Immortal Mortals

And then there was one.

Since that day, when she had almost destroyed her garden in a drunken rage, she had returned almost daily for weeks to bring her herbs and blooms back to life.  Jie too visited from time to time to check on the house and sometimes to rest after a long day when he had work to do in town.

Jie had suggested selling the house and perhaps using the money to travel once Meili had been married off and the baby had been born.  But having owned the house for almost 30 years, she was reluctant to let it go.  She would want a place to return to once the baby had been born, and with a battle looming, she would need to disappear to allow the chaos that would follow to settle down, and returning to Qing Qiu would not be an option.

And the thought of their battle was exciting her the closer the day came.  Jie or Mo Yuan it didn't matter, keeping up the pretense had come surprisingly easy to her.  Though being pregnant did help her to get away with her loss of temper whenever the thought of what he had put her through came back to her, it was actually very convenient, even better was his inability to cope with it.  Pregnancy had not only caused her severe morning sickness, until Bai Zhen was able to get her a tonic to deal with it, her hormones were all over the place and her unpredictable emotions would flare up at the smallest thing.

One particular evening, after yet another meeting with Chiang Guis parents, Ai was tired and rather grumpy having sat for most of it on low cushions that left her legs and back aching.  But not being allowed to ride the horses due to her condition, Jie insisted that she ride in a small covered cart that he had built specially for her. 

It was too small and cramped and having to once again fold her legs over themselves, she was fast losing her temper.  But the last straw came, when Jie refused to pick up the pace, instead he insisted on going slow so the journey would not be too uncomfortable for her.

Forcing herself out of the cart while it was still moving she fell heavily as the cart barely missed rolling over her legs forcing Jie to pull the horses back sharply before launching himself off to run to her side.

"Damn it Ai, what he hell are you doing?" he swore harshly down at her while looking her over to ensure she had not injured herself.  But other than a few light grazes, she was fine.

In pain from the hard fall she took, she remained sprawled upon the hard stone ground until Jie gently helped her onto her feet. "My legs hurt Jie, I just wanted to stretch them out." she said stubbornly as Jie glared down at her.

Grabbing both of her shoulders he gave her one hard shake, before pulling her roughly into his arms.  "You could have been hurt Ai, you could have hurt the baby.  Don't you ever do that again!" he growled as he struggled to bring his own rising temper under control and his breathing to a much slower pace.

Finally realizing the stupidity of her actions, Ai did what any pregnant mother would do, she burst into tears, something Jie hated to see, especially seeing as she was pregnant and he wanted her to keep her emotions calm as best as she could.  It hurt him to see her cry, so letting the last of his anger go, he gently hugged her before helping her up onto his horse to sit side saddle so she could kick her legs out.  Then hoisting himself up behind her, he pulled her back into his arms. 

 "It's alright Ai, Im not angry, but I don't want to see you ever hurt yourself again." he said softly as he drew her sobbing shaking body into one arm, and with the other firmly taking hold of the reins, he led them home.

Ai put him through many of these kinds of incidences and each time, he would deal with them as best as he could without losing his temper, because he knew it was her unbalanced hormones that was causing her to act irrationally and at times dangerously.  Though the one time, he did lose his temper and snap at her for trying to carry a heavy load of fire wood into the house, she cried for 2 days straight, until Jie was forced to apologize and he then made love to her slowly and gently until she once again returned to her normal self.