Corresponding Marks

Thanks to all of you who are reading and leaving reviews! You’re making this story so much fun to write! I only hope that I am continuing to live up to your standards! Thanks again!

Chapter 5
Fathers and Sons

Larena’s sweaty head fell back against Red’s strong shoulder as she gasped for breath, yet another contraction subsiding again, even the smallest reduction in the pain was one of the greatest sensations she’d ever felt. Red leaned against the hospital bed she lay in, his left arm cradling her, both of her hands wrapped around the indestructibleness of his granite fingers at her chest, squeezing tighter and tighter when the pain would reach its threshold. But as the ache in her muscles released she let go again, turning to look at Red, who watched her with so many emotions flickering in his yellow eyes, all behind a thin veil of apprehension. She hadn’t had very much time to wonder about what he’d be like when this moment came, whether he’d be more fearfully and comically nervous, or whether he’d be stalwart and positive, a sense of pride carrying him through the whole process of waiting for his child to finally make its entrance into the world. She smiled as she watched him watching her, as if he had some checklist stashed in his pocket and was going to whip it out at any moment and go down the list of “Symptoms of eminent childbirth—You know it’s close when...” He gazed at her so protectively, focused on being so strong for her, like he expected her to fall apart and was ready to put her back together again…just before he fell apart himself. Larena couldn’t help but giggle a bit.

“What is it?” Red jumped as if startled, clutching her hand in his stone fist so suddenly and hard he could feel Larena wince…stupid rock hand…he let go again, but couldn’t relax.

“Red,” she laughed again, discreetly rubbing her mashed fingers. “You’re so alert to everything that you’re almost a million miles away from it. Are you okay?”

“Me?” He tried to play coy, his expression almost arrogant, but when Larena cocked her head and jutted her chin out at him a bit, locking eyes with him demandingly he gave up. “This is just,” he sighed, trying to choose his words as carefully as he could, not wanting to make her think or feel anything that might upset her. She was still happy about this and he’d given her no reasons to be otherwise. “It’s all happening a lot faster than I thought it would. I’m hoping I’m ready for it, that’s all.” Without meaning to, his eyes shifted downwards, too ashamed to look at her while he said that. He waited for her to panic or cry or be angry.

But she laughed, startling him again. “Red,” Larena put her hand over his, interlacing her soft fingers with his granite ones. “I know how you feel, because that’s how I feel too.”

“You do?” The surprise in his voice embarrassed him, but the words had sprung out of his mouth before he could temper the emotion behind them. “But you’re so—“

“I’m what, Red?” Larena asked with a smile, but it was a bit forced this time, the trepidation shining through in her voice. “We’ve been together less than two months, we’ve been living together in secrecy, I haven’t met your family or friends, I don’t know if I can even call you my ‘boyfriend,’ I went to bed last night somewhere in my first trimester, and now I’m as big as a house and in labor…” she sighed heavily, her head falling back against Red’s shoulder again. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds until the silence between she and HB became unbearable and she turned her head towards him again. “All of this and we haven’t even had a first date yet!”

At that they both laughed, some of the tension released; Red leaned over and kissed her softly, Larena’s arm curling around his neck, inviting him closer, but just as his lips parted against hers, her body stiffened all at once, pulling away from him as she huffed with another contraction.

“Lar,” the suddenness and the force of the pain that would come upon her always caught Red so off guard and left him feeling helpless. The tighter Larena’s eyes squeezed shut and the more her hands balled into fists and the deeper the moans she ground out, the more he wished this all would end. “Blue,” he glanced over at Abe, giving Larena his stone fingers to take out her pain on, his heart pounding. “Do something!”

Abe looked away from the chart he’d been preparing and keeping notes on, he’d settled into a calmness with this whole thing and was focused now on his patient, and patient to be. He was learning more and more as things progressed, Larena having given her consent for him to read her as the labor went along, and he was liking her more and more. Beyond only that though, Abe felt certain as to what the eventual outcome would be, and he was no longer worried, at least not yet he wasn’t. “Such as?”

Red fought to keep the alarm feeding his panic and anger under control, but it was a losing battle. “I don’t know, maybe like, GET IT OUT!”

“Red!” Larena gasped as the contraction began to stifle, managing to give him a scolding look in place of the words she hadn’t breath to say.

“I’m afraid there’s very little I, or we, can do at this stage of delivery.” Abe rose elegantly to his feet, reading at once how irritated Red was at his composed demeanor, but it didn’t bother him, Abe knew he was right and he knew what was best. “Babies do as they please and arrive when they’re ready. We likely have two or three hours to go before this one is.”

“Two or three more hours?” Red’s face contorted, he felt dizzy and exhausted, but even more than that he was feeling somehow taken advantage of. Hadn’t he, and Larena, been through enough already? Why couldn’t this just be over with? Even if he wasn’t ready for whatever would happen afterwards. He knew of course that none of it was Abe’s fault, but still he turned and glared at him as though it were. “She can’t last that long!”

“She can’t, or you can’t?” At that Abe snuck a glance at Larena and her eyes met his, the faintest of smirks on her face and Abe repressed a chuckle. Red however was about to blow, Abe knew he better do something, fast. He moved beside Larena, waving a small vitals scanner over her wrist, checking her pulse. “Larena, I can however give you something for the pain now, if you feel you need it.”

