Participants:
| Scene Title | Not Mitten |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Samara and Brian discuss names for their daughter. |
| Date | October 15, 2011 |
It's been a crazy day. The craziness started in the wee hours of the morning when Sami had a bout of indigestion. She'd silently gotten up and started walking around the castle, pacing to get rid of that tinge of pain that was so totally something she ate yesterday. It'd actually taken some effort to find her after she got herself pseudo lost — her sense of direction seemed further hampered by the pain.
By chance she'd turned a corner and found herself back to the familiar. Ten hours of labour later and Brian and Sami had a beautiful baby girl.
Hours after the birth, Sami sits up in bed staring at the doe-eyed girl wrapped in a blanket in her arms. "She's so pretty," she virtually coos. "I'm one of those awful people who don't think all babies are beautiful. But objectively this one is. Good work," she muses softly.
She speaks softly. "Still needs a name though~" she hums softly. "I'm partial to Elula~"
Eyes perpetually red rimmed, Winters nods in soft agreement. "I mean." His voice sounds raspy, tired, though there is still a fleck of good humor in it. "It's easier to not be ugly as a baby. Just like it's hard to be an ugly puppy. It's definitely possible, I just feel like the odds are lower." One finger swaying softly back and forth the small human's arm.
"But our baby definitely didn't crap out on the odds." He grins quietly. "Thank you for finally complying.. It took you long enough." He directs towards the baby. As Samara intones about the name, the young man laying beside her slowly looks up his features blank.
"Yeah?" He asks, keeping any sort of tone out of his voice. Straight and steady. Gauge whether or not she is serious.
"I don't think all babies are cute," Sami interjects. "I mean, by all odds, a lot of babies are cute, but not all. Some babies have really warped heads. But her head is perfect." Her lips twist to the side. "Or I'm biased. I could be biased." Her eyebrows draw together slightly.
It's then that she looks up at Brian regarding the name she's just suggested, "It's pretty right? I also like Normany. It's almost Norman but girlies.”
"Maybe not all babies are cute. But it's far easier for a baby to be cute than a forty year old of any gender." He grins at her shaking his head, "Even a warped head baby has a better chance at being cute than like, Larry in accounting or something like that." Leaning over he places another kiss on her cheek. "You are obviously completely objective in this entire thing."
He looks at her stone faced again. Nodding simply. "Normany." He repeats. Looking down at the baby then back to Samara, then back to the baby. "Like the beach of Normany."
Brian prompts Sam to beam at the mention of her objectivity. "Objective and completely neutral in all of this. But yeah, I don't think Larry from accounting sounds cute. Let's discourage her from being an accountant… and not name her Larry." She cringes. "She doesn't look like a Larry."
Sami wrinkles her nose and shoots Brian a bright grin. "Yeah! It's kind of girly and pretty, right?" Her smile grows as she offers another into the foray, "Or Story? Story Winters has a good ring to it. Or Mitten!! I once read a book that had a main character named Mitten. I like it. Especially Mitten Winters. It's like cold and something to combat the cold."
His eyes do not leave the face of his beloved. He stays there, as cool as his namesake. There are no cracks in his armor. Well there might be a little twitch here and there of him trying to suppress laughter and completely break before her. But so far he manages not to. "Story." He repeats blandly. "Mitten." Gets his voice raising a little bit.
"Mitten."
Leaning in to kiss her cheek again, he leans over the side of the bed and sits up. "Sami." He murmurs softly, lovingly. "We're not going to name her Mitten."
The way Brian manages to maintain his composure through all of this is to his credit, especially the repetition of the name Mitten. Story she seems to let fall to the wayside, but the critique of the last causes her nose to wrinkle. "But mittens are awesome! They keep your hands warm and cozy and she's warm and cozy and—" she cuts herself off.
"Okay. Not Mitten."
She studies the babe's face. "Yeah. Maybe not Mitten." Her lips twist to the side. "So I guess that leaves Normany, Story, or Elula. Unless you have other ideas?" She sucks on the inside of her cheek.
