Palace of the Brine: 2. The Frog And Lotus
**
The Frog And Lotus
Jared's pen taps on the page of his grade book. He has to turn in midterm grades for the freshmen by Monday, and he really doesn't like giving bad grades to the students that just take art as a free elective, not realizing how serious the program is.
But well, maybe it's the kick in the ass some of them need, especially that Brock Kelly kid. He's got to start showing more improvement in his studio work if he expects to pass.
"Daddy, look at me! Lookit! Daddy!"
"I'm looking," Jared says and lifts his head up. "Eve, stay in the driveway." Jared motions from the front steps of the apartments.
"I'm fine! Daddy, I can steer with one hand!" Eve shows him, wobbling along on the pavement.
"Eve, Sophia and your Dad will be here really soon to take you and your brothers to the park, okay? Please don't ride in the street, you're making Daddy nervous."
"I know what I'm doing," Eve whines. "I'm being careful! Jeremy and Jason aren't careful like I am, and there was this one time I had to stop them playing bumper cars with each other in the yard with these-these helmets on and I told on them to Mommy Sophia and she said that I did the right thing and she had to put them in time-out and-" Eve rambles on and Jared starts tuning her out.
If she got one thing from him, it's the gift of gab, as Jensen calls it.
Jared doesn't see Eve riding away and there's a scream and the sound of something skittering to a halt on the curb.
The color drains out from his face as his heart starts beating fast. Jared drops the grade book on the curb and runs over to where Eve is, adrenaline pumping. Thank god, she seems all right. He grabs her off the bike and holds her, his own mouth running a mile a minute.
"Oh my god, are you okay? Oh god, oh god you're okay, right? Oh my god, Eve if anything happened to you-I swear I won't let you out of my sight, do you feel okay?"
Jared picks her up and takes off her helmet to look at her head. "I don't see any cuts, or bruises but-you don't feel dizzy do you? Light-headed? Woozy? Did something hit you? Are you bleeding? How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three," Eve says. "Daddy, is he okay?" Eve says, and Jared turns to where she's pointing at the overturned scooter and the guy sitting in the middle of the street, shaking his head.
"Hey, are you all-right?" Jared says, walking towards the stranger.
"Yeah," the guy says, getting up and dusting himself off.
"What just happened?" Jared asks as the guy pulls down the old-fashioned looking goggles he's wearing and rubs a smear of road-dust off one of the lenses.
"Uhhh, I nearly killed your kid, I think?" he says, lifting up the scooter and turning it upright. "She got out of the street right when I swerved in towards the driveway though, so I ended up taking most of the spill."
Eve yanks Jared's ear. "See, Daddy I told you I'm being careful."
Jared makes a face at Eve and walks around the curb. "So you're okay too?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, Jimmy looks good too," he says with a smile as he hops back on the scooter and revs it. "Oh yeah, we're good."
"Jimmy?"
He laughs. "I call my scooter Jimmy. Well his full name is James, but he prefers Jimmy. And sometimes 'Johnny Angel' on the weekends when we try to find a well-behaved yet slightly misanthropic scooter gang to join. Not much luck yet. Gotta say, for San Francisco? I'm kind of shocked."
Jared shakes his head. "Uh, so we don't have to exchange insurance info or anything, I guess?"
"Nah, it was my fault mostly, I'm still getting used to the neighborhood since I moved here. Guess I mistook your driveway was mine, I'm sorry for any trouble, neighbor!" he says as he takes off and drives down the street, about five doors down before stopping and waving to Jared from down the block.
"I'll see you around! Have a nice day!" he shouts, and Jared waves back.
"Weirdo," Eve says.
**
Jared pins Jensen to the door the moment it slips shut and Eve's gone now-with Chad and Sophia for the next three days. Jared's breath moves down Jensen's neck as he locks him in place, Jared's hands braced on the doorframe.
C'mon, c'mon, and I want, I need," panted out into the curves and dips of Jensen's collarbone.
Jensen's tongue slides out to flick the roof of Jared's mouth. Jared hisses, bending one arm so he rests his forehead on his elbow, his other hand snaking down into Jensen's pants.
Jensen's gotten used to his distraction technique though, ignoring it so he can continue his assault on Jared's mouth, kisses rough and deep, curling his lips to bring Jared closer. Jared grabs Jensen's cock and squeezes it firmly in his hand as Jensen hardens under the touch, moaning swears into Jared's mouth.
