Meryl landed hard, on her ass, against Vash's legs. She lingered there angrily, fists pressed against the cool bathroom floor. Her eyes would not leave the quaking woman before her, in the shower stall.
"Are you okay?" Millie stooped down to help her small friend to her feet. "You know, I don't think we ought to try that anymore."
Vash nodded solemnly as he also helped her up, and stopped chewing his lip long enough to comment. "If she wants to be there so badly, there's no reason to move her. And no reason to get all bruised up over it," he added, referring to the growing violence of Vanessa's blind swings and shoves in response to their helpful tugs.
Meryl continued to glare at the naked woman, shaking with frustration. "Dammit," she growled between gritted teeth.
"Getting all angry isn't going to help anything," Millie offered, touching her shoulder softly. "After all, it's not like she meant to. Like Mr. Vash said, she's probably acting on instinct now. She's not aware of us being here, I don't think."
As stubborn and hot-headed as she was, Meryl simply nodded. She didn't have the heart to explain herself. It was better for now that she allow Vash to believe Vanessa was as unaware as he claimed. Things were already strange and climactic enough, and the last thing Meryl wanted to do was upset Vash further. Consciously dropping her gaze, she looked beside her to see Vash peering compassionately into her eyes. She felt her face grow hot from his attention.
The corner of his mouth curled and his eyebrows furrowed seriously. He pulled a little towel from the sink beside him and held it to Meryl's face. "She sure slugged you good, huh?" he asked softly.
Meryl hesitated, then turned to the mirror. A trickle of blood ran from her nostril, a sticky souvenir from Vanessa's last, hard slap. "Um, yeah. I guess so," she mumbled, taking the towel to blot her upper lip.
Vash turned from Meryl and knelt just outside the shower. Longing to do so much as to hold Vanessa's hand in support, he was forced to sit there and wait for the birth. If only she could speak to him or allow his touch, to give him reassurance of her consciousness. However, she was acting this strangely, and he could only assume her actions to be similar to the plant angels' during labor. Yes, surely this was as it should be, he told himself.
He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and watched her.
This strong, haunted woman he had fallen for, after spending so many painful hours and weeks with, after having impregnated and emigrated with – that woman was so unyielding now. Vanessa was not herself. How could Vash have his happy family, with Vanessa as distant and unpredictable as this?
Forcing the fear from his mind, he counted the growing pace of her labored breaths, measuring the intensity of her shivers and the urgency of her groans.
Hours later, Vanessa's groans became stifled screams of pain, which Millie interpreted easily.
"She's pushing!" she claimed excitedly. "Here it comes! Here it comes!"
Meryl's anger still had not fully subsided. "So she's going to drop it right onto the cold hard floor?" she asked incredulously.
Millie shoved a bundle of towels into Vash's line of sight. "Slide these under her! Hurry!"
Vash obeyed, but didn't feel it so odd as they did. After all, he remembered Rem telling of how he and Knives had been born, dropped onto the bulb surface without injury. That distance had been a more dramatic fall than this would be, considering that Vanessa was crouching low to the ground.
Vanessa didn't fight him, being fully preoccupied as the towels brushed against her ankles.
In a scene far more absurd and awkward than they realized, the girls dropped to the floor, ducking their heads low to the ground to peer at the action. "Oh my God, here comes the head!" Meryl shrieked.
Vash found his hand involuntarily moving towards Vanessa, desperately wanting to cup the tiny head in his palm and help the body ease from her. However, once his hand touched her thigh she swung at him, half-punching, half-slapping him sharply on the shoulder. He drew his hand back, leaning forward onto his palms as he watched. "Vanessa," he whispered, becoming lost in the magic unfolding before his nervous eyes.
Heady breathing and anxious cries filled the bathroom as the child exited the womb and dropped onto the towels. The task now complete, the mother fell back against the shower wall and whimpered softly.
The bloodied little person wriggled a little, and then began a soft, gargled cry. The crying became clearer and relieving, prompting the father to reach forward and touch his new daughter.
"Tessla," he whispered breathlessly as the tears poured from his eyes. Blinking hard, he brought the tender bundle of towels and flesh to his chest. "Oh, Tessla, Tessla…" Vash held the little squinting face towards the girls seated at his left. "Look at her!" he choked out happily.
Millie nodded, also crying.
Meryl was happy, but her questions seemed pressing. "Um, Vash? Why isn't there an umbilical cord? Er…uh…or an, um, placenta?" she stammered curiously.
Vash returned to staring lovingly into this wrinkly, angelic face. Giggling nervously, he brushed the concern aside easily. "We don't have them…Oh, gosh…" he murmured in awe at the new plant child.
Vanessa's background whimpering subsided and she seemed calm. Sweat rolled from her face and body, going as ignored as the blood drying onto her thighs. Swallowing gently, she breathed heavily as her worn body relaxed.
"We're parents!" Vash whispered to her, trying not to let his tears fall onto the child. "Vanessa? Can't you hear me now? It's a girl, just like you said she'd be! Tessla! C'mon, please open your eyes and look at her, she's gorgeous! Or…or at least hold her," he insisted, edging towards her and offering the bundle.
Whether unconscious or not, Vanessa made no move to accept the infant.
Tessla's crying had stopped for a while, but now the wailing began, more intense as though a response to this rejection.
Vanessa's closed eyelids tightened and her eyebrows came together momentarily in reply to this sudden sound.
Vash couldn't let this ruin his happiness. He rose and moved to the sink, already full of warm water. Millie helped him gently wash Tessla, sniffing away happy tears. Once the newborn was clean, they wrapped her in the softest blankets and cuddled her softly.
Hesitating suddenly, Vash handed his daughter to Millie and turned to clean Vanessa. He washed the sweat and blood from her weakened body with a soapy towel now that she didn't react with violence. Once she was washed, Vash lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed, tucking her now shivering, naked body under the covers.
Millie followed and returned the bundle to him, loving every moment of Vash's fatherly pride.
Vash sat on the floor beside the bed and held his child, crying and grinning madly with the excitement of two parents, attempting to compensate for the complete lack of Vanessa's emotions.
"Think we should leave?" Meryl whispered to Millie, growing uncomfortable and feeling rather unneeded.
Millie thought. "Say, Mr. Vash, would you like us to leave, or do you think you'll need our help still?" she asked sweetly.
Wiping the moisture from his cheeks, Vash smiled. "Oh, thank you both so much. I'm so sorry I made you miss so much sleep – go on ahead and rest. I can take things from here."
The girls nodded and said their goodbyes, filled with wonder and an eerie apprehension.
NEXT SECTION: .
HOMEPAGE: .