Topic: All's Best That Begins Better

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 03:55 EST
((Follows on directly from All's Well that Ends Well.)) ___________________

"You know," Vicki was saying as she bent to pull the stick from Cosmo's mouth with no little effort - the collie wasn't keen on letting go of the impressive piece of brush he'd unearthed for his game, "I didn't really get a proper chance to thank you for coming to get us." She drew her hand back and threw the stick, sending Cosmo bounding after it with a cheerful bark and wagging tail. She smiled over at Johnny. "The least you could do is let me raid Jon's wardrobe for you. You can't be comfortable walking around in skin-tight lycra and nothing else. Not that you aren't studly in it, of course." She chuckled, teasing Johnny as easily as she teased everyone else she came into contact with.

Johnny watched as the dog bounded off after the stick. He and Cosmo had played this game more than once, only Johnny had to be careful not to set the stick on fire. He'd learned that the hard way. He shrugged, seeming as comfortable and at ease in his skin-tight uniform as Vicki's husband did in Armani. "I kind of have to wear it, Vicki. It's the only thing I own that doesn't go up in flames." Admittedly, unless she was a comic book fan, she probably didn't know very much about him or his particular talents.

"You should get other clothes made in the same material, then," she suggested with a grin, glancing up in time to see the dog accelerating back toward her. "Oh, cripes ..." She stepped smartly behind the Human Torch, and Cosmo crashed into him, all paws and fur and his precious stick clutched in his jaws as Vicki laughed impishly.

"It's not that..." Johnny broke off as Cosmo came rushing back toward them, careening into Johnny with the retrieved stick. Johnny laughed, flashing a grin over his shoulder at Vicki, who had smartly taken refuge behind him. "He can do this all day, you know," Johnny informed her, as if Vicki didn't know this about her own dog. "He's a good dog. Smart as a whip." Johnny leaned over to rub the dog behind an ear and coax the stick out of Cosmo's mouth.

"Oh, I know," she agreed with a smile, sticking her tongue out at the dog as she came out from behind the superhero she'd been hiding behind. "I think you're the only person with as much energy as he has, to be honest." She eased herself down onto the cool stone of a nearby bench, watching the pair of them playing, and her smile softened a little. "Is Liv okay?" she asked quietly. "I thought she'd still be here when we woke up, especially with you still around."

Johnny turned in place, pulling the stick as he did so, Cosmo following, neither of them seeming to get dizzy. The smile on his face faded a little when Vicki asked about Liv, and they were both reminded of the night before. "She's blaming herself. The old man was a little hard on her, but she'll be okay," he said as he came to a halt, crouching down and ruffling Cosmo's ears until he gave up the stick, the two of them flopping on the ground, despite the cold, Cosmo warmed by his spot on Johnny's lap. "How are you?" Johnny asked, looking over at Vicki, with a surprisingly concerned expression on his face.

The redhead sighed a little, half-smiling at the plop of man and dog onto the grass. "I was hoping Humph wouldn't take it out on her," she admitted reluctantly, knowing that the Old Man could be a tyrant when he was in a bad mood. "None of it was her fault; we're the ones who snuck out on security." She shook her head, gently rubbing her hand over the bump at her waist as he met her eyes, asking after her own state. Her half-smile returned, one hand rising to touch the dark bruise that marred the pale skin of her throat for a moment. "I'll live," was her reply, short and to the point. "I got a scare, and it'll take a while to get over that. But I can't show it too deeply, not until I know Jon won't take it to heart and try to divorce me for my own protection."

Johnny didn't really know Vicki or Jon enough to know whether Vicki was being facetious or serious and the look on his face showed it. "I don't think he'd do that, would he" He adores you." But then, there had been a time when he'd told Liv it was too dangerous for her to be with him, so he kind of understood what the man was going through. He frowned as his eyes followed her touch to the dark bruise at her throat. "Wish I'd gotten there sooner," he told her soberly as his fingers scritched at Cosmo's fur.

"So do I," Vicki told him honestly. It was a strength and a weakness in her character that kept her honest unless a lie would do more good; it gave her sincerity when she faced up against Jon's tendency toward angst. "Not that it really would have changed anything. The damage was done as soon as I knew what she was planning to do to me. Nothing's worse than my own imagination." She didn't comment further on what Jon might or might not do to keep her safe, not wanting to air too much of what was truly private, instead lowering her eyes to Cosmo, who had abandoned his stick in favor of rolling onto his back and inviting Johnny to rub his belly.

"I'm sorry, Vicki," Johnny told her seriously and sincerely, his expression conveying the deeper feelings he hid from most of the world but allowed a select few he trusted to see. "Liv is sorry, too. If there's anything we can do..." He trailed off, leaving the offer open and out there if she cared to take advantage of it. There wasn't much more he could do than that really. He didn't really feel the kind of guilt Jon or Liv did, but being who he was, he wished he could have helped more than he had. He was supposed to be a hero, after all, but he couldn't be a hero if he didn't know when people needed his help. He wondered if he should do something about that. For a moment, Johnny forgot about Cosmo, but Cosmo was hard to forget and soon, Johnny's all-too-warm fingers were rubbing Cosmo's furry belly to the dog's utter contentment.

"Just do what you've always done," the redhead told him quietly, her expression warm through her smile. "Don't hold onto the guilt, either of you. You're our friends, not our keepers." Her smile deepened at the sound of Cosmo's happy little sighs under the absent-minded affection being handed out to him. "And, um ....I'm not sure quite how, but I know I'd feel a lot better if you had some kind of direct link to us. Maybe the GG folks can set you up with a comm link or something?"

He arched a brow at her idea, nearly reading his mind. He already had a comm link to the Avengers. It couldn't be that hard to link it up somehow to Jon and Vicki's cellphones or something, but science and technology had never been his thing. That had been Reed's area of expertise. "That's where Liv went, to Granger Conglomerate R&D. Probably to get some new-fangled security stuff to make sure you two stay safe." That was about as scientific as Johnny's brain got. It wasn't that he was stupid; it just wasn't his thing.

