Gary was in one of the small room's two seats. Liam ceased his pacing, placed a hand on the older man's shoulder, and leaned in to whisper, "I got to piss. Keep an eye on her for me?"
There was a bathroom attached to the hospital room, but Gary knew Liam wanted an excuse to escape the cloying confines of the room.
"Sure thing, grab me something to drink on your way back?" Gary tried to give a reassuring smile. This was a new experience for Liam/Linda. Formerly, her role in the birth of a child was much more - - actively involved. Now, as Liam, he was forced to watch and wait. Gary was an old pro, having done it twice before with his own children.
The door quietly closed itself behind Liam. Of course, Gary was also enjoying this, though he could never let on to Liam or anyone else in the family. Anyone except Nora/Jack, that is.
"You bastard," Nora gasped as another contraction rocked her back into the embrace of the hospital bed, "If Linda knew what you - - "
"She'd probably give me a medal," Gary countered, a smile now curving his lips, "You weren't exactly ever father of the year."
"I never used the stone to hurt her," Nora growled around clenched teeth, letting out a forceful chuff of air when she was done. The contraction was a long one, arriving almost on the heels of the first, but the baby wouldn't be here anytime soon. Gary had seen to that.
"I didn't hurt her," Gary said after a moment, "I hurt you. Deliberately. There's a difference."
"Nnngh!" Nora shook her head, struggled to control her breathing, "What did I ever do to you, Gary? I have always protected this family!"
"Suuure you have," Gary's voice was laced with contempt, "That's why that freak DeMorrell got a hold of your magic rock and turned my family into something out of a daytime talkshow."
There wasn't a ton of love lost between Gary Gibson and Jack Merlin, rather the woman who used to be Jack Merlin, especially since it was Jack's magic stone that had been used to so drastically transform both himself and his family. Gary had seen it as only fitting that once the stone came into his possession, however briefly, he use its power to pay "Nora Merlin" back in kind. The first had been easy. After accquiring the stone he used his first moment alone to send Jack/Nora into labor. She didn't even realize that one was due to him. It seemed people only remember a wish if they hear it and for the later ones Gary had wanted her to know what was being done to her.
"You didn't - - you," Nora stuttered and then stopped, her breathing ragged, hands cradling her convulsing belly. It was a few minutes before she could muster the composure to speak, "You didn't have to make it a long labor! Why are you torturing me like this? Haven't I paid enough already?"
"I didn't do it to torture you," Gary smirked, "I did it to give your boyfriend time to get here."
"I don't have a boyfriend, goddamnit!" Nora spat out, eyes blazing with pain and anger. Gary had wished Nora's unspecified "boyfriend" didn't know the baby wasn't his and was on his way to the hospital for the "big event."
"You do now," Nora's tormentor gave a disingenious smile, "We can't afford another mouth to feed at our house and you needed somewhere to stay, someone to help you with the baby. It was a good idea."
"Gary, I know we never got along. Ungh!" Nora winced, another wave of pain washing in, but would not be silenced, "We have never been close. I know you despise me, but you didn't have to do this. Use the stone. Fix this. Change me back to normal! Please, I am begging you!"
"Sorry," Gary spread his hands in a gesture of powerlessness, "Don't have the stone. Jonni called and told us to wish it back to her."
"And you didn't need it anymore, your work was d - do - ooooohhhhh nooooo," Nora screamed this time, her first, a low shriek. She had known pain before, gotten wounded several times in the course of her adventures, but she had never felt pain quite like this, from the inside out, stretching, tearing, squeezing pain.
"Shhhhh, it's okay," Gary tenderly placed a sympathetic hand on her arm, petting it reassuringly, a sadistic glint in his eyes. Nora wanted to yell at him, order him to leave her alone, stop touching her, but the pain was so deep, so all encompassing she couldn't marshal her thoughts. She was operating on pure animal instinct.
Of course, that was the moment when Liam came back into the room, a can of iced tea in each hand. Another of Gary's wishes kicked in and Nora was inflicted with what she was coming to think of as "selective silence." Gary hadn't actually changed anything about her mind or her manner of speech, Nora just couldn't speak with anyone about what he had done to her with the stone. Thanks to Gary's specifically timing his wishes, Liam didn't even realize Nora's boyfriend wasn't a real boyfriend.
"How's she doing?" Liam looked from Nora's grimace to Gary's sympathetic eyes as he passed the other man one of the drinks.
"Not too bad," Gary shrugged before looking Nora/Jack in the eye, "Jack's pretty tough. He's taking it better than you did with Jon."
"No kidding?" Liam seemed pleasantly surprised and looked to his former father for confirmation.
"Yeah," Nora panted for breath a second or two and continued, "I'll be okay. It hurts, but I'll be fine. Better to do it here than in DeMorrell's dungeon."
Inwardly, Nora seethed. What she said was true. It just wasn't what she had originally wanted to say. She had wanted to tell Liam how Gary had used the stone to further complicate her already ridiculous situation, but her mouth just wouldn't form the words. She couldn't even precisely think of how she would frame the sentence.
"Well, just sit tight," Liam gave Nora's hand a quick squeeze, "He'll be here soon."
"Who?" Nora said distractedly.
Gary could tell by the way the young woman was arching her back that another big contraction was coming. Too bad Jonni had called and told them to wish the stone back home. He could have tweaked Jack's situation a little more. Twins, maybe? Breech birth?
"Your boyfriend," Liam said warily, as if afraid childbirth had caused his father to lose her mind, "You know..."
