The Awkward Ride Home {TAG: Nick}

[Skye LeCroix]

Well, Skye felt like even if a lot hadn't physically been accomplished at the church, the little red fox had certainly put the ball into motion for a great many thing, and most of it she prayed would benefit the shape-shifting community of the city, if not eventually the globe. She stared out the window as Nick drove, and she could practically feel the silence looming, pressing against her. Nick, whether he meant to or not, was a very imposing man, and now was one of those times where Skye would let it get to her.

Just take deep breaths, she told herself mentally. No puking in the truck. Just cleaned it. She stole a glance over to him, and sank down in the seat, wrapping the jacket around herself. He and the air conditioner were homies. Is he mad? Is he upset? Is he happy? Damn him for being able to do that poker face!

She opened her mouth to start this conversation, like she'd been doing for the last five minutes. Every time, she froze up and looked back out the window, watching the raindrops roll against the glass. It figured that it would have started raining on the way home, it was just her luck. She sighed to herself, though it was audible enough, and drummed her fingers on her leg underneath the massive jacket she'd usurped from her husband.

[Nick LeCroix]

To be absolutely honest, Nick didn't know what to say to Skye, which was purely the reason why he hadn't yet.  Was he supposed to be happy?  He wanted to be happy, but what about the fact that any child of theirs was a mixed breed, and could be dangerous?  Skye and the baby could both end up dead over something like that, and that scared him because there was NOTHING he could do about it.  Not to mention, he couldn't help being selfish and wanting a child who was a lion, but only a hyena was really safe for Skye to carry.  He wouldn't hate it if the child were a hyena, but he had to at least be honest with himself and say that he'd like it if it were a lion if it weren't dangerous for Skye

Was she happy about it?  She hadn't wanted him to find out, but her little hyena buddies Ed and Eddy had spilled the beans in front of both him and Jaime, not the way he'd have liked for either of them to find out.  Had Skye not wanted to tell him?  He didn't want to be happy and excited if she was upset over it, or vice versa, and she hadn't yet said anything.  It was a long, quiet ride, broken only by a long sigh from her.

It was driving him nuts.

"Talk to me, Skye.  Tell me what you're thinking," he finally said, his voice soft and extremely careful.  He had to be sure not to decide one way or the other until he could figure out what HER say in it was.  It was her who had to carry the child, so what she thought of it was a big deal.  He didn't want to unwittingly pressure her either way.

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye winced. Right now she was feeling a little more emotional than she usually did, only she didn't blame it on her hormones, just the fact that she was usually very in control and right now she didn't know what in the hell was happening... with anything. And then comes Nick, tone dangerously neutral, like he's walking on eggshells. Did she ask for him to tiptoe around this? She felt herself getting angry, and then she got upset all over again, because this wasn't really his fault. Well, it was. Sort of. But not like that. It was more of...

"I was going to tell you this weekend. I didn't realize they would be able to pick up on it so soon."

That was all he was getting, because she was angry about crap he didn't know about and she didn't feel like telling him. She folded her arms tightly beneath the jacket and tried to look angry, but it was just too hard for her to twist her pretty little face into a frown, so she settled for staring out the window and hating the rain. She wanted to yell at him for trying to be so cautious. He was her husband, not someone who was designed to react the way she wanted them to.

[Nick LeCroix]

He nodded at what she said as he drove, feeling like this was at least a step in the right direction.  He still didn't know what she thought of it all, but he'd just have to ask her.  She didn't usually come out and make situations like this easy on him.  He had to guess, or just ASK, both of which he hated doing.  Time to suck it up, though.

"Okay, I get that," he agreed, though he couldn't really help being a little bent that the hyenas all knew he was going to be a father before he did.  That was just annoying.  "Are you upset?"

There was the million dollar question, and hopefully she wouldn't provide him with a demonstration if she WAS upset.  He just wanted to know how to proceed.

[Skye LeCroix]

Did... did he just ask me if I was upset? she thought incredulously to herself. She looked at him with wide, shocked eyes, wondering if he had rocks in his head. "Why would I be upset? Are you upset? Because, I sort of expected a huge, 'I'm a daddy' dance or something with the way you talk about it, and instead I get some ominous 'We'll talk later'," she started, making her voice all deep and making a funny face when she impersonated him.

"You know, it'd have been one thing if you'd have had a negative reaction, and another if you'd had a positive one, but you just didn't react at all. I can't decide if that's good or bad, but it didn't make me happy. Now you're tailoring your answers around me because you're trying not to set me off, well, guess what? I'm set off. I'm pissed off because I thought you'd be happy about this and you're not."

