|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:02 pm
"NO!" Talon snarled.
"Talon, its not really like you get a choice in the matter..." Karma sighed, blowing bangs out of her eyes.
"Not just no, but HELL no!" the ijiuo raged. "I put up with enough from you on any given DAY without having to worry about how I'm going to deal with you pregnant!"
"Yeah, well...." she muttered, rolling her eyes.
"I can't beli--did you even think to ask everybody else how THEY might feel about this??"
"No, actually, I didn't. Because two opinions count here: Dave's and mine. And since Dave's okay with it and he and I are the ones who pay the bills, I think the rest of you can take a big deep breath and deal." She paused for a moment. "Or you can move out too. I really don't care either way, but a baby IS coming."
"Fine." he spat, dropping the paperwork he was going over and shoving back from the table to get up.
"'Fine' you'll deal with it or 'fine' you're moving out?" she pried.
"Fine I'm moving out." he shot back. "This house gets more and more ******** crowded every time I turn around!"
"Yeah, and you're not helping much with that, if you'll recall." she pointed out. "I understand Zhane was an accident, but--"
"DON'T you call my son an 'accident'!" he raged at her. "Your goddamn twins were much more of a ******** than Zhane any way that you slice it, but do you hear ME calling THEM an accident??"
"All right....all right, that wasn't nice of me, you're right." she said, putting her hands up defensively. "There's no reason to get all worked up, though. Its not like this is going to effect YOU any, Talon. Its our baby, Dave's and mine, and we'll handle it ourselves. Nobody's asking you to give up your room or get up at two AM to help with the feeding and changing, so..."
"I'll start looking at apartments tomorrow." he informed her brusquely, moving to leave, and then striding back to the table to snatch up his paperwork before storming to his room and slamming the door. Karma watched him go, not moving to stop him and shook her head.
Always a flare for the dramatic with that one...the concept of simply being happy for someone or letting something slide was not within his realm of knowledge. It always had to be a catastrophe of some sort that directly effected him somehow.
Fine, then. Let him move out, if that's what he wanted. It was well-past time for him to go anyway, what with being married with children and all. She could use the space anyway.
So, why then, did she feel like curling up somewhere and crying...?
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:20 pm
Dear Diary,
I can't help but wonder sometimes if I'm being shortsighted in all of this. I don't get why Talon should think for even a minute that this is something that directly effects him. It doesn't. This was my choice. Mine and Dave's. And I don't really CARE if he's older in body than I am, or whatever, that doesn't give him any right to freak out like he's my ******** DAD.
Hell, he doesn't even care about me or the baby, all HE cares about is that its going to be a disruption to his schedule. So great of a disruption, apparantly, that he's moving out.
Fine. Let him. He can take Zhane and Phaerna with him and I'll have some free space again for MY kids instead of worrying about HIS.
I just don't get why it has to come to this. Everybody else in the house who is actually a part of the family was fine with it. Even Arkie doesn't care. So why should Talon freak out? I hate being made to feel like I've done something wrong by wanting to have another baby and...UGH.
Maybe I should just go to bed for the night and hope things look better in the morning...
--Karma
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:40 am
It had not taken long for the sting of Talon's words to be shaken off and life to resume as normal. ...or as normal as it got, all considered.
"Just relax, Mrs. Kitsune." the doctor said gently, rubbing some clear jelly onto the slight swell of her belly that, despite the fact they'd claimed to have warmed it, was still very cold and unpleasant-feeling.
"Are you even going to be able to see anything this early?" she inquired, trying not to squirm.
"Oh I think we might." she nodded. "Its been our experience that pregnancies in Gaia tend to be accelerated a great deal. You say you conceived earlier this month?"
"Mmhmm." the foxcoon nodded.
"Then we should have -something- to look at." she nodded, retrieving her wand from where it sat on the edge of the implement table and reaching out to turn on the sonogram monitor. "Let's just let this get warmed up here..." she said, passing it over her hand and watching the monitor.
