Henry's Compromise (Part 3)

Posted on Fri Oct 16th, 2026 @ 4:12am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

3,169 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Interim 3: Subspace Drift
Location: Henry's Quarters

Henry slowly pulled back and sat up, looking at her. “Pregnant? With a baby?”

Mary sat up and rolled her eyes. “No, Henry, with a velociraptor. Yes, with a baby!”

“How…how did this happen?” Henry said, looking stunned.

“I see the medical studies are going well,” Mary said, sniffing and wiping her nose, sitting back in the chair.

“I mean, when? With who? How did you not….take precautions?” Henry said.

“We thought we did!” Mary said, frustrated. “John thought he’d had his shot in time, but apparently he was wrong, and I didn’t think I was at the right time in my cycle, but apparently the stars aligned.” She rubbed her eyes in frustration.

“All right,” he said, slowly. “I assume you’ve gotten this confirmed with a doctor.”

“Three pregnancy tests, two missed periods, one doctor’s visit, and a partridge in a pear tree,” Mary sang.

“Pretty sure that song’s about a different birth,” Henry said, sitting back as well, next to her. “Well, I assume the doctor went over your options?”

“Yeah, she did,” Mary said. “None of which are really resonating with me.” She sighed. “And then, there’s dad.”

Henry winced. “I…imagine he’s not thrilled,” he said, diplomatically.

“Are you kidding? They heard him shouting in Dayton,” Mary said, rolling her eyes. “And you know how ancient he is. He wants John and I to get married, no discussion.”

“And you don’t want to marry him?”

“I don’t know!” she said, frustrated and exasperated. “We’ve been on, like, three dates! He’s a nice guy and we get along and everything, but I don’t know if I want to marry him!”

“Three dates and you--” Henry said, trying not to sound judgmental, but closed his mouth as Mary glared at him.

“You may live like a priest but that doesn’t mean the rest of us do,” she said, defensively.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “I was just…surprised.”

“Yeah well…news flash, your sister’s no saint,” Mary snarked.

“That’s not exactly a news flash,” Henry said, smiling a bit.

“Yeah, well, it was to Dad,” she sighed.

“Well, I mean, look at it from his perspective,” Henry said. “You’re first time out--”

“Henry, seriously?” Mary said, glaring at him.

“I meant as far as he knows,” Henry said, holding his hands up in surrender.

Mary sighed and put her head on Henry’s shoulder, hugging his arm as he put it around her comfortingly. “What do I do?” she said.

“What does John want?” Henry said after a moment.

“He wants to live his life,” Mary said, shrugging. “He wants to move to New Berlin. He got an apprenticeship under a master chef. He could have his own restaurant in a few years! I can’t ask him to give up everything he’s worked for and dreamt of just like that!”

“Yeah, I get that,” Henry said, quietly, thinking. “Still--”

“Let’s go,” Mary said, standing up quickly, leaving Henry falling back on the beanbag. .

“Go?” Henry said, pulling himself back up and getting to his feet. “Where?”

“Anywhere,” Mary said, opening his door a crack and looking for their dad. “I need some air, and I need to get away from here for a while.” She opened the door and silently stalked down the hallway to the stairs.

Henry moved after her, not quite as gracefully, but well enough. He wasn’t the one who snuck out at night, wasn’t accustomed to avoiding going back down silently. He did his best to follow her footsteps and reverse how he went up, hearing every creak and crack like a siren announcing their intent.

They’d gotten completely down the stairs and down the hall, nearing the front door when they heard it: their father clearing his throat.

They both turned and saw their father standing in the doorway to the living room, arms folded, a scowl on his face. “Now that you’re done hiding in your room,” he said, “we can discuss this situation.”

“Dad,” Mary said, her voice hard, “this isn’t a discussion. You gave your opinion, I respect that, but this is my life and my decision to make.”

“It’s not just your life,” her father said, sternly. “It’s also the life of your….friend,” he forced the word out, “and now a child. You need to consider that, and so does he. He should be willing to stay and do the right thing, as should you.”

“I won’t ask him to give up his entire life,” Mary said, heatedly. “All that will do is make him resent me.”

“I’d hope you’d choose someone to be with who had the intelligence to know he shouldn’t resent a situation he created,” her father said, his voice still hard, but level.

“Yeah, because being resentful of things you didn’t create works out so well,” she said, then immediately regretted it as her father’s scowl hardened like concrete.

“We are all going to sit down and discuss this like adults,” their father said. “And you need to do the correct thing here.” He looked at Henry. “Henry, please help her understand.”

Henry looked at his expectant expression, then at Mary’s similar expression. Both were expecting him to defend them, both expected him to stand against the other. “I think,” he said after a long pause, “your baby would benefit from having both parents involved.” It wasn’t an outright siding with his father, and it wasn’t a rejection of his sister, and it was something he truly felt.

