Capricia had stopped by the Hollow after her chat with Andrew, not for a drink so much as to avoid going directly home. She couldn't even believe she'd gone to church in the first place. She was Catholic, but obviously her lifestyle dictated where she was going when she died. She wasn't even sure what she believed anymore, honestly. She put her chin in her hand and sighed a little, counting her fingers on her other hand. The baby was due soon, and she'd made zero preparations - not mentally, anyways. She was just beginning to wonder if she'd even made the right choice when pain sprang across her body, causing her to gasp and jerk away from the bar so hard she nearly tipped her chair over.
She felt a rush - and that was the only way she could describe it - and she looked up and realized Dave was staring at her, open-mouthed. She looked down and gawked at the sight before her - it appeared as though she'd wet herself, although Capricia had been reading up enough to know what was happening.
"My water just broke!" she screamed angrily. "NO, baby! Go back in! Not for another 18 years!" she protested, flailing her hands down at her round stomach.
There was something about having a pregnant hunter, one who was usually violent and short-tempered, sitting at his bar that should have set off the warning bells in Dave's head. She wasn't drinking, so that wasn't an issue, but when she suddenly seemed to wet herself, which was his first thought, he knew there was going to be trouble.
Any animal knows the smell of 'baby time', and Dave wasn't interested in being around for it. "Oh, shit, girlie. ASH!" he hollered suddenly, leaning into the stairway leading up to the triste's office and quarters. They were going to have to get her up there and away from customers if there was going to be baby time. "ASH, NOW!"
"What, Dave?!" the triste snapped when he rushed down the stairs to find that they weren't under attack, though the momentary ire vanished immediately in his mental and metaphysical sweep of the room. Dave wasn't the only one panicking, and it was rather obvious to Ash in about 3.5 seconds what was going on. "Oh. Lovely. Dave, let's get her upstairs. Capricia, it would be very good for everyone if you would stay calm, okay?" he told her, already tweaking at her auras to calm her down some. Her panicking would only make things worse, especially if they wanted to avoid the baby being born on the stairs.
Ash had to wonder what Dani would think of another woman's baby being born on his bed. That'd be an interesting conversation later.
"I am trying to be calm, but you put yourself in my shoes!" she protested, grabbing onto the bar as she nearly passed out from the sudden rush of commotion. It was probably a good thing Ash was there, because without severe painkillers, Capricia was going to be very hard to... maintain.
"I need to get to Doctor Mitchell," she said finally, trying to avoid the hands as they helped her stand upright. She straightened out on her own. "He's got all my information, allergies, dosages," she explained. "He said the last time we might have to do a c-section, so it isn't that I don't respect you and all, but -AH!" she blurted, white-knuckling the back of a chair.
Generally, Valerie made a habit of not frequenting places that were populated. For that matter, he made a habit of not freqenting places, period, unless he was looking for a meal. He didn't know what had possessed him to have come in here, sit down, and ordered an actual drink. It had been a while since he had had real alcohol. There was a time when drinking had been an art form he excelled at, and making and tasting the drinks a real pleasure.
The voldka at Hellcat's Hollow wasn't REAL Russian vodka the way Val remembered it, but it was close enough that he enjoyed the half hour it took to drink about half. As a vampire with few hobbies, no need for cash and a lot of time, he could afford to be spendthrift and wasteful with his day. Recent events had given him a lot to think about, anyway. Connor and the bond, mostly, but also the human girl who took up more time and thought than he believed she had any right to. Val thought it ironic that just as his issues with Connor were working themselves out, Heather loaded up with drama. It would have been easier to work out if there weren't so many things to consider. Sure, Val could just vanish from her life - it wouldn't be hard - but that didn't mean she would automatically be safe. It didn't even garuntee her ignorance of his world, either, not with her best friend April dating a shifter. It would only be a matter of time before April finally told her, leaving Heather with insights she would in turn share with April, who would work out the Val mystery in a matter of minutes. That kid was too damn smart. And, of course, Val had Connor's words to consider. He hadn't yet forgotten that sentence from a few weeks ago, tossed out so carelessly yet hitting Val dead in the heart: "You can't possibly tell me that your girlfriend isn't ever going to know."
The way Connor had said it... and having it come from Connor, of all people, a man whom Val had long since pegged as honest and loyal to a fault... That Val was even considering keeping Heather in the dark felt suddenly, monstrously wrong.
He was deep enough in thought that it scared the shit out of him when a woman across the bar suddenly screeched. Listening to her, it didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. Val watched with vague interest as the bartender came to help her, relieved to be observing someone else's troubles for a change. It surprised him when the owner himself descended from on high to assist the woman, but the reality of the situation didn't sink in until he heard Ash say the woman's name.
Caprecia. Merde sur un bâton sur le feu.
Val wished he could go back to not knowing. He gulped the remainder of his vodka and wished to almighty god that he could still get drunk. It would really have made him feel better as he pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and dialed the number of one Daddy-to-be.
Ash's lips quirked into the slightest of smiles, but he really didn't have the time to worry about her concerns. They could all be handled in good time. "Excuse me if I'd really rather not put myself there. It would be slightly awkward," he teased, playing more with her aura in an attempt to soothe the panic and pain she was feeling rather than numb it. Distracting her with teasing could perhaps help distract her from reminding herself that she was supposed to be panicking and in pain, as the subconscious was wont to do.
