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Sir Danvers slowly walked up the front steps to his home...his mind obviously on the morning's activities or else he wouldn't have completely disregarded Emma's presence on the upper step.
"Father? Where have you been?" Her sweet, innocent voice rescued him from his consuming thoughts.
"Oh, my darling. I didn't even see you standing there. Goodness, I'm getting to be an old, senile man, aren't I?"
"No, no. It's clear that your thoughts are somewhere else. Exactly where somewhere else is is my next question." He opened the door and ushered his very pregnant daughter inside.
"You, little miss, should be lying down. It looks like that baby will be here at any moment."
"I wish, father, I wish." she giggled resting her hand on her large stomach, "But we still have a few more weeks." They entered the sitting room and he helped her into a chair. The entire ride home, he was thinking of his daughter and Henry. He wasn't sure if he should tell her right away what had happened, "What if she hears about this in passing conversation? It would certainly be a lot easier for her to take should she hear it from me and not some odd ball socialite...God grant me strength..." He sat down in the chair next to her and faced her, gently taking both her hands in his...
"Sweetheart..." she sensed something was wrong by the manner in which he spoke...
"Has something happened?"
"Well, yes, darling. This is very hard for me, so I beg of you...you must have patience." Her fairly relaxed expression vanished, leaving her confused and worried...
"Is it Henry?"
"Yes, love. It is." he paused for a moment before continuing, "You don't need me to explain his dedication to his work, you know very well how he is. You also know that lately, he's been ten times worse than he's ever been before. He's been locked up in his laboratory doing God only knows what day and night...for weeks on end, we've not seen nor heard anything from him."
"I know, ever since I left his home, he's been so distant. I didn't know what to make of it...have you seen him?"
"Emma...yes, I've seen him. This morning actually."
"And?"
"He's in trouble--"
"What do you mean??" she leaned forward in her chair, tightening her grip on her father's strong hands...
"Apparently, he's been using himself for experimentation purposes......despite all my efforts, the board rejected his idea and refused to give proper funding...and he grew desperate. Had any of us known he resort to such things, we would've done all that we could have to stop him--"
"Only John and yourself would've helped him out, father you know that!! Those other creatures don't give a damn about Henry."
"Emma, please, let me finish."
"I'm sorry..."
"He has been injecting himself with the drug for quite some time. Due to unexpected, disturbing side effects, sheer exhaustion from sleep deprivation and...addiction...he's been suffering from severe changes in his personality...he's been hallucenating...and he..."
"What do you mean personality changes??"
"He...he seems to have this idea in his head that he becomes another man. He claims that this alter-ego of his...has somewhat of an evil nature," the color drained from her face, "and is responsible for a number of horrible events which have taken place over the passing months."
"Father..."
"Emma, do you know what I'm trying to tell you? Emma, sweetheart...this other man has a name..."
"No...this is insane."
"I know it sounds far fetched darling, but it's true. He's been so wrapped up in his work that he completely lost his mind...and he hurt so many people...including the one person in this world who I know he would never, in his right mind, even dream of harming. But this drug made him crazy, my darling child."
"You mean to tell me that...that it was him? That night...that horrible, horrible night...it was my Henry who did this to me? It's impossible!! There isn't an ounce of evil in his body...he's making this up to cover for someone...that man who tried to kill me! That lunatic was not Henry...he said he was his assistant...there's no way...he's not crazy, father...tell me that this is a lie...please!!" Never had he seen his daughter brought to such hysterics. His had to fight back tears of his own with each heartbreaking sob that escaped her lips...
"I'm so sorry, Emma...but it's true..every word of it..."
"Why are you doing this...look at me...I'm just about ready to have this baby and you choose to do this now? Why couldn't you have waited..."
"Be reasonable, sweetheart!! What would I have told you when you gave birth and Henry was not there to hold your hand? What would I have told you when you looked at the child's face and saw the face of your beloved staring back at you?"
"Why would he not be there to hold my hand?"
