Urban Dead: The Price of the Oath

[Pcm979]

"We'll whisper, Steve. You need your beauty sleep, after all." Mike turned back to Sherry.

"You two." Mike said with an almost paternal shake of the head. "How the hell did that come up, anyway?" He asked carelessly, rearranging the sleeping patient carefully. That was better.

[Caz]

Gwendolyn moaned a bit in her sleep, hand twitching as she curled a bit, looking a bit worried. But she didn't regain consciousness. Sherry grabbed Mike by the wrist and led him out onto the balcony, which was equally trashed as the flat.

She offered him a cigarette, then remembered, pulled back.

"Sorry," she said, "habit."

And then: "Melanie's gonna have a baby, he says."

[Pcm979]

"Acecandeliverit." He said quickly. "Two's enough for me to be getting by on."

[Caz]

She snorted a bit as she laughed, leaning on him with a bit of a tired sigh. The last two days, they'd been pushing themselves to the physical limit. Her legs ached from taking fire escape stairs double-time, the head of their pack and therefore having to be twice as quick with twice the endurance to ensure their safe passage.

"Petro sure seems excited about it," she said with a chuckle. "I never saw all the fuss over it."

[Pcm979]

"Well, it's their call. They can hardly put her on the Pill anyway." He said with a smirk.

He chucked an arm around her and tugged a lighter from his pocket.

"Need a light?" He asked innocently.

[Caz]

"Nah," she said, "just finished one; I'm not a crazy chain-smoker," like some of us are she thought with a chuckle. But she fiddled with the lighter anyhow--always had to be busy with her hands, after all.

"You're not gonna want me to have a kid, are you?" she asked with a grimace.

[Pcm979]

He looked at her dumbly. "I thought you knew." He said finally, smoothing her jacket aimlessly. He licked his lips.

"Baby, you can't. Not anymore." He forced out finally.

[Caz]

"How absolutely tragic," she said, somehow keeping a straight face. But then the snickering started.

[Pcm979]

He chuckled a bit, but didn't really join in. She might regret it someday.

Well. Maybe.

Okay, probably not.

[Caz]

"Besides," she said, "if you want a kid that badly for some reason in the future, we can just be the lovable aunt and uncle that lets Mel and Petro's kid misbehave when he comes to stay with us, right?"

She winked, gave him a playful kiss on the neck.

[Pcm979]

He squeezed her shoulders a bit, and sniggered when she looked up from the kiss, mouth covered in the grease.

"I'm starting a fashion." He declared, poking her lips with a finger.

[Caz]

"Yeah, well I forgot," Sherry whined, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

She glanced up to him. "Your watch in five," she said matter-of-factly.

[Pcm979]

"Liar." He said affectionately. "Yours. But I'll compromise." He continued, drawing her back inside and sitting by the window, pulling her on top of him. "I'll take your watch if I get to cuddle you."

[Caz]

"You drive a hard bargain, Freeman," she said. "I just... suddenly feel fucking exhausted. Dunno why," she said as she slumped against him with a yawn so wide it looked like her jaw had been unhinged.

She glanced to the woman on the floor.

"She doesn't look too good."

Sherry was just great at wording things where sensitive ears might hear.

[Pcm979]

Mike sighed. "No, she doesn't. Goddamnit. Someday I suppose I'll get used to it." He cuddled her as advertised, taking strength from it.

[Caz]

She glanced up to him.

"If she lives, she lives. If she doesn't, ain't much you could've done about it. I mean... it'd be sketchy just with that wound. But she must've caught whatever that new mutation has been spreading around."

Sherry yawned.

"Her best chance right now is to work herself as little as possible--that's how we got Petro through it, right?"

[Pcm979]

"Yeah." He said. "I'll be fine, as long as you're around." He wiped his lips clean and kissed her scalp. "Now get some sleep before you yawn your jaw off!" He said faux-authoritatively, adjusting her a little so he could keep an eye out and act as a pillow at the same time.

[Caz]

She grumbled something unintelligible and then thunked her head against his shoulder with another yawn.

"Wa'me up when 's'time," she said, only half coherent by that point.

[Pcm979]

"I will." He said, and grinned as she fell asleep curled against him. He peered out the window, alert for any signs of life or unlife, and felt calm again. She had that effect on him, bless her.

[Josh]

The day passed in silence. Below, solitary shamblers and small groups moved past, but none picked up their scent. As the light dwindled, the last man on watch roused them, and they proceeded to dive into a quick breakfast.

[Caz]

Sherry, as usual, dug eagerly into the food after she'd finally forced herself to consciousness again. Everyone accounted for, everyone looked relatively well, the night seemed to have passed without incident.

She took a sip of the water from her canteen and glanced to Gwen, whose condition hadn't improve. She then glanced to Petro and Mike, as if to ask a wordless question.

[Pcm979]

Mike nodded in affirmation, a little sadly. They were leaving her here with a mutant infection. He wouldn't take bets that she'd last.

[Josh]

Simultaneously, Petro shook his head no. She wasn't dead yet, and they weren't going to do the deed.

[Caz]

Sighing, Sherry just let the subject drop. They'd work it out, and despite the fact that she felt a bit bad for the girl--hell, for anyone with that kind of grisly end awaiting 'em--she wasn't their priority right now. And chances were that she knew it, too.

[Josh]

Petro slid down next to Gwen, offering her another Powerbar. "Hey honey," he said gently. "Here."