In Name Only

Chapter Four: The Beginning & the End

"How did he even know?" she groaned miserably.

"I sent word to him," her mother-in-law confessed. Irulan whipped her head around, eyes wide. "I'm sorry, dear. He's my son."

"I can't see him," she pleaded, her chest heaving. "Get him out of here. Please."

Lady Jessica opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment, Paul shouted, "I don't care what she told you! Let me through!" and burst through the door moments later.

His eyes widened when he saw her drenched in sweat with her hair hanging limply around her face. "Irulan, are you—"

"Out!" she demanded sharply just before another contraction ripped through her. She screamed, and he rushed over to her to push her hair back from her face.

When it ended, she was panting heavily, and then she glared up at him so fiercely he took a few steps back.

"Out," she hissed through clenched teeth. The love she felt for him was mixed with her fury, and she didn't have it in her to shield either from him, so she knew he could feel it coming off of her in overwhelming waves.

"Start pushing with every contraction now," Lady Jessica told her, largely ignoring her son's presence.

Irulan barely noticed the older woman's words, deciding that now was the perfect time to become sole ruler of the Known Universe.

She tried to stand, but her feet wouldn't hold her.

"What're you doing?!" Lady Jessica exclaimed.

"Making your daughter an only child," Irulan told her.

Her husband looked down at her in shock.

"You have lied to me, you have used me, and you got me in this awful fucking state and I swear on my mother's grave that if you don't leave my presence this instant, I will squeeze the life from you with my bare hands!"

He backed away slowly, for she was still trying to stand. "I'll wait outside, then," he told her.

"Go home!" she shouted viciously.

He didn't answer her demand, saying instead, "I'm right here if you need me. I love you."

"Don't you fucking lie to me, Paul Atreides!" she shouted at him before another contraction came, and she screamed again, shutting her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, the door was closed.

"Push," Lady Jessica encouraged. "Push as hard as you can every time."

"If he comes back in," Irulan said, panting heavily, "I swear I'll run him through."

Lady Jessica laughed softly. "When I had Paul, I threatened to kill his father, too."

She glanced up at her mother-in-law in surprise. From what she'd been told, Lady Jessica and the Duke's relationship had been very different from Irulan's complicated one with their son. "Really?"

Lady Jessica nodded, smiling a bit wistfully. "It's important for men to know what's happening, but unless they're doctors, they're quite useless when it comes to this sort of thing. And it's rather upsetting to see them, too, since it's entirely their fault you're experiencing what you are."

"I didn't want him to know what was happening."

"I know, dear," the older woman told her, brushing her damp hair back from her face. "But you didn't see how scared he was —how terrified he is— of losing you."

"I don't care how scared he was, or is," Irulan snapped. "I never want to see that vile man's face again."

She screamed as another contraction tore through her. "And anyway," she panted when it was over, "you're looking at his falseness through the lens of a mother's love."