2
"Mrs. Finn, I tell you your situation is in need of attention."
Mina was ready to throw the pacing huffing woman over her shoulder if she continued to refuse logical medical advice. The maid of honour was indeed going to deliver her child in the Nautilus' gleaming galley if she didn't take herself at once to bed, but her immediate fears of pre-marital calamity claimed importance over even the expulsion of her first born.
"But the Minister h-ha-hasn't arrived yet and no one can find Miss Fitzgerald!"
The vampire folded arms encased in sensible black linen elegantly over her stomach and took a moment to lock her jaw against the string of abuse that it wished to let fly on the unobservant, clumsy, badly dressed mother-to-be. If it wasn't for the fact that Huckleberry had married this goose of his own free will thereby torturing himself and providing Mina with amusement over said torture for years to come, it was probable Mina would have tossed the mousy-haired American woman overboard. A bouquet of yellow sunflowers (unexplainable in a wedding whose colours reflected more peach and cream) was slowly being destroyed in Tabitha Finn's grasp as she dictated orders to a catering staff that had been cobbled together from Nemo's crew, the petals crushed against her roseate frock. No one had had either the heart or fortitude to explain that the requested clergyman had vocally declined his services after becoming aware of exactly where the ceremony was to take place. A vessel full of dark heathens and murdering politicos was apparently not a place for a man of God. Mina had thus taken steps to acquire the Captain himself as officiator, in a scenario that left her unable to unsee things which should have been unseen. Not only did the vampire have to keep Brigitte in the dark about her lost wedding ring, she now had to keep Skinner ignorant of Nemo's dalliance with his sister.
"I assure you Mrs. Finn, this wedding shall take place within the hour. Miss Fitzgerald will be accounted for, someone will recite the vows, and those sandwiches you demanded be served will be eaten. However, it would be in your best interest to retire to a safer locale and prepare for the eminent birth of your son and heir." Lord and Queen Victoria knew it would be all too soon. This was seemingly not the correct way to approach Finn's waddling dynamo as her wide brown eyes appeared stricken and an unfamiliar indignant flush spread across her cheeks.
"Who would organize the band or-or make sure the ice was replenished if I dragged myself off to bed right now?" Mina curiously felt the need to step back. "There are decisions that need to be made and people who don't know where to go and everyone is coming to mefor answers! I can still speak and stand! I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do!"
Thankfully—or unfortunately, who could tell—Agent Huckleberry Finn decided that the best time to storm into the galley was in the middle of his wife's inexplicable speech, which left Mina as the sole beneficiary of his evil-eye as the gambler used all his reputed charm on forcing Tabitha to see reason without actually tying her up and dragging her off the premises, as Mina would have suggested should she have been asked. He approached the panting woman confidently but with gentle hands that curved around her shoulders and held even as Tabitha would have hauled away in a fit of pique. How the pair fundamentally worked together was a mathematical equation of odd proportions, what with Huckleberry so inherently tactless and Tabitha utterly oblivious and cheerful. The vampire preferred not to think of the emotions that led to Mrs. Finn's current fecund state.
"Tabby. Sweetheart. It's time to go."
"But Miss Fitzgerald askedme of all her friends to be her Maid of Honour! Do you have any idea how important that is! What would she think of me if I left her now?"
"I don't give a rat's hairy ass what that bitch wants! Tabby," he gave the brunette a shake. "You're about to have my baby."
The change was instantaneous, and Mina sighed with repressed irritation as Mrs. Finn suddenly began to tremble in her husband's arms, mouth going soft.
"Huckleberry. . .I'm going to have your baby."
The agonized cry of labour pains that turned Huck's tanned cowboy face chalk white could be heard from one end of the Nautilus to the other. Mina stoically held the door open for the couple's hasty retreat, pointing the way towards the infirmary while latching on to Henry as he attempted to give directions to three of Gaudon's Gypsies, of which he had invited several dozen. She wished she could return his questioning smile but there was absolutely no time for pleasantries.
"You have to deliver Mrs. Finn's child."
"I—I. . .Pardon?"