An eventful late night swim (backdated!)
Who: Susan Bones, Sylvie Fawcett and a SURPRISE!
Where: The pool in building 2
When: Bastille Day! July 14, 2003
Rating: PG-13? Probably some bad language will be thrown around.
This was not the first time Sylvie had snuck out at night to use the pool over in the other building. Technically she wasn't supposed to be there, as a resident of the original building, which is why she chose her heat relieving activities late at night. With everyone over there asleep, she didn't have to worry about being called out on being there, and there was absolutely no chance of the brats in that family coming in shrieking and spoiling her fun.
Say what nasty things she will about Jerome and the ESIL, Sylvie had to admit they'd raised their kids better than this couple evidently had.
The half-moon and stars she could see through the windows in such an urban area lit up the pool enough to give it an eerie appearance, and if Sylvie hadn't known that Susan was the one on the shadows, she might have taken her for a much more ominous creature. In fact, Sylvie could dip her head under, swim the right direction and probably give Susan quite the scare. Instead, she leaned back, wetting down her brown hair and looking up at the stars.
"I told you this would be brilliant," Sylvie said.
Susan grinned as she slipped off her dress and tossed it over the back of one of the chairs that were dotted around the edge of the pool. "I believed you," she replied, sitting down on the edge of the pool and dangling her legs in the water. Now that it was night, the temperature had dropped, but she was still unpleasantly sticky and dusty from the day. With a quiet splosh, she dropped into the pool and swam a length before flipping over onto her back and floating like Sylvie was doing.
"It's so quiet," she murmured.
"I know, isn't it brilliant?" Sylvie grinned, standing up where the water came up to her chest, and splashing some towards Susan. Her bikini top, while red in normal light looked completely black compared to her skin, and she couldn't even see her legs in the dark.
"Smethley ought to invest in better lighting though," she added, "I mean, you know how many times I've Apparated to the door after being out clubbing and tripped over something in the lobby. I'm just glad I don't live up the stairs."
"I do know," Susan answered, "and I'm not sure which is louder: you falling over or the swearing that inevitably follows." She stood up and flicked water back at Sylvie, then swirled her hands just under the surface. They looked ghostly white in the moonlight that came through the windows. It was a little bit eerie being in the pool in the dark, but in a good way.
"The day our landlady invests in this building is the day when you become celibate," Susan went on to say. "Putting a few lights up is a small thing compared to all the other issues that need fixing, but you know she'd never do it. She treats every suggestion as a complaint, and every complaint as a personal attack against her. I don't know why she doesn't just sell Euterpe's Corner to someone who actually cares. Then again," Susan mused, "she seems to have put a lot more money into this building than the other one."
She understood. Really, you know. Lee was scared. Of their soon-to-arrive child, and the way it would change things when he or she was born and what that would mean for the future. But he had to understand, she had to make him understand that he couldn't run away from her. She wouldn't let him. She just knew that if she got the chance to talk to him - without his neighbors interfering and being completely unhelpful, without that slag that guest starred on his talk show getting involved (and Anise hated her just because she knew they'd shagged at one point in time) - that he'd stop acting the way he was and accept their future together. As a family.
And that was why she was currently sneaking around the grounds of Euterpe's Corner late at night, despite the fact that her Healer had suggested she stay off her feet for the next week or so as she was ever closer to her due date. But she didn't seem to understand that Anise needed to reconcile with the father of her child now, so Anise decided that advice wasn't so important for her to follow. Except... she stopped and turned in a little circle, she seemed to be lost. It certainly didn't look like the lobby she'd seen in the daytime, did it?
In the next room in the pool, Sylvie laughed at Susan's comparison to Smethley's complaint fixing to Sylvie's celibacy. "You're right, that'll never happen. I mean, anyone who would limit us to one complaint a week is quite possibly even more stubborn than I am." And that, of course, was saying something.
"And by the way, I think the swearing is probably louder. My parents always did say I had quite the mouth on me." With a frown that Susan thankfully couldn't see, Sylvie pushed herself off the edge of the pool into a backstroke. Parents were lame, after all.
"They weren't wrong," Susan replied before remembering that Sylvie's parents were something of a sore spot these days. Not that Sylvie had ever really got on with her parents, from what Susan could remember. She tactfully set off in the other direction, swimming to the deep end of the pool where she dived under the water and did a handstand before surfacing, her hair plastered over her face. Treading water, Susan ducked her head under the water again to sweep her hair back. She really should have tied it back, she mused; it was so long and there was such a lot of it. Suddenly her attention was caught by a faint noise. It sounded like -- footsteps?
"Sylvie," Susan whispered, straining her eyes in the darkness, alert for any movement. "Did you hear that?"
Anise turned in another circle, a frown on her face as she did so. It was entirely possible that she may have gotten lost because it was so dark, but she told herself that soon, she'd be seeing this place on a more regular basis and then know it like the back of her hand. That was for certain.
Turning again, she paused as she heard the faint sound of voices and possibly even water splashing. The frown however, still remained on her face as she drited in that direction. She hoped against hope she wouldn't find Lee with some tart-like bitch. He'd have to know better than to try to push her away in such a manner anyway.
Sylvie knew they weren't wrong, even if she didn't want to admit it. Because for her, it wasn't enough that there were plenty of things they were wrong on, they had to be wrong on everything. That's simply how it was.
At Susan's whisper, Sylvie quickly stood up, eyes alert and peering through the darkness. She thought she heard something, but maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. That sort of thing happened in the dark.
Turning to see a large blob that was moving not too far from you wasn't.
"FUCKING MERDE!" yelled Sylvie who, for all her bravado, really could be quite the coward underneath.
Susan was no Gryffindor either; whipping round she caught sight of what had caused Sylvie to shout and let out a scream of her own. Unfortunately, using up all the air in her lungs meant she wasn't buoyant any more, and in her panic she had forgotten to keep kicking. She sank several inches and swallowed a lot of water before she popped up again, spluttering and thrashing, not taking her eyes off the dark shape for a single moment. Was it someone come to investigate the noise she and Sylvie had been making? But surely it couldn't be a person, not looking so deformed.
Wishing she had her wand on her, Susan called out, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. "Who's there?"
As Anise entered the area where, evidently, as she realised due to the telltale smell of chlorine, there was a pool, she noticed two figures in the water and after the initial relief that neither were Lee hoped that neither person would recognise her as she neared, attempting to be careful of the slightly wet floor. However, the way they reacted at the sight of her told her two things. Either a - they didn't know who she was, or b - it was too dark. She didn't care either way as long as she wasn't recognised.