And then the waterworks came.

"Aw, DAMNIT," she sobbed, throwing her arms down uselessly. "I don't even want to cry right now! Stupid.. Nick!"

[Nick LeCroix]

Great, he'd really botched this one.  He sighed, dropping the careful manners and glanced her way.  He was driving, so he couldn't give her his full attention, but he'd do what he could.  They were almost home.

"I'm sorry, baby, please don't cry," he told her, reaching out with one hand and a series of glances to grab her hand, aware that he'd definitely been the one who messed things up here.  "Ed and Eddy took me off-guard with all their comments, you didn't look happy, we didn't really have a chance to say much about any of it before that fox started talking, and I didn't know if you were happy about it all.  I didn't want to freak out one way or the other if it would upset you, but I guess I screwed that up anyway."

There, that was the most honest he could be.  Yep, he'd screwed it up, but he WAS thrilled, now that he could stop worrying about what she thought and think about what HE thought of it.  He glanced her way again, a smile forming rather suddenly.  He was OBVIOUSLY pro-kids.  "But you're pregnant?  I'm gonna be a father?"

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye moved out of reach of his hand a few times to be contrary, and then gave in when she could hear the tone in his voice change. She sniffled and nodded as he spoke, trying like crazy to stop being such a girl about this situation. She angrily rubbed at her eyes as he admitted his guilt, and nodded a little.

"It's fine, I was just... mad. You were the closest thing to me," she confessed. Although she was still irritated that he felt the need to try and form an opinion around hers. She felt it wouldn't give her accurate data sometimes to say what she felt, based on him, but then again that meant she'd be doing the same thing. Whatever.

"Yes, I am. 110% sure. While I was with Jason the night that he got attacked the doctor decided to do some blood work on me. He kept kicking me out of the room because my test results were hatching, not because he didn't want me interfering with Jason's medical needs." She looked a little sheepish at trying to peek at her results before they'd processed, but she couldn't help it.

"So, yes. You're going to be a father. Honest reaction time. Go," she said as he pulled the truck into their driveway and hopped out. She waited to see what he did.

[Nick LeCroix]

He was torn between just stopping in his attempt at holding her hand and trying harder for her attempts to escape it.  She finally gave in, so his hand closed around hers and he finished what he had to say.  At least she seemed to have chilled out after he explained, though.  Life could have been so much more difficult if she hadn't. 

Parking and shutting the car off was the first thing on his priority list the instant they got to the house, but he grinned at her when she told him that yes, he was going to be a father and she wanted his honest reaction.  He could do that, and it involved him shutting the doors, clicking the button on the keyring to lock them while he walked around the car, and stashing the keys in his pocket.  He didn't want to drop them, since they'd be inconvenient.

"Have I told you I love you yet tonight?" he asked, laughing as he wrapped her up in his arms to lean down for a kiss.  "Because I do.  And I love the idea of having children," he told her, sneaking another quick kiss before scooping her up in his arms to carry her inside. 

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye nearly tripped he came up on her so fast. She opened her mouth but he was hugging her and kissing her, and Skye found him the hardest thing to resist, and so, despite being somewhat irrationally irritated still, she kissed him back, and felt her anger melt away. Damn that power he had.

It wasn't until he told her he loved the idea of having kids that she completely relaxed, and her sigh of relief was interrupted as he scooped her up and made to the door with her. "And here for a moment I thought you were either going to drive me to a clinic or do the daddy dance. What a pleasant surprise it was neither," she said with a laugh. She didn't really want to try and do the damage control Nick leaping around the yard screaming, "I'M A DADDY!" might have on the next-door neighbors, who had begun to get increasingly MORE weird than before, as if it were possible.

Skye navigated the hallway skillfully from Nick's arms, turning on the lights as they passed. She wiggled around in place, aware that he wasn't going to put her down for a while, and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, placing a light kiss on his jaw.

"I'm just glad you're not freaking out right now. I found out when I went to the Guildhouse... I've been trying to find a way to tell you all week." She figured now he'd know why she was so tense when she'd come back from seeing Jason.

[Nick LeCroix]

He laughed at her talk of the 'Daddy dance', not even about to consider anything involving a clinic.  That was their BABY she was talking about!  "Who said I wasn't going to do a dance?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow up at her.  They had to clear the hallway before he'd be willing to do anything that might risk her.  He wasn't going to treat her like glass, but no rough-play for awhile.

Once they were in their room, he laughed and did an exaggerated twirl just for her before he dropped them both on the huge bed, using his arms to keep her from bouncing too high or far. 

