The Estate, Sidra, Glacia, AHAHAHA LIKE ANYONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE TIME

[glacial_queen]

Karla wanted nothing more than to lay back down. Her feet hurt. Her back hurt. Every single part of her hurt. But no, the Healer said that she had to walk around for a little while, that it would help the labor. Considering she had been in labor for hours already and had spent roughly three-quarters of that walking around the birthing room, she wasn't really seeing how it was 'helping.' But since no one would let her shiv the Healer, it looked like she was just going to keep walking. Probably until her feet fell off, because that was seemed likelier to happen than this child actually being born.

Apparently stubbornness was inherited through the distaff line.

"Raven," she gasped, clinging to her friend's hand until the knuckles were white. "Tell her that I'm the Queen and if I want you to take the pain away, you will."

"Ignore her, my Lady Healer," the older woman said, bustling about. "No more than one minute in every ten. The pain is necessary to the process."

"She's a bloody sadist," Karla complained, easing up on Raven's hand as the contraction eased. "Check her for ties to Hobart. She just wants me to suffer."

Raven had done her research and knew that on Earth, at least, many women chose to use medication to relieve the pain and delivered their children just fine. But she didn't want to start a fight with the Healer, and the people of Karla's world weren't entirely the same as Earth humans, so she merely nodded at the Healer and used her free hand to brush the hair from Karla's face...and took away her pain once every five minutes.

"I love you the best, shh don't tell Warren."

***

"Don't fucking touch me!" Karla snapped, glaring at Warren. "I think you have done quite enough already, don't you?"

"Oh, uh… My bad?"

Their shared bad. But right now, Warren was pretty willing to take the blame, re-claiming his hand and looking equal parts sheepish and terrified. Still.

For as long as Karla was the one actually delivering this baby, it was entirely his bad. "Why are you even in here?! What makes you think I want to see your stupid face? Ever! Again!"

"... Presumably you'll want me around if she ever ends up having a spring molt?"

Warren was just lucky that a contraction caught her mid-lunge, so she was doubling over, rather than murdering him the way she wanted. Her cursing, however, lasted straight through one contraction into the other.

The Healer looked at the two of them and then shook her head at Warren. "Why don't you go sit in the other room for awhile? Let her have some peace."

"Awhile? He'll be lucky I ever want to see him again!"

"That's what they all say, my lady."

***

"Where's Warren?" Karla looked up at Raven, her eyes filled with tears. "Raven, he needs to hold my hand! Someone get me Warren!"

***

"I AM BREATHING! I HAVE BREATHED MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE, I DO NOT NEED TO BE TOLD--Do you hear bells?" Karla looked around the birthing room, utterly confused. "No, seriously, have I been pushed into the Twisted Kingdom, or are there bells playing somewhere?"

"It's a special request from The General, My Lady," one of the Healers said, barely looking up from the task at hand. "He said it was a tradition that was very culturally important to his people. Something about Bow Bells, whatever that means."

"Raven," Karla demanded through clenched teeth. "I want you to share this next contraction with the so-called fucking General as thanks for his decision to share his culture with us this way."

"...you do not truly wish me to do that, do you, Karla?" Raven said.

Karla just looked at Raven. "Do it."

Raven's head was buzzing with the pain she was taking from Karla as well as the emotions she was picking up, so she wasn't inclined to disobey.

She waited for Karla's next contraction and pulled the pain from her body, pressing her hand to her own belly with a groan as she felt it. Instead of banishing it, she closed her eyes and sought out Jono's emotional signature in the Estate, and released the pain at him.

Sorry, Jono.

A moment later, there was a psionic pulse of shock and pain bursting through the minds of everyone in the building, followed by a loud thump from the room adjacent to theirs.

And then, spitefully, somebody turned the volume on the recording of the bells up even louder.

***

"I swear by the Darkness that the next person who tells me to push will be shaved," Karla hissed. "Believe me, I am fucking pushing."

***

"Again, my lady! Your daughter needs you to push again!"

"My daughter should have thought of that before she took so long to be born," Karla said, unable to work up the energy to yell. "First thing I'm gonna do when I see her is punch her in her bitty mouth."

