Alma Wade will not give up (its_my_nature) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-01-02 10:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alma wade, beth cassidy, faiza hussain (excalibur), wrex |
I knocked you up?
Who: Alma, Beth, Faiza and assorted Cerberus NPCs, also Wrex
When: Jan 2nd
Where: clinic, then away from the city
What: Alma has been sick, learns news, then has a moment of badass
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
For the past week, Alma hadn’t been feeling well. She managed to hide it for Christmas, and a very special New Year with Beth, but by the morning of the second, she found herself in the bathroom, worshipping the porcelain goddess and unable to hide it any more. At least she’d made it through the holidays without ruining anything.
Flushing, she headed back into her room to get dressed. School resumed today and Beth would be picking her up soon.
Beth showed up in her car, pulling up and moving to ring the bell. She was a little worried about Alma. Over the Christmas holiday she’d known something was wrong with Alma - if only because for some reason she’d had powers like Alma’s after wishing for them. She shifted her weight as she waited for her girlfriend.
Not having powers had been a surreal and welcome experience for Alma. She had been happy about it, and also sad. It was like a piece of her was missing. Most of all she missed having a bond with Beth. And then Beth had had her powers, and that bond had returned.
Yet she'd still missed them.
She answered the door, popping a mint into her mouth. "Hello. I am almost ready."
“Are you okay? You don’t look like you feel well.” Beth was immediately concerned - the dark circles under Alma’s eyes didn’t bode well. “You shouldn’t go to school if you don’t feel well.” It wasn’t like she needed to go to school anyway, and Beth always worried more about Alma than she did herself. “Here, I can call me in sick, pretend I’m Mom.” She figured Shepard would agree with her.
“I am just feeling a little under the weather,” Alma replied. She shook her head. She didn’t want to call out of school, no matter how ill she felt. “No, we should go. If I need to, I can go home early. It isn’t right to lie like that!”
“You’re not lying, I am.” Beth still looked worried and upset, but she knew that once Alma was set on something there wasn’t really a way to talk her out of it. “Want to go to the doctor after school? We can find someone to see you, I’m sure.” Beth wrapped her arms around Alma as they walked toward the car.
"Maybe. I could just wait until the weekend and speak to Dr. Hussain. I am comfortable around her." She rubbed her arm, wanting to change the subject before Beth delved deeper. She had a suspicious, it was terrifying, and it was buried deeply.
Beth wished that she still had the powers that she’d gotten during the holidays, but she went along with things. “I’m coming with you. Here, you should call her to let her know you’re coming in on Saturday.”
Alma gave her a dry look, but called Faiza to make an appointment, as expected. She handed Beth back her phone, and took her hand. “Lead in.”
And school went by normally, and soon it was Saturday. Beth came by Alma’s to pick her up and take her to the doctor. She hadn’t stopped worrying for a minute, and as they walked in, Beth held tighter to Alma’s hand. “Still feeling icky?”
“Yes.” She squeezed Beth’s hand. “Worse than before. I threw up all night, and I feel dizzy. And my breasts hurt.”
Beth’s eyes narrowed. “I hope your doctor friend knows what’s wrong.” She wrapped an arm around Alma so she could lean on her if need be and opened the door for her. Once they were in the waiting room, she sat Alma down and got her paperwork for her, making sure Alma stayed seated.
“Me too,” Alma stayed seated. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with her illness.
Faiza, meanwhile, was doing her weekly clinic work. She could have seen Alma at the ranch, but sometimes a professional environment was best. Once the paperwork was complete, she called Alma into the office.
Beth was coming with her. Even if the doctor said no, Beth wouldn’t take no for an answer. She wrapped her hand into Alma’s walking with her. “Hey, look at it this way, I get to take care of you and nurse you back to health, right?”
Faiza looked up when they entered. She didn’t say anything about Beth’s presence, simply gestured for Alma to take a seat and get to work. “You do look a tad under the weather. Lets see whats up, shall we?” She was efficient, and worked quickly. Alma squeezed Beth’s hand tightly.
Beth kissed Alma’s forehead, smiling. The doctor seemed nice, and Beth made a mental note to see what sort of medicine she practiced and if she was taking new patients. Beth didn’t bother speaking for Alma, she could tell the doctor what was wrong.
