Chapter Eighteen
“Hold him steady.”
“You hold him steady.”
“Nico!”
“I’ve got him. No, I don’t, he’s listing. He’s—”
“Drum.” Nell’s voice cut through the din. “Drum. Look at me. Up here, no, don’t look down there. For the Lady’s sake, someone pin up a modesty sheet. Ow, ow, OW!”
“Doc!”
“I’m fine, well, not fine, that was a doozy. Ow, ow, I’m not enjoying this.”
“Breathe, Nell.” Devon advised from her position at the end of the specially designed bed in the new luxury birthing suite the council had commission soon after Great-Aunt Alma, the family matchmaker, had returned to the fold.
“You breathe.” Nell snapped back, clearly not impressed with the paintwork chosen to promote serenity.
“Nell. Drum. Breathe.” Nico instructed. “Everyone, hee-hee, haw-haw.” Bloody Hell, he was hot in the blue medical smock one of the midwife nurses had tied him into when they’d stumbled through the birthing suite doors.
Nico’s primary job since that moment was to keep Drum upright as he swayed around like a piece of untied cargo on a ship’s deck during a storm.
It was proving beyond challenging. The woozy Warrior was seven feet of muscle on muscle, and currently his complexion was greener than algae.
The sound of panting filled the room. The modesty screen over Nell’s belly was raised, but Drum was too tall, and couldn’t seem to stop glancing down in that direction.
“Okay. We’re almost there. No, no pushing just yet.”
“I need to push.” Nell yelled.
“No, you don’t. Drum, distract her, and I don’t mean by fainting.”
“I’m not going to faint.” Drum assured in a slurred rumble that gave no one present any confidence in his ability to stay upright.
“Nico.” Devon snapped out his name.
“I’m doing the best I can. Are you sure we can’t get a Maat Warrior or all six of them in here to help?”
“This is a birthing suite. Not a circus. Yami, it’s bad enough I have the guy who makes a mean mojito and the woman who owns the local chocolate shop present. Yes, yes, I know, magic is in play. But are you sure we can’t ditch the rabbit outside? That just strikes me as unsanitary.”
Gigi, wearing a matching blue smock of her own, standing over by the double entrance doors shook her head.
“For the last time, he’s a magical disposal and poison construct.
And Nico’s been cursed by a Love Demi-goddess, if we get further than ten feet apart, he becomes her puppet and will probably try and steal the baby. ”
“You are not stealing my baby.” Nell snarled.
“I don’t plan to. But either both Gigi and I stay, or we both leave.
” Nico gritted out the last three words from behind clenched teeth as Drum’s knees buckled.
“Mierda.” With a monumental heave he managed to get the Warrior standing under his own massive weight.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold him. ”
“I could push.”
“No.” Two of Devon’s curls shot out from under her loosely tied medical cap and waggled back and forth admonishingly at Nell.
“Do you even remember what fully dilated looks like? You’re only an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist.”
“Oh, Pollyanna’s gotten to the feral stage of the delivery experience. Who knew you had it in you? Tell you what, why don’t I grab Carl and get a second opinion?”
“I swear to the Goddess, River Floozy, if you don’t let me push I’m going to, ow, bloody ow, uh, ow. Can I please, please, have something for the pain?”
“You know you’re too far along. It won’t be much longer. How about some fresh ice chips?”
“I’m really, really not enjoying, hee-hee, hee-haw, hee-hee, this, at all. Drum? Drum? Oh, Lady Above, has he fainted but is somehow remaining upright?” Nell sounded like she was about to burst into tears.
“I’m… here.” Drum tried to pat his meld mate’s hand and missed completely.
Gigi had had enough, picking up Canary she left her post by the door, racing over to the bed, pushing aside second cousin Helen, one of the nurses, so she could stare down at Nell. “Hi. Do you trust me?”
“Trust you?”
“Not to give you anything that would hurt you or the baby?”
“Of course.”
“Then here, suck on this.” Gigi had Canary cough up a red lollipop. “I hope you like raspberry.”
“Wh—”
“Batch five of my berry iced lollipop range. Designed to cool you down on a hot summer’s day without all the messiness of an ice cream. Unfortunately, these made people a little too happy and relaxed.”
Nell snatched the lollipop out of Gigi’s hand, popping it into her mouth before she’d even finished explaining.
“And you.” Gigi stared up at Drum. “Open up.” Holding up a small piece of innocuous looking orange hard candy.
“I’mmm finnnnee…” Drum mumbled from between clamped lips, staring at Gigi’s offering like it was a piece of hot uranium.