Karma sighed and waited for the process to be over with. She must have blocked out just how humiliating visits to the OB-GYN were when she was having Raven and Kendall. Up until now she'd forgotten just how miserable it was to lay on a crinkly sheet of paper with your shirt bunched up around your neck while a total stranger smeared goop on your stomach and then ran a little static wand over it.
"Hokay, let's see what we've got here." the woman smiled, placing the wand gently against Karma's belly and moving it gingerly as she watched the screen. As the two women watched, eventually, a gray-white mass came into focus.
"There it is!" the doctor grinned. "That's your baby!"
Despite her being uncomfortable and disliking the process immensely, Karma was unable to keep from beaming. She'd been the same way when she'd seen Raven and Kendall's ultrasound.
"Can...can you tell if its one or two?" she inquired.
"Pardon?" the doctor asked, brows lifting.
"I'm just asking...I....last time I had kids, I had twins. We're not sure if they came from their father's side of the family or mine."
"Well, that all depends on how well your little passenger wants to cooperate here..." the doctor said, squinting at the screen. The mass twitched a bit, but did little else. "Mnn....no, I'm sorry. Its still a bit early to tell. If you come back in another couple of weeks, we should be able to get a clear heartbeat and listen for any irregularities."
"Fair enough..." Karma nodded. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
"The baby is currently in a position where we aren't able to give an accurate answer." she answered regretfully. "But if he or she decides to turn over for us by your next visit, I'd be happy to tell you."
"Mm...does everything else look okay, at least? Any problems?"
"I don't see any." the doctor assured her. "The cord looks like its where it needs to be and I don't see any signs of malnourishment. Are you getting enough calcium?"
"Yeah. I cut down on my soda intake before we went to the clinic."
"Clinic?" the doctor inquired.
"A fertility clinic." the foxcoon explained with a wave of her hand. "My husband and I can't--"
"Oh! Oh I see..." she chuckled. Karma made a mental note to herself that, from now on, she wasn't going to settle for doctors that were still wet-behind-the-ears from medical school. "Well, unless there's anything else we can do for you, Mrs. Kitsune, you should be good to go." Saying so, she opened the cupboard and pulled out a roll of paper towels for Karma to clean herself up with. "Go ahead and get dressed and we'll check you out at the front desk whenever you're ready."
As an afterthought, she hit a button on the sonogram's monitor. The machine whirred and then spat out a small printout of the screen's display which the doctor placed within Karma's reach before bustling out of the room.
The foxcoon wrinkled her nose in distaste at the mess she'd been left with, but before getting into the paper towels, she reached out, gently plucking up the ultrasound and looked at it for a long moment.
"Hey, you..." she whispered, smiling gently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:48 pm
Quote: Hi Karma!
It's Kiwi! L's Son! L told
me all about you! L heard
you were having a kid so
we got together and made
this plushie for them! It's of
you! I hope you both like it!
-Kiwi heart 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:29 pm
As Karma made her way up the walk, her arms laden with brown shopping bags, she nearly was sent sprawling as she tripped over an unseen obstruction. "Hoshit! ********! NO!" she cursed randomly, dropping her bags and grabbing wildly for something to break her fall. She managed to catch her balance by digging her claws into the screen of her front door and tearing two long furrows into it.
....oh well, it had been about time to take it out and replace it with winter glass anyway.
Turning reproachfully, she tried to see what it was she had tripped over, promising herself that she WAS going to follow through on her threat this time to take all the damn toys in the house to Goodwill if it was one of Arkie's. She'd told him time and time again, not to leave his stuff laying around where people could fall on it!
A brown-and-orange little something laid innocently on the porch, askew where it had been kicked in the frantic process of her falling over. It didn't look like one of Arkie's toys...at least not one SHE'D given him. Scowling, she picked it up to examine it, only to stop short and blink in confusion.
It was...her. A plushie her, granted, but her.
Where had it come from?
Examining the porch again, she recovered a now-rumpled piece of paper that had accompanied the plushie and read the letter. Slowly, she smiled, all thoughts of raising holy hell when she got into the house diminishing from her mind. Awwww...she hadn't talked to L in such a long time. How had she found out she was having a baby?
