"You aren't the only one having a baby here!" Jonni's pregnant companion grimaced as another contraction ramped up, "Aaaiiiiiiieeeeek!"
Jonni felt a sympathetic burst of pain coursing through her own pelvis. It seemed almost as if her contractions were ramping up, gaining frequency, synchronizing with "Nora's." It logically occurred to her that DeMorrell had wished she would become as pregnant as "Nora," and so their due dates could not be appreciably far apart. The slight lag in the onset of her own labor could probably be accounted for by other minor environmental factors, just like the delayed, but very rapid onset of her powers. Now, those variations were breaking down, the stone eliminating even the slightest quantum echo caused by the very wishes it gratnted. Nora's pregnancy was at an end therefor so was hers.
Jonni had a moment to decide she really liked this whole being smarter thing just before her next contraction literally took her breath away. There was a discreet knock at the door followed by a respectful, "Ms. Volancort? Ms. Gibson? May I come in?"
Without really waiting, a young, female doctor accompanied by two orderlies entered the room, "Okay, ladies, the big moment is here! I'll be taking you with me, Nora, and Dr. Gladstorm is getting a bed prepped for you, Jonni. Unless we have any final questions or concerns I'd say it's time to deliver these babies!"
Jonni instantly found the doctor's calm, yet upbeat, almost chipper manner irritated her. She was glad she had been assigned Dr. Gladstorm, whoever that was, "I really wish you'd just give us five more minues to sort everything out."
"That's fine, Ms. Gibson, but just five okay?" The doctor nodded to herself in a businesslike manner as if a contrary answer were unthinkable, quietly ushering the orderlies back out of the room. Jonni knew she still had the stone in her hand, but was unsure if it had even been necessary to use it, realized she hadn't even cared that she just had. Scary. Best to wrap the next phase of this up as quick as she could.
"Dad," Jonni shot her father a withering look before turning to face the stranger in her grandfather's skin, "Nora, I wish that both of you temporarily lost your powers for the next forty-eight hours. I also wish that if either of you try to cause any disturbance or attack each other in any way during that time hospital security or the police will quickly and effortlessly restrain you both."
"Jonni!" Gary began to protest even as the pulse of the stone cause him to briefly look away.
"Too late, Dad," Jonni winced, another contraction looming in her near future, "It's already done. I understand why you did what you did, but I'm pretty disappointed. I don't want to have my baby in a war zone!"
"You know I am not a bad person, you made sure of it yourself!" Jonni's "granddad" said at last, "Why constrain my powers?"
"I know you aren't evil, Jack, Nora, whoever, whatever, you are, but that doesn't mean I know you. Things just seem safer this way."
"What if something else happens?" Nora said reasonably, "What if DeMorrell sends more of his men?"
"I have the stone, that covers most eventualities," Jonni growled, her patience fraying a little.
"You're going into hard labor, honey," Liam said, the motherly care somehow still carrying through his masculine voice, "You won't be able to worry about anything else soon."
"I know, that's why I'm getting some backup," Jonni was clenching the stone very tightly, her hand shaking a little, it was hurting down there, "I wish Karyn was finally here and had the training to be my lamaze coach. She'll keep hold of the stone for me."
"Jonni?" The door opened without a knock and Karyn stuck her head into the room, "Jonni! Thank God they haven't moved you into the delivery room yet! Megan drove me over! Are you okay?"
"Not really, but I'm glad you're here," Jonni rolled her eyes, "I want you to keep the stone for me until all this - - childbirth stuff is over, but I want to make one more wish first."
"Hurry the hell up, will you?" Jack practically yowled, clutching her trembling belly.
"Hang on, Grandpa," Jonni gritted her teeth, experiencing an identical burst of pain, "Karyn go in my purse and give me the necklace in it."
"Okay," Karyn fished around for a second and located the silvery loop of antique silver, briefly admired the ornate, intricately etched fob of metal hanging from it, and passed it to her friend. Jonni settled it around her neck and used her enhanced intellect to call up a perfect memory picture of her mother as she had been before all this mess got started.
Jonni's mom? Long straight, dark brown hair and merry, twinkling eyes. She had a light spray of freckles across her nose, cheeks, arms, and the upper slopes of her breasts from afternoons in the garden and weekends at the park. Medium height with strong calves and thighs, her once slim figure trending toward voluptuousness after two pregnancies, the second one with twins. She wasn't a young woman any longer, forty years old last April, but still attractive, still full of life. Yeah, that was Mom.
Jonni took that mental image and projected it onto Liam. Almost instantly the young man began to flow and change until in the space of a few moments there was Linda Gibson, Jonni's mother, standing beside her bed in some very badly fitting men's clothes. Jonni laughed in spite of herself. She had never in a million years imagined she would see her mother in a get up like that. "I wish Mom was dressed normally."
Everyone looked away, something for which Linda, in her unbuttoned pants and too tight shirt, was quite grateful even if she too had to avert her eyes. When they turned back, Linda was much more normally attired for a still vivacious grandmother-to-be, jeans, dirt on the knees, and a comfaortable, well worn blouse, the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, as if she had rushed over straight from her garden when she got the news.
"I'm," Linda chuckled a little uncertainly, cleared her throat as if unused to her old voice, before her eyes flicked up to meet her daughter's, tears threatening in both, "Well, I'm me again! Oh, thank you, Jonni!"
"I figured a mother deserves to be herself for the birth of her first grandchild," Jonni grunted even as Jack also let go with a very feral noise of her own, "Even if it is just barely in time. I wish people thought Liam was travelling abroad before college. I wish Mom's supposed death was a clerical error after she was briefly in a coma due to a prescription mix up which left no permanent damage."
Again, there was a discrete knock followed by the door opening after no wait whatsoever. Again, the young doctor with the sporty figure and annoyingly chipper manner practically bounced into the room, "Alright, ladies, I'm afraid I really must insist! Grandma and Grandpa and Great-Grandpa have all made it here so we really need to get this show on the road!"
"It's okay," Jonni handed Karyn the magic rock and the transformation amulet to her mother, "We're all done here."
"We're taking you out first, okay, Nora?" Doctor Way-Too-Cheery asked in a bright way.
"Yes, fine, whatever, let's get this over with!" the pregnant blonde snapped irritably. The doctor motioned for one of the orderlies to get Nora's bed ready to move. Moments later Nora was being wheeled out to calls of "good luck" and "we love you." Doctor Pep-in-her-Step followed them out, leaving the second orderly behind to get Jonni's bed ready. It seemed Dr. Gladstorm would be along shortly.
"I, uh, I guess I should go with her," the man who appeared to be Great-Grandpa Merlin finally said in a low voice, "Someone should go with her. I mean, technically, it's my baby too."
The orderly briefly looked up from activating the hospital bed's wheels, eyebrows lifted in a look of surprise. To him, it sounded as if the silver-haired old coot in the dirt-stained combat gear was saying he was the gorgeous blonde chick's baby-daddy. Briefly, the orderly cursed his own luck with women. He couldn't know the truth of Jack and Nora's relationship was much, much stranger. "Jack" quietly let himself out of the room and jogged down the hall to catch up.
On Jack's way out he nearly knocked over Dr. Gladstorm, who Jonni was glad to discover was nowhere near as perky as the other doctor in spite of his name. Of course, she was also somewhat shocked and dismayed to realize he was, in fact, a he. Jonni didn't relish the idea that for the next few hours it was going to be a man mucking around in the bloody mess between her legs. The image of Dr. Cheer Squad giving her minute by minute updates on her progress quickly brought the young woman to her senses.
Dr. Gladstorm would do just fine.
