Resh POV

"Kayce! get the fuck off me!" Resh choked, trying to push her off, in the space of an instant she had tackled him onto the the floor and started wrenching at his hair while crushing his ribcage with her knee. She may have permanent muscle damage but that didn't keep her from being far better than he at hand to hand fighting.

His one real advantage over her in a situation like this was his superior stature, and even that wasn't much help right now. If he wasn't trying to avoid hurting her then it might have been, but alas, he had to be careful, so shaking her off like a feather was out of the question. Despite the strength difference Kayci still knew what she was doing though, not giving him an inch to escape with. Crying out in pain as she crunched her kneecap further into his chest Resh asked in agony. "Why the fuck are you doing this?!"

That didn't seem to do much good as it only further enraged the woman, who attempted to punch him in the throat. Fortunately the act of violence was clumsy due to the emotions driving it, and Resh had the opportunity to throw her away, sending her a few feet across the room. She quickly recovered, but this time Resh was ready, taking up a defensive stance and yelling at her. "Stop! Are you crazy?!"

"No you bastard!" she shouted back, before calming down and deciding fighting wasn't the way to do this. "You said you wouldn't help Brelyna for me."

Knowing Kayci wouldn't fight him again he started un-matting his hair, and trying to soothe the various pains in his body. "Why should I? you told me about how terrible she was to you when she found out about you. And how she tried to exploit you for personal gain and your own suffering, at pain of death."

"I forgave her though, and still love her. And she did all that in hopes of getting me back! now please, just help, you're the only person I know who knows how to cure Tsaesci venom," she pleaded, knowing that she would be able to convince him as a friend, and if he didn't she would just have to use rank, but she hated doing that.

"It's great that you feel the need to remind me about how much of an idiot I was as a child, but I still don't feel good about this… I will, but I expect a proper apology from her, and something in return," Resh frowned, knowing Kayci would never forgive him if he let Brelyna die, it wasn't often she said she 'loved' someone, to be honest, it wasn't ever.

Glad that he had agreed, despite his hate for the woman, Kayci grinned. "'Something in return'? I'm not sure what Brelyna would think to that, but if you save her I'll be happy to su-"

"No!" Resh blurted at the connotations. "That's not what I meant… but if she says 'yes' then I guess… but that's not the point. To be honest you've taken care of Lydia for so long you really deserve something in return, so this is for you and not her."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Now what can we do to help her?"

"Our venom is a blood clotter, and damages the nervous system causing paralysis and organ shutdown. Fortunately for her such a small amount of it has only thickened the blood, making her very weak," the larger Tsaesci muttered, looking at the wound, and all the bulging veins showing.

"And what can we do then?" she questioned, not really feeling helped by his assessment at how her lover was going to die.

"To be honest if you have fed her a potion to cure the poison within the first 20 minutes she would have been fine with such a small dose. How long did it take for you to find her?"

"About 10 minutes," Kayci replied, only to be met with a pointed stare. "But it was about an hour before I got a healer…"

Sighing, Resh knew he had to ask. "Why…?"

"I was too busy crying and hugging her…"

"Are you some kind of idiot? do you not know that the first rule of medicine is to do everything as soon as possible?! you could have saved all this hassle, and reduced her chances of death if you weren't so naive and stupid!" he exploded, he didn't much care for the Dunmer lying down, but he did for Kayci, and he would hate to see her life ruined through her own fault, it would be horrible for her.

"That's not really helping," she hissed. "Now do something that actually does."

"Fine, I just need to thin the blood, and then you should let a healer treat her with more potions as well as restoration magic. It's not that difficult, it may be a little different to most venoms in Skyrim but I don't see why you made all the fuss. Surely the people here could have figured it out?" Resh explained, as he started use magic from his fingers drain out some of the viscous blood from her neck, while also, trying to stop any left over toxic chemicals spreading to more blood.

"They didn't want to 'aggravate' it any more as it was something new they were dealing with. You might want to tell them what you did so it can be known for next time," Kayci told him, sighing in relief when she saw the contaminated liquid being removed.

"It's not very much work, all they need to know is telekinesis, and the basic principles of removing the active chemical in poison. The nervous system stuff is a little more complicated though, as it shuts organs down, and cause such bad lethargy it can kill and paralyse; but even that's not too difficult, you just pump the person full of stamina potions until they stop being able to sleep and their body goes into overload," he said, before finishing with. "That should be about enough, get a healer and in a couple of days she'll be fine."

Kayci looked at him for a moment before hugging him close. "Thank you Resh, I know this was hard for you, but this really means a lot to me."

Snorting in derision at the statement Resh hugged back. Before replying, with somewhat laughter, now they were seemingly 'okay' with each other again. "What's next? you need my muscle tissue to rebuild your arm? a tail transplant? you need new eyes? want me to mine gold for you for eternity? or help you have a kid?"

An awkward silence grew between the two for several minutes, neither of them saying anything as the atmosphere started to fill the room. The tiny shuffling of Kayci and her uncomfortableness sounded like the beats of a drum inside Resh's head.