"Let me guess ....she didn't have a choice about it," Vicki snorted, making an educated guess about who and where this little sidetrip for Jon's solemn little P.A. had come from. A snore reverberated from the collie under Johnny's hand, knocking any thought of continuing the serious conversation out of her mind as she laughed. "You know, I think he might be considering moving in with you."

Johnny smiled as the subject returned to that of the collie who he'd somehow managed to put to sleep. "I don't think so. It's pretty clear who his master is. I'm just a temporary replacement." His smile faded a little, his fondness for the dog obvious by the look on his face. "I've never had a dog," he told her, purposely not going into why. Ironically, neither had Jon. It was something the two men had in common, though neither knew it yet.

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:03 EST
"You have an unfair advantage when it comes to making friends with furry animals," Vicki told him with a chuckle, bending down to tweak at one of Cosmo's inert paws. The collie twitched, flopping onto his side with his head still in Johnny's lap. "Maybe you and Liv should think about getting a pet. Seems like the next step for you two, doesn't it?" As she spoke, she glanced back toward the house, openly wondering what Jon was up to in there.

There was that frown again, thoughtful and just a bit unsure of himself. "I'm not sure what the next step is. This is the first serious relationship I've ever been in. I mean, there have been other girls, but....nobody that stuck, nobody that could put up with me long enough, I guess." He turned his eyes to the dog, not minding that he'd flopped down in Johnny's lap. The dog had been as worried about his master and mistress as the rest of them, it seemed.

The look Vicki gave him was gentle, friendly, and matter of fact, one brow rising as the blue eyes that were such a close match to Jon's turned onto Johnny. "Johnny, do you love her" Can you see a time in the next few years when you won't want to be with her?" she asked him very carefully. "Because if you can't, then the next step is making it official. At least ask her to marry you. I can't imagine she'd say no, but you should observe the forms. Romance her a little and pop the question while she's dreamy-eyed, that's my advice." Exactly what Jon had done to her, of course, so she knew it worked.

"I don't have the money to whisk her off to Venice, and even if I did, we both have jobs, responsibilities. I don't even have enough money to buy her a decent ring. Back home..." He paused, still frowning. "Back home, things were different." But then, they weren't all that different. He hadn't had his own place or a steady paying job. He'd lived at the Baxter Building with the other three members of the Fantastic Four, one of whom was a sister who'd been taking care of him since their mother had died. "I was thinking..." He looked over at Vicki with a serious expression on his face. "Can you keep a secret?"

She just about managed not to laugh at his curious enquiry as to her ability to hold something in secrecy. Jon could attest to Vicki's secret-keeping abilities - she'd managed it for over a year with him, after all. "I can try very, very hard," she promised Johnny, her eyes sparkling with quiet amusement before she drew a thin veneer of control over herself. "And you don't need to splash out on something big for there to be romance, either. A picnic on the carpet can be romantic with the right person."

Well, what did he know about romance" All of his romances before Liv had just been about getting the girl into bed with him. He looked at Vicki uncertainly for a moment before quoting Yoda. "Do or do not. There is no try." She was going to have to promise better than that if she wanted to know what he was thinking.

She laughed, rolling her eyes at his uncertain expression. "Johnny, I promise you, if I can keep a secret from Jon for over a year, I can definitely protect your plans from Liv for a few months," she assured him, gently nudging his shoulder with her fist. "You never know, I might even be able to help you set things up."

"You kept a secret from Jon for over a year" What secret?" he asked, blurting out the question before realizing he probably shouldn't have asked. "Sorry!" he exclaimed, swaying sideways briefly at the nudge, just because. "It's none of my business." He seemed to consider a moment, a thoughtful frown on his face, before deciding to take her at her word. "Christmas....Do people do Christmas on Rhy'Din?"

She laughed again, shaking her head. "If I told you, you'd think I was even more insane than you do now," she told him cheerfully. "He knows the truth now." His frown intrigued her, not an expression she was used to seeing on the usually gleeful face of Johnny Storm. "Well, they do Winterfest," she offered up. "It's a full season that encompasses everything to do with the holidays - Solstice, Yule, Christmas, and everything else. But yes, people do do Christmas on Rhy'Din. And it's usually white."

Johnny smiled at her remark about her own sanity. "You're talking to a guy who turns to plasma flames. What's more crazy than that?" But there was that thoughtful look again as she answered his question. He wasn't sure why it mattered when he proposed, but he was already making some plans in his head. "I was thinking about Christmas. Yule. Whatever. About proposing then." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Me and winter don't get along so well."

"You know, for a man who looked as though he'd swallowed a lemon when I mentioned romance, that is a very romantic idea, Johnny," the redhead smiled. "You don't need to set it up in the middle of a snowy field or anything like that. It's a happy, family season anyway. I think it's highly appropriate that you should propose the first step of starting a family with her at Christmas."

"Think so?" he asked, arching both brows, obviously unsure of himself and of any romantic notions he might dream up, never having had much of a chance to romance anyone before. "I just want to make her happy. She deserves to be happy. We're both orphans, you know" Family's important to us." He wasn't sure if Vicki had known that already or not and he wasn't sure why he was telling her, but there was something about Vicki that made it easy for him to talk to her.

"Yes, I do think so." Vicki gently nudged him again, trying to get him to see that classic romance just wouldn't work for him. Romantic would come so long as he made an effort to do something special; it didn't matter what that something special was. "Johnny, Liv lights up like a Christmas tree when you're around. You do make her happy, very happy, and it's plain for anyone who looks at the pair of you to see that it goes both ways. Trust me, short of embarrassing her in public, there is no way you could propose that won't be romantic in its own way. Because it'll be you, and you're all she really wants."

"She does?" he asked, seemingly surprised by this revelation, never having thought much about it before. She did seem happier with him than without him. They'd both been fairly miserable before they'd met; they just hadn't realized it. "You don't think it's too early for that' I mean, we've only been together since..." He had to count the months back to the fire that had destroyed the building where Liv and Lucy had shared an apartment. "April. Is that too soon?" he wondered, having no clue about this sort of thing.

