~~

Reece

~~

When I woke up, I thought that I felt my Little Bunny's presence, not just her body but her. When I had fallen asleep, holding her against my chest, it literally felt like I had just been holding her shell, it didn't feel like she was there with me at all. However, when I woke up, I thought she might finally be awake. I thought for sure that she was there with me, but I was wrong.

When I opened my eyes and finally looked at her, it was clear to see that she was still asleep. She wasn't back with me at all, and that broke me.

"Where are you, Little Bunny?

" I don't know why I asked that question. I was looking right at her. She was just asleep. That was all. She was making up for all that time that she wasn't sleeping and was exhausting herself. She would wake up soon.

I started to slip out of the bed and leave her there, but there was one more thing that I wanted to do. There was something that I would have done dozens of times by now had I known sooner.

I knelt next to the bed, pulled the blanket back from my little bunny, lifted the bottom of her shirt, and pressed my lips against her belly. I saw that it was already slightly rounded. She was already starting to show and it had gone completely unnoticed.

Why hadn't I been able to tell that she was pregnant? Why had I not smelled my children growing inside of her. I mean, she is carrying triplets, for crying out loud, I should have been able to figure this out a long time ago.

"I'm sorry that Daddy didn't notice you sooner.

" I whispered the words at her belly and the babies that were inside of her.

"But I promise you this, babies, Daddy will never let that happen again. You are my babies, and I will protect you. I will watch over you and your mommy forever.

" I kissed my Little Bunny's belly again and hugged her tenderly before I rose to my feet and went to take a shower.

I had only taken a nap for a few hours. It was still early in the afternoon right now and the kids weren't even home from school yet. I needed to figure a few things out though. I needed to make sure that we handled this situation as best as I could since I was the one that was going to be in charge while my Little Bunny was asleep.

Following my shower, I wanted to eat something, though I didn't want to leave my wife either. So, for that matter, I sent a message to Abigail to please make some lunch and have Roisin bring it up to me. Sometimes, I really enjoyed this mind link ability that was given to us by my Little Bunny. She had changed so many things for us, given us so many new powers.

About a half an hour later, Roisin came into the room carrying a tray of food. She didn't say anything, she just went straight to the table that was near the window and set the food down. Had I not stopped her, she would have left without saying anything other than the quietly uttered 'Here you are, Sir'.

"Roisin?

" I called her name as she started to walk toward the door.

"Yes, Sir?

" She looked at me with fear and worry in her eyes. Did she really think that I was going to blame her for all of this? Judging by the look in her eyes, I could tell that she truly did think that.

"Thank you for always being there for Trinity. I hope you can help me with everything around here until she finally decides to wake up.

"

"Sir?

" She looked shocked.

"B..but I.. but I failed her, Sir.

" She lowered her head in shame.

"No, you didn't. You didn't fail her anymore than I did. Trinity was hiding the truth from all of us. She wasn't telling us what was going on with her, and because of that, we've been left with no answers to the multitude of questions that we have. Please, don't blame yourself, Roisin.

" I did my best to soothe her, even as the words made me want to balk and blame myself. Apparently, Roisin could see that in my eyes though, since she smiled and spoke firmly at me.

"I will stop blaming myself if you can stop blaming yourself, Sir. Perhaps we should work on that together. I will remind you when I see you losing hope, and you can do the same for me.

"

"That sounds like a good plan to me, Roisin.

" I nodded my agreement at that.

"We will help each other until Trinity finally wakes up.

"

After that, I decided to eat my lunch. I hadn't eaten at all since Vincent had called me in the middle of the night, so I was ravenously hungry. Still, I had a lot of stuff that I needed to do. I needed to talk with the other guards so that they knew what was going on. I needed to figure out what to tell the children. And I needed to figure out what to tell the people that filled our kingdom. What would they think when they knew that their queen was sick?

I started by asking that all of the guards, Vincent, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, and David, as well as Gabriel come to meet me in my room. Most of them normally didn't come up to the room since it was off limits to almost everyone. Vincent had been up here as had Shawn, but everyone else usually waited downstairs for my Little Bunny to be ready.

Almost at the same time that I had finished my lunch, they all came into the room. I had summoned Roisin again so that she could clear away the dishes and she left just as the men were filing into the room. I saw her look at Gabriel and almost immediately look away from him. She had probably kept Trinity's condition from him so she was embarrassed to look at him right now.

"What's going on, King Reece?

" Gabriel asked me with fear evident in his voice.

"I was going to ask the same thing. What is going on here?

" Shane, who was normally always joking around, was acting serious for once.

"What happened to Trinity?

" David was the next to speak. Oddly enough, Shawn and Dietrich didn't say anything, the two of them just looked at me then at Trinity and back again. Vincent, who knew what was going on, also remained silent.

"As you all either know or suspected, there is something wrong with Trinity. Vincent found her yesterday, unconscious.

"

"Yeah, we know that. We thought that she might just be sleeping off that exhaustion that she had been feeling.

" David's posture was straight and his body was calm, but his face showed just how worried he was.

"What exhaustion?

" Shawn looked confused. He and Dietrich had been away for the last several weeks on a diplomatic mission. Since Dietrich was their king and both of them were vampires (or half of one, in Shawn's case) they had been the best candidate to speak with some of the clans in Europe, South America and Asia that had been causing issues lately. It wasn't something that was handled by me and Trinity, but we did offer our support for Dietrich if he needed it.

"She's had a rough time of things lately. She had been running herself so ragged that even her pregnancy went unnoticed. The only thing all of us were able to smell on her was the stench of exhaustion.

" I looked at my wife as I spoke, feeling the heartache settle a little deeper.

"Pregnancy?

" Dietrich asked with his head tilted to the side.

"I cannot see that she is pregnant at all. Honestly, I can't even see Trinity's spark of life at all.

"

"That's exactly what I was thinking, my love. I cannot sense Trinity at all, and I most definitely cannot sense a baby.

" Shawn's words only made Dietrich's that much harder for me to process.

"Well, I know that Trinity is pregnant, Griffin just did an ultrasound early this morning. She is pregnant with triplets and they are doing just fine for now. Medically, Griffin says there is nothing wrong with Trinity, she just appears to be asleep. However, we can't seem to get her to wake up.

"

At that, Dietrich and Gabriel walked closer to my Little Bunny. They were the two older among us and might know something that I didn't. I didn't stop them when they walked over to her bedside, reached out to touch her, or even when they examined her face. I knew that they were both just trying to help her.

"I don't sense her essence, which is perplexing, but she appears to be fine, and the life is still inside of her.

" Dietrich was speaking as if he were talking more to himself than to me.

"I can hear her heart beating, and even that of the babies inside of her. How far along is she?

" Gabriel asked me without turning around.

"Nearly a third of the way through.

" Vincent was the one to answer for me.

"How did none of us notice this?

" Gabriel shook his head.

"All seems to be right with her, except, I don't sense her soul inside of her.

"

'That is precisely it.

" Dietrich looked at Gabriel then, his eyes opened wide.

"That was the wording I was having trouble coming up with. It's like Trinity is gone from this body. Perhaps that is why Shawn and I couldn't sense her, or the babies. They are not here, their souls are gone. But where are they?

"

"I think that is the big question on all of our minds.

" I told him..

"I think that is what we all would like to figure out right about now.

"