"No! Wait! Don't go!" The woman stumbled forwards, her eyes brimming with tears, hands clenched in front of her in an almost begging motion. "Didn't you hear what I said? I'm pregnant, damnit! Pregnant!"

The man she was pleading with paused in the doorway, his icy eyes glinting coldly. "Yes, yes... I heard you Maya. I'm not deaf, and I'm far from stupid. Now, what makes you think that I even care?"

"But... but..." she stuttered helplessly, trembling under his cutting glance. "This is _your_ child. Why wouldn't you care?"

He sniffed disdainfully at her. "Prove it."

"G... Gero...."

"Good bye Maya."

"I thought you loved me!" The sound of a door slamming answered her and she immediately crumpled to her knees, burying her face in her hands. What on earth had she gotten herself into? She had been dazzled by the handsome young scientist, completely blinded by his charming demeanor, oblivious to any flaws that he had, and now....

"Oh Maya, you're in trouble..." she whispered to herself, shaking her head slightly. "So much trouble...." ___________________________________________________________________________

A FATHER'S LOVE A Tale of the Twins' Past

By: R_Charlie

Maya paused in the doorway to her son's room, a vague smile touching her lips as she watched the peacefully sleeping boy. He and his sister were growing so fast, it was hard to believe that it was coming up on their fifth birthday. At first the thought of having twins had terrified her. She hadn't known how she was going to care for one child, let alone two. But now, she wouldn't have it any other way. Severin and Ada were her entire world, she couldn't live without them anymore and she didn't know how she had survived without them before. And to hell with Gero, she didn't need him. She hadn't seen him since that fateful night that he had walked out on her and a piece of her was glad. Yet another traitorous part of her wished that he'd come back....

The sound of a small cry jerked her out of her thoughts and almost instantly she was striding into the room, sitting down on the edge of her son's bed as she saw that he was awake and trembling. "Oh, Sev... honey.... What's wrong?" she cooed soothingly, running a comforting hand through his soft black hair. "Did you have a bad dream?" He gazed up at his mother, pale blue eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears of terror as he nodded soundlessly. "Do you want to tell me about it? Sometimes that makes things less scary."

He rested his head against her shoulder, curling his body into as small of a ball as possible. When he was sure that he was relatively secure in his mother's arms he finally spoke, his voice hesitant.

"Someone was after me. They're going to get me. And Ada too...."

"Now Severin, that was just a dream. No one's going to get you." She rocked the boy gently as she spoke, still running her hand through his chin-length hair. A style that was identical to his sister's. Certainly what few friends she had left had mocked her for it, but she still thought the matching hairdos were cute. "You and Ada are perfectly safe," she continued. "I'd never let anyone hurt you or your sister."

"You promise?"

"Of course! That's a silly question. Now why don't you try to get back to sleep, hmm?"

He lay back down and latched onto the small stuffed bear that was in bed beside him with a vengeance, his eyes still glued to his mother like he

was afraid she was going to vanish and leave him unprotected against all the unseen horrors of the night. "You'll stay here for a while, won't you Mom?"

"Sure hon, if that's what you want."

"Can we bring Ada in here too, just to make sure that she's safe?"

She smiled down at him reassuringly and pushed a few stray locks of hair off his forehead. "Now Sev, she's asleep. You don't want to disturb her, do you?"

"Mommy?"

Maya turned her head towards the door and smiled warmly at the frightened looking little girl that was standing there, clutching a ragged looking bear that was a perfect match to the one her brother held. Her blue eyes, which were also a match to her brother's, were wide with fear as well, and Maya immediately opened her arms to the girl.

"Oh, Ada.... Did you have a nightmare too?"

An ash blond head bobbed up and down in affirmative as she hesitantly padded forward, shaking slightly as she crawled into her mother's arms. "Can I sleep in here?" she whispered, burying her face against Maya's shoulder.

"Sure honey." The little girl loosened her grip at those words and crawled under the covers beside her twin. Maya watched the pair in silence

as they snuggled down, used to this sight. They always seemed to have nightmares on the same night, at the same time. In fact, it could quite possibly be the same nightmare that they were sharing. She had heard things about twins... but she had never asked if they dreamed the same thing. They were still too young to be prodding with questions like that. "Good night Severin," she whispered, planting a gentle kiss on the boy's forehead. "Good night Ada."

"'Night Mom..." they answered sleepily in perfect unison and Maya found herself smiling as she stood and went back to stand her vigil by the door until she was sure that they were fast asleep. Her twin angels.... Gero didn't _know_ how great of a gift he had given to her with them... and

she was smugly glad that he was missing out....

********************

"Come on Sev, hurry up! We're gonna be late!"

Severin ignored his sister's panicked shouts to hurry, simply enjoying the walk as only a young boy can. Allowing his senses to be overwhelmed by the glory of outdoors and taking everything in with the unbridled curiosity of youth.

"_SEVERIN!!!!_"

"I'm coming, I'm coming...." He shrugged his shoulders slightly, adjusting the way his backpack rested across them and quickened his pace to catch up with his frantic twin. "What's your big hurry Ada? We're not going to be late."

"Yes we are!" she said, her voice a high-pitched, worried, squeak. "We're going to be late and we're going to get in trouble and nobody's going to like us, all on our first day! Oh Sev, I'm so scared!" Her eyes began to brim with tears and he rushed to catch up with her, reassuringly grabbing her hand.

"It's gonna be okay Ada," he murmured, clutching her hand tightly. "They'll like us, you'll see."

"But we're different, just like the neighbor kids say. We're weird cause we don't have a dad...."

"Maybe... but we have Mom, and that's a lot better! Come on Ada, now _you're_ the one who's gonna make us late."

"I am!? Oh no!" She shook off his grip and started to run, her

small legs pumping as she dashed in the direction of the school. The clip that had been carefully put in her hair bouncing free as she went.

"Ada.... Ada, wait! Aww... sisters!" Severin picked the clip up from where it had landed and hurried after her, wishing that she would stop worrying about being liked so much. Finally he caught up to her as she stood meekly just outside the gates to the school grounds. "Here..." he grumbled, holding out her hair clip. "You lost your dumb old hair thing...."

"I did!?" One of her hands flew to where it had been and she gasped as she realized that he was right. "Oh... Sev. Quick, put it back for me...."

"What!?"

"Please...." She smiled at him sweetly and he rolled his eyes.

"Hmph... sisters!" he grumped under his breath as he refastened the clip. "Why're you making such a big fuss over this anyways?"

"I just want them to like me... that's all...."

"What do we need _them_ to like us for? We've got each other."

"I don't know. I just think it would be nice...."

He shrugged halfheartedly as he finished smoothing her hair down and crossed his arms over his chest. His head hanging sullenly to hide his face behind a curtain of jet colored hair. It was a common stance for him whenever he was feeling argumentative and irritable. "Yea well... no one's gonna like us if we just hang around out here like a pair of weirdoes. Are we going in there or what?"

Ada took a few deep breaths, trying to get herself nerved up for what she was going to do. She couldn't see how her brother could be able to dismiss other people so easily. Sure, she loved her brother dearly, but she wanted to be liked by others too. A part of her craved the acceptance. "Okay Sev," she finally said with a small nod. "Let's go."

Severin gently took his sibling's hand, and together the pair of them walked boldly onto the school grounds.

******* I hope you like it so far plese R&R. *******

My Message to the World