ic Interceptors: Mia

[Avenger Assembled]

"I have seen childbirth on Earth-Prime," said Steve, breaking into the conversation and still staring out at the street laid out beneath them. He hadn't quite had the courage to look either his employer or her antagonist in the eye. "It was on one of your television stations." He and Gina had actually watched that particular show together, her agoraphobia not extending to the most intimate lives of others. "When the mother and the father looked into the child's eyes for the first time, I would have wept, if tears were my allotment." He did look back now, his scarred face visible as he turned his head and shoulders back towards the others. "When your children are born, they are born to parents that wish them to be alive, who can feed them and clothe them, who will not sacrifice them to feed their god, and give them a life beyond survival. It is...beyond my power to describe." He turned back to his post and said, his voice quiet like the rumble of a distant avalanche, "When we have the news of the birth, let the family below see us as one. Just for a moment." 

[Electra]

Stesha grimaced at the reminder for just a moment, as much as the knowledge that her recent problems were in other peoples' minds as at the trouble itself, but almost instantly put on a smile overtop of it. "Not at all," she assured Gina. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! What better way to remember that life goes on, right? And if there's going to be any trouble, I want to be here to help. Um," she added, slightly tentative again, "would you like to go upstairs? I could pop you up there through a portal, no problem at all, and you could check in on them?" 

[Gizmo]

Gina made a flat snorting sound as she wheeled herself backward in a tight curve to better face Stesha and the stairway at the same time. "Hah, that would serve the-- hrmh." She stopped mid-sentence with an eye toward the children, particularly Yolanda who was alternating between dutifully keeping watch over the younger girls and studiously soaking up every word around her. The older woman's expression softened noticeably as she studied the florakinetic's face, pressing her lips into a line. "I'm sorry, dear, I can be a bit too direct with family sometimes. Still, priorities. I decided a very long time ago that that man was not worth my aggravation. So long as Steve and Mara keep John out of the way, tch." Gina made a dismissive wave with one hand, exposing the corded muscle of her forearm. "I may ask for your help getting up to the second floor in a bit though, if you would."

Jean spent several silent moments regarding the back of Steve's head with his mouth very slightly agape, trying to parse the unexpected outpouring from the previously terse man. Mara had been watching carefully, however, and the swordsman's smile had already slipped from his face before the former Omegadrone had started to speak. Whatever witty remark of approval he'd had prepared for her purported lack of pity had died on his lips the second she'd mentioned his ex-wife's wheelchair. Clearing his throat, he eventually managed, "You have a talent for prioritization, mon ami. I promise you both, I intend to do nothing to disrupt the day. For what my tarnished word may be worth, eh?" The small attempt at self-deprecation didn't quite restore his previous poise, no matter now hard he was obviously trying to pretend to the contrary.

[April]

The world above the stairs was so very different to that below or outside the walls of the Espadas home.  Here, despite the labor, it was an island of peace amid the tension and aggravation outside.  By virtue of her preternaturally enhanced senses Minerva could hear every word that was being uttered by a human mouth and she could sense on the wind the observations of the flora outside her homes walls, but she tuned it out.

To Erik's good fortune Stesha arrived with his mother in tow just in time for the Min's surrogate sister to assist.  The piercing cry of a newborn cut through the house, and a new Espadas entered the world.

Gods help us all.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Sorus