Chapter 56:
He looked well, all things considered, but then she imagined she looked well for having had her arm chopped off at the elbow. She hadn't wanted to have this meeting here. She'd been hoping to be out of the hospital by now and back at her duties at the palace. She had a whole lot of work to catch up on and a lot of living to do. More to the point, she knew that, deep under all that teen-angst and anger, her brother was a sensitive young man, and the last thing he needed was this ugly reminder of what he'd been forced to do to his own sister. Unfortunately, complications and her mother's failed attempts to restore her arm had kept Shoko here well past her sell-by date.
As Shoko watched him, Marshall-Lee bustled around the hospital room, putting the flowers he'd brought in a vase and then filling the vase with water. He was dressed in a dapper suit in a charcoal color that ran to black in the light of the hospital. A string tie held in place by a garishly white bone clip hung about his neck, seeming to emphasize the unpleasant change that had come over him. Coming back to her bedside, he put the vase on the side-table before settling above the visitor's chair. "So," said he, "how's my old girlfriend doing?" Shoko chuckled, "not bad, ex-boyfriend." Smiling, the rogue teased her, "probably a good thing we found out..." "Oh," chuckled Shoko? "You think I couldn't have resisted letting you in my panties?" "'Course not," laughed the vampire. "Girls can't resist my charm..."
The two spent a while laughing about that. Still, there was an elephant in the room, and they both knew it. With a sigh, Marshall-Lee asked the question that had brought him, "how's your..." "The graft didn't take," sighed Shoko. "I'm... I'm more human than my mother." The normal process of grafting candy-flesh didn't work for Shoko. She had too much of Finn in her. It appeared that she was destined to be short an arm the rest of her life. Marshall's face curled up in a look of pure anguish. Smiling, Shoko raised her new bionic arm, saying, "I'm gonna' be ok, big-brother." Rubbing the fingertips together, she said, "it's just as good as my real one, and mom even managed to make the skin feel like candy-flesh."
It was obvious that this was still killing her brother. Changing the subject, Shoko asked, "how's your mother?" "Better," replied Marshall. "She's... I think this has actually been good for her. She's... She's going on tour again." "Marshall, that's great," cried Shoko! Marshall nodded. He was still bothered by all of this. Shoko reached out and took his hand–his cold hand. "How're you," she murmured. "Learning to live with it," sighed Marshall. He missed the sun. He missed having the sun on his face. He was stronger. He was faster, and he could go for weeks with only the taste of 'red' as sustenance. But he missed the sun on his face, and he always would.
"Well, then," said Shoko, "I'll be sure and schedule the wedding for night-time." Marshall glanced up into her beautiful blue eyes. "Randy proposed," chuckled Shoko. "Shoko, that's... I'm...," stammered Marshall. Raising her arm, Shoko said, "it forced him off the fence. He was... He was afraid of how things would work between us. We've still got a ways to go. Mom won't let us get married until I'm twenty-one. That gives us time to figure out the whole 'can't touch each other' thing." Marshall took his sister's hand and gave it a squeeze, saying, "I'm glad for you... Hey! Bubblebutt bones the princess of the Breakfast Kingdom and knocks her up, but you have to wait?!" That had Shoko howling laughter. As Marshall listened in disbelief, Shoko told him about her mother's twisted plan to make sure Fionna and Bubba moved on.
"Wow," burbled the Vampire Prince. Her mom seemed as though she would never change. Taken with a sudden epiphany, Marshall asked, "does he know?" Nodding, Shoko said, "Finn insisted. He made us all sit down together... Here in my room, actually... Everybody was forced to 'fess up. He made us all tell every secret we'd ever kept from each other. Every last one." They had told each other about everything–from Shoko's occasional attempts to sneak liquor and wine to Fionna's flashing her boobies at the losers on wizard's row to Star's various schemes at making quick cash. Bon had been forced to admit to going to adult theaters to learn about sex on some of those nights where he'd been studying, and most shocking of all, Billy had revealed his strange connection to the Ice-Tiara.
Nor had the adults gotten spared.
Emeraude had come clean about the ugly life she'd led, telling all of the kids about how she'd become so infamous in the underworld. Simone had told about the temptations she still felt to go and find the Ice Tiara. Bonnibel Bubblegum had been forced to lay out all the ugly manipulation she'd done on her friends and family the last seventeen years and more–everything from breaking up Finn and Phoebe to her most recent ploy of drugging Bon and Frenchie to fall in love. Bon had taken the whole business in stride. He'd known going in that his mother wanted him to marry Frenchie, and he had no problem loving her and their child.