Alma explained her symptoms. The illness, the soreness. Faiza nodded, took notes and readings, then glanced at Beth, before looking back at Alma, “When was the last time you bled?”
The girl blinked, tilted her head, then her eyes widened.
Alma looked upset, and Beth smiled, squeezing Alma’s hand. “She means menses, Alma.” She hoped Alma hadn’t thought about injury.
“A month.” Alma’s voice was quiet and soft. There was a hint of fear in her voice. “I have not bled in a month.”
Faiza asked, chipperly, “Would you like a test by blood or would you like to pee into a cup?”
Beth blinked. Alma hadn’t had sex with a boy in the time they’d been together, she was sure of it. “I … how would that happen?”
“It cannot.” She set her jaw, her nails digging into her palms as her powers flared. Faiza had to grab hold of her headscarf or risk losing it. Several vials on the counter exploded.
Moving to sit in front of her girlfriend, Beth made Alma focus on her blue eyes. “Eyes on me, Pretty, eyes here. I know that you’re scared, and this meant that bad shit was going to happen where you’re from. But I wasn’t there, was I? So this isn’t the same thing. You’re free, you’re safe, and nothing bad is going to happen to you. Period. I’ll die before it can, okay?” She held onto Alma’s hands, biting her lip. Since the holidays when she’d had Alma’s powers, she knew firsthand how hard it was to control them; they were like an autonomous reflex.
Beth’s petname for her made the sudden indoor storm subside, and Alma looked into her lover’s eyes. “Beth, I have never been with a male, or anyone except for you. This is impossible. This is impossible!”
“Easy, duck.” Faiza took out her needle and vials. “Lets see what’s what, first. Your powers are strange enough that just about anything is possible.”
Alma paled.
Giving Alma a kiss, Beth took her hand. No matter what happens, I’m here. Let’s not get carried away, you could just be malnourished or something. Lots of things affect periods. Beth continued to stroke Alma’s hair in the way that she knew her girlfriend liked.
She glanced at Beth, eyes still wide, her skin ashen. “I can hear her.”
Beth blinked. “Her? We’re going to have a little girl?” Then she went pale. She’d said we. It felt natural, but she had to take care of Alma first. “Shh, you look like you’re going to faint.” Beth hugged Alma and kissed her cheek. “I’m more worried about you right now.”
Faiza looked between them, setting aside the blood vials. "Now now, that's impossible."
"No, it is not." Alma put her head between her hands, her voice muffled but still audible. "It was not Michael's sperm that I needed in the other world, but his essence. With my powers.”
Quietly, she added, “And I do feel faint.”
Not only had Beth done very well in her CPR classes at school, she was a born leader. She moved to get some paper towels, dampening them with some cold water from the sink and putting them on the backside of Alma’s neck. “Okay, deep breaths, Pretty girl. Focus on my voice. Let’s get you better first, then we’ll worry about everything else.”
"You're a lovely one, aren't you," Faiza said, gathering the vials. "I'll get these tests run, and we'll see what's really up. It's probably just an illness." She disappeared out the door, and Alma breathed more deeply.
Alma waited for her to go, then wrapped her arms around Beth, "This cannot happen! This cannot happen! Beth, wake me up!"
Beth closed her eyes, trying to only focus on how much she loved Alma, how much she wanted to be with her. “What - I know what happens in your dreams, but Alma, you’re not that person here, you’re just not.” She could feel her eyes welling with tears. “I would give anything to convince you of that, and if you … if you are, we’ll raise her and spoil her and Wrex will yell at me for not using protection. Alma, it’d be different this time. You have me.”
“You would...accept this?” Alma leaned into Beth, kissing her neck and her cheek as warm tears streamed down her face. “What if she’s a monster?”
“Of course I would. I want to be a family with you. Didn’t think it would happen so fast, but hell.” She moved to gently wipe Alma’s tears, smiling and shaking her head. “In your dreams, that’s what they called you, and you’re an angel. You worry too much, you know.” Beth didn’t think that any child of Alma’s would be anything besides adorable. A genius, probably, but that was hardly bad.
“What if I die, Beth? What if the birth kills me?” She gripped at Beth’s arms tightly. It felt like all her fears were piling on top of each other. “What if they take her away?”
