What to Expect [closed]

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew's unease about his pregnancy has not abated despite James's best efforts to comfort him. Multiple scans have conclusively shown that he is not, in fact, falling apart on a cellular level, and furthermore that he does, in fact, possess the internal structures necessary to carrying a baby. On the other hand, he feels terrible all the time and a male, half-Time Lord pregnancy is -- much like a meta-crisis in general -- a medical mystery. He's been reading up on human pregnancy, which has mostly convinced him that he's in for nine months of pain and bloating. Lately, too, his trousers have started to feel tight, which can't be right at only five weeks in.

Getting out and walking seems to help with the sickness and the general malaise, so today he's set himself the goal of making it to and from the library without calling a cab despite the feeling that he'd really rather take a nap, eat some ice cream, and watch five hours of cartoons. The first half of the operation has been a resounding success thanks in part to automated check-out stands that don't ask questions or make comments about his stack of classic sci fi, trashy romance, and books on pregnancy.

Fruits of his labor in a canvas bag, Andrew slips out the library doors and points his nose toward home. He yawns and rubs his eyes as he goes, ready for a sit down but not sure he'll be willing to get back up once he does. His stomach is starting to act up, too, and less than half a block on his way he pauses and leans against a building, wrapping his free hand around his gut and willing it to pass. The wave of nausea only intensifies, though, and he grits his teeth and looks around for a trash can. He does hear the creak and crunch above him that signifies something more than a little important, but doesn't succeed in separating it from the general noise of the city.

Comments

[bluesuit_handy]

"Months," he sighs, voice similarly soft. He reaches out to the twirling piece of grass, but doesn't try to take it. He stops short of touching it, even, and just watches. He'd like to know what Aiden is, but a little background info on who these two are is in order first. "Have you found somewhere to live?"

That's a gentle way of asking whether she's signed up with one of the groups snapping up rifties. He hopes not ROMAC, though in all honesty he's unlikely to advise her to turn herself in to the Rebels, either.

[heysoulsister]

The blade of grass twists in the air, appears to tie itself into a neat little bow, and then drops gently into Andrew's outstretched palm. Jodie rolls her eyes, though she can't help smiling a little at the display. She's never seen Aiden go out of his way to be likable. It's kind of cute, but she keeps that thought to herself.

Andrew's next question is harder to answer. She's not on the street, but only just, and she doesn't want to go crawling back to Gabriel after the way she stormed out of the bowling alley. "Sort of," she hedges. She wants to ask what people do when they don't want to throw their hat in with some faceless organization, but that would involve admitting she doesn't trust either group to a guy who might very well work for one of them.

[bluesuit_handy]

The non-answer means she's as wary of his answer as he is of hers, which doesn't actually tell Andrew anything. Both groups have at least individual members aware of where he and James live (or so he thinks, assuming as he does that Topher still works for ROMAC), but he still doesn't like to volunteer their information to the shadowy government whatsit.

He grins, though, at the present from Aiden, and lifts it up to look more closely at it. "The first few weeks are hard," he comments. "Well, I'd be lying if I said it got easy, but...you work things out. Or we did. I came here with my, ah...boyfriend."

The pause isn't because he's uncomfortable admitting he's in a relationship with another man, but because he still doesn't know what to call that relationship. If James has him knocked up, though, they ought to at least be boyfriends.

[heysoulsister]

How, though? Maybe it would be safe to admit that she's not with either group. Even if he does work for one of them, what is he going to do? Take her in? She likes him, and Aiden likes him, but he'd still have a job and a half trying to get her to do a damn thing she didn't want to. She wouldn't mind help, but she's done being pushed around.

"That's lucky," she says, because she's learned enough - even keeping such a low profile - to know that it usually doesn't work out that way. "Aiden came with me, but…" she shrugs. "He's always with me."