"Fingers of an artist," Jensen mutters when Jared breaks for air. "God save me from those hands."
Jared almost laughs at the thought-using his craft to sculpt the perfect orgasm out of himself.
Jensen takes control, maneuvering him to the couch, hands fisting in Jared's hair and knee sliding between his legs. Jared falls back on the sofa with a bounce, and Jensen settles on top of him.
Then Jensen's pager goes off
"Ignore it, god please ignore it," Jared pleads, fisting Jensen's cock.
Jensen shuts his eyes. "Fuck, I can't. I'm on call."
"I hate 'on call' Jensen," Jared grumbles as he falls back on the couch, arms falling to his sides. "On call means you're just a fucking tease." Jared pouts.
Jensen stumbles off the couch and grabs his pager. "Dr. Ferris wants me to call her, give me a minute and pray she's just calling to make conversation. Or yell at me about paperwork."
Jared snorts. "Remind me again how she's not your attending but you still have to jump when she says to?"
"She's still head of obstetrics," Jensen says as he picks up the phone and dials her number.
"Blah," Jared says, and wriggles on the couch impatiently.
Jensen walks into the den to call Dr. Ferris and Jared occupies himself by staring at the ceiling and humming. He goes over the next week's lesson plan in his head, checks his watch, re-adjusting the strap because it's a little tight on him.
"Froggie went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh huh…" Jared sings to himself, thinking back to the weird dreams he keeps having. Where he's alone in this dark, haunting museum wing and the little frogs staring at him from inside the glass cases filled with Egyptian artifacts.
Of course his subconscious would be messing with him like that after he smashed that statue of Heqet.
"Crap," Jensen says as he walks back into the living-room.
"Please don't say that was a mood-killer?" Jared groans, and then perks up. He sidles up behind Jensen, breathing into the crook of his neck. "Unless you want me to stroke your ego a bit? Among other things."
"I have to go see a therapist and get evaluated."
Jared gets quiet. "Oh?"
"It's routine, everyone has to do it. The hospital board is making us do these new personal health and wellness measures. Make sure we're not all pent up with anger while giving someone a pap smear, or something," Jensen says.
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad, actually?" Jared says.
"I really don't want to do it though," Jensen says, leaning into a kiss on his neck from Jared. "What if he uses psychobabble or something to find out, things? Things about you and me and about me wanting to leave the hospital?"
"Well, can't Mike do it then?"
"He's the wrong kind of doctor. He's not a therapist, he's a psychiatrist, which means he treats things like ailments and diagnosable disorders."
"Jensen, what's so terrible about talking about your feelings for an afternoon? I've never known you to be so afraid of them like this."
Jensen looks at a spot on the ground, not looking at Jared. "It's just is going to suck a lot, is all."
**
"Okay, so what exactly, were you thinking sticking a mirror into a laser cutter?" Jared asks his students.
"We thought it'd look cool to cut it into a star?" one of his students suggests.
"Do you know what could have happened if Gen and I hadn't stopped you before you ran it?"
They shake their heads no.
"Let me break it down for you: mirrors reflect and bounce light, and guess what a laser is? That's right, it's a focused beam of light," He says and then sighs at their blank faces.
"Brock, you follow this train of thought, don't you? You're a science major."
Brock shrugs, "Actually, I'm an ecology major, but I'm thinking of switching to women's studies."
Jared pinches the bridge of his nose. "Fifty-thousand dollar laser cutter and you almost destroy it trying to make a locker decoration for someone's thirteen-year-old sister-ugh." Jared's interrupted when his body jerks forward, stomach twisting. He covers his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Professor?"
"I'm fine," Jared says before the twist in his stomach doubles back on him, and he grabs his side and lurches forward, face sweating and body succumbing to the wave of nausea.
Somehow, Gen rushes in and shoves the laser cutter away just in time before Jared loses his lunch inside a fifty thousand dollar piece of equipment. Instead, he just pukes up all over someone's worktable.
"Professor?" the students ask, gathering around him.
Gen shoos them away from Jared, "Class dismissed, okay? Get your gear and leave the classroom now, we'll email you the assignment for next week, and for Chrissake, Brock! What do you need?"
"Um, Professor Paladecki just threw up on my homework, ma'am. Does that mean I get an A?"
Jared can't see Gen's face with his back to them, but he secretly hopes she's throttling him about now.