“You’ll have her in a hospital, and if it got to that point, they’d do a C-section. And they won’t take her away. I’m eighteen soon, and you’ll be eighteen by the time you have her if it’s true. Wrex wouldn’t let it happen either. We’ll live on the Ranch, I’ll commute to school, and we’ll raise her right.” If the whole pregnancy thing was true, Beth was going to worry more about sleeping than anything else.
“Not them, not the hospital. Cerberus. My father, my real one.” Alma’s calm was only kept by the closeness of the other girl. If Beth weren’t nearby, she would have lost it already. She didn’t need a test to tell her what she could feel, what she’d been blatantly ignoring for the past week and a half. “They could do terrible things if the child has my power. I suspect they still want me.”
“Then they’ll have a hard time getting to you. Between you and the little one, and me? They’d better be ready for a fight.” They’d have her lover and her daughter over her dead body. Beth realized that she should ask Wrex and Shepard for help on how to shoot things.
Alma pulled out of Beth's arms, folding her own and pacing. She couldn't get Beth to understand the sort of danger she was talking about. "I do not want to just hole up in the ranch. I would be safe but I would also be all but a prisoner. But going out would be dangerous. I will have to drop out of school." She didn't want to.
“You don’t have to.” Beth sat down, swinging her legs nervously. “Then they’d know something is up. Is there a way you can find out if he still wants you back? Anyone you can hire or something?” She bit her lower lip, wanting nothing more in the whole wide world for Alma to feel safe.
“Of course he still wants me back. He sent armed men after me.” She stopped pacing, and looked at her lover. “I do not want to lose you, Beth. He could use you against me. I would never forgive myself. I depend on you, need you.”
“When?” Beth’s eyes went wide and she stopped moving. “You won’t - when did he do that?” Beth couldn’t process the other parts of Alma’s statement after the armed men bit.
"When I first ran away. And again about a month ago. I just never told anyone about it. I did not want anyone to worry." She looked sheepish, and embarrassed, like she knew that was a stupid thing to do.
“We have to tell Wrex, you know that.” If only for the other kids’ sakes at the ranch. She bit her lip, curling up a bit smaller. “Alma, I just want us to be safe. And a family. Period. You can read me if you want, you’ll see.”
"I do not understand, but I believe you." Alma stepped closer to Beth, cupping her face. "If it gets bad, you have to run away. You have to promise me that you will run."
“I promise you I’ll do what I can to keep you safe.” Beth hadn’t run from anything, ever, and she doubted she was about to start with the most important person in her life.
“Damn it, Beth,” Alma started to say, but Faiza entered just then.
Faiza had the oddest look on her face, as she gazed at Alma. “And you’ve never had sex with a man? That you remember? You’ve never been penetrated?”
Alma turned deep red. “Only by..you know.” She glanced at Beth, her anger fleeing.
Beth looked at the doctor. “Not by anything organic besides digital stimulation.” She folded her arms, cocking her head to the side. “So … we’re going to be moms.”
"We did use that strap-on." Alma pointed out, like that explained everything. At Faiza's puzzled look, she added, "It was..very emotional. Perhaps that combined with my powers triggered something."
"Bugger..." The doctor fidgeted with her hairscarf as she considered that. "This is a new one on me, I'm afraid. Regardless of the reason, you are pregnant."
Beth bit her lower lip and grinned, unable to keep from giggling. “I knocked you up? Your dad is going to decapitate me.”
Whatever had caused it, that was what made Alma relax about it. Maybe it was lying to herself, but it was a comforting lie. She took Beth's hand, a plan forming in her mind on how to keep everyone safe. Because she loved them all. "I would worry more about what I might do to you." She attempted to joke.
“Oh, that’s in nine months. I’ll figure out something by then,” Beth grinned, nuzzling into Alma’s neck. She wondered what the doctor was thinking.
"I'm surprised you aren't already showing," Faiza said, cheerfully. "You're almost three months along!"
"It can't have been that long!" Alma said, eyes wide.
Beth blinked. “Have we been... for three months?” She didn’t realize it, but time really flew.
"No," Alma shook her head. "We first used the toy on the third, the first time we made love was November 29th, and that time in the shower at school was the 21st." She decided not to say around Faiza that they'd only met the day before the thing in the shower.
