April 27th
17th Floor;
Lightson Apartment Complex;
City Of Atlas;
United Kingdom Of Atlas
3:47 AM
The grimm continued to surround him. It was difficult to identify individual species, but at any rate all of them were powerful. The nevermore circling overhead cawed ominously as he saw her across the way. Her platinum blonde hair was in disarray, and her clothes splattered with mud and torn. Pulling out his revolver, he began to fight through them, and she did the same with her crop. It almost seemed like they were overtaking the grimm. After all, the creatures of darkness were becoming less vast in number with what felt like every movement. But then time started again and more appeared. A cycle in this state continued like this on and on until they were both about to fall to the ground in sheer exhaustion and the nevermore began to swoop down towards her. She barely made it out of the way before collapsing to her knees - her aura completely drained…
James hazily woke up as the memories of the dream slowly began to fade. The moon was just beginning to shift out of its peak to allow the sun to arise by the end of the next six or seven hours. Regardless of that fact, the minimal light it gave off barely made any difference through the blinds in the darkened room. As he reminded himself that it was only a dream, his heart rate slowed and his eyes began to fall down into sleep. It was certainly comforting to know that Glynda was laying right beside to him, looking surprisingly relaxed in her sleep. For all of the time she spent working or going on missions, her vibrant green eyes sometimes showed a woman older than nearly twenty one and that was something that always saddened him. Even more so was the look she gave him every time he denied how difficult losing his right arm and leg had been. His eyes fluttering shut, he would have fallen back into a fretful sleep as well - had he not felt his wife shift next to him as she rolled over and began to slowly wake up, of course.
"Glynda?" James began to pull her closer, shaking slightly. "Are you alright?"
"Mmm...sort of…" As she let him pull her in she sighed. "James…do you think we're going to be able to be good parents?"
"I think so," Gently, he began to rub her back and he could feel her breathing steady. "Just out of curiosity, did you bring this up because -"
"I'm pregnant, James." Her green eyes were wide and as he looked at her they softened. "I went in this morning as scheduled for my routine testing and it turns out that we actually managed to…well I couldn't believe it, to be honest, although it certainly does explain the weight gain I was concerned about. I'm about four months in… and I'm supposedly due in late September to early October." As carefully as she could, she pulled herself out of his arms and sat up.
James wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead. "You're not alone, I promise. No matter what happens, Glynda, you'll always have me."
"I know," Smirking slightly, she leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. "Just wait until Emmett finds out. Isn't he coming over tomorrow?"
"Yeah, and he's going to freak," He laughed. "In some ways, Emmett can be the worst."
Glynda rolled her eyes. "If he makes any jokes, I swear to god..."
After a moment, and even though it was hesitant, James lightly rested a hand on his wife's visibly changing abdomen while she moved closer to him. "Glyns, I can't believe we're actually going to have a baby."
"Me either..." She admitted as she closed her eyes. "You know what else is crazy?"
"What?" Slight concern began to enter his mind as he moved to look at her.
"My complete and utter stupidity to not notice, well I guess in some cases ignore, all of the signs means that it's just a few more weeks until we know if we're having a girl or a boy." A smile began to take over her face as she met his gaze. "Probably a girl."
James softly ran his hand through her slightly tangled waves. "If that's the case, then I'd bet that she'll look like you."
"Oh, James!" Glynda laughed just a little as she curled into him.
"I mean it," James murmured. "You're beautiful, Glynda."
Her body's warmth radiated onto him as she curled closer into him. Normally, she was fairly cold but right now that was the complete opposite and even if she had been cold he wouldn't have cared. Simply being at each other's sides was comforting. Time blurred as they began to drift back off to sleep, wrapped tightly in each other's arms.
"I'm here!" Emmett declared in a sing song voice as he stepped into the kitchen. "So we can all bask in my glory."
"I couldn't tell you'd stepped in," Glynda shook her head. "I thought you moved out ages ago."
Sensing her game, Emmett suppressed a laugh in lieu of his jackass smirk. "So...you know what I've learned in the last few months?"