Finally Kayci broke the tense pause. "About that last on-"

"No! No no no! No way in Oblivion!" Resh spluttered, eyes bulging out of his head at the mere suggestion. "There is no way you should ever have a kid!"

Tone changing completely Kayci locked eyes with him and hissed, grinding out a threat. "Don't make me pull your hair again…"

"No, this is something different, this isn't life or death, this is about some ridiculous urge you have to pass on your genes. The worst part is you'll get bored after five minutes and wouldn't handle the responsibility," Resh explained with exasperation, not even considering entertaining her foolish notion that she should be a mother.

There was no way she would be a good mother, it wasn't anything personal as he still loved Kayci, and thought she was a great person, but parent material? no. And he also knew that she had no rights to force him into doing this for her, or at least none that she would be able to use without abusing rank or friendship, so he had the moral high ground.

"But Resh I-"

He sighed, not liking to put her down like this. "Kayce, I said what I said, and I'm sticking by it. Now where's Lydia? I want to be around when my own child is born, it should be any day now."

Kayci shuffled uncomfortably at the words, had she been in a… better state of mind she probably would have kept a closer hold over Lydia for her safety, but due to certain circumstances she was distracted. "She's taken up residence in the local tavern… but don't worry, me and Brelyna have gone up a few times to ch-"

"What?!" he hissed at her, getting panicky at the thought of what could have happened to her throughout this. "You let her live alone in a tavern with all these other inferior races that could be a danger?"

"Resh, you really shouldn't call them inferior, after all, you did fuck one of them enough to get her pregnant… besides, it's not like she's been in danger, until the bump started showing she was getting all the attention and free booze she wanted," Kayci explained cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.

But unfortunately it did the complete opposite as Resh started to get even more upset. "There is literally no way you could be a good parent, you have no idea how to handle any sort of responsibility! do you have any idea how much danger you could have put her in? not just letting random men crawl over her as if she were you, but the alcohol, that's really dangerous in human gestation I have heard!"

She chuckled in reply, finding his insult hilarious. "Well, you didn't seem overly interested in her when you left, so it's only fair she sleep with other people. Her sex drive must have been going crazy from hormones, so you should be thankful she didn't join in with me and Brelyna," she smirked, watching as his as his went from angry to a mixture of slightly aroused and distraught.

"Regardless of how pleased I am that didn't happen I am still not happy, she can't go around sleeping with other men, she's pregnant, it could be dangerous." Resh muttered.

Sighing the other Tsaesci had to agree with him, regardless of how much she hated to admit it. "I guess you're right. If you weren't so uptight I would like to say you 'got some' in the mean time, but probably not, too much of a prude when it comes to other races."

Resh smirked slightly at that statement. "Well there is one…"

"Ooh, who is she? or he?" Kayci laughed, taking an interest in his sex life. She was only teasing about it being a 'he', she knew that for the most part Resh was straight, and that only changed when context demands it, like the time she never wanted to let him live down.

"First of all, I've already said, but I was trapped in a cavern for weeks, so you can hardly start spouting that I'm a bisexual," Resh ground out with exasperation, he was about to tell her about Elenwen but quickly decided better upon it. It would likely be awkward due to her and Elenwen's last relationship, and how he was still in a way 'with' Lydia. "And second, I think I'll tell you later, I have things to do right now like find Lydia, plus I need to talk to some guy further up north about the Elder Scrolls."

"What's an Elder Scroll? it sounds important, especially to have someone like… you… running around looking for it," Kayci asked, her tone falling when she remembered again what he was again, and her natural killer instincts coming to her. She managed to fight it off though, and went back to normal, not harming her friend at all.

"It is, it's meant to be the only thing that can help me, 'kill the god of Dragons'. So that should be a pretty good trophy," he told her, trying not to mention it was to save these other races, but for honour. "Now anyway, I need to go and find Lydia, so I'll be going now."

Kayci folded her arms in mock aggravation. "Fine, go and find Lydia. I also have some quite serious stuff to tell you later, I'll tell you after the birth though because I don't want to sully such a happy period."

He frowned for a moment at the idea of Kayci being 'serious', when she was usually all giggly, but decided to put it out of her mind, and be happy again. "Look at you saying fancy words like 'sully', it must be the people at this College rubbing off on you."

The two chuckled for a few moments at her expense before he started to leave. Kayci always managed to cheer him up, Resh loved that she was always happy, like nothing had ever gone wrong in the world.

Resh POV

The tavern itself wasn't actually that bad a place, it was relatively clean compared to other places, and there weren't so many people. But regardless that didn't make Resh any more comfortable about Lydia staying here.

It was clear there wasn't space for her in the College, as the only one of the numerous rooms the party was allowed in was Brelyna's and had only one bed, presumably one she'd want to share with Kayci, but surely they could have thought of something… safer, it was his child after all in danger.

She wasn't at the bar, which was good considering her condition, were she still being served he would likely kill the owner, instead she was probably just sleeping or something, probably bored out of her mind.

On a normal day he probably would have asked the owner where she was, but he was too pleased to see her to do that. Instead he was just relying on scent alone, it was just easier this way, especially seeing as there was an abundance of 'Lydia smell' for some reason, likely just because she had been in the same place a while.

