Sweet Dreams (Diana)

[Christian Ward]

It was clear that not only had Diana never met the young woman Burke had hired for his ploy, she hadn't even known about the role at all. Christian's memory loss continued to cause further problems. He made a noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh.

"I can't vouch for the man's motives, I don't know him well enough. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that he was the one who hired her. He told me as much before I wiped his memory."

"I was supposed to believe that Eve hired me to take out the board members of her father's company after they tried to kill her and the final man wiped my memory before I could get to him. That's why I've been working with Burke. What did you think was happening?"

[Diana Ward]

"But he wouldn't do that!" she argued passionately, slamming her hand on the table.

Derek wouldn't betray her in that way. She just assumed he hired Christian for a 'private client' and that the 'private client' was her. She had no idea that Derek involved another person. An innocent person. He knew Diana's very personal reason for not getting others involved.

She didn't kill indiscriminately. She killed the men who were after her, they were slime, each one of them had been involved in other illicit activities beyond ordering her death. She felt no guilt over their deaths. The assassins, hired hands, bodyguards etc, they knew the score. They signed up for the job they performed and it was still her life or theirs. Sometimes (rarely), others got caught in the web, such as Ling's girlfriend, but it was rare and Diana could move past it.

But she was highly selective about the people she involved in her mess. She made sure they knew what they were getting into, and she often fought any outside help unless it was absolutely necessary. Now more blood was on her hands. Innocent blood. And she had no hand in it's being spilled. She had no control. Too much control had been taken from her.

[Christian Ward]

"Well he f*cking did, and they went after her instead of you. And you're safe now, so what the f*ck is the problem, Diana?" Christian did feel bad that Eve had been murdered. He really did. But if it was between Eve and Diana, he was happier with the way things had turned out.

[Diana Ward]

"That is the problem Christian! They went after her instead of me. I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs and some poor girl is dead in my place. You control what I do here. Derek is controlling the mission. And I can't do sh*t, but slowly go insane putting dead men's pictures on my walls and dream of spirit rituals and gruesome torturous deaths, yours, mine, our children's!"

She was going insane being locked up, cooped up, out of control, having all of her decisions being made for her.

[Christian Ward]

Christian groaned as the neurotic Diana had returned. "You're not going out there and getting me killed in the process, Diana. If you think..."

Her words hit him fully and stopped him in his tracks. "Wait. What? What spirit rituals?"

[Diana Ward]

"As opposed to you going out there and getting me killed." she shot back.

"Nothing it's stupid." she said back peddling. She groaned as her emotions were threatening to overwhelm her.

'I hate being pregnant!' she screamed silently. If things had been different she might have vocalized the statement and allowed Christian to make her feel better, but things weren't different.

[Christian Ward]

"For f*ck's sake, Diana, I'm trying to be civil here. The least you could do is answer the bloody question." His tone conveyed his annoyance but also his exasperation. He was not happy with their situation either, but he was finally trying. She made it so bloody hard, but he was trying anyway.

[Diana Ward]

She scoffed, "Why?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest. She looked at the plate of food he had made her, as the wheels in her mind began to turn. Yes she was paranoid, yes she was insecure, she was also probably psychotic. She couldn't imagine surviving without being a little of all of those things, but her gut usually led her in the right direction, except when it came to Christian. Perhaps that was why she was even more paranoid with him.

"You've made your feelings where I'm concerned more than abundantly clear, so don't fake concern on my account. I understand you're relieved that I didn't inadvertently kill you, but cooking me breakfast, asking about my dreams, it's a bit much really."

She narrowed her eyes on him, "Let's not oversell it." she intoned with more than a little bitterness.

[Christian Ward]

"Because you're carrying my f*cking kid, that's why!" Christian pushed his chair back, the legs scratching the floor with a hideous shriek as he rose angrily from the table. He picked up his plate. "If you don't want to f*cking talk, then I won't bloody try!"

He turned and headed for the doorway, dropping his plate into the sink on his way out of the kitchen. "Crazy ass b*tch," he muttered to himself as he headed for the sitting room.

[Diana Ward]

She followed him, "Oh!" she tugged back on his arm so he was facing her, "So now I'm carrying your f*cking kid?!" she asked, the pot having simmered long enough.

"I've been carrying him this whole f*cking time, but now revelations of revelations it's finally penetrated that thick skull of yours! Will wonders ever cease."

She crossed her arms again and scoffed, " Oh, but that's right, you ordered me to tell the truth."

She sneered at him, she wanted to hurt him for hurting her, "Well how do you know that I didn't lie hmm? I mean obviously you're capable of breaking your vows after you rubbed your various affairs in my face. So what makes you think I haven't been playing you this whole time? Just waiting for the right moment."

Her eyes narrowed at him, challenging him. He had hurt her deeply the other night, breakfast and his version of 'trying' wasn't going to cut it.

[Christian Ward]

Christian turned as she pulled at him, and he glared at her. "Because I ordered you to tell me the truth," he snapped at her before she mocked him, folding her arms across her chest as if she had some upper hand.

"Get on your knees," he compelled her and when she kneeling in front of him he snarled, "that's how I f*cking know." She was too stubborn and proud to kneel before him, and he hadn't been able to break the curse that was his fidelity vow.