Vicki couldn't help it; she found herself laughing gently at his worrying over time and tide. "Johnny, it really doesn't matter how long you're with someone before you move things on," she assured him. "You've actually been with Liv one month more than I was with Jon when he asked me, and you two are already living together happily. I didn't move in properly with Jon until after he asked me to marry him."

Johnny arched his brows at yet another surprising revelation, but pushed a little farther. "But you knew each other longer. You worked on Crowes together, didn't you? I only just met Liv a few months ago, and before that I was dating her sister. Talk about awkward." Johnny sighed. "You know what she told me the other night?"

"Yes, we'd been working together for a while, and ....well, I knew him on and off before that," Vicki told Johnny, smiling to herself at the careful half-truth. Jon's presence throughout her lifetime was something she wanted to keep between them, something that only belonged to herself and her husband. She smiled at Johnny's description of his meeting Liv. "Unless you think I'm somehow developing an invisibility serum or telepathy, Johnny, I think it's safe to say I have no idea what Liv told you the other night."

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:10 EST
He smirked a little at Vicki's reply. "Unless your name is Sue Storm, I doubt you're invisible!" The mention of his sister's name brought a fresh pang of homesickness, but he did his best to hide it. "Liv told me she was just waiting for me to ask her. She was half asleep when she said it, but still. So, I know she'll say yes. It's not that. I just....don't know what to do. Do I buy her a ring or do I have her pick one out' Should I take her some place special" Long engagement or short engagement' Here or back home?" There were just so many decisions to make, though he didn't really have to decide it all at once or all by himself.

"Maybe you should ask your sister," Vicki suggested gently. She hadn't seen the pang that crossed his face, but she knew from experience that being away from a close member of your family for an extended time could be painful. She was very lucky that Jon had taken her to see her father three times in the past year, and seemed determined to keep up that regularity in the foreseeable future. "Liv's got a problem with feeling guilty or thinking she doesn't deserve effort or money being spent on her, though, doesn't she" In which case ....buy her a ring, don't take her shopping for one. She'll choose the cheapest to try and keep you from spending what you want to spend on her. Trust me."

"My sister?" he echoed, uncertainly, thoughtfully. "She'll just tell me to come home. She didn't want me coming here in the first place," he moped. "She's pregnant. Probably getting ready to pop anyday now." Though his words sounded sarcastic, his tone of voice was a little bit sad, and it was obvious to anyone who knew Johnny well that the one person he missed more than anyone else was his sister Sue. "She raised me after Mom died. I gave her a lot of grief, but I just want her to be proud of me, you know?"

"What makes you think she isn't proud of you?" the redhead countered lightly, tilting her head to one side as she looked over at him. "Do you really think she'd tell you to go back to Earth if she knew how you feel about Olivia" Do you really think she's that selfish?"

His fingers nervously scritched the dozing dog in his lap as he tried to answer that question. He shrugged his shoulders, unsure how much Vicki knew about his life story. Back home, it was on the nightly news broadcast. "The Fantastic Three just doesn't have the same ring to it." But then, they'd probably just find someone else to take his place. "She thinks I'm irresponsible, stubborn, reckless, but I've changed." He paused a moment before adding, "I think."

Vicki's smile made itself known again in the face of his wondering about himself. "Sod the brand name," she told him. "I very much doubt your sister cares at all how she and that team are perceived by the media. I'd imagine she wants you to be happy." Her smile widened to a grin as she looked him over. "And someone who is irresponsible, stubborn, and reckless wouldn't be worrying so much about his sister's opinion of him, or exactly how to propose to his girlfriend."

What Vicki said made sense, though he'd never thought of it that way before. "Maybe I'll talk to Lucy. She knows Liv best." If he was serious about proposing before the year was out, he was going to have to get his a$$ in gear soon because time was running out.

"Or maybe you can trust your own instincts a little," she suggested gently, rubbing her fingers through the short crop of the Human Torch's hair as though he were her brother. "She's in love with you, not her sister or me or your sister's opinion of how you should do something. Try and remember that, hmm?"

Johnny arched a brow at Vicki's almost brotherly ruffling of his hair, a faint shade of pink tinging his cheeks, along with an almost shy smile, very uncharacteristic of the brash Johnny Storm and showing a different side of himself, a side he allowed few to see. He nodded his head, looking more boy than man. "Yeah, okay. I'll figure it out somehow. Thanks for listening," he told her with a small, thoughtful frown, back to square one. This proposing thing was harder to figure out than he thought, but maybe she was right. He should just do something that was completely Johnny Storm.

Before he could say another word, another voice was heard coming from the direction of the house. "What happened to Cosmo?" Jon asked with a wide grin on his face as he approached the pair, noting the snoring dog on Johnny's lap. "You two wear him out?"

She winked confidently at Johnny. "You'll think of something. And, you know, it helps that you already know she's going to say yes, right?" She was still grinning when she heard Jon's voice behind her, tipping her head back to watch her husband approach upside down, the tips of her hair brushing the ground. "Oh, you know me, love," she declared cheerfully. "I knocked him out with my powerful personality. That, or Liv's onto a winner snuggling up to Johnny every night."

Johnny was about to open his mouth and point out something else when Vicki's husband chose that moment to interrupt. Jon chuckled at Vicki's reply. His conversation with Humphrey seemed to have had the exact opposite effect on his mood as it had on Johnny's. While Johnny and the old grump had argued, Jon and his uncle seemed to have reached some kind of understanding. "Still hungry' I've kept you and Junior waiting long enough, I think," Jon said as he came up beside Vicki and dropped a kiss against her forehead, once it was no longer upside down anyway.

Johnny watched them curiously, seeing the same thing in them that they saw in him and Liv - a couple deeply and hopelessly in love with each other. "You already know it's a boy?" he asked, curiously, not knowing Jon had taken it upon himself to refer to the baby as Junior, though he had no idea whether the baby was a boy or a girl, as yet.