[bluesuit_handy]

Through high tech thievery, of course. They've moved on from robbing ATMs, but they're still subsisting on the same basic principle. "I guessed so," he says, deciding that's opening enough to ask. "You're connected, aren't you? Is that how it is for people where you're from?"

[heysoulsister]

The question startles her for a moment, and then she thinks: stupid. Just because Andrew's friendly and had a good long look at her past's Worst Hits doesn't mean he knows everything about her. She's been talking to him as if he's Cole, or Nathan, when she ought to be more careful about what she tells him.

She's not sure she should lie about this, though (or not sure she can, convincingly). It's tempting to try and pass off her universe as one where she's normal, not because she's like everyone else, but because everyone else is like her. But she can't imagine that universe, let alone pretend it's home. She plucks another blade of grass, but Aiden only gives it a halfhearted tumble before letting it drop. "It's how it is for us," she admits.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Ah." It could have gone either way, really. There are worlds like that, though he can't recall any where the linked people are humans and invisible whatevers. He's burning up with curiosity now, but that last question didn't seem to go over so well. "Human, then?" he asks lightly, partly to establish that he really is working from a broad, broad range of 'normal.'

[heysoulsister]

Jodie blinks. Which one of them is he asking about? She'd think her own humanity was evident - and that Aiden's… not humanity… was obvious, too.

"I'm human. Aiden's… in my universe, he's called an entity." Safe enough, basic enough, to share without much worry. Especially because to anyone not involved with her universe's DPA, 'entity' doesn't mean a damn thing.

[bluesuit_handy]

Well, that just answered the question of whether Jodie and Aiden are entirely unique where they come from, didn't it? Andrew nods as if this is perfectly normal, established terminology. "I'm not," he admits just to be fair and to gamble on her feeling more at ease if he shares as well.

[heysoulsister]

"What, not human?" Jodie gives Andrew a dubious once-over, as if he might have some obviously alien trait that she somehow missed the last umpteen times she looked at him. There aren't any. Aiden examines Andrew as well, but unless Jodie touches him, he can't see any more than she can.

She was so worried about looking like she had a few screws loose. Maybe she should have been worried about him. "What are you, then?" she asks.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Alien-human hybrid," sniffs Andrew, rolling one shoulder in a shrug. "And before you start, it's you humans who look like us, not the other way round. And don't tell me you haven't met weirder since you came here."

And don't tell him you aren't weirder yourself, Jodie.

[heysoulsister]

Weirder than an alien-human hybrid? She'd beg to differ. She might have a poltergeist on an invisible leash, but there's nothing weird about her.

Well, except for the telekinesis. And seeing dead people. But she's still just human.

"I don't know," she says, drawing her knees up and looping her arms around them. "I haven't been getting out much. You might be the weirdest."

[bluesuit_handy]

If she only knew. Best not share his other secret.

"Well, that's what you get when you go meeting people in dreams," he grins. "Do you mean to tell me you haven't met any of the really odd people? No little green men, no fairies...no anthropomorphic ducks?"

It'd be kind of hard to miss Howard if she's ever been in the undergound base.

[heysoulsister]

Her expression pretty clearly indicates that the answer is 'no.' Gabriel was weird - and, okay, Zagreus was incredibly weird - but she's yet to see anyone on the street who couldn't pass for human. It hadn't even occurred to her before this conversation that the rift would suck in any non-humans.

Aiden lets out a quiet murmur that might contain: ducks?

"There are really people like that here?" she asks with a skeptical little shake of her head. "Where the hell do they live?"

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew wishes he knew more about ROMAC. Do they segregate their obvious non-humans? Could she be asking because she lives in their apartments and hasn't seen anyone who doesn't look like her there? Or is she unaffiliated?

"Certain groups of people tend to hide them away," he says carefully.

[heysoulsister]

Any lingering skepticism in her expression vanishes along with all traces of amusement. That sounds pretty fucking familiar: tucking the weirdos away so normal people won't have to deal with them. Aiden makes his displeasure known via a faint chill in the air - not enough to cause their breath to fog, but enough for them to notice.