Placing the little plush foxcoon in one of her shopping bags so that it poked halfway out of the top, looking like a little toy explorer, she gathered up everything she had dropped and headed inside. Maybe L had found her via Farland's clinic...if that were the case, she would need to drop by there very soon and thank her in person.
Or at least find out where she could find her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:26 am
"So how's that 'moving out' thing going for you?" Karma inquired, having felt in especially foul spirits this morning due to being unable to sleep. The child had apparantly just discovered its legs yesterday evening, and shortly following that, how to kick with them.
And kick it did, over and over again every time she was just about to drift off to sleep. At first, she had been enchanted with it and had called Dave at work to inform him that she'd just felt the baby kick for the first time. After about an hour, however, it had lost its novelty. Two hours, and she was growing crabby. Daybreak, and urgh...
"Its going." Talon muttered, not looking up from his bowl of oatmeal.
"Have you found a place?"
"We're going to look at a house this weekend." he informed her, hunching his shoulders slightly and narrowing his eyes. "Why?"
"Because I need to know whether you're going to be out in time for me to count on having my nursery back or if I should plan on crowding the baby in MY room." she told him.
"Don't make it sound like this is my fault." Talon growled. "You knew Zhane and Phaerna were here and getting pregnant again was YOUR idea."
"Right, well, I didn't exactly count on you and Yeande sticking around after you got married." she told him.
"We're leaving as soon as we can." he grated out. "The sooner the better, really. I can't help when the house showings are." and saying so, he returned to his breakfast. Karma's tail twitched and for a moment she nearly pressed the issue further. She was just in one of those moods where she WANTED to be pissed at someone.
"Hey, mom!" Kendall said cheerfully as he entered the kitchen and paused at the pantry, grabbing the box of Count Chocula.
"Ken, where's your brother?" she asked.
"Arkie? Still asleep." he shrugged. "Was probably up late watching TV."
"He knows he's not supposed to do that." she growled.
"Mom, he's Arkie...the rules don't apply. Neither does sanity." her son shrugged, grabbing a bowl off of the drying rack and pouring cereal into it.
"Why did you let him stay up when you knew he wasn't supposed to?" she demanded to know.
"Hey...whoa...." Kendall said putting his hands up defensively, the cereal box in one and the bowl in the other. "I didn't say he definitely did, that was just MY guess. For all I know he was up till all hours talking to the ceiling or something."
Putting the cereal away, he went to the fridge next, grabbing the milk and pouring it on the chocolate cereal bits. "Oh hey! How'd that ultrasound go? Did you find out if it was a boy or a girl yet?"
Gritting her teeth, reminded of the failed ultrasound a few days ago, Karma rose from where she was sitting abruptly and stalked off to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
Kendall stood for a long moment, looking after her in confusion before sitting down gingerly at the breakfast table across from Talon.
"What the hell was THAT all about?" the teen inquired. Talon's only answer was to shake his head and not look up from his bowl, saying without words Hell if *I* know...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:54 am
"I'm not trying to be bitchy or anything, I just would like an accurate reading. The last ultrasound told me NOTHING."
"Calm down, Mrs. Kitsune....I'm sorry you were dissatisfied with your experience, but I'm sure you can see where getting angry about it is counterproductive..."
"I'm not angry, but you're helping me get there in a hurry." Karma told the woman on the phone, her hand tightening on the reciever to a white knuckled grip. "I'd like to reschedule and I'd like to have the ultrasound redone. By someone else this time...someone who knows what they're doing."
"Doctor Decker is new to our staff, but that doesn't make her any less experien--"
"I don't care. I'M paying YOU." she snapped. Oh god, she hated being in moods like this. Ordinarily she was nowhere near this snarly to anyone, friend OR stranger, but she couldn't help it.
There was a pause on the other end.
"Doctor Flemming is in today and could see you." the receptionist offered, sounding slightly miffed at Karma's tone of voice.
"Good. When?"
"Four-fifteen?"
"Great. I'll be there. Thank you." Saying so, she hung up.
