(no subject)

[takecourage]

After a set of Braxton Hicks that sent them to the hospital, it isn't until her waters actually break all over the kitchen floor that Alex admits that it's actually happening this time. They'd planned on a home birth, have got one of the spare rooms set up for it, and they've got the doula on speed-dial. It's Halloween in Darrow, and Alex has got no idea what's going on in the City, but she does know that she trusts Black Elm's wards more than anything and that she wants her baby born where greys can't get to her.

"Can you try her again?" she says, bending over the back of the couch with her weight caught on her elbows as another contraction hits. "Please?"

Comments

[more_magic]

Darlington's ready for this, and not, and knows that it'll happen regardless of his personal feelings on the matter. Is happening, in point of fact, and as the doula's voicemail chirps in his ear and Alex winces through another contraction, that's never felt more true.

"Still nothing," he says, taking the phone away from his ear and looking at the screen, then back at Alex. "I'll dial again."

[takecourage]

"Keep trying," she says, her teeth clenched as the pain starts to ebb away. "She knows today is my due date, but...fuck." She lets out a long breath. "Halloween."

[more_magic]

"Halloween," he echoes, hitting redial with his thumb and putting the phone back up to his ear. "Someone checked to make sure East Hallow was still deserted, right?" Aloud, it lacks the humor Darlington wants it to have, and after a moment, he shakes his head. "Sorry."

Alex's breath hisses out in a long, strained stream, and Darlington lays a hand on her back, rubbing gently. The phone keeps ringing, and when the doula's voicemail greeting starts playing once again, he winces.

"It's Danny and Alex," he says after the beep. "Again. Let us know if you're on your way."

[takecourage]

The contraction passes and Alex straightens up, her eyes on her phone as she tracks how long it is until she feels the beginning of the next one. "At least I don't need to worry about you running off and getting yourself intro trouble this year." She walks towards him, one hand pressed against her bump. "Maybe you ought to try Palamedes too?"

[more_magic]

Alex straightens up and Darlington steps back to give her space, then forward again as she turns towards him. He looks down at her, at the press of her hand against the swell of her stomach and the remaining tension on her face--easier now than a few minutes ago, but still there. Carefully, her gathers her in against him, bending to press a kiss to the top of her head.

"He was going to be my next call," he says. "Although if whatever's happened is affecting the city at large..." Trailing off, he shakes his head, unwilling to finish the rest of that thought. "I'll try him. God knows, I'm sure Camilla would have little compunction about commandeering a car to get the both of them up here."

[takecourage]

She feels another contraction start and looks at her phone again.

"I don't want to alarm you," she says, her teeth clenching as she pulls back from him a little. "But that was five minutes apart."

[more_magic]

"Shit." He doesn't want to believe it, but he's as able to tell time as Alex is, as cognizant of the space between the flashes of pain that cross her face. For a moment, it threatens to overwhelm him, his calm poise slipping to reveal something more panicked in the depths of his eyes--and then his phone rings. In trying to answer it, he nearly drops it entirely.

"It's her," he tells Alex, though the relief on his face fades quickly as the voice on the other end of the line keeps speaking. "You're breaking up...you're where? The woods? How are you...okay, slow down."

[takecourage]

"Keep it together, Danny," she says, and she actually manages a smile. "C'mon. We are the shepherds. We can do this." She leans her elbows on the back of the couch again, breathing through the contraction as it rises to a crescendo. Her eyebrows draw together in a frown. "She's not coming, is she?"

[more_magic]

"No Virgil or Dante had to face this," he mutters, but the reminder still manages to calm a few of his rattled nerves. He finishes the call as Alex comes to her conclusion, nodding only once, grimly, as he puts his phone down again.

"Something about a hay maze," he says, letting out a frustrated groan. "She was there one minute and in the woods the next. With a group, but it's not...there's no way she's getting here in time."

[takecourage]

"Oh, c'mon," says Alex, puffing out her breath. "This is a...fuck. It's a walk in the park." The contraction passes, and she lets out another long breath. "Okay. Shit. What do we do now?"

