(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]

"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."