"Emma, he's in the hospital. Last night, John went to his home and he found Henry in his other form. He was a madman, he went after him and nearly killed him. He left John lying unconscious on the floor of the laboratory and then ran into the streets screaming. Officer Brainard found him after his...attack...and brought him to St. Jude's. That's where he's been and that's where he will be until he is cured of this problem. Listen to me, darling...I told you because you need to know the truth. I feared that if I kept it hidden from you, you'd hear it from the wrong person. Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Morran are two of the largest gossips in all of England and I doubt very strongly that their husbands will tell them to keep this occurance quiet, being the imbeciles that they are. I didn't want you to hear this from anyone else but me. I love you more than my life, Emma, you know that--"
"And you're only trying to protect me...yes, I know..." she whispered through her tears. He gently took her face in his hands and brushed away a golden curl which had fallen...
"Yes, I am. But I realize that there are certain things that I cannot prevent....and believe me, if I could have stopped this, I would've. He is still a good man...he loves you with all his heart...and I know you love him more than anything in this world. He has hurt you, Emma...I know that....and I'm not quite sure if I can forgive him for it, but I know I will try my hardest...and so must you."
"How could he let this happen? He always told me he had control...he promised me that he would never let his work take him away."
"I don't think he wanted this to happen, sweetheart. But it did and he needs help. He's safe where he is right now...he can no longer do any harm to himself or anyone else, for that matter. The doctors there will be watching him very closely...I'm postive that once he no longer has access to this HJ7 formula or whatever it is, things will change."
"He developed that drug to save his father and now look where it led him. His father still lies in that bed motionless...and now without a chance in this world of being saved because his son took it too far."
"The last I saw him he was by his father's side. They had injected him with the formula to see if Henry had, in fact, created a cure and not just some hallucenatory drug for his own use."
"Did it work??" At that very moment, he saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes...
"No, sweetheart...I'm so sorry...we waited for fifteen minutes...and nothing happened. I left after that..."
"You should've waited!! Maybe the drug took after you left, you don't know!!"
"Emma...it's over now. There's nothing left to do except to pray and be there for him. He needs you now more than ever--" she cut him off abruptly and quitely said...
"I know he needs me...I've done nothing but be there for him for these past three years. But..."
"What, sweetheart?"
"What about me? The last few months have been nothing but pure heartache for me and I needed him more than anything else. Yet he was never there. I tried so hard...I forced myself to believe that what he was doing was more important...but you know what? I don't feel that way anymore..." Sir Danvers was speechless. He tried to think of something to say, but words escaped him. "Daddy, all this time, he knew that I was sick, he knew that I needed him to tell me everything would be alright...and he said that he would always be there. But once again, he put his work before me. I feel so selfish feeling this way..."
"I know you do..."
"But I can't help it. And now that I know that it was Henry who did this to me...that all my pain was caused by his own two hands...I can't bring myself to look at him. What will I tell our baby?"
"You won't have to tell your baby anything, Emma...things will change and the Henry you once knew will return. Then--"
"I'm not so sure that I'll be willing to continue once he's well again. How do I know that I can trust him after all this?"
"Do you love him?"
"Yes, I do...but father, you cannot understand what I'm feeling. My love for Henry has suddenly been overcome by a tremendous fear and ... almost ... disgust."
"Emma, you're very confused right now...and hurt. Rightfully so...but don't abandon him just yet."
"I need to be alone. I need time to sort my thoughts and make a decision."
"Are you sure you should be alone right now?" "Whatever you wish, my love. If you need me, you know where I'll be." He kissed her forehead and looked lovingly into her beautiful blue eyes, "You are an angel, sweetheart. I trust you'll make the right choice."
"Thank you for telling me..." she whispered as he walked towards the door, "I love you."
"I love you, too, Emma." As her father spoke those final words, Emma cried. Despite her efforts to fight it, the main thought which ran through her mind was that of Henry raping her...those two words together in a sentence, Henry and rape, just didn't seem to go...but it happened. In those last few minutes she spent with her father, her every dream was destroyed..and she was almost certain that they, in no way, could ever be restored.
As she sat there alone, she suddenly felt quite uneasy. She had a severe pain in her stomach and a disgusting case of nausea set in. She gripped the arm of the chair, her nailbeds turning white as she held on with all her strength, "Is this the baby? Why does it hurt so?" She suddenly felt a gush of warm fluid from beneath her. She quickly felt for whatever it was, fearing that it was blood...it was a cloudy substance, tinted pink from her blood. She screamed for her father, her voice ringing through the house. Sir Danvers bolted from his study and ran into the room with two maids, Veronica and Margaret following closely behind.
