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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Jo asks to meet with Bran about a mysterious ailment she seems to be having. It is not what she expected. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
It's another peaceful day in Paw'don Village, the sun shining cheerily down on the little village of painted buildings and apple trees. Captain Jo Sparkwire sits at one of the tables just outside the inn, munching on a plate of dumplings with chili sauce and washing down each bite with a sip of barley tea. Her little legs dangle beneath the wooden stool, not quite long enough to rest on the stone ground. As she eats, a little pink flower from a nearby vine flutters down to land on her shoulder, but she doesn't notice.
Jo does pause once to glance over at Serenity and say in a stage-whisper, "I expect he'll be along soon." And then she tilts her head meaningfully towards the path up from the center of town.
Serenity raises a paw to her cheek (a pandaren blush?), and turns back to her work with a smile.
Prospector Brannagen Stillwall appears from around a corner and trots over, looking as serene and blissful as Jo has ever seen him - which is pretty dang serene and blissful. His beard is nearly braided, but his hair is a wild brushfire and his white priestly robe has a few splotches of various colors.
"Well ef et esn't the Captain!" he says, as though her appearance is a complete surprise rather than an arranged meeting. "Good ta see ye, lass. Yer lookin lovely as usual." He fails to wink at Serenity, alas, so intent is he on greeting his old pal.
"If it isn't Brannagen Stillwall," Jo says with a laugh, responding in kind. She hops up from her stool to reach out for a hug — but she holds her hands to the side, lest some stray chili sauce get on her friend. "You too! The squad work here seems to agree with you. I haven't seen any sign of sha around our people."
"I can honestly say I've never been happier in me life," says Bran. "So is there some business ye had in mind, or did ye just miss me?" He gives her a wink. Still no wink for Serenity though. She pouts a little and gets on with her work.
"Always," Jo giggles and winks back. "No serious business though, I haven't had any news of the Pawn since your last sighting. I wanted to talk to you about something of a more… personal nature. As a healer."
"Oh aye? Fire away then. Ye know I love ta show off me expertise." Bran gives her a crescent-eyed smile.
"I've been… tired lately," Jo says, smiling apologetically, like it's a personal mistake. "I feel like I'm sleeping a lot, but it doesn't seem enough. I thought I might be coming down with something, but I haven't really."
"Is it just here in Pandaria, or do ye feel it back home as well?" Bran pulls out a journal, different from the one he's always sketching in while the squad works, and flips through some notes in it.
"Oh, I haven't been back yet," Jo says, rubbing a hand across her forehead. "So much to do here, and to see. I thought it might just be all the new things wearing me out, new food and so on, but I started to worry."
"Could be an allergy ta somethin' in the food here," he says. "Or even some new kinda pollen yer not used to. If it en't a disease I may not be able to help much, but maybe between examinin' the data ye already have an' doin' some basic priestly stuff to collect new information, we can put together a likely cause. Are ye feelin' fatigued right now as we speak? Is there a pattern to the time o' day?" He eyes her food suspiciously.
"Not really, unless all the time counts as a pattern," Jo says with a little giggle. "Well, maybe I'm a little fresher first thing in the morning, but then it's like the energy just drains right away."
"Hmmm." Bran strokes his beard. "Have ye been feelin' queasy at all?"
"Not really," Jo shrugs. "I'd have expected so, with all the new food, but I actually really like it. I could eat this chili sauce all day."
"Hmph," Bran says. "Well there goes my immediate theory." He scratches at his jaw. "I guess it's time to Light this theng up."
He gently takes her hand and closes his eyes, and a subtle golden glow appears around his own hand. She can almost feel it seeping into her skin and tingling through her veins, a weird but pleasant sensation.
"Oh," he says almost immediately, his eyes popping open. He takes his hand back. "Back to my immediate theory. Uh, lass, ye got a passenger, I thenk."
Jo sits back as he examines her, smiling as the tingling travels through her veins. As he speaks, her smile vanishes, her eyes widening with alarm. "A… what? Is it a possession? Not a gnome ghost…"
Bran chuckles. "No, lass, a wee passenger, a little stranger, ye know. Ye … yer a married lass; ye do know how the birds an' the bees work, aye?"
Jo's eyes widen even further. "You mean… I'm pregnant? But I haven't seen Kerlo since August, and I… I haven't felt sick. I thought that's how you knew. In all the romance novels…"
Bran laughs heartily. "Well, I'm no expert in such thengs, an' I would've expected ye'd be green as a goblin meself, but… I suppose everyone's different. Ye'd need a specialist ta say if et's a boy or a girl or how healthy or how far along an' whatnot - but any priest could tell it en't just yer soul sloshin' around in there right noew. Congratulations! Assumin' this is a theng ye were wantin' that is. When ye say ye haven't seen yer husband…" One of his shaggy red brows rises slowwwwly.
"Oh, yes, it's wanted," Jo says right away, reaching forward to grab his hand in enthusiasm. "We've been trying since before the wedding really, and there hasn't been anyone else." She seems completely unembarrassed to explain this. It's data! "We were trying this special treatment, and… goodness if it isn't some kind of spontaneous magic pregnancy, that would be…" Jo blinks. "Almost two months? Has it really been that long since we got here?"
