Who: Hestia and Alice
What: Fetustalk
Where: Order safehouse
When: 28 July 1980

Status: Incomplete
Rating: Tame



To say that Alice was not in a good mood would be an understatement. She should have been buzzing with excitement about the impending arrival of the baby, but right now, her main concern was just not being pregnant anymore, and, of course, her husband. Why Frank had chosen now to drag Rodolphus Lestrange who knows how to who knows where to presumably question and torture him, she didn't know. She didn't really care. The baby was supposed to be coming today, and though it had not yet, any minute now, and it could begin. Where she might have normally been angry, she was now more firmly entrenched in the worried side of things. Of course Frank had experience with Death Eaters, but Rodolphus Lestrange was not just any Death Eater.

She pushed these thoughts from her mind (not telling anyone meant not telling anyone, no matter how trusted they were) as she waited for Hestia's arrival in the medical rooms at the safehouse, instead occupying herself with checking over the stocks of potions that they had there. Pain-Killing, Skele-Gro, Blood-Replenishing. It was always good to be ready, and Alice didn't much like to be idle. Or perhaps it was the nerves, both for her husband and at the impending arrival of the baby, that made her fidget despite the fact that she should have been tired.

If someone had told Hestia at this time last year that she'd be using her medical training to play obstetrician to a pair of heavily pregnant vigilantes in a makeshift healing room instead of St. Mungo's, she probably would have laughed hysterically and called that someone insane. As it was, St. Mungo's was under the control of people who absolutely did not have the Hippocratic Oath in mind where treatment was concerned, the healing room at the Safehouse was good enough for the purposes it needed to serve, and Alice was waiting for her. Hestia had, unfortunately, found herself napping in the middle of the day, exhausted from the research and planning and planning and research, and woke up with only about two minutes separating her and the time she'd asked Alice to meet her for a quick check-up, so her clothes were wrinkled and her hair a mess as she bustled into the room.

"Sorry I'm..." A yawn interrupted Hestia's apology, "late. Everything has been so overwhelming lately, I must've fallen asleep without planning to." She smiled at Alice and patted what strange object was serving as an examining table. "How have you been feeling? Any pain or spotting at all?"

Alice, who had always been a private person, didn't usually appreciate being poked and prodded at by Healers, but as far as Healers went, Hestia was one that she felt more than averagely comfortable with, but the process still made her rather uneasy, especially with Frank's conspicuous absence. She noticed that the other woman looked a little rumpled, but considering how overworked Hestia and Beth tended to be, Alice could hardly blame her. At least, of late, they didn't have much to worry about, compared to after skirmishes and battles. Just two very pregnant (and very wanted) women.

"There were some contractions on Saturday, but they weren't painful or regular, so I wasn't terribly concerned about it," Alice answered. Of course, today was supposed be The Day, so she was on alert more so than usual. "I'm just feeling tired," she added.

Hestia chuckled softly when Alice told her that she was tired. "That's to be expected," she explained, taking a stethoscope from the nearby cabinet and putting it on. "Most women experience the bulk of their amazing pregnant energy during the second trimester...and by the third, are ready to have done with pregnancy for a while yet." She warmed the chestpiece of the stethoscope with a breath of air before lifting the bottom of Alice's shirt and listening thoughtfully for a moment.

"The heartrate sounds good...very healthy," Hestia pronounced, removing the earpieces, and moving her hands to feel Alice's abdomen and see how the baby was positioned. "It feels like your baby has turned, which is a good sign--it means he (or she) will be ready to be born soon. It might feel like you're going to drop him (or her) now...your baby is sitting fairly low, which is also a good sign." Throughout the examination, Hestia was working to keep her voice calm and quiet, though unlike with most patients and situations, this was as much for her benefit as it was for Alice's. That Alice and Lily had due dates so close to each other was terrifying to Hestia. She was glad that Beth was around, just in case, but she still worried and worried about that worry coming across to her two patients. "Do you have any questions about anything? It can be pretty exciting and scary."

Alice listened to the good news, relieved that everything was going well, but that didn't completely help still her nerves. She was still in a bundle of raw, exposed worries, over the baby, over her husband, over all of the changes that would be happening very, very soon. A contented noise issued from her throat, but to be honest, her face didn't really show content -- more like veiled anxiety. And Hestia didn't have the answers to the questions that she really wanted to ask. Like if she and Frank would adapt to the changes, if they would be able to protect their child, if everything would eventually be alright.

"Will I be able to Apparate while in labour?" she asked, finally settling on a firmly-medical question. It was difficult enough to do while this pregnant -- almost like Side-Alonging, but she was worried the pain would make it worse, and she really had no desire to give birth in hers and Frank's master bed.

Hestia shook her head, pressing her lips together. "If there's an emergency, you could side-along with somebody, at least before you go into active labor. The problem is, though, that once you're in active labor, it's essentially Apparation for three instead of two, and there's a higher chance of someone getting splinched. While you could probably survive being splinched (providing it's not too horrible of a splinching, of course), the worry in that case is for the baby." She gave Alice a wry grin. "It might be worth it for you and Frank to stay here from now until the baby is born...it can be pretty chaotic, but I think it would also be safer. It's up to you, though."

Alice would have felt more comfortable with Flooing in this state, but unfortunately, they had long-since sealed off the Floo in case the Death Eaters use it as a means to try and enter the house in Ribble Valley. Was she comfortable staying in the safehouse for what could be such a long time? Well, yes, in terms of safety, and even in terms of company, but Alice valued her space. Not to mention that, with Rodolphus Lestrange caged like an animal in the Tonks's basement, Frank likely wanted to be able to come and go as he pleased without question. "I'll probably just bring some more things over and stay here, then," she said, with a sigh. "I don't know how pleased Frank will be, though. And it's probably too late to make a portkey when we need to save the ones we have."

"It's not ideal, I know," Hestia stated sympathetically. "If things were a bit safer, I'd say that you should just stay at your house and I could Floo or Apparate over myself, but with the number of wards around this place and around your house..." She shrugged, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. "I think it would just be easier to have you here, particularly in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, and in any case, judging by the way the baby is positioned, it shouldn't be anything more than a couple of days."

Of course, what Hestia wasn't adding to the conversastion, but what was at the back of her mind, was the still terrifying prospect of both Alice and Lily going into labor at the same time. If that was the case, Hestia would need them both to be under the same roof, if not in the same room. And thinking about that brought about a whole new crop of worries about the fact that Lily was due so soon and James was still being...bizarre. These were, granted, all problems with relatively simple solutions, at least compared to the problems there could be, but Hestia worried still.