Karma sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, stark still, and then promptly dissolved into tears. DAMN these hormones....!! They were turning her into a weepy bloated monster!
Another detail she'd conveniently "forgotten" about the twins' pregnancy. Or maybe had been fortunate enough to bypass the first time around...she didn't know.
She would have to apologize to the receptionist when she went in, she decided. Maybe bring her chocolates or something. After complaining so much about rude people, she hated when she, herself, committed acts of extreme rudeness.
Her belly twitched slightly as the infant within began to kick again. Sighing, she put a hand over the fluttering sensation and groaned.
"Kiddo, you know I love you, but give it a rest, can't ya?"
The sensation slowed and then ceased a moment later as the child either found something else to busy itself with or went back to sleep. Either way, Karma breathed a sigh of relief. She'd passed into the stage where the 'maternal glow' of the pregnancy was beginning to dwindle and be replaced with a slightly more disgruntled 'get this kid out of me already'.
Which was funny considering she'd only been pregnant for two weeks earth-time. To look at her belly you'd think it had at least been six months.
Oh well.
Four. She could wait till four.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:58 am
"I'm sorry again, Karma, for the difficulties."
"No, no, I'M sorry...." the foxcoon sighed, flushing with embarrassment. "I acted like a jerk and I had no place to."
"We're well-used to it. Don't worry." Dr. Flemming assured her. "Its perfectly normal for your temper to get shorter as your pregnancy progresses. We see it all the time."
"Yeah, but still..." she muttered, shouldering into her coat.
"In Doctor Decker's defense, your baby IS positioned in such a way that its difficult to tell much. I hope I was of further help today, though."
"You were." Karma assured her. "At least now I know what to expect and can start thinking of names." The elderly woman chuckled in response.
"I suppose that WOULD be a problem, wouldn't it? Not knowing what color to paint the nursery or what sorts of things to buy."
"Well, that's solved now. I think I'm going to stop at Kids R Us on the way home and buy some crib linen to get started."
"Wonderful! Well, if there's nothing else we can help you with--"
"I can't think of anything." she smiled. "Thank you again."
"Just call if you need anything else. Have a good day, Karma." And saying so, Dr. Flemming bustled off to visit her next patient as Karma excused herself back to the waiting room and stepped outside. Digging her cel phone out of her purse as she headed for the car, she dialed her home number and waited for someone to pick up.
It was not until her hand was on the driver's side handle that there was a click and Dave's groggy voice filtered through. "H'lo....?" he asked sleepily.
"Dave...? Its a girl." she beamed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:45 pm
Dear Diary,
Its amazing how much easier it is to get ready for your baby when you know the gender. I've done the bulk of the shopping in the last two weeks and as soon as Talon & company haul their butts out of my house, I can get started painting the nursery. Again.
Wow, that thing's had three coats of paint....we painted it a light lavendar for the twins, then I repainted it a sort of celery green for Arkie, now its white for Zhane and Phaerna....
I think I might take a chance and try for pink this time. I know its stereotypical and everything, but....hey, its my nursery so shut up. If the kid ends up being overly-offended by pink, we can always repaint it later, but I have a feeling that for awhile, the color of the walls in her room will not be a concern of hers.
Let's see...what else....
Oh! Names! We're starting to go over names now, Dave and I. Its occurred to me that I've never really HAD to name a girl save for non-sentient pets that don't care what their name is. You could name them Mister Shitmittens and they would probably answer to it within a week. All of the kids in my care have been boys. I didn't even name my first daughter.
So this has been quite an undertaking, trying to find a name that would not only be pretty and roll off the tongue easily, but that wouldn't leave much room for other kids to make fun of in school. Its sad that has to be a factor, but I'd never forgive myself if I had to deal with her coming home in tears every day.
I'm currently leaning toward Aislynn. Its a nice unique name people don't use much and you'd really have to stretch for something lame to make fun of it. Still don't have a middle name, though. I'll keep working on it, I suppose.