His father, however, looked satisfied that he’d been agreed with, and Mary’s face glowed hot with betrayal as she looked at Henry. “Fine,” she said. “The majority has spoken.” She turned and left the house as Henry tried to tell her to wait.

His father put a hand on his shoulder and held him back. “Give her some time to cool down, and we’ll figure out the plan moving forward from there,” he said.

Hours passed and Mary didn’t return. Henry was trying not to feel nervous about that fact, and the only thing keeping him from panicking was the crushing guilt that he hadn’t just stood up to his father and taken her side. He tried bringing his concerns up to their father, but his father dismissed it, saying she was being stubborn and would be home when she was ready. Henry wasn’t sure about that. His sister wasn’t the type to just run away, but she was as prideful as their father, and Henry had no doubt she could conceive of moving to The Moon or something just to spite him. He wasn’t sure when he finally passed out, but it was well past three in the morning. He didn’t wake up until closer to ten, when he heard the front door slam shut and his father’s voice thundering, “where have you been?!?”

Henry rushed downstairs to see his sister, still wearing what she had on the other day, hair a bit messy, and smiling in a way that said she was supremely satisfied with herself, and was about to make their father blow his stack.

“I went to see John, to discuss what you said,” she said, her voice eerily calm. “And he agreed to marry me.”

Gerald Taylor’s look of surprise and approval was vastly different from Henry’s look of surprise and suspicion.

“Good,” Gerald said after a moment. “So when should we all sit down to discuss plans?”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” Mary said. “It’s already taken care of.”

“What do you mean?” their father said, his previous calm once again shifting to irritation.

“John and I went to the courthouse and got married,” she said. “Paperwork signed and done. Then we went back to his house and confirmed his apprenticeship and booked his passage to New Berlin. He’ll be leaving for The Moon on Monday.”

Gerald’s face went beet red. “This is not what we discussed.”

“We didn’t discuss anything,” Mary said, her veneer of good mood gone and her anger returning. “You dictated that I needed to marry him. Well, good news, Dad! You got what you wanted! Meet Mary Wilson, a married, soon-to-be mother whose husband happens to live about three hundred and eighty-four thousand kilometers away!” She stomped up the stairs, leaving both men staring after her as the sound of her bedroom door opening and slamming shut reverberated through the house.

Henry left his father standing there, the man’s jaw on the floor and walked upstairs slowly. He knocked softly on Mary’s door and when she didn’t respond, tried the knob, finding it unlocked. He walked inside and saw her sitting on her bed, looking out her window.

“Hey,” he said, quietly. She didn’t respond and he walked over and sat down on her bed, leaning on the wall next to the window, looking at her. “Did you really do it?”

She nodded. “Yup. You got your wish. I’m married.”

“Mary, that wasn’t what I meant,” he said. “I was just…” he struggled for words.

“Obeying our father and following the rules,” she said, her voice flat. “Yeah, I know.”

“I’m sorry,” Henry said.

“Don’t be,” she said, finally looking at him. “It’ll be fine. And you’re going to be an uncle, so you better learn to be a lot more fun and relaxed, because I don’t want you teaching my daughter how to be a stick in the mud.”

“I’m not a stick…daughter?” he said.

Mary smiled. “Yeah. Having a girl, the doctor says.”

Henry lurched over and hugged his sister tightly. She returned it and they held each other for a moment.

“I have to go back to the Academy tomorrow,” he said. “But maybe we can spend today together?”

“Sounds good,” she said. “But let me get a nap and a shower. I’ve been up all night.”

“Yeah, where did you go? The courthouse closes at five,” Henry said.

“We went out to dinner, then home for a quick honeymoon,” she said, a shy grin on her face. “Figure, can’t get pregnant twice, right?”

Henry nodded, choosing not to comment. “Get a nap. Knock on my door when you’re ready.”

She nodded and as he stood up, she laid down on her bed and closed her eyes. He watched her for a moment, then quietly left her room and returned to his own, trying to process the life-changing things that were about to happen to his family again, and wondering if they’d ever recover.

---

"I was a coward," he said, quietly. "I should have stood by her, supported her. Told my father his anger was ridiculous. She was fine, and he pushed her towards that, and it's my fault for not standing up to him."

"Maybe, maybe not." Tessa said in a matter-of-fact voice, "In the end, it wasn't your place to even have an opinion on it, but your father dragged you into the middle of the fight that you didn't want to be a part of. You tried to take the middle ground and he was the first to spin it in his direction and declared the argument over. Not even a senior priest of Thryn would have changed his mind, so it was up to your sister to stick to her battle plan."

She continued to rub his chest idly, "That's one thing you won't have to worry about with me and him. I don't care what he thinks, he won't get to me and I won't let him get to you. If he isn't happy to see you, then we ignore him and go talk to your sister and her daughter, because he wouldn't be worth your time."