"Dave, please call the guilds and send for Doctor Mitchell. Tell him what's happened," he told the bartender calmly, also giving the werewolf the out he wanted, and Ash himself scooped Capricia up into his arms as gently as he could. He seemed oblivious of her more uncomfortable issues, particularly the fact that her water had broken. Naturally, he was aware of it, but he ignored it in favor of getting her upstairs as comfortably and quickly as possible. If he had to smell of 'baby time' to any shifter that ran into him for the rest of the day, he could handle it.
"Let's get you comfortable while everyone else arrives," he told her, his tone smooth and about as reassuring as he knew how. Spooking her would only upset her, which was also part of the reason he wasn't saying anything about the vampire's reaction and sudden need to make a phone call. Ash wasn't up to date on everything that happened, but he wasn't stupid. It was too strange that the vampire had reacted that way for it to be a coincidence. He didn't know not to mention the father, though he fortunately hadn't gotten the chance to even ask.
Connor had just received the last phone call he'd ever expected to get from Valerie, of all people, and really, he didn't know what to do for an instant. He WANTED to rush over there, but Capricia wasn't likely to accept his presence well if she wasn't the one who'd wanted him there.
Screw it, that was Capri and his daughter. He was going to be there, as quickly as possible.
It was fortunate that Capricia did not know who Valerie was, or she'd have forgone any tending to herself for the moment in a fit of blind rage. As it was, she had enough stacked against her to worry about random clientele.
She tried to shove off of Ash, but the pain was coming in heavy waves, and she was having a hard time standing on her own. She wanted to crawl into a cave at the moment, really, and just be rid of this entire ordeal. It wouldn't have been so bad until Ash began talking - she had begun to relax as much as was possible, but something he'd said stuck out.
"Everyone else? NO. No EVERYONE ELSE. Doc Mitchell is one person, and no offense to you, but there are already too many people involved in this," she exclaimed with a definite shake of her head. She still had too much to think about, too many decisions to make. The more people involved, the worse it was going to be. What the hell had she gotten herself into? She wanted to talk to Andrew suddenly, but hesitated to even dare disturb him with this of all things.
Well, Ash had certainly used the wrong turn of phrase, and so he sighed and continued trying to make her comfortable. "I assure you, Capricia, that Dave is only calling Doctor Mitchell. Dave doesn't want to be in here unless we need him to run get anything, and I'm afraid you being in my bed and my building requires my presence," he told her softly, keeping his voice in tune with the tweaking he was going to keep doing. As long as she wasn't calm, or was in danger of losing her calm, he was going to have to be there, or she'd cause more damage than even the doctor would likely be able to fix. Telling her that he was manipulating her auras probably wasn't a good thing, though.
"What about the father? Would you like to call him, or have one of us call him for you?" he asked, not aware that she wasn't speaking to the guy. Ash's intuition was good, but not infallible. He should have known not to ask about the father if she hadn't said anything yet, but perhaps he was being stubborn and refusing to believe that she'd refuse the man this memory. Besides, if he got her talking about something, maybe she'd relax just a touch. Until the doctor arrived with his supplies, Ash was all she had as a painkiller and sedative.
"No," Capri said firmly. "No, I don't want him anywhere near me right now!" The thought of Connor being within 100 feet of her just made the situation even worse. She was so pissed off at him, so... she couldn't even put it into words. She felt like she was just projecting bullshit slag from her own issues on one hand, but on the other hand, this had happened a while ago and she'd never known. And now, well - she didn't even know. She just didn't know HOW to feel, and angry was a good default feeling.
"I want to go to the hospital!" she shrieked.
Ash nodded at her decision regarding the father, not really liking it, but it wasn't his place to say anything on the subject. There were other concerns. "Capricia, if I try to take you to the hospital right now, you will probably have the baby on the way. I don't know what your preference is, but I'm the only one who will drive you, and I am not delivering a baby from the passenger seat of my Aston Martin."
Dave sure as hell wouldn't drive her and take that risk, Ash knew, so it'd fall on him, and he was pretty fond of that car. It had been Danielle who'd talked him into looking into something nice, instead of the old piece of junk he'd had before, and he'd finally settled on that one. Having a woman give birth from the front seat didn't sound like something he wanted.
Of course, not everyone got what they wanted, and that seemed obvious to him as soon as he heard new voices downstairs. Two new ones, actually, one of them loud. He glanced briefly at Capricia.
Connor had probably broken some speeding laws on the way over there, but he'd been fortunate not to run into any cops. Darren was in the front seat clutching the 'Oh Shit!' handle above the passenger side window. Why was his cousin there? Because Connor had just finished kicking his ass in a training session, because he was tired of his cousin getting pwned by vampires. He was going to have to look into a bodyguard or something to help him, though. Someone who would help train him, and watch his back until he was able to take care of himself.
Later, though. His daughter was being born, and he didn't want to miss it. Ironic that it was happening at the Hollow, though. Considering the last time he, Val and Darren had been there together, Connor was almost...worried. That last experience hadn't been too comforting.
He parked quickly in the back, not caring if he was crooked, and shot out of the car leaving Darren to follow. He jumped Val first, though the experience was already proving better than last time when he didn't freak out on the guy. "Val! Where is she? Upstairs?"
Naturally, she wasn't anywhere he could see her, and there was enough mess that he figured out the basics of what had happened. There was a slightly wet print on the stairs, as though someone had stepped in water and tracked a little along with them. It wasn't pretty, but he wasn't stupid. He practically ran up the stairs, regardless of what had been going on between him and Capri.
