The Founding of a Dynasty

[Triyun]

Going to Slovenia while Austria was at war was something that was very controversial among Jia's advisers, then again, with the Korean Situation still not completely resolved, neither was anywhere in the UFE. Nevertheless he needed this... the trip to Mongolia had left him drained and he had needed to recharge.

Ljubjana's crisp air was a refershing change from the arid sweltering heat of the Mongolian Desert. His car went through the streets to the defacto palace, where Austria had setup a make shift capital during the Battle of Vienna.

Jia's presence went rather unnoticed as he made his way through the halls of the Palace, many were busy plotting war and receiving reports from across the front. That suited him fine, he was not in the mood for any sort of formal greeting.

He made his way to the Imperial Residence, Theresia was not there, probably in a meeting with ministers. He didn't want to disturb her. Instead he fixed himself a stiff drink before relaxing on one of the chairs in their bed room to wait, it was almost the end of the day even if it was war. Reading some intelligence reports and signing some relatively unimportant executive orders and laws which had piled up during his absence.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia had never pitied Maria in her life until she found herself sitting at the endless meetings of the Imperial Council, day in and day out. It seemed as though everyday, Austria was on the brink of collapse. The war with Germany was going better than any of the generals had anticipated and the crisis in North America had been solved, but all this had piled on top of her fragile body so quickly that the young Empress really had no where to turn. With Jia in China handling Korea, her sisters out traveling the world or doing other diplomatic work and her friends in the nobility running away from the pressures of being seen around the Empress in war time, Theresia mood dipped to levels of severe sadness. She didn't know why, the stress had never effected her like this, combined with what felt like mild mood swings. Waking up in the morning happy and then by lunch being horridly depressed. She was getting sick and she knew it. Even just sitting listening to General von Hess talk about the defense of Vienna was making her nauseous.

"...So long as the Danube is maintained, Vienna, while damaged will escape total cap-" Von Hess suddenly stopped as Theresia pushed her chair out from the Council's table. Everyone looked up immediately and stood as Von Hess ruffled his eyebrows. "Highness? Is everything okay?"

Theresia put her hand up and continued to walk from the room. "I just have to go lay down, I don't...feel good."

She ran up the stairs from the council chambers towards her private quarters, the vomit churning in her stomach making her feel a cross between drunk and sick as she climbed the stairs. Finally she burst through the door, her dress trailing behind her, not even saying hello to her husband but heading directly towards the bathroom. With the door wide open, Jia would be able to hear the first sounds of gagging and then the projectile of vomit hitting the water.

"Oh $%&@...I think I'm dying...what the $%&@ is wrong with me." She said and rested her head on the side of the toilet, determined to fall asleep right there. "Jiaaaaaaa! Come here now! I'm sick!" And with those words leaned over for another round of goo blasting from her mouth.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

[Triyun]

Jia had fallen almost half asleep going through a report on the availability of jet fuel additives for operations in arctic environments when Theresia came through the door of their room, barely even acknowledging him before going to the bathroom. "Hey... k bad time." he said to himself. When he heard the first vomit, he set his papers down and was about to get up, when he heard her yell out.

Jia jumped to his feet, running to his wife's aid, as she let out a second round of vomit. He held her hair back, but wasn't sure what else he could do. "Uh hey honey, you ok?" he asked her kneeling down next to her.

"Stressful day at the office?" he asked grabbing a hand towel and handing it to her.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"I've been like this for at least two weeks." She spit into the towel and threw it onto the floor beside her. "I want to think it's because the war began, but people get over stress eventually, I've only been getting worse. I haven't been able to keep down food and I can barely sit still without getting either sick or irritated." She leaned towards the toilet once more, but when she gagged and nothing came out, the Empress nodded and had Jia lift her up to her feet. "Right now I just want to go lay down and relax otherwise I think I'm going to collapse."

Getting to her bed, Theresia collapsed onto the sheets and leaned her head back as the room spun around her. "Jia, I want you to get my physician up here. I want to know what's wrong with me. If I'm this sick, I need medication or something. But I'm just...uh..." She sighed in relief. "...going to lay here and let the world go by. Okay?"

She patted him on the cheek and smiled. "Thanks for coming all the way out here though for me, I really...ugh...really...do appreciate it...ugh....Yeah...go get the physician."

