29-03-2019, 05:38 PM
A Morning After Amongst Equals Pt. 02
"I call you on the telephone,
my voice too rough with cigarettes.
I sometimes feel I should just go home,
but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets.
I love to hear you say my name,
especially when you say 'yes.'
I got your body right now on my mind,
but I've drunk myself blind to the sound of old T-Rex."
-The Who, "You Better, You Bet"
"Hey, Girl." Troy Equals said into the phone.
"Hey, Boy." Julie Equals replied. "Everything going ok?"
"Yeah, it's..." Other voices and the sounds of medical equipment came over Troy's end, forcing him out of Contessa Helena de San Finzione's bedroom and into the 4 AM air of her balcony. "Sorry, Mistress. It's crowded in there at the moment. Nothing bad; just, you know she wants drugs, and with her history and tolerance, Dr. Maisson and the anesthesiologist were wary of how much would be enough, but not too much."
Julie smiled on her end and stroked Susan Bailey's hair as she lay next to her on the suite's bed. Troy didn't know a lot about medicine, but that sounded like Math to Julie, and she often called him her Math Boy for a reason. Knowing him, he'd probably helped them work the numbers or something.
"You can't help her with What We Do?" She asked him.
"We both agree that it's too risky. In a delivery room, we'd have a closed environment; we could control the room and make them forget that I'd been commanding her to feel no pain. In her bedroom at the castle, there are too many people going in and out to risk someone leaving with questions in their head. Then we've got our friends who know; like Maria and Colleen, in the crowd with everyone else coming and going, to consider. I don't want to accidentally make Generalissimo Ramirez or Jeanne forget San Finzione's worst-kept state secret."
"That's got to be a special kind of Hell for you." Julie said back to her best friend. Because Helen hadn't been as discrete with the ability as the others had, there were whispers that La Contessa was some kind of supernatural creature with the ability to control minds. The fact that she'd appeared in the film "San Finzione Shakedown" earlier in the year, before her pregnancy started showing; where she'd pretended to have that power, caused most people to laugh the idea off along with her. One vice that Helen did not possess was the inability to laugh at herself.
Troy, on the other hand, feared the world learning about their ability, and Helen knew how he felt about it too much to allow it to happen. Almost a year ago, an enemy of Helen's had learned the truth about her power and dragged the Equals and Susan into their private war. She'd prevented him from revealing her secret to the world, but her relationship with Troy & Julie was exposed to the public.
Helen had been able to control the story so that the world only knew that Julie was her lifelong friend and a talented artist who had La Contessa's patronage. Because Troy was still wary of gaining any fame whatsoever, the father's identity had been kept out of the press. A handful of male celebrities were suspected of being the potential father, and they were happy to let the media continue to speculate.
Not being able to help Helen more than "any ordinary father could" frustrated him. Troy was a helpful and empathetic person by nature, and little more bothered him than a situation where he had the ability to help, but for one reason or another, couldn't. It was a trait he shared with Susan, and it had created a connection between them that Julie loved seeing.
"How's Susan doing, Sunflower?" Troy asked her.
"Good. She's next to me and in trance. I'm sharing the story about the day after our first time."
Troy thought in silence for a moment. He and Julie had been children when they learned the secret, and they taught Helen in their early teens. Susan was a grown woman when they taught her a year and a half ago and, for many reasons, teaching her had been an entirely different experience than teaching Helen.
"Guess she'll learn what we mean by 'problems no one who can't do this can relate to.'" He mused.
"Like having a husband who still sort of lives in fear that the world will find out he's on good enough terms with his first girlfriend to knock her up?"
"You'd punch my arm if I said something like that. You're too far away yet." Troy replied, wistfully. He'd been needed most in San Finzione the past couple months and hadn't gotten to see much of his best friend and the permanent third member of their marriage.
His missing of them was cut short by a scream inside the bedroom. Although it wasn't something that they discussed; he, Julie, and Helen all knew about Susan's paralyzing fear of hospitals that she still wasn't ready to talk about. Because of her past, it wasn't difficult for them to imagine reasons why a formerly-abused woman might fear hospitals; Helen, in her royal capricious whim, decided upon a home birth at the castle.
"And that was a contraction." Troy said, checking his watch. "Nine minutes, I'd better get back in there. Love both of you."
"If Susan could answer, she'd also say that she loves you." They ended the call.
Julie turned back to Susan and began tracing spirals on her body.
"Troy says he loves you." Julie whispered to her. Susan sighed. "Speaking of which, let's get back to that."
