A Few Sips Ch. 12

Domino smiled, "That's totally not what a woman in my position wants to hear, you know."

"I'm only a good man when I'm with you, my little dove. If I lose you..." He shook his head.

"Alexandru. I love you. I want this baby, this was my decision. Whatever happens happens, and I am not going to regret a single moment with you. If I die tonight, then I die, but if I do, it's to bring this beautiful little bit of life into the world, and I will happily do it. So stop moping and tell me whatever it is you need to tell me before the doctor comes back in and cuts me open." She squeezed his hands.

"I-it's just-I love you, you stubborn little woman."

"I love you, too, you crotchety old man." Domino watched as his mouth tipped up at the corner just the tiniest little bit.

"Be strong for me."

"Be strong for me, Alex. We can do this." She groaned a little as the baby shifted awkwardly and Alexandru moved away from her and went to the door, motioning for the other three men to come inside.

"Are you ready, Domino?" Dr. Trainor asked as he took a vial of something and connected it to the one empty port of her PICC line.

"Arc, come here." Domino weakly reached out with a hand to her friend and he came over to her, his gray eyes all torn up and murky.

"I love you, so don't go doing anything stupid if something happens to me, you big, dumb idiot." She chuckled and watched as his eyes shifted into a glare as he shook his head at her.

"You can't possibly be serious, can you, Domino?" He sighed, looking at Alexandru.

"Oh, trust me, I'm totally serious. Just, behave...and make sure, make sure the baby gets to see her godfather as much as she wants." Domino felt her spine clench up a little and nodded at the doctor, they needed to do this now.

"Who is her godfather, Dom?" Mr. Hughes tilted his head forward a little bit as the medication was pushed.

"You, silly." Domino said before her eyes fluttered closed and she lost consciousness.

Alexandru was glad that the men around him ignored the way his breath caught at seeing her eyes close like that, and finally, he looked up at Dr. Trainor, and then over at his sire and hissed.

"She does not die. No matter what. You must not let her die." He growled before stepping back and allowing the doctor to move into place beside her abdomen.

Mr. Hughes folded the blanket down to just under the bottom curve of her belly and then placed another blanket over her chest as the doctor inserted an IV to allow for an infusion of normal saline. Keeping her fluids up would be essential, he knew. When that was done, he set up her ventilator and intubated her with a breathing tube. Klaus was at the door, Brunhild had arrived and he was taking several vials of her blood.

When he came back to the bed, Mr. Hughes looked at him and Alexandru for a moment. "Brunhild will stay just outside the door. Domino requested that if she be changed into...your kind, that it be her. She doesn't want the guilt of doing it on you, Alex, and she wants to make sure that her sire releases her immediately." He looked at Klaus when he said that and the old vampire had the audacity to smirk a little and nod his head.

"I will change her if it needs to be done." Alexandru shook his head.

"No, you won't." That was Samir, who had appeared in the doorway of the room and was walking over slowly, his hands behind his back as he looked at the woman who was being prepped with chlorhexidine to keep her abdomen sterile during the incision and opening.

Alexandru felt himself grow heated, but he had no time to argue, the doctor had picked up a scalpel and was starting to cut. The smell of blood was too much and he started to shake. Samir immediately grabbed him by the arm and pulled him forcefully out of the room.

"Sorry, Alexandru, but we don't need you draining her in the middle of all of this." Samir sounded apologetic, but that didn't keep the vampire from trying to pry out of his grasp.

"She smells fantastic, I don't blame you, Alexandru." Brunhild said softly from where she was leaning against the wall. The tall, buxom brunette with the thin, long nose took a long breath and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Klaus-." Alexandru growled, looking into the room.

"Klaus fed before coming in. He will be fine. He's done this before." Samir replied.

"She'd better live." He frowned, his red eyes focused on the dark blue ones that stared right back at him.

"Hell, yes, she better. I've got a gift sitting in my room for her when she gets better and I'm going to be incredibly disappointed if she never gets it."

~*~*~*~

Alexandru knew it was close to dawn. He could feel his body starting to tug him into slumber, but he wasn't willing to seek shelter below stairs yet. He was sitting on the floor of the hallway, Samir dosing softly at his side, and Brunhild laying down across from them. His mind had not stopped raising over scenarios since he'd been dragged from Domino's side. Mr. Hughes had come out several times and said that they were taking it very slow. The baby as all right, but the process of extraction was somewhat difficult. They had to go a little bit at a time to retract the veins that were piercing the uterine tissue.