He wanted to surprise her so decided he wouldn't bother knock, it would take away from the excitement. Despite his couplings with Elenwen Resh was well aware he still had some feelings for Lydia, and it was clear her latest attitude wasn't her fault, so he was willing to overlook some things.

Unfortunately, Resh wasn't greeted with the sight he expected as he barged through the door, instead he was met with a scream of shock from a heavily pregnant and naked Lydia, along with an equally startled man also in the bed with her. Without even thinking Resh saw red and broke the two apart holding whoever it was against the wall hard enough to choke him.

The only thing keeping him from snapping the man's windpipe was how he knew the man probably didn't think he was doing anything wrong. All the various guards in the city didn't really matter to him and had no influence on his opinion, were he to actually kill the idiot who slept with his Lydia he would happily slaughter anyone who tried to reprimand him.

"If you don't get the fuck out right now I'm going to kill you where you stand!" he hissed, grabbing the man by the bare chest, fingers digging deep enough to form painful gashes. Howling in fear and pain the smaller male nodded in submission, leaving Resh to glare for a few moments longer before throwing him to the side out of the door without any clothes.

"Resh!" she shouted at him, still shocked at what had happened in the space of almost no time. "What the fuck are you doi-"

"No! you don't get to be pissed off!" he snapped at her, cutting her off before she could argue. "You're pregnant with my child! what makes you think this is okay?!"

"It's disgusting, look how obvious it is," he hissed, gesturing to her body, she would have been insulted had she the opportunity to speak. "I should fucking kill that guy! how dare he be so sickening as to do this when he knows you're having someone elses child!"

Lydia snorted, waving him off once she realised he was just in one of those 'all bark no bite' moods. "Calm down Resh. It's not a big deal, and you made it quite clear you were annoyed at me last time we were here, why the sudden change?"

The Tsaesci didn't really know what to think about the 'lax attitude' she had going for her, Resh wasn't sure whether to be pissed off at the dismissal or to calm down at the fact she didn't see it as a big issue.

"The 'sudden change' is because this could be dangerous for you, if you were in any other position than Nordic gestation I wouldn't mind as much," Resh muttered, it wasn't a lie, but it definitely wasn't the whole truth. He had a hard time admitting it, but Lydia meant a lot to him, and it may have been hypocritical, but he didn't want to see her with anyone else but himself.

"Well, thank you for caring so much about me, it's not like I really had much else to do, so you can hardly blame me. Don't worry though, once this thing comes out I think I'll just go and let Kayci and Brelyna look after it, we can go back to normal again," Lydia explained to him, not caring about the whole infidelity thing, and acting like it hadn't even happened.

"No, I don't trust them enough. First they ask me to help them have their own child now this? just no," Resh said sternly, it was obvious from his tone he wasn't pleased with the idea of the two having a child.

Lydia rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Come on, I know you're pissed off at Brelyna but you've got to understand the context, she's not as bad as you think."

"I know that," he ground out, he knew that despite what he had seen of the Dunmer Kayci was probably telling the truth about her, Resh knew his friend well enough to know that she could handle herself and wouldn't stay with someone abusive like that. "But it's not her I don't trust, I love Kayci but she's just not responsible. The amount of stuff the scouting group lost because she left things behind is ridiculous, it's part of the reason I was made to carry everything."

"Just let them Resh, who knows? maybe they'll decide after looking after it for a while they don't want their own little snake baby?" Lydia chuckled, knowing she had something that caught his attention when he paused for a few moments.

"Do you really think so?" he asked, maybe this could work actually, as this was his child Kayci would have to be more careful with it and responsible, and Brelyna would probably do well looking after it, so maybe it would sate their wants.

"Sure it would. I haven't even suggested the idea to the yet but I'm sure they'll say yes, we'll just tell them to think of it as a test run and I guarantee they'll help us out. They'd probably do it out of friendship alone, but this way you can convince them not to have their own child."

"Okay fine, but now isn't a good time to ask, Brelyna's kind of in the process of recovering from something," Resh muttered, not wanting to say too much in case he stressed her out. Brelyna and Kayci were her friends too, so it was more than likely she would be upset, something he didn't want considering the baby should be born any time soon.

"It's best for her to be honest she's not going to want to be here for the birth," the Nord laughed, suddenly filling Resh's eyes with slight fear. He had heard horrible things about human childbirth, how it could last days, and there was screaming, or how high the chances of death were from infection, even something particularly disgusting about excrement mid way through. And Lydia's statement had him wishing none of it was real.

He would have questioned her about all of this, but he was interrupted by Lydia, not from anything she actually said, but more what seemed to unnaturally flush out of her. The Tsaesci had no idea what 'breaking water' was because of their races was of having young.

"What the fuck is with that?!" Resh practically shouted as he recoiled away from the now sticky floor. "Please tell me that's normal, because it doesn't seem that way."

"Shit. Resh take me to the College quickly, it's happening." Lydia told him, ignoring his cries. He hesitated for a second before lifting her up, wanting to stay as clean as possible, but eventually deciding now probably wasn't the time to worry about that sort of thing.

Kayci was definitely going to want to see this, she loved disgusting stuff…