Henry looked at her and wondered if she could feel his chest swelling with love for her, his heart pounding against her palm and his struggle to resist the urge to beg her to marry him then and there. She'd made her position on that clear, and he wasn't going to keep pushing, especially during them having a moment. He looked at her with his usual lovesick smile and took her hand, bringing it up and kissing it before putting it back on his chest. "You know," he said, "sometimes I get scared that you're just the most wonderful dream, and I pray I don't wake up."

She gave him a warm smile in reply and without missing a beat, took one nipple between her fingers and twisted it while she pinched it hard for a moment before resuming her rubbing.

Henry let out a cry and grabbed his right pec, "Tessa--"

The bright smile she gave him as she leaned over to shut him up with a kiss showed she knew exactly what she was doing, "Good news, you're not dreaming."

"Thank you so much," he said, trying not to sound as amused as he admittedly was. "You could've kissed me to prove it, you know."

"Sure, I also could have stabbed you with something, but I didn't do that, either." Tessa giggled, "So I chose something inbetween."

"Yeah well sometimes it's worth it to compromise," he said. He paused and stared at her, the wheels turning in his head. "Don't move," he said. He threw his legs up, swinging them over her and quickly rolling out of his bed. His quarters were largely empty, most of his things had been moved to Tessa's quarters and/or packed in anticipation of their trip. So he moved to the replicator and replicated a fresh padd. He quickly accessed the computer's inventory and cycled through several options before settling on something. He finally settled on a pair he liked and transferred the request to the replicator.

Tessa shook her head slightly as he got up, then just watched him with his quick movements. He mystified her still, even after these couple of months, going from near motionless to running around headless in the span of moments.

A moment later, he picked up his items and turned back to her, his hands behind his back. "Human tradition number eight: Engagement. A compromise for our status as a couple. Humans use an announcement of engagement to communicate their exclusivity to others. It's something my father would understand, and I think it would stave off any criticism." He gave her a small smile. "And since we've both privately agreed we are bonded together, just us and no others, I'd say we've done everything but make it official."

The look she gave him was suspicious, wondering for a few seconds if he was just trying to misdirect her into his silly tradition of 'marriage'. But the explanation made some sense as she rolled the words over, plus it would keep his father from going after him. "We are official, Henry, everyone on board Chimera knows we're together by now."

He got down on one knee in front of her and opened his right hand, revealing a silver band with two rings of small diamonds and a ring of sapphire chips between them. "Tessa'e'Sera di'Orion, Baroness of Heart's Forge, Daughter of the Light of the Eastern Watch, I love you and no other. Will you accept this symbol of our bond and wear it with me?" He was somewhat improvising, and this wasn't the speech he'd practiced in his head night after night, but it felt right, a balance of both their wants and needs.

It was shiny and sparkly and her eyes were immediately drawn to the ring and a smile crossed her face, "If it means that no one is going to try to take me away from you as we travel to Earth, it probably would be a good idea." She glanced and saw only the one ring in his hand as she extended her right hand towards him, "But why only the one? Where's yours? What if some woman tries to take you from me?"

"None could," he said. "However..." he opened his left hand, showing a simpler silver band with a blue sapphire band through its center. "I would absolutely wear one too." He held up her ring. "Tradition has it on the left hand. If I may?"

As he brought the other ring out, her head cocked slightly to the side to look at it and she gave him her other hand as requested, "But it's... So plain? Why do I get the one that's more complicated and sparkly?"

He gave her a look and then flashed a cheeky grin. "Sweetheart, between the two of us, which one is more complicated and sparkly?" He slid the ring onto her left ring finger and held her hand gently. He placed the other band in her palm. "Which is why it pairs so well with its plain, understated, but solidly dependable partner.

She gave him his cheeky grin back with interest, holding the far simpler ring up for her inspection, then compared the two rings next to each other and gave a grudging nod, "They do go well with each other." She reached out and roughly grabbed his left hand, sliding the ring on with much less ceremony than he had hers, "Think I've got enough time to go show this to Kally?" She gestured to the gem encrusted one she wore.

"If I had to guess, I'd say she's already snuggled up with Cally," Henry said. He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him on his bed, squeezing her rear and kissing her. "And I'm not sure I'm able to let you out of my arms right now."

Her hands planted themselves on either side of his head and she loomed over him, "You know, you're making a good argument of why not to bother her." Tessa leaned down and gave him a very long, very passionate kiss, sliding down a bit further on him.

He squeezed her rear again before he slipped out of range, then rested his hands on her back. "Well we're set to disembark at 0800, so we only have so much time to celebrate all our good news after all," he said, smiling at her and leaning up to kiss her again.

"Then we'll have to get up early and go see everyone before we leave now, won't we?" Tessa's eyes were bright, but she pushed his shoulders back down to the bed, pinning him where he was, "Or...Since I've got you right where I want you, they can find out when we get back."

"If you insist," Henry said, pulling her down to him and kissing her.

After all, they could sleep on the transport.

 

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