He still felt like it was all taking too long. Alexandru wanted to be by her side, but her smell was strong, and even here in the hallway, he could practically taste it. Deandra had come upstairs with her boyfriend, and they had both offered him a wrist to drink from and he had gratefully accepted their help. If he wasn't going to be the one to change her, he shouldn't see her on an empty stomach. Brunhild was the one who was waiting until the last minute to sate her hunger.

"Alexandru, you can come in now." Mr. Hughes' voice sounded from the doorway, tired, and restrained as he waited for the large vampire to rise. Samir and Brunhild did as well, but they both stayed a little back when entering the room behind the man who rushed in ahead of them.

"Domino?" Alexandru asked, looking at the doctor and his sire, trying to see his lover between the blue blankets that now covered her body. She was pale, and unconscious, and there was a thin tube in her nose that looked like a feeding tube. But her chest was moving and the bulge to her stomach was lower.

"She is alive. The process that Klaus has developed was successful at removing the baby." Dr. Trainor said, "She is very weak, malnourished. It will be a long road to recovery for her, but she can return to her pre-pregnancy state."

"She can live, and continue to be a human?" Alexandru looked from the doctor to his sire, who was holding something wrapped in another blue blanket.

"She can. But that isn't want she has requested, Alexandru." Mr. Hughes frowned.

"Do you honestly think that I should change her into a vampire if she can live as a human?" Alex looked knowingly into the eyes of the angel, who sighed and looked at Dr. Trainor.

"She will remain stable?"

"I have every expectation that she will. I even expect her to wake up in the next hour or so, as well."

"Keep her human. I don't want her changed." Alexandru shook his head, he couldn't do it, he couldn't let anyone do it.

"Alexandru, it is what she wants." Brunhild stepped forward a little.

"She has no idea what this means. She has no idea what it feels like to desire to feed on people, to have this hunger in her all the time. She wouldn't want this, before I met her, she could barely even leave her house, she was terrified of people, how can I do this to her? How can I make her into this. No, no, we will wait. I want her fully conscious, I want her to think about this for a day before it happens. Brunhild. Go somewhere else and feed. No one is changing her tonight." Alexandru was desperate for them to listen and Mr. Hughes finally sighed and nodded at the female vampire in the room.

"Fine, let me know if you need me tomorrow." She walked out of the room to find a meal before she needed to return to her room.

"Do you want to see your daughter, Alexandru?" Klaus' voice was quiet as he spoke, and Alexandru felt a shiver go through his body, it was a girl.

"A girl?" He still asked, even though it had already been said, and he slowly walked over towards Klaus, his eyes widening as he saw the dark haired bundle sleeping peacefully.

"She is tiny, like her mother, but very healthy. Strong lungs." Klaus handed the baby to her father and backed away.

"She's beautiful." Alexandru muttered as he put a large hand over the baby's, sucking in a breath as she moved her tiny fist to grab his index finger.

"Of course she is," Mr. Hughes was moving equipment away from the bedside, "Look at her mother."

"We have already fed her, she drank quite well. A whole bottle." Klaus told him.

Alexandru looked up, and nodded, he hadn't even considered that the baby would need to feed this soon, but it was close to dawn, so it would be a while before the newborn woke, and it would be extremely hungry then.

"You should take her and go downstairs. It is going to be light very soon. There is blood and bottles already in the room, in the small fridge near the dresser. She will want to eat as soon as you rise." Mr. Hughes said, nodding toward the door.

"I don't feel right taking her before Domino sees her." Alexandru frowned.

"There is no time, and she isn't going to wake up soon, and she cannot be moved from here today. You have to go." Mr. Hughes said again, Samir was coming over with new sheets for the bed.

"Fine." Alexandru furrowed a brow as he turned towards the door. Then, he thought of something and turned back around.

"She doesn't have a name." He said simply.

"She does. She told it to Faeron. Your daughter's name is Faith." Samir grinned from the opposite side of the bed.

"Faith." Alexandru muttered as he looked down at the sleeping bundle in his arms. Faith.

~*~*~*~

"Get this thing out of my nose." Domino groaned the next afternoon, she had not woken up in a good mood.

"No, it's a feeding tube and you need it." A deep voice chuckled at her from beside the bed.

"I don't need a fucking feeding tube. I need a cheeseburger." Domino felt the weight finally lift off of her eyes and she turned her head to look over at the smiling blond that was seated in the chair beside her bed.

"Good afternoon, lazy ass." Samir smiled wide, showing his perfect white teeth and Domino frowned.