And now here it was, just barely into the new year..had it really been less than two months?
Oh god, what if it was related to Zevran some how?
Beth blinked. “Did you have any dreams around then?” She wondered if maybe that was related. Maybe Alma’s subconscious did something.
“I have been, for quite awhile,” Alma confirmed. Her hands were shaking, she whispered, “I want her to be yours.”
Beth smiled, nosing a kiss into Alma’s hair. “I’m going to be her mom too. She’s ours.”
Just about then, a soldier burst through the door, rushing for Alma and grabbing her by the hair!
Beth’s eyes went wide and she reacted. She saw the syringe that Fazia was going to use to draw blood and running on adrenaline, instinct, and her more than above average athletic ability, she grabbed it and leapt onto the soldier. The needle went toward his eyes, his ear canal, anywhere soft and prone. This person would not have her daughter, her fiancee.
Faiza screamed, and thrust out her hands. The soldier separated apart neatly, like an onion being peeled. He blinked, still alive, still conscious, not even in any pain save for the damage Beth had dealt. Alma grabbed Beth and pulled her back, staring. She looked at Faiza, then at the soldier, then turned and burst the window open with a thought. "Call Wrex!"
Then she jumped out the window with Beth.
Beth held onto Alma, grinning, blood on her hands and spotting her cheeks. “You were amazing back there!”
Alma cushioned their landing. There were several black SUVs in the parking lot, and about a dozen men in black suits lingering around. "I wasn't the one that took him apart." She burst into a run, dragging Beth behind her as several of the SUVs flipped over like toys. "That was."
Beth looked behind her, wincing and running with Alma. But Alma still wasn’t feeling well, so she moved to the nearest car, taking her purse and her keys and slamming it into the window, breaking the glass. “Get in!” Beth had learned how to hotwire a car from a rather unsavory ex, and she set to work, getting it quickly. “We can’t outrun it!”
A spray of bullets took out the rear window and Alma lifted her hand to give them some shielding. "It is Cerberus! Jack Harper is supposed to be dead! This has to be my father!"
Beth started to drive like a bat out of hell, glad it was really the only way she knew how. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but that’s irrelevant - where should we go to?” She wondered if the Ranch was safe, but there were too many people there.
"Away from the city." Something dark glinted in Alma's eyes. A dangerous red glow that she quickly smothered. "So that innocents will not be hurt. We will want to avoid drawing too much attention, while we are at it."
She rested a hand on her belly. She thought she'd be more scared about proving this.
Right now she felt like a mother bear.
Beth nodded. “Got it. I know just the spot.” She’d gone to an abandoned area of woodland to have bonfire parties a few times. She drove faster, upping the accelerator to near 100. “You’re pretty when you’re all protective,” she couldn’t resist commenting.
Alma blushed a little bit, glancing behind them as the SUVs struggled to keep up. She felt about about stealing someone’s car, but there had been no time. “Faiza is all right. So is the man she disassembled.” Her eyes grew distant. “He did not speak to who sent them. He has no useful information.”
“He hurt you.” Beth wished she’d hurt him more, in retrospect, wiping the blood off of her cheeks and making sure her hazards were on.
"He was just doing a job," Alma replied. "He is useless. He will think he is a little girl for a week."
“I’d like to make him one,” Beth muttered. “You’re not worried that I stabbed him? You don’t think I’m a monster?” She worried about it as much as Alma seemed to.
"You were angry, and you were trying to protect me. You are not a monster!" She looked at Beth, alarmed, and took her hand. "You are not."
“And anything you do you’ll do because you’re trying to protect our baby. Ours.” Beth would’ve taken Alma’s hand but she needed to focus on her driving.
"Drive faster. They are calling in air support." Alma looked out the window and up, even though there wasn't particularly anything to see yet. Her hand tightened over her stomach. She was growing less fearful, and more angry. This was supposed to be over.
"You will need to stay low, it will be easier for me to shield you. I know you want to protect me, but you can do nothing against guns without one of your own."
Beth pushed the car up to one twenty, leaning down. “Point. Getting your dad and Shepard to teach me how to shoot ASAP, this is … this shit should be illegal, but I know it’s not really because they probably have work arounds or some crap.”
