for Mark

[sluttylyingliar]

Rachel hates it when Raylan is right.

It's even worse because Raylan is almost always right. But in this case, he was really, really right. He'd suggested as gently as possible (as he very well knows the best way to get Rachel to do something is to tell her she can't) that she wait for him to get home before going out for food. His reasoning was sound. Her balance is for shit with her big belly, these stupid Victorian clothes are heavy and the shoes are weird and slippery. Plus, you know, ice. 

But, dammit, she doesn't want to stay in their weird, dark, cold house being pregnant and cold. She hates this Raylan hates this. They bitch and hate it together and what she needs is to find someone to bitch and hate with her. She twists her hair up onto the top of her head and puts the heavy, brocade coat over the high necked gown that she insists on wearing unbuttoned as far as it will go.

She only makes it about a half a mile before her feet go right out from under her, the weight of her belly pulling her forward. She manages to fling her hands out before her stomach hits the ground as as the wet slush soaks through her gloves and her dress, she remembers again how much she hates it when Raylan is right.

 Dammit.

Comments

[zuckered]

"Laptop?" Mark scoffs, glancing over at Rachel with a highly skeptical look, even as his hand automatically drops on hers to anchor it further in place, worried as he is that he'll still let her down somehow, the both of them quite possibly fated to fall in a pile of snow in the few blocks they've still yet to go. "You're kidding, right? The laptop changed to some kind of weird typewriter. Completely useless to me. Even if I can manage to get the same characters on paper, there's no way to run a program or to make the language meaningful at all. I've had to cancel classes until I figure out whether or not it's even worth having people try to find programming texts from that abominable bookshelf."

He glances down at Rachel, shaking his head. "But hey, now at least we can be bored shitless together."

[sluttylyingliar.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, babe I hate to break it to you, but a lot of people are going to look at the it as a month long vacation," she says, threading her fingers through his. "Now, I certainly don't because sliding around in maternity dresses in the slush is not my idea of fun at all but I feel like you should be warned. And yes, we will be brothers in arms against a sea of boredom and super sketchy air pollution."

[zuckered]

"Then let them have their vacation," he decides with a snort. "If attendance starts taking a nosedive, I'll even allow it. It's the time for winter break, anyway, if we're looking to American standards. And it's not exactly like any of them have the pressure of exams upon them to keep them to the curriculum. The range of skill and knowledge of my student base varies far too much for me to test them as a group on much of anything." The tone of his voice makes it infinitely clear that he doesn't think too much of that, but there's resignation laced there as well, with the knowledge that the population is just too small to manage anything far better than what they've already arranged.

"Should I have you wear a mask?" he asks suddenly, thinking of pollution and the adverse effects it could have on her kid. "For, you know."

[sluttylyingliar.livejournal.com]

"Do you really think you could convince me to wear a mask?" she says, eyebrow raised. "You can say for the baby, I won't get weird. Or you can call it fetus. Or Jess. I still go back and forth between fetus and Jess."

[zuckered]

Being the first time that he's heard a name dropped, Mark can't help but focus on that. While not really sure what kind of process it takes to pick out a name for a kid, Mark certainly knows that the decision must be a fairly big one for any parent. Names aren't easily changed, after all. (And if people are to believe the studies that show correlation between chosen names and personality traits, that opens up another can of worms entirely.)

"Jess? You guys are set on a name?" He pauses. "Jess like Jessica, right? Or Jesse?"

[sluttylyingliar.livejournal.com]

"Jess like Jess Davis Givens," she confirms with a very firm nod, patting her stomach. "It's a boy, actually, just found out. I guess Raylan always liked the name and God knows I've never given two shits about baby names so I had zero problem with Jess. It's better to give it a name now, I think. Less like it's just some alien looking thing."

[zuckered]

It sounds rather country, Mark thinks to himself, although he manages to keep from blurting out the thought right away. He's seen that partner of Rachel's before, mostly in passing. Never sat down to talk to the guy. Something about his appearance and demeanor make Mark suspect that he and Raylan Givens wouldn't get along all too well, and rather than putting Rachel in the middle, Mark's just enough of a non-confrontational person that he'd rather sweep things away and under the rug. And hope, he thinks to himself, that some day none of this will matter at all.

"Giving it a name now is good," he agrees. "Makes it more personal. Makes it less of a growth in there and more a goal that you're working towards, I guess. Though a name stays with the kid for pretty long, too, so. Might want to call it beta mode for now."

[sluttylyingliar.livejournal.com]

"Is that your way of saying you don't like the name?" she snorts, raising an eyebrow as she continues to walk. "I mean, if so, that's totally your right but I feel like Raylan's not going to hop on board with calling his son beta mode. Just a warning. He's a touch more sentimental than that, and he's really not very sentimental."

[zuckered]

"I meant beta mode in the sense that you could change it later, if you decide that, I don't know, the baby comes out looking like an— a Chris, or a Dustin," Mark suggests with a shrug. "I hear that that sort of thing happens, where a parent looks at a kid and decides that the originally picked name doesn't fit or something. Not that I really know anything about naming kids or pets or anything like that, considering I don't exactly plan on having any of my own." He shoves a hand into his pocket, still making sure to keep his hold on Rachel secure.