"Afternoon, are you kidding? Where is Faith? Why do I want a cheeseburger? Where is Alexandru? Why am I not burning? What the hell, Samir?" She groaned the last and tried to rise, but she was too sore and winced as Samir jumped up to help her lay back down.

"Faith is with her father, they are sleeping together in a way that even makes me get all gushy. On their sides, facing each other, wings curled around them as they're all bent towards each other. They're fine. She's beautiful, Domino, you did good." Samir explained the most important bit first.

"Hm, I guess I never really thought about that, she's going to have to sleep all day like her dad. Awesome. Wait, I'm not there."

"No, you aren't." Samir shook his head.

"Why am I not there, Samir?" Domino was growing angry.

"When the doctor told him that you could survive as a human, he insisted that you be given a day to think about what you want. Mr. Hughes argued with him about it, and you know that Mr. Hughes doesn't want you to change into anything that you're not already." Samir watched her frown deepen and she bit her lower lip.

"But I told him, I wanted to be like my family." Domino felt a tear leave her eye, she didn't want to be different, she wanted to be like Alexandru and Faith.

"Then tell him that tonight, and have Brunhild change you." Samir shrugged, he wasn't thrilled with the idea of Domino becoming a vampire, either, but that was for purely selfish reasons.

"It's just that we talked about this so much, I don't understand why he would make me wait. It's safer for me if I'm not human around Faith, isn't it? Won't I make her hungry?" Domino asked, it was a good question.
"From what I understand, she doesn't have any teeth and will develop like a normal baby. She will need to get blood from a bottle until then. But that's good because she's so little, she would feed uncontrollably at first. From what Klaus said, you can nurse her, even." Samir stood up and went to the dresser where he had dropped his phone.

"I'm texting Mr. Hughes and Shi. They wanted to know when you woke up." He told her.

"I missed the whole party." Domino frowned as he hit send.

"Yeah, you did. But I had a plate of all the goodies made for you, and cake, too. We can eat some as soon as the doctor comes and clears you for food." He told her as he walked back over to her bed.

"Do you think Alexandru doesn't want me to be a vampire?" Her question was asked very quietly, and he sat down on the mattress facing her and took her hand in his.

"No, I don't think he does." Samir shook his head and watched her face fall a bit.

"Does he not love me?" Domino choked on the words and heard him deny any such thing.

"He loves you a great deal. I think that's why he doesn't want it. He knows what hell it can be to be alive forever, to watch family die, to be alone. He doesn't want that for you." He tried to explain, but knew she was having none of it.

"I don't have any family besides Alexandru and Faith. And you and Mr. Hughes. Shi, Deandra, and my friend Jenna are actually the only human friends I even have. So what the hell do you mean 'watch my family die?' As it stands right now, MY family are the ones who are going to watch ME die." By the time she had stopped speaking, she was screaming, and Samir was scooting up in the bed, both hands going to her face to try to shush her, her health was still delicate and getting riled up was not the way to go about improving it.

"Can we not make her bleed out when we don't have a vampire to get her back?" Mr. Hughes said sourly from the doorway.

Domino looked over at him and finally let her tears fall.

"Tell me how this is fair. Tell me how he gets to take this decision from me." She gulped for air as Mr. Hughes walked over and sat in the chair after pulling it closer to the bed.

"It's not fair, and he doesn't get to take this decision from you." He said instead, and Domino raised her eyebrows, she hadn't expected him to side with her, well, wait. He was her friend, that was exactly what he should have done. Angel 1, StupidVampireFiancé 0.

"I have a daughter, I don't want her to lose me. I lost my parents when I was a baby. I don't want her to ever go through that." Domino told them, showing Mr. Hughes the PICC line when he motioned for it, he was very diligent in keeping good care of her.

"Domino, it will be okay. In the end, Alexandru will understand that. He just needs to hear it. Last night, last night he was so terrified of losing you, he wasn't thinking. He loves you and he won't want to lose you. Wait until tonight and talk to him." Mr. Hughes wiped a thick lock of her blond hair out of her eyes.

"Will Dr. Trainor be here soon? She's saying she wants a cheeseburger." Samir asked, effectively switching the subject when he heard her stomach growl.

"He should be here in an hour. Until then, I'll give you a tube feed, Domino." He immediately got up to do so.

"Did the doctor give you a time frame on how long it will be before I am able to get up?" She asked as Mr. Hughes moved about beside her.

"Nope." He responded and she chuckled.

"Nope? That's a little slang-ish for an angel."

"I'm a modern guy." He shrugged his shoulders and she started laughing, Samir joining in with her this time.

"Oh no you are not."