Page 48 of Sanctuary
Patton laughed, relieved on one hand, but still anxious as he kept one eye on what looked to him like a gaping wound in Ori's belly. The fact that Ori wasn't concerned at all didn't seem to help. "Is there anything I should do?" he asked.
Ori shook his head. "I have to wait for everything to finish. But maybe you could warm up some water--actually, boil it, to make sure it's clean, and I can wash her up." He sighed happily. "I hadn't thought about girl names."
Patton kissed his cheek and glanced around the kitchen looking for something he could prop Ori up against. There was a table with four mis-matched chairs against the wall, and Patton pulled one of the chairs over and tipped it on its front. "You can lean on this," he said, padding it with the extra blanket.
Ori leaned back with a sigh. "Thank you."
Patton got to his feet and stood watching Ori for a moment, then went to try the sink and see if the water still ran. It made some terrible noises, but then water began gushing out, brown, then tan, then finally clear. He filled a pot he found in the bottom of the old electric stove and put it on one of the burners, turning it to high. "We still have some of the drinking water." They'd been planning to fill up again in Jonesboro, but the baby'd had other ideas.
"No, it's okay. There wouldn't be enough, I don't think," Ori told him. He'd covered the baby's body with the towel now, kind of like a blanket, and was humming softly to their child. "I wouldn't mind a drink though," he said after a moment. "Would you..." His voice trailed off and he glanced up at Patton in apology. "I can't get up yet."
"No, Lysoon, Ori, don't be ridiculous." Patton grabbed his bag from the floor by the front door and fished out a full bottle of water. "Here, as much as you want." He opened the bottle and handed it to Ori. "What else should I be doing?" He felt better now that he had tasks of his own, no longer just a spectator to Ori's pain and effort.
Ori took a drink and leaned back against the chair. "Um." He blushed. "The afterbirth will come out soon." His cheeks turned even redder. "It needs to be taken out and buried."
"I can do that," Patton promised him. He checked on the water, steam just starting to rise off the top of it, and decided to unpack their bags and take stock of what they had and what they needed. He could maybe run into town and see if he could find a food pantry once he knew Ori was going to be all right. "I'm going to see if there's a shovel around."
"Thank you," Ori said simply, and went back to staring at their baby.
By the time Patton had found, not a shovel but pitchfork, which had worked middling well as a tool for digging a hole, Ori had wrapped the baby up in the towel he'd asked for and was tearing another one into strips. "Any luck?" he asked cheerfully.
"Hole is dug and ready when you are," Patton shot back promptly, then blushed. It wasn't a joking matter. Was it? He moved the boiling pot off to the side and turned off the stove.
Ori blushed then too, and nodded to a damp-looking bundle of cloth. "It's there. I'm going to wrap myself up until my omega line seals." His hands paused in their work and he looked up at Patton with a slightly ashamed expression. "I'm not going to be much use for a few days. Omegas usually take three days to get the baby settled and make sure nothing's gone wrong inside. I can probably be ready to move on, though, late tomorrow. The three days is really just precaution."
"If you're supposed to take three days, we'll take three days. More, if you need it. It's not like we have a deadline anymore." He crouched beside the now sleeping baby. "I don't really know what to say." He bent to press a kiss to the top of Ori's head. "You don't regret going over the wall with me back in November?"
Ori leaned against him. "It's not the story I'd dreamed of, but I wouldn't change a thing. If I'd stayed home, I'd have been mated to someone who had pups older than me. And now I get to be with my best friend ever. Even if we have to hide out in the human world, it'll be worth it, because I got the future I dreamed of."
Patton's throat tightened with emotion and all he could do was hug Ori back, because what could a guy say to that? He held Ori until his love patted his cheek and said, "Could you get me the boiled water and another towel if there is one? Or a sheet, that would do. Whatever you can find?" He cleared his throat as if embarrassed. "And maybe give me a few minutes? I, uh, need to clean myself up."
It was tempting to just say yes to all of it, but Patton was Ori's now, just as Ori was Patton's. "I don't mind helping. I got you into this situation, right?"
That made Ori's clear laughter ring out into the dusty air. "That's right, you did. Okay. But don't be mad when you get tired of it all."
"Dork," Patton called him, then went searching for more towels.
C H A P T E R F O R T Y - T W O
T hey stayed in the old house for a week to let Ori recover. Patton went out a couple of times to scavenge, once in human form, once in wolf. He brought back some rabbits and, wincing even as he did it, a lamb, but Ori needed food and there was only so much cash work he could dig up around Jonesboro. He managed some diapers and other necessities through the food banks and they hadn't done so badly for themselves once he'd figured out the best places to go.
Ori with a child was transformed. He's always been source of comfort and a safe haven for Patton, but now he practically glowed with a sense of peace that made everything they'd been through worth it. But living here, trying to stay undetected in the human world, was shredding Patton's nerves and he wanted Ori safe behind the walls of an enclave. He hoped Mercy Hills was all it was said to be.
Patton put off their leaving for as long as possible, carefully weighing Ori's recovery against what he judged to be the ever increasing chance of discovery, either by a passing stranger, or by the people who owned the house coming back. But one morning, when the sun rose bright and strong over the trees and the day promised to be clear, they packed up what was left of their belongings, wrapped up the leftover lamb in one of Patton's shirts, and set off along the road once again.
They took it in easy stages--they had to. Ori could only go so far before either the baby needed something or he needed to rest. He never complained, though, and Patton thought that Ori’s parents would have been proud to see him now. At the same time, it occurred to him that hiking all day over rough ground wasn’t maybe the best thing for a new baby and their bearer.
"Maybe we can hitchhike," Patton suggested, about halfway through the second day after they’d stopped for the umpteenth time so their still unnamed daughter could nurse. They could pretend they were taking the baby to family —it seemed like a reasonable story. And at the rate they were covering ground, it would be another month before they made it to Mercy Hills.
Ori had to have been way more tired than he was letting Patton see, because he opened his mouth with a frown on his face, then nodded. "Okay."
Patton hugged him and tried to hide his worry, but it was good that Ori had finally agreed. And, right now, there was nothing to distinguish him from any young man with a baby in the eyes of someone driving by. His waist was almost as slim as it was when they were at Perseguir and on his last trip into Jonesboro, he’d picked up some bottles and formula on Ori’s request, in case they had to feed the baby somewhere with people around, so their disguise was as good as they could make it.
They had no luck on the highway, but eventually they'd wandered close enough to a road that gave onto it and a man driving a red pick-up truck with dented fenders stopped beside them.
"Where you boys going?" he asked, his accent far more southern than the ones they'd been listening to recently.
"Memphis," Patton said. "Going to visit family."