"No, it means leave him the hell alone right now and maybe the Professor will give you a B plus for your stupid papier-mâché ladybug!"
"It's not a ladybug! It's not even red, where are you getting ladybug from that?" Brock asks.
"Well it's puke-colored now, but it looks like a ladybug to me," Gen says back.
"Hey!" Jared says, picking his head up. "Will you two stop arguing about this?" They both stop and turn to look right at Jared.
Jared taps Gen's shoulder. "You stop arguing with my students and go call someone to get cleaned up in here."
Jared turns around to point to Brock. "You get a passing grade on this assignment, and I won't kick you out of my class for nearly destroying a laser cutter."
Jared takes a deep breath. "And I'm sorry about your ladybug."
Brock pouts. "It's not a ladybug, it's a frog."
Jared looks closer at the piece and says, "You definitely want to take the passing grade, then."
**
Jared opens the front door to their apartment and hearing Jensen's voice, rushes into the living room.
"Jensen! Jensen! Guess what I've been doing all afternoon-" he shouts and stalls at the sight of Mike and Tom. "Uh, hey, Mike and Tommy, too," he says sheepishly, scuffing his shoe against the floor.
"Hey, Jared," Mike answers. "Don't mean to impose, Jensen had a rough turn today and invited us over."
"Jared, the guy tried to make me share my feelings! And chant!" Jensen whines.
"I believe the exact wording of the invitation was: 'Bring junk food and liquor now! I have been violated by some granola-flavored quack!'" Mike says, accentuating the point with quotation fingers.
Jensen scowls into his mug. "He was crunchy, you could totally tell. It's crunchy, right? That's their thing?"
"Oh, hey it's no problem," Jared says with a casual roll of his shoulders. "Um, I'll let you guys get back to the game and commiserating here." Jared start slowly backing out of the room towards the bathroom.
"Been doing what all afternoon?" Tom asks before he's cleared earshot.
Jared turns back on his heel. "What did you say?"
Tom peers over the back of the couch at Jared. "You said when you came in, 'Guess what I've been doing all day!' I'm gonna guess..." Tom looks up to the side, face lost in thought--or really whatever it was that Tom tended to get lost in most of the time. "I wanna say 'painting' but I know that's wrong because you sculpt, yeah? Did you build a trampoline?"
Jared blinks. "No, just-"
"Tommy, why the fuck would Jared want to build a trampoline?" Mike snaps.
Tom shrugs, "Dude, who am I to judge for the love of bouncing? If Jared wants to have a trampoline, then he deserves a trampoline, damn it!"
"You make no sense!" Mike shouts.
"I'm not the one building nonsensical trampolines here, why are you yelling at me?!" Tom says, clutching his chest melodramatically.
"Because you make stupid non-sequiters worthy of being yelled at!" Mike says.
"You're drunk!" Tom shouts back in defense.
"You're high!" Mike retorts.
"No, I'm drunk too, remember?" Tom snaps back.
"Well who told you to empty the whole thing of whiskey into the Hot Toddies?" Mike asks.
"You did!" Tom says.
Jensen rolls his half-drunk head back to Jared. "If you get a trampoline, you can't keep it in the house. It has to stay in the studio, otherwise Evie might hurt herself on it. I mean, you're not that coordinated to begin with, so I don't know if you should have one in the first place."
"There is no trampoline!" Jared shouts in frustration. "For the love of God, will you drop it?"
Tom blinks. "Don't let Jensen or Mike kill your dreams, Jared. I think the trampoline is gonna be awesome."
Jared sighs and shuffles off to the bedroom in defeat.
**
After the game is done, Jensen stumbles into the bedroom, curling up against Jared's body. He hooks an arm around Jared's middle and drunkenly rasp affections to him.
Jared licks his lips once, and he reaches out for Jensen's hand, lacing their fingers together. He rolls onto his back, tilts his head down to meet Jensen's eyes. Jared lays Jensen's hand across his lower stomach and presses it close.
"What're you doing?" Jensen murmurs.
"I'll tell you in the morning," Jared says, kissing his cheek. Jensen's still half-drunk and he shrugs, leaving his hand where it is.
**
"So I'm pregnant again," Jared says the next morning over breakfast, eying his Eggs Benedict.
"What?" Jensen says, his mouth hanging open.
"I'm pregnant, knocked-up, in a family way, a scientific and medical impossibility, cursed with a working womb, fertilized, your not-so-little seahorse once again." Jared beams. "Pass the Hollandaise sauce?"