"Yes." Alma left it at that. She crawled into the back seat, brushing glass aside absently. "How much farther do we have?" They appeared to be out of the city proper, but she wanted more distance, needed more distance. She would have to keep Beth close. Very close.
“Four miles, maybe three.” Beth bumped the accelerator, noticing the car maxed out at one-ten. “What do you have in mind?”
"I need room. There will be a very small bubble for both of us. Anything outside that bubble will be destroyed," Alma replied. Her eyes were glowing again, and some tears trailed down her face.
“Oh, Pretty, no crying, you’re just … you’re doing the right thing.” Beth swung off of the road suddenly, moving the car into a field that didn’t have anything in it for miles around. Hold on, pretty girl.
She may be doing the right thing, but she was still going to hurt people, and Alma hated hurting people. It was perhaps the most important difference between the seventeen year old and the woman she dreamed she became. Alma there loved to hurt and inflict pain, and wreak vengeance.
Alma here loathed violence. She pushed the door open as six SUVs surrounded them, and three helicopters approached. All were black.
Beth wished that she could have Alma’s powers. Beth didn’t care a whit if she hurt people that wanted to hurt her and her family. Because that’s what Alma and the baby were. Her family. Moving to stick close to Alma, she held her girlfriend’s hand. “You can’t have her, she’s a fucking person!”
One of the choppers suddenly crushed in on itself, like a hand had reached out to grab it. It happened so suddenly and with such causal force that it looked like a beer can at a football game. The other two slammed into each other, before being thrown into three of the SUVs.
Alma hovered two feet off the ground, her hair whipping about her and her eyes glowing. Bullets slammed into an invisible shield and dropped to the ground as red waves of energy pulsed from her, gouging tears in the earth.
Beth was there with her, and she watched as Alma handled them. She wondered why anyone would want their baby. If that kid wasn’t well adjusted, if that kid was taken from its mother, this would happen on a far worse scale. It was what they deserved for trying to take Alma from her. And that was when Beth knew that it was good that Alma had the powers. Beth would’ve done far worse.
Two more SUVs lifted up into the air, only to be smashed like they were play things. Alma giggled, then shook her head as if to clear it. The last SUV she summoned towards them, causing it to crash on it's side right in front of the girls. She ripped the door off with a thought, then lifted the drive and brought him to her. "Tell my father what happened today, and tell him I will defend myself, and others. Do you understand? This girl, and Urdnot Ranch, and the Shepards, and their friends, and their friends are off limits."
“You fuckers should be ashamed of yourselves,” Beth growled. Alma’s was a quiet rage, but Beth, beth would let them have it. “You’re chasing after a seventeen year old girl and an unborn child. Does that make you feel good about yourself?” She spat at the soldier, still holding onto Alma’s hand.
Then Alma flung the soldier away. Far enough that he'd land in a lake a mile away, and hard enough that he'd be dazed upon landing. Then she slowly fell to the ground, then to her knees and started to shake. "I love you, Beth. If there are soulmates, you are mine."
She passed out, right after that.
Beth caught Alma, carrying her carefully back to the car and driving it back toward Wrex’s. She called him on the way, making sure Alma was sleeping soundly in the back seat, covered up with a blanket. She was defenseless. “Pick up pick up pick up.”
“Wrex.”
“It’s Beth. Alma got attacked, she’s pregnant, she’s three month’s along and she just blew up four helicopters and passed out. Where should I go?” He was a military guy, he probably liked terse.
Wrex's brain sploded. After a long moment's silence, he asked. "You got GPS? You've got that phone you should. Let me give you coordinates."
“Okay.” Beth waited for the phone to receive the message he was sending, then she could use the navigation app. She kind of wanted to bust out a ‘roger that’ but it wasn’t the time for joking.
He sent the coordinates, making his way to his gunsafe. "Are they any left?" He would be armed, and his gut was clenching at the thought of those men after Alma again. He wanted to protect her. He desperately wanted to and part of him was upset that Beth was there and he wasn't. He could deal with the pregnant thing later. Zevran was going to die.
“Don’t think so but bring a gun or ten. And don’t shoot me, Alma’s dreams did it. I’m not some sort of mutant lesbian.” She looked at her phone and swung the car out in the direction it indicated. “You’re teaching me how to shoot as soon as we’re safe. I stabbed a guy in the eye, but I’d feel better if I’d killed him.”