And Finn? He'd been forced to tell his family about their newest relation. He'd gone into shocking detail about how things had been with Cherry–and how he'd come to love her in truth. Marshall was on his feet when those words came out. He'd been tempted these last weeks to slip into the prison where that cunt was locked up and drain the life out of her. The only thing that had stopped him was the fact that he had the barest of control right now. His mother had done her best in the months they'd been in hiding, but Marshall knew he was one slip up away from losing himself to darkness permanently. Now to find out his dad fell for the bitch that caused all this?!
"And what would you have done, Marshy," murmured Shoko? Marshall flushed. He could barely control his bloodlust. His emotions were a raggedy mess, and he still somehow had to deal with Connie, who'd been leaving him endless text messages and voice-mails. If he were at all honest with himself, he wouldn't have done any better, and likely he would have completely lost himself in Cherry's charms. "We have a little brother," sighed Shoko. "Nobody's happy about this, Marshy. Not my moms. Not dad. I've sworn that I won't take it out on him because he's going to need all the love we can give him, and all the rest of us swore the same thing." Marshall nodded, but he was clearly unhappy. Changing the subject, he asked, "when can you go? I... I want to take you to dinner. I want to make amends... And maybe meet Randy..." Smiling primly, the beautiful princess said, "we'll meet on Sunday." Marshall nodded. He was looking forward to it.
Elsewhere, the object of that unpleasant conversation came walking into the visitor's room of Jellyet Prison under heavy guard. Cherry Cream Soda, the Boss of Bosses, had pride of place here. It was funny in a way. She had her own exclusive prison. Besides her, there were only a handful of old trustees left here. Finn had kept his word. He hadn't allowed Bonnie to just kill her out of hand, though Cherry feared a lot of that was due to the baby in her middle. There were moments where she truly expected them to just come down, put her to sleep, and harvest the baby right out of her belly. She was far enough along that he might survive it.
Still, like clockwork, Dr. Princess came and looked in on her, flying out from the Candy Kingdom's hospital to examine her. And like clockwork, Finn would show up either that same day or early the next to look in on her. She didn't understand why he kept coming to see her. Once a week, he stopped in at the Candy Kingdom's forgotten prison. Just like a typically happy father, Finn the Human was there for every stage of their child's development–every exam, every test. It got to the point that Cherry would have told him to go fuck himself. She would have if she had at all been able to manage this by herself. She wasn't ashamed to say that she clung to Finn when the moments got scary.
Things were very scary right now.
She was seven-months along, and she was absolutely huge. She had always been petite–barely four-and-a-half feet tall–and it now seemed rather rash to have gotten herself pregnant by six-foot-seven Finn Mertens. It helped not at all that her child was a hybrid of human and candy-person DNA. She wasn't Bonnibel Bubblegum, who was close enough to human that she probably could have walked down a street in the distant past and not stood out at all. She was one of the Candy Monarch's created, and that was a horse of a different color.
The tests were... odd. The doctors hardly knew what to do with her son's vital signs. They really didn't know if he was going to live or die–even if he would be whole when he was born. Cherry was getting a bit sick of hearing, 'I don't know.' She spent a lot of time laying awake, thinking–praying to Glob really. When she wasn't doing that, she was thinking of might-have-beens. She fantasized about what might have happened if Finn had tried to get in her pants–of how things might have gone.
The reality was that she had been so distraught–so lost in her grief–that she would have been insulted and infuriated to have some stupid teenager come on to her. She might well have tried to shoot him or cut his balls off. Now all she had was her failure, a death-sentence, and her terror for the child in her middle.
On his side, Finn could tell Cherry was in a bad way when he came in the door. She didn't look sexy today. She looked afraid. "You ok," he asked? Lost in her pain and terror, Cherry lit into him, shouting, "why the fuck do you care?! You locked me in this fucking place! You're going to kill me when this fucking kid is born, so let's just stop pretending, shall we!" Finn stared at her. Jabbing him in the chest, she said, "you fooled me! You conned the con-artist! Happy?! I fucking believed you loved me!"
Finn let her vent. He understood it. He understood how she felt. It was the same way he would have felt in her place. He didn't enjoy tricking her. He wasn't happy she was pregnant. He felt like he had taken something from her–something far beyond what she owed for her crimes. At the same time, she was alone and afraid, and she didn't have anybody else. Gathering her into his arms, he held her, as she struggled and cursed him–and then held her all the harder when she broke down and began to cry.
Cherry sobbed into his chest, bawling her eyes out as she gave vent to her fear. "It's ok," he said. "I'm gonna' be here with you..." "Why," she sobbed? "Why now? You got fucking Bonnie Bubblegum back..." "You were my friend," sighed Finn. "RBG was my friend. He... he didn't deserve that, and you deserved better than what we gave you. I can't fix the past, but I'm gonna' to take care of you now..." What was he saying? Did he...? "You're still naive," chuckled Cherry. "She's going to kill me the first chance she gets." Chuckling himself, Finn stroked her hair and said, "I haven't had the chance to be naive in a while. E cured me of the habit."
