Some of you may remember the original version of this story from years gone by. Some of you may have just stumbled on this re-write for the first time. Whatever the reason, I thank you for taking the time to read this. Reviews are welcome and constructive critiques are gladly accepted.
Summary: Shortly after being sent to Light Haven, Darcy gets the shock of a lifetime. How will she and her sisters cope with the curveball life just threw their way? Written as part of Winx Writers Anonymous's pregnancy theme fic challenge.
Disclaimer: Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. (1)
I Thought This Was Over
1. There Must Be Some Mistake
A low growl escaped Darcy's lips as she was led toward the physician's office. Again. Really, why did the creepy, too-perky-for-his-own-good doctor want to see her again? Her sisters went through their physicals right before she did, and they didn't get a call back. Why her?
Okay, 'sisters' was a broad term. Icy, Stormy, and she were all raised together by a faithful follower of the Whisperian Coven from the time that she had been in first grade. She'd known Icy before then, and played games with young Stormy on the playground, but the three had never been close. Then the unthinkable happened, and Icy and Stormy's mother died, leaving the two half-sisters (there was only about 11 months between the two) in the care of her sister, Darcy's mother.
At first, Darcy wasn't sure what to do. She went from being the only child, to the middle of three (literally) overnight. For the first year, Stormy (then only five years old) woke up screaming bloody murder every night, and Icy alternated between trying to boss her around and begging through streams of tears for her mommy to come take her home. After a while, though, the three became inseparable. The Coven approved, even to the point of training them as a coven. When the three realized that they had the same powers (albeit, diluted versions) of their Ancestresses, things fell readily into place. They entered Cloud Tower under assumed names and held out for four long years, carefully keeping their true identities and motives secret.
Then along came a fairy with fire so scary, they had to take it for their own.
And they did, or so they thought. Come to find out the Whisperian Crystals held Dragon Fire quite well. They thought they'd stolen poor little Bloom's source, but they were wrong. The source remained in the annoying pixie, and that spark, once rekindled, burned through their army and landed the three sisters in Light Haven Detention Facility.
However, Darcy thought to herself, it wasn't a total loss. She'd gained (and thrown away) a very worthwhile boy-toy out of the mess. At first, she only spelled him with the purpose of using him to spy on the pixie's plans and break the Music Fairy's spirit. But after realizing just how much fun being with Riven was, she just had to hold onto him as long as possible. In a way, it kind of hurt, having to reject him so harshly. She'd grown attached to that one. For the good of the Coven, though, she had to break him and cast him aside, never to be used again. Attachment or no, he was no longer of any useful purpose to them.
"Ah, Darcy." The brunette witch was pulled out of her trip down memory lane by the voice of Light Haven's resident physician, Dr. Steen. He was a man of average height and build, with black hair and tinted glasses over his eyes. He wore a bright red shirt, white-ish khaki pants, and a white lab coat with a red medical corps insignia on the right sleeve. "So good of you to come back on such short notice."
"Cut the crap, Doc, why am I here?" She snipped, glaring at him as she stepped into the room. Once she was in, the 'good' doctor nodded to the two guards who had escorted her here, and they left, shutting the door behind them.
"And I see the mood swings have already started…" The doctor said to himself, jotting a few notes down on a sheet of paper.
"Mood swings?" Darcy snarled."What mood swings? What the hell are you going on about?"
Rather than cower in fear (like most people did after an outburst like that), the tall dark-haired man smiled. Smiled! What the hell was the matter with him? "It seems, Miss Darcy, that you and I will be seeing a lot of each other for the next eight months."
Okay, now she was thoroughly confused. "Why would I want to see you?" She demanded. "Is there something wrong with me? Is that what this is all about? Am I dying or something?" Yes, that had to be it. Maybe some type of rare cancer. That would be just her luck.
"Oh, far from it." The man replied cheerily. "In fact, our scans indicate that the both of you are doing quite well, all things considered."
Wait. Hold on a minute. Did he just say…? "Both?" She repeated cautiously. "What…what do you mean, 'both of us'?"
"Oh." He said, nervously rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew by now…"
"Knew what?" The golden-eyed teen inquired. "What's going on? Why the sudden grammar crisis?"
"Well, there's no easy way to put this, so I'll just come out and say it." The man looked at her calmly. "Darcy, you're pregnant."
For a brief moment, the golden-eyed woman stood in stunned silence. "No." She shook her head. "No, that can't be right. You must've gotten the charts messed up or something. I can't be…"
"This is the right chart, Darcy. And no, the test isn't a false positive." He met her gaze. "As I said earlier, you're going to be spending quite a bit more time in here than the other girls."
"No." She whispered. This couldn't be happening! Not now! Not when they needed to be planning their escape! Still, she was curious… "How…I mean, how long, exactly…?" She couldn't figure out how to phrase the question. Why wasn't her mind working today?
"About six or seven weeks." Dr. Steen replied. "Again, I'm amazed you haven't shown symptoms before now."
