Loss Without Gain

“Marlita,” his voice said. It was the last thing she wanted to hear at that moment, lying in bed, thinking.

“There's... nothing you can say, Alph,” she said, realistically, logically – painfully. She wished there was something he could say. She wished for that harder than she'd wished for a lot of things in her life.

“I know.” He sighed, behind her head.

She could feel his breath ruffle her hair. He shifted positions; she imagined him, head on his arm, staring at the back of her head, eyebrows crinkled together like they always did when he was worried or sad. Or both. He moved again, and she felt his scratchy cheek against her shoulderblade, his forehead on the back of her neck.

“They could be wrong,” he said, but his voice was dead.

“Don't,” she said simply, and they both were silent.

He breathed in her hair. She let the tears fall singly to the pillow. Neither of them slept.

Inspiration: Reading arguments for and against abortion. These are two more characters from my original series. Sorry to throw all of these people out there -- but this is a concept I've always sort of thought of for the two of them, (that they wanted to have children but were unable) so when the idea hit, they were the logical people to use.