"Ravenous, as well you know," Vicki informed her husband, smiling up at him. For a moment, Johnny and Cosmo might as well not have been there, the world wandering away for just a few seconds as Jon met her gaze. It was part of their appeal to the media on Earth, this utter disregard for what other people thought when they saw them together, and unknown to Johnny, the Human Torch had exactly the same quality that he shared with his quiet girlfriend. Vicki blinked, looking down at Johnny again as she realised he'd spoken, offering a grin in apology for not answering straight away. "Oh, not at all," she laughed, moving to rise to her feet with only a slightly awkward stretch. "He just doesn't like calling it a spunk pebble in front of other people."

"Spunk pebble?" Jon echoed, chuckling as he offered Vicki a hand to help her to her feet. "You're going to have to translate again, darling," he teased, smiling warmly at his wife. Ironically, both he and Johnny were attached to women who were originally from England and who now and then slipped into slang that neither understood, Johnny being from New York and Jon from Rhy'Din.

Johnny only grinned, making no move to get up from the ground, loathe to disturb the sleeping Cosmo. He had nothing better to do until Liv got back, after all, except maybe get more grief from Uncle Scrooge Granger. "You two go on. I think I may join Cosmo for a nap."

"You sure you want a translation?" Vicki teased laughingly, ruffling Johnny's hair again as she slipped by him. "Hey, you could always walk him down to the offices and pick Liv up, you know," she suggested to the Human Torch. "Or you could terrorise Lucy in the kitchen into letting you play with dinner." She curled her fingers into Jon's grasp as she stepped to his side, hugging her husband's arm to herself comfortably. "And as for you ....spunk is sperm, stud muffin. Work it out for yourself."

Johnny's expression perked up and if it wasn't for the dog on his lap, he probably would have hopped excitedly to his feet. "Can I?" he asked brightly, like a kid who'd just been given permission to do something he'd been wanting to do but thought was not allowed. "You don't think they'd mind?" he continued, wondering how the folks at Granger Conglomerate would feel about him and Cosmo showing up unexpectedly and unannounced. He knew Liv, at least, would be happy to see them.

Jon chuckled. "Nah, go terrorize them for a while. Tell Caro I said it was okay." He linked his fingers with Vicki's, relieved that she still seemed in good spirits. His stomach growled loudly reminding them both that it was pushing lunch time and they still hadn't had breakfast.

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:15 EST
Grinning, Vicki wriggled her fingers in a goodbye to Johnny, turning to lead Jon away and around the side of the big house to where his Bentley was parked. After all, given the option, Jon drove his wife everywhere; he still hadn't followed through on the threat of a new car, but at least she wasn't driving her death trap anymore. As they passed the main steps, a pair of suited shadows peeled away from the doors to make their way over to one of the more discreet cars parked in the garage plot. The redhead squeezed Jon's fingers warmly. "So where are we going, love?" she asked him, tipping her head to look up at him.

Jon darted a glance at the suits that were about to become their shadows for the day, but did his best to ignore them, knowing they were there for their own good and protection and he'd made a promise to Humphrey to let them follow at a discreet distance. He'd just have to get used to it was all. Jon turned his glance back to Vicki, smiling warmly down at her. "I know I said pancakes, but I've got a weird craving for bacon. Think I'm having sympathy cravings?" he asked with a grin.

In the meantime, behind them Johnny had hopped to his feet, startling Cosmo awake, and the two of them had taken off toward the offices to surprise Liv, and neither of them very quiet about it either. Johnny was shouting encouragement to Cosmo to follow, which only made the dog bark enthusiastically in return.

The enthusiastic shouting and barking brought a grin to Vicki's face as they walked, not even bothering to glance back at Cosmo and his warm friend as they started on the considerable walk to the GrangerGuild offices on the other side of the compound. "Mmm, bacon is sounding very tempting," she admitted to Jon's teasing, but held firm to her vegetarianism. "And I don't have to be good today. Hmm ....you're very bad for my waistline, Jonathan Granger." She laughed, looping his arm over her shoulders as they walked toward the car. "You enjoy the cravings, love, they only get worse if you feed them."

"Oh, I intend to feed them," he replied as his arm went around her shoulder on their walk toward Jon's beloved Bentley, waggling his eyebrows at her playfully. Was he talking about food now or some other sort of appetite" Once they arrived at the car, he glanced toward their shadows as if to make sure they hadn't lost them already, before opening the passenger door and helping Vicki inside. It felt a bit strange to be going on with life as normal, considering what they'd just gone through the previous day, but maybe it was better that way. He only hoped nothing got leaked to the press. He was most likely going to have to answer to why they'd made a premature exit from the premiere, but he already had an answer prepared and had already given it to Liv to pass along to the press, using Vicki's pregnancy as their excuse.

Vicki had no objection to the pregnancy being used an an excuse for their early exit, aware that the media in Rhy'Din were a lot more forgiving than the media on Earth, and they had plenty of opportunity to snap pictures or get interviews where the Earth media did not. "You're so spoiled," she teased her husband as she folded herself into the car, settling her seat belt comfortably around the ever growing bulk of her belly as the child inside kicked excitedly. "Oh, ease up, monster," she told it as they waited for its father to get behind the wheel. "I get it, you're awake. Leave my bladder alone."

"So you keep reminding me," Jon replied with a grin, leaning down to brush a kiss against her cheek before closing the door and going around to the driver's side, a nod to the men in the discreetly black car behind them. It wasn't long before they were stuffing their faces with pancakes to their hearts' and stomachs' content. The talk was thankfully light as the two of them shared parts of the conversations each had had with Humphrey and Johnny respectively, and Jon told Vicki to remind him to give Liv some time off for the holidays so she and Johnny could spend some quality time together. If anyone deserved it, she did.

It felt good to be out and about so soon after their shared ordeal in the darkness beneath the city, better to know that they weren't alone. Vicki didn't think she'd actually felt so reassured by the presence of the shadowy professional security guards before, discreet as they were. By the time they were finished eating, the hour of their appointment at the ultrasound suite had rolled around, and rather than take the car just two blocks, Vicki insisted on walking. She might have been taking it a little far in proving to Jon that everything was fine, but without sticking their necks out a little, they'd be tempted to stick to the completely safe and ultimately intensely boring parts of their lives. Hand in hand with her husband, Victoria Granger was making a point, not just to him, but to herself as well.

