En ma fin git mon commencement

Discovering the truth of her parentage was nothing. She'd never aspired to be anything great, didn't want the position of ambassadress that was on the short list of suggestions in that file they'd kept on her life. Henry questioning his goodness was worse. Franco breaking it off because he wasn't sure if he truly cared for her or if it was just genetic compulsions was worse. Nicol withdrawing almost completely from her life was worse.

That was enough for her to fall back off the wagon for a few months. But like most (not all. Some took a more permanent escape from their new reality) of the Rewriters, she was resilient. Got back on again alone. It helped when Henry started smiling again. Helped when Franco told her he wanted to try anew. Nicol was still distant, but while it hurt, she understood. Kept him posted on her life in the little ways she could, went to his mother's funeral when the time came.

Things got better, after that. After a year back together she and Franco decided that, genetic compulsions or no, they loved each other and that was that. The wedding was a happy thing. Franco's business-- started with the aid of the money the government had been quietly forking over to keep all of them quiet about the whole mess that was their lives-- began to boom. They decided to go back to France where they'd first fallen in love and start their new life afresh.

And it had been so wonderful. After a while they found out she was expecting, and that was a happy thing. Then they'd gone to get some testing done, to see if their origins would have any effect on their child.

And that's when they found signs of Franco's illness, and everything had been a downward spiral since. Writing to tell her big brother of the pregnancy and of Franco's sickness was forgotten,as they first tried to fight the disease, then prepared for the end and ensuring she was well cared for after it. He told her she should go back to her family. She agreed she would.

Which is why, six months pregnant and two weeks widowed, she'll be arriving on Nicol Macintyre's doorstep.

Other than the baby, he's more family than anything else she has in this world.