He took her face in his hands and drew her eyes up to his. "I'll bring our boy by every chance I get," said he. "It won't be like having the three of us together, but it's..." "...the best you can do," she sighed. "You are an annoying, goody-two-shoes, Finn the Human. Do you realize that we could have controlled the world?" Finn grinned and laughed. He didn't want the world. He just wanted to be happy in his little piece of it. Drawing his face down to hers, Cherry kissed him. Finn ran his fingers through her long, white hair. She was in love with him. It was pointless to pretend otherwise.
Breaking that kiss, the little woman sighed breathily. The magic was still there. Hungry, she went back for another and then another after that, wishing she could have sex with him. The doctor had made that off limits, though. She was too far gone. She was pondering asking him if he would go down on her. She was a little horny, and she knew he would do it if she asked. The sudden sharp pain in her middle put paid to that ambition.
One moment she was standing there, rubbing that hot little body against him. The next, she was on the floor, writing in pain. Finn dropped to his knees, shouting for the guard as he snatched Cherry off the floor. "Baby, what's wrong," he pleaded? "Finn," she shrieked! "I think... I think I'm havin'... I think I'm havin' a miscarriage!" The guards came fast. They were never far away from the prison's star prisoner. There were a lot of gangsters out there still, and the Candy Kingdom's underworld was still very much alive. Finn scooped up his evil girlfriend and rushed for the helicopter that had brought him here.
Finn found himself cradling Bonnie's mortal enemy in his arms once again as the helicopter hurtled across the sky. He held Cherry in his arms and whispered words of encouragement. She was bleeding a little, and her pants were soaking wet. Finn had no idea what to do, so he just sat there holding his girl and praying that they could reach the hospital in time. He wanted to get to know his boy, and he wanted to protect Rootbeer's wife. At the same time, he was utterly helpless to do anything in a situation that didn't involve smashing someone's face in.
Drew Princess was waiting on them with a full emergency team the moment the helicopter landed, and the little candy-person got rushed to the operating room almost as soon as the door got opened. Finn followed along behind, giving Drew all the information he had. It seemed far too little, and Finn was terrified of what it all meant. Somehow though, it seemed to be just what Dr. P needed. She left him to go get scrubbed up.
Cherry found herself sedated as she watched the lights in the hallway go by. Strong hands stripped her of pretty much every stitch she was wearing–ugly orange jumpsuit, cheap linen bra, and cheap nylon panties to boot. They even took her socks. The moment might have been completely terrifying if not for the drugs coursing through her veins–and the sight of a few familiar faces. She'd helped one of the doctors there with a malpractice case in a long-ago life. She'd kept one of the nurses from losing her license. After they wheeled her into the operating room, she got transferred to the table. Her legs got put in the stirrups, and the doctors got to work doing what they could to save her life and that of her child.
Plaintively, Cherry called out, "Finn..." Taking her hand, he said, "here, babe." The little woman relaxed into the table. Her first baby, and she was here with an armed guard outside the door and the Captain of the Guard waiting to re-arrest her the minute the job was done. At the same time, the Captain continued to hold her hand as drugs got administered and the doctor prepared to deliver the baby by C-Section. Specialists were on hand to put the preemie into an incubation chamber and whisk him to the ICU.
Catching sight of Drew Princess, the gangster-girl asked, "what's... why's this happening?" Drew calmly replied, "I'd be lieing if I said I know, Ms. Soda. Unfortunately, I could only speculate that it's something to do with the baby's genetics. For right now, why don't we just focus on saving your lives? Hmm?" Cherry chuckled. That was rich. They were saving her life for Bonnie Bubblegum to take it. It was probable that she'd never leave this hospital alive.
Finn stood there patiently, holding her hand through all the ugly bits. His whispered words of encouragement helped her get through the moments of pain and terror. Drew Princess brought the child, in his incubator box, to their side. "He's alive," she murmured. "His heart's beating, but his lungs don't seem fully developed. Other than that, he's got all four limbs and all his fingers and toes." He was beautiful, with honey-colored hair and skin and sparkling gold-hued eyes. "Name him, honey," murmured Cherry. "Name our boy." Finn pondered that a moment, his eyes taking in all the strange similarities between the boy and his mother including that strangely liquid-looking flesh. "Vanilla Cream Soda," Finn blurted. "Van for short." Cherry chuckled and gave his hand a squeeze. "Don't ever forget me, Finn," she sighed. "Don't let our boy forget." "We won't," said Drew. "And I'll have him out with me to see you just as soon as he's able." They were both naive. Cherry said nothing more as they were both wheeled away–she to the recovery room and her son to the ICU.