"What about—" He raises his voice some, intentionally interrupting her. "What about Ali? My mothers name, my birth mom, the one I never met? Her name was Alison. I'm not crazy about the name Alison. But what about just Ali?"
He turns to face her, going to place one hand on the baby. "As good as Story, Elula, and Normany are." He smiles softly up at her.
"What do you think?"
Sami's cheeks flush a pale pink. Her head cants to the side and she studies the baby's face, considering the name. "I…" she hums softly. "…Ali." Her chin drops into a small nod and she offers further, "I like it." There's a pause. "I know you didn't know her, but do you know — was she kind?" Which might seem like a strange question to ask as they're all cast away from the world at large.
She clears her throat. "I know we have no right to it, but I have hope that things will be better for people like us someday. Like her if she's like us. Even though she has a mom who is legally dead and a dad who's died many times over yet still gets to live."
"Her middle name can be Elula?" He offers as some sort of weird consolation prize. Leaning back into the bed with her he goes to loop one arm around her shoulders, the other hand going to rest on the sleeping child. "I think so."
"We'll make the world better for her. Or at least we'll make part of it better for her. We'll carve out a piece of this world and make it what she needs." He hums quietly. "She's probably going to be like us. Both of your siblings. Me. My sister."
"It's in our blood."
"It's in her blood. I hope it just doesn't cause her any hardship." He is smiling dreamily down at the little girl. "And obviously I hope it's something awesome. But I mean. I'm sure we'll accept her and love her even if she can just grow her nails really fast or something."
Hugging Samara into him tightly he goes to rest his head against her. "No matter what the world says or does. She's gonna have her own world constantly surrounding her, protecting her."
"I liked it better as a first name," it's a good compromise though. And so Sami hums again, "Maybe Hope as a middle name? We aren't in easy times. Might be better to emphasize it. Or something." Her eyebrows lift and she settles against him, leaning into the arms round her shoulders as her eyes drift closed lightly.
"Yeah, I kind of thought it was likely she'd be like us. I hope she can't grow her nails really fast. That would be awful. I'm already nervous about clipping them! Have you seen how tiny her fingers are?! How is anyone supposed to clip those suckers? And if they grow quickly," she cringes.
"But I will love her anyways. Even if I have to clip her nails constantly with grave fear of clipping her fingertip and irreparably damaging her fingerprints for the rest of her life. And whenever her stranger fingerprint comes up in life she'll talk about that time her mother clipped her fingertip and forever changed her fingerprints for life."
Her throat clears. "We'll keep all of them safe. We have to."
Listening to Samara rattle on about the fingertips, fingerclips, and strangers fingerprints Brian watches her with another stoney expression. Simply nodding her on as she speaks. "And that's what true love is."
"Ali Elula." He emphasizes it as if to show her how cool it sounds. "Alielula. It flows off the tongue as if the heavens themselves had ordained it to be. Ali Elula Winters." He gives a litthe shrug. "I think it sounds good."
Listening to Samara rattle on about the fingertips, fingerclips, and strangers fingerprints Brian watches her with another stoney expression. Simply nodding her on as she speaks. "And that's what true love is. Being willing to clip nails constantly with grave fear of clipping fingertips and irreparably.." He gasps in air and decides to leave the rest of it unsaid.
Leaning in he places his lips against her cheek. "I like this little thing. We should do our best to not get it blown up, what do you think?"
"I could get onboard with that," Sami murmurs when he says her full name. "Ali Elula Winters," she adds while she sucks on her cheek. "It's not bad. Lots of bowels. It sounds like a dancer's name," she offers helpfully with a slight twinkle in her eyes.
"We should keep her from getting blown up," Sami agrees softly. "And maybe try to avoid much the same ourselves," her green eyes spark with something unspoken. "As much as we can, I mean." Her teeth play at her bottom lip, "Two weeks and we can move her, right?"
"Lots of bowels." Brian repeats, his lips curling up brightly. "You said bowels instead of vowels." He laughs , tilting his head back, his laugh getting a little louder before he remembers himself. His hand claps over his mouth as he stares wide eyed down at the child. He looks over to Samara with the expression of a puppy who thinks he's about to be hit.