“I developed these for personal use during exam time. Part menthol, a dose of high grade caffeine, and some orange flavouring to help disguise the taste. It’s the equivalent of four energy drinks combined with the feeling of jumping out of an aeroplane without a parachute.
Come on, open up, you need the adrenaline rush. ”
Drum’s scowl deepened, taking on a stubborn implacable bullish cast.
“Drum.” Nell grabbed his arm and squeezed.
“Take the candy.” Rolling her eyes to the ceiling as his lips remained stubbornly clamped tightly together.
Nell’s silvery snake tattoo, a much smaller version of Drum’s black mambo slid down her arm, it’s eyes deep blue, just like Nell’s.
It curled around her wrist, over the back of her hand, opened its mouth, and promptly sank its fangs into Drum.
“Hey.”
Gigi squeezed Canary’s sides, another piece of the same candy shot out his tiny mouth, landing in Drum’s. The Maat Warrior’s eyes widening instantly, blood rushing into his cheeks, sweat breaking out across his brow.
“He’s not going to throw up, is he?” Helen was reaching for a bowl.
“No. Well, he shouldn’t. Just give it a few more seconds.” Gigi crossed her fingers, praying she’d done the right thing.
Drum abruptly pushing away Nico, straightening his stance. “Whoa, that thing is like taking a kick to the head.” He noticed Gigi wince at his response. “Which is exactly what I needed, thanks.” Bending over Nell, pushing damp hair away from her forehead. “How you doing, Doc? Do you need anything?”
“I’d really… “ She paused and then thought about it, flinching slightly as a contraction shot through her. “I should be saying ow, but that felt kind of distant and someone else’s problem. I am loving this lollipop. We need to look into how to use them going forward for pain management, so many of our magical kind don’t respond well to traditional pain management methods. I’ll set up a study—”
“Nell.” Devon squeezed her ankle. “It’s time to push.” She was a little worried that Nell was so relaxed and a little loopy that she wouldn’t cooperate, but her friend, yes, friend, shot her a tired look but nodded in agreement.
“Okay-dokay. You just tell me when, you’re in charge of this delivery.”
Rivers and Lakes! Devon agreed with Nell, they should totally explore more uses for those lollipops if it made patients happy, took a little edge off the pain and made them cooperative. “Next contraction. Drum, put your leg up behind Nell, have her lean back into you. And remember, breathe.”
“Ow.”
“And push.”
“I’ve got you, Doc.”
“Argh.”
Nico knew he shouldn’t look, but it was like an eclipse, a messy, bloody, gory eclipse. By The Saints.
“I’ve got you.” Gigi slipped around the bed, cupping Nico by the elbow, he was the one now swaying on the spot. “Here.” It only seemed appropriate to pop the piece of candy she still had in her hand into his mouth.
“Mierda.” Nico’s eyes widened and watered, his sinuses promptly cleared and it felt like he’d just guzzled sixteen shots of espresso without the jitter factor, wow, he felt awake, fresh, and ready to take on any damn thing, except.
“Don’t look.” Gigi advised.
“I can’t seem to stop.”
Grabbing Nico’s arm Gigi dragged him over to the entrance doors.
“Here, help me keep any nosey relatives at bay. As soon as they get wind they’ll try anything to circumnavigate the Enforcers on guard duty wanting to know exactly when the baby is born.
The betting books will be running red hot right now. ”
Behind them a lot of panting, pushing and more panting took place.
“We could just leave.”
Gigi shook her head. “Darcy was the one who gave us our orders, until she formally relieves us we need to stick to Nell and the baby.”
Trying to block all the seriously unpleasant sounds going on behind him, Nico stared down at Gigi, who was looking nothing but relaxed in her blue hospital gown, and booties covering her sandals. “You know, I didn’t picture today ending like this.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I was kind of hoping to have Qetesh in a head lock and be in a position to smack her around a little for a few hours.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t get that chance. But don’t worry, Darcy will get that curse lifted one way or another as soon as she can. You okay with that? The curse still in effect for a while longer?”
Nico found himself shrugging. There was no place else he’d rather be than within ten feet of Gigi DeWitt, the active curse just meant he had a good excuse to remain there.
“I know it’s for a good cause.” They needed Qetesh to spill everything she knew about her mother’s involvement in the deity Cabal plot.
“What about you, you okay with things going on as they are for a little longer?” It was the closest he was prepared to get to asking if Gigi would remain his lover for the foreseeable future.
Though his whole body was tense, waiting for her response.
“What’s a few more days in the big scheme of saving the planet? For simplicity sake we just keep up the status quo, act normal, let the family hound Elijah and Darcy for details, we just need to act like innocent bystanders in all this.”