Whoof...I hope all of this activity means that this kid is reaching term soon. If I have to tolerate another few months of this kicking and wriggling, I'm going to go nuts.
--Karma
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:45 pm
"Its only for three days, things are going to be fine." Dave assured Karma as he made another trip to the open suitcase on the bed, depositing an armload of clothes on top of the copious amount of sketchbooks and markers that had already been packed away.
"I....don't know that they will." Karma called from where she was in the bathroom gathering last minute toiletries. "A lot can happen in three days."
"Like?"
"It doesn't take three days for the house to burn down."
"Who's going to burn down the house?" Dave inquired, quirking a brow.
"I'm just saying leaving Arkie here by himself for three days while we go off to some convention is just asking for something like that to happen." she sighed, wincing as the baby kicked again.
"Arkie isn't going to be here by himself." her husband corrected. "Kendall's going to be here. And Talon."
"Provided Kendall doesn't keep his face in the computer the whole time and you know as well as I do that Talon only pays attention to Arkie when he's pissing him off."
"So we'll offer to pay them or something." Dave shrugged.
"I don't know if you heard what Talon's new salary is, but I think buying him off to watch Arkie is going to cost more than either of us can afford, dear." she chuckled wryly.
"Well the only other thing I can think of is to take him with us and--"
"No." Karma said sternly, interrupting that train of thought before it could even begin.
"Right...I was just going to say that I don't think letting him run around in a hotel full of deviants is really a very good idea."
"So that leaves us back at square one..." she sighed.
"I think he'll be fine. Come on, Karma, you and I looked forward to this thing all year. If you start worrying something's going to happen now, something WILL."
"I know, I know..." she waved a hand at him dismissively.
"We'll do bi-hourly calls if that makes you feel better...." he continued. "You know... 'Its nine o'clock, do you know where YOUR brother is...?' and I think Kendall will get the hint."
"Hope so..."
Dave furrowed his brow a bit, abandoning the suitcase to cross the bedroom and place his hands on his wife's shoulders
"Come on..." he said gently. "It'll be fine. You, me, and a hotel full of freaks. Tell me that's not the makings of a fun weekend."
"And if the baby comes?" she asked, making him blink and then chuckle.
"I don't think our luck is quite that rotten." he assured her, his hands sliding down to rest on the prominant bulge of her belly where their unborn daughter was resting. "she waited this long, I think she can wait three more days."
Karma wanted to argue, but realized he was probably right. Some babies were WEEKS overdue. They could probably squeak seventy-two more hours out of the pregnancy without incident. Just long enough to have a good time, make some money, and come home.
And probably go into labor in the car on the way she thought waspishly. Then again, it had been a couple of weeks now since she'd had a decent night's sleep. Having a tiny someone kick you in the bladder at three AM was quite the wakeup call.
"Things will be fine." Dave told her again, kissing the back of her neck gently. "I promise. Now tell me where you hid the Airborne so we don't pick up any colds at this thing."
"Medicine cabinet. God forbid it be where it belongs, right?" she smirked. It was an uneasy smirk, however...
She knew there really WAS nothing to worry about as going away for the weekend to Conifur Northwest had been an annual affair of theirs since they'd been dating, but try as she might, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss somehow...
Or would be.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:24 pm
Dear Diary,
Well, here we are. We leave in exactly five hours and fifteen minutes to head up to the hotel and get settled up in our room for the weekend. I SHOULD be sleeping, but the baby is being restless again. Every time I start to nod off, she starts kicking.
I think this is prelude to me not getting much sleep for awhile, unfortunately. She's bad enough when she's restless and I'm home relaxing, but you couple it with being in a noisy environment with strange sights and sounds all weekend while I'm up and moving around and she's going to be in a turmoil.
I shouldn't be complaining...conventions are easy money. You just sit behind a table all weekend and draw whatever the patrons tell you to draw and they pay you for it. I'll just be sure to drink plenty of apple juice and eat lots of froot loops to keep her sated since that seems to be her favorite thing to make me crave at four AM anymore. I wish negotiation with in-utero children was easier...
