FIC: Elevator (AB)

[mhalachai]

ETA: This post's comments might drift into Danse Macabre, the next AB book, spoiler zone. You have been warned.

Title: Elevator
Fandom: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (master list here)
Characters: Anita, Larry, Tammy, Nathaniel
fanfic100 Prompt: 029 -- Birth
Word Count: 691
Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. Only the story is my own.
Rating: PG
Note: This contains no Danse Macabe spoilers. In fact, pretend you know nothing about DM. Then read this.

~~*~~

"Come on, Tammy, you can do it!" Larry shouted, wincing as Tammy gripped his hand tighter and bore down.

Privately, Anita wanted to sigh, but there was no time. She just had to be stuck in an elevator at the police station with Larry and a very pregnant Tammy when the power went out. Somehow, Larry got the job of holding his wife's hand while Anita got to deliver the baby. How this had turned out, Anita wasn't quite sure, and couldn't think of way to bring up the question.

So here Anita was, more up close and personal with Tammy than she ever thought she'd be. Just then, Tammy let out a bit of a scream, and what looked like the baby's head started to appear.

Instinctively, Anita put out her hands and caught the baby as Tammy gave another huge push. Larry scrambled to see as Anita heaved the baby as gently as she could onto Tammy's stomach. "Is he okay?"

Really wishing she knew more about childbirth than watching those stupid nature documentaries, Anita stuck her finger in the baby's mouth to scoop out a bit of slimy mucous.

Then the baby cried.

"He's okay!" Larry crowed, pulling off his sweater to wrap around the baby. Anita glanced away from the expression of exhausted rapture on Tammy's face, and grinned as Larry carefully turned the newborn over to wrap it up. No, not an it.

"Not a boy after all," Anita observed. "You should have known you'd get another woman in your life to boss you around."

"She's perfect," Tammy murmured, touching the baby's cheek. Even though the infant couldn't lift her head, she still turned in the direction of her mother's touch.

With a jolt, power came back on and the elevator started moving downwards again. Wondering at God's sense of timing, Anita grabbed her jacket from the corner where she dropped it and quickly yanked out her wallet and keys before draping the jacket over Tammy. Just in time, too, as the elevator doors swung open to reveal half the police officers in St. Louis, standing around and looking concerned.

"She had the baby!" spread the cry along the corridor. As the waiting paramedics pushed through the crowd, a loud whoop came from down the hall.

"What was that all about?" Anita said, moving back to let the paramedics with their cool efficiency take over.

Tammy glanced up from her new baby, "Zerbrowski must have had the 'elevator' square in the baby pool," she said wryly.

Must have been.

Ten minutes later, Anita, still sitting against the wall in the hallway, watched as the paramedics finally rolled mother and baby toward the exit and the waiting ambulance, the new dad right at their side. Nathaniel, who had been waiting in the car for his Nimir-Ra before the whole mess started, sat beside her.

"Must have been strange," Nathaniel commented after a while, breaking the silence.

"Very strange." Anita rested her head against the wall.

"You ever think about it?" Nathaniel asked, his voice very neutral.

Anita's heart skipped a beat. It might just be a question, she thought, not Nathaniel suddenly getting broody. "I think about it."

"And?"

She thought of several answers, each designed to mask her feelings, then dropped them all and settled on the truth. He'd probably be able to smell a lie, anyway. "There is no place in my life to fit a baby," she said. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel sad, or happy, so she settled on feeling nothing about it. "It's not safe."

"Yeah." Maybe she imagined the regret in Nathaniel's voice. Or maybe it wasn't there, and she wasn't as empty as she thought.

After a few more minutes, Anita slowly stood up. "Ugh," she murmured as she took in the mess on her clothes and hands.

"Want to go wash up?"

"Yes, and then we're going home so I can shower."

"Okay," Nathaniel said acceptingly. He trailed after her toward the bathroom, but waited until she was at the door before saying, "You know they'll probably want you as the baby's godmother."

