Not About Angels

Chapter 5

A/N: Just a warning for people out there, this chapter has Heather seriously considering an abortion and while she doesn't go through with it, she thinks a lot about it. So possible triggers.

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Heather sat in her car for a long time after the appointment.

Her hands grasped onto the pamphlets the doctor has handed her - pamphlets about what or what not to do or eat, guides for expectant mothers, complete with pictures of housewives, each with perfectly styled hair and a blinding white smile. The last pamphlet he had given her, he had hesitated at first before slipping the piece of paper into the already growing pile and saying, "Babies are - harder to raise for people like you."

The pamphlet had no smiling housewife. Instead, the front page was covered in big black letters that spelled out ADOPTION: IS IT RIGHT FOR ME?

Heather stared at that pamphlet as the nurses and doctors said goodbye and as she made her way to her car. At that moment, she couldn't even imagine the baby inside of her - let alone giving it up to some stranger. She knew that it would be a better option, the baby would have two lovely parents instead of just one, but - but what if the baby turned out to be a mutant? Considering both she and Erik were mutants, their baby could be one.

What if the people who adopted the baby abused it after finding out? Heather would never be able to forgive herself for that, letting another person go through what she had to as a child.

There was another option to all of this but - it was defiantly frowned upon. Her cousin, Annabelle, had one when Heather was quite young herself but she could still remember Auntie Adelaide screaming her head off at the teen, calling her a whore and a murder and telling her she wasn't part of their family anymore. Annabelle had died less than a month later from a deadly infection caused by the procedure.

But that - that had been 1944. Surely the back alley abortions were safer now. And if not, there was always the wire hangers.

Heather stopped her train of thoughts to wipe her watering eyes and try and calm her breathing. She had never wanted this - to have to sit outside of a doctor's office and decide whether or not to give her baby up or kill it. She didn't want to do either, in fact, she just wanted to go home and lay in bed and forget about this day - forget about the last 3 months.

Heather struck her hands against the steering wheels, finally letting herself sob in pain and anguish over everything that had happened. She was 25, single, and pregnant with a human hating man's child. And she had no idea what to even tell her friends, something that made her cry even harder.

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It took her a while to calm down, but when she finally did, the sun was just beginning set and a few snow flurries were beginning to fall, a light dusting beginning to cover the already snow packed streets. Heather wrapped the scarf around her neck quickly before hurrying out of the car and into the mansion, closing the door behind her slowly, trying to make sure there was no noise.

Maybe she could just sneak into her room and pretend everything was -

"Heather."

But she had no luck. Heather winced, slowly turning to face Charles, who looked up at her in concern. "You were gone an awful long time. Are you alright, my dear?"

Don't cry, Heather told herself, you've cried enough today. She took a deep breath, clasping her shaking hands together, before deciding now or never. "Can we, uh," she mumbled, "Go somewhere private?" Charles looked even more concerned at that, but nodded in agreement before turning around, skillfully avoiding the potted fern, and wheeled himself to his office, with Heather following close behind.