--Karma
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:52 am
"Here you are, sir. Your room is on the seventh floor. The elevators are to your right. Have a nice evening." the desk manager smiled, sliding a keycard across the polished marble desktop toward Dave. "Will you need any help with your bags?"
"No thanks, I got help." he smiled, jerking a thumb at Karma who favored him with a scowl....as did the desk manager.
"My a**, I'm carrying the bags." she growled.
"I was just kidding..." he assured her, grabbing the handle of the suitcase and hefting it up with a grunt. "....but you can get the backpack, right?" he wheezed as he stumbled toward the elevators.
"Backpack, I can do." she assured him, scooping it off of the floor where he'd dropped it and trailing after him as they shouldered into the elevator with several other people who were likewise heading up. "I just want to get to the room, watch some TV and go to sleep. I still need to do some psyching myself up before we deal with any weirdos."
The child within her fluttered in agreement.
"Shouldn't be a problem. Most people won't be getting here till tomorrow. We can just--"
"HEEEY DAVE!" a nasal voice proclaimed, making both of them cringe as they turned to see a pudgey young man who, judging by the number of pock scars on his face, puberty had been quite unkind to. "Remember me??"
"Nnnno...?" Dave said, blinking in confusion.
"Last year? I bought the picture off of you of the ferret girl and the zombie bluejay?"
"Um..."
"And I said I really liked that online comic you do?"
"Oh! Um...right!" Dave nodded, forcing a smile. Karma sighed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Great....a fanboy. "Well, listen, we were just headed up to the room, so maybe I'll see you around in the Dealer's Den tomorrow?"
"Sure, you bet!" the tubby youth replied, nodding his head of greasy hair. "Hey if you're not doing anything tonight, I was gonna head to McDonalds and get some dinner. You wanna--"
"Actually..." Karma stepped in, trying not to sound annoyed. "We're both tired from the trip down. We're going to get some sleep."
"Really? You sure YOU can't just go to sleep and let Dave stay up?"
The foxcoon narrowed her eyes in reply. "Quite sure." she said through gritted teeth. The baby within her squirmed again and she placed a hand protectively over her belly. "Maybe tomorrow."
"Man..." the fanboy grumped, favoring her with an unsavory look which Karma readily returned. If there was one thing she hated about conventions like this one, it was that they were 95% male and most of them were either gay and borderline misogynistic, or had no idea how to talk to a woman. Either way, they were irritating as hell and she didn't feel like putting up with it.
She was pregnant, she was hormonal, and god dammit, she was tired.
The elevator dinged and came to a stop on the fifth floor, letting out several of the elevator's inhabitants and letting in the sterile scent of clean linen and chlorine that all hotels seemed to have.
"Kay, well, I'll catch you guys tomorrow then." fanboy said, grabbing up his duffle bag and waddling to the exit. "Oh hey, Dave? I'm in room five-eleven if you wanna come and say hi or anything."
"Sure. Okay." Dave nodded, tilting a short wave to the guy just as the elevator doors swept shut.
"Lone-lyyyyy, I'm mister lone-lyyyyy....I have no-bodyyyy fooor my ooowwwwwnn" Karma sang as the elevator glided upward again.
"Be nice." Dave chuckled. "He probably never talks to anybody offline except when he comes here."
"Probably. That's his problem, though."
The elevator stopped on the sixth floor to let the last two people out and then puttered up to the seventh with only she and Dave on-board.
"You going to be okay tomorrow, you think?" he inquired.
"That all depends on if she lets me sleep tonight." Karma sighed, rubbing her temples. "I'm exhausted. I think I've gotten four hours' sleep in the last three days."
"Well...its good that she's active, right?"
"Good for HER, maybe..." she sighed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes and flattening her ears.
Ding! The elevator doors whisked open as they stepped into the cool air of the hallway and trudged down the thin carpet toward their room.
"Can't you take something to make her sleep? Like if you took Nyquil, would that make her sleep AND you sleep?"