"It freaked me out a little to find out about it at that meeting, with everyone talking about Midnight and losing people, but you should have told me immediately.  I promise I wouldn't have scared the neighbors," he assured her, still grinning like an idiot.  She was actually the only person he really acted like this with.  Even with Jaime, he seemed ever so slightly more mature.  Given how childish they could both act in each others' presence, he needed to act just a little more like an adult with his brother.  Besides, he was the oldest, so he was used to being the voice of reason. 

[Skye LeCroix]

It sure was a good thing he didn't intend to treat her like glass. Skye knew that the employment discussion was going to be a heated one, and her stomach knotted itself up again. She snuggled around on him once he'd finished doing his celebration and jumping on the bed with her, though she couldn't help but laugh at his behaviour. She only wondered what Jaime was going to do the next time he'd seen her. She'd talked to him about kids once, and he was pretty gung ho about being an uncle. She was equally nervous about his reaction, actually.

"I would have told you, but I needed a few days to think about things. I never told Jason -or- Ebere, Nick. They can... smell it on me, I guess. If they can, other shifters will be able to soon, too." She frowned. She didn't know if she wanted to run around telling everyone about this just yet. At least Capricia was pregnant, too. And she knew that Connor was going to suggest she take it easy, because Capri said he'd been trying to make her do the same thing. The difference was Capricia was a Frost Hunter and -always- in the danger. Skye sat on a roof with a rifle and made her money after an hour of waiting for someone to walk by a window.

She sat up enough to kiss Nick on the cheek lightly. All the stuff about Midnight had scared her, but Skye just shook it off at the end of the day. If she didn't, she'd go mad.

[Nick LeCroix]

Nick knew better than to treat her like she'd break into a million pieces, but the chances that he'd be comfortable with her hunting all the time, especially when she started showing for real, were slim.  He was the protective sort of guy, so it wouldn't have been at all surprising if he wanted to follow her on hunts, even if he just hung out in case things backfired on her.  She wouldn't like it, but he was going to be EXTREMELY nervous about her hunting.

That was a conversation for another time.

"Well, no sense in hiding it, if everyone'll find out soon enough anyway.  Don't worry, I'll eat anyone who messes with you," he promised, smiling and kissing her back, right on the cheek.  He wasn't one of those guys that needed constant sexual attention, and this wasn't that sort of situation.

[Skye LeCroix]

"Oooh, does this mean I have to make an announcement and get a baby shower planned and stuff? Because... I feel kind of lazy about this." She frowned, and then her eyes lit up. "Oh my god, what are your parents going to say?" she asked. She suddenly sat upright and made a face. Skye could never figure those humans out. She'd only met them a few times, mostly because Nick knew it sort of hit her in a bad way that she didn't have parents to drag him to see, and because they lived ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

"Oooh," she just said again, frowning. She'd gotten the 'age gap' talk a few times from human friends who meant well, and she wagered Nick might've heard it too. She sank back down onto the bed and sighed.

"Damn. My happy went away."

[Nick LeCroix]

"Well, you don't have to, if you don't want to," he told her, looking almost thoughtful.  He was a guy, and baby showers didn't really apply to him, so he hadn't even thought of it.  His parents hadn't figured in just because he hadn't had a chance to consider them, but he knew what they'd say.  "Don't worry about my parents.  They'll be ecstatic, I promise."

Of course he'd gotten the 'age gap' discussion a few times, from Jaime and his parents included, but it didn't matter to him.  He had other, larger concerns, so the fact that she was a few years young didn't really matter to him.  By the time he was 80, those six years would mean nothing.  "Don't let your happy go away, baby.  Everything will be okay, I promise."  Yes, he was willing to make that promise, because he'd FREAK on whoever made it un-okay.  He didn't play those games.

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye stared at him, non-believing. She was a non-believer when it came to his parents. She couldn't count the times on her fingers that she'd gotten the feeling they'd hated her on sight. She could never figure out why, either, because as far as she'd been told, she was the ideal take-home girlfriend. She reckoned it had a lot to do with the marriage being so soon, especially considering she was "young". Skye figured that having your family wiped off the face of the map didn't count for growing up fast anymore these days.

"Call them and tell them now?" she asked, testing him. She was praying that she was just forever misinterpereting them, but she didn't know. She wanted to find out as soon as possible, though. That way she'd know who to thank and who to ignore the piss out of. Skye was a vengeful shit when she wanted to be, anyways.

She gave Nick her best puppy-dog eyes to see if she could coerce him into calling them and telling them right then and there.