"You said you didn't want him here?" he repeated, though he wasn't really asking. He'd heard her right, and they didn't have time to discuss it if she was going to stand by her decision. His power had already been spread throughout the place, watching auras and who arrived, and he could tell that it was Connor, but the aura didn't match what he recognized as Batten's. He had to hit the man with more than what he'd have used on a human when he shot off a blast of power, or he'd have bet the determined hunter would have just plowed right through it. It was intriguing, this change. He'd have to ask someone about it later.
For the moment, he was waiting on the doctor. The sound of footsteps on the stairs stopping and then sounding like a body falling right back down them (which was exactly what it was) didn't phase him in the slightest, and he was hoping it wouldn't bother Capricia. The doctor was on his way into the Hollow, anyway.
"The doctor will be up in a moment."
In response to Ash's firm answer, Capricia just opened her mouth and screamed. She carried that scream all the way until she was set down on the bed, too, because Capri had the natural talent of temper tantrums like a five year old, and a set of lungs to match. It was a bother when she actually had another contraction, and the note of her screaming changed - from angry and frustrated to tinged with tears. She had perfected it, it was an art, and right now her vocal chords were strained with pain.
Andrew had been at the Crimson Guild via Christian, there visiting some of his older acquaintances when he'd popped in on Connor beating the crap out of his young cousin. For a shifter with semi-formal training, Darren had been taking some of Connor's hits hard, and Andrew could sense something in his aura that hadn't been there the last time they'd seen eachother, despite it having been years ago. He'd just been about to ask him what was up when Darren had exited the room for water, but Connor had gotten a phonecall that cut the session short - Capricia's baby was due.
"I saw her less than five hours ago," he said to Christian, brows raised. Evidently whatever had transpired between then was the final straw, or so it seemed, and he parted ways with the guild leader, heading to his own car. The Porsche CGT had been a birthday present to himself - a fat sum of money well spent, thanks to his constant upkeep of the vampire nests in Europe. He wondered idly what Danielle was doing with all of her bounty money as he split through city traffic, hurrying to the Hollow. He was amazed that Connor had beaten him there, but somehow not. A father knows.
He had just opened the door when he saw Connor falling down the stairs, and darted over to him. "Connor?" he asked, voice hurried. "Did she throw you down the stairs?" Of course, he'd blame it on her. He'd known Capricia for as long as Connor had, and that was typical behaviour. When he heard her caterwauling, though, he suddenly didn't believe she was in that state. He reached down to pull him up, confused. There it was again, that twinge in his aura... Andrew, however, was slightly more prioritized, and put it aside. There would be time later to ask, but for now, there were more pressing things.
Val could hear some of the commotion going on upstairs, though he dared not follow. If the mother of Connor's child had been unreceptive to a human bound to a vampire, he shuddered to think what her reaction would be to the vampire himself. Furthermore, the birthing process didn't seem to render her stable, period. Let the Triste deal with her, Val felt safer down here.
Connor burst into the bar not much later at a predictably high speed. Val had felt him coming from a while off; the man was projecting across the bond like no tomorrow, too many feelings to sort through but enough to be a headache. Val could only imagine what it must feel like to be Connor himself.
"Upstairs with the Triste, yes," was as far as he got before Connor blasted by. It would have been funny if Connor weren't so frantic. Val wasn't sure what his place in all this was. As far as he was concerned, his duty - calling Connor - was done. He would stick around for the results, but not get involved himself. Just because he was bonded to Connor didn't mean he had a place in all this. He was just a bystander.
The Hollow's door opened again, this time revealing a face Val knew uncomfortably too well. Now wasn't this just awkward. He'd never really gotten the chance to aplogize to the boy for running him over. Had Darren been anyone but Connor's kin, Val may not have bothered to be sorry about the accident at all. Had Val not soaked up so many of Connor's frantic feelings at the time, he probably wouldn't still care now. He supposed he could apologize now, although it probably wasn't the best time., what with the baby coming and all. For that matter, he wasn't sure if his apology would be well recieved. Might as well keep his trap shut and let the shifter make the first move.
Or... not. Connor came tumbling back down the stairs not two seconds after he went up. Even when a stranger (to Val at least, the newcomer seemed to know Connor) went to help him up, Val took that as his cue to escape the awkward situation with the shifter. From across the room he gave the upsidown Hunter a very confused, and somewhat suspicious, look.
Was that Triste power I just felt? he demanded. Leone could not possibly have just barred Connor from seeing the birth of his child on purpose, could he?
Just as Valerie could hear the commotion coming from upstairs, Ash could hear all the chaos that was downstairs, and he hoped that mess didn't discourage the doctor. Or at least, he could 'hear' it through his own power. He couldn't actually hear a damn thing with Capricia screaming like she was so close to his ears. She actually got the slightest of flinches when she first started with that volume, quite the feat out of the triste, but he set her on his bed gently and pretended that she wasn't making his head want to explode. Once he had her settled, he immediately set to pulling and tugging at her auras. He needed to drop her pain down to a level that didn't involve her shrieking, and preferably control her emotions just as well. At least for a few minutes, until the doctor could sedate her and load her with painkillers. Keeping Capricia calm and under control took far more than it should have for any other human.
The fact that he also had to balance keeping Batten out so that the man didn't set her off more didn't help, but he assumed from the reactions and the tumble down the stairs that the Guild Leader wasn't going to make another mad dash too quickly. "Capricia, if you do not calm down, you are going to cause your body to stress itself out more. It may cause the birth to come sooner, and I know you don't want that," he pointed out over her noise, trying to get through to her.
Dave wasn't going to go anywhere near him for the rest of the day, considering the way he smelled, and it would only get worse.
