(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

[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."