It starts as a little flame. A tongue of pain flickering up from her toes, and spreading out to every limb. Leaving no inch untouched. Soon that flames blossoms into an inferno. Burning muscles, and bones, setting each nerve ending on fire. Doubling over the sink in the bathroom hands desperately grasp onto the sides of it. Manicured nails dragging over the pale porcelain surface. "I feel like shit." Chika comments. Beads of sweat have broken out, doting her forehead in moisture. Upon her right shoulder she feels the light patting, ears flicking back at the sound of soft laughter. 

      "Well that's what you get for taking off the artifact." A man's voice comments lightly, his touch now squeezing her shoulder. "You wear it for a reason. Without it the dark energy spreads, and poisons you more." From his bag he pulls out a paper cup, and reaches past the Keeper to fill it half way with cold water. 

      "If I didn't do it my wife would have been in pain. More-so than what she was already feeling." Grasping onto the cup with a shaky hand she lifts the rim to her lips to devour the liquid inside. "I couldn't let Nessa feel what I did during labor." Tossing it aside she lays her head down upon the cool surface of the porcelain. 

      Carter grimaces as the trash is discarded onto the ground. "I admire your dedication to your lover, but does she know the extent of what happens when you take that thing off?" Kneeling down he picks up the cup.

      Shaking her head weakly she whispers in a low tone, her wife in the next room with their newborn son," I never fully told her. All she knows is that the choker suppresses the poison in my aether, and it keeps me alive." Knees grow weak, and the mocha Keeper eases herself down onto the tiled floor. "You're not going to tell her are you?" Red wine irises look up at the Midlander man standing at her side. To her surprise he shakes his head.

"No, I won't, but I feel that you should explain to her sometime in the future that removing the necklace makes you ill." Carter closes up the leather bag. Chika grasps onto his hand, giving it a small squeeze.

      "Thanks for helping us deliver the baby. His health checks out, right?" Worry stirs in her gaze, and he can see the fear on her tired features. It's apparent she is struggling so hard to stay awake in this moment.

      Giving a firm nod the doctor offers Chika a rather wide, and confident grin. "He's a trooper. Clean bill of health. I'm surprised. Child conceived in the way your wife, and you, went about it tend to have some birth defects. Poor Calist got the short straw there, didn't she?"

      Casting her gaze down at her feet Chika mutters," yea, she did. I just don't like the thought of my wife having someone else's child. Ya know?" Leaning back against the base of the sink she snorts. "Guess I'm just selfish."

      "I wouldn't really call it selfish. Jealousy, those sorts of feelings, are typical. 
We're all born to be like that. Though it's odd for a Miqo'te to want to be monogamous. Your kind embraces multiple partners. You're the first matriarch I have ever met to have one mate." Patting her head he adds," Chika, she told me you haven't slept much these past few weeks. Why don't you go be with your wife, and your newborn son? I made sure the choker is secure around your neck, so you don't need to worry. Plus you only had it off for a half hour at best. It wouldn't have spread that quick."

      His left hand reaches down to her, and Chika grabs hold. Easily Carter pulls the Miqo'te to her feet. "Thanks again, Doctor Perish." Leaving the room her feet shuffle against the floor, bringing her over to the canopy bed. There her wife lays, holding their newborn. Resting her head on a pillow those wine red seas watch as Isaick, and his Seeker mother, interact. He clings to her finger, softly sucking on the tip of it as Nessa giggles. ~I've been blessed.~ Is the thought that courses through her mind as she is lulled to sleep by her wife's giggles.