As she'd had time to calm down since the night she called in to Lee's show, the lie came off the tip of her tongue easier than it had before. "I'm new to the building. I was just having a walk about and got turned around, I think."
Oh fuck the thing was talking and...Sylvie knew that voice from somewhere. She did, though she couldn't completely place where. Still, she was pretty sure it wasn't one of the residents, and it wasn't Smethley there to bust them. And it was late and the thing was big and...oh Merlin.
"You're not supposed to be here!" Sylvie accused, splashing water at the pregnant woman whose voice she finally recognised.
Sylvie's reaction startled Susan. She knew this woman? Then, suddenly, it all clicked into place: the voice, the size of the woman, and the fact that she wasn't supposed to be in Euterpe's Corner.
"Anise Blackwell?" Susan said incredulously. "Fancied a swim, did you?" What on earth was Lee's stalker doing sneaking around Building 2 in the middle of the night?
"Anise Blackwell? Who's Anise Blackwell?" Was the first thing to spring to mind upon the accusation, as she recognised the voice of that slag, Sylvie Fawcett and did her best to keep from scowling at the sight of her. "As I said, I'm a new resident and I'm still new to the building and made a wrong turn."
"Well how about you make a right turn out of the building, Blackwell," said Sylvie, who was even more convinced that's who the woman was despite her denial, "I could call any of the MLE here and they could get you for tresspassing, so don't make me."
Susan shook her head at the woman's stubbornness, swam over to the side of the pool, and hauled herself out. "Come on," she said placatingly, holding out her hands in a gesture of peace. "You shouldn't be wandering around at night in your condition." She shivered slightly, dripping onto the tiles. Although there was a part of her that wanted Sylvie to call the MLE, she reminded herself that Anise Blackwell was probably mentally unstable. And after all, the woman was pregnant. She couldn't be too harsh on her.
"How about you fuck right off," Anise replied, glaring at the woman still in the pool. "Unnecessarily instigating slut."
Quickly, almost like an animal startled, she turned in the direction of the other woman, a scathing remark on the tip of her tongue even as she backed away. But maybe she'd taken too many quick steps back, as she felt herself start to lose her balance and let out a tiny squeak as she fell backwards into the pool.
The water crashed all over Sylvie as the pregnant woman fell in, and she closed her eyes against the worst of it. She'd been ready with a snarky remark of her own in reply to the idiot woman, but now she was in the water and possibly had swallowed water.
"Fuck," Sylvie grumbled swimming over to where Blackwell was and pushing her close to the edge. "Bones, help her out."
Susan didn't need telling twice. She hurried over and grasped Anise under the arms, pulling the struggling woman up out of the water. She was heavy, however, and Susan lost her balance, falling over backwards with Anise sprawled on top of her. "Ow..." Susan pushed Anise off her and sat up, rubbing her bruised back. "I think you'd better go now," she said crossly, annoyed that -- once again -- Anise was making a scene.
As soon as she'd fallen in, she'd taken in a mouthful of water, her legs and arms waving hysterically as the cold of the water hit her and she was grateful - though she'd be damned if she told either woman that - for their help in getting out of the pool. For a moment she stayed where she was on the floor, and gave the woman she'd landed on a sharp look before the shock of a sudden pain took her by complete surprise and she gasped.
"Now what?" Sylvie asked crossly. The woman had caused so many dramatics over the past month and a half that Sylvie was just about ready to strangle her, even if that meant she might face the Wrath of Lovegood, whatever Luna thought she could do to Sylvie.
She did push herself out of the pool though, just in case she did need a hand up. She remembered enough from Tessa and Julia's pregnancies that moving around was more difficult when you got that big.
Susan looked at Anise with a touch of guilt. Yes, the woman was completely insane, but she'd fallen into the pool because Susan had startled her. And the glare she'd given Susan just now might have been enough to turn her to stone, but Susan hadn't exactly been gentle when it came to pulling Anise out of the water. "Are you all right?" she asked, sighing. She suspected that Anise was putting it on, but there was no point in antagonising her further.
Grasping herself around her enlarged belly and refusing the urge to curl into a ball, Anise shook her head in reply, barely able to get out the words. "I think - I don't - fucking hell." It felt like menstrual cramps, only a thousand times worse, and she could only be relieved when the pain passed. Instantly, as she recognised from all her reading in readiness for the birth, a moment of panic came over her. Maybe... maybe it was one of those false ones. It could be one of those false ones. She hadn't heard or felt her water break, right?
If it had done so in the pool, no one would have been able to tell with how wet she was all over. Sylvie, for her part, remained sceptical of the woman holding her swollen abdomen in pain, unsure if she was acting or if something was really going on.
"Fucking hell indeed," she muttered, turning to the woman, "Can you get up?" If something was going on with the baby, which was always a possibility, the smart thing would be to get her to...some place. Some Healer. Sylvie knew it was highly recommended not to Apparate or side along a pregnant woman because of increased risks of splinching and hurting the baby, but there was the Floo down in the basement of their building.
"What's your Healer's name?" she asked, wishing she'd at least brought her flown down here with her.
Susan stared helplessly from Anise to Sylvie. This could not be happening. She watched a contraction ripple across Anise's stomach in fascinated horror: okay, apparently this was happening. Sylvie's question snapped her back to reality and she stood up. "Right," she said, "if you can't get up then -- then I'll go and fetch someone and Sylvie can wait here with you." Perhaps it wasn't the best of ideas to leave Sylvie alone with Anise, but there was no way Susan was waiting with her. She didn't know the slightest thing about babies or pregnancies!
With the pain having passed, Anise slowly relaxed against the cool, wet, tile of the pool area's floor, and silently shook her head at Sylvie's question. This was not the way it was supposed to be. No, it wasn't. She was supposed to be in St. Mungo's, with Lee at her side, and when the baby come he'd realise how stupid he'd been acting over the past few months and then they could be happy together. That was the way it was supposed to be. Not this... this mess. She barely acknowledged what Susan said with more than a shrug, the urge to cry prickling at the corner of her eyes.
"Chang's a sports Healer isn't she?" Sylvie queried. Which was not the same thing as a Midwitch at all, but she was trying to think of who she knew that had any medical expertise whatsoever. It's not like they could be expected to do anything, right? Blackwell was a tresspasser and Sylvie was a Charm's expert, not a childbirth one.