[Diana Ward]

Diana was stubborn. She was broken, stubborn, angry, passionate, and fierce. Christian had contributed to her shattered self esteem and shattered self. He had also put a dent in her passion and ferocity with his cruelty, but it was back again. So was her pride, until Christian once again proved who was master by forcing her to her knees. She fought til her gut ached and there were prideful angry tears choking her; it wasn't fair.

Life was rarely fair, but hers had held far too much pain and heartache. Her happiness was always swallowed by an infinitely larger pain. Would she ever learn?

"F*ck you!" she cursed him from her position nearly shaking with rage.

"I don't want your magnanimous 'trying', just because I happen to house your son inside my body. You want to try because I've graduated from symbiotic parasite to incubator? Spare me." she snarled.

Though she meant her words if not her tone. Christian didn't feel anything for her. She was just an annoying liability he wanted to kill, and now he saw her in relation to his offspring, but he didn't see her. Diana would die a thousand times for every kind gesture Christian paid her questioning whether it was for her or for their son. Hope would spread in her chest like cancer and kill her with agonizing disappointment. He needed to spare her, because she wouldn't spare herself. She would crave every sweet word and action like the addict she was, and she wouldn't survive.

[Christian Ward]

His lips twitched upward as she showed her ferocity from the floor. Her hatred for him was almost poetic and he couldn't help but thinking that she was more attractive in this position when she cursed at him.

He grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to her feet. "You don't get a say in whether or not I try to make some sort of peace with you. That's my son," his eyes darted to her stomach before back up to meet hers. "You don't get to keep him all to yourself. He's not your alone."

[Diana Ward]

Diana had a sudden realization as Christian grabbed her and claimed his son. She had been so blind with love, and desperate for help she never questioned where Christian's love had come from. She merely reveled in the feeling. But now...

It was the second time around Christian accepted a contract on her life. It was clear that her life alone held very little value to him despite whatever intimacies they shared, but when he found out - and accepted - that he had fathered children with her then his actions changed.

Doubt was a terrifying and sickening thing, particularly when it revolved around matters of the heart. Did Christian really ever love her? Or did he simply want Alyx? Would Christian pretend to love her again to have Liam?

"Fine." she said staring at him, "Peace. For our Children's sake. But that's it. I don't need your concern, or your cooking skills. I think it's best if we just avoid each other as best we can."

[Christian Ward]

"You need my cooking skills a little," he said smugly, thinking on her disastrous attempt to cook the other day that ended in flames.

He didn't know her thoughts, and even if he used his skills to see into her mind, he couldn't have known whether or not her thoughts were valid. Whether he had truly loved her for her, or simply as an accomplice for his children's sake. Either way, he did not love her now. He had lustful feelings toward her and protective urges toward the child she carried. But he didn't love either of them. And her anger and paranoia would not aide the matter.

[Diana Ward]

"No. I don't." she said with a small shake of her head. She wasn't being stubborn surprisingly, she was simply not accepting his joke. She wanted nothing from him. She didn't want to be confused by him anymore.

"May I leave now? I'm still a little tired. I'd like to go lay down."

[Christian Ward]

"I didn't command you to stay," he replied with a sneer. He waved her off and turned toward his office. He had a few things he wanted to research anyway, and Diana would only hinder his progress.

[Diana Ward]

She didn't respond. As always her interactions with him exhausted her and she wanted to run away afterward. Silently she made her way up the stairs and back to the room she occupied. Before sleeping however she took his advice and moved the 'crazy wall' to the storage room.

He had given her a lot to think about. Despite the pain the idea that Christian only loved her for their children's sake gave her, Diana realized he was right. They needed to have peace. She didn't know what the future held for them, how they would all manage together, but he was the father to her children and she had to try.

With that final thought she fell asleep and didn't wake for quite some time.

She slept an abnormally long time, even for a pregnant woman. She didn't wake again until just after midnight, and this time she sent an ear-piercing, blood-curdling scream through the air.

[Christian Ward]

He didn't think anything of her lengthy slumber. He hadn't even realized she was asleep the whole time. Christian assumed Diana had done as she suggested and avoided him for the day. He didn't attempt to make any extra food as he prepared his lunch or his dinner. He ate alone, as he was accustomed to doing, and sometime after eleven he turned in for the night.

Christian had just fallen into a deep sleep when he was startled awake by Diana's shrill screams. There was a tightness in his chest and he gasped for air as he shot up in bed. Grabbing his wand, he ran across the hall to the spare room where she stayed and burst through the door.

[Diana Ward]

Diana screamed again, paying no attention to Christian. She couldn't see him. Her eyes were open but her iris and pupil were covered with a white film. She was blind. She could see nothing but the terror of her dream.

She felt pain ripple through her body causing her to writhe on the bed, clearly caught in the grip of some deep struggle, then she stopped suddenly. She sat up on the bed taking in her surroundings, but when she saw Christian she was startled and fell back to the bed closing her eyes.

She woke then instantly terrified. Her eyes shot open as she looked around the room hoping to see the familiar pieces around her.