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[flybywash]

Keane and Phoebe's guest room -- which Annie matter-of-factly gave up in favor of the sofa, claiming she'd "take it back when I've got a kid thumping around inside me, too" -- is a good deal more spacious than Wash and Zoe's bunk, but with a bed that's just a little too narrow to sleep two people comfortably.

Wash isn't really noticing this right now. For one thing, he's fast asleep.

For another, the bed feels just fine when it's missing its other occupant.

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[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

A few minutes ago, Zoe slid out of bed and went into the bathroom.

Nothing unusal there--having nine months worth of baby sitting on top of your bladder will do that.

What's maybe a bit unusual is the length of time she's been in there, and the tone of her voice when she calls out.

"...Wash? Honey?"

[flybywash]

"Mmngh."

Wash rolls over, blinking blearily, finally noticing that the reason he wasn't feeling cramped was because, well, he wasn't. He scrubs at his eyes and pushes himself upright.

"Yeah, Zo'?" he calls back, voice gravelly from sleep. The last syllable trails into a yawn.

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe's head and shoulders come into view around the doorframe.

She's gone into battle without looking this nervous.

"Hon? I'm pretty sure my water just broke."

[flybywash]

And Wash's jaw instantly snaps shut with an audible click.

He stares, eyes bugging out.

Somewhere in there is a small, strangled noise that's striving for some kind of coherent sentence and failing miserably.



"Qīngwā cào de liúmáng -- "

Oh, there it is.

For somebody who was half-asleep a moment ago, he's moving awfully fast now, stumbling as he catches his bad leg on the side of the bed and scrambling for his pants.

"Are you okay? Is everything okay, besides the -- the -- oh God. Okay. I'm breathing. Are you breathing?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe's crossed the room to sink down on the edge of the bed, unmindful of the fact that the crotch of her pajamas is no longer the driest thing in the 'verse.

"Yeah." And she is, deep, slow, careful breaths. "'M okay. Guess this is when I'm s'posed t' start keepin' track of--" she breaks off for a few moments, breath catching in her throat, "...contractions."

[flybywash]

"The length and how far they're apart, right?"

He's hopping around, still struggling with his pants, as he says this.

And he shouldn't have to ask it. He should know already. And tāmāde, they don't even have anything to time them with --

"This isn't even supposed to be happening for another week," he says, with a fair bit of desperation.

Right. Like saying that will make his wife snap out of labor and stay nice and pregnant for seven more days.

He finishes wrestling with his pants and quickly leans over to catch Zoe's mouth in a firm, if short, kiss. "Okay. Parents need waking up and Simon needs finding, I'll be back -- "

And he limps out of the room, bellowing for his folks at the top of his lungs.

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Shi a. Closer they get, closer we are t' havin' a baby on our hands."

Zoe's reasonably certain she can keep the time in her head. That being about as reasonably certain as she can be when a good portion of her brain's just repeating over and over what Wash just said about it being a week early.

She stays seated on the bed as he leaves the room, one hand curled against her stomach.

Nothing else yet.

[flybywash]

There's a faint, hurried, and somewhat high-pitched conversation down the hall, interspersed with lower-pitched grumbling that abruptly cuts off when the words " -- water just broke -- " enter in.

Meanwhile: muted footsteps, and from the other direction, Annie's face appears around the edge of the doorframe.

"Everything okay?" she asks sleepily. "What's Hoban screaming about this ti -- "

Her eyes go wide as they land on Zoe's soaking pyjamas.

"Oh. Oh, dammit."

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Wei, Annie." Zoe manages a weak grin, still holding her stomach. "Promise not t' do this every time we come visit."

[flybywash]

Behind her, Keane goes thumping past, calling back over his shoulder, "I'll warm up the hover -- "

"I'm driving!"

"You are not driving, you're calling the doc and then you're tending to your wife while she's giving birth to your kid!" he shouts back without slowing.

Ignoring them, Annie quickly ducks into the room and joins Zoe at the end of the bed, slipping an arm around her shoulders to help her stand. "Hey, the decor they've got in the bathroom's ugly anyway. Let's get you cleaned up and -- "

She's interrupted by Keane sheepishly backtracking and poking his head into the room. "Hi, Zoe," he says. "You shiny?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"'Bout as shiny as I think I can hope for at the moment," Zoe reassures him, standing with Annie's help. "How's Wash doin'?"

[flybywash]

"Having conniption fits. One of you convince him that he's not the only man in the 'verse who knows how to drive a hover, willya?"

"What? I never said that! Mom, where's the wavescreen again -- ?"