Connor saw STARS. Really, he didn't even have an idea as to what was even going on until he'd come to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, and found himself staring up at Andrew. How the hell had Andrew gotten there? He wasn't there a second ago! And Capri hit him? No, it hadn't been Capri...though she would if she'd had the chance, he was sure.
"No, it wasn't her," he said, blinking and shaking his head as he started pulling himself up. Val's question made it obvious what it must have been, and he realized just how much of a blow that triste could manage. That couldn't have been the worst, either. Without even seeing him, with a door in the way? Damn. "Must have been Leone."
That hurt! I didn't know tristes could DO that!
Of course, Connor's experience with tristes was VERY limited. He didn't fight them, and they weren't usually flexing their power around him. He was developing a healthy respect for them, though not necessarily for their decisions. "I have to get up there."
Dave, who had been trying to hide in the corner and stay even less involved than Val, especially after Capri tried to blow out his ears long-distance, was broken out of his silence by that comment, and he shook his head. "If Ash doesn't want you up there, you're not going up. I'm sure it's for a reason. I know him, and he's not the kind to keep you from your baby. Is Capricia mad at you?"
He didn't need an answer, based on Connor's expression, and he shook his head again, heading around the bar for cleaning supplies. There was a mess to handle. "Good to see you, kid. Here's a rag, you got a mess to clean up."
Darren was already out of his element, dealing with the fact that Connor's baby was being born and that he couldn't hear due to Capri's screaming (which had made him twitch a lot more than Ash or Dave combined), but seeing Valerie made it all worse. He paled, not having the slightest idea what to say, and just shut up. It wasn't that he was afraid of that vampire so much, considering how Val had tried to help him afterwards, but it surprised him to see the guy again at that moment. The color returned even as Connor was tumbling down the stairs, and he also rushed forward, though he didn't push his way over to his cousin. He knew that if Ash had knocked Connor senseless, it was for a reason. Besides, Connor had probably deserved it for something.
He was drawn out of his silence by Dave, throwing a rag at him. "Wait, what?! I'm not cleaning it up, it's not my mess!" Ah, distractions.
"You're blood-related to the kid that was swimmin' in that juice!"
"Yeah, it's gonna be my second cousin! It's not mine! Make Connor clean it up, if you have to!"
"He'll be lucky if he can tie his shoes in the next ten minutes. He has enough to deal with."
"...You have a point. I'm not clocked in."
"......Damn you."
Ahh, victory. Even sweeter than a good distraction.
Connor listened to them as they argued, and just stared. "I think I hate you both," he finally said. It was sad. The two people who were currently his favorites happened to be a vampire who was the reason Capri was mad at him, and a hunter who was friends with Capri. Very sad.
Andrew pulled Connor to his feet and then released him reluctantly, making sure he could hold himself up. He glanced back at the vampire, a brow arched, but said nothing. Now was not the time, nor the place. He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it onto a chair. "Why is everything surrounding the two of you always madness?" he asked, his voice jest and mild worry. He took for the stairs, a reassuring squeeze to Connor's shoulder. "I'll get this straightened out, Connor. She can't be that crazy."
Famous last words. If Andrew could get passed Ash now, that would be something.
Capricia stopped screaming the more Ash tried to work on her, and settled for mild flailing and some yelling. She caught sight of Andrew in the doorway, and sat up, only to regret it instantly, and flop back down. "Andrew!" she shouted, before clapping her hands to her face as she felt dulled pain through Ash's magics. "Owwwwwww, God hates me!" she moaned. "Andrew, come here! AnDREW!"
Andrew took a breath and pushed the door open all the way, blatantly trying to ignore the Triste. Now is not the time, he thought, knowing the Triste would hear it. "Capri? Connor's here, you know. Don't you want to see him?" he asked, swiftly grabbing her hand before she could yank her hair out. She had a firm grip on it, so it took some effort on his part.
"NO!" she shouted, and Andrew had to give Ash a sympathetic look then. If the Triste had spent the last thirty minutes dealing with this, perhaps Andrew was willing to relinquish his disdain for a few hours.
"Baby, Connor has to be here. I know you're mad at him, but Capricia, this is only going to happen once if we're lucky, and this means a lot to him, too," he said smoothly, trying to reason with her.
Capricia, however, was never one for the voice of reason. "FUCK YOU, TOO!" she shouted. She sounded possessed, and squeezed down on Andrew's hand so hard it might have otherwise broken. "He did this to me! I HATE HIM!" she screamed.
Andrew looked up at Ash, and then back to Capricia. "Honey, Ash isn't going to let Connor come up here unless you say it's okay," he coaxed. He gritted his teeth as she gripped his hand.
"NO! I HATE HIM!" she screamed again. She started to cry. "I want my mom!" she shouted weakly.
That just about broke Andrew's heart. He took her hands more firmly, and shook her a little. "Capricia, you'll feel better if you let Connor up here. I promise I won't let him upset you, okay? Come on, Capri, he loves you, he's as concerned as I am."
Capri was too busy crying to pay attention to what Andrew said, and a garbled, "Fine, whatever, he can come up," escaped from her overly-emotional lips.
Yes, Val was DEFINITELY out of his element here. It didn't help when he caught sight of Darren glancing his way and going ghostly pale. Damn. Val didn't go out of his way to hurt and/or scare people, okay? He actually tried his best to stay the hell out of everyone else's lives. Both figuratively and literally, people just jumped in front of him on their own. All he could do was slam on the break and hope for the best in the aftermath.
