Welcome to Gaia! ::

[this log backdated to after Dot, dark red text indicates words by gee, black text indicates words by pouf]

--

The knocking came much later than the night on Colin’s front door. It was urgency in sound; rapid, hard. First Vanessa’s knuckles, and then the smacking of her open palm. She was an abrupt person. Somewhat of a demanding friend as a consequence of caring with a heart five times too big. But this was not the spirited denouement of a drinking adventure.

She stood in the hallway, dripping rainwater onto the carpet from her clothes and her hair, with a shrieking baby on her hip. Vanessa did her best to soothe the little girl in her arms, but it had been years since she’d cared for a person as small as Baby Sam, and all of her efforts proved fruitless. She was screaming like she’d been hurt. Vanessa’s heart was in her throat. She desperately wanted Baby Sam to shut up, and tried muffling the noises she made with a hand over her mouth-- only to frantically pull her fingers away upon realizing that the little girl was not taking in air through her nose.

“Shhhh, please,” Vanessa pleaded in a hoarse whisper, hoping against hope that only Colin’s door opened for them. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

It was a lie. Schorl had killed her mother and father. She would have killed Syrtis too, if Vulcan didn’t love him so much that she helicoptered his every other move. He was still out there. Schorl had let them go, but they’d still split up- just in case. To save the baby. He’d left her with the infant -Vanessa did not know how she’d been relegated to the role of babysitter, when she was the stronger fighter- and tried to lure Schorl away with his power signature. The little s**t was fast, but not that fast, and Vanessa feared the worst.

“Colin, please,” she said, almost sobbing, “hurry up.”

Used as he was to Vanessa’s nature, it could hardly be said that he was used to having people banging at his door at ungodly hours with a screaming baby adding to the cacophony. The dull thudding resounded through his apartment, but the child’s shriek was what woke Colin and sent him skittering on unsteady colt legs to pull on some pajama pants and open his apartment door.

What was waiting for him was an absolute fright: Vanessa looking not only harried but also desperate...and a screaming, miserable looking baby. “Oh my god, give it to me.” Not because he felt his friend were incapable but clearly there was a problem and he was in crisis mode immediately. “Lock the door behind you love.” That he wasn’t even asking how she’d ended up with a screaming infant yet was probably a bad sign, really. Things in Destiny City were so weird all the time that his best friend suddenly showing up at his door at ******** hour with a child that was clearly not hers was just...not news.

“Shh shh shh,” He took the infant and moved into the apartment so Van could follow, holding the child carefully and bouncing her like his mom had always done with Miri, with the cousins, and likely with him too. “C’mon kiddo, screaming isn't gonna help. Got really nice lungs, don’t you sweetheart.” Colin kept up a steady stream of nothing important, trying to soothe the red-faced, wailing infant so that perhaps it might not wake the whole building...and so it could breathe and they could talk and he figure out what the bloody flip was going on.

“There’s a good--” Girl? Boy? He had no idea and skipped that, moving on to more of the low, soft rambling as Tribble puffed up on her scratcher and skittered off towards Colin’s bedroom to escape the noise. “Maybe you’re hungry, huh darling? Or need a change? What’s happened, hmm? You’re alright now, we’ve got you- shh shh shh.” Colin looked over at Van with a quirked brow, wincing when his bouncing-rocking-patting brought one of the baby’s shrieks closer to his ear.

It felt like a year. Waiting for Colin to open the door. And then the moment he was there -looking at her, taking the baby from her arms- everything was better. Not perfect, because, how could it be? John Jr was still out there somewhere. Schorl was still out there somewhere. The baby that Colin held had lost her whole family. Still, Colin made things better. He took up Baby Sam with such a confidence. Looked at Vanessa in a way that reminded her of the courage that she had let not knowing strip away from her.

She managed a smile for him. It trembled on her lips. And then she burst into tears.

“Damn,” Vanessa said, pads of her fingers pressed to her eyelids hard enough to see stars. She swore, frustrated at herself for not being stronger, and stomped the floor with her foot.