"Darling, what? What is it?" She sat there besides herself in pain...trying to speak to him, but each time she went to tell him what had happened, she felt a surge of a firey agony pulsate through her entire body...Veronica spoke up...
"Sir, I think she's in labor."
"Already? But with five weeks to go? Isn't this too early?" he said in a panic...
"Yes, it's early, but...there's nothing else to do. We have to help her deliver this child--"
"Shouldn't we get her to the hospital?"
"It would take over fifteen minutes to get there and judging by the looks of her, she's ready to have this baby now." Emma held onto her stomach and cried out in pain every few minutes...
"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Veronica?" he asked her as she pushed the foot rest closer to the chair and raised Emma's legs onto it...
"Sir, Dr. Jekyll instructed me on how to help Emma should this happen and he was not here to do it himself." Danvers grew silent and stood still, "When the hell did he have time to show her how to deliver a child? Could he have known that this was going to happen?"
"Very well then." Veronica ordered Margaret to boil water, fetch her clean linens and the small black bag under her bed.
"What's in the bag, Veronica?"
"A pair of surgical scissors and some form of sedative. I forget what it's called, but it's for Miss Emma once the baby's here." "She will certainly need the sedative once she sees her child's face..." "Emma, Dr. Jekyll says that with each passing pain, you have to push. That's the only way this child will be able to show it's face to the world, do you understand, miss?" Emma sobbed and nodded as Veronica tore away her dress and asked Sir Danvers to kneel beside her and hold her hand, "Sir Danvers, take her hand...she'll need someone to hold on to." She was shaking...
"Oh, it it hurts so much...why does it hurt like this..."
"You're giving birth to another human being...of course it's going to hurt my love...just be strong. It'll be over soon..."
"It's burning..."
"The doctor never said anything about burning, sir."
"Just take care of this. Never mind what the doctor said."
"Yes, sir." Suddenly, Veronica's face turned white as a ghost...Emma was able to see the sudden change through her watery eyes...
"What...is it...Veronica????"
"There's just so much blood...I've never seen this much blood before." Margaret ran into the room frantically waving the towels and the black bag. She went to Veronica quickly and dropped everything to the floor with one sight of the tremendous amounts of blood. A contraction...Emma let out an ear piercing scream and nearly fainted dead away from the intensity of the pain. She felt as though she were losing her mind...somewhere in the midst of all the commotion, she swore she could almost hear a voice whispering to her...what was it saying?
Emma, darling...push...hahahahahaha...that's it...show Henry that you don't need him...show him..."
"NO!!!!!!" and she pushed with all her might...forcing the creature from her body...she wrenched and twisted as the pain surged through her like an electric current, "Henry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sir Danvers nearly wept as he watched his only daughter suffer through so much pain. It all happened so fast...she went into labor...and within minutes, there was a small child lying in Veronica's arms wailing almost as loud as his mother...his mother...it was a small baby boy. Veronica worked quickly...Sir Danvers not taking his eyes away from his grandson. She wrapped the small child up in a towel, wiped the fluid from his eyes and smiled...
"Miss, you have yourself a son...with quite a pair of vocal chords, might I add."
"Let me see him..." She said, barely audible. Veronica lifted the small child and placed him in his mother's arms. She was so weak...yet at the moment her son touched her face with his small hand, she felt as though she had all the strength in the world. As she looked at him...she whispered, "He looks just like Henry." Veronica and Margaret stood quietly looking at each other rather confused. If she had been raped then how could he look like Henry? But he did. He had his mouth...his dark hair...but the eyes...their son's eyes were so incredibly dark. They obviously showed some trace of his father's other being.
"Oh Emma..." Sir Danvers whispered.
"Miss, are you feeling alright?" Margaret said at the first sight of Emma's obviously troubled expression...
"I'm...I'll live..."
"Are you sure darling? You don't look well at all..."
"I feel a little dizzy...but.."
"She'll be alright, sir. This is normal. She's just been through a rather rough experience."
"Yes...I have..." she moaned, at the feeling of another sharp pain...
"Let me take the child, miss. I'll put him in the basinet at your bedside. That way you can have him near you during the night."
"What will you name him, Miss Emma?" mumbled Margaret...
"His name is...his name..." she looked at her father, then back at her
son. In his face she saw Henry...he was all his father...the good and the
bad...a slight feeling of resentment took her over and she muttered, "His
name is...Edward. Edward Henry Jekyll."