Karma shook her head in response. "It might, but that's something I'd need to talk to a doctor about before doing and its not worth the risk otherwise. I'll just tough it out for now and see if she calms down. Maybe visit the clinic when we get home and see what they have to say. Maybe they can give me some sort of fetal-friendly sleeping pills or something."
As though in response, the baby gave an especially hard kick that made her grunt and place her hand over her belly again. Ow...
"Well, all right, if you're sure..." he said, stopping in front of one of the doors and inserting the keycard. It gave an accepting beep and unlatched, allowing them entrance as he pushed it open and bumbled inside with their suitcase. Karma followed closely behind, closing the door behind them and promptly sitting on the edge of the bed with a groan. "You okay?" Dave inquired.
"Mnnh...yeah. Just hit the air conditioning for me and I'll be fine." she answered, not even bothering to undress as she sagged to her side, drawing her knees up as far as her swollen belly would allow. Screw TV, she was going to sleep.
A moment later the humm of the air conditioner filled the room and the bedside lamp clicked off as she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping against hope that the baby would let her rest tonight.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:19 pm
The first day of the con went as could be expected. It was slow, there was a slow trickle of still-arriving attendees who's eyes were red and puffy from jetlag, and nobody seemed to be in the mood to buy much just yet.
That was not to say, of course, that there hadn't been ANY business....
"Okay, so....let's review..." Karma said, turning the sketchbook in her hands sideways and squinting at the picture inside. "So you want him and her..."
"Yeah, the wolf and the bunny..." the balding man in front of her grinned, nodding.
"Except you want the bunny with blue hair and not blonde..."
"Well, see, she WAS blonde, but then I dyed it blue because I was getting a lot of crap from this guy over on ToonMUCK saying that I stole his character and...you know how it goes."
"Aheh...right." she forced a chuckle. Thank GOD she'd gotten a decent night of sleep the night before. In fact, the baby had been oddly docile all day. She was still moving, of course, but it wasn't the horrible gutbusting kicks she'd been inflicting upon her mother for the last week or so. It had actually been pretty nice.
"Oh! And her boobs are supposed to be bigger than that." he added, pointing at the picture of the already quite-busty rabbit. "I told the artist that and he was all 'this is as big as I make them because any bigger is just unnatural' and I'm all 'don't tell ME how my character looks, all right??' Can you believe that?"
"Yeah...the nerve of some people." she nodded, eyeing the whole five dollars he was offering for her to draw this 'masterpiece' for him.
"So when can I come pick it up? Twenty minutes sound good?" he inquired.
"Well, let's see....two characters, in color, plus a background. That'll probably take me a couple of hours. That and I have two books in front of you..." she sighed. "I'll probably have it done about when the Dealer's Den closes. What room number are you in and I could come drop it off?"
"How could that take a couple of HOURS?" he asked, sounding incredulous.
"Well, you have to sketch, and then ink, and then erase, and then lay down the flats, shadow, highlight...need I go on?"
God, this guy was driving her crazy...it was bad enough that he thought artists were some sort of image-churning machines, but coupled with the fact that he obviously never interacted with humanity except when he had to was just making the entire exchange all the more awkward.
That and he smelled like he hadn't bathed in a week. It was enough to make her retch.
She didn't, though. Not quite. But something DID happen. There was a faint and painful twinge from somewhere within her belly that made her wince, following which was a rush of warmth that saturated the inner thighs of her pants and soaked into the legs.
....oh s**t.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:33 pm
A hand went to her belly and her eyes went wide. "...my water just broke." she announced in a tight, not-so-quiet voice.
"Look, don't interrupt me. I HATE it when people interrupt me." the guy snapped before continuing on his tirade. Karma, however, wasn't listening as her eyes wandered to where Dave should have been sitting beside her and wasn't. God dammit, where the hell was he? How long did it take to go buy a soda from the hallway vending machine and come back?
Her eyes skated the immediate vicinity and...oh, GOOD! A security guard! ...or sort of a security guard. He looked just like the other con attendees except he wore an eye-scarringly yellow shirt and carried a walkie-talkie.
"Sir?? Sir!" She called out, reaching out and catching his shirt on her clawtips.
