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Mei stared up at Ginger for a moment. Had she heard correctly? She could never be sure. Sometime she wasn't sure if she was actually hearing these things or if she was imagining that people were talking to her. "I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood," she said with a hesitant smile. Better safe than sorry! "You see, I'm not the best at English, so... I must have misunderstood." she let out a nervous laugh.

She listened to her very carefully before laughing once more. Oh, it seemed she HAD heard correctly! How nice. She was happy to hear that she wasn't imagining thing. But she continued to laugh nervously, because now that she wasn't nervous about making a mistake, she was nervous about what Ginger had said!

"Ah... yes... I understand..." she said after a moment, clearing her throat. Ginger was intimidating! And she liked intimidating women! But she wouldn't want to cross one! So she might as well go along with what she said!

Mei looked up from her desk the moment the door to the clinic opened. She was like a puppy sometimes, responding eagerly to visitors. Or, as close to "eager" as she could get. She was a little surprised to see Shinju and Kotone (who, for convenience's sake let's just say, have been coming in for regular check-ups, even though Kokoro is lazy and doesn't feel like actually roleplaying any of it out. Because it's boring.) again so soon.

"Uhm, welcome. How can I help you?" Mei asked, looking over at Kotone quizzically. The teenager was red in the face and was on the verge of tears. Or not. It looked like she had been crying the entire way there, which she had. She had very low tolerance for pain.

Shinju looked flustered! Not so much about Kotone being okay or having to deal with a baby from now on, but because she was nervous that the baby would be born and she'd have to see the whole process. Because even though she was pretty maternal and knew exactly how many kids she was going to have (she had already picked out names), childbirth grossed her out. And so she'd rather not have to witness anything that awful unless she was pumped up with drugs. "My sister's going into labor, of course. Why else do you think she looks like that?" Mei honestly had no idea how to answer. Her brief run-ins with Kotone had been unpleasant or less than remarkable, so she was not confident in her ability to say something nice about the girl.

"Shinjuuu, I don't like thiiisss," Kotone whined tearfully. Shinju turned her head around to glare at the girl. "Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you opened your legs for some retard!" she snapped. Kotone straightened up suddenly and fell silent. "Please? Do something?" Shinju said gently as she turned back to Mei.

"Uhm, yes, just a moment," Mei said nervously before standing up and running into the back to find someone, anyone. Lesley, Finn, hell, she'd even take Paprika! Just someone who could deal with things. Pregnancy freaked her out and the tall girl was scary.

Mei held onto the doorway, as if she were hiding from Mao. Since the Masquerade, she had been oddly on edge around him. He was intimidating! And she didn't even have her friend as a buffer! (It was terrible thing to say, but her boss had treated her so much better when Lesley was around) "I know, I'm working," she said quickly, though she sounded insecure and her reply wasn't convincing. She quickly cleared her throat and shifted her weight to the other foot. "Err, someone's having a baby. In there. In the lobby," she pointed behind her, as if he needed the clarification. She honestly had no way to tastefully explain the situation. Childbirth was unpleasant and gross and the topic should be avoided at all costs in polite company.

"Yes!" Mei squeaked as Mao snapped at her, and she didn't waste any time in spinning around and leaving the doorway. The tall girl was scary, but Mao was even scarier! She hurried back into the lobby and had just reached Shinju when she realized that they didn't have a delivery room. They didn't have a lot of things. It was a wonder the death rate wasn't higher here. Not that it was particularly low to begin with, but there was a considerable number of murders compared to death due to illness or injury. Anyway, they didn't have a delivery room, but Mei didn't want to go back there to remind him of that fact. She knew it wouldn't end well.

"...You okay?" Shinju looked down at the girl, who had turned deathly pale.

Mei forced a shaky laugh. "Yes, I'm fine, please come with me," she said in an unusually high voice, reaching out to gentle touch Kotone's arm and guide her along. But before she even made contact, she stopped. There was something VERY WRONG with this girl. What if she caught it? Whatever it was that was making her look so crazy? She quickly withdrew her hand and transitioned into an over-the-top arm gesture, as if that had been her intent the whole time. She showed them the way to the examination room (it was close enough, right?) and hovered by the door, making sure she wouldn't be in Mao's way. She then proceeded to stare at her feet while Shinju and Kotone stared at her.