Still, there was a reason she'd been sorted Ravenclaw, and in the midst of the panicking she tried to think of what they could do if all else failed. Light would probably be a good start, and fumbling for her clothes and the wand she knew was in them.
"Lumos," Well that was a start. Maybe their towels could come in handy somehow?
"Penelope Clearwater also works in St Mungo's," Susan added, although psychology was even further from midwifery than Cho's sports healing was bound to be. She pulled on her dress without bothering to dry herself off first and also lit her wand. Having had the same idea as Sylvie, she picked up their towels and brought them over to Anise. "Do you want to lie on these?" she asked awkwardly. "Or... I don't know, you could use one as a pillow?"
Oh, it was so obvious she didn't have a clue what she was doing.
She'd decided, so as to not completely panic, to count to ten, and then count to ten again, and she was going to keep counting to ten until the idea that she could possibly be about to give birth beside a pool turned into something else. Like this all being some nightmare. "A pillow would be good," Anise answered, taking a break in between five and six, and then continuing mentally. If she just kept counting, this would all go away. It just had t -
Anise suddenly cried out as another wave a pain hit her, worse than the previous one if it were possible, and she finally let herself come to the realisation that this was not going to go away. It was hardly a surprise when she started to tear up.
Right. Sylvie folded up her towel and clothes and stuck them under the woman's head as gently as she could, finally realising that this was not some elaborate drama being staged. "Merci à Dieu that I will never have to go through this," she muttered, trying to figure out what to do next. Because she and Bones were going to have to do something. It looked like it was too late for one of them to be running off for Chang or Clearwater (why weren't there any mid witches or -wizards in the building? Gah!) and leaving the other with Blackwell. And her Flown was up in her room, so she couldn't even call one of the two to see if they had any ideas of what to do.
To be honest, Susan was still pretty tempted to Apparate away. Surely she could make it to St Mungo's, grab the nearest Midwitch, and be back here without anything serious happening? But then Anise grabbed her hand -- hard -- causing Susan to wince and gasp in pain, realising that she wasn't Apparating anywhere with Anise attached to her so firmly. She would have squeezed Anise's hand back reassuringly, but the other woman had her gripped so tightly that it was impossible. Susan was sure she'd broken several bones. (And she was an artist, thank you! Why couldn't Anise have grabbed her left hand?)
"It's all right," Susan said through gritted teeth. "You're going to be fine. Er, Sylvie? Shouldn't we, um, get Anise to open her legs? So we can see what's, er, going on?"
Oh, right. Maybe it wasn't too late for Sylvie to Apparate away? But that would probably be too risky given the circumstances. "Right. Blackwell, can you help getting your knickers off or do I need to do it on my own?"
Anise really could have let go of Susan's hand, but it hurt. Never again would she give in to a smooth voice and a great smile, she decided as she bit her lip and closed her eyes until the pain could once again pass. Never fucking again. And why, was she having contractions so close together? What if there was something wrong with the baby? She couldn't let anything happen to the baby. It was Lee's baby; that made it special.
"I think..." she started, breathing heavily though she tried to stay calm - calm, deep breaths. Deep, soothing, breaths.The baby would be fine. She and Lee would be fine. She just had to be calm. "I can help."
"Right then." It was as much efficiency as she could muster that Sylvie managed to get the bottom half of Anise Blackwell uncovered. One of the fortunate things about being a slag of her calibre was a high level of comfort with the human body. While not attracted to other women, Sylvie had been in threesome and more types situations just for the experience, so the sight didn't exactly faze her, and she hoped Bones wouldn't be embarrassed by it.
"There's no baby yet," she offered helpfully.
Susan -- who was a bit embarrassed, actually -- continued to have her hand crushed by Anise. "It's okay, just keep breathing," she soothed. "You're doing great." In reality, she didn't know how well Anise was doing, but it seemed best to continue reassuring her. "I don't think she's supposed to push until you can see the baby?" Susan said uncertainly to Sylvie. She was sure she'd read that somewhere. "Anise, what did your Healer tell you? You must have been attending antenatal sessions, right?"
Anise swallowed another biting remark in response to Sylvie's comment on the lack of a baby before she could blurt it out, fairly sure that the woman whose hand she was gripping tightly was full of shit even as the pain of another contraction subsided and she finally saw fit to let go of her hand more than sure it was enough payback for causing her to fall into the pool to begin with. Accident her arse.
"Of course I did," Anise said in a condescending tone of voice. As if she would ever risk letting something happen to Lee's child. "Fat lot of good they are. Breathing exercises aren't helping much, now are they?" She asked harshly and rhetorically, grateful that a good few moments had passed without more pain. She also decidedly didn't answer the question of what her Healer said. Her Healer had hardly told her anything new over the past few weeks. Stay off your feet, Miss Blackwell, and please try to avoid stressful situations. We wouldn't want to have the baby arrive too soon, would we?
Well, no shit.
"Are you even trying to do your breathing exercises, because it sounds to me like you're just doing a lot of whinging," Sylvie replied in her ever tactful way.
The time seemed to go by in a blur, though it probably seemed like forever to Anise, as Sylvie waited and waited wishing she could Apparate out and get herself out of this mess by finding Chang or someone before the hole she'd been watching finally seemed to be getting big enough.
Susan also wished she could Apparate away, but she didn't think it was fair to leave Sylvie alone with Anise, and if things suddenly started to happen then likely they'd need two pairs of hands to get everything sorted. Every time she thought about suggesting it, Anise would groan or shift position and Susan would be convinced that the bloody baby was finally about to be born, but each time it turned out not to be the case. Sighing, she stretched out her legs and wondered what the time was. Her hand had been released by the other woman a while ago, but it still felt sore. "How are you doing?" she asked Anise, trying to summon up the energy to sound genuinely interested. This was not how she had planned to spend her night.
With all the time that had passed, Anise was probably almost, more ready even, than both of the women combined to have this baby born. Not only because this whole giving birth thing was a pain in the arse, but so she could get back to convincing Lee that he couldn't just ignore them. She'd noticed, not having anything else to do other than to wait, that the contractions had started to come closer together, but apparently the baby wasn't ready to come out yet. Which was just great. Really.
"I'm in the middle of labor in the pool area of a building I'm not familiar with after falling in said pool. I'm perfect." Of course, afterwards, she realised she could stand to be at least slightly nicer as neither woman was obligated to stay and help her, but it was much easier to not be nice. And then she was hit with the pain of a contraction again, and considering that the last one hadn't been too long ago, she hoped it was a sign.