Phoebe's voice: "The kitchen, and calm down, sweetheart."

Annie and Keane both roll their eyes good-naturedly, and in near-perfect synch; Keane disappears in the direction of the garage, while Annie guides Zoe toward the bathroom and asks, "You got anything comfortable left in your overnight bag?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, there should be..."

Zoe's normally not much of a nightgown person, but she's picked up one or two since she started wearing maternity clothes. With Annie's help, it's easy enough to get cleaned up and changed--even taking into account the fact that another contraction hits while they're in the bathroom.

[flybywash]

Meanwhile, Wash is in the kitchen, frantically entering the connection code to wave Serenity and the bypass code that'll jump the audio straight down to Simon's bunk without outside interference.

"Simon? Simon! Rise and shine, we've got a situation!"

[simon_doctor]

Simon's head is up off the pillow in a blink, wide awake before he's quite aware what's awakened him. Wash's voice coming tinnily from the comm -- "we've got a situation!" -- is enough to get him up, careful not to jostle Kaylee. She shifts slightly as he slides out of bed, but doesn't wake up.

He speaks quietly into the comm: "I'm here. What is it."

[flybywash]

On the other end of the line, Wash's sudden grin is a bit manic. Some of this carries through in his voice.

"A Zoe's just gone into labor kind of situation?" he offers. A deep breath as he rakes a hand through his hair. "My dad's firing up their hover, we should be over to you in ten or fifteen minutes."

It'd be less if he was driving. And with less chance of crashing, too.

[simon_doctor]

Simon answers calmly, with no hesitation. "I'll be in the infirmary. How far apart are the contractions?"

[flybywash]

"We're, uh -- " He gulps. "We're working on that part -- it just started, her wa -- "

"Hover's ready when you guys are!" Keane hollers in the background.

"Dĕng yìmiăo!" Wash yells back, then to Simon, "Her water broke maybe ten minutes ago tops."

[simon_doctor]

"All right. That's fine. We'll be ready when you get here."

In the bed, Kaylee (still asleep) makes a soft, blurry sound of mild protest.

[flybywash]

"Shiny. Zài-jiàn."

He disconnects the call and bolts back to the guest bedroom. Not finding Zoe there, he spins around and stumbles back out, almost colliding with Anneliese.

"Bathroom," she says without preamble, pointing in its direction.

"Thanks -- " He steadies himself and hobbles over to it. "Zoe?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe's sitting down, mostly just concentrating on breathing. No more contractions yet.

She looks up, and smiles a bit shakily.

"Hey. You get hold of Simon?"

[flybywash]

"Yeah, he's awake and getting everything ready in the infirmary, should be all set up by the time we get there."

Carefully, he eases into a crouch in front of her, one hand settled on her knee.

"How're you doing?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe lays a hand over his, her smile growing a bit.

"Not bad. Not thinkin' I'll miss all this too bad when it's over, though."

[flybywash]

He smiles and turns his hand palm-up to give hers a reassuring squeeze. Whether it's to reassure himself or Zoe...well, it's probably six of one, half dozen of the other.

"It'll be fine." With his other hand, he reaches up and gently cups her cheek. "You've got that crazy and really, really amazingly attractive strength going for you, which is more than...pretty much every other woman out there's got." A grin. "I know you'll do great. And it'll -- "

He's about to say only last for half a day, but this is not the time to be calling down jinxes on Zoe's pregnancy, so he hurriedly changes the subject.

" -- anyway, Dad's got the hover running and Mom's looking for something to time the painful bits with and I, uh..." A sheepish glance down at his bare chest. "Should probably put on a shirt before we all go charging back to the docks, huh."

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe laughs at that, a bit breathlessly.

"That might be a good plan."

[flybywash]

"Okay."

Dramatically, he flings an arm in the direction of the bedroom and intones, "To the suitcase!"

And then he hauls himself to his feet (using the sink for support) and rests a hand on Zoe's back to help her up.

With the deep, even breaths he's making himself take, you'd think he was the one going into labor.

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Oh, if there's one thing Zoe's clear on, here, it's which one of them's in labor.

She makes her way back out of the bathroom, moving carefully, leaning on Wash a bit.

[flybywash]

It's the work of moments to throw on a shirt, button it enough to cover most of his chest, then grab his cane as --

"Hoban -- "

Phoebe sticks her head in and lobs a small, spherical clock in his direction. Wash catches it effortlessly as she adds, "Your father has the hover warmed up; are you ready?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, he told me." He stuffs the clock in his pocket. "And yeah, I think we are."

He looks at Zoe for confirmation.

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe nods.

"Shi a. Let's get a move on."