Chapter Text
"Daddy?" Bridget murmured against Antonio's chest.
"Hm?" he responded absently, sated and blissful after making love to the girl of his dreams for the past hour.
"Papá has been really sad lately," she ventured.
Antonio's brow furrowed as he looked down at her. "Of course he has, Baby," he replied as he stroked her hair. "He's just lost your Tata. He's grieving. Aren't you grieving too?"
"Yes." Bridget ran her fingers through his chest hair. "But you help me feel better."
He gave her a squeeze. "I'm glad I can help you feel better."
"I…" Bridget hesitated. "I want to do something to help Papá feel better."
"Oh? And what's that?" Antonio asked. When Bridget remained silent, he combed his fingers through her hair and massaged her scalp as he pressed, "What did you have in mind, Baby?"
"I want to have sex with him," she answered at last. Antonio's hand stilled, tightening into a fist with her locks trapped between his fingers.
Her hiss of pain alerted him to what was happening, so he forced his fingers apart and tried to stay calm. His teeth clenched, he gritted out, "Why? Why that? Why not something else - anything else? Why do you want to have sex with him? Am I not enough for you?"
Bridget gasped as she reared up to look directly at Antonio. "That's not it at all! You're wonderful, Toni, you really are! You're attentive and thorough and-"
"Then why?" he growled.
"Because he needs it!" she blurted tearfully. "He needs the emotional closeness, and Mamá has been neglecting him, so I want to pick up the slack! You come up with someone else who can do it as well as I could and you won't hear another word about it from me, but otherwise don't forbid me from helping my family when I'm the only one who can!"
Antonio deflated in the face of her tirade. "If that's all it is…" He swallowed thickly. "If it's just about the emotional closeness, then you don't have to have penetrative sex with him, right?"
Bridget frowned at him. "You know the emotional closeness is deeper when there's penetration. …Pun not intended."
Antonio huffed and muttered grudgingly, "Sure. But, Bridget…" He took a deep breath and searched her eyes. "What if he gets you pregnant?"
He expected her to flinch when he brought that up, but she stared at him steadily, undeterred, and said, "It's not guaranteed to happen. And if it does, then it's just meant to be."
"You and your 'meant to be's," Antonio grumbled.
"Excuse me?" Bridget bristled. "What was that?"
"You talk about what's 'meant to be' as though your actions don't have consequences!" Antonio burst out, causing her to recoil so hard that she fell off the bed. He sat up to check that she was unharmed and was taken aback by what he saw. The fuck did I say? he wondered to himself.
Bridget was trembling, her arms wrapped around her middle, and she was whispering over and over like a mantra, "It's not my fault."
Antonio blanched when he realized what he had done: Bridget was reminded of Rocco, who had accidentally been aborted as a consequence of her using her Gift during the early days of her pregnancy. "Shit," Antonio swore as he tumbled out of bed and went to pull her close, but she batted him away.
"It's not my fault, it's not my fault," she continued repeating.
"Of course it's not your fault, Bridget, I was just being an ass," Antonio assured her. "Forgive me?"
Bridget blinked at him through her tears. "You really think I didn't consider everything before I brought it up? That I don't understand the concept of consequences? When I found out my brother had been raped, do you think I didn't agonize - for hours - over what to do about it? Do you think the decision to write the letter that ensured it would always happen was one that I made lightly? What the fuck, Toni?
"I'm fully aware of the repercussions that could come from the choices I make, and I'm fully willing to accept them. I know it's possible that I could become pregnant by my Papá if I have sex with him. But there's also a chance that I won't become pregnant. If I do become pregnant by my Papá, there's a chance that it won't be viable. I understand that. But it's also possible that it will be viable. It's possible that I could give birth to my own half-brother or half-sister. I'm aware of that. And after a lot of thought, I've decided I'm willing to take the risk and accept that possibility if it occurs."
"So why did you even bother to ask me, then?" Antonio asked, downcast.
Bridget promptly answered, "Because I'm in a committed relationship with you, and since we're a couple I know my decisions affect you too. I wouldn't go behind your back on this."
"You just said you were going to do it anyway, so what's the difference whether I give you permission?" Antonio asked petulantly. "Were you just giving me a heads-up?"
A loud crack echoed through the branches of the tree when Bridget slapped him hard across the face. "I said no such thing!" she snapped. "I only said I was willing to accept the consequences if it happened! You of all people should understand that just because I think about something or want something doesn't mean I'm going to act on it! I don't care that you lusted after children before we got together, because you never did anything about it! I've been sexually attracted to my Papá for longer than I care to admit, but I never did anything sexual with him before I talked to you about it, and if you had said no then I never would have!"
Antonio gingerly touched his cheek. "As if you would take no for an answer," he mumbled before wincing in anticipation of another slap.
Bridget sighed heavily. "If you gave me a valid, reasonable no, then yes, I would accept that answer, but only after discussing it and coming to an agreement as a couple. We may roleplay as Daddy and Baby, but you're not above me, and neither am I above you. We're equals. Besides, your answer isn't even the primary determining factor here. Even if you say yes, it's going to come down to whether my Papá consents to it or not."
She's so fucking persuasive, Camilo doesn't stand any better chance against her than I do, Antonio thought ruefully. Heck, he agreed to get pregnant when she asked him to so they could go through it together. There's no chance he's going to be able to resist her coming on to him, especially now while he's in mourning. I just hope he doesn't come to regret it after the fact, when his senses are cleared and he realizes what he's done. "Well then, let's discuss it," he said at last. "You claimed there was no one else who could do it other than you, but what about Dolores? She could give him the emotional closeness of penetrative sex with no risk of pregnancy."
"While that is true, I have counterarguments to that suggestion," Bridget told him evenly. "Number one: we don't know whether she would even be willing to have sex with him. Number two: his relationship with her is not the same as his relationship with me, so I doubt she could give him the same level of comfort that I could. Number three: given my previous experience with him, I already know what he likes. He'd be able to just enjoy himself rather than having to explain his kinks and turn-ons to a new partner. And finally, since you keep coming back to the subject of me potentially becoming pregnant, consider this: you just came inside me. If I was going to get pregnant, your sperm would surely get there first, wouldn't it?"
Antonio sighed. He had to concede that all of those points were valid. I guess she really did think through this at length before bringing it up to me. "Alright, but what if he doesn't want to do it? Are you going to pressure him into it?"
Bridget's jaw dropped. "Of course not! What the Hell, Toni?!"
"Hear me out!" Antonio began backpedaling. "If he's reluctant at first but you present him with your - admittedly solid - reasoning, he might agree against his better judgement just to indulge you."
Bridget's lip trembled as she began tearing up again. "I don't want that. I just want to help him cope by proving to him that he's still loved. Is that so terrible?"
"No, of course not," he assured her as he clumsily pulled her close after his hand accidentally brushed against her cheek when he went to put his arm over her shoulder. "It's a wonderful sentiment, and you have the best of intentions, but this is a really tough situation with no simple solution."
"What if…" Bridget bit her lip. "What if it's his idea?" Antonio looked askance before she continued, "I could approach him normally and just drop subtle hints without suggesting anything outright, and if he starts to respond in kind I'll encourage him to continue. Then it will only go as far as he's comfortable with, since he'll be the one who started it."
"That… sounds fair," Antonio replied hesitantly, albeit quite manipulative. After a pause he finally gave in, "Okay, we have an agreement. You can pursue him for this. Just… make sure he really wants it, yeah? If he stops short of penetration, don't entice him to go further."
Bridget nodded firmly. "I'll let him set the pace and the progress. When he stops, I'll stop."