Sylvie was used to dealing with not niceness so she just let everything the Blackwell bird say roll off her like water off a duck. "Glad to hear it. I think you might be having a baby. Maybe? I see something at least." Then again, that could be an illusion by the fact that Sylvie wanted to get the fuck out of here.
"Maybe you should start to push," suggested Susan, who may not have been the one giving birth, but who was also bored of sitting on a hard tiled floor. She stifled a yawn as she wondered yet again how late it had become. All she wanted to do was get Anise safely to St Mungo's once this baby was born, then go straight to bed.
Anise gave a slight nod at the suggestion, all right enough that the idea of actually returning to those exercises she was taught actually started to appeal to her once more, and taking a deep breath, she was fully prepared to find that she might realised in the next few minutes that sex was completely overrated - even if with talk show hosts she found absolutely irresistable - and she'd never want to have it ever again.
Anise was very unlucky in her situation. If she'd been able to get to the hospital, she'd have gotten a potion to dull the pain somewhat - at least that's what Sylvie assumed. Otherwise her own mère wouldn't have gone through the childbirth thing four times and the ESIL three? But then again, if she'd been stupid enough to come looking for Jordan late at night like this, she probably deserved it.
Sylvie pushed the woman's legs apart even further and crouched down in her kneel. "Push? Or when the pain starts again, I think? I might've seen something like this on the telly once."
"Er. What Sylvie said." Yes, Susan was being so helpful. She patted Anise's shoulder in an encouraging sort of way. All the birth scenes she'd seen on telly were over in a matter of minutes. This had gone on for ages.
"Okay." Right. She could do this. Of course she could. All she had to do was push a few times and enter the world Little Boy/Girl Jordan, yeah? "Okay," she repeated a second time, grittng her teeth as she did her best to push as she'd been taught in those classes - which she'd have to talk to Lee about later for forcing her to attend them with her mum who was rightfully brassed off that he had yet to actually propose to her, along with the fact that he had made her seem ten times more mental than she actually was and that it had really hurt when he'd denied her like that. Which, really, was the only reason she'd gone to that reporter in the first place. They needed better communication in the future, they did. They'd have to be more often, talk about their feelings and be open. After all, they were about to be a family, right?
Apparently Anise had been paying attention in those classes at least, because it seemed as though a head was coming out.
"Huh," Sylvie said, the kind of smirk that used to send Annette running for their mère without even knowing what Sylvie had done cross her face, "Hey Bones, what do you make of this, then? Oi, you. Push again, oui? There's still shoulders and whatnot stuck inside over here."
Susan glanced down at Anise's spread legs, very embarrassed, but was captivated by the sight of the baby's head. "Oh," she said, forgiving Anise for crushing her hand and being a general nuisance. "Wow. You're doing it." It was strange how disconnected giving birth seemed to be from the end result -- an actual, live baby. This was what made the long hard struggle worthwhile, and it was making her grin like an idiot, strangely lost for words. "One more push," Susan urged.
"Yeah?" she asked, hopefully. One more push sounded good to her. She could do one more push. If that didn't work, well, then, bully for the baby. She was bloody tired, damn it. But she had to keep going anyway, she knew that. So she could relax and see her baby. Her little prince or princess. She'd been thinking that she'd name him Leonard Jordan Jr. if he was a boy, and she had yet to think of a girl name, but maybe something that sounded like she was named after her father? That would be nice, yeah?
Following as per Sylvie's instructions, Anise pushed again, giving as much of her energy into it as possible. She just wanted this to be over now.
Anise wasn't the only one, and Sylvie's smirk only intensified as the shoulders came through and she was able to pull the rest of the baby out.
"So this is your Lee, junior," she couldn't help but say as she took in the baby's light tan skin, shock of dark brown hair and...wiping the eyes so the baby could open them, dark blue eyes. "Good one at that. Bones, what are we supposed to do with this stringy thing?"
"Awwww," Susan said, even though the baby was all damp and wrinkled. It suddenly let out a loud wail -- well, at least it was breathing. "Um, I think that's called the umbilical cord. You're supposed to tie it off in two places and then cut in the middle." She knew that much at least. A quick glance around at their very basic supplies told her there was nothing to tie the cord off with, and nothing appropriate to transfigure. With a sigh, Susan used her wand to slash two strips off the bottom of her dress. Anise owed her.
Since Sylvie was holding the baby, Susan supposed she should tie the cord off. Ick. Once that was done, she lifted her wand, then hesitated. It had been one thing to cut her dress up, but quite another to cut something that was, well, alive? "Do you reckon that's okay?" she asked, not really expecting an answer since neither Sylvie nor Anise were qualified Midwitches. "Okay. Um." Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand at the umbilical cord, hoping she was doing the right thing. "Diffindo."
It severed neatly. Wow. She'd done it.
Hearing the crying of a baby, and if the way Sylvie had called him her Lee junior was anything to be hinted at, she'd had a boy, maybe? She relaxed, sagging against the tile floor, a slight smile on her face as she though of her son. She did like that. Her son. Hers, and Lee's - as soon as she told him. Despite the fact that it was still wet, and that she'd given birth a foot away from a pool, it was still a very good day. Considering everything. Her mum had always told her that it was worth it in the end. She guessed the woman had been right.
"That's right," she said. "Lee Junior."
"Yeah, too bad he looks nothing like his dad then," Sylvie said, attempting to move legs that had fallen asleep ages ago to hand the woman her son. Did this mean it was over? Could they take the psycho to St Mungo's and be rid of her. Because Sylvie needed a shower. And sleep. And if this was some sort of karmic punishment for sneaking to the pool at night she was never doing it again.
Maybe.
Right now, Susan just wanted to go to bed, but she thought they'd better see Anise and her baby to St Mungo's first. Lee was going to be so relieved -- it was obvious from the first glance that the baby wasn't his. (It was still cute, though.) "Can you stand?" Susan said, getting to her feet herself and wincing at the pins and needles in her legs. She and Sylvie raised Anise into a sitting position, then helped her stand. With a quick Scourgify, Susan managed to clean up most of the mess they'd made on the floor. Eh, good enough.
All right. Now all they had to do was get her into the Floo, hopefully before the shock wore off and she started protesting the baby was Lee's.
Anise closed her eyes at Sylvie's remark, and decided that the slag was just being bitchy for no reason, as she took her beautiful newborn son into her arms and allowed them to help her up without another word to each of them. Right now, all she wanted to was to go to St. Mungo's to make sure little Lee was all right, and then she'd have to talk to Lee as soon as possible.
