if I begged you to leave, I'd only make enemies with my family." Penelope shrugs her shoulders as she knows it will take a few minutes for Domen to get to the floor they are on. "I don't understand why you're so eager, I wouldn't want to give me a chance if I were you. However... I feel no need to get rid of her... Maybe I truly have gone soft for someone who doesn't even know what I look like..."

Lavender glances at her with hopefully eyes as her heart thuds in her chest, feeling the tears in her eyes as ease finally fills her body.

The entire time her anxiousness of what she'd do to her and the baby kept her on her toes.

Maybe it's finally over...

"LAVENDER!" Domen's voice thunders into the room, nearly throwing Lavender's heart right out of her chest as she glances at him in pure horror, having not expected him to walk in. 746670

The baby in her hands, startled by the loud bang and sudden yelling bursts out crying from its untimed nap, filling the room with a sharp cry that instantly draws Domen's gaze towards them.

"Domen seriously..." Lavender sighs as she gently rocks the baby in her arms while he stares wide-eyed, petrified on the spot.

"Is that...?" Domen takes careful steps towards them as the sound of footsteps rushing behind him in the corridor can be heard. "Is that...?"

"Yeah." Lavender nods her head with a smile on her lips as she stares up at him, taking in his shocked expression that hides the proud look of a new father behind them. "It was so sudden, but your grandmother helped me."

Domen furrows his brows as he glances around the room, looking for Penelope when he spots her by the window, still standing as she was, leaning against the window with her hands folded to her chest.

"You... Had a chance." Domen says as he stares at her with an uneasy look in his eyes, unsure if she's plotting something or was genuinely helping. "Why?"

Penelope almost chuckles as she moves from the window the moment Heather and Desmond step into the room, breathing as though they had run a marathon as they glance around and instantly spot Domen and Penelope, staring at each other.

"Lavender... Oh my....." Heather runs from the too and rushes towards Lavender the moment her eyes drop on the baby. "Oh my, oh my... She's beautiful."

Instantly snatching the baby from her and taking her into her arms as though she were holding glass.

Ignoring the two that had just walked in, Penelope shifts her gaze to the baby and smiles softly as she then redirects them back to Domen.

"I simply didn't feel the need to." She explains as she turns her gaze to the baby in Heather's arms being pampered by Heather herself as she makes childish sounds while trying to keep the baby from crying.

Domen and Desmond stare at her, unsure if they should believe her when they've always known she's been a brutal woman and one baby can not change her old habits.

Desmond had brought the police along with him, for obvious reasons. After all, he'd heard she was with Lavender  soon after the woman at the reception called him.

He prayed she wouldn't have laid a finger on Lavender and luckily, they made it in time before she could do anything bad.

For the safety of them both... I can't trust my mother.