Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Talon watched Mercury clean the kitchen.
He’d asked if he could help, and Mercury had kind of…snarled at him. So he was doing some work for Kami on his laptop, working with topo maps, and watching his hailee get things…just so.
Talon was a bit afraid for Mercury to move on to the living room. He might just stick Talon in that giant trash bag he had almost full.
“Would you like me to carry that trash bag out?”
Mercury glared at him. “Maybe I just want this place cleaned up. It’s a mess.”
He looked around the house, which was whatever the exact polar opposite of a mess was. “Okay, well, if you need me, just let me know.”
Mercury just grumbled at him and continued working.
After about another half an hour, wherein Mercury had managed to move from the kitchen into the entryway which had absolutely nothing in it to clean at all, he asked, “Would you like a milkshake or something? I’m kind of hungry.”
“I’m not hungry,” Mercury growled.
“No? Okay, well, I think I might order myself a milkshake. I have a craving.”
“What, are you pregnant?” Mercury’s eyes filled with tears, and he swallowed his groan.
“No, no, I’m just hungry, and I thought rather than mess up your clean kitchen, I would order food.” And not hurt anybody and not kill you because you’re being weird. He didn’t say that last part out loud, but he really wanted to.
Mercury looked at him, eyes filling with tears. “Are you mad at me?”
“No? I am a little worried about you. And I really am hungry. So I really do think I’m going to get me a milkshake. If you want one, I could get you a caramel one.”
“Can I have pineapple this time?”
“Absolutely! Let me run the trash out, and I’ll grab milkshakes, and I’ll be home in two shakes.”
Mercury grinned at him. “That’s a lot of shakes!”
It felt so good to get a smile.
He took the trash bag and tapped on Kami’s door quietly, pleased as hell to see Reno answer the door.
“Hi, Reno, I’m going to go down to get milkshakes. Would you like anything, or would you like to come with me and help me carry this heavy trash bag?” He let his hysteria show in his eyes.
“I would love to,” Reno chuckled and called back to Kami, “I’m gonna go get milkshakes. I’ll bring one back.”
“Cool. Bring something for this monster who’s teething.”
They made it far enough away from their doors that Mercury couldn’t hear them, and then he groaned. “Something’s wrong with Mercury,” he said. “He’s driving me crazy.”
“Mercury is the size of a house. I’m pretty sure you don’t get to decide that he makes you crazy.”
“I know. I do. But nothing I say or accomplish helps. Nada. Zip. He alternates between ripping my head off and bursting into tears. What do I do?” He needed help, dammit.
Reno frowned. “What’s he doing?”
“What do you mean, what’s he doing? I just told you.”
“No, I’m serious. What exactly is he doing that’s weird, that’s not just being grumpy?”
Oh, he got it. “Cleaning. He’s cleaning everything. Things that aren’t dirty. Things which don’t have any parts which could possibly be dirty.”
Reno visibly relaxed, and it was bizarre, but also incredibly decent in a way, because Talon felt as if he could relax too.
“What? What is it?”
Reno offered him a warm smile. “He’s nesting, which means he’s getting ready to have the baby. Give it a couple of days tops and you’ll have a kid.”
“Oh, is it that easy?”
“Well, it won’t be easy. It’s going to be a couple of tough, tough days.
But it’s normal. He’s getting his place ready for your new baby, so my suggestion is to stay out of his way, do anything he asks, make sure you feed him and get him hydrated.
I would also let Rowan know just so that he is available to be on call. ”
“I can do all of those things. In fact, I’m getting him a pineapple milkshake right now.”
Reno nodded. “Yeah, Kami’s gonna go over and check on him. Maybe the teething wonder will distract him for a minute.”
“Oh yeah, I heard. Hopefully, a milkshake helps?”
Reno shook his head. “I don’t think anything helps. She’s just miserable.”
“Poor baby. I hate that she’s hurting.”
“I hate that Kami’s going to tear his hair out.” Reno winked, obviously trying to ease things back, but the tension was right there.
They had this total simpatico thing going on where their hailees were unhappy and neither one of them knew what to do to help because there was nothing they could do. This was just nature taking its course.
“Well, if there’s anything I can do, including calling the healers and having them come over, just let me know.”
“Ditto, man. If you need us for some reason, just holler. We’ll come. I bet Triton would do the same thing. Heaven knows he’s been through this.”
“He’s probably been through more of teething than he has birthing, right?”
“Are you kidding? He has two of his own. Plus that little girl who came with them and is so amazing. He went through her teething. You’re right.”