Where: The pool in building 2
When: Bastille Day! July 14, 2003
Rating: PG-13? Probably some bad language will be thrown around.
This was not the first time Sylvie had snuck out at night to use the pool over in the other building. Technically she wasn't supposed to be there, as a resident of the original building, which is why she chose her heat relieving activities late at night. With everyone over there asleep, she didn't have to worry about being called out on being there, and there was absolutely no chance of the brats in that family coming in shrieking and spoiling her fun.
Say what nasty things she will about Jerome and the ESIL, Sylvie had to admit they'd raised their kids better than this couple evidently had.
The half-moon and stars she could see through the windows in such an urban area lit up the pool enough to give it an eerie appearance, and if Sylvie hadn't known that Susan was the one on the shadows, she might have taken her for a much more ominous creature. In fact, Sylvie could dip her head under, swim the right direction and probably give Susan quite the scare. Instead, she leaned back, wetting down her brown hair and looking up at the stars.
"I told you this would be brilliant," Sylvie said.
Susan grinned as she slipped off her dress and tossed it over the back of one of the chairs that were dotted around the edge of the pool. "I believed you," she replied, sitting down on the edge of the pool and dangling her legs in the water. Now that it was night, the temperature had dropped, but she was still unpleasantly sticky and dusty from the day. With a quiet splosh, she dropped into the pool and swam a length before flipping over onto her back and floating like Sylvie was doing.
"It's so quiet," she murmured.
"I know, isn't it brilliant?" Sylvie grinned, standing up where the water came up to her chest, and splashing some towards Susan. Her bikini top, while red in normal light looked completely black compared to her skin, and she couldn't even see her legs in the dark.
"Smethley ought to invest in better lighting though," she added, "I mean, you know how many times I've Apparated to the door after being out clubbing and tripped over something in the lobby. I'm just glad I don't live up the stairs."
"I do know," Susan answered, "and I'm not sure which is louder: you falling over or the swearing that inevitably follows." She stood up and flicked water back at Sylvie, then swirled her hands just under the surface. They looked ghostly white in the moonlight that came through the windows. It was a little bit eerie being in the pool in the dark, but in a good way.
"The day our landlady invests in this building is the day when you become celibate," Susan went on to say. "Putting a few lights up is a small thing compared to all the other issues that need fixing, but you know she'd never do it. She treats every suggestion as a complaint, and every complaint as a personal attack against her. I don't know why she doesn't just sell Euterpe's Corner to someone who actually cares. Then again," Susan mused, "she seems to have put a lot more money into this building than the other one."
She understood. Really, you know. Lee was scared. Of their soon-to-arrive child, and the way it would change things when he or she was born and what that would mean for the future. But he had to understand, she had to make him understand that he couldn't run away from her. She wouldn't let him. She just knew that if she got the chance to talk to him - without his neighbors interfering and being completely unhelpful, without that slag that guest starred on his talk show getting involved (and Anise hated her just because she knew they'd shagged at one point in time) - that he'd stop acting the way he was and accept their future together. As a family.
And that was why she was currently sneaking around the grounds of Euterpe's Corner late at night, despite the fact that her Healer had suggested she stay off her feet for the next week or so as she was ever closer to her due date. But she didn't seem to understand that Anise needed to reconcile with the father of her child now, so Anise decided that advice wasn't so important for her to follow. Except... she stopped and turned in a little circle, she seemed to be lost. It certainly didn't look like the lobby she'd seen in the daytime, did it?
In the next room in the pool, Sylvie laughed at Susan's comparison to Smethley's complaint fixing to Sylvie's celibacy. "You're right, that'll never happen. I mean, anyone who would limit us to one complaint a week is quite possibly even more stubborn than I am." And that, of course, was saying something.
"And by the way, I think the swearing is probably louder. My parents always did say I had quite the mouth on me." With a frown that Susan thankfully couldn't see, Sylvie pushed herself off the edge of the pool into a backstroke. Parents were lame, after all.
"They weren't wrong," Susan replied before remembering that Sylvie's parents were something of a sore spot these days. Not that Sylvie had ever really got on with her parents, from what Susan could remember. She tactfully set off in the other direction, swimming to the deep end of the pool where she dived under the water and did a handstand before surfacing, her hair plastered over her face. Treading water, Susan ducked her head under the water again to sweep her hair back. She really should have tied it back, she mused; it was so long and there was such a lot of it. Suddenly her attention was caught by a faint noise. It sounded like -- footsteps?
"Sylvie," Susan whispered, straining her eyes in the darkness, alert for any movement. "Did you hear that?"
Anise turned in another circle, a frown on her face as she did so. It was entirely possible that she may have gotten lost because it was so dark, but she told herself that soon, she'd be seeing this place on a more regular basis and then know it like the back of her hand. That was for certain.
Turning again, she paused as she heard the faint sound of voices and possibly even water splashing. The frown however, still remained on her face as she drited in that direction. She hoped against hope she wouldn't find Lee with some tart-like bitch. He'd have to know better than to try to push her away in such a manner anyway.
Sylvie knew they weren't wrong, even if she didn't want to admit it. Because for her, it wasn't enough that there were plenty of things they were wrong on, they had to be wrong on everything. That's simply how it was.
At Susan's whisper, Sylvie quickly stood up, eyes alert and peering through the darkness. She thought she heard something, but maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. That sort of thing happened in the dark.
Turning to see a large blob that was moving not too far from you wasn't.
"FUCKING MERDE!" yelled Sylvie who, for all her bravado, really could be quite the coward underneath.
Susan was no Gryffindor either; whipping round she caught sight of what had caused Sylvie to shout and let out a scream of her own. Unfortunately, using up all the air in her lungs meant she wasn't buoyant any more, and in her panic she had forgotten to keep kicking. She sank several inches and swallowed a lot of water before she popped up again, spluttering and thrashing, not taking her eyes off the dark shape for a single moment. Was it someone come to investigate the noise she and Sylvie had been making? But surely it couldn't be a person, not looking so deformed.
Wishing she had her wand on her, Susan called out, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. "Who's there?"
As Anise entered the area where, evidently, as she realised due to the telltale smell of chlorine, there was a pool, she noticed two figures in the water and after the initial relief that neither were Lee hoped that neither person would recognise her as she neared, attempting to be careful of the slightly wet floor. However, the way they reacted at the sight of her told her two things. Either a - they didn't know who she was, or b - it was too dark. She didn't care either way as long as she wasn't recognised.