"... Karla, you can't punch an infant in the mouth." It was a surprisingly mild protest from Warren, considering most of the bones in his hand had been halfway ground to powder by now. Having hollow bones was apparently not conducive to hand-holding right then.

"Watch me," Karla sniffled. "You just watch." She lolled her head to look up at Raven. "As your Queen, I'm ordering you to teleport this baby out of me and into a volcano."

Glacia didn't have volcanos. Karla didn't care.

"Of course, my Queen," Raven said soothingly. "As soon as you push one more time."

***

Sweat-soaked and exhausted, Karla smiled down at the little girl in her arms. Clean and wrapped up in one of the receiving blankets she'd gotten from her Uncle Priestly, her daughter lay peacefully, no sign of her earlier tears. "Look at her," Karla breathed, her heart so full she thought it might crack in two. "She's perfect. Utterly perfect."

"So…" Warren gave Karla a little, tentative smile. "We're calling her…?"

"Kayla," Karla said, looking up at him. "Don't you think?"

Warren looked so full of pride and happiness that it was entirely possible he might burst.

"Well," he said softly, "she's certainly not a Vasilia."

"Definitely not," Karla said, leaning against him while she continued to adore their daughter. "I think Kayla's the only name that will suit."

Beat. "...Now someone go find Jono and break those goddamn speakers."

[Co-written with the wonderful not_a_parakeet and amazing trigons_child! Snipped for length and cussing, no actual biology included! Shout out to all the real moms in game for going through this for realsies.]

Comments

[furnaceface]

//My heart bleeds for you.//

Jono was super sad for all of those people who temporarily couldn't drink coffee. Truly. He wept for them every night.

//Fortunately, you've got one hell of a healer on hand. It probably won't be that much longer.//

[glacial_queen]

Coffee she wasn't drinking was coffee she wasn't sharing with you, Jono. Duh.

"Apparently I need to sleep," Karla said, making a face. And don't you say one word about how heavy her eyes looked already, Jono. She knew she was going on fumes, joy, and adrenaline right now. She didn't need it pointed out. "I'm starting to understand why you get grumpy around Healers all the time."

[furnaceface]

//Pushy, aren't they? All obsessed with things like 'sleep' and 'a healthy lifestyle.' I had one tell me I was too thin the other day. Can't imagine why.//

In fairness, she was a new member of the gaggle assigned to him, after another one had retired, and she hadn't had a chance to get a proper run-down of the situation with the other Healers.

//Still, they mean well enough. Why not have somebody with a mouth drink one, and I can share the taste between us?//

[glacial_queen]

"We can make Warren do it," Karla decided, not that she had asked him or anything. Because, pfft, like Warren would turn down the chance for a coffee. "Do you want to hold her?"

The baby, not the coffee, Jono.

[furnaceface]

Warren had gone mostly without coffee this entire time, himself. Warren would drink an iced caramel macchiato if that was what it took, here.

Jono's eyes went a little wide at the offer. Oh, that was a dangerous proposition, there.

//... Can I? Er. Should I? I mean, I'd love to, I've just, er... Shouldn't she-- I don't know?//

He was setting the stuffed animal down on the pillow beside Karla, though. And the file... could go over there. On the dresser. Where Karla wouldn't get to it for a while.

//Yes?//

[glacial_queen]

Remember that 'duh' look Karla had given you, Jono, when you first asked if Karla wanted to talk to Kayla? You were getting its twin, now.

"You're family," Karla reminded him, offering Kayla up to him. "Of course you can. You ought to. Kayla should get to be held by the male who's been singing to her all this time."

[furnaceface]

And now Jono's eyes were darting worriedly between Karla's face, and Kayla's. And then Karla's again. And then over to Raven. Aaaand then very quickly back down to Kayla, who had at some point wound up in his arms and--

Crap.

//Hey, Sunshine. Sleepy little Sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey...// Shut up. Jonothon insisted up, down, and sideways that he couldn't sing, but he didn't suspect the baby was going to care that his voice wasn't quite right. //You've had a long day, haven't you, beautiful little girl? You and your mum both.//

[glacial_queen]

"Hmph," Karla said, easing back against her pillows, body still sore. "I'm not quite sure what she did today. I did all the hard work."

With the yelling and threatening and cussing and all.

Kayla opened her little baby blues up to the Music and gave him a soft sunburst of happiness before letting them droop back shut.

