Participants:
| Scene Title | Babies for Dummies |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Melissa calls on Brennan for some help before she goes insane. |
| Date | November 10, 2010 |
Village Renaissance: Quinn's Apartment
It's two days after the riots and though things are far from normal, some people are trying to get back to normal. Ish. After a conversation with Quinn, Melissa has moved herself to Quinn's apartment, though she's not alone. No, she's accompanied by a seven month old baby that is terrifying the pain manipulator, along with baffling her.
She hasn't brought much of her own to the apartment, but she did make a trip out to buy a lot of baby stuff. There's a playpen, one of those portable deals, along with clothes, diapers, formula, baby food, car seat…She's gone overboard. Very overboard. The rest of the apartment is sparsely furnished, though there's a couch and TV, but it's largely all hidden by the baby stuff.
And when Brennan arrives the girl is in the playpen, crying, and Mel looks like she's about to tear her hair or run and hide. "Oh c'mon, kid. Why are you crying? You're not hurting, I checked! You didn't stop crying when I made you feel better. So what is the problem?" she asks, sounding panicked.
A knock on the door might herald the savior, or Mel's savior at least as Brennan has pulled up and made his way through the verb up to the appropriate apartment that the text message indicated that he should go. The sound of a screaming upset baby is not what he was expecting when he was asked by Mel to come meet her. "Melissa?" He hopes that he's got the right apartment, after the brisk knock on the door. On his side, tehre's Brennan in jeans, leather jacket, a little stiff in his walk tanks to the beating by Hana and the rendevous with the suit. "It's Harve"
The door is opened just moments after that first knock, and relief shows plainly on Melissa's face before she all but drags Brennan into the apartment, then points at the baby. "Make it stop crying. She's been crying for half an hour and I don't know how to make her stop! She's not hurting, I know she's not. Why is she crying? Do you know how many migraine meds I've had to take in the last two days? I don't."
Behind door one, it's Mel, with a baby. Which leaves a baffled look on the Physician's face as he walks in past Melissa, peeling off his jacket carefully with a wince. It's tossed over a chair and within half a minute, he's carefully lifting the squalling infant from the portable crib and lifting her to his shoulder. A patt to the butt shows a fresh diaper, issue isn't there, a palm to forehead, not sick. "Where's her mother?" But he has a feeling already. Melissa takes in strays. "When did she last eat?" Against his shoulder he lays her, one palm rubbing gentle circles on her back, shushing sounds coming from the man who has a line of stitches across one side of his temple. Someone got caught doing something.
"Her mother was executed, two days ago," Melissa says flatly. "Along with some of my friends, for no reason at all, literally. I thought it was better that I take her than leave her with the shoulders who killed seven innocent people." Then the panic returns as she watches man and baby. "But I don't know anything about babies. I've never touched one before I took her. And I tried feeding her, but she didn't wanna eat." Of course Mel doesn't know anything about burping or what children that age actually eat.
"Two days ago" Monday. He's heard stories but… Brennan glances to the baby on his arms, sweeping towards the kitchen in hopes that he'll find some fruit, find something he can give the baby besides formula. "You know how old she is? I can try guessing by how big she is but.. babies, they come in all shapes and sizes, you know anything about her at all Melissa?" It's not criticisim, it's what he needs to figure out. "Formula, you have some somewhere and some bottles?"
Hands run through Melissa's hair as she moves to one bag she brought in, and she carries it to Brennan and dumps it on the counter. Inside are a dozen bottles, to go with all the forumla and food and whatnot already there. "I asked some Ferry people, since she came in with some other Ferry members. She's about seven months old. Name's Junko."
"Hey Junko. Sucks right now doesn't it" He's giving the little infant a smile, jiggling her a bit to try and bring her out of her fit. "Tell you what, lets give you a bath huh? I bet you'll like that. How about we have Mel show us where the bathroom is and we can all let you play in the water huh?" They can feed her after. "She's been crying a half hour?"
"I don't know, maybe. Maybe less. It feels like a few hours," Melissa admits as she heads down the hall to show Brennan the bathroom. "I got a bunch of baby towels and washcloths and stuff. And pretty much every baby bath type soap I could find. I pretty much just started shoving stuff into the buggy. I'll go get that stuff." And so she does, returning with several bags of stuff.
By the time she returns, he's got the baby on his knee, bouncing as he sits on the edge of the tub, running water in it, a glance up to the other woman. "Bought out the store? You just need baby shampoo and a regular washcloth" There's a sympathetic smile. "How are you doing? You didn't get hurt?" Given that she was in a place where apparently, some people were summarily executed. WHatever he's doing, it's working, the baby's hiccuped breathing as she starts to calm down. "Babies need to be held. Your not her mother and they're finicky about that but… But they like to be held. You wanna try and bathe her?" Since it seems, she incorporated another stray.
"I got shot, nearly executed, but I'm fine. Wasn't the first time I got shot. Hurts a lil' more this time 'cause it was my right arm, but I'll live," Melissa says, shrugging her left shoulder. But then there's the bathing and the panic returns to her face. "I…should I? What if I drop her or bang her head against something or drown her?" she asks, but she sits slowly on the edge of the tub as well.