As she'd had time to calm down since the night she called in to Lee's show, the lie came off the tip of her tongue easier than it had before. "I'm new to the building. I was just having a walk about and got turned around, I think."
Oh fuck the thing was talking and...Sylvie knew that voice from somewhere. She did, though she couldn't completely place where. Still, she was pretty sure it wasn't one of the residents, and it wasn't Smethley there to bust them. And it was late and the thing was big and...oh Merlin.
"You're not supposed to be here!" Sylvie accused, splashing water at the pregnant woman whose voice she finally recognised.
Sylvie's reaction startled Susan. She knew this woman? Then, suddenly, it all clicked into place: the voice, the size of the woman, and the fact that she wasn't supposed to be in Euterpe's Corner.
"Anise Blackwell?" Susan said incredulously. "Fancied a swim, did you?" What on earth was Lee's stalker doing sneaking around Building 2 in the middle of the night?
"Anise Blackwell? Who's Anise Blackwell?" Was the first thing to spring to mind upon the accusation, as she recognised the voice of that slag, Sylvie Fawcett and did her best to keep from scowling at the sight of her. "As I said, I'm a new resident and I'm still new to the building and made a wrong turn."
"Well how about you make a right turn out of the building, Blackwell," said Sylvie, who was even more convinced that's who the woman was despite her denial, "I could call any of the MLE here and they could get you for tresspassing, so don't make me."
Susan shook her head at the woman's stubbornness, swam over to the side of the pool, and hauled herself out. "Come on," she said placatingly, holding out her hands in a gesture of peace. "You shouldn't be wandering around at night in your condition." She shivered slightly, dripping onto the tiles. Although there was a part of her that wanted Sylvie to call the MLE, she reminded herself that Anise Blackwell was probably mentally unstable. And after all, the woman was pregnant. She couldn't be too harsh on her.
"How about you fuck right off," Anise replied, glaring at the woman still in the pool. "Unnecessarily instigating slut."
Quickly, almost like an animal startled, she turned in the direction of the other woman, a scathing remark on the tip of her tongue even as she backed away. But maybe she'd taken too many quick steps back, as she felt herself start to lose her balance and let out a tiny squeak as she fell backwards into the pool.
The water crashed all over Sylvie as the pregnant woman fell in, and she closed her eyes against the worst of it. She'd been ready with a snarky remark of her own in reply to the idiot woman, but now she was in the water and possibly had swallowed water.
"Fuck," Sylvie grumbled swimming over to where Blackwell was and pushing her close to the edge. "Bones, help her out."
Susan didn't need telling twice. She hurried over and grasped Anise under the arms, pulling the struggling woman up out of the water. She was heavy, however, and Susan lost her balance, falling over backwards with Anise sprawled on top of her. "Ow..." Susan pushed Anise off her and sat up, rubbing her bruised back. "I think you'd better go now," she said crossly, annoyed that -- once again -- Anise was making a scene.
As soon as she'd fallen in, she'd taken in a mouthful of water, her legs and arms waving hysterically as the cold of the water hit her and she was grateful - though she'd be damned if she told either woman that - for their help in getting out of the pool. For a moment she stayed where she was on the floor, and gave the woman she'd landed on a sharp look before the shock of a sudden pain took her by complete surprise and she gasped.
"Now what?" Sylvie asked crossly. The woman had caused so many dramatics over the past month and a half that Sylvie was just about ready to strangle her, even if that meant she might face the Wrath of Lovegood, whatever Luna thought she could do to Sylvie.
She did push herself out of the pool though, just in case she did need a hand up. She remembered enough from Tessa and Julia's pregnancies that moving around was more difficult when you got that big.
Susan looked at Anise with a touch of guilt. Yes, the woman was completely insane, but she'd fallen into the pool because Susan had startled her. And the glare she'd given Susan just now might have been enough to turn her to stone, but Susan hadn't exactly been gentle when it came to pulling Anise out of the water. "Are you all right?" she asked, sighing. She suspected that Anise was putting it on, but there was no point in antagonising her further.
Grasping herself around her enlarged belly and refusing the urge to curl into a ball, Anise shook her head in reply, barely able to get out the words. "I think - I don't - fucking hell." It felt like menstrual cramps, only a thousand times worse, and she could only be relieved when the pain passed. Instantly, as she recognised from all her reading in readiness for the birth, a moment of panic came over her. Maybe... maybe it was one of those false ones. It could be one of those false ones. She hadn't heard or felt her water break, right?
If it had done so in the pool, no one would have been able to tell with how wet she was all over. Sylvie, for her part, remained sceptical of the woman holding her swollen abdomen in pain, unsure if she was acting or if something was really going on.
"Fucking hell indeed," she muttered, turning to the woman, "Can you get up?" If something was going on with the baby, which was always a possibility, the smart thing would be to get her to...some place. Some Healer. Sylvie knew it was highly recommended not to Apparate or side along a pregnant woman because of increased risks of splinching and hurting the baby, but there was the Floo down in the basement of their building.
"What's your Healer's name?" she asked, wishing she'd at least brought her flown down here with her.
Susan stared helplessly from Anise to Sylvie. This could not be happening. She watched a contraction ripple across Anise's stomach in fascinated horror: okay, apparently this was happening. Sylvie's question snapped her back to reality and she stood up. "Right," she said, "if you can't get up then -- then I'll go and fetch someone and Sylvie can wait here with you." Perhaps it wasn't the best of ideas to leave Sylvie alone with Anise, but there was no way Susan was waiting with her. She didn't know the slightest thing about babies or pregnancies!
With the pain having passed, Anise slowly relaxed against the cool, wet, tile of the pool area's floor, and silently shook her head at Sylvie's question. This was not the way it was supposed to be. No, it wasn't. She was supposed to be in St. Mungo's, with Lee at her side, and when the baby come he'd realise how stupid he'd been acting over the past few months and then they could be happy together. That was the way it was supposed to be. Not this... this mess. She barely acknowledged what Susan said with more than a shrug, the urge to cry prickling at the corner of her eyes.
"Chang's a sports Healer isn't she?" Sylvie queried. Which was not the same thing as a Midwitch at all, but she was trying to think of who she knew that had any medical expertise whatsoever. It's not like they could be expected to do anything, right? Blackwell was a tresspasser and Sylvie was a Charm's expert, not a childbirth one.
Still, there was a reason she'd been sorted Ravenclaw, and in the midst of the panicking she tried to think of what they could do if all else failed. Light would probably be a good start, and fumbling for her clothes and the wand she knew was in them.