With the other man gone, Val felt better about approaching Connor. Better, not rock-solid safe. There were still plenty of people around here who knew Connor, people who would ask later how he knew the vampire and why the leech felt the need to talk to him just then. If not for that stunt that the triste had just pulled, Val would have been happy to leave Connor alone.
Apparently they can. Or at the very least, Leone can. Val didn't know enough about the relationships between these people to start analyzing the things they did. He did know, however, that the triste hadn't been trying to hurt Connor, only keep him away. If Leone had wanted Connor dead then he would have done it. "I can leave, if you would prefer." Connor seemed to have enough people yelling and screaming around him as it was. Val didn't think the presence of his vampire bloodbond would help the situation any, especially with Darren around.
Ash would have knocked Andrew down the stairs, and probably with a lot more 'oomph', if Capricia didn't want him there. Naturally, the triste remained completely cool and distanced from the man and his own knowledge of the situation that came with him, but they both knew it would be handled later. The thought on Andrew's part was hardly necessary. He backed off enough to let the witch handle Capricia, though he kept his magic working with her. He probably wouldn't have needed to touch the man if he'd have just let go of her auras right then.
Imagine that. What, officer? Assault with a deadly weapon? Yes, a pregnant woman during childbirth as a deadly weapon. It had a certain irony to it that, fortunately, didn't appeal to Ash's darker preferences. He'd leave Andrew alone until they could discuss their disagreement like civilized men.
Then, Ash could squash him, if necessary.
At least the Vida seemed to have a way of handling the woman before them. Ash had only been as successful as he was because he'd been manipulating her auras, and that may have been the case with Andrew as well, but she was listening better to him.
"This room is about to get crowded. The doctor is here," he informed them both coolly before opening the door again. He moved halfway down the stairs before addressing Connor and the man walking in the door at that exact moment. "Mr. Batten, Dr. Mitchell, you're both requested in the Hell at the top of these stairs," he told them both, a grim smile actually touching his features. "Enjoy yourselves."
He turned back to the room, but made it a point to stand back and just monitor. With the doctor here, he shouldn't be needed to stick his hands anywhere he wouldn't prefer to.
Was it wrong that Connor laughed, albeit bitterly, at Andrew's certainty that she couldn't be 'THAT crazy'? That comment coupled with the one about everything surrounding them being madness was just short of hilarious. Andrew was apparently stupid.
Hearing all the yelling Capri was doing, including the mention of a lot of hate, didn't make him envy Andrew OR Ash, though he was mad that he wasn't ALLOWED up there. Since when was some guy she was friends with allowed to be present while Connor's child was born, when he wasn't? And she was yelling for him. It made Connor suddenly suspicious, which wasn't a good thing. If he'd heard Andrew call her 'baby', it'd have been worse.
Remind me not to piss Leone off. Ever.
Now, he had to deal with Val, which was almost as good as Capri. No, the vampire wasn't screaming, but Connor was pretty confident in what he thought of Capri. Val was still a source of confusion. "You can leave if you'd prefer. I'm going to try to get up there," he said. Really, if he was going to be stuck downstairs, he might almost prefer Val's presence. He certainly felt calmer, less panicked about the whole thing since he'd tumbled down the stairs and Val had walked over. He didn't even think about Darren right then, and his cousin was keeping quiet, helping Dave clean up anyway. It gave the two of them something to do, and kept them out of everyone else's hair. Connor had temporarily forgotten about them. Val was a good person to have around, but it wouldn't be comfortable for the vampire to be stuck downstairs when Connor figured out how to get upstairs.
Or Ash told him he could. He hadn't noticed Mitchell arriving, either.
Despite the triste's cheery invitation, Connor suddenly gripped Val's arm, looking somewhat panicked again, and tried to calm down with the vampire's closeness. He didn't need to be freaking out when he got up there. So what if his daughter was being born.
Aw, hell, his daughter was being born! There wasn't going to be any real calmness to that. "If I don't survive the mother, spoil the hell out of that little girl for me." Had he ever told Val it was going to be a girl? He couldn't remember, so he might have, but that didn't matter. He headed up the stairs just as quickly as before after one last squeeze on Val's arm, and though he hesitated ever so slightly when he saw Capricia, he still approached the bed with the intent of grabbing her hand. He beat the doctor up by nearly two full minutes, even though they were in the same room.
Capricia was wearing herself out, and had stopped struggling under the promises that Mitchell was only seconds away. When Connor rushed into the room, she didn't even have the energy to muster any shouting at him - at least not yet. Andrew moved, letting Connor take his spot, and Capri squeezed his hand weakly. "I wanna go home," she whined, voice wavering and scratchy from screaming so much. Her brown eyes were still wide, full of fear, and her hair was matted against her head by sweat.
Andrew gave Connor a small pat on the back. "I'm going to go downstairs and talk to Darren, see if I can't help out. You... have fun being a dad," he offered with a smirk. "Mitchell has enough drugs to take down an elephant, hopefully those will prevent her from breaking your hand," he chuckled, sidestepping the doctor as he approached.
He gave a last glance to Ash, knowing that this wasn't going to be the last time he was that close to the man. Hopefully next time, however, he'd be slightly more prepared. He descended the stairs to find Darren and Dave sulking at eachother, and raised a brow. "This sure is the place to be, huh?" he asked cheerfully. He looked at the rag suspiciously, and then smiled. "I think if you time it right, after Connor sees his little girl for the first time, he'll do just about anything you ask," he said deviously. He plopped down into a chair and waited, looking at Val curiously. Vampires, Hollow, sure, okay. But this one looked particularly disturbed. Was a pregnant woman really so much to fear?