[Triyun]

Jia helped her to the bed and brought the covers over her, tucking her in before giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Man, its been that bad? You should've told me, I'd come sooner." he said. Smiling at her lovingly he nodded, "Ok I'll be right back." he said to her.

[i]I guess we can talk about Mongolia later.[/i] he thought to himself. Jia went down the stairs to where one of the butlers were telling him to phone the physician, as he got out a ginger ale for Theresia from the pantry. [i]I wonder what it could... wait.[/i] Jia thought to himself, a knot forming in his stomach as the physician walked in.

"Imperator." the old white bearded bespectacled man said nodding, Jia never could get used to Austria's small c classicalism. The man may well have been a contemporary of Sigmund Freud the way he was dressed, with a medicine bag in hair.

"Hey doc." Jia said. "She says she isn't feeling well. I just got in a few hours ago, but she says she hasn't been feeling well for a few weeks." he said.

"Ah right then lets take a look." the doctor said walking up the stairs into the room to examine Theresia.

"Hey I got the doc, and brought you something to drink." Jia said placing the ginger ale at the bed stand for her.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

With her eyes closed Theresia tried to fall back into the pillows of the bed as Doctor Rothchild sat down next to her an examined the Empress. She was still sweating from her nausea and her hands were lightly shacking. At first he had a very concerned look upon his face, but as time passed, the Doctor let out a few chuckles and finally bowed his head happily to both the Empress and the Chinese Imperator.

"Well?" Theresia said meekly as she turned her head towards the old doctor. "Is it something serious, Doctor?"

Rothchild leaned back in his seat and chuckled brushing his beard with rough fingers. "Well it could be quite serious, Your Majesty. How long did you say these conditions have persisted?"

The Empress shrugged. "I'm not sure, maybe two weeks, maybe a bit after the war began. I figured it was stress."

"Well the stress definitely isn't helping, but you are definitely taking after your namesake." He paused and blinked a few times before continuing down a very narrow road of thought. "If I may be so blunt. When was the last time you and the Emperor-Consort were intimate?"

Theresia glared at Rothchild before pushing herself up in the bed. "That is not business of yours Doctor, but it was about thre-" Then she stopped, her eyes widened and she looked first at Rothchild and then at Jia. "You aren't saying that..."

"My congratulations to you both," he smiled and bowed his head at Jia and at his Empress. "Your Majesty, you're pregnant." He stood up from his chair with a grin on his face. "But I'll let you both talk about this in private, after all, this is a very personal matter. But my congratulations to see the Hapsburg-Yuan Line finally coming to life." Rothchild made his way across the room, humming a happy tune and then leaving the Empress, still in shock, alone with her husband.

She stared up into the space of the ceiling for a moment before her head fell back onto the pillow with a stream of air underneath. "Pregnant...Christ Almighty...in the middle of a war. IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR JIA! VIENNA IS BEING DESTROYED AND I'M PREGNANT! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!" Within seconds the tears began to pour out of her eyes like rivers and hurricanes. "I wish I was dead! I don't deserve this! I don't deserve this!"

[Triyun]

Jia knot in his stomach became even tighter when the thought in the back of his mind turned into a reality. [i]Pregnant?[/i] he thought to himself. [i]Remind me to level the Vatican, that natural family planning !@#$ is well !@#$.[/i]

He stood there like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, probably more so than when he had heard the news of the Maine nuclear rogue incident. [i]A kid.[/i] he thought to himself. [i]My kid. Wow.[/i] He then snapped back into reality noticing Theresia's reaction.

"Hey hey. Come on Theresia, the timings not per... it could be bett... ok it really came at a bad time." he finally admitted trying to find words that would calm her, thinking for a moment he raised a finger, "I know we were waiting to start a family and work kept getting in the way of it for both of us, but hell, who knows how long that could have been."

"Maybe this is for the best then. I am sure pregnancy can't be that bad, you're strong you can pull through it. I carried way more weight around during airborne training, I am sure you will have no trouble." Jia said to his wife trying to console her as he placed his hand on her shoulder and tried to wipe her tears.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

She looked up glaring at him and tightened her grip on his hands. "Did you just compare what is going to be our child to weight during airborne training?" Then her mood softened as she fell back to the pillow. "Oh I don't know Jia, everything is just piling on all at once. I'm sorry that I flipped out on you. I just thought this was all just stress and now..." She put her hands over her stomach and closed her eyes and quickly the tears began to push their way out of her lashes. "I'm going to be as big as a balloon. Maria and Angelika have perfect bodies and shapes and I'm going to look like a whale."

