Anita Blake/Merry Gentry cross over, second in the series after Marmee Blake. I'm trying to keep updates in a pattern but my muse is being annoyingly absent. I hope you enjoy it anyway :)
There was once a time when I thought hunting the preternatural, staking vampires, having metaphysical relationships and trying not to be destroyed by a vampire council were hard things to do. Obviously, until then, I'd never been pregnant. At 32 weeks, with twins, I felt like I was about to explode. I constantly needed to pee, I was always both hungry and nauseas', I had hormones coming out of my freaking ears. Add on the metaphysical crap that came with being pregnant, like constantly increasing needs to feed the ardeur and suddenly having a somewhat deeper and creepier connection with the men in my life, you got the hardest thing I'd ever done. Which was why I was now at the RPIT headquarters with Micah and Nathanial, explaining to Dolph why I wanted to go on maternity leave 5 weeks earlier than I told him I would be. I'd come back to work about a month after he confronted me at Animators Inc, all was not forgotten, but we were working on being forgiven.
'Anita, we need you to come in on cases for as long as possible! You're only 35 weeks gone, Tammy worked right up until the day she gave birth.' Dolph was trying to reason with me, but I just looked at him sceptically.
'Tammy went into premature labour and Larry nearly had a heart attack trying to get to her on time.' Dolph sighed but reached over to grab his pen and sign the forms that meant I wouldn't be called In for anything until I was ready to come back. He handed them to some new officer he'd shouted in, having him take them to human resources, when Zebrowski sauntered in and grinned at me.
'Come back to work Blake? Can you even reach your gun around that bump?' I laughed at him, I'd gotten used to baby bump jokes in the first 5 months after Jason and Nathanial took it upon themselves to comment on how big I'd gotten since the last time they'd seen me, even if it'd only been five minutes.
'Not coming back, leaving early. But I could still shoot you faster than you could get your gun out of that holster.' He laughed back at me and then reached out a hand to help me up and walk me out to where Micah and Nathanial were waiting for me. Nathanial was holding a cup of coffee and I looked at him hopefully until he held it out and mouthed 'decaf' at me. It had been a contention between us for months, he'd read that pregnant women shouldn't have caffeine and had began swapping mine for decaf, I was always trying to get around it somehow, to little success. I pouted at him but took it anyways.
'Katie and I are coming over to dinner next week, okay?' Zebrowski said as he handed me off to the boys, smiling at them both as greeting.
'Yeah, I think Nathanial is making chicken something or another, so we'll see you Wednesday.' I replied, sipping on my coffee and wincing at the taste. Before I'd gotten pregnant I could take my coffee any way and still enjoy it, now, just a grain too much sugar and it made me feel sickly. Nathanial noticed and took it back from me, giving me an apologetic look that I smiled at. It was something we'd all been doing a lot more recently, smiling. We'd had no issues with the council for a while, my darker powers were remaining locked up for the time being, and with the amount of sex I'd been having recently, everyone was pretty happy.
'Wednesday then, see ya!' Zebrowski called over his shoulder as he made his way back to Dolph who was kind of glaring at us from his office doorway. Micah, Nathanial and I took that as our cue to leave, heading back to the circus before Jean-Claude and Asher woke for the day.
'Ma petite, I do not know why you fight it so much.' Jean-Claude sighed, holding the dress against his chest in mock exasperation. Asher was watching us with a small smile turning the corners of his mouth up. 'You know that dresses are the best kind of maternity clothing, and you look so wonderful in them!' Jean-Claude continued, once again holding out the dress to me.
'I didn't wear dresses before I got pregnant, I'm less likely to wear one now.' I pouted at him, running a hand over my stomach. I was laid on the sofa in his living room, my feet in Nathanial's lap so he could massage them and my head in Asher's, who was softly running his fingers through my hair.
'You looked beautiful in dresses before you were pregnant and you will look beautiful now, however I shall leave this for this evening for you seem very comfortable there.' I smiled at him and he sank down on the floor beside where I was laying, his head tilted back and watching me over his shoulder. I reached out a hand and ran my fingers through his hair like Asher was doing to mine, opening my strong hold over the shields between us so we could all feel the joint pleasure of fingers running over scalp and through hair. Jean-Claude sighed contently and closed his eyes, Asher did the same, and I turned my attention back to Nathanial who nodded at me. Now was the time to ask them.
'Jean-Claude, Asher?' I murmured, trying not to break their contentment too much.
'Oui, ma cherie?' Asher replied, making my skin tingle with the way his voice brushed over my skin. He was getting much better at projecting his voice like Jean-Claude does.
'Nathanial, Micah and I were talking yesterday about names for the children.' I began, trying to find a way to phrase this. 'And we were thinking, if you wouldn't mind too much, if we have a girl, that we call her Julianna?' Both vampires froze into that stillness that only old vampires can do, Asher's fingers paused in my hair and I pulled my hand away from Jean-Claude's head. The tension was too thick, almost hard to breath through and I began to back peddle.