Larena smiled. “I wouldn’t object to that!” She said honestly, then looked at Red, smoothing her hand up his strong left forearm soothingly, knowing a reduction in her pain would help both of them. “Thank you, Abe.” Her eyes were on Red’s as she said it, prompting him to relax and hopefully be a bit more considerate as well.

“Yeah,” He exhaled, looking back at Larena, then over at Abe. “Sorry, Blue. And thanks, I know you’re doing your best.” Red took Larena’s hand in both of his, kissing it and then finally sat down on the stool beside her bed, feeling a little silly now. He heard Larena sigh softly and her fingertips brushed his temple, the feeling consoling, making him need to be closer to her; being close to her always made everything feel right. Red leaned down and let his head settle against her chest, her arms going around him immediately, holding him to her. Red sighed deeply, wanting so much for things to be okay, for everyone. “Maybe you should see if there’s anything you could give me, too.” He joked as Larena’s finger massaged the tension at the back of his neck.

But just as everyone was again easing into another space between anxiety and turmoil, another presence was felt in the doorway. Red noticed it first, looking up, and immediately wishing he hadn’t.

“From the looks of this, I’d say you’ve already had more than what is decorous.”

“Father!” Red quietly groaned on a heavy sigh. There seemed to be no end in how this whole situation was getting worse.

* * * * * *

“Look, Pop, I…I…” Try as he might, Red was unable to sit down and be still; he paced, his hands shook with each stammering word he said, and his gaze shifted from the floor to the ceiling again and again. He’d managed to leave Larena’s side, not wanting to have this inevitable conversation with his father in front of her. It had a good chance of turning ugly, and he didn’t want her anymore upset than she had to be…or was already. He felt a bit guilty for not making the formal introductions between his father and Larena, she’d been so eager to meet the grandfather of their child, and then when he appeared, Red stood up, grabbed the old man by his shoulder and essentially ran out of the room with him, saying nothing more than, “how’d you find out?” How did he find out? That would have to wait for now, but Red had his suspicions, he just couldn’t prove them as of yet. Well, he might as well get on with this, the sooner the yelling started; the sooner it would stop. “Pop, I already know what you’re going to say.”

Professor Brutteholm sat with both his hands resting on his cane, calm on the surface, but his eyebrows rose at his son’s statement. “Do you?”

Whether his father’s surprise was feigned or not, Red couldn’t tell. “Yeah, you’re disappointed.”

“Am I?” Professor Bruttenholm replied in the same mystified voice, but this time there was an undercurrent of irritation evident.

The questioning responses made Red more edgy; all he could do was guess as to how upset his father was instead of being hit full force with it. It was torturous. “Well?”

“Please continue,” invited Professor Bruttenholm with a casual wave of his hand, but his eyes were anything but relaxed. “Your accuracy is quite spectacular so far.”

It was far too soon to be holding his ground on this, but Red felt himself welling up to do so, despite that his father hadn’t leveled anything against him…yet. He finally stopped his pacing, turned to face the professor, sighed and rested his hands on his hips, making himself look at his father, it was so important that he did when he said this. “It’s not the way you think it is, okay? It didn’t all go down like that.”

“And how did it all ‘go down?’” Professor Bruttenholm stood, facing his son and trying so very hard to hide the contempt in his voice, but the sheer weight of the situation made it so very difficult. He’d never figured Hellboy for ending up in such a dilemma, at least, not with some stranger, that was. “Do you even understand what you’ve set in motion, my son? I fear that the magnitude of this responsibility escapes you!”

Red’s shoulders slumped forward and his head began to pound. Here it comes! This was what he’d been dreading. “No, father…believe me, I understand the ‘motion’ and the ‘magnitude’ even more than you do.” He said it to the floor, but at least he’d said it.

“It’s more than clear that you don’t.” Insisted the professor. “That young lady in there, a young lady no one knows—“

“I know her!” Red interjected, but his father ignored him and continued.

“She’s having a baby! Your child! And yet in explaining your apparent actions with afore mentioned young lady, you stand before me with the exact same impertinent attitude as you take when it’s another one of your unscheduled and unsupervised sojourns into public life that we are so frequently discussing! This is very much different from that, I can promise you! ” Professor Bruttenholm sighed, how he’d managed to not yell at his son he wasn’t certain, but he felt no less exhausted by this conversation already. “ What am I supposed to think? Instead of telling me about this when it happened, you’ve chosen to hide it! And in the first place, you’ve somehow seen fit to go and…” the professor stammered for a word that was appropriate without being inappropriate, “…engage yourself with that girl and yet you haven’t even been able to make yourself forgive Agent Myers for—“ again the professor stopped, perhaps it was best not to be bringing that up. “You’ll forgive me if I say that this does appear to have ‘gone down like that! Have you any notion at all as to how much a child demands of a parent? Of how much a parent owes to a child? And if you have, do you think it’s in you?”

Red had spent weeks now doubting himself and his father’s words only cemented the feeling of ineptitude he’d been trying so hard to stay out from under. He may not have always agreed with his father’s judgments on things as they happened, but Red always respected where those judgments came from. His father was a good man, a wise man; why couldn’t he be more like him himself? Red’s broad chest rose and sank with a heavy sigh as he