Even Jon had to admit that knowing there was someone watching over them, keeping them safe, helped him feel more relaxed, reassured that they were indeed safe. And though they were recognized, only one brave soul had had the courage to ask for an autograph all through breakfast. Jon wasn't crazy about the idea of walking, not because he didn't want to walk, but because it meant chancing being recognized and hounded or followed, but it seemed as good a time as any to see if their newfound security was on top of things. Jon was visibly nervous as they made their way from the restaurant out into the open air, pausing a moment to take a look around before leading Vicki toward their destination. Had it been Earth, they might have been swarmed with fans, but this was Rhy'Din, and though they garnered a few looks here and there, they were left mostly alone.

"Isn't it nice to know that hardly anyone gives a toss that you're famous here?" Vicki murmured to him impishly as they walked the relatively short distance to the clinic, rippling her fingers through his with a gentle squeeze. "More people have asked to touch the bump than recognised you." She laughed softly, dismissing her usual irritation with the general public's sense of having a right to cross her personal boundary just because she was pregnant.

"I'm not sure if my ego likes it, but it's kind of nice to be able to walk down the street without being mobbed." Like he often was on Earth, and that would only get worse with the release and popularity of Fifty Shades... He wondered if Aimee was having the same issues, but then she didn't pop back and forth to Earth as often as Jon did. "I've read some of the fanmail. There's always going to be a hater here and there, but most of my fans are happy for us." He grip on her hand loosened as he visibly relaxed, realizing they were just blending in with the crowd, like everyone else - a crowd on Rhy'Din that wasn't exclusively human.

"You know there's a growing pile of baby clothes coming in with your fan mail, right?" Vicki pointed out to him with a grin as she felt him relax, her own tension simmering just under the surface but well hidden for the time being. "They have no idea if we're having a boy or a girl, but they're still sending us onesies and little outfits every day." She smiled, raising Jon's hand to kiss his knuckles reassuringly. "We're almost there, love."

From the look on his face, this was something he didn't know. "What have they been sending" We don't even know if it's a..." He trailed off as she continued, practically echoing his thoughts. His expression changed again when she kissed his knuckles, as if he was the one whose life had been in danger and not hers. Well, in fact, his had, but not in the same way hers was. "Vicki, I'm fine. I just don't like crowds," he reassured her, honestly. It was no big secret that Jon was claustrophobic, not only dreading small enclosed spaces but being surrounded by swarms of people.

"I know," she smiled gently back to him. "What, I'm not allowed to worry about you now?" The raise of her brow did more than just challenge him in this area; it was a subtle reminder that she was going to worry about him whenever he gave her cause to, and that she could read him better than most. Hiding his worries from her just wasn't an option. "As far as I know, everything that has been sent has been thoroughly checked by mages and scientists, just in case," she told him, rolling her eyes at the over-zealous security measures. "For all I know, they're going to knit a huge cosie for the house with everything that's been sent through."

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:18 EST
"A cosie..." He couldn't help but smirk. "There you go again. Can you please translate that, Mrs. Granger?" It wasn't often that he asked for a translation, usually getting the drift of what she was saying, whether he knew the various words and phrases or not. "Humphrey made sure to remind me that I shouldn't try to be too macho and take all the worrying on myself," he informed her with the tiniest of frowns, knowing he was guilty as charged.

She smiled again, drawing him off the sidewalk and into the clinic easily, aware that for the next half hour at least there would be two very uncomfortable security guards lurking in a waiting room full of pregnant women and genuinely enjoying the mental image that came with that thought. "See, I told you he was smarter than he looked," she teased her husband gently, giving her name over the desk to the clerk who looked up as they approached. "Partnership, remember" And a cosie, you know ....a tea cosie" Knitted thing that goes over a teapot to keep it warm?"

"I never said he wasn't smart," Jon remarked, regarding Humphrey. "He's got a rough exterior, but inside, he's a big softie." He laughed at the mental image her definition of cosie produced in his mind. "A tea cosie for an entire house" That's a lot of yarn, Vicki. I'd hate to think of all the sheep that would have to be sheared to make something like that." He glanced a little nervously around, noting that there, other than for himself and the security guards, they were mostly surrounded by pregnant women. Of course, it wasn't the first time Jon had been here, so he wasn't all that surprised, but he thought the security men might not feel the same way. He leaned close to whisper in Vicki's ear. "Think I should tell them to wait outside?"

The grin she gave him was downright evil. "Nope," she whispered back, looping her arm about his waist as her own lips brushed his ear. "If they want to follow us everywhere, they'll just have to get used to being in embarrassing places where any minute a random woman might go into labor right in front of them for a while." She grinned, glancing over the desk as the clerk directed them toward the waiting area outside third ultrasound suite, one floor up.

"So long as they don't follow us to the bedroom," Jon grinned back, a polite nod to the desk clerk as she directed them toward the elevator - or stairs, whichever they preferred. Jon hated hospitals. Every visit to a hospital, it seemed, had only brought him pain, but these visits were different. These visits were mostly happy occasions where the doctor assured them that everything was going fine and they were able to hear their child's heartbeat and see pictures of what was going on behind Vicki's burgeoning belly. Happy memories to replace the sad ones. Jon just hoped this visit went as well as all the others before it. He wrapped a had around Vicki's as he led her toward the elevator. Even though it was only one floor up, he didn't want her exerting herself anymore than she had to.

Steered toward the elevator, Vicki chuckled to herself as one of their shadows accelerated to be able to enter the same elevator as they did, wondering what would happen if the lift broke down and she went into labor. She was one of those people who didn't get into elevators with pregnant women for exactly that reason, so naturally that scenario was uppermost in her mind. She leaned against Jon's side as they waited for the metal cage to lower to them, sighing contentedly. "What, are you not into having an audience, love?" she teased him cheerfully. "They might learn something."

