I've been trying to reconcile the Horace time-line with Danielle's account, as well as how Alex ended up in the middle, and this is what I've come up with.
The pregnancy problem is fairly recent, and had a gradual onset. Perhaps not all pregnancies stopped at once, but the rate of conception begain to decrease, and the rate of first trimester miscarriages began to increase, before it progressed to the point that the mother and child were both died. Ben and Annie are young newlyweds. They are expecting, but Annie has a miscarriage. She grows increasingly despondent and depressed, and in unable to conceive again. Around this time, Danielle's science team crashes. Ben notices her advanced pregnancy, and realizes she will probably give birth to an infant mature enough to survive, even if she delivers prematurely. He begins to monitor her, and allows her to remain safe long enough to deliver a viable infant, as well as a week to ensure the baby can survive. He then kidnaps Alex, and presents her to Annie, in order to make her happy, since they lost the baby she was carrying.
Annie, Ben and Alex were a happy family for a few year! s. Annie then becomes pregnant again, but now whatever causes the Island's fertility problems has advanced to the point that both Annie and the baby die mid-pregnancy. Ben is grief-stricken, and clings to Alex as the remnants of his family, as well as resolving to never become like his own father. The Hostiles/Others have been monitoring Ben ever since he met Richard in the woods as a child. They now see an opportunity for having a person on their side inside DHARMA itself, someone who can use DHARMA's superior technology against itself. Now, with Alex, they have a way to manipulate this insider into doing something they might not ordinarily do. They threaten to harm Alex if Ben does not cooperate. As she is all he has to remember Annie, and his only life happiness by, he agrees. Once he has resolved himself to this, he uses it as a chance to even the score with his abusive father by killing him first, though he does express some regret upon seeing Horace.
This is the first step in a series of ongoing decisions that allow him yo ra! tionaliz e his various ethical decisions. He tells Alex her mother died in a later pregnancy as he does not ever want her to experience his own guilt at "killing" his mother in childbirth. This allows Alex to grow up as well-adjusted as could be expected, and accept her father's fertility obsession.
Theory by elvisgrace
The pregnancy problem is fairly recent, and had a gradual onset. Perhaps not all pregnancies stopped at once, but the rate of conception begain to decrease, and the rate of first trimester miscarriages began to increase, before it progressed to the point that the mother and child were both died. Ben and Annie are young newlyweds. They are expecting, but Annie has a miscarriage. She grows increasingly despondent and depressed, and in unable to conceive again. Around this time, Danielle's science team crashes. Ben notices her advanced pregnancy, and realizes she will probably give birth to an infant mature enough to survive, even if she delivers prematurely. He begins to monitor her, and allows her to remain safe long enough to deliver a viable infant, as well as a week to ensure the baby can survive. He then kidnaps Alex, and presents her to Annie, in order to make her happy, since they lost the baby she was carrying.
Annie, Ben and Alex were a happy family for a few year! s. Annie then becomes pregnant again, but now whatever causes the Island's fertility problems has advanced to the point that both Annie and the baby die mid-pregnancy. Ben is grief-stricken, and clings to Alex as the remnants of his family, as well as resolving to never become like his own father. The Hostiles/Others have been monitoring Ben ever since he met Richard in the woods as a child. They now see an opportunity for having a person on their side inside DHARMA itself, someone who can use DHARMA's superior technology against itself. Now, with Alex, they have a way to manipulate this insider into doing something they might not ordinarily do. They threaten to harm Alex if Ben does not cooperate. As she is all he has to remember Annie, and his only life happiness by, he agrees. Once he has resolved himself to this, he uses it as a chance to even the score with his abusive father by killing him first, though he does express some regret upon seeing Horace.
This is the first step in a series of ongoing decisions that allow him yo ra! tionaliz e his various ethical decisions. He tells Alex her mother died in a later pregnancy as he does not ever want her to experience his own guilt at "killing" his mother in childbirth. This allows Alex to grow up as well-adjusted as could be expected, and accept her father's fertility obsession.
Theory by elvisgrace