"Jared, how sure are you?" Jensen asks.
"Dude I can tell, okay? Hollandaise me." Jared holds his plate up for Jensen to dump sauce all over. "Two scoops please?"
Jensen rolls his eyes. "Your appetite's the same, at least."
"Jensen, I spent all day yesterday puking my guts out in-between classes."
"Could be a stomach bug," Jensen says sitting down to his juice and plain toast to ease his hangover.
"I don't get sick. I do get pregnant, though," Jared says. His face drops to a serious expression. "I thought you would be happy for me, we were both trying here, right?"
Jensen frowns, tension running across his forehead like whenever he has to deliver bad news to a patient. Jared gulps unconsciously, swallowing the air.
"Well... I'd be happier if I knew for sure," Jensen says, pointing at a hopeful smile plastered across his face.
"Okay, fine, we'll figure it out for sure," Jared says and taking a drink of his tomato juice.
"So, what now? Do I tell Katie to block off a time for the ultrasound?" Jensen asks nervously. "I mean, you're gonna need a room soon, right?"
Jared clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Um, do I have to?"
"Jared-"
"I mean, hear me out on this Jensen, last time I was fine. Who says this time is going to be different. You really want to make me live in a hospital suite for the next eight months?"
Jensen cocks an eyebrow. "Do I want to know how it is you know the precise date of conception?"
"No, you really don't. Trust me."
"Thought so," he says dryly. "Last time you were fine, but this is such an unpredictable thing you-we are attempting here. Do really want to take a big risk like that?"
"Last time I didn't really have a choice. And I was further along before you even came into the picture. So yeah, if I have any say in this, I say I take it easy. I'll finish out the semester at work, make sure that I check up regularly, and then I take the spring semester off and check back into Grace's Heart if I need to."
Jensen pauses. "That’s an incredibly well-planned out line of reasoning so there's really no way I can say no to it," he says. "You totally thought up this whole scheme before you told me, right?"
Jared leans back, stretching his arms over his head. "Thought it up the night you said you wanted another kid. Always wanna be prepared, y'know?"
Jensen leans in and kisses Jared. "I gotta go to work."
Jared grumbles, "You're lucky I'm full of Hollandaise sauce right now." He swirls his breakfast around the plate with his fork.
"Oh yeah?" Jensen teases.
"Hell yeah. Otherwise I'd fucking drag you back into the bedroom and make you spend the whole day fooling around with me. And by 'fooling around', I mean taking care of me and making me feel special." Jared smiles.
"And you'd rub my back because I'm already getting sore. But more so because I hate seeing all this good horniness go to waste. Y'know, before the actual thing sets in, and I'm all weird and fat again."
"You're not weird," Jensen sighs. "It's a good plan Jared, but at the same time I think like a doctor. I know everything horrible that can possibly go wrong for us, because that's my job. You're just going to have to bear with me."
Jared presses up against Jensen. "Haven't we been there before though? Wasn't I fine?"
Jensen lingers in the moment, settling into Jared's arms, nipping at Jensen's lips. "I'm gonna be late for work," Jensen says and pulls away. Jared sighs and brushes him off.
"Fine, go before I jump you."
"That's not actually motivating me to leave."
"I know," Jared says with a smile.
Jensen shakes his head. "So, you got your groove back, huh?"
Jared's eyes go wide and he stutters, "Wh-what do you mean?"
Jensen shrugs, ruffling Jared's hair with a flick of his wrist. "You said there was something missing, Jared. Like a piece of yourself you needed to get back. Was it there all along?" Jensen murmurs almost to himself as he inspects Jared's face. "It was, wasn't it?"
Jared swallows. "It was."
**
Nobody who has met Chad gets why he's a librarian, except Jared.
It's a combination of a lot of factors, first and foremost the fact that Chad gets a kick out of yelling at people. The second being a secret, nerdy love of the LC catalog system. The third being his sadistic love of going up to the quiet reading room, and putting on his noisy headphones and blasting his music loud enough to produce a muted, tinny background noise that drives everyone around him insane. Except no one can complain without Chad throwing them out for talking.
Jared saw it from the very start when they were in high school. Chad volunteered at the library as part of his community service project, and then he just never left. All throughout college and when he went to grad school for library science, if Chad was ever missing; you could bet he was shut up in the library, shelving books and eating potato chips as loudly as possible.