In Colin’s arms Baby Sam was starting to quiet. Was she calming, or exhausted? Once Vanessa felt sure that she could look without crying herself she opened her eyes. Stared at Colin, bright eyes round and grieving.

“I found Syrtis with Schorl,” she managed, at last, choking on the officer’s name. “Colin, he’s still out there.”

Vanessa waved a hand at the living room window, and then burst into tears again when Syrtis’s face appeared. He was looking in at them. Smiling. Waving. His visage was distorted slightly by the play of the inside-light upon the glass in the night, but it was him. And suddenly she was furious. No longer grieving. Still frightened for his life.

She rushed passed Colin to open the window. Tried to embrace Syrtis through it at the same time she was scolding him for being dumb.

“Power down,” she hissed, wrapping her arms around his neck and crushing him to her chest. “Colin doesn’t need the whole Negaverse in here.”

Awkward and gangling in the rain, Syrtis gazed at Colin over his sister’s shoulder. He returned Vanessa’s hug -for an instant- and then, powering down, tried to peel her fingers off of his arms.

“Alright, alright. Can I come in now?”

He didn’t know what had brought Van to his apartment with a baby, but from the way she seemed, it couldn’t have been anything good. Unfortunately for his natural curiosity, the screaming baby was more important to deal with - one thing at a time, his mother had always said. Colin was trying to manage things one at a time: first the baby needed settling, then he could worry about the rest.

Thankfully his having taken the child seemed to be helping - the baby was quieting in his arms and Van was being very still like she were working on finding calm again - and the dripping rainwater wouldn’t really hurt anything in his house. Heaven knew he’d come home and put worse on the floors before. “There we go, that’s it. Safe and sound, tut tut tut.”

The look in Van’s eyes was heart-wrenching, but he kept his voice calm and low, moving from babble to a sort of sing-song medley of things his mother had once sung to him and Miri. It would be easier to listen this way, if Van were able to speak. Colin’s blood ran cold at “I found Syrtis with Schorl.” There was no one creature in all of creation that could affect him like the flame-eyed general; hearing that Van had been forced to leave Syrtis behind, with the eldritch monstrosity parading as human only made his voice falter further and his entire body stiffen. He’s still out there with that monster?! Oh Van… How. How could he help fix this?

Before he could come up with anything, Van was crying and flying towards his window where a familiar face was peeking cheekily. “Well now baby, looks like we’ve another guest. Shall we let him in, or not? I bet he needs a towel and some fresh clothes, just like Van.”

“Come in through the front door, like a reasonable human will you?” Relief flooded through - he wouldn’t have to go fight Schorl, wouldn’t have to face the nightmare that haunted his dreams and had him waking in cold sweats. Guilt came shortly after, for feeling so relieved at avoiding the General, but he buried it in focusing on the small, pudgy creature hiccoughing in his arms. “Cried yourself into those, yes you did.”

“Van, you’ll want towels, yes?” She knew where they were, but that could wait until John Jr. was safely inside. Where she could see him..and maybe smack him a bit.

Vanessa knew what Schorl was to Colin. She had not come to him expecting anything other than the steady comfort of his friendship, and would never have dreamed of letting him face the beast alone. She’d needed a place to store the child. Knew, before Syrtis showed up in Colin’s window, that she would have left the girl and returned to the night. In search of John Jr and the creature that hunted him. To place herself between them, if that was what it took.

But she did not have to do that. Because John Jr was right there. Pulling himself out of her arms. Saluting Colin with a playful cheek. Vanessa laughed at him. It was a soft, exhausted sound. She wiped the tears from her face with her hands and became aware, for the first time, that she was soaking Colin’s carpet with rain.

“Right,” she said, “towels,” though she did not really want to move until John Jr was inside with them.

Colin was safety, and brotherhood. She was reassured by his presence, and his skill with the baby. Baby Sam had cried for so long and so hard that Vanessa was sure she’d accidentally broken one of her little bones in the escape. While Vulcan was strong enough to carry several children of Baby Sam’s size and weight, if she had to, running with a baby was a delicate, precarious game. It had slowed her down. Having to cradle the little skull to keep her neck from snapping.

