Welcome, Little One [Deran]

The whirl of activity had finally died down in Emi's living quarters. Only one nurse, a friend of hers from work, busied herself in a corner bundling the soiled linens into a bag to be taken to the wash. In her arms, slumbering for the very first time outside her body, a tiny baby boy lay wrapped in a creamy colored swaddling blanket. She blinked back a tear and touched his face with a gentle finger.

Right after the birth she had felt... detached. Numb. It was so fast, nothing like the stories her mother had told her. The baby had made its way into the world quickly and efficiently and almost as quickly had been measured, bathed, and greedily sucked down a first meal. She was happy not to have had any of the common problems associated with birth and early breastfeeding, but all the same it had been so strange, as if he had just appeared. It was disorienting. She wondered with a spare corner of her mind whether or not the Runner she'd sent after Deran had caught up with him yet. She hoped so. Someone should be here.

"I'm heading out now," Karen said when she'd finished gathering the linens. "Will you be ok alone? If you need ANYTHING send Schatzi for me. He's reliable... enough."

"Ja, ve vill be fine, t'ank you, Karen," Emi said with a smile. Her hormones were settling and Emiline knew she was in the bonding phase. She wouldn't mind being alone with her thoughts until Deran came. "'Ee ist sleeping now."

"You did a great job. Congratulations again!" Karen laid a supportive hand on Emiline's shoulder and left. In the silence that followed, Emi looked down at her new son and caressed the little tuft of hair on his head.

"Wilkommen... mein Kleiner..." she said softly, kissing the top of his head.

It didn't take much time at all for Deran to return to the apartment Emi stayed in. The Runner had found him rather quickly, for he had been on his way back with a larger delivery, and it was not much after Karen had left that he knocked on the door. He didn't wait long before pushing it open and striding in.

"I ran as fast as I could, Emi..." he said, a bit out of breath. His hair was quite tousled and his clothing had the appearance of being sweated in and rather wrinkled from his job. When time permitted he still ran messages to help out, although his new job was supposed to strictly be a rider. He stopped however when he saw the little bundle in Emi's arms, the question on his lips fading away as he took in the first sights of his son.

She smiled when he walked in and tilted the bundle so that the small, red face was more easily visible.

"Deran! Don't vorry... it vas so fast. You could not haff made it. Say hello! It's a boy." She absently nudged the tiny fist with a finger and gestured with her eyes to a seat next to her bed. "Sit down and you hold your sohn," she directed, scooching closer to the edge of the bed to pass the little bundle more easily. He stirred a big, but remained fast asleep. "You vill vant to hold him very much, before my mother und father come and hold him only," she joked, kissing his head again.

Deran's breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the little bundle in Emi's arms. He took a few careful steps forward, and a smile spread across his face, wide and inviting. "He's beautiful, Emi. I think he is gonna have your hair." As quickly and as carefully as he could, he took the seat next to her.

"I only wish I had not gone out; but the little dragons were all asleep after some practice and examinations by the geneticists yesterday, so I thought it would be best to run a few messages. My mother and father needed some help." He carefully reached over, and held his newborn son in his arms, as fragile and delicately as if he was spun glass.

He kept glancing from his son up to Emi. "Yes I will. He's so wonderful, Emi, and you look great too." He leaned over, giving the girl a gentle kiss. "They'll have to contend with my folks; I sent the other Runner to tell them what was happening. They will probably arrive sometime within the next twelve to twenty four hours, I would imagine." He gently rocked the sleeping baby boy, and leaned in close to his mother. "Have... have you thought of a name yet?"

"How is your dragonet?" she asked, the curiosity of a candidate able to trump her excitement even at a moment like this (or perhaps especially at this moment, when the fatigue of her affair had addled her brains a little.) All the same she laid her hand on her arm by the baby's head in an easy and loving gesture.

"I haff not. I did not know eef we had boy or a girl. Do you haff any ideas? Ve could use a German name... just not too German, bitte," she said with a smile, remembering her brother Hans.

He smiled at his newborn son, and then looked at her. "Well, he knows. He's terribly curious about our son." He smiled at the question. "Actually he wanted to come, but he is getting big enough getting him into the hallways would tend to block traffic so I told him to wait."

A voice piped up in both their heads. 'I wanted to come. But I don't think dragons are good for babies, is that right?'

Daren laughed. "I think you would be fine, Tarath, but its best for now to wait. You will see him soon enough!" He smiled down at Emi, and then began thinking. "That is fine by me... but I don't know any German names really, aside from Hans, that are for boys. Didn't your brother have the name Hans?" He carefully gave their newborn back to his mother.

She laughed and laid her head as well as she could on Deran's shoulder as she accepted the little bundle back from him. "Vell... I t'ink dat as soon as I can valk, ve vill take our little man to see your Tarath," Emi said, trying to take the somewhat ticklish feeling of a voice inside her head in stride. She had some kind of feeling that graceful behavior around the dragonets would improve her own chances, though this could be entirely superstition as far as she knew.

"Vat about Kai?" She said, thoughtfully. "It is a sweet name... und not so 'Deutsch' as Hans... yes, my brother is Hans."

"Then we shall." He smiled at Emi, and looked down at his son once more. "I thought so. Kai... Kai Wallace, welcome to the world." He stroked his son's head gently, looking at him, and feeling quite at peace.