Chad doesn't look up when Jared approaches him at the circulation desk, just flips to the next page in his newspaper. "What?" he asks.
"What's with the 'what'? I just wanted to drop by, say hello, see how you're doing," Jared says easily, sitting on the edge of the counter and swinging his long legs over the edge to join Chad on the other side of the desk.
Chad folds the paper closed and drops it on the desk. "I'm working, Jared. So let's not play the 'guess what's new with me'-game. Just say it already because I don't have the patience for this-"
Jared rolls his eyes. "Fine, I won't tell you what's new with me, and you'll just have to suffer in ignorance while I drop subtle hints and drive you crazy."
"You know that shit doesn't work on me, because I don't actually care as much as you think I do." Chad grumbles and gets up, grabbing a stack of books and heading for the shelves.
Jared crooks his head to the side and follows him. "God, you've been in such a fucking mood lately," he says.
"Fuck you, I'm allowed to have moods," Chad says. One of the people reading at a desk shushes them, Chad gives him the finger and mutters snidely. "That's right, you wanna tell on me to the boss? Guess who that is, bitch?"
"Mr. Murray?"
"What?" Chad turns to face one of his employees.
The employee says, "Mr. Murray, I can't find the Twilight display that we were supposed to have up in the Young Adult section."
"Oh, that one. It fell into the furnace. Just go put up the Southern Vampire books instead."
"It what?"
He crosses his arms. "Fell. Into. The furnace. Horrible accident. Couldn't have been stopped."
"We have a furnace?"
"Yes, it's in the basement next to the Olympic swimming pool. Go do work now," Chad snaps and the assistant leaves them, looking perplexed.
Jared rolls his eyes. There's the Chad he knows and loves. "So, guess what's new?"
"No idea," Chad says.
Jared cups his hand to Chad's ear and whispers, "I think I'm maybe, kinda-well we have to check to be sure," he pauses, adding, "but I mean, I'm pretty sure that I'm, y'know, in that family sort of way again."
Chad drops a book on his foot in surprise and shouts, "Fuck!" Everybody in the room turns and shushes him fiercely.
"Uh, are you okay?" Jared asks as Chad hops back over to his desk.
"I'm fine. Fuck! That fucking hurt," Chad says grabbing his foot. "I think that was Dickens. Fucking wordy-ass motherfucker."
Jared laughs quietly. "So um, yeah. I mean, we're not sure but uh, I just wanted to-"
"Because you did such a good job of telling me about it the last time," Chad says.
Jared sighs. "Seriously, what's with you? I wanted to tell you because, y'know maybe this is a good thing, right? Me and Jensen and family things happening."
Chad closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens them. "Yes, I’m happy for you, you freaky fertile fucker. And I mean that in all senses of the word. Now help me upstairs because it's time to check on the fruit of my loins and make sure she isn't playing book-a-rang."
"She was playing what?" Jared says as he helps Chad up the stairs to the children's floor.
"No one got hurt! They were only tossing the paperbacks, thank god."
Chad and Jared are interrupted when Eve comes running over to the desk. "Daddy! Daddy Daddy Dad-deeeee!" she shouts as Chad stops her from crashing into his legs.
Chad puts his finger to his lips, "Library voice, Eve," he reminds her.
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy," Eve whispers. "It's story time."
Chad looks at the clock on the wall. "So it is," he says and takes her hand, letting Eve pull him to the carpet area where some of the other parents sat their children down. Chad grabs a book off the shelf on the way and Jared watches them as he settles in the big reading chair, Eve in his lap.
Jared leans against a bookshelf and watches as Chad reads to the group of children, acting out the story with big hand motions and silly voices that make them laugh and cheer. He holds their attention, they can't take their eyes off the page or off Chad.
If anyone could see Chad the way Jared did, they'd know why he became a librarian.
**
Most of the obstetrics ward know Jared by name now, they wave to him as he walks by. "Lunch date with the good Doctor today, Jared?" Nurse Roberts says when he leans against her desk at the nurses' station.
"Only if you're busy," Jared says with a wink.
"Don't tease like that, someone's gonna get their heart broken," Nurse Roberts answers, holding her pen at him threateningly.
"Nurse Roberts, are you making a move on my man?" Jensen says from behind Jared wrapping his arm around him.
Jared leans back into Jensen, "Actually, I was hitting on her. You know what those scrubs do to me?" Jared says.