Theresia took a long breathe and opened her eyes again closing her fists tightly. "No, I'm not just going to sit here. I'm Empress of Austria and my country is at war." She grabbed back onto Jia's hands and put them behind her back. "Help me up, I'm going back down to the War Council. I feel..." The sound of rumbling in her stomach caused her to pause for a moment and then she continued. "Just bring a bucket with you, I'll be fine. Just support me through this. If Caterina Sforza could ride into battle pregnant, so can I. Or I can at least get out of this damned bed."

Turning back to Jia she patted his cheek as they neared the door. "It think it's going to be a long nine months, for both of us."

[Triyun]

"Heh, yeah... that may not be an accurate comparison retrospectively." Jia said laughing nervously.

"You won't look like a whale, you'll look beautiful, you've always been way hotter than them so don't worry about it. If I have to tell a billion people to remind you how great you look everyday, I'll do it and it will be really annoying!" he faux-threatened with a light smile.

Helping Theresia, he placed his shoulders underneath her arm to support her, he then grabbed the bucket. Upon her request to get her back to the meeting he frowned before complying, "Heh, if you are sure you are feeling up to this." he said "But don't even think for a moment I'm letting you ride into battle with troops! Its going to be a hard nine months, but we'll make it through... I love you, and deep down.. well I guess I am glad."

He smiled, before frowning for a second. He had almost completely forgotten the news he had wanted to talk about.

"Oh speaking of like bomb shells and !@#$. I found something interesting out in Mongolia" he added nonchalantly, "Turns out I've got two siblings that I never knew about and am supposed to restore a 800 year old dynasty or something." he said as they headed downstairs.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Triyun

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia turned back to her husband with a blank look on her face and blinked exactly two times. "Well, Jia, you know I'm not actually sure what to say to that, other than don't hurt yourself. I know with the war in Korea just ending and the conflict problems in Mongolia." She sighed and continued walked down the staircase back towards the Council Chambers. "I'll just have to meet these two siblings and we'll go from there. I hope they didn't mind that you're wedded to a European." The Empress smirked and the couple disappeared down into the depths of the castle bunker.

The rest of the day passed rather slowly as Theresia, with Jia at her side, handled the business of conducting war from afar. With Ireland's withdraw she had only become more stressed with the situation and pledged to travel herself to Vienna to see the Austrian soldiers and do what she could for their morale. It was an awkward feeling for her as the maids packed her clothes in to large suitcases for her venture the next day. Though laying in bed with the candles on either side of her and her husband, burning dimly, her eyes stayed wide open looking up at the gilded ceiling.

"When this war is over, perhaps I'll have to travel back to Asia. I could use the air and meet these siblings of yours. It's been a long time. Too long in fact."

[Triyun]

As they went down the stairs Jia nodded, "Yeah you know, we'll see... we've had different experiences in our lives. None of us had it exactly easy, but I guess I at least knew where my next meals were coming from for the most part." he said sighing. "Still... someday soon we need to just conquer Hawaii embezzle some cash and retire to it."

Jia sat in the back of the war meetings that day listening to his wife and her ministers talk about the fight. He hated the idea of her going to the front even the rear lines, especially now. But at the same time deep down, he knew he would have and has done the same thing in much more dangerous situations. In fact they wouldn't have even met if it hadn't been for him going into a live fire zone. He was trained though... [i]Bah.[/i] he thought to himself. He was over thinking things. Serve the people first, that is what he was always taught.

The UFE would be opening a front soon of its own in the North, and his late evening had been spent conferring with the Admiralty which had been amassing forces in Portugal for a strategic offensive. He had been satisfied with the planning, but still had the feeling in his gut it would be a costly fight, even if the bulk of the Wehrmacht had been deployed to the South.

Later in the night when they were lying in bed, Jia smiled at the thought of going back to Asia, "I'd like that a lot." he said smiling wrapping his arms around her. "Afterall, I think we're both overdue for a vacation." he said yawning before falling asleep from the jetlag.