“She’s an orphan now.” Vanessa murmured-- speaking to Colin in hushed tones, trying to keep Baby Sam from hearing the truth. She stepped closer. Touched the baby’s cheek. Noticed that her lips were tinged pale blue. “She’s shivering.”

Her heart ached.

It was several minutes before John Jr finally showed up. When he knocked Vanessa unlocked the door. Opened it to find him standing with his shirt slung over his shoulder, and a can of coke in his hand. He sipped from it. Grinned first at his sister and then at Colin.

“I put in my dollar and it gave me two,” he said, holding out a second can.

Vanessa glowered at him. She seized him by the forearm. Pulled him inside. “Would you get in here, please.”

Vanessa might not have asked him to go out to face Schorl, but he would have insisted - he would have gone in her stead, perhaps not alone. There were others he could have contacted, like Quenton or Nadia, Lorne. Hell, he could have given Castor a ring-up and probably gotten a response; that was the sort of man he tried to be. Brave and noble, even when his insides were liquified - but also smart enough to realize that facing Schorl alone would have been stupid (even for him).

Thankfully this wasn’t needed and Colin could return his attention to the splotchy-faced baby that was slumped exhausted in his arms. An orphan. Schorl’s doing, no doubt. No wonder the baby was screaming...what a rough night they’ve all had. “Need to get her dried off and into something warmer...” Distracting himself from the sad horror of knowing this child would grow never knowing her parents, or their sacrifice in a war they’d likely not known existed. But you’ll grow, at least. And you’re safe now.

“We’ll get this sorted.” Van could wait for her brother, Colin was perfectly capable of cradling the child against his chest with one arm so he could get towels, which he set upon the arm of the couch just as John Jr. entered the apartment. “I’m glad you’re safe. Now, both of you. Towels.” The blond disappeared down the short hall and into his bedroom with the baby tiredly nomming it’s fat fist to self-soothe; he picked out sweatpants and t-shirts for both of his ‘guests’ and brought them out before settling onto the couch so that he could undress, dry, and wrap the baby up in one of his t-shirts (as a makeshift nappy). “She’s going to need formula and diapers, right away. ” Not too long ago he’d been woken for a similar reason: emergency baby needing emergency supplies.

He looked over at Van, expression somber, “Do we know her name?”

When neither Vanessa nor Colin expressed interest in his second coke can John Jr tucked it under his arm and made to plant himself in an armchair. Vanessa caught him by the forearm, again, before he could sit. “Ay dios mio. What are you doing? You’re soaking wet. You can’t sit down in somebody else’s home like that. Colin has brought clothes for you.”

John Jr was larger than his sister. He outweighed her by thirty pounds. He could have wrenched his arm out of her grip and sat down anyways, if he’d liked, but he didn’t. Vanessa had been dragging him around since they were both very small - by the arm and the leg and the foot. He was her babydoll before he could walk, and then her wrestling partner not long after that. John Jr was not smothered by his sister’s handling, but he was accustomed to it.

He grinned at Colin. Apologetically. And then took up a towel and a set of the clothes that Colin had provided and disappeared down the hall to change, calling back that he’d be more than happy to go collect diapers and formula as soon as he was dry.

At the question of the baby’s name Vanessa shook her head.

“When I found them- her parents were both already dead.” She watched Colin with the baby. Smiled to see him so good with her. Not that she’d expected anything less. They had enjoyed the life and love of a little girl all their own, once upon a Vulcan sunshine. She remembered what that was like for a moment -only a moment, so fleeting, but what it lacked in impermanence it made up for with feeling. She ached, suddenly, for that child.

“We could call her something else for now. You know, like a nickname.”

She undressed. Unselfconscious. As comfortable with Colin as she might have been a sister, heedless of the open blinds, and the road beyond. When she joined Colin on the sofa Vanessa was wrapped in the towel. She sat at the baby’s head, legs curled up underneath her, and smiled at him. Softly, heart quieter now that Baby Sam had ceased crying and John Jr was safe with them.

“Thank you,” she said.

