Look What You Did [Deran][Open]

Emi was clearly agitated. She didn't so much as eat her morning porridge as push it around, pound it maliciously, whip it up again, and repeat. Schatzi, too, seemed to have seen better days and he perched on her shoulder with the quiet air of a creature who didn't particularly want to bother with this particular day. His own hadn't been fun at all for three whole days, and it was wearing on the little flit.

She knew she had to tell Deran, but he'd been busy with his messaging and she'd been in he nurses station more often due to the illness of a coworker. She simply hadn't had a chance... and the longer it went the more it bothered her. She wasn't sure why... but in the end she'd just concluded that it wasn't the kind of knowledge best carried alone, and he was the only person here who had any stake in the matter at all. God, how she missed her mother.... Mama would care, and as always Mama would know what was to be done.

Emi sniffed, and to her great horror she realized a tear had fallen off her nose and into the porridge. She scrubbed at her cheeks and looked around with a shocked expression on her face. She hadn't cried in public since she was 10 and had broken her wrist. Verdammt hormones...

Deran had just finished cleaning up in the morning and strolled into the dining cavern, his loose runner clothing hanging off his body. With the expected hatching coming soon there had been a number of messages being sent back and forth and he had been going quite ragged. It had been days since he had a chance to sit and speak with Emi, whom he had been spending a fair amount of time with.

He spooned out a heaping bowl of porridge and turned to examine the dining caverns. His eyes quickly picked out a familiar head of hair, sitting at a table nearby. Throwing some silverware on his tray the young man quickly walked over, and sat himself down opposite her. August flew around his head before settling on the table and giving a little happy chirp up at Schatzi before noticing his mood. Deran was not quite as quick, and quickly said, "Hey Emi! I have missed you the last few days."

Once the words were out of his mouth, however, he noticed her posture, and that she seemed to be crying and not eating her food. A little bell went off in his head that something was wrong, and he quickly amended his earlier statement with "Is everything okay?"

Having thought over how she should handle this for days and days, she squared her shoulders and did what any self respecting German person would do.... say it as bluntly as possible.

"Deran, I am pregnant and das Baby ist yours." She said, and at that precise moment in an example of supreme comical timing, Schatzi fell off her shoulder as if shocked by the news. "I haff had three tests, and all were positive. I vill haff dis baby wit' you or wit'out you... for we need more people. But you should know this t'ing. I haff sorrow it has been so long for me to tell you. I haff not seen you." She paused and ferociously fought back a second tear that threatened to follow the first one and betray her matter of fact demeaner. "We haff... six weeks now... maybe a bit less... but I t'ink not."

At Emi's words it was like a brick had hit him in the back of the head. His expression gave much the same appearance as he felt. His jaw dropped and his tray landed with a thunk on the table.

"You're what? You're -pregnant-?!" Deran was unable to contain himself, and practically yelled it. Certainly enough that anyone at nearby tables could be heard. "But I... how... you... when... what..." Words seemed to have failed the young man and he just stared at Emi in a bit of shock. Okay, a lot of shock.

August apparently felt the shock through Deran, because she in a comical parody of Schatzi fell over on her side. She then quickly got up and started squeaking at the two of them indignantly for making her fall over, and scurried across the table to cling to Deran's arm.

"Pregnant..." Deran said again, this time softer, as he digested the realization he was going to have a kid.

"Yes. It happens. Wann man and woman sleep together and make 'ze beast with ze two backs.'" She said, exasperatedly, using a Shakespeare quote to try to cover her own emotions. "We do not often haff ze birth control here anymore. We VANT children. It is for the good of Pern. Only those wiff true health issues generally get ze pills auf ze doctors. I am healthy. I vill haff this child."

She finally ate a bite of porridge, her own ruffled feathers slowly falling into place now that she had discharged her duty and despite the fact that HE was now dealing with the shock. Schatzi climbed onto the table and joined August in scolding. The normally rambunctious flit clearly had no more patience for human emotions today. All worked up... and there wasn't even any sausage or anything important like that involved.

Emi's little joke seemed to shock Deran right out of his reverie. He absently reached to stroke the back of a still chittering August, and sat down with a plop into his chair facing her. "I know that.... but, I had not even suspected you might get pregnant. But why had you not sent me a message when you found out? I would have come running, literally, back to hear!" He said with his eyes wide. His hands clenched a bit on the table.

Then his mind ran on a different track. "Um, ah, well of course you won't raise it alone. I will not let you do it on your own, we will raise our child together," he quickly said, feeling his cheeks flush.

August meanwhile was not willing to be soothed! She squirmed out from under his hand and then spotted Schatzi. She marched right on over and began berrating him for her chosen's aggitation!