Well. Yes, he supposed so.
"Doc, I want drugs!" Capricia screamed as Mitchell began taking her blood pressure and preparing the necessary things for her birthing procedure. "I want as much as you can give me, and then I want more after that!" she demanded.
She rolled her head around and looked to Connor. "When this is done, put a beer in my IV, okay baby?" she asked, wincing as the doctor began prodding on her.
Val made a point of not pissing anyone off ever, but he kept the sarcasm to himself. For once, he was quite aware of the many factors that were coinciding to drive Connor crazy, and the knowledge made him more sympathetic to the Hunter's feelings.
"I most certainly would prefer," Val said dryly, though curiously he made no move to leave. All this screaming and running around was enough to make him want desperately to get out. Most of these people didn't know him, and the ones who did were either distracted with drama of their own (Connor) or not in a position to look kindly upon Val (Darren). Still... seeing Connor get kicked out had made Val think that his bloodbond could use some support. He wouldn't feel right leaving Connor all by himself in the midst of this chaos.
A second later, Connor went for a deathgrip on Val's arm, and it didn't matter whether Val felt like leaving or not. The vampire stared at him, surprised at the open display, though not nearly as surprised as he was at Connor's parting words. It threw him for one hell of a loop, mainly because he found himself giving a vague nod just as the Hunter left him for the stairs.
Mon dieu. Now he really had to hang around for the full ride.
Upstairs the screaming continued, more words now than the sheer volume of before, but noise none the less. Poor Connor was going to be right in the thick of that, and Val wasn't jealous in the slightest. Noticing the stranger from before giving him a scrutinizing look, Val moved away into someplace inconspicuous and continued keeping an ear (and a mental link, the bond was handy and Connor wasn't hiding much) on the goings on above his head, trying to remember if women had been this loud about giving birth in his century as they were in this one.
Despite Val's remark about preferring to leave, Connor noticed that he stayed, but definitely hadn't had time to address it. He had big things to worry about, like Capri, and Val was the furthest thing from his mind as she squeezed his hand. Well, maybe not the furthest, since Darren, Dave and a million other people could fit that spot right then, and none of them were 'listening in' on what was going on with him. Still, his focus was all on Capri, and the situation at hand, from the moment Andrew gave him that pat on the back.
"Hopefully," he agreed distractedly, the wide look in his eyes impossible to miss, but he knew the situation was already much better than it could have been when Capricia wasn't yelling at him to get out. Having the first thing she said to him since he'd told her about his bloodbond be that she wanted to go home made his heart want to break, though. He'd have done anything to take her home, but even he knew there was no way they were moving her. Just a short flick of his eyes towards Mitchell confirmed it.
"I know, baby, and I'll get you home as soon as I can, and you can have as much to drink as you can handle," he promised her. Really, he figured that there was no way she was going to have the energy to bother with alcohol immediately, but she was going to need a drink after this. He'd liked drinks after hunting when he could actually get a buzz, and this was FAR more stressful than hunting. Hell, he wasn't even the one giving birth to the kid, and he wanted to go get trashed just so he wouldn't feel so crazy. He could hardly begin to imagine what Capri was feeling.
Darren was pretty happy fading into the background with Dave, cleaning up a little and chatting quietly, right up until Andrew returned. Even Valerie had faded into the background in silence, which was fine with him. Dave knew the deal with Valerie just as well as Darren did, which meant, he didn't know enough. They both remembered the vampire from the car accident, but neither knew about the bond he had with Connor. It was better that way, but it left them wondering what Val was doing there.
The place to be? "Something like that. There never seems to be a dull moment, but that just might be life in general lately," he returned, shaking his head. He didn't know Andrew well, but he'd seen him at the Guildhouse when he and Connor left, so he could only assume that the guy was a hunter. He didn't intend to spill his troubles out on the ground for them, but he'd definitely noticed an increase in bad experiences as of late.
"You might be right, but I know better. Even if he'll do almost anything, he'll get me back for it later. Once you suffer one of his pranks, you don't go looking for it again," he pointed out. Connor was willing to put far more thought into getting back at someone than any reasonable adult should have even considered, and Darren had learned that the hard way. The one time he'd helped his cousin with something like that, he decided he wasn't going to incite that sort of a response if he could help it. "You're a hunter, right? With Crimson, or someone else?"
"No," she cried. "I want to go home NOW!" She squeezed down on his hand as the doctor injected her with something, and then proclaimed that she was too far in for an epidural, and that what he'd just given her was all she was going to get. Capricia could feel her body numbing from what he'd given her, but it wasn't enough. She felt like an alien was about to rip out of her stomach. She had pain in places she never thought pain could BE, for crying out loud.
"No, Connor, PLEASE TAKE ME HOME!" she screamed - and cried. Literally. Capricia crying wasn't a very easy sight. The hunter had made her mark on the world without shedding a tear, and now she was crying her eyes out, begging Connor to get her out of this mess and take her home. If that didn't just rip your heart out and jump up and down on it, I don't know what will (3rd wall!).
"C'mon Capri, you got a few more minutes, and then we're going to have to get this thing gone," the doctor said. He looked up at Ash. "Whatever you can do to keep her calm, Leone. Her blood pressure is through the roof. I can't even believe she's made it this far."
It was a disconcerting statement, but not to be worried. Capri had teched out every time they'd examined her, and aside from an unhealthy stress level, this was going to be a great less danger than the time she'd gotten splattered by King.
"I DON'T WANT TO HAVE A BABY!" she wailed.