John Jr.’s attempt to soak his furniture was met by a bit of a twitch, but Van stopped the overgrown teen so that Colin didn’t have to. Neither he nor his lovely friend were of a size with John Jr., yet both of them were more often than not allowed to push him around (sometimes only grudgingly); Colin was fairly certain he could have forced the youth to behave if he felt like applying himself, but prefered that it was unnecessary. He was a good kid and the grin sent his way was met with a wink and a twitch of the blond’s lips that meant he wanted to smile but was trying to not.

“We definitely need something to call her…” Vanessa had looked at him in a manner that brought past to merge with present briefly; she’d looked at him that way before, in another time and place, as though the tender manner with which he handled the child were more than simply endearing. Both that and looking down at the child, deep in thought, distracted him until his friend joined them on the couch and he looked up to smile at her. “For answering my door? You’re welcome.”

They both knew what she meant, but teasing banter was as much a part of their relationship as the deep affection that let them be quiet together without discomfiture, that assured Colin would be there when Van needed him, and visa versa. “Well little lady, what do you say, hmm? A nickname and then maybe we can arrange for food and some actual Pampers?” Dark blue eyes drifted in and out of focus, depending on how close the danseur’s face was to hers; she was plainly exhausted and would probably start fussing again soon from hunger or something, but the trio were afforded a quiet moment while John Jr. was drying off and dressing.

“Is that what we should call you, hm? Little Pammy?” It worked, well enough. The baby certainly didn’t care, all she wanted was to be safe and warm, a clean diaper, a soft bed. Food. Comfort. Which led Colin back to the need for formula and the like - babies were not cheap, in the slightest. “There won’t be many places open right now...I don’t know if we should sent JJ on his own.” Gas stations. Wal*Mart. The rare Target. Colin couldn’t remember if John Jr. had his license or not, but he wasn’t going to put the teen into his car (okay, it was still his mom’s but he’d taken it on pretty much permanent status) without knowing it would return safely.

This was not his first late-night baby emergency rodeo.

Yes, for answering his door. For knowing how to calm the baby. For the towels and the clothes and the safety.

For being my friend, and my hero.

How had she ever lived without him? Vanessa did not know. She remembered that there was a time she had not known Colin. Struggled, now, to imagine a world without the shine of his personality. Does he know how he holds me together? I hope so. I would level mountains for his happiness.

“I can go for the diapers,” Vanessa said. Baby Sam stretched between them, reaching with her fat little hands for something. Vanessa smiled. Offered the baby a finger. She seized it at once. Held on. Vanessa made faces and cooed at her. “I don’t want John Jr to go back out there tonight. Not without me. He doesn’t know the first thing about taking care of babies.”

Neither did she. Not really. She knew more than John Jr did, but that wasn’t saying much. It had been fifteen years since she’d cared for a toddler.

“Pampers,” Van laughed, neck curved to smile down at the baby face on, “Do you like the sound of that?”

The baby smiled back.

John Jr returned to them then. Fully dressed. If he was surprised that Colin’s sweatpants fit him, he said nothing about it. He stretched. Scratched his belly with one hand and held the other one out to Colin. Expectantly.

“How about those keys, goldilocks?” John Jr knew that Colin had a car. Assumed, because he’d volunteered to go pick up the formula, that Colin had intended to let him drive it all along.

There was so much that went unsaid between them, so much that didn’t need to be said because Van and Colin communicating these things with a glance, with a touch, with the way they were attentive to one another’s moods and needs. Vanessa was family and he loved her with everything he had, love reflected back and forth between them weaving a bond that had lasted ages - would last ages.

“Take my card.” Practicality came to play again with John Jr’s return, “Your sister is going, you’re welcome to accompany her if you like...or you can reheat something from the fridge and get some food in you.” Gently Colin swayed with the baby, one hand patting Pammy’s behind in a soothing, rhythmic manner. “You know what to get, Van? Diapers, formula, bottles and nipples, wipes, Desitin cream. You’ll want a pacifier too, and some onesies for her to wear.” There was a lot that was needed to care for such a small baby and Colin really only knew because he’d gone on a late-night baby care run a while back; he was likely not remembering everything necessary either, but that was the way things went.

Colin wanted her to take his bank card because it would be an expensive run and at the very least he was well enough off he could afford the cost up front and without going to credit.