"What's that?" James wrapped an arm around his wife as he looked to his former teammate.
"Seventeen year olds are horrible!" Emmett sighed as he leaned against the counter. "I mean, come on, were we that bad at seventeen?"
"Probably, and that was only a few years ago." Glynda crossed her arms and sent him a glare. "You had evidently lived the charmed life of the rich and famous, Dean was...well trying to get you to notice him, James treated everything like a contest of measuring dicks and I -"
"You were the most terrifying person on the planet," Emmett shrunk back as he pretended to be afraid and pushed up his glasses. "I honestly thought you were plotting to kill all of us in our sleep."
"You're ridiculous!" Glynda scoffed. "You wouldn't have even thought that if that had been my plan!"
"You know," Emmett winked at them as he straightened up. "I remember when I thought there was no way you could reject me unless you had someone else and now I realise how right I was. Do you remember the day I saw you kiss James when you thought our dorm was empty -"
"I remember slapping you later when you asked why I was kissing him," Glynda laughed. "Sometimes you're an idiot, you know that?"
"And weren't we nineteen at that point?" James rolled his eyes as he gave his wife a gentle squeeze. "Besides Emmett, you were the one who took the position as the new combat TA at Atlas Academy."
"Yeah, well, apart from how annoying they can be, I actually like it. I feel like I'm actually doing something with my life." A suggestive smile began to rise in Emmett's lips. "Hey, so yesterday, was there any particular reason the two of you -"
Glynda raised an eyebrow as she cut him off. "No, don't you even go there. Although there is something James and I want to tell you."
"That I can live here and hide from Jacqass?" As he spoke, his eyes widened and his grin grew stronger. "Because then I can sabotage him from the outside and -"
"No!" Glynda and James exclaimed at the same time.
"Look," James began as calmly as possible. "Glynda and I are going to have a baby."
Emmett's eyes widened in shock and he was silent for a long moment. "Damn…" He finally said. "An Ironwitch kid…nice."
"Ironwood-Goodwitch," Glynda corrected him. "Come on Emmett, you know neither of us changed our names, and forcing it into an amalgamation -"
"At least I'm not making sex jokes!" Emmett started to laugh as his former teammates glared at him. "Oh, well, actually…"
"Make one sex joke and I promise I'll claim it was an 'accident' that Glynda rearranged your face." James told him as Emmett's expression turned slightly fearful off Glynda's look while she reached for her crop.
"Okay…okay..." Emmett said, attempting to be serious in spite of himself. So, any idea how far along you are?"
"About four months," Glynda responded, leaning against James with her arms crossed. "I'm due in the early fall."
"Want to make a bet?" Emmett asked as he looked to both Glynda and James.
"What kind of bet?" Glynda narrowed her eyes as she waited for him to respond.
"Well... I'll make the bet with you that if I win and you have twin girls…I'll wear a dress and go wherever you want me to within the kingdom of Atlas for a full two hours. And I'll make it very clear that I'm Emmett Schnee. If you win, then you just have to tell me everything you've hated about me since the day we met." Emmett winked at them as he flipped his hair back. "You'll find that out in a couple of weeks, right?"
"Yeah, and you're on." Glynda confirmed as she smirked at him. "Oh I can't wait to ruin your self-esteem."
"In your dreams." Emmett responded with an equal smirk. "Not only is my ego too big for any of your words to hurt it, but believe me when I say that you're going to have twin girls. Start thinking of names…"
"We started talking about that possibility months ago," James looked to his wife, who moved more closely into his embrace. "If you're right, I think we'll be okay."
"Caitlin Marianne is my favourite," Glynda glanced back at James before sighing. "But James's favourite is Ivory Glynda."
"Ivy, for short." James added.
Emmett's scroll angrily began to buzz and as he took a brief look at the new messages, he swore heavily. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm going to kill him."
"What is it this time?" Glynda's exasperation was seeping through from the amount of times this had happened.
Emmett sighed. "Willow just… informed me of a situation involving Winter and getting slapped. Apparently she was out of line, I don't know. I've got to go deal with this. Shit."