"Hm?" he asked, casting a friendly-yet-clueless look in her direction.
"My water just broke." she told him. "I need help and I don't know where my husband is."
"Oh! Okay, I'll be right back!" he assured her, hustling from the room. Thank god....SOMEONE with some sense. He would call an ambulance and everything would be fine.
Tok!
Karma looked up to see a styrofoam cup of water being set in front of her as the empty cup she'd drained nearly an hour ago was removed.
"There ya go!" he smiled and then hurried off to attend other business.
....it took her several moments to process that this had truly just happened to her. That there existed a being on this planet that was gifted with sentient thought and yet chose to live his life in a moronic haze. How...tragic.
Groaning, she rose from her seat, which was now quite damp and looked for something to wrap around her waist to hide the fact her jeans were soaked. No dice...her coat was up in the room. s**t....
Edging out from behind her table, she shouldered past the still-complaining bald man and hobbled toward the exit, ignoring his cries for her to stop and listen to him. Oh...oh, ow...the pains weren't yet debilitating, but they were certainly uncomfortable. She would have preferred the baby's kicking to this -any- day.
So now here she was.....in the middle of a furry convention....going into the first stages of labor.....and her pants were soaked.
Peachy.
Someone roving past seemed to have noticed her predicament as he sidled up to her, a sly smile on his weasely freckled face.
"Did you have an...accident?" he asked, as though letting her in on some big conspiracy.
"LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE, YOU FREAK!" she barked, shoving past him. She had a hard time dealing with these people on a normal day, she wasn't even going to pretend to tolerate them under these conditions.
She needed to get to a phone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:13 pm
Finding the courteousy phone on her own was like trying to find a steak in a vegan convention...it, quite simply, wasn't going to happen. Not even if you were a distressed woman in labor who didn't know where the hell her husband had gotten to. At last, she had been told where she could find it and had lumbered into the bathroom alcove where, all by its lonesome, a white phone sat on its hook as though saying where have YOU been?
Snatching it up, she dialed Dave's cel phone number and waited.
It rang once...twice....
"Allo?" a familiar voice filtered through the reciever.
"Where in god's name did you go??" she demanded.
"I stopped off to have lunch with Todd and Eric." he said, sounding bewildered by her outburst. "Why? Do you need me to take over the table for awhile?"
"What I NEED is for you to get your a** down here and take me to the hospital!" she hissed.
"Hospital? Why? What's going on??" he asked, sounding alarmed.
"What's going on??" she repeated. "I'm having the baby, that's what's going on! And you wander off without even telling me where you're going and leave me alone with those reprobates so you can sit in a cafe someplace eating sandwiches while I--"
"Oh s**t...s**t! Okay, I'll be right there! Don't move!"
"You don't even know where I a--" but it was too late, he'd already hung up. So that meant he would be heading for the Dealer's Den to find her. Which meant she would have to go back there to meet him.
God dammit...
Hanging up the phone she began her trip back to the Den, pausing to double over and wince as a larger pain among the smaller twinges drove into her abdomen like a steel spike.
Hooo....why had she wanted to go through this again? If memory served, it had been quite bad enough the first time...
Too bad her memory didn't seem to want to recall the unimportant details like PAIN until the last minute.
"Hey lady, are you all right?" a male voice inquired as one of the hotel workers abandoned the wall he was scrubbing to approach her.
Could it be? Someone with SENSE??
"No." she told him truthfully. "I just went into labor. But my husband's on the way, and he's going to drive me to the hospital."
"Lady, I don't wanna tell you your business or anything, but its the middle of rush hour out there and the hospital's about an hour away from here. You don't need your husband, you need an ambulance."
Another pain hit, making her grit her teeth.
"Fine...whatever...." she whimpered. "Go ahead..." At this point, she didn't care. But she would be damned before she had this baby surrounded by wackos wearing plush fox tails and mascot costumes. As he trotted off to grab up the courteousy phone once more, she did her best to right herself again, casting bleary eyes around the room.
"Dave, where the hell are you...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