"If you're shot, rest that arm. I'll do it. She's seven months Mel, she can sit up on her own. You just have to make sure she doens't topple over or the water is too hot. BEsides, babies are resilient little buggers." There's about a palms depth of water and he's turning off the water with one hand, then sets about to getting her into the water, letting toes dangle first, followed by sitting the baby down so that she can slap at the water and otherwise occupy herself with that instead of crying for a woman who will never come.
"Do you need any drugs or are you good? You can come by the clinic and I can look you over or Michelle can"
"Oh, yeah, guess I should. And nah, I'm good on drugs. I've made sure I stocked up. Made sure I was extra stocked up before the eighth. I knew I'd be needing them," Melissa admits as she watches Brennan and the baby, blinking when she gets splashed. "She's not crying," she murmurs, the tone a bit wondering. "Is that the trick? Just stick babies in the bath when they cry?"
"Not a trick. It's their only way of communicating. Crying. You get used to it, all needs have different cries, you learn to decipher them. That and you go through the needs of an infant the basics being diaper, food, tired or wanting attention. Go through them all and when you can't figure it out, go to the secondary. Scared, lonely, bored and hurt"
Brennan keeps his attention mostly on the baby, watching her. "Who did the executing and why?"
"Oh man. This is gonna be hard. Kendall was hard enough, but at least he could talk," Melissa says, grimacing as she watches Junko splash around and play. The question has Mel going quiet for a long moment. "I went to Staten Island after I got shot, so I could get someone to patch up my shoulder. A sort of makeshift field hospital. A few Ferrymen came in after me, including Junko and her mom. A minute or two later, a bunch of soldiers came in. They walked in and without a word shot two men in the head."
She looks up to Brennan. "The then let some of us go, and lined five of us up against a wall. Randomly picked. Then those five were killed. Jonas was one of them. The kid from the safehouse, when the Institute came after Liette, remember?" she says softly.
He remembers the teenager, the one with the ability involving his sight. "Anyone manage to catch it on a phone or something?" His hands are tied, and what's gone on the last few days, the instituting of Martial Law and everything else, has left a bad taste in many a mouth. "The Ferry, for the most part, are they okay? I'm not asking for the sake of relaying anything, I'm just… asking" For Liette.
"The Ferry as a whole? I have no idea. But the five people who were killed were Ferry," Melissa says softly, looking back to the baby. "But no, we didn't catch it on a phone. I think if we'd tried we would've ended up as dead as the baby's mom."
"Probably" They both watch Junko play, oblivious to the change that has been wrought in her life. "What are you going to do with her? Bring her to the Ferry, bring her to a hospital and turn her over or are you planning on taking care of her?"
Melissa smiles faintly and looks back up to Brennan. "I take in strays, Brennan. It's what I do. Kendall. Tony. Four others live or have lived at my house. Now her. She may absolutely terrify me, but I have to do what's right by her. Besides, did you see how much shit I bought for her?"
"Probably bought out all of babies'r'us" He nods. "She's not like taking care of a teenager though. Just remember that. If you need help, you have my number, Michelle is a pediatrician, you can bring her to Michelle if she gets sick, if you have questions." He won't press, it's not his place to press, not until he see's how she handles the baby. "I can stick around, for an hour, help you get things sorted with her, show you the basics. If you need to, want to, you can come with me, bring her to our place and you and she cans tay for a few days and Mcihelle can teach you what she can"
"Trust me, I've noticed that part," Melissa mutters. "Kendall doesn't cry constantly, and I never had to worry about diapers." And that thought makes her shudder. "Right now though, I'm good. Friend's letting me stay here until she gets back, because I can't get to either my government forced apartment or house. But I'll definitely keep Michelle in mind, believe me."
"Well, you have the number, buck up. You can do it. Just another stray. Smaller one with a lot more needs to take care of." He leans over, scooping up some water with his palms to tip them and trickle them over the infants back. "Why don't you go make sure the new bottles are washed and clean, and we'll be out in five minutes for feeding and then I'll get you some take out"
"Right. Clean bottles. I can do that." If there's one thing Melissa can do, it's clean. It's familiar, comforting, and it eases some of the obvious panic from her face. So it's up and out, and water starts running in the kitchen a minute later.
Brennan watches Melissa go, off to do some cleaning, turning back to the asian infant, tilting his head a bit as he goes to drip more water over her, distract her from crying. "Be good to her" He tells the baby. "Go easy on her, she won't know any better hmm? Lets get you out of here" BEfore lifting her up to plunk her down on a towel. "It's a whole new world out there for the both of you and she's going to need your help taking care of y ou"
Melissa is blissfully ignorant of Brennan's peptalk to the baby, which is probably good since she'd no doubt feel a bit of insult at the thought of a baby helping her. But who knows. After a few minutes the water is shut off and now clean bottles are set on a towel upside down to drain and dry.