"Well! Then ef there's been no one else, ye know at least how long ye've been knoc- er, expectin'. Two months and change. Ye might wanna dip back ta Stormwind when ye can, ta deliver the news an' also to see a specialist. There's people at the Cathedral an' the Mystic Ward - mostly ladies for some reason - or maybe an obvious reason, I dinna ken - who can tell all kinds o' thengs about the unborn. More'n ye wanna know, likely, hehe. Me ma always liked ta be surprised about whether she was gonna have a laddie or a lassie. She liked ta say she was still waitin' when it came ta me, heh heh. Light rest her."
"Either way, you're a perfect Bran," Jo giggles again, a little nervously. "A little boy or girl. A little laddie or lassie. You know, there was a time I thought I'd missed my chance entirely? After Gnomeregan. I never would've dreamed I'd be here, like this… oh, Kerlo will be so happy! And Natlee, I'll need to tell my stepdaughter right away, too."
"I think ye'll be a great ma!" says Bran. "Or at least, I'd have enjoyed havin' a ma like you, growin' up. Not that I don't love me own ma, but, you know, an extra ma of the Jo variety. Some people have two mas, ye know. So, one I could've talked to about all me books an' thengs. Would've been real nice. An' yer sweet an' kind an' give good hugs… everythin' a good parent needs, aye? Tha's one lucky li'l baby gnome." Bran beams. "I'm sure the squads can do all righ' without ye fer a day or two while ye get everythin' sorted. An' I expect ye'll be in good health. Et's good yer eatin' well; tha's usually the problem a' this stage. Not fer you though! Chow doewn! Heh heh."
Jo's expression softens at Bran's words, and her eyes shine a little with a hint of tears. "Do you really think so? I hope I will be. And you know… I'm still here, to talk about books and things, whenever you like. Maybe not as a second ma, exactly, but a friend, right? I hope that whoever this little one turns out to be, they'll be able to learn from you someday. By then you'll know everything about Pandaria, I bet."
Bran smiles again, but this time a little wistfully. "Long as I'm here, I'm happy to talk to you an' yours about wotever ye wish. If ye can tolerate an old dwarf's ramblings."
Bran does not yet have a single thread of gray in his fiery hair. But maybe all those eye-disappearing smiles have left a few faint lines. The price of merriment as one approaches middle age.
"One bit of advice though," he says with mock solemnity. "Dinna name yer bairn after royalty. No matter how big a fan ye may be."
"Long as I'm here, too," Jo says smiling. "And I'm not planning to name the little one Gelbin or anything. Kerlo and I talked about it. Claret, if it's a girl, in honor and memory of a woman in his 7th Legion Unit. Cobalt, if it's a boy, in honor of… well, I suppose that one's obvious. I wonder if my child will be friends with Tadget's? I suppose they'll be about four years behind, but that washes out after a few decades, doesn't it?"
"Oh aye," Bran says. "Me siblings an' I are an average of eighteen years apart, an' ye couldna tell these days. In fact I manage to be more mature than either of 'em despite bein' the youngest." He chuckles. "With differences as small as three or four years, well, when they're wee, the older one might nae wanna play with the younger, but it does all even out in time."
"In time," Jo says, with a happy little sigh. "I should start building the nursery immediately. No clockworks until… um, until they can crawl, I imagine. But they'll need some moving gears and sounds of machinery to know they're safe."
Bran chuckles. "Fer me it was the smell o' books, but that was hard to come by in me own home. Good on ye for lookin' out for yer wee one."
"Your siblings weren't readers, either?" Jo asks in surprise. "I mean, I know you've said you're quite different from a lot of your family, but surely some of them…"
"Nae," Bran says solemnly. "Nae use fer books at all. They thought I was- well. It dinna matter in the grand scheme, aye? An' noew we got a wee genius on the way! Maybe I'll get lucky enough to read a book or two to the dish-eared dumplin' an' bore 'em ta sleep with me archaeology lectures."
Jo looks almost tearful at the beginning of Bran's statement, but then her face softens with a quiet smile as she leans one head on her hand. "I would love that, and I'm sure we'll be begging our close friends to babysit if you're in for it. You could help teach them to see the wonder in the world, just as they grow old enough to start to see it." She pauses, and then adds, "Whatever anybody else has ever said, Bran, you have a wonderful way of seeing the world — I'm good at seeing the pieces, but you're good at seeing what a thing is overall meant to be. I suppose that comes from studying widely."
Bran shifts his weight and clears his throat. "Oh aye, aye," he says a bit roughly. "I'm always studyin'. Ef I'm awake, I'm studyin'. An' I learned pretty early on that the more ye step back an' look at the whole o' thengs, the less the little pieces can get under yer skin. It's nice, though, ta have people like Boomer an' Shine around ta notice details. Otherwise I'd likely show up ta work in my pajamas or some such. Takes all kinds."
Jo giggles. "If you have Cobalt pajamas that could still work out. Though I don't know if we even stock such a thing. But yes, it takes all kinds. I hope that's one thing Kerlo and I can teach this little one, whatever their own strengths turn out to be."