Nurse Roberts eyes them and sniffs, a little amused and a little annoyed. "You two want to do us a favor take it to an on-call room before you start-too late," she mutters as Jared turns around to kiss Jensen..
"C'mon," Jensen says, pulling back . "Katie's waiting for us in the lounge."
"Did you tell her what we're here for?" Jared says, following Jensen down the hall. "Why aren't we just meeting her in the lab?"
"She's been kind of stressed lately," he says. "Last week she snapped at me when I asked her if it was still raining out and she threw a newspaper at my head and stormed off."
"So you're saying I'm going to break the news to her because she's less likely to snap my neck?"
"Precisely. I mean, it's only a theory I have, which is why it's a good thing you're better at ducking than I am. Faster reflexes and all." Jensen grins.
Jared rolls his eyes.
Katie scowls at them when they meet her in the staff lounge. "You're late."
Jared starts to apologize and Jensen cuts him off. "You're blonde. Are we done with the obvious game? Jared got stuck in traffic."
"You said you wanted to meet me at 4:30, and it's almost 5," she snaps Katie's voice starts getting higher and higher as she rants at them.
"Every time I'm even one minute late I get in trouble, but you just breeze on in here like it's nothing. People could have died and babies would have been born to interns who don't know what the hell they're doing!" Katie gestures at him with her coffee, her hand trembling a little.
"Um, should I come back later?" Jared asks.
Jensen furrows his brow. "Okay, seriously what's wrong with you?"
Katie crosses her arms, nodding towards the interns sitting in the lounge watching them.
Jensen gets the idea and walks over to the interns, putting on his best angry doctor glare.
"If you're here, that means you're obviously not paying attention to your damn pagers and the fact that the head resident has been screaming in triage for help the last few minutes has pretty much sealed your fates as the worst interns in this entire hospital!" he barks.
They look up at Jensen, mildly terrified, but still not moving. Jensen sighs. "Why the hell are you still sitting here listening to me yell at you with your mouths open? Get out, go now, leave!" Jensen slams the door behind them as the wide-eyed interns as they scurry down the hall.
Jared smirks, impressed with how easy Jensen can turn on and off that disapproving mentor thing.
Katie flops down on the couch. "I seriously thought you were gonna send them on a snipe hunt for a minute there."
Jensen shakes his head. "One thing I've learned? There's always a resident in triage who needs help. And interns always forget to charge their pagers."
"Dr. Sam used to do that to you, didn't she?" Jared says, joining her on the couch and looking right at her. "So what's going on, Katie-bear?"
Katie twists around to face Jensen sitting at her other side, keeping her surrounded.
"Katie, talk," Jensen says.
Katie wrings her hands and then fumbles in her pocket, producing a silver ring. She blinks and tears slide down her cheeks, her mascara starting to run. "He proposed, I threw up on his Chucks."
"Whoa," Jared says looking at the ring. It catches in the fluorescent light of the room. The stone is small, but gorgeous and classic. Something Katie would love.
"Oh," Jensen says in a small, shocked voice. "Okay, so that's why you're on edge right now. No more coffee, okay?" Jensen says taking the cup out of her other hand.
Katie cries into her fist, sniffling and trembling. "I haven't been able to eat anything except Fritos and diet Coke since he asked me. The entire morning, I cleaned out the entire fourth-floor vending machine! Of both Fritos and diet Coke!" Katie hiccups, grabbing her chest. "I think I'm having a panic attack again."
Jensen calmly leans forward to grab an empty prescription paper bag and open in with a flick. " I want you to breathe. And stop pumping your leg. Jared, get her some water?" Jared nods and does as he asks.
"I'm moving my leg? Oh god I can't feel my legs!" Katie screams as Jensen rubs her back and has her breathe into the empty bag.
"Deep breaths, that's it. Take some deep breaths and we'll go down to the clinic and-"
"Why didn't I say yes?" Katie says suddenly, grabbing Jensen's hand and squeezing hard.
"What if he thinks I threw up on him because I didn't want to when really I do! And I will! And I just couldn't say anything because I'm a huge insecure freak and I was just damn scared because seriously! Who proposes to their girlfriend during Oktoberfest when I've just finished eating sauerkraut and a kielbasa the size of my head?"
"Uh, German people?" Jared offers.
Katie ignores his comment. "My idiot fiancée, that's who! Oh my god, my fiancée is an idiot and he thinks sausages put me in a romantic mood. Oh my god, Jensen why can't I hate that utter lunkhead?"