[more_magic]

"I can still call Palamedes," he offers, but they both know there's little chance he'll get to Black Elm before Alex's labor begins in earnest. Even on Darrow's best day, that would be true, and Darlington lets out a rueful sigh at how isolated they've let themselves become. He loves this house, loves the way they've made it a home that suits both of them rather than the ancestral shell it had been before--but God, they're alone here.

Slowly, he walks around the couch, stopping and bending to look Alex in the face. "I think it's just us, Stern."

[takecourage]

Alex huffs out a breath, her cheeks puffing out for a moment.

"Okay," she says. "Fuck. Alright."

[more_magic]

The speed with which she accepts it surprises him, and doesn't; they've been through worse together and apart, here in Darrow or back home. "Okay," he says. "I'll help you upstairs."

[takecourage]

As another contraction starts, Alex leans her weight against him and is just relieved that he doesn't suggest going to the hospital. They'd originally decided on a home birth because Alex had been adamant that her baby was going to be born behind wards that she can trust. Just in case.

"Oh, fuck," she says, her hand tightening on his arm. "Jesus."

[more_magic]

"I've got you," Darlington says automatically, letting her cling to him, fighting the urge to sweep her into his arms and carry her up to the second floor. Maybe that time isn't far off, but it hasn't happened yet. "You're okay, Alex. We can do this."

Still, as they start to make their slow way up the stairs, he takes his phone from his pocket again, checking for a message or a missed call.

[takecourage]

"We can do this," she repeats, because she believes it. She really does. They can do anything they put their minds to, and she knows that. But this? This is legitmately fucking terrifying. She pauses on the stairs, one arm around him, the other hand holding on to the bannister so hard her knuckles go white.

"Holy fuck," she says. "Jesus. Okay. We can go."

[more_magic]

Alex rides out another contraction and Darlington checks the time on his phone as well, a wave of dizziness rolling through him at how little of it has elapsed. "Holding steady at five minutes," he tells her, letting her cling and pant and anchor herself--and holding back the for now he wants to add.

"Once we get up there, I'm calling Pal," he says, helping her up one stair, then the next, then the one after that. "Even if he can't...even if the best we can do is having him on speaker, it'll be something."

[takecourage]

"Okay," says Alex, nodding, as they get to the top of the stairs. She's leaning more of her weight on Danny than she'd like, but it doesn't feel like she has an argument. "Just tell him we're not going anywhere, okay? She's got to be...It's got to be here."

[more_magic]

"I'll tell him," he promises, knowing how important it is to her--to them both. "Nothing comes in or out of those wards unless we let it. Nothing's going to touch her. Or you." When they stop at the top of the stairs, Darlington lets himself hold her for just a minute. "Almost there."

They'd taken over one of the other bedrooms, turning it into a birthing suite with wards on every window and sigils marked on the inner and outer borders of the door. It's there that Darlington leads her, and though he's never had the same access to magic as Alex does, not without the benefit of the Bullet, even his shoulders relax a little as they step within its borders.

[takecourage]

The bed is wide and freshly made, even though the sheets aren't going to stay clean for long. They'd gone back and forth on the subject of water births and Alex had finally decided that she wanted to be in (or least, have the option to be in) a bed. She lowers herself onto the edge of the matress.

"We're going to be okay," she says. She wishes she sounded more sure.

[more_magic]

"We are," Darlington says, holding her hand tight as he helps her onto the bed--and lingering for a long time afterwards, the contact of their interlaced fingers feeling for a moment like the most important thing in the world. "How's the pain?"

[takecourage]

"Not great?" asks Alex, her teeth clenching as another contraction starts. She fists her hand in the sheets, breahting through it the way she's been taught to, her other hand squeezing Danny's fingers. "There's...I think we've still got some of that stuff that Magnus made me for my wrist?"

[more_magic]

"We do," he says, letting go of her only so he can go to the table only a few steps away, looking for the bottle she means. He finds it after a moment or two of searching, holding it up to the light to check the level of its contents. "He said a little goes a long way, right?"