"Uh…do dizziness and headaches count?" She asked meekly. He nodded, and she resisted the urge to palm her forehead. Dammit, she should have known something was off… why didn't she realize sooner?
Oh, wait. The whole 'raise-an-undead-army-and-steal-the-Dragon-Fire' plan. That explained it. But it also meant that…
Da-amn. This was not good.
After a rather lengthy discussion about what she could and could not do for the duration of the pregnancy, Darcy was 'escorted' back to the cell she shared with her sisters, and proceeded to climb straight into her cot. It was a long, mentally taxing day and she didn't feel like playing 20 questions with her two surrogate sisters.
Such a shame they didn't share the same opinion.
"Darcy, are you okay?" Stormy asked, blue-violet eyes shining with worry as she watched her sister walk straight to bed. The brunette girl had been gone a long time, and now she looked worse than she did before she went to see the facility's resident physician.
"Not in the mood, Stormy." The older witch let out a half-hearted growl. She felt positively drained and wasn't up for arguing.
"Oh, no." Icy waggled her pointer finger toward her middle sister. "You're not getting off that easy. What's going on with you?"
"None of your damn business, Icy!" Darcy hissed, feeling another headache coming on.
"The hell it isn't!" The frost-haired witch fired back. "If we're going to get out of here, everyone needs to be in top shape!"
"Then we're gonna be stuck here for the next seven and a half months." Darcy snipped back without thinking.
"WHAT?" Icy roared, causing both Darcy and Stormy to wince at the sheer volume of her voice. "What do you mean, seven months? What did you do, Darcy?"
"Are you sick?" Stormy asked with wide, scared eyes.
"Not exactly." Darcy winced.
"Then what exactly is it?" Icy hissed. "Spit it out, Darcy! What's going on with you?"
"I…I'm sorry." Darcy said, trying to hold back tears. Damn, why was she feeling so sad all of a sudden?
"For what?" Stormy asked softly, clearly confused by her sister's sudden change in mood. "What is it, Darcy. You can tell us!"
The golden-eyed witch closed her eyes in an attempt to keep the tears at bay. "I…I'm pregnant." She half-whispered, half-sobbed.
The other two Trix girls stood in shocked silence for thirty seconds. Neither of them knew what to say, but as usual, Icy recovered first. "Pregnant?" She repeated. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No." Darcy whimpered.
"Dammit, Darcy!" Icy exclaimed, pacing the length of the cell in long, sweeping strides. "It was that darn specialist, wasn't it? The one you spelled at the Day of the Rose race!" Darcy didn't respond, but then again, she didn't need to. Her silence spoke volumes. "Dragon, help us." Icy muttered, angrily flopping down on her cot.
"So…what do we do?" Stormy asked in a small, uncertain voice.
"For starters, we're not going to just sit around and wait on this brat to get here." Icy replied. "Whatever it's going to be will be powerful and we are the only ones qualified to have it."
"May I second that thought by saying I do not want to have this kid in prison?" Darcy asked.
"Of course you may." Icy sneered. "You also may call our darling cousin and see if she can come up with a plan to bust us out of here next fall."
The middle of the three sisters openly frowned. "You think we're helpless enough to need the help of her…gang?" she asked in an offended sort of tone. Their younger cousin had a coven of sorts, but no long-term goals. Just a group of girls who liked to pound fairies. Not that there was anything wrong with that…
"You've left us with few other options, Darcy." Icy hissed. "Now, tomorrow morning, you will call our dear relative and let her know that we'll be counting on her to be our spy and escape architect this coming fall."
"Why wait that long?" Stormy scrunched her face up in dislike.
"Because, we need them to think they've got us where they want us. That they can trust us." Icy explained. "Once they do that, they'll start letting things slide. And as soon as that happens, BAM! We're outta here!"
It was at that precise moment that Darcy rolled off the bed, stood up, and covered her mouth in one fluid motion. She raced for the cell toilet and noisily emptied her stomach contents into it.
"I hope your plan includes barf bags." Stormy glared at her oldest sister, who shrugged in response.
"I'm not going to get her a damn thing. It's her own fault she's this miserable!"
"How can you say that?" Stormy's eyes seemed to glow with rage. "She's our sister, Icy! The only family we have left!" Family was a touchy topic for the youngest member of the Trix. After losing her and Icy's mother at such a young age, she was a wreck. She attached herself to Darcy and her aunt like crazy glue. They were her family. Her only family. She would do anything for them!
"I never said I was leaving her behind, Storm." Icy pinched the bridge of her nose. "But I'm not going to cater to her every whim either. She made her own bed and now she's gonna lie in it."
"UHH HUGH!"
"But not until after she's done kneeling at the porcelain throne." Icy added. "Because I'm sure as hell not cleaning up after her if she pukes on it!"
1. Time to see how many of you know your 80s cartoon catchphrases. Hint: I kind of borrowed one of their characters to be the doctor at Light Haven.