Jared covers his mouth with both hands, trying not to laugh as Jensen answers carefully, "Love, um... does that to you?"
"I hate it." Katie sniffles. "I hate him. I hate his stupid pretty face and eyes and curly eyelashes and the way he can't play air hockey for shit and I have to let him win otherwise he'll sulk and how he gets more upset about a broken nail than I do."
"Katie," Jensen says.
"And I love him!? What is wrong with me?"
Jensen sighs. "When you're in love, you tend to love even the things you're supposed to hate."
"Really?" Katie perks up a little, "What do you hate about Jared?"
"Uhhh..." Jensen bites the inside of his mouth. Jared leans in from the back of the sofa.
"Yeah Jensen, what do you hate about me?" Jared asks, eyes narrowed.
"I'm not answering that with him standing right there!" Jensen says.
Jared shakes his head. "No, no go ahead. It's fine, I'll give you a freebie, Jensen. If it helps Katie, right?"
"Right," Katie nods.
"Okay, well... your dad still hates me."
Jared scoffs. "That doesn't count! He hates me."
Katie sniffles, "Try again?"
Jensen waves his hand, searching for the words. "Chad."
"Chad?" Jared asks.
"Baby-daddy Chad?" Katie says.
"Yes, that Chad," Jensen says. "Jared, you and Chad spend a lot of time together."
Jared crosses his arms. "Well, this is news to me coming from someone who calls his mom every weekend."
"Well it's not just that, you know you're still kind of close to Chad. That can bother me sometimes, considering things," Jensen murmurs. "You and Chad and Eve and y'know, me being the third parent here in the corner."
"Oh, and that's my fault how?," Jared says quickly.
Katie shakes her head. "Jensen, I meant like, bad habits. Things that annoy you, not things you write to Oprah magazine about for relationship advice."
Jared sits back down on the couch. "One more, Jensen. Just say one more-"
"Okay, Jared's a sleep-farter. I'm sleeping fine one minute, the next minute it smells like cabbage."
Katie laughs and Jared smacks the back of Jensen's head. "I do not smell like cabbage!"
"Yes, but the point is I love you in spite of that!"
Jared huffs, "Like how I love you despite the fact that the last time I took you to an opening you sat on a ten thousand dollar sculpture and nearly ruined it?"
"I thought it was a chair!"
"It wasn't a chair, it was art!"
"Of a chair!"
"You're so oblivious sometimes! You just always take things at face value and you never look deeper than the surface between the lines of art and reality," Jared says, and gets quiet. "But I still love you even if you are aesthetically challenged."
"See what I mean, Katie?" Jensen says to her. She’s snickering at them both.
Katie winds down the laughter and lays her head back on Jensen's shoulder. She slips the ring onto her finger, holding it up in the light. "It fits me perfectly. He said he measured my finger with a piece of string while I was sleeping. It's kind of creepy and sweet."
Jensen rubs her side. "Sweet, mostly."
Katie sniffs. "I should probably tell him yes, now. He's been calling me for the past three weeks and reciting poems to my voicemail."
"What kind of poems?" Jared asks.
"T.S. Eliot's book of practical cats." Jensen and Jared pause, before they both burst out laughing.
"I know!" Katie sighs. "It's the only poetry book he owns, though. The thought counts!"
"Yeah, you should just-better snatch that one up before someone else does!" Jensen laughs and Katie elbows him hard.
"So," Katie wipes her eyes. "Enough about my life crisis, what did you need to ask me?"
"Well-" Jensen starts.
"Ummm," Jared mumbles, "we kind of need a favor."
**
The goo is just as cold as Jared remembers.
"You'd think after I spent about half a year having like, one of these a day, I'd be used to it by now and I could get through it without being so shocked by how it tickles!" Jared laughs and squirms as Katie starts moving the wand over the lower part of his stomach.
"I can't believe we're doing this, again," Katie says, looking up at the monitor.
"Well you're not laughing as much as you did the first time," Jensen says.
"No, but I'm gonna be laughing when nothing turns up and you, Jensen Ackles, owe me a Yoohoo," Katie says.
Jensen scoffs. "You mean how I'm gonna be laughing when my awesome manliness prevails and I get my Yoohoo and a baby."
Jared looks curiously at them. "Why is it you always bet each other with Yoohoos?"