Schatzi was likewise in no mood to be berated, and August's chiding brought answering chittering from him such as he had never before uttered. Too weak of constitution to actually stand up to her entirely, he pulled up his wings over his head and closed them, batlike, making a tent out of his own body under which he grumbled and churred grumpily and quietly to himself.

Emi heaved a sigh. She realized she was being unfairly... rigid... due to her own fears. She reached out and touched his hand now, her gray eyes softening a bit and her chin resting on her other hand.

"I t'ink it is good you say so. Even in Pern where life iz not like it was on earth... I t'ink a child needs its father. But..." and she felt again the shudder of grief. "You and I vill be on very different paths now. Ve cannot know what would happen mit a pregnant woman who impresses. They will not allow it. I can not stand wif you at ze next hatching. Statistically, you vill become a rider. And I, for now, cannot. You vill haff different priorities, and I respect zat."

Deran paused for a moment and leaned back. That fact had not occurred to him, but as Emi has said she had known for days now and had plenty of time to think up the implications. His head lowered slight before he nodded. "Um, well, you're right there... damn. Damn. Well, even so, being a rider will not take up all my time after a hatchling grows up, so I would be able to spend time then with you more and focus on our child. Don't fear, okay Emi?" He said. It was not quite as confident as it could be, as he realized their relationship would have to change now, in many ways.

He shook his head to clear that, and then smiled and took her hand. "We'll deal with that when it happens though if it does. We're gonna have a baby! We need to celebrate somehow." Deran got up, still not releasing her hand, and then pulled her into a fierce hug. They could at least ignore the rest for now, and deal with being happy.

It seemed with the change of Deran's feelings on the topic August finally felt the need to stop scolding. She chittered a few times, then flipped her wings up over her back and looked at Schatzi, then at the two humans hugging, with a chirp.

Schatzi poked his head out like someone woken up far too early. He uttered some sound that must be a flit swear word and curled his tail around him more tightly. Humans... and girls yelling at him. What a morning.

Emi returned the hug and THEN, ironically, she gave in and started to cry in earnest. But she was also smiling, and she wiped them away as quick as they came with a self-amused laugh and a shrug. "My Mama told me once, mit all three of her pregnancies ze first two months were awful and then she had no more problems. I hope dat is me, too. I throw up every morning before breakfast, and I cry... at ze weirdest times."

In a few more moments she was more composed, and she pulled away from Deran enough to pull a dry sausage piece out of her pocket- clearly put there for Schatzi's consumption and not her own, and tossed it on the table. He uncurled himself enough to eat it and, as if in an afterthought, ripped off a piece and flicked it subtly Autumn's way, as if in peace offering.

"I t'ink that is a good idea. We haff much time to be stressed by dis. Vhat shall we do?"

Deran just hugged her tighter when she started crying, and then held her in his arms and smiled. "Maybe its a good thing I have been away a few days, I don't know if I could handle hearing you with throwing up every morning and breaking down on me," he teased, grinning to let her know it was teasing.

He looked around and then up at the ceiling. "Well first we must tell our folks. Mine will be through the roof. I bet yours will be too. And... well, I say we throw a little party. I bet we can talk a few of our friends into coming and celebrating with us." Deran's heart felt light as a feather as he contemplated being a father, helping watch over a little boy or getting toys for a little girl, and all it would entail. The smile on his face grew wider as he looked at Emi.

August had tilted her head, but the thrown sausage caught her attention. Especially with the peace offering from Schatzi, she chirped in a thank you tone and quickly scarfed the meat down.

"At least those two haff made peace," Emi said as August and Schatzi finished the meat. "I haff fear we made dem unsettled." A second later the import of what he said hit her. "Oh mein Gott... meine Mama will come so fast. I haff sent her a message already. If she and Papa do not come already I do not t'ink they will wait long before leaving to come here. Dey vill be surprised dat you are ze Vatter, I t'ink. But for meine Mama, it will be a happy surprise. She can force feed you again."

She thought about adding that she didn't yet really HAVE any friends here... other than Deran that is. She omitted this, however. The exchange had been emotional enough without that, and some of her professional colleges might come to cover for her social inadequacies anyway .

Deran spared a glance over at the two little flits, who were munching away at the sausages. "Looks like, which is good. They may have to help us watch our little one!" He grinned a bit. "My mother will probably dote on you and demand to help come up with baby clothes and things; she loves making things like that. I bet our mothers will get along great." The young man then smiled and picked her up, twirling her around. "This will be wonderful, Emi."

"You know, maybe we could make it an open thing too, just have some of the people we know come along to our little party," Deran said with another smile. He had seen a flicker in her eyes at the mention of friends and didn't want her upset at this point, because it was a happy time!