[Owen DeTerizzi] *Marni would receive an unexpected visitor at her door. Tall, long-haired, and grimly holding an offering in each huge hand. In the left, a seedling – a orange tree, or so says the label. In the Right – a frilly pink and baby blue basket full of baby odds and ends, as well as a disgustingly cute button-nosed teddy-bear. He looks distinctly at ease with what he offers in his off hand, thrusting the basket at Marni almost as soon as the curly topped gnawer opens the door, and rumbling a curt.*
These are for you.
[Marni] She’d been pacing the house, roaming from room to room, waddling and wandering and rearranging the babies things for the millionth time. The Superbowl was on in the background, but she isn’t paying any attention, other than to giggle at the best of the commercials. She’s restless, she’s huge, and she wants nothing more than to GETITOUT already…
…but The Bean. The Bean is comfortable inside. Probably forever.
The doorbell rings, and she makes her way to it and opens the door. She blinks, surprised, as Owen hands her the basket before she even has a chance to say hello. She dimples into a smile, and rests the basket on ehr belly so that she can run her fingers over the disgustingly cute teddy-bear. Sooooooooft…
“Hey. Thanks.. come on in…” She pushes the door open and steps back, letting him into the condo. For a gnawer – she is living WELL. Seems her BabyDaddy is well off indeed, and is not afraid to enjoy it. The condo is clean, rich, and everything gnawers from the street dream of. “Want a beer?”
[Owen DeTerizzi] I don’t.
*A pause as he looks around. This was not the place he was expecting. He’d been uncertain if the address was correct all the way into the lobby, even ~with~ dropping the Gnawer mama outside a few days earlier. (surely she lived in a box in the alley behind, of course.) Then it would seem the glasswalker remembers his manners, pushing his hair out of his face and setting his precious plant down on the nearest table.*
Thank you anyway. You’re still very pregnant.
*An offhand gesture to the belly, Owen frowning somewhat as he looks the swollen rat-child over.*
Everything is alright?
[Marni] She’s still very pregnant. She snorts. “Thanks, Captain Obvious!” But she’s amused more than offended, as she pokes through the basket with a happy little smile. She’s like any girl anywhere – she loves getting presents. She hugs the teddybear, testing it’s squooshyness, and with a happy sigh determines it’s perfect. Then, she looks at the Tree, a brow raised in question…
Then “We got a little of everything if you want something to drink. Kitchen’s through there, help yaself.” She moves to the living room, stepping down into the recessed area that is in front of windows that overlook Chicago’s Skyline, and settles to the couch with an ooooomph. “When I went t’pee on the stick, they said it’d be February third. They LIED.” She grouses, and runs her hands over her belly, with a shrug. “Far as I know. Mama Jane said babies come whenever they damn good an ready, but.. well. I wonder.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] *Owen keeps his eyes on the floor. A wolf without his wits about him would assume he was submissive. Any ragabash worth their salt can see that shoulders and straight spine dictate that is not the case. Once his back is turned to the windows and the spectacular view, he settles himself into a chair and looks up.*
Nothing to drink, thanks.
*Lips purse as the strange theurge glances once more about the room. Checking everything out before speaking once again. Tone grave.*
No one is here with you?
[Marni] She watches him as he avoids looking at the windows, and settles himself in a chair. She arches a brow, slightly, curious, but doesn’t comment on it. She’s pushy, but doesn’t push – which with some, makes all the difference.
No one’s here? “Right this minute? Nah – Ray’s at work.” But she knows, there’s more to that question than would at first appear. She plucks at the fur of the Teddy Bear, before just hugging him close, and lifting a shoulder in a shrug. “If ya talkin family, no. Mama Jane said she come when it was time, but well. It ain’t time yet, apparently.” a beat. “She’s in NYC.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] ….
*Owen’s eyes drop to Marni’s stretched belly, resting there for the space of his thoughts unfurling into a deep rumble of language. He leans forward as he speaks.*
Mama Jane is going to fly to you from new york when you go into labor? Why not seek someone local to midwife you?
[Marni] She snorts. “Think i’m stupid, ain’t ya? Of COURSE I looked for one of ours that was local t’be here! There ain’t no one! I ain’t so stupid as t’think I can waltz into a fuckin’ hospital an’ drop this kid. But we ain’t found no one here who kin do anyfuckinthing cuz they ain’t related to any of us. I been lookin for nine fuckin’ months.”
“M’best fuckin’ bet is Hill House, an’ they ain’t got no kin with birthin experience.” She huffs in frustration, and crosses her arms over her belly, her brow furrowed into a frown. “An’ the flight from NYC ain’t long.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] Its longer than the drive from outside of Chicago.
*He states wryly, fingers brushing across his temple as though resigned to his own conscience eating at him if he tries to deny it. Hair tucked behind his ear, he nods and raises hazy green eyes to Marni’s.*
I have more than a little medical skill. I took several years pre-med before switching my major to botany.
*Only to have all that go down the tubes in one furry night. But that was to dwell on in private, darker moments. Not when sitting across from a pregnant teddy-bear clutching female. Owen’s expression softens.*
If you’d like, I can help you when you go into labor.
[Marni] She blinks, and then looks over at him, with something akin to hope blooming in her gaze. “Really?” She sets the bear aside, and pushes her bulk toward the edge of the couch, and studies him.