[furnaceface]

//Yes, but she's the one who made a lot of people happy today,// Jono decided, leaning forward to nuzzle his nose against Kayla's.

Seriously, he was trying very hard not to think about the possibility of ever becoming a father, at this point.

Very, very hard.

[glacial_queen]

"Rude."

Karla watched him for a moment and then ventured, "You look happy."

[furnaceface]

That... earned Karla a brief glance.

//I'm never happy,// he retorted. //I'm a miserable old curmudgeon who wouldn't know the meaning of 'joy' if I looked it up in the encyclopedia.//

And then he looked back down at Kayla, and his expression softened again.

//But... if I weren't a miserable old curmudgeon... I suppose this would be a little like what happy would look like, on me.//

It made his heart ache a little. Yes, that one that he didn't have.

[glacial_queen]

"Right, right, I forgot all that stuff," Karla said, rolling her eyes at him again. "But with that in mind, you're doing an excellent facsimile of happiness for my benefit."

"She loves you. I can feel it. Her first day out and she already loves you so much."

Karla, you're not helping the daddy feels.

[furnaceface]

Karla was very much not helping the daddy feels. His heart was slowly going from 'aching' to 'bleeding,' here.

//Well, she's a little songbird,// he murmured. //Of course she's fond of the music.//

He loved her, too. He was going to be the best damn uncle she had if it killed him.

Sorry Morton. Sorry Julian. You were going to have to pry the title from his cold, dead hands.

[glacial_queen]

Morton would point out that he was the only one with a blood-right to the title, dammit!

"I have a feeling you're on lullaby duty for, ohhhh, the next rest of your life, darling."

[furnaceface]

Yeah, but Jono would point out your face, Morton and then run away with Kayla under one arm and giggling.

//I'm quite alright with that,// he admitted. //Just so long as nobody else gets any ideas.//

He nuzzled her tiny little nose again.

//Karla's little bricks and mortar, breaking my jam tart, little perfect I suppose; Baked Bean, you pinched me heart...//

Only for you, Kayla, would Jono make up little nonsense rhymes using Cockney rhyming slang so soon after driving your mother insane with Bow Bells.

[glacial_queen]

"I'm going to hope that somehow translates out to endearments," Karla said tartly. "Rather than you plotting to run away with her."

Jono, none of those words went together.

[furnaceface]

They all went together just fine, thank you.

//Karla's little daughter, breaking my heart. Little perfect nose, Queen, you stole my heart.// He shrugged his shoulders. //The doggerel rhyme flows better, though.//

Much. Even if it seemed like nonsense to everyone in Kaeleer but him.

[glacial_queen]

"And you wonder why I have no idea what that movie was saying."

[furnaceface]

//They were speaking perfectly good English,// Jono replied, rolling his eyes. //Brilliant writing. Good action. Solid film. Isn't that right, Treacle? S'a fantastic piece of cinema you aren't going to get to watch until you're thirty, innit?//

Sorry, Karla. Baby mode. You really brought this on yourself.

[glacial_queen]

Treacle, at least, Karla understood. Cook made it sometimes, so she had context.

"Jono, we weren't thirty when we watched it. And she's not going to understand it, either. You're not raising my daughter to speak like she'd got bloody marbles in her mouth and sells oranges outside Covent Garden."

[furnaceface]

Jono was now giving Karla some pretty impressive sad eyes.

//Of course she'll understand it, because she'll grow up hearing me speak,// Jono replied. //Anyway, don't say that to her, or she's liable to find some marbles and try.//

[glacial_queen]

"Mother Night, please let Nyles be over them by then," Karla prayed. "Kayla, darling, don't put marbles in your mouth, not even to talk like Uncle Jono."

[furnaceface]

//On the upside, now we'll have an easier time getting rid of Glacia's annual bumper crop of oranges.//

... The ones that didn't exist, yes.

[glacial_queen]

It did when it was Balmia!

"Without her even having to ask, 'Please, sir, may I have some more?'"

[furnaceface]

//If she ever has to ask for more of anything, chances are, we're all dead,// Jono mused. //She's surrounded by people who are going to shamelessly spoil her rotten.//

A beat.

//Anyway, hopefully she'll be eating better than Oliver Twist.//