"Lumos," Well that was a start. Maybe their towels could come in handy somehow?
"Penelope Clearwater also works in St Mungo's," Susan added, although psychology was even further from midwifery than Cho's sports healing was bound to be. She pulled on her dress without bothering to dry herself off first and also lit her wand. Having had the same idea as Sylvie, she picked up their towels and brought them over to Anise. "Do you want to lie on these?" she asked awkwardly. "Or... I don't know, you could use one as a pillow?"
Oh, it was so obvious she didn't have a clue what she was doing.
She'd decided, so as to not completely panic, to count to ten, and then count to ten again, and she was going to keep counting to ten until the idea that she could possibly be about to give birth beside a pool turned into something else. Like this all being some nightmare. "A pillow would be good," Anise answered, taking a break in between five and six, and then continuing mentally. If she just kept counting, this would all go away. It just had t -
Anise suddenly cried out as another wave a pain hit her, worse than the previous one if it were possible, and she finally let herself come to the realisation that this was not going to go away. It was hardly a surprise when she started to tear up.
Right. Sylvie folded up her towel and clothes and stuck them under the woman's head as gently as she could, finally realising that this was not some elaborate drama being staged. "Merci à Dieu that I will never have to go through this," she muttered, trying to figure out what to do next. Because she and Bones were going to have to do something. It looked like it was too late for one of them to be running off for Chang or Clearwater (why weren't there any mid witches or -wizards in the building? Gah!) and leaving the other with Blackwell. And her Flown was up in her room, so she couldn't even call one of the two to see if they had any ideas of what to do.
To be honest, Susan was still pretty tempted to Apparate away. Surely she could make it to St Mungo's, grab the nearest Midwitch, and be back here without anything serious happening? But then Anise grabbed her hand -- hard -- causing Susan to wince and gasp in pain, realising that she wasn't Apparating anywhere with Anise attached to her so firmly. She would have squeezed Anise's hand back reassuringly, but the other woman had her gripped so tightly that it was impossible. Susan was sure she'd broken several bones. (And she was an artist, thank you! Why couldn't Anise have grabbed her left hand?)
"It's all right," Susan said through gritted teeth. "You're going to be fine. Er, Sylvie? Shouldn't we, um, get Anise to open her legs? So we can see what's, er, going on?"
Oh, right. Maybe it wasn't too late for Sylvie to Apparate away? But that would probably be too risky given the circumstances. "Right. Blackwell, can you help getting your knickers off or do I need to do it on my own?"
Anise really could have let go of Susan's hand, but it hurt. Never again would she give in to a smooth voice and a great smile, she decided as she bit her lip and closed her eyes until the pain could once again pass. Never fucking again. And why, was she having contractions so close together? What if there was something wrong with the baby? She couldn't let anything happen to the baby. It was Lee's baby; that made it special.
"I think..." she started, breathing heavily though she tried to stay calm - calm, deep breaths. Deep, soothing, breaths.The baby would be fine. She and Lee would be fine. She just had to be calm. "I can help."
"Right then." It was as much efficiency as she could muster that Sylvie managed to get the bottom half of Anise Blackwell uncovered. One of the fortunate things about being a slag of her calibre was a high level of comfort with the human body. While not attracted to other women, Sylvie had been in threesome and more types situations just for the experience, so the sight didn't exactly faze her, and she hoped Bones wouldn't be embarrassed by it.
"There's no baby yet," she offered helpfully.
Susan -- who was a bit embarrassed, actually -- continued to have her hand crushed by Anise. "It's okay, just keep breathing," she soothed. "You're doing great." In reality, she didn't know how well Anise was doing, but it seemed best to continue reassuring her. "I don't think she's supposed to push until you can see the baby?" Susan said uncertainly to Sylvie. She was sure she'd read that somewhere. "Anise, what did your Healer tell you? You must have been attending antenatal sessions, right?"
Anise swallowed another biting remark in response to Sylvie's comment on the lack of a baby before she could blurt it out, fairly sure that the woman whose hand she was gripping tightly was full of shit even as the pain of another contraction subsided and she finally saw fit to let go of her hand more than sure it was enough payback for causing her to fall into the pool to begin with. Accident her arse.
"Of course I did," Anise said in a condescending tone of voice. As if she would ever risk letting something happen to Lee's child. "Fat lot of good they are. Breathing exercises aren't helping much, now are they?" She asked harshly and rhetorically, grateful that a good few moments had passed without more pain. She also decidedly didn't answer the question of what her Healer said. Her Healer had hardly told her anything new over the past few weeks. Stay off your feet, Miss Blackwell, and please try to avoid stressful situations. We wouldn't want to have the baby arrive too soon, would we?
Well, no shit.
"Are you even trying to do your breathing exercises, because it sounds to me like you're just doing a lot of whinging," Sylvie replied in her ever tactful way.
The time seemed to go by in a blur, though it probably seemed like forever to Anise, as Sylvie waited and waited wishing she could Apparate out and get herself out of this mess by finding Chang or someone before the hole she'd been watching finally seemed to be getting big enough.
Susan also wished she could Apparate away, but she didn't think it was fair to leave Sylvie alone with Anise, and if things suddenly started to happen then likely they'd need two pairs of hands to get everything sorted. Every time she thought about suggesting it, Anise would groan or shift position and Susan would be convinced that the bloody baby was finally about to be born, but each time it turned out not to be the case. Sighing, she stretched out her legs and wondered what the time was. Her hand had been released by the other woman a while ago, but it still felt sore. "How are you doing?" she asked Anise, trying to summon up the energy to sound genuinely interested. This was not how she had planned to spend her night.
With all the time that had passed, Anise was probably almost, more ready even, than both of the women combined to have this baby born. Not only because this whole giving birth thing was a pain in the arse, but so she could get back to convincing Lee that he couldn't just ignore them. She'd noticed, not having anything else to do other than to wait, that the contractions had started to come closer together, but apparently the baby wasn't ready to come out yet. Which was just great. Really.
"I'm in the middle of labor in the pool area of a building I'm not familiar with after falling in said pool. I'm perfect." Of course, afterwards, she realised she could stand to be at least slightly nicer as neither woman was obligated to stay and help her, but it was much easier to not be nice. And then she was hit with the pain of a contraction again, and considering that the last one hadn't been too long ago, she hoped it was a sign.