Jon's thoughts were nothing like Vicki's. It would never occur to him in a million years that the elevator might get struck and he might be forced into delivering his own child. Maybe as Vicki's due date grew closer, that worry would settle in, but right now, all he was worried about was that the baby was healthy, especially after everything Vicki had been through. "If they want to learn something, they can go see Fifty Shades...[/i[," he replied, not even bothering to keep his voice down - perhaps a warning to the men shadowing them.

She laughed fondly, hugging Jon's arm against herself as the elevator arrived and disgorged the usual array of slightly harrassed-looking staff and a couple of visitors. Squeezing his hand, she stepped forward into the elevator, leaning into a corner to make room for the others who stepped in with them - the bodyguard conveniently placing himself between Jon and his wife, and everyone else in the little space. "Well, I certainly learned a few things from Fifty Shades..." she grinned to her husband teasingly.

Jon tensed just a little as a small crowd of people stepped out of the elevator and they stepped inside. Elevators were small, cramped spaces, and when they were filled with people, they were even more so, but they were only going one floor up. They'd be there before they knew it. He arched a curious brow at Vicki, returning the grin playfully. "Oh, really' And just what did you learn" I thought you were an expert on that subject by now."

"Well, I did have an unfair advantage," she chuckled, walking her fingertips up his chest as she smiled at him. The rest of the elevator could have been empty for all the attention she paid to them. "I was rather heavily involved in the research. And just think ....in a few months, we'll be able to check out some of the really wild stuff."

He chuckled as he caught her fingers. She might be ignoring the crowd in the elevator, but he was acutely aware of the curious glances and raised eyebrows, though no one was brave enough to say a word. "Right, in between feedings and diaper changes," he replied with a smile. He wasn't so naive that he didn't know the focus of their marriage was about to change from them to a newborn baby, but it didn't worry him a bit. He also knew it wasn't going to be easy, but having a family of his own was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, and he was determined to do a better job at it than his own father had.

"Shush, don't burst my bubble yet," she laughed, hugging into him as the elevator came to a halt, their suit-clad shadow elbowing a path for them out of the little space and onto the main floor, where his colleague was already waiting, only slightly out of breath from his run up the stairs. Dropping her hand into Jon's once again, Vicki picked her way past the pair, heading for the familiar line of seats outside the familiar door. "If we get the chance to know whether it's a boy or a girl today, do you want to?" she asked him suddenly, lowering herself down onto a padded seat to wait for the technician to call them.

Jon followed her out of the elevator, only giving the security men a brief glance before leading Vicki toward the waiting area. He took a seat beside her and drew her hand toward his mouth for a loving caress of lips. "I don't know. It's a bit like knowing what you're getting for Christmas before you've had a chance to unwrap your present, isn't it?" It was tempting to find out whether the baby was going to be a girl or a boy, and it made perfect sense to do that, but in the end, it was going to be Vicki's decision, not his. "What do you think?"

"Well, we already know it's going to be a baby," she laughed teasingly, nestling fondly into his side as they sat together, blatantly ignoring the suited shadows who had taken up places by each of the exits to the waiting area. "I don't know. People go on about keeping the surprise, but I don't mind. I'd like to be able to tell people that I'm having a boy or a girl, but I don't mind not knowing, if you would rather not. We both know I couldn't keep it to myself if I did know!"

Jon frowned thoughtfully as he considered the pros and cons of the situation. There seemed to be more pros than cons in his estimation, the only con being that there would be no element of surprise. "Do you have a preference?" he asked, curiously. Though he'd been calling the baby Junior, he really had no preference, only wanting the baby to be healthy.

Again, Vicki laughed. "Jon, that hardly matters now, does it?" she asked him in amusement. "It's not as though I can hold it hostage until it changes sex. But no, I don't have a preference either way." She rested her cheek comfortably against his shoulder, fingers playing with his patiently. "We're going to do this all over again, and there's a fifty/fifty chance we'll get at least one of each."

Jon frowned a little as his glance strayed to their linked fingers, feeling Vicki's head warm against his shoulder, the sound of her voice soft and soothing. "I know I've been calling the baby Junior, but the truth is it doesn't matter what we have. I'd be just as happy with a girl as a boy. All that matters is that you're safe and the baby is healthy. That's all." He turned his head toward hers, trying hard to keep his emotions in check, at least, while they were in public, but she knew him well enough now to notice the way his blue eyes were shining with unshed tears.

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:22 EST
She met his blue-eyed gaze with a tender smile, raising her hand to softly trace the line of his jaw with her long, clever fingers. "I'm safe," she told him in a very gentle voice. "We're both safe. And it is entirely because of you. And in a few minutes, we'll find out if our child is healthy, which I am sure they are." Her lips touched his very lightly, careful not to stoke the emotional flame too enthusiastically, not where so many people could see them. "But I'd like to be able to call it our son, or our daughter, rather than it or sprog or Junior."

He smiled through the tears as she stroked his face and reassured him in that soft, simple way that only Vicki could. Her kiss, though brief and light, lit a fire in his heart that could only be described as love, that love flaring brightly, burning away all his fears and doubts. "I love you, Victoria Granger," he told her quietly, calling her by the name she'd taken when she married him. "You're the most amazing woman I've ever met."

"I should hope you do love me, Jonathan Granger," was her soft reply, her lips curving into the familiar smile that was caught somewhere between tenderness and teasing. "Otherwise you're investing a lot of time and effort into a fling, you know." She chuckled, nuzzling lovingly to him as the door to the suite opened nearby and the familiarly over-worked technician called them by name.

He chuckled at her reply. "You could just say you love me, too, you know," he teased back. Distracted by Vicki's nuzzling, he didn't hear the technician call their names, at first, a little bit lost in a tender kiss he was administering to her lips.

She grinned, nipping gently at him. "You'd be shocked if I answered you seriously every time," was her mild response to that, the words swiftly swallowed by his kiss. A kiss that was followed very softly with the words he'd suggested to her in the first place. "I love you, too." As the technician cleared his throat, carefully reminding them of his presence without intruding too much, she leaned back, taking Jon's hand affectionately. "Come on, studly, time to laugh at me being covered in that ridiculously cold gel again."