He chuckled as they made their way into the dining hall. “Yeah, Triton’s very busy right now. They made up with Cerran a lot over this whole working with Jack thing, and Cerran is working to make it more equitable. The time he spends between the two, I mean.”
“Ah, so there may be another baby soon, huh?”
“I do wonder. Hey, Jonathan, how are you doing today?” he asked the kid behind the counter.
Jonathan cracked his knuckles. “I’m great. What kind of milkshakes do we want today?”
“Pineapple, apparently for one.”
The kid’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, he must be getting close. Pineapple is usually not something they do until right up at the end because of the heartburn.”
Talon chuckled. “How does everybody know this stuff before I do?”
Jonathan shrugged one shoulder. “Look, I have six sisters. We’re coyote shifters. They all have kids. I’m the only one who hasn’t given my mom grandkids, and the only reason is because I’m pretty young.”
He and Reno shook their heads laughing because this poor guy really did seem to know what he was talking about.
Heck, if he was the youngest of seven or maybe even more, if he had brothers as well as sisters, he probably did have a pretty good idea of what happened with pregnancies and things like that.
“Thanks for the info, man. I think I would like a chocolate raspberry shake.”
Reno raised an eyebrow at him. “Gods, are you pregnant?”
He whacked Reno’s shoulder. “No, it just sounds really good somehow. I’m also going to go get some actual food. Once you get your milkshake order in, we’ll go wander, and then we’ll come back. Is that okay, Jonathan?”
“Sounds perfect. I’ve got this, don’t worry about it.”
“Cool, then I’ll take one chocolate vanilla swirl milkshake and one banana,” Reno murmured.
“Banana is that for you? Do I need to worry about you being in a family way?” Talon loved that he could tease his best friend’s mate just as much as he teased his best friend.
“Not that I know of. Although, I guess one never knows. I could be the first braaken in history to do it.”
“You could. Why not?” Mentally, Talon checked in with his mate, who he could tell was humming and cleaning now in the front room since he had vacated. Mercury seemed much happier with him not in the room.
“Because I would never put myself through that.” Reno clapped right back.
“Hey, speaking of braaken, how’s that Dannol guy?” He knew Mercury had checked in on a new dragon, but he hadn’t had a chance to get down to the med bay.
“He’s good from what I understand. Working a lot with Cain. I think he’s going to make it. They’re already talking about moving him up into an apartment soon.” Reno grinned at him, waggled his eyebrows. “He’s just got to remember how to turn back into a human, so that he fits through the hallways.”
“That’s a problem, and it’s been a while, I guess.” Talon imagined it was like flexing a rarely used muscle. It was hard at first, but it would get easier as he got stronger. “I still couldn’t believe that Kami and Mercury did that. Slid. Gods.”
Reno nodded, totally empathetic with him. “But I hear Anemone is there helping, right?”
“She is. She comes every day, and I think Mercury is getting it, like he’s learning to make it where he has to agree, which I think is really handy.”
Reno snorted. “It’s more than handy right? I mean I love Kami to death, and he wouldn’t mean to make Mercury slide, but he would so do it.” Reno’s laughter filled the cafe. “So what are you thinking about food-wise?”
“Probably something like a turkey sandwich, something that doesn’t smell, just in case. I don’t want to upset the apple cart.”
“I might get a Philly cheese steak. It sounds really good.”
“Butthead.”
“Hey, you can brush your teeth and all.” Reno elbowed him, and they jostled each other hard.
They got their sandwiches and gobbled them up like fiends even before the milkshakes could be made.
In fact they had just picked up their milkshakes when Talon felt this flush of panic from Mercury, and then heard Kami, of all dragons, sharp and clear.
Somebody’s water just broke. You better hurry.
He looked at Reno and began to run.
His logical brain explained that this was ridiculous, it was going to take hours: labor, babies, all of that. His braaken brain was saying he needed to get to his hailee right now, no questions, no comments, no profound statements.
He and Reno hit their door about the same time. Kami was doing a stellar job cleaning things up, staying calm. Talon was damned proud.
“Hey, Kami, good job. Is he—”
“Thank you. I put the laundry in the washer. He’s fine. A little wigged. He called Rowan. Rowan said to walk around, breathe, first babies, slowness. You know, we’ve all been there.”
“I haven’t.” He hugged Kami quickly. “Thank you. Thank you very much. There’s milkshakes for you and the teething wonder.”
“Thanks. Mercury’s rocking her right now. It seems to be helping. Nothing else has.”