Any other time Vanessa would have shook her head that Colin could keep his bank card. She was grateful to him, but certain that she she made enough money on her own to be able to afford some diapers (and everything else that he listed). Tonight she had no choice but to accept the card. Her own was somewhere in her apartment, halfway across town. There was no time to retrieve it, go to the store, and return before baby was likely to get upset again.

John Jr’s shoulders seemed almost to shrink at the news that he would not, as he’d previously hoped, be allowed to drive Colin’s car. His hand froze mid-belly scratch, the twinkle in his eye fading from mischievous joy to bare-faced disappointment.

They both act like I ******** everything up all the time, he thought, with no small resentment. It was Colin’s car, he knew, and he did not have a license yet, but it was more than that all of the time. It was the way Vulcan had shown up at the park and interrupted him with Schorl. It was the way she’d scolded him for trying to sit on Colin’s couch in wet clothes.

She was just always there.

He sighed, managed not to roll his eyes (but just barely), and made his way over to the fridge.

“I’ll pass,” he said to Vanessa, opening the fridge door and standing with one handle on the freezer handle, arms so long they did not need to stretch at all.

Vanessa went to put on some of Colin’s clothes and then left, stopping while John Jr slimed some bread with ranch dressing to remind him not to eat everything.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. Still frustrated. Even a little bit hurt. Everything had turned out fine, hadn’t it? The kid’s parents were dead, but that had happened before he’d reached them. He had saved the baby girl. Not Vanessa. “Want a bologna sandwich, Colin?”

Colin felt terrible as he watched John Jr.’s entire demeanor shrink down; it wasn’t so much that he felt the youth to be irresponsible (which he was, often) but more that sending him alone to procure what the infant required - even just for a few days - would have been a lot to ask. More than perhaps even John Jr. himself would have wanted to admit. He hated making someone else feel inferior, but the danseur’s resolution didn’t waver: it had to be Vanessa on this trip.

As his friend borrowed clothing and made her way out, Colin continued to try keeping the exhausted and red-faced baby quiet and calm. He winced a little at Van mothering JJ about Colin’s fridge - which was stocked decently but had very little in the way of meat for carnivores like the youth; with Van’s little brother already feeling the sting of disappointment, he knew it would rankle.

Colin came into the kitchen, still gently bouncing and patting Pammy, “Nope, I only keep it ‘cause I know you like to eat it. But if you want to put some coffee on for me, that’d be lovely.” Ranch and bologna? I probably would have eaten it if I hadn’t been a vegetarian by his age. The baby burbled and whimpered a little, gumming it’s chubby fist as the blond watched the sandwich creation with strange fascination. John Jr. was very much family and Colin regarded him as a younger brother, despite his being built larger than he was. “You did a very good thing, saving her. You know that, right?”

“Right, sorry. I forget you don’t eat meat.” How do you live? - he’d asked, the first time he’d had it explained to him. John Jr was pretty sure that all of the best foods were made of meat. Bacon. Burgers. Chicken Wings. And if they weren’t made of meat they were dairy products. Cheese. Ice cream. Ranch dressing. The one good thing vegans had going for them, as far as he could tell, were oreos.

He supposed he could live off of oreos if he had to.

But it was so nice of Colin to keep some bologna around for him that John Jr’s heart lightened a little. He set about preparing the coffee - added two more scoops of grounds than was probably necessary to an already generous pile, but he’d decided that he would have a cup too. Because he was no child. He was bigger than both Van AND Colin. He could have some coffee if he wanted to, even if it really late and it meant he’d probably be up until 3:00 AM.

John Jr took a big bite of his sandwich and chewed. Would have been content to sit and brood in silence if it wasn’t for Colin’s decision to recognize that he had actually done something pretty cool.

“Yeah, thanks,” John Jr said, voice soft. He smiled for the baby, and then reached for her little hand with his large one. Squeezed gently. “I’d do it again.”

Behind him the coffee pot had started to fill.

He turned to retrieve some mugs from a nearby cupboard - using one hand, because the other was still preoccupied, lifting his sandwich to his mouth in-between bites.