Recovering, his free hand goes to interlink with hers, grey eyes mirroring hers. "Meh. We've lived good lives." He smiles moving his head in to rest against hers. "Two weeks." He whispers softly. "And we'll join the kids."
Sami rolls her eyes and playfully smacks Brian's arm. "You see how coherent you are after ten hours of labour!" But even so, she manages to have a wide grin despite the teasing. The baby stirs, but somehow manages to sleep, prompting a lift of Sami's eyebrows and a small smile and shrug. At least Ali is still sleeping. For now.
The last has her looking back up at him. "You've died about a million times over. Just make sure at least one of you survive this. Please. We all need you." She inhales a long breath and nods. "Two weeks. Just two weeks." Her head turns and she grants his hand a sharp squeeze, "Did you convince Gillian?"
Grinning as the punishment is meted out for his crime, he does watch the baby with a bit more fear before she does indeed settle down. Though as she talks about him dying it does sober him up a fair bit. "Going to die a lot more next month. Two big trips planned. The Ark. Alaska. I'm probably going to have to push myself as hard as I can. Might make me a little weak here with you. Probably when we're already on the road. I'm sorry ahead of time. I just think I'm going to be having to push out a lot of guys. These people we're fighting have armies. So.." He shrugs a little bit. "Gotta do my part to give us one."
"Two weeks." He repeats. "Not yet. Maybe in two weeks." He gives a light little grin over at her. "Or we could stay a bit longer. Maybe you can talk to her? Put this little thing in front of her. Might help convince her." He grins down at the child.
Sami inhales a long breath. "Weak is fine," she returns softly. "Just keep one of you alive." There's a pause. "I mean other than the one that isn't… that is different…" she actually cringes at that and her own expression stiffens while she swallows hard around the growing lump in her throat. "And I understand. You need to do what you can. We all do."
As far as Gillian is concerned she manages a small smile, "I was going to offer to try to talk to her, and figured Ali might be a good reason to get a move on. I'll even seem defenceless if it helps. It could happen, right?"
"It's very hard to really kill me." He smiles sweetly at her. "Like really. Come on. I'm in Utah right now, here, gonna be in Alaska, Massachussetts. It's gonna take one hell of an event to kill all of me at once." He rubs her leg a little, leaning into her.
"Maybe you could talk to her and Lene. You talking to them.." He trails off looking over at her with a dreamy glaze over his features. "I think that would be really nice. Whether or not she agreed." Leaning his head against hers once again.
"So after these big operations. It'll be bye bye to New York Ferry. And hello to wherever the hell we settle. Hopefully we pull them with us. And Koshka. We gotta figure a way to get Koshka out." He gives a frustrated sigh. "But.. that's something to think about later." He looks down at his daughter. "I think you ought to follow her good example and get some rest yourself."
Sami mumbles something softly and then nods. "Alright. I'll try to talk to her and Lene. And will use this little tike as a persuasion tactic." Her smile sparkles and then fades slightly at the mention of Koshka. "How is she doing in there?" she swallows hard. "I could maybe get the ankle bracelet off if I could go in with my ability. Now that this rugrat is out, maybe I could — " but it's not the time for that chatter.
She concedes with the last and slides down to rest her head on the pillow. "You take this one," she motions towards the baby in her arms. "I'll sleep. And try to talk to Gillian and Lene when I'm not the walking dead."
"Might be worth a shot."
"We'll talk about it more once you rest." Standing up, Winters goes to cradle the infant gently to his chest. Moving from the bed some to sit in the armchair nearby. "You already were the walking dead, remember?" His eyes go to the mirror in the room as his eyes dance over what once was, and then his gaze shifts down to the child in his arms.
"I met your mommy in a mirror." He whispers quietly, huddling his close to his chest.
"She thought she was a ghost. Yes, she was a dummy." The whispers trail off as he rocks back and forth in the chair, watching the ladies of his life rest.