[takecourage]

"Two drops in a glass of water," says Alex, shifting awkwardly up the bed so that she can rest back against the pillows. "Ought to be enough." The contraction subsides and she rests her head back. "I think she's coming tonight whether we like it or not, Danny."

[more_magic]

Darlington nods, finding a glass and measuring the dose, ducking into the bathroom next door to fill it from the tap. Even that brief absence feels like far too long to be away from her. As he comes back into the room again and hands her the glass, he takes his phone from his pocket. "Let me call Pal," he says. "See how soon he can get here."

He pauses, something tense in his features, boyish and uncertain on the threshold of everything that's to come--all of it something neither of them can ignore. "If he can get here."

[takecourage]

Alex knocks back the water in the glass without hesitation, swallowing gratefully. Immediately, the pain dulls, a taste like violets blooming on her tongue. She sags back against the pillows for a moment, and then she shfits herself into a more comfortable position.

"We'll be okay," she says. She figures one of them needs to keep saying it.

[more_magic]

"We'll be okay," he echoes, helping to adjust the pillows at her back when she shifts. The relief on her face as the potion takes hold is temporary, he knows, but still a relief to see. Quickly, he types out another text to Pal--Pick up, it's important--before opening up his contacts and tapping the entry with Pal's name.

It connects, beginning to ring, and Darlington holds his breath and hopes.

[hellonspectacles]

Palamedes almost doesn’t notice the phone ringing.

Though nearly a month has passed since Gideon’s revelations upended much of what he thought he knew, he has remained laser-focused on teasing out the thanergenic secrets lurking behind a myriad’s worth of lies. He doesn’t sleep much, and he doesn’t go out much, spending most evenings at his desk, trying to make the Lyctorhood theorem work. Admittedly, the effort hasn’t left much room in his mind for other people’s concerns.

He only notices the phone at all because of the way it begins to hum from underneath a pile of discarded notes. Fishing it out with a sigh, he first sees the texts from Darlington—and immediately his thoughts change course. He might have been distracted, but he isn’t clueless; there’s only one reason his friend would be calling him in a panic like this.

He answers and speaks without preamble. “What’s happened?”

[more_magic]

Darlington's resigned himself to leaving another message--to the fact that help isn't likely to come from any quarter at all, on a night when Darrow's decided to show the worst side of itself--when suddenly the rings cut off. Even the initial sounds of chaos, Pal fumbling the phone up to his ear, papers rustling in the distance, have him breathing a sigh of relief.

"We're at Black Elm," he says. "The baby's on her way, and our doula's caught up in...god, I don't even know. Some Darrow Halloween bullshit." He scrubs a hand through his hair, turning towards the window. "Her contractions are five minutes apart already. Can you get here?"

[hellonspectacles]

Palamedes eyes widen; he'd expected something dire, but he hadn't expected exactly this. "Already on my way," he says, standing up in another flurry of papers and grabbing his coat from where he's thrown it across his bed. "I'm going to call a Ryde, so I'm going to hang up, all right? But I'll call back as soon as I'm in the car. Tell her I'll be there soon."

He's still struggling into his jacket while simultaneously pulling up the app when he exits his bedroom, shouting into the apartment that may or may not actually contain his cavalier, "Cam, I need to-- oh, I'll explain later." Somehow, he manages to get his jacket on and the Ryde called by the time he steps out into the hallway, and then he takes the stairs two at a time on his way outside.

[more_magic]

"Whatever's happening seems localized to the woods at the edge of town, as far as I can tell" he says, cutting Alex a long, relieved glance. "Still, be careful. Talk to you soon. And thanks."

The call ends and Darlington lowers the phone from his ear, keeping it cradled in one hand as he sits at the edge of the bed. "He's coming," he tells Alex. "Just him, Cam's...I'm not sure where, but he's getting a Ryde and he'll be here." It's only a few minutes before the phone rings again, Pal's name coming up on the screen, but it feels like forever.

"Hey."