"I was thinking more like Zevran," Wrex replied gruffly, loading his shot gun. But the dreams made a twisted sort of sense. "We need to get Alma here. She needs both of us to get through this. She has to be freaking out." There was a long moment of silence before Wrex said, "No, you don't want to kill, Beth. Trust me on that. I'll teach you to shoot, but you don't want to kill. It does things to a person that change them, and never for the better."
“She said that she never had sex with him, Wrex. I took her virginity.” She kept driving, and she was careful not to speed in any areas where it looked like there might be cops. “Yeah, don’t tell me what I want, Pops. I’ve got a kid to look after now. You know Alma and I are as good as engaged, right? What would you do if someone threatened the woman you love?”
"Rip his heart out." One of Wrex's eyes twitched. There was entirely TMI in Beth's words. Entirely TMI. "Still doesn't mean you need to be killing people, kid. Save it for a last resort, understood? And I don't need to know who did what to my little girl. Long as it isn't Zevran."
Alma had told Beth what Zev had done. “Trust me, old man, if you could get pregnant from what they did, I’d have a whole orphanage worth of babies.” She looked at the GPS. “Rolling to you in five, by the way.”
Wrex hung up, stepping outside as the car rolled up. He didn't recognize it, and he wasn't going to ask. He was just going to get rid of it and let it be someone else's problem. "Come on, get her inside. Are you sure it’s three months? I swear she made me buy her tampons just last month.”
“She said she’s only not been bleeding for a month, but the doctor said she’s three months along. It’s a girl.” Beth moved to grab her girlfriend, cradling her carefully. “She said you knew the doctor? Pretty lady wearing hijab?”
“Faiza. She works here some days.” Wrex helped Beth get Alma out of the car, then lifted her up himself, inspecting her for any injuries. He didn’t see any, and he looked at her stomach, as if he could x-ray what lay inside. His jaw worked. “The Asari are a race in my dreams, that are kind of all women. They can breed with any species, but the offspring are always Asari.”
“Alma’s a human. Though that’s kind of hot. I’d want to be that.” She didn’t tell him about her dreams, about how she was even more vicious there than she was in her waking life. She’d ripped a bike tire off of the spokes for her friend, getting her nails broken and bent until the blood ran to her elbows in the process.
Moving to her girlfriend, Beth wrapped her arms around her. “Alma? Alma, come back to me. Us.”
Wrex had set Alma on the couch. "They're blue. Liara's supposed to be one. And yeah, they're hot." He eyes Beth. He could see her as an Asari, both of them really, especially with the mental powers.
Alma's eyes fluttered, and she stirred a little bit. "Tired..." She rolled onto her side, like it was 5 am and she wanted some more sleep.
Beth couldn’t help but grin at her girlfriend, kissing her. “She must be exhausted with all of the ass kicking. Is she safe here? Is everyone else safe here?” She looked at Wrex, sighing. “She doesn’t deserve this.”
"This is probably the safest place west of Fort Knox," Wrex assured her. And it will be even safer once Shepard got here. "We need to lay low a few days, until we know the fallout. Then we're going to find the bastards and smash their heads in."
Wrex was best grandpappy.
Beth grinned. “Think you can teach me how to be GI Jane in that time? I can bench more than my own weight, if that helps. Which it probably doesn’t, I only weigh a buck five.”
"No, but I can run you through boot camp and you'll be crying for your daddy by the time I'm done with you," Wrex replied. He was still reluctant to let her get all that involved in war and fighting. Either of them. "You're kids. Enjoy it while you can. Let us do your fighting for you. People like me, we're already tainted."
Beth gave Wrex a Look. “I blew my tenth grade PE teacher so I wouldn’t have to dress out for a year. Let’s not talk about tainted. I just stabbed a guy like it was nothing.” She knew she was still bloody. “Do I look upset? I want to help, Wrex. She is my family. You’re my dad.”
Wrex pursed his lips, feeling more of those feels that these girls were so good at evoking in him. He put his arms around her. "I'm glad she found you."
“Me too,” Beth smiled, wiping her eyes. When had she started to cry?
"Everything'll be all right, Beth. We'll make it so. For Alma, and for you." He grunted, and said ruefully. "And the kid."