Sylvie was used to dealing with not niceness so she just let everything the Blackwell bird say roll off her like water off a duck. "Glad to hear it. I think you might be having a baby. Maybe? I see something at least." Then again, that could be an illusion by the fact that Sylvie wanted to get the fuck out of here.
"Maybe you should start to push," suggested Susan, who may not have been the one giving birth, but who was also bored of sitting on a hard tiled floor. She stifled a yawn as she wondered yet again how late it had become. All she wanted to do was get Anise safely to St Mungo's once this baby was born, then go straight to bed.
Anise gave a slight nod at the suggestion, all right enough that the idea of actually returning to those exercises she was taught actually started to appeal to her once more, and taking a deep breath, she was fully prepared to find that she might realised in the next few minutes that sex was completely overrated - even if with talk show hosts she found absolutely irresistable - and she'd never want to have it ever again.
Anise was very unlucky in her situation. If she'd been able to get to the hospital, she'd have gotten a potion to dull the pain somewhat - at least that's what Sylvie assumed. Otherwise her own mère wouldn't have gone through the childbirth thing four times and the ESIL three? But then again, if she'd been stupid enough to come looking for Jordan late at night like this, she probably deserved it.
Sylvie pushed the woman's legs apart even further and crouched down in her kneel. "Push? Or when the pain starts again, I think? I might've seen something like this on the telly once."
"Er. What Sylvie said." Yes, Susan was being so helpful. She patted Anise's shoulder in an encouraging sort of way. All the birth scenes she'd seen on telly were over in a matter of minutes. This had gone on for ages.
"Okay." Right. She could do this. Of course she could. All she had to do was push a few times and enter the world Little Boy/Girl Jordan, yeah? "Okay," she repeated a second time, grittng her teeth as she did her best to push as she'd been taught in those classes - which she'd have to talk to Lee about later for forcing her to attend them with her mum who was rightfully brassed off that he had yet to actually propose to her, along with the fact that he had made her seem ten times more mental than she actually was and that it had really hurt when he'd denied her like that. Which, really, was the only reason she'd gone to that reporter in the first place. They needed better communication in the future, they did. They'd have to be more often, talk about their feelings and be open. After all, they were about to be a family, right?
Apparently Anise had been paying attention in those classes at least, because it seemed as though a head was coming out.
"Huh," Sylvie said, the kind of smirk that used to send Annette running for their mère without even knowing what Sylvie had done cross her face, "Hey Bones, what do you make of this, then? Oi, you. Push again, oui? There's still shoulders and whatnot stuck inside over here."
Susan glanced down at Anise's spread legs, very embarrassed, but was captivated by the sight of the baby's head. "Oh," she said, forgiving Anise for crushing her hand and being a general nuisance. "Wow. You're doing it." It was strange how disconnected giving birth seemed to be from the end result -- an actual, live baby. This was what made the long hard struggle worthwhile, and it was making her grin like an idiot, strangely lost for words. "One more push," Susan urged.
"Yeah?" she asked, hopefully. One more push sounded good to her. She could do one more push. If that didn't work, well, then, bully for the baby. She was bloody tired, damn it. But she had to keep going anyway, she knew that. So she could relax and see her baby. Her little prince or princess. She'd been thinking that she'd name him Leonard Jordan Jr. if he was a boy, and she had yet to think of a girl name, but maybe something that sounded like she was named after her father? That would be nice, yeah?
Following as per Sylvie's instructions, Anise pushed again, giving as much of her energy into it as possible. She just wanted this to be over now.
Anise wasn't the only one, and Sylvie's smirk only intensified as the shoulders came through and she was able to pull the rest of the baby out.
"So this is your Lee, junior," she couldn't help but say as she took in the baby's light tan skin, shock of dark brown hair and...wiping the eyes so the baby could open them, dark blue eyes. "Good one at that. Bones, what are we supposed to do with this stringy thing?"
"Awwww," Susan said, even though the baby was all damp and wrinkled. It suddenly let out a loud wail -- well, at least it was breathing. "Um, I think that's called the umbilical cord. You're supposed to tie it off in two places and then cut in the middle." She knew that much at least. A quick glance around at their very basic supplies told her there was nothing to tie the cord off with, and nothing appropriate to transfigure. With a sigh, Susan used her wand to slash two strips off the bottom of her dress. Anise owed her.
Since Sylvie was holding the baby, Susan supposed she should tie the cord off. Ick. Once that was done, she lifted her wand, then hesitated. It had been one thing to cut her dress up, but quite another to cut something that was, well, alive? "Do you reckon that's okay?" she asked, not really expecting an answer since neither Sylvie nor Anise were qualified Midwitches. "Okay. Um." Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand at the umbilical cord, hoping she was doing the right thing. "Diffindo."
It severed neatly. Wow. She'd done it.
Hearing the crying of a baby, and if the way Sylvie had called him her Lee junior was anything to be hinted at, she'd had a boy, maybe? She relaxed, sagging against the tile floor, a slight smile on her face as she though of her son. She did like that. Her son. Hers, and Lee's - as soon as she told him. Despite the fact that it was still wet, and that she'd given birth a foot away from a pool, it was still a very good day. Considering everything. Her mum had always told her that it was worth it in the end. She guessed the woman had been right.
"That's right," she said. "Lee Junior."
"Yeah, too bad he looks nothing like his dad then," Sylvie said, attempting to move legs that had fallen asleep ages ago to hand the woman her son. Did this mean it was over? Could they take the psycho to St Mungo's and be rid of her. Because Sylvie needed a shower. And sleep. And if this was some sort of karmic punishment for sneaking to the pool at night she was never doing it again.
Maybe.
Right now, Susan just wanted to go to bed, but she thought they'd better see Anise and her baby to St Mungo's first. Lee was going to be so relieved -- it was obvious from the first glance that the baby wasn't his. (It was still cute, though.) "Can you stand?" Susan said, getting to her feet herself and wincing at the pins and needles in her legs. She and Sylvie raised Anise into a sitting position, then helped her stand. With a quick Scourgify, Susan managed to clean up most of the mess they'd made on the floor. Eh, good enough.
All right. Now all they had to do was get her into the Floo, hopefully before the shock wore off and she started protesting the baby was Lee's.
Anise closed her eyes at Sylvie's remark, and decided that the slag was just being bitchy for no reason, as she took her beautiful newborn son into her arms and allowed them to help her up without another word to each of them. Right now, all she wanted to was to go to St. Mungo's to make sure little Lee was all right, and then she'd have to talk to Lee as soon as possible.