"For you."

"No..."

"Subconsciously. She felt she needed to prove herself worthy of you. How better to do that than by bearing your child?"

Thorn gazed straight ahead, his eyes filled with despair.

"Now she finds she can't cope," continued Greer, "so she searches for a reason that won't make her feel inadequate. She fantasizes that the child isn't hers, that the child is evil..."

"... What?"

"She's unable to love it," explained Greer, "so she invents a reason why it's not worthy of her love."

"She thinks the child is evil?"

Thorn was shaken now, his face rigid with fear.

"It's necessary right now for her to feel this way," explained Greer. "But the point is that, at this time, another child would be disastrous."

"In what way...'evil'?"

"This is just a fantasy. Just like the fantasy that the child isn't hers."

Thorn drew in his breath, fighting back a wave of nausea.

"There's no need to despair," assured Greer.

"Doctor..."

"Yes?"

Thorn was unable to continue; the two sat in silence, gazing at one another across the vast room.

"You were about to say something?" asked Greer.

The doctor's face registered concern, for the man before him was plainly afraid to speak.

"Mr. Thorn? Are you all right?"

"I'm frightened," Thorn whispered,

"Of course you're frightened."

"I mean . . . I'm afraid."

"This is natural."

"Something . . . terrible is happening."

"Yes. But you'll both live through it."

"You don't understand."

"I do."

"No."

"Believe me. I do."

Thorn, near tears, lowered his head into his hands.

"You've been under a strain, Mr. Thorn. Obviously more than you know."

"I don't know what to do," Thorn moaned.

"Number one, you should agree to an abortion."

Thorn raised his eyes, firmly meeting Greer's.

"No," he said. The psychiatrist reacted with surprise.

"If it's your religious principles ..."

"No."

"Surely you can see the need . . ."

"I won't do it," said Thorn resolutely.

"You must."

"No."

Greer leaned back in his chair, regarding the Ambassador with dismay.

"I'd like to know your reason," he said quietly.

Thorn gazed at him unmoving.

"It was foretold that this pregnancy would be terminated," he said, "and I'm going to fight to see that it's not."

The doctor stared at him, puzzled and concerned.

"I know what this must sound like," said Thorn. "And maybe I am . . . insane"

"Why do you say that?"

Thorn looked hard at him and spoke through a taut jaw.

"Because this pregnancy must endure to keep me from believing."

"Believing .. . ?"

"As my wife does. That the child is ..."

The word stuck in his throat, and he rose, filled with a sense of urgency. A premonition had swept over him. He feared that something was about to happen.

"Mr. Thorn?"

"Forgive me ..."

"Please sit down."