"Of course they do," Jodie mutters, looking away.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew's mouth tightens. For a moment he considers reaching out and taking her hand. Instead, he asks, "You're not with ROMAC, are you? You don't seem the kind."

[heysoulsister]

Jodie hesitates. The truth, in this case, might be safer than a lie. It doesn't sound like Andrew's with ROMAC, but even if he is - or if he's with the rebels - the least offensive position she could take is that of someone unaffiliated with either group, right?

Aiden gives her a nudge. She has to say something.

"I'm not with anyone." Not even Johnny, anymore. She shrugs, as if it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. She and Aiden are getting by - not with much grace, but they're managing.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Neither are we," says Andrew. "Not really. Not going to take up arms one way or the other, at any rate. How are you getting on? I can't imagine you had much with you when you got here."

Just gonna keep picking away at your 'we're fine, everything's fine' cover, Jodie. Pick, pick, pick.

[heysoulsister]

Another shrug. "We're doing okay," she says with a trace of defiance, though she's not sure how to elaborate on that without revealing that they're hitting up ATMs for cash. "Just staying in a motel for now."

This would normally be the part when Aiden gets huffy - even the most well-meaning prying tends to be met with disapproval. But even he's starting to chafe under their collective lack of any kind of plan, and he's more willing to entertain the idea of help from Andrew than help from Gabriel or Johnny.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew nods thoughtfully. "We did that, too, right at first," he tells the pair of them. "Course, it's a little easier when one of you can talk to ATMs."

What's she going to do, turn him in? Touching the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth, he says conversationally, "James makes a very good curry. Very good everything, really. I know Aiden doesn't eat, but I'm guessing you do."

[heysoulsister]

That detail is so spot on that for a brief moment, she wonders if Andrew's been tailing her or something. Almost immediately, though, she realizes that's ridiculous. Even if his initial failure to remember her was an act, she and Aiden are collectively sharp enough that she's confident no one could have been tailing her without her notice. They've been too careful for that.

Aiden, meanwhile, is making the tether hum with excitement. Can Andrew talk to ATMs, too? Or is it James? Even if all they're doing is comparatively run-of-the-mill hacking, it's still right up his street. And they're being invited to dinner. This, as far as Aiden is concerned, is good. And if it turns out to not be good, he'll get Jodie out.

Despite Aiden's earlier behavior, Jodie's still a little surprised to feel his approval for the idea. "Um… yeah," she says with tentative enthusiasm. Is he seriously inviting them over? They only just met.

[bluesuit_handy]

She only just saved his life. And alright, maybe she's got a being of great and terrible power he doesn't understand tethered to her, and maybe she's edgy and obviously doesn't trust him even if she does like him enough to keep him from dying in a very messy way, but Andrew also remembers the little girl who had never been to Disney World and whose dreams were full of monsters and frozen corpses.

"Brilliant," he says with a grin. "He'll want to meet you...but maybe we shouldn't tell him I almost died. He already worries too much."

As if it isn't Andrew who does all the worrying.

[heysoulsister]

Don't take it personally, Andrew. Jodie doesn't trust anyone.

"Okay," she agrees, and her smile is genuine, if still a little incredulous. Her post-rift life has been largely neutral or bad; she doesn't know what to do with good. So she takes a breath, and decides to take it at face value. If they don't screw this up, maybe she'll even have a couple of new friends by the end of the day - and Aiden feels unusually cooperative. That in and of itself might be cause for concern, but she doesn't want to piss the entity off by doubting his intentions.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Hang on, let me text. He might have started cooking already." More like Andrew wants to be sure James will hide the bondage gear and the high tech nonsense before they get there. The high tech nonsense she might get to see later; bondage gear not so much. He gets out his phone and taps out a message to James and tries to ignore how his stomach is twinging again.

"Come on," he says when he's done, standing up and brushing off the seat of his pants. "It's not far from here."