She seems shocked that someone would. There’s been precious few offers to help, precious few who could even bring themselves to admit that she might have been in the right, that the way she’d been treated was not ok, that she didn’t run off her pack… that it wasn’t. her. fault.
“Ya’d do that… for me?”
[Owen DeTerizzi] *Green eyes look left, then right, searching for the catch. The thing he was missing as to why he shouldn’t be offering to help the garou in front of him. His face a open book, confusion chased by worry. But for all he lacked in deception, his mind was a steel trap. He’d heard little of Marni, pregnant by another’s kin, now hers. Hardly a pressing matter to a glasswalker. Nothing rang as tricky in assisting her. A thick brown eyebrow lifts in question before he makes the decision a second time. Nodding once curtly.*
Of course I would. Why should I not?
[Marni] She closes her eyes, and something eases, some tension that she wasn’t aware she’d been holding in her spine, and she lifts her hands to scrub at her face, before running her fingers back through her curls. She sighs softly, an then makes a decision of her own.
“I ain’t had much.. good… happen here. The Bean here, we’re gonna name it after my dead packmate. M’alpha left, an’ then Indira died, because I couldn’t get t’er in time. Then I packed with some others. They promised they’d be here, they’d help me with Th’Bean, and that everything’d be fine. The alpha left, an’ then Mama… she…” her voice breaks, and she takes a moment, running her hands over her swollen belly before she continues. “..she ripped th’totem from us, from me. I been alone with Th’Bean an’ Ray ever since – an’ the fight for Ray was ridiculous and it was all just t’stomp me down farther.”
A pause, as she takes a breath, and looks up to meet his gaze, clear honesty ringing in her own dark orbs. “So yeah, there’s a thousand reasons why ya could jus’ choose t’look the other way, an’ forget I even exist.” a beat. “S’what they all do.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] *Green eyes skate away from Marni’s quickly. But it’s clear the glasswalker is listening as he scrapes at the particles of soil ingrained in the whorls of calloused fingertips. Its a time before he responds, but when he does his voice is a deep unwavering tenor, solid as a skyscraper’s steel support girder.*
This city has a harsh spirit at its center. A maelstrom is hunger and nature’s cruelty, and it’s demands for sacrifice are far reaching.
…
I’m sorry it has perhaps had such an effect on you and yours. But I have no intention of leaving you alone to birth a child. Gnawer or not. Trust in your nation should not be a sacrifice you’ve had to make.
*And yes. Tribe matters. Still, Owen raises his eyes once more and nods. Then rather mechanically, he sets a hand on the gnawer’s knee. Only to quickly remove it not in disgust, but awkardness.*
[Marni] She has lost faith in the Nation. She has lost faith in Maelstrom, and those that fight on his shores. She has lost faith – so much. It tears at her. It makes her weak, it makes her afraid. Not for her, but for Ray, for the Bean, for everything they’ve suffered because of her, because of those who force her down, farther than any Rat should have to endure (and they are quite adept at being the low end of the totem pole..)
He reaches to touch her, and pulls back awkwardly. She catches his hand as it’s pulled away, and squeezes tightly. She encompasses everything she feels into two words.
“Thank ya.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] *Owen was a creature that tried to keep tight control over what he could. Plants. Spirits. These were things that – however complex – had set patterns. Reason to them. Emotions were far less predictable, even his own. So it is that Marni squeezes his hand, and he seems at a loss for a moment, before wrapping long fingers around hers and applying even pressure.*
You’re welcome.
*Once she’s let him loose, he takes his hand back and scrubs at his beard, frowning at the carpet.*
Is it just you and .. Ray, was it?
[Marni] She lets him take his hand back, realizing he’s uncomfortable. Marni, she’s an expressive beast, smiling easily, laughing when it occurs to her to do so, sharing of herself selflessly even when it causes her pain. She also holds back when it seems necessary.
She leans back into the couch, letting it’s comfort hold her, cradle her swollen body. “Yeah. Jus’ me n’ Ray.”
[Owen DeTerizzi] *This entire situation was a little surreal. This bonegnawer was living in a condo that had a view of the chicago skyline, and the glasswalker was the one worrying about whether his second story bathtub was going to fall through a rotting floor while he was gone. Scrubbing at his face, he sits in silence. A strange ghostly guest in the ragabash’s territory, untethered and unstable, if dully pleasant enough.*
I will see to making you a few healing charms, in the event that your labor is quick, and I cannot reach you in time.
[Marni] She smiles, softly, and nods. “Thanks. I really do appreciate it. Me an’ Ray.. well. We was jus’ gonna wing it, an’ hope Mama Jane got here in time. I done read all the books I could get my hands on – but havin someone who knows… well. yeah. I ain’t too sure I’m ready for this, though”
A rueful chuckle as she shrugs and pushes her curls behind an ear, only to have them spring forward again. “I ain’t got much choice now, do I?”
[Owen DeTerizzi] Goose is already cooked.
*A sideways pull of lips that might classify as a smile, Owen’s gaze dropping to the rounded belly of the female in front of him. Baby in there. Baby garou? He was a baby garou once… his expression darkens considerably.*
Do you want to know if it will change?