* * *
"I call you on the telephone,
my voice too rough with cigarettes.
I sometimes feel I should just go home,
but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets.
I love to hear you say my name,
especially when you say 'yes.'
I got your body right now on my mind,
but I've drunk myself blind to the sound of old T-Rex."
-The Who, "You Better, You Bet"
"Hey, Girl." Troy Equals said into the phone.
"Hey, Boy." Julie Equals replied. "Everything going ok?"
"Yeah, it's..." Other voices and the sounds of medical equipment came over Troy's end, forcing him out of Contessa Helena de San Finzione's bedroom and into the 4 AM air of her balcony. "Sorry, Mistress. It's crowded in there at the moment. Nothing bad; just, you know she wants drugs, and with her history and tolerance, Dr. Maisson and the anesthesiologist were wary of how much would be enough, but not too much."
Julie smiled on her end and stroked Susan Bailey's hair as she lay next to her on the suite's bed. Troy didn't know a lot about medicine, but that sounded like Math to Julie, and she often called him her Math Boy for a reason. Knowing him, he'd probably helped them work the numbers or something.
"You can't help her with What We Do?" She asked him.
"We both agree that it's too risky. In a delivery room, we'd have a closed environment; we could control the room and make them forget that I'd been commanding her to feel no pain. In her bedroom at the castle, there are too many people going in and out to risk someone leaving with questions in their head. Then we've got our friends who know; like Maria and Colleen, in the crowd with everyone else coming and going, to consider. I don't want to accidentally make Generalissimo Ramirez or Jeanne forget San Finzione's worst-kept state secret."
"That's got to be a special kind of Hell for you." Julie said back to her best friend. Because Helen hadn't been as discrete with the ability as the others had, there were whispers that La Contessa was some kind of supernatural creature with the ability to control minds. The fact that she'd appeared in the film "San Finzione Shakedown" earlier in the year, before her pregnancy started showing; where she'd pretended to have that power, caused most people to laugh the idea off along with her. One vice that Helen did not possess was the inability to laugh at herself.
Troy, on the other hand, feared the world learning about their ability, and Helen knew how he felt about it too much to allow it to happen. Almost a year ago, an enemy of Helen's had learned the truth about her power and dragged the Equals and Susan into their private war. She'd prevented him from revealing her secret to the world, but her relationship with Troy & Julie was exposed to the public.
Helen had been able to control the story so that the world only knew that Julie was her lifelong friend and a talented artist who had La Contessa's patronage. Because Troy was still wary of gaining any fame whatsoever, the father's identity had been kept out of the press. A handful of male celebrities were suspected of being the potential father, and they were happy to let the media continue to speculate.
Not being able to help Helen more than "any ordinary father could" frustrated him. Troy was a helpful and empathetic person by nature, and little more bothered him than a situation where he had the ability to help, but for one reason or another, couldn't. It was a trait he shared with Susan, and it had created a connection between them that Julie loved seeing.
"How's Susan doing, Sunflower?" Troy asked her.
"Good. She's next to me and in trance. I'm sharing the story about the day after our first time."
Troy thought in silence for a moment. He and Julie had been children when they learned the secret, and they taught Helen in their early teens. Susan was a grown woman when they taught her a year and a half ago and, for many reasons, teaching her had been an entirely different experience than teaching Helen.
"Guess she'll learn what we mean by 'problems no one who can't do this can relate to.'" He mused.
"Like having a husband who still sort of lives in fear that the world will find out he's on good enough terms with his first girlfriend to knock her up?"
"You'd punch my arm if I said something like that. You're too far away yet." Troy replied, wistfully. He'd been needed most in San Finzione the past couple months and hadn't gotten to see much of his best friend and the permanent third member of their marriage.
His missing of them was cut short by a scream inside the bedroom. Although it wasn't something that they discussed; he, Julie, and Helen all knew about Susan's paralyzing fear of hospitals that she still wasn't ready to talk about. Because of her past, it wasn't difficult for them to imagine reasons why a formerly-abused woman might fear hospitals; Helen, in her royal capricious whim, decided upon a home birth at the castle.
"And that was a contraction." Troy said, checking his watch. "Nine minutes, I'd better get back in there. Love both of you."
"If Susan could answer, she'd also say that she loves you." They ended the call.
Julie turned back to Susan and began tracing spirals on her body.
"Troy says he loves you." Julie whispered to her. Susan sighed. "Speaking of which, let's get back to that."
* * *
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