Andrew raised an eyebrow. Crimson. Now there was a thought. "No, Frost. I know Connor through Christian. I heard that things had become a little rough in the area lately, barring the activities of my very mentally unstable relative, and I decided to come check them out for myself. Turns out a very good friend of mine is having a child." He sighed. "I think every time I blink, more and more occurs that goes right by."
With a shake of his head and a shrug, he smiled at Darren. He wanted to talk to him about Purezza, but not in front of everyone else. If the cat had any dignity, that would squelch it - or so Andrew concluded. Besides, it would have been rude to just splay open a weakness like that in a room full of people he wasn't so sure were his friends.
"I actually wanted to talk to you, but it'll have to wait until a date when we're both less occupied. If you drop by Frost later, there are some things I want to go over, and Batten and Shane both agree on your opinion." Clever. Direct on the subject without saying a word.
Ash closed his eyes for a moment, silently wondering how this was even supposed to work with Capricia, and he took a step forward. This wasn't going to be an easy one, obviously, and Capricia wasn't going to accept anything but all he could offer. That was why he stepped forward to take the hand that wasn't clutching Connor's, and to rest his other palm on her forehead.
"Capricia, I am going to do what I can to deaden the pain and calm you down. In return, you have to get this baby out," he told her, and he wasn't waiting for an answer. He had their palms lined up, and his other palm on her forehead. That was two power centers for two, and the best he was going to get. Time to get to work.
The very first thing he did, considering the way she was wailing about wanting drugs, was pull energy from her black aura, which would deaden the pain in her body. He didn't take all of it, because she needed to know what was happening, but it would be manageable. All pregnant women should be so lucky. He followed that up by withdrawing more energy from her emotion aura to stop her panicking and bring her blood pressure down, and thrust a good portion of what he'd taken into the white aura to calm her down. The rest, he kept. She'd build her energy levels in those two up again fairly quickly, he was sure.
Calm down, Capricia, it'll all be over soon...
Connor didn't have the slightest idea what Leone was doing, but if it would calm her down and make things go a little smoother, he'd be appreciative. Of course, if she didn't break his fingers or blow out his eardrums in the meantime, he'd be happy. Even worse was that he WANTED to be able to take her home and make it all stop, but there was nothing he could do about any of it. They had to finish this before she could go home, but he'd take her immediately after, if she wanted.
Naturally, talk of disbelief and her blood pressure didn't help, either. It may not have been something they needed to worry about, but Connor wasn't entirely well-informed, and he was going to worry, anyway. He gave the doctor wide eyes right before Capri started howling again to take his attention back. Any attempt at soothing her would be drowned out by her cries, but he tried.
"Capri, I'll take you home as soon as we're done here, I'll take you wherever you want to go. You can't stop now, baby, you can do this," he told her, squeezing her hand a little. He was trying not to match her blood pressure.
Frost. That was a thought for Darren, since he didn't know a whole lot about that guild, other than what Connor had said. That was Capricia's guild, which would explain why Andrew was there, and made Darren wonder what the hell Andrew was talking about Danielle being unstable for. With the things he'd seen and heard out of Capri, not to mention heard of, he personally liked Danielle better, even if she sometimes gave him the creeps. Of course, he hadn't seen or heard about most of Danielle's....activities. Ash didn't talk about it, and neither did Danielle herself. If anyone else knew about it, they didn't tell, either.
Darren was always so well-informed.
He was actually a little startled by what Andrew had to say after the mention of Capri, and it took him a second to realize that Connor must have talked to a few people about his 'problem'. Great. Just what he wanted to hear. He frowned, not exactly thrilled, but nodded. He wasn't going into detail, either.
"Alright. Where do I find you there?"
Capricia gritted her teeth and concentrated on her own thoughts, trying to ignore everything else in the room. What was that song she'd heard in the truck before she'd gotten here? Current flows... I don't know where it goes... Yeah, those were the lyrics. Took this job 'cause I needed one... She felt the pain begin to lift off of her body - that was the only way she could describe it - and she felt her head feel less heavy, her skin less hot and itchy. Not completely, but she definitely didn't have anything to scream about anymore, which was good, because her throat had begun to hurt.
I hope someday I'll get away... But the current keeps bringing me back around.. If she could just zero in on those words, she'd be okay. She blinked slowly at Connor as he spoke to her, but she was feeling lightheaded, and she couldn't make out what was going on in the room, just that there was noise. Someone was telling her to push, and she didn't know why that didn't sound like a good idea to her, but she was doing it anyways.
She felt a strange weight lift off of her, and she was perhaps a little too 'zenned' out to realize she'd just had her child. Wow, that concentration crap really works, she thought to herself. It wasn't that Ash had zonked her out, it was just that the stress paired with the sudden aleviation of said stress took what felt like a massive elephant off her back. Capricia, relaxed, was a very strange sight to see.
It wasn't until the Doctor cut the cord and started talking to her rapidly that she realized what was going on, and she started to panic again. "What? No, put it back! I'm not ready for this!" she protested, trying to flail her arms again. Connor had one hand, and Ash had the other, so she didn't do much but wiggle around, which the Doctor began immediately telling her not to do in case of any hemmoraging.
Andrew patted his jacket down for a second, and then looked around on the counter. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and wrote down his number on the back of a matchbook. "Here. You can just give me a call when you're free. I'm not busy lately besides the usual random madness, so it shouldn't be hard to get a hold of me."