[hellonspectacles]

Again, Pal doesn't bother with preamble. His phone is pressed to his ear with one hand, while the other grips slightly at the seat of the car. "We're on the way to Black Elm. Has there been any noticeable change?" The driver's gaze flickers briefly in the rearview mirror; he's clearly curious, but Pal doesn't care. "I assume the doula left you instructions for preparing the house," the driver whispers oh shit, "so it's probably best to start there if you haven't already. The sheets are clean, everything's disinfected? You should change, too, if you haven't."

[more_magic]

"Thank God," murmurs Darlington as Pal keeps talking. All of it is advice he should be heeding, questions it's important he answer, but the sheer relief of We're on the way is for a moment the only thing he's able to focus on. "No noticeable change," he says, sliding his hand up the bed so Alex can lace her fingers with his. "Alex took some of the pain relief elixir a friend of hers brewed up, and that's taken the edge off most of the discomfort, but the contractions seem to be holding steady."

As if on cue, Alex's fingers tighten on his, harder and harder, as another one passes through her. He winces, slightly, but doesn't pull away. "Yeah, the doula gave us a checklist," he continues. "The room's prepped, everything's disinfected. Haven't changed though. I should."

Ruefully, he lifts his eyes to the ceiling, noticing a new crack in the ancient plaster. "I didn't think I'd need to."

[takecourage]

Alex rides out the contraction, her heels digging into the mattress, her fingers wrapped tight around Danny's and, when it starts to disappate, she relaxes back against the pillow. "You're probably alright in what you've got on," she says. "Not like you're wearing a tie or anything."

[hellonspectacles]

Alex’s voice comes through muffled, but Pal catches enough of what she says to get the gist. “Don’t listen to her. I’m the one in charge here,” he says, something of a joke in his voice. Emperor’s fucking bones, what right did he have to be in charge when a woman was in labor?

He glances out the car window, trying to gauge how far they still have to go before they reach Black Elm. “Should be another ten minutes, maybe?”

[more_magic]

"It's not about what, it's about hygiene," he says to Alex as Palamedes echoes something of the same in his ear. "If we were at Darrow General, they'd have me in some kind of absurd paper smock or something." He looks over at her. "Don't ask, it's too late to change your mind now." The joke isn't funny, really, but he laughs because it's one of the few things he can do.

Pal gives an ETA, and Darlington checks his watch. "Sounds good. The door's unlocked and the wards already know you, so you shouldn't have a problem getting in. Come upstairs and turn left when you get to the second floor." They say goodbye, and Darlington hangs up, dropping the phone beside the bed before he takes hold of Alex's hand again.

"Ten minutes."

[takecourage]

"Okay," says Alex, her fingers tightening and her heels digging into the mattress as she rides out another contraction, her cheeks puffing as she tries to remember all of the breathing that she's supposed to know (which Danny has, of course, always been better at).

Once it passes, she lies back.

"Go change."

[hellonspectacles]

Those ten minutes pass like a goddamn myriad. In the back of the car, Pal bounces his knee up and down, looking at his phone every couple of minutes. Multiple times he asks how far they have to go; on the third time, the driver glares at him in the rearview mirror and doesn’t respond.

Pal almost falls out of the car when it stops on Black Elm’s drive. “Thank you!” he calls over his shoulder. “You get five stars!”

“Better you than me,” the driver mutters under his breath as he pulls away.

Even if Pal had been close enough to hear, he wouldn’t have noticed. He pounds on Black Elm’s massive front door with one hand while he types a rapid text on his phone with the other.

HERRE!!

[more_magic]

He's determined to leave her only for as short a time as possible, unbuttoning the shirt he's wearing as he hastens down the hallway, changing with swift efficiency once he's back in their room. He hears the pounding on the door as he tugs a clean t-shirt over his head, letting out a sigh that's half relief and half impatience. He runs down the staircase, feet thudding noisily on the wooden treads, wrenching open the door. The sight of Pal on the threshold is welcome enough that all he can do is blink at him for a moment, dizzy with the fact that he made it here at all, despite whatever chaos has overtaken the city.

"Come on," he says, already turning back towards the staircase. "They've gotten closer and more intense, I think. She's close."