Mei could feel herself start to panic. "B-but! I'm not nearly qualified!" she protested hesitantly. She held onto the doorjam tightly and peeked in nervously. She refused to step inside until she knew he wasn't going to hit her. He had never shown any sort of violence toward her, but she wouldn't put it past him.

Shinju stared down at the form as she took it from Mao. Paperwork? It seemed like an inappropriate time, especially since Kotone had begun to whine again, albeit quietly. People were talking in a foreign language that sounded scary, so she didn't dare make her complaints much louder.

Shinju filled out the form and handed it back to Mao. "Anything else?" She asked hopefully. She just wanted to leave the room. She was a terrible older sister, but she didn't care at that point. Maybe she could go hang out with the freaked out receptionist.

Mei's stomach flipped when Mao scolded her. That's right! Changing clothes! They almost never had a patient who was bad enough to have to change clothes. She completely forgot about that part! She had no idea who Xiang Xiang was (she was clueless about pop culture, among the numerous other things) but it couldn't be good. "Yes, sir! I'm sorry, sir!" she squeaked before hurrying in to help the whining teenager change into the hospital gown.


Shinju tried not to cringe at the word 'cervix' and instead focused on the relief that this man wasn't going to force her to stay in there. Since she assumed she'd be doing the bulk of the work when the baby was born, there was no way she was going to start now when she could very easily sit in the waiting room with a magazine.

"Family?" Shinju repeated. Who else would they call? She was silent for a moment while she thought everything over, just in case she was forgetting someone or something. Not so much someone to call to the hospital, but maybe her boss to explain why she was missing work. Hell, maybe she'd get time off!

"What about Za--" Kotone spoke up softly as Mei finished helping her change (it had taken her way too long to find the gown in the first place). But before she could get out Zachary's full name, Shinju interrupted. "Nope, just us!" she said with a wide smile. "Uhm, anyway, I'll be going in there now," she pointed to the lobby. "Thank you, and, uh... good luck," she added with an awkward salute before she made a quick getaway.

Mei stared at the baggy for a long moment. Mao had left the room by then, so she was safe to be as skeptical as she pleased. She was usually confused about most things, but this hit a new high. There was a lizard. A lizard. A LIZARD. Was he joking? No, he had sounded serious. And she wasn't convinced he knew HOW to joke. Maybe it was just in the shape of a lizard? Like gummy bears or that sundae she had once bought that actually wasn't a sundae but plastic? She opened the bag and frowned. Nope, if that wasn't real, she didn't know what it was. But Mao was her boss. He owned the clinic and apparently was qualified to do this. So he must have known what he was doing. She was just the receptionist. She hadn't even passed her college biology class. Who was she to judge?

Kotone had already flopped back on the examination table, not because she had understood Mandarin or the situation at all, but because the last contraction had worn her out so much that she just wanted to go to sleep until all of this was over. She stared at Mei out of the corner of her eye as the tense woman hurried over. What was in the bag? She didn't have a good feeling about this...

Mei helped her sit up, pulling out some spare pillows that had been in the same cupboard as the hospital gown, and made sure she was as comfortable as she could possibly be. But considering she was a tiny teenager going into labor in the examination room of some tiny village clinic, the bar wasn't set particularly high. Regardless, once Mei felt a little better about Kotone's comfort level, she held the baggy out, right in her face. "Urhm, the doctor said you should eat this."

Kotone's mouth fell open as she assessed the situation. She couldn't even eat food that TOUCHED, let alone something that looked unnervingly like a whole lizard. "No."

Mei started to get a little panicky. Couldn't this girl just eat the damn thing? Then this awful situation would be over and they'd never have to think about it! Not that SHE'D eat the lizard if she were in the same situation, but she wasn't in the right mind to be very sympathetic.

"Please, the doctor said!"

"Nuh-uh!'

"It could be important!"

"I don't care!"

"I'm sorry, but--!"

"I said NO. It looks gross!"

"I know, but..."

"Hey, what are you doing? Get away!"

"I'm sorry, but the doctor said you should eat this!"

"Get away! Get away!"

"Kya! Please, no kicking! No kicking! Aiyo!"

Mei let out a pained cry as Kotone somehow managed to kick the baggy right out of her hand. The baggy went flying and disappeared under the cabinet somewhere, but Kotone didn't stop kicking, no matter how many times her feet connected with Mei. Eventually she was stopped by another painful contraction, and Mei quickly retreated to the other side of the room.