Capri may have been 'zenned out', but Connor was NOT. His light blue eyes were opened about as wide as they could do and he looked about ready to freak out, but he held Capri's hand and said the encouraging words and did what he was supposed to do, even if his brain had stalled and wasn't entirely operating at the speed it usually did. He was pretty much dumbstruck by this whole situation. Fortunately, Ash and the doctor had their shit together, and that helped snap Connor out of it somewhat as Mitchell cut the cord and Capri started freaking out. Ash had moved immediately in an attempt to still her, and Connor did the same, talking to her even as his eyes trailed to the baby Mitchell was holding as he told her not to wiggle.
"Capri, shhh, calm down, it's over, you're done," he told her, hoping she wouldn't do anything to hurt herself now. For once, he just wanted everything to go smoothly, but since when had it ever worked out for him like that?
Never. She was yelling about putting the baby back. That was encouraging. At least she hadn't attacked him for 'doing this to her' yet. He expected that to show up soon.
Darren glanced down at the number on the matchbook, nodding. "Okay," he agreed, not exactly pleased, but it couldn't be bad that they were going to do SOMETHING about this situation, right?
Of course, what the hell were any of them going to do with that vampire? All she had to do was tell one of them to do something, and they did it. End of story. Yeah, this was going to work out wonderfully.
"I guess the sooner, the better, huh?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to put it off, or get it done and over with. Putting it off might mean that he'd end up running into her again without being prepared, though he really wasn't so sure he could do anything about it even if he DID prepare. Maybe he'd start carrying earplugs around.
"I want to see...." she managed. She trailed off as Ash used his knack for commanding auras to calm her down again - and since she was no longer under an insane amount of physical duress, Mitchell had just tapped the IV he'd plugged into her arm with morphine. The combination of the two was enough for her to close her tired eyes and drift off.
How auspicious for Connor. It looked like it might actually go his way, after all - this time.
The child, who had yet to be named, made a series of loud noises, but eventually took to looking around as much as she could, alternating between partial crying fits and utter silence as she tried to figure out where in the fuck the warm place had gone. Mitchell had swaddled her in a nice, soft, sterile blanket, so eventually she stopped with the spastic behaviour and just sort of... stared at everyone.
Andrew nodded his head slightly. "Yeah," he replied. "I'd say so." The man who was generally at this point unexpressive glanced up, and then nodded a little. "It's a girl," he sang softly. "Connor sure has his work cut out for him between those two, especially if she takes after Capri." He gave Darren a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he readied himself to leave.
"Just give me a call. I'll free up some time. We'll get it under control." Unlike his cousin, this particular Vida had a good idea of 'control' and what it meant.
Once Capri was out, which actually hadn't been his intention, Ash found himself free to start considering mess. For one thing, he was going to need a shower after the trip up the stairs with Capri, and then there was the fact that his bed was going to need a serious cleaning. Babies being born was messy.
Ew.
He was going to have to wait until the doctor finished up and decided what to do with the mother before he could really do anything about it all, though. If Capri was going to sleep for awhile, she was really going to need a clean bed, which made him think of the 'guest room' he had behind the bar. Darren had stayed there while he was looking for an apartment of his own, but it was currently uninhabited. That was probably the best option.
"Doctor, I have a spare room if you'd like to clean her up and move her to a less...used bed," he offered, and if there was the slightest bit of distaste in his tone regarding his BED being 'used' for this purpose, nobody could really blame him. All that mattered was that he hadn't even thought twice before giving her the most comfortable place he had to have her baby, and it had all worked out. Mitchell had handed the baby girl to the father, who Ash thought might actually freak out soon enough, but he wasn't going to worry about monitoring Connor's auras. The man was level-headed enough, and he deserved to experience this unhindered, since Ash trusted him to not cause harm to himself or anyone else in the process.
It was true that Connor wasn't going to cause any damage anywhere, but he was definitely having a little fit in his head as the doctor handed the baby to him, all wrapped up in a blanket. At first, his biggest concern was that he had NO IDEA how to hold a baby, but Mitchell was smart enough to tug his arms into place even as he slowly put the little girl in them, having obviously understood that Connor hadn't ever had the opportunity to hold an infant. The fact that it was HIS baby only made it that much more incredible, and nearly overwhelming. He kept up a rather wide-eyed, pole-axed expression right up until he glanced up at the doctor and Mitchell unknowingly repeated what Andrew had said.
"It's a girl, Connor."
A girl. A baby girl. He grinned and said something, though he really wasn't paying attention to what, so it might have just been a repeat (again) of the fact that the baby was a girl. He'd already known from the ultrasounds what the gender was, but somehow it seemed...different right then. Much more real. It didn't MATTER what he said, because he really didn't feel like saying much of anything, and nobody in the room (currently conscious, anyway) really mattered. From the looks of things, the medicine Mitchell had given Capri had completely knocked her out, and Connor had a rather useless mental state for dealing with anything right then. Ash and Mitchell were going to have to establish where Capri (and family, since Connor would just follow) were going to end up for the mama to sleep off the meds, while the father's brain kept going, 'jkflsjdklghsfjkdfjigndsnjghdskslj!!'
How eloquent.
It was weird that Andrew just seemed to tilt his head and KNOW that Connor and Capri had just had a girl, even though Connor had mentioned it to Darren already. Maybe Capri had told Andrew? That would have made sense, and been better for Darren's comfort to think so. He really didn't want to think about how many individuals out there could do crazy powerful things, and he couldn't. It just made him feel even weaker and less prepared.
He nodded once more, the matchbook having already vanished within his pocket, and he sincerely hoped that Andrew was right. Getting it 'under control' seemed impossible, but if this guy could manage that, he was all for it. "Thanks."