'I mean, it was just a thought. I can understand if you don't want to. We can find another name for a girl.' Jean-Claude turned so suddenly that both he and Asher were leaning over me at the same time all of a sudden.
'Non, Non ma petite.' He looked up at Asher who gave a tiny nod, I thought I could see the beginnings of red-tinted tears in his eyes. 'We would be honoured if you would name your child Julianna. Honoured that you would remember her that way.' Then suddenly everyone was chuckling, and kisses were being pressed into my forehead and my cheeks and my mouth, along and across my stomach until someone reached Nathanial and gave him and kiss too. The kisses were light and happy, until they weren't. They began to change into something deeper, they lingered longer, nips on the collarbone and breaths on ears became more and more frequent until I felt the ardeur begin to rise in me.
'Jean-Claude..' I whispered, half a moan and half a protest. He knew how much I usually wasn't in the mood for sex and so moved until he hovered above my mouth, his lips a hard thought away from mine.
'You are beautiful, and we want you. Just be content. We love you.' He whispered, reassurances that had been murmured a hundred times over the past months, but I relented and opened my mouth as his tongue sought entrance. I felt Asher shift, and then the cool wetness of him leaving opened mouth kisses along my neck, across my collarbone, licking and biting lightly. I could feel Nathanial's hands moving up to the waistband of the tiny pyjama shorts I was wearing and he began to pull them down slowly, laying warm kisses against my thighs as he went. Eventually the shorts were somewhere across the room, and Nathanial's kisses were making their way back up my thighs when all three of them suddenly stopped. I groaned and opened my eyes, finding them all hovering like they were listening to something.
'What is it?' I muttered, trying to unbutton Jean-Claude's complicated shirt to distract him.
'Ma petite, Anita, stop. Something is wrong.' His hands caught mine and held them still. 'Something is wrong with you, can you not feel it?' I scowled at him and shook my head.
'I'd know If something was wrong with me Jean-Claude.' I tried to lean up to kiss him again, but he shook his head and they all went back to looking like they were listening.
'It's through this new, complicated connection we all seem to have.' Asher murmured, looking up at Jean-Claude. 'I can feel it, as it seems you both can. I wonder then why Anita canno-' I cut him off with a cry. I knew what they were feeling now. God it hurt, a pain so tight and horrid across my abdomen that I felt like the world was splintering. Suddenly, all three off them were no longer leaning on me, but over me. I could feel Asher's fingers at my throat, checking my pulse, I could feel Nathanial pressing his hands against my stomach, feeling with his enhanced senses for any changed, Jean-Claude was doing the same thing, but he leaned his ear against my stomach. I knew he was listening for the twins' heartbeat's like he'd done so many times when we'd lain in bed together. I tried to focus on them, but the pain was only just beginning to recede and I was trying to catch my breath.
'Jean-Claude.' I whimpered. 'Jean-Claude what was that?' He was suddenly kneeling beside my head, stroking hair away from my face lightly.
'I do not know, ma petite, a guard is ringing for Lillian.' He replied, still stroking my face. I just nodded, trying to remember how to feel normal after that excruciating pain. Nathanial coughed, attracting the attention of the others. I was too tired now to look up at him.
'Er, guys?' He murmured. 'I think we need more than Lillian.' I tried to open my eyes and figure out what he meant, but settled for trying to evaluate my own body with my other senses. There was nothing out of the ordinary, mostly, until I reached where Nathanial was now kneeling between my legs. It was damp, and warm, and suddenly I knew what the pain was.
'No, no no no.' I whispered, pushing myself up onto my elbows with Jean-Claude's help.
'Anita, Nathanial. What is it?' Asher's voice was laced with worry and concern.
'Her waters have broken.'
'I'm in labour.' Nathanial and I spoke at the same time.
'It's too soon, it's too soon. Something's wrong!' I shouted at Jean-Claude, fisting my hand around his shirt as he watched me with a new kind of horror in his eyes. Asher was suddenly up and running between guards, barking instructions too quickly for me to follow. Apparently, Jean-Claude was listening closely enough because he helped hand me off to Asher when he began to lift me from the sofa.
'It's alright, ma cherie. We will not let anything happen to you.' Another pair of cold hands were suddenly holding one of mine and a calm washed over me that I welcomed.
'Damian' I whimpered. 'Something is wrong.' My eyes were clenched shut.
'I know, Anita. I know.' He replied in his deep voice. Then suddenly we were running somewhere, and the air was going too fast, it was hard to catch a good breath, and none of that mattered. Another pain ripped it's way through my stomach, followed by strong kicks inside of me, and eventually, it got too much. I didn't care where we were going, as long as the pain would stop. It kept going and going, we still hadn't stopped somewhere, and then the world went dark.