"Just great."
--fin

Comments

[fancyfirefly.livejournal.com]

this was great, as always.

funny, today my friend and i were just talking of the rumors regarding anita and pregnancy. we discussed possible daddies if it happens. we finally agree how ironic it would be if she got pregnant by nathaniel. lol

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you :)

I have a theory for that book. Have you read the first three chapter? They are posted on the LKH website... I think it's all a giant blind and she's not pregnant. That's just too much emotional baggage for Anita to have to deal with. But yeah, pregnant by Nate... interesting.

Have you seen my Firefly/Anita Blake crossover in which that is a main plot point? It's a six-parter, completed:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mhalachaiswords/94823.html

[fancyfirefly.livejournal.com]

i read the first chapter a while back. but i agree, it has to be a blind. i can't imagine anita actually having a baby with all that goes on. granted, in conversation we also wonder if something "tragic" happens to the baby if she is in fact pregnant.

thank for the link. i have more reading material. *huggles*

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Nice -- Anita gets to see human blood in a wholesome setting!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she and Larry get to do something life afirming for a change. But man, that kid is going to have an interesting life :)

[lishel_fracrium.livejournal.com]

lol, loved this. *bg*

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I had fun writing it. Good to get my head back in the game.

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

Great as always. It could be years before enough time passes in the Anitaverse for Tammy to actually have the baby, so it was nice to get a glimpse of might-bes.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I couldn't help myself. The prompt of "birth" for fanfic100 was just too easy.

I so need more LKH stuff! Can't wait for Micah...

[penyn-1600.livejournal.com]

Very cool. I like the irony on the elevator restarting just after the baby was born.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what always happens in the movies? Keep them confined just long enough to have the baby. No boring time wasters that way :)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm thinking, other than this is an absolutely wonderful story is if Anita were to have a child...she might actually be able to get that down time she's been needing for so long. She might actually be able to sepparate herself from the gruesome murders and hair-raising shoot-em-chop-em-ups. She might actually avoid those situations. maybe. And maybe she'd never take the risk. But on the other hand, if she never takes the risk, she'll never gain the return. I wonder how a kid raised by Anita and her men would turn out to be?

E.A.V.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Anita having a child would both immesurably complicate her life, and at the same time, simplify it. She'd realy have to make some hard decisions about her life, no more hiding.

I personally think that any such kid would turn out fine. (In fact, I sort of tangentally wrote about Anita and Richard having a kid in Different Eyes... and then of course Ashley from that story too. I'm restraining myself from writing any further stories about babies, puppies or robots in the AB-verse :)

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, yes. complicate, simplify, create difficult decisions. yes, yes. nod, nod. yes, yes.

Different Eyes--> Ashley was still in the process of growing up. And some studies show that you don't finnish the process of growing up till you're thirty. But it is a question for a different year, how Anita's children's lives would be.

What on earth...that icon sure is fun.

E.A.V.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I love the icon. I actually snagged it this morning. That's one of my fave Firefly quotes ever.

I think that Anita would be a good mother. She'd give the kid a good moral upbringing, and would really do all she could to raise the kid right. It would probably be the most uncomplicated relationship in her life: Someone that she loved, and that loved her, and that was it. Be damned hard work, but I can't see her putting any of her guys, or even her own wants, over the needs of a child.

I think I'm rambling, but that's okay. It's interesting how 13 books of a fictional character can drive us to think things that haven't been addressed in the books (the first 3 chapters of Danse Macabe don't count, because they didn't go into that at all.)(and because I say so)

[(Anonymous)]

You've got me snickering.

However, so many things can go wrong with raising a child. *sigh* Especially during the puberty years.

E.A.V.

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it. The characters (except maybe Tammy, on whom I have no real handle) seemed right. The third-person POV was an unusual choice for a straight-up Anita story. I thought you were trying to make a point that some things (such as other people's births) aren't about her (oh, the shock!), but then I realized that it *was* about her. So I'd be curious to know why you chose that POV.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Hrm, good question. Usually, when I write pure Anita, I do 1st person. I think the reason I chose the POV I did was that this story was more about Anita observing the situation, with a few thoughts thrown in, but she wasn't the main actor; Larry and Tammy and the baby were the centre of the action. So while it's still about Anita's thoughts, it's not about her actions.

Come to think of it, that may be why I wrote that Anita/Anya story a while ago in Anita 3rd person.