Jensen shrugs. "My mom always gave me a Yoohoo when I got home from school."
"Mama's boy," Katie teases and Jensen shoves her arm, playfully.
Jared sighs as Katie keeps moving and he tries to make sense of the readout he's seeing on the monitor. "I can't tell if there's a something there yet," Jared says. "Everything kind of looks like it could be a something."
"Trust me Jared, I will know a something if I see it. And honestly? I don't see-Oh my fah-reaking god you aren't human," Katie says freezing on an image of a small, almost-insignificant looking lump.
"I thought we were over this the first time. He's a seahorse," Jensen says, nonchalantly as Katie scrambles with her equipment, trying to check and re-check what the monitors are showing them.
Despite Jensen's cool, calm exterior, he's got a vise-grip on Jared's hand, and Jared can see Jensen breathe in deep to try and keep composed. "Hey," Jared whispers to him, shaking his hand to get his attention.
"Yeah?" Jensen says, looking down at him on the bed.
"You're gonna be a Dad."
"So are you," Jensen bites his bottom lip. "Again."
Jared nods, "Not to interrupt this tender moment, Jensen, but I'm pretty sure Katie is going to call Dr. Ferris right about now and I'm going to spend the next 8 or 7 months locked up in the hospital dungeon."
Jensen's eyes go wide and he leaps to the other side of the bed to rip the phone out of Katie's hand.
**
It takes a bit of convincing, and a lot more begging than Jensen's comfortable admitting, but they get Katie to promise to keep quiet to Dr. Ferris for the time being.
It doesn't stop Katie from lecturing them as they walk down the hallways. "And the second you feel anything abnormal-"
"Abnormal like a guy having a baby?"
Katie pokes Jared in the shoulder. "You know what I mean! The second something feels off you promise you'll call me and we'll get Dr. Sam on the case because she would have my freaking head right about now for this, okay?"
"You do realize I've got a live-in OB-GYN at home, right? Jensen, you've got my back, right?"
Jensen freezes. "I'm gonna be a dad and I can't even call my mom and tell her. Oh my god." Jensen sighs. "That sucks."
"Mama's boy!" Katie says and that sets the two of them off again, bickering like siblings, at least bickering like Jared imagines Jensen bickered with his little sister when he was younger. The three of them round the corner to the nurses' station and before they're all free and clear, Dr. Ferris intercepts them right away, stopping Jensen right in his tracks.
"Why haven't you made an appointment with the new LCSW yet? Oh, hello Jared, Katie. So?"
"I-" Jensen starts.
"You're not exempt from this Dr. Ackles, just like no one on my staff is. I myself have seen him twice already, and there is absolutely no reason to waste an excellent resource that we have for all our staff. May I remind you that the Chief of medicine has asked all department heads to come up with initiatives for improving patient care by making sure we were taking better care of our doctors." She steps forward, almost towering over Jensen as she berates him. "You know what I mean? Making sure that they're not feeling overworked and stressed to the point that a bad judgment call is made."
Jared can see Jensen biting down hard on the inside of his mouth. "I thought the new family therapist was more for the families. My mistake. I'll call him for another appointment for sometime next week."
"Don't get smart with me!" Dr. Ferris yells and even Jared recoils from it.
"You know how long it took to open up the budget line for a new staff counselor since Dr. Klock retired! And everyone has to meet with him, regardless of seniority. You're doing it before the end of the week, Jensen, and that's final. Now!" Dr. Ferris says, taking a deep breath and smiling at Jared, doing a complete 360 on him.
"What brings you by the obstetrics ward today, Jared! It's so nice to see you! You should bring Eve next time, I'd love to see how big she's gotten."
Jared blinks. "Uh, yeah, it's good to see you too, Dr. Ferris."
"Good!" Dr. Ferris beams. "Jensen, make an appointment with Dr. Collins and I'll see you tomorrow!" Dr. Ferris says and turns around, taking off down the other end of the hallway.
"That was-huh?" Jared shakes his head. "Wait, I thought you already saw him? You brought Mike and Tom over and you were all upset and-" Katie snorts.
"Yeah, Jensen 'saw' him for a whole five minutes in the hallway."
Jensen jams his hands in his pockets. "I'll go see him, okay? Leave me alone."
Somehow, that just doesn't sit right with Jared. But then again, maybe it's the morning sickness as Jared tries to swallow back whatever rises up from his stomach into his throat.
**
The Potter's Wheel