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English
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Published:
2021-01-18
Completed:
2021-01-18
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5,791
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2/2
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won't want for love

Chapter 2: "Deleted" Scene

Summary:

This bonus scene contains a lot of anxiety about worst-case scenarios during pregnancy and childbirth. However nothing like that actually occurs and none of the discussion of it is graphic.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Shouldn’t they have called by now?” Mike asks. He’s laying on the floor with his face covered in cheese dust which Buddy is attempting to lick off.

Courtney taps her foot nervously. “I think everything’s okay. Pat said he’d text me if they got attacked or something, and Justin’s supposed to be ‘patrolling’ around the hospital, and they probably can’t get past him and Beth…”

Beth had offered to be secondary security detail since she could easily make up an excuse for why she was at the hospital so late at whatever time it was that Barb’s water broke as long as her mom was working at the time. She’s there now, though her updates mostly consist of the words “no danger yet!” at regular intervals. Which is helpful, sure, but Courtney still feels sick with anxiety.

There’s a lot of stuff that could go wrong. A lot of stuff. They could get attacked by Sportsmaster and Tigress while they’re vulnerable. There could be an emergency in town like a major fire that they wouldn’t be at maximum strength to help with. Grundy could decide he’s done living passively in the tunnels and enjoying Beth’s company when she goes down to visit him and decide to destroy the town’s physical infrastructure. 

And that’s just external things. Something could go wrong with her mom, like on the inside, like what Cameron told her happened with his mom when he was born, and even though things were fine for him until his mom got sick later what if her mom isn’t? What if something really bad happens with the baby? Her mom’s not old, it’s not like she’s the first woman her age to get pregnant, but Courtney panic-read a bunch of stuff about all the worst-case scenarios when the doctor confirmed (multiple times) that her mom was successfully pregnant and it was all really bad and scary stuff. 

Yeah, most of it happened before people were actually ready to give birth, but not all of it! It was terrifying! Why would anybody use their body to have a kid, ever?

“It feels like it’s taking too long, right?” Mike frowns. “Right? Are we supposed to go over there? How long is too long?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never done this before.” Courtney’s foot tapping upgrades to full-on rapid leg bouncing. The staff pushes up under her arm and ripples a little with heat. She brought it up when she first started thinking about emergencies that would mean she’d have to get going fast. “Our parents are the only ones who have and they’re the ones doing it!”

“I’m googling it,” Mike announces, flipping onto his stomach and stowing away his Switch so he can look it up on his phone. “How old is Barb again?”

“She’s your stepmom, you should know how old she is.” Courtney rolls her eyes.

“How old is my dad?” Mike counters.

Courtney opens her mouth to tell him that they both know damn well Pat is approaching his one-hundred and first birthday before her phone starts buzzing loudly. She snatches it up immediately and her chest feels tight when she sees Pat’s the one calling.

She frantically waves at Mike to shut up and answers, pressing her phone to her ear so tightly it hurts. “Is Mom okay?” She demands, springing to her feet just in case they have to take off. “What’s going on?”

Pat’s definitely crying on the other end of the line, which makes Courtney’s heart rocket into her mouth and do jackknifes at the back of her throat. Her fingers feel cold. 

Hearing her mom’s distant voice makes the blood come back to her hands and face a little bit. “Honey, you can’t just call Court and cry at her—give me the phone—oh, ow, ow, that hurts. That really—nurse? I, um, I need—ow, ow, ow—”

“Girl,” Pat chokes out, and Courtney realizes she’s shaking a little. “She’s a little girl, Court, she’s beautiful, she looks just like you.”

“Oh, shit!” Courtney’s sure her smile is wobbling, but it’s still so wide it hurts her cheeks. Pat doesn’t even make an effort to correct her for swearing, just laughs wetly into the phone. She can easily picture him gripping her mom’s hand so tightly his knuckles are white. “Send a picture! Use Mom’s phone!”

“Barb’s okay?” Mike says, sitting up. “Courtney?”

Courtney nods fast. “She’s okay, I think, she was talking, Dad didn’t say anything, but it’s a girl, and he’s going to send pictures. We—oh, wow.” She tries to sit down in the chair she’d been sitting in for the first four hours and misses by a mile, landing hard on the floor. The accidental pain in her tailbone makes her forget that she just called Pat “Dad.” Like, for real this time, not as a joke, the way she’s said it before. “We’ve got a sister.”

Mike grins at her from the floor. It looks… really genuine. Courtney can’t help but feel warm, even if he’s probably making fun of her for taking the fall. “You know what this means, right?”

Courtney rolls her eyes at him again, but hands over the twenty dollars all the same.

Notes:

You can find me @augustheart on tumblr, where I consistently refuse to stop using Decemberists lyrics as fic titles.