Jon smirked as the technician cleared his throat, bringing him back to the present and the task at hand. He leaned over to help her, one arm around her back, as he moved to his feet. "How about if I promise not to laugh?" he asked with a smile, feeling a strange mix of worry and excited anticipation. "Humphrey made me promise to show him the picture when we get back. As soon as we get back, he said."

Vicki chuckled at that, knowing how the Old Man gloried over anything to do with the newest additions to his family. He was likely to be a true nightmare the first time Jon and Vicki got their hands on Jack for a night to babysit. "Hmm, that makes it tempting to take our time getting back, doesn't it?" she teased fondly as her husband drew her into the ultrasound suite, greeting the technician in a friendly manner, She didn't need telling this time to settle herself on the padded bench, folding the jersey band of her jeans down and the snug stretch of her shirt up to reveal the unmistakeable shape of her bump complete with the wriggling lines of stretch marks low down. Her body just hadn't been ready for the weight gain during her second trimester, and no amount of cocoa butter had saved her from the inevitable result.

The technician grinned at the readiness of the mother-to-be, making sure both she and her husband saw him put the gel into the warming cup this time as he set up the screens. "So, how have things been?" he asked, his eyes including Jon in the question. "This is just a check up, yes?"

Jon led Vicki into the suite, wanting to be as much a part of this as she was, offering as much support as was humanly possible without going through the pregnancy himself. He helped her onto the table and took her hand once she had readied herself, pulling up a chair to sit beside her, his fingers wrapped around hers. He glanced from her to the technician and back with a small frown on his face at the man's question. He didn't want to tell the man what had happened, and yet, he should know that this wasn't just a routine visit. "We want to make sure the baby is fine," he explained without really explaining, letting Vicki chose how much or how little to confess.

Vicki's fingers tightened on Jon's, reassuring herself as much as him as she opened her mouth to make a little more sense of their desire for a check up. "I let myself get a little too emotional for a little too long yesterday," she explained to the technician, half-shrugging as though to dismiss the good hour or so of heightened terror that had kept the baby active in her womb long afterward. "I ....well, we would feel better if we knew it hadn't done any harm."

The technician nodded, understanding that he wasn't being told everything and not pushing for full details. If he wanted them, he could always talk to the doctor in more depth. "All right, then," he smiled to the expectant pair, squirting a generous amount of gel onto Vicki's belly and the transducer as the screens warmed up. "Here goes."

Jon tightened his grip on Vicki's hand, both reassuring and reminding her that he was right there and always would be, no matter what, and also to reassure himself of the same. He hoped the technician wouldn't notice the bruises and think Jon was to blame, but those were the least of his worries. There was no reason to believe anything was wrong. Despite the emotional terror and the obvious bruises, their stalker hadn't succeeded in seriously harming Vicki or the baby. The baby had continued to move around as usual, and nothing seemed to have changed, but neither he or Vicki would rest well, until they knew for sure. He clenched his jaw, tensing as he turned his gaze to the screens, waiting in worried anticipation to see the pictures of their baby.

The view they got was, understandably, not the most reassuring, but it was recognisably a body part. Vicki let out a loud laugh as she realised they were looking at their baby's backside, raising her free hand to cover her mouth and stifle the snickers that spilled forth. "Oh, that's definitely our kid," she laughed, looking over at Jon, even as the baby's fetal heartbeat filled the room. The technician had dealt with them before; he knew what they wanted to see and hear.

Jon tilted his head to try and sort out the picture that came up on the monitor. He wasn't able to sort it out as quickly or easily as Vicki, the picture looking just like a blob to him for a few minutes before it seemed to make sense. "Is that..." he trailed off, unsure if what he was seeing what what he thought it was. Well, at least, the technician hadn't chosen to focus on a miniature size p*nis right off the bat. Jon visibly relaxed a little as the baby's heartbeat filled the room, sounding strong and even and healthy.

Chuckling to himself, the technician followed the curve of Vicki's belly, seeking out the shifting motion of a hand and finally the face. At this stage in her pregnancy, the ultrasound pictures were far clearer, and it was obvious that the baby was sucking its thumb. Vicki bit her lip, as reassured as Jon by the sound of the little heartbeat, pointing to the little face on the screen. "Look, it's got your nose!"

"Yeah, well, that's definitely your a$$," he blurted out with a smirk, wondering if the baby was going to be a boy with a feminine rear or a girl with a masculine nose. "Is he....she....sucking its thumb?" he asked, still trying to sort out the images he was seeing on the screen, which he found amazing. It was almost unbelievable to think that what they were seeing on the screen was what was actually going on inside Vicki's womb.

The tech looked up at the screen thoughtfully. "Yes, we definitely have thumb in mouth," he told the smiling parents, pausing the run of the transducer to take a picture of that for them. "I know you said you weren't sure about knowing the sex last time; any decisions this time around?"

Victoria Granger

Date: 2012-11-26 04:28 EST
Vicki tore her fascinated gaze away from the little face on the indistinct screen, genuinely enchanted by the sight of their child right there and not suffering any ill-effects from their unpleasant awakening the day before. She looked up at Jon enquiringly. "Well ....I think I'd like to know, but only if you do, love."

Jon was transfixed by the image on the screen, watching as the baby moved slightly, just enough to prove that it was, indeed, real. He looked as amazed as he felt and nodded numbly at the technician's question, never taking his eyes from the screen, not wanting to miss a single second of this private and all-too-rare look at their child before it was born. "Yes, I'd like to know," he replied, having an instant change of heart, too excited to resist the temptation to find out for sure if they were having a son or a daughter, though he was sure he'd love each just the same.

The baby stretched as Jon spoke, reaching toward the press of the transducer to give it a push in return. Like Jon, Vicki was entranced, her gaze returning to the screen promptly once her query to her husband was answered. And the technician was grinning to himself again; you saw this a lot when you worked the OB radiography suites. The transducer moved carefully back over the curve of Vicki's belly, seeking out the perfect view to be absolutely sure. "Well, I can say with about eighty-seven percent confidence that you, Mr and Mrs Granger, are looking at a little girl."

Jon watched as the picture changed, moving away from the baby's face, at least, momentarily to check for something a little more elusive. He wasn't sure what he was looking at or what he should expect to see, but the technician seemed fairly confident, and Jon blinked in surprise. For some reason, he'd been expecting the baby to be a son. "Eighty-seven percent' Is that as sure as you can be?" he asked, not wanting to get ready for a girl, if they were really having a boy. His gaze darted briefly to the technician before returning to the picture on the monitor. He saw nothing that looked conclusively to him to indicate the baby might be a boy.

"Well, the picture isn't as clear as daylight, and I'm not going to say absolutely that it's a girl until she's out," the technician told him with a faint grin. "But I'm not seeing Mr W*nky, and that usually means it's a girl. I haven't been wrong yet, if that helps."

Lying between the men, Vicki laid her hand very gently on the uppermost curve of her belly. She was inclined to trust this technician; someone who wasn't going to say they were absolutely right when they'd never been wrong was someone who could be trusted. "Hello, lady," she murmured to her bump, her hand tightening in Jon's grasp once again. They were having a little girl.

Jon laughed at the technician's choice of phrase for the male anatomy, no matter how tiny it might be at this point in the baby's development. "Mr. W*nky is how this whole thing got started," he remarked with an amused grin, turning his gaze at last to Vicki, who seemed just as amazed as he was. He watched with rapt affection as she greeted their daughter for the very first time, smiling warmly down at her, feeling a surge of emotion welling up inside him again. "It seems I'm going to have two lovely ladies in my life now."

Visibly, the baby reached up to push against the soft pressure of her mother's hand in the moments before the technician removed the transducer, handing Vicki a box of tissues to clean herself up with. The redhead smiled; unlike the first time she had seen their child on screen, she didn't feel tearful. She felt exhilarated, pleased to be able to say she was having a girl, that Jon would have the little girl she could imagine him with sooner than the boy she hoped to give him next time. "We'll even the score next time," she promised her husband, though it was obvious that he didn't mind at all. "At least we can stop arguing about boys' names now."

Though Vicki might be able to hold back the tears of joy she had shed the first time around, Jon's eyes filled with tears at the realization that they were not only having a baby, but that, more specifically, they were having a daughter. A little girl all their own, like the little girl Vicki had once been, the toddler he'd met during his travels to his wife's past. He plucked a few tissues from the box to help her wipe the gel from her abdomen, smiling at Vicki's statement. "So, now we can start arguing about girls' names instead," he teased. The truth was that they hardly ever argued, about names or anything else, for that matter, and when they did, they tended to make up quickly. Hell, the best part of arguing was making up. His fingers drifted across Vicki's bare belly in a soft caress. "I'm not disappointed, Vicki. Not even close."

"You'd better not be disappointed," was her response as she smiled up at him, knowing that they were probably embarrassing the technician with their loving closeness. Not that it seemed to bother the man - he was busily printing out pictures and vital statistics for them, pretending they weren't there at all. Sitting up, Vicki covered herself once again, leaning over to kiss her husband tenderly. "We're having a little girl," she murmured, and this time the excitement was all there in her tone. It felt more real now than it had before.

Jon sighed against her lips, feeling that familiar surge of happiness well up inside him. They were having a daughter, a little girl. A Daddy's girl to pluck at his heartstrings and wrap his heart around her finger. Jon's heart soared at the thought of it, tears filling his eyes, even as he tried to hold them back. "A little girl, as beautiful as her mother," he whispered back, fingers caressing her cheek. He didn't have to see the baby to already know she was beautiful. Part of her and part of him, how could she be anything but beautiful" He was in love with her already, even before she was born.

For the second time that day, the technician tactfully cleared his throat, not even attempting to hide his grin as he handed the printed pictures to Vicki. Unrepentant, despite being caught canoodling with her husband in company, the redhead took the little snapshots with a grin of her own, sliding off the padded bench as she thanked the professional. Three shots of their little girl - of her backside, purely because it was funny; of her sucking her thumb; and of that stretch that had put her in contact with her father as he spoke. "Are you going to fold as soon as she bats her eyelashes at you, darling?" Vicki teased Jon, relieved that they had nowhere else to be today. For some reason, all she wanted to do was go home and be with her family.

"I do with you, don't I?" he replied, as though her question was a rhetorical one, helping her from the table and glancing over to look at the pictures the technician had given them. "So, baby's healthy. You didn't see anything wrong?" he asked, as if to make doubly sure. He knew the doctor would look everything over and make sure everything was as it should be, but he couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing at all," the tech assured him with a smile. "Heartbeat's strong, no sign of injury or stress. You already know she's not deformed in any way. Your daughter is as well as any other, Mr Granger." Beside Jon, Vicki lit up at hearing someone else refer to the baby as their daughter. It was going to take a little getting used to, but just having a gender made it so much more real.

"My daughter," Jon echoed, getting that starry eyed look Vicki was probably used to seeing in her husband, the horrors of their ordeal completely forgotten - at least, for the moment - at the thought of having a daughter. "Our daughter," Jon corrected himself, with a warm smile to his wife. He reached for her hand, linking his fingers with hers, looking happier than he'd been in days. "Shall we go show Humphrey pictures of his new grandniece?" he asked with a proud, happy twinkle in his eyes.

"Oh, I think that's a very good idea," Vicki smiled warmly up at him as her fingers found their comfortable rest between his, for the first time today utterly uncaring that two large men in dark suits were falling into step a small distance behind them. That didn't matter, all of a sudden. The frightening ordeal of the morning before didn't matter; the memory of what might have happened didn't even cross her mind. Because in just a few short months, they were going to have a little girl. And that, in a way, was about as perfect as it got.

((D'awww, happy lil' Grangers and their baby birdie bump. ::snickers:: Okay, folks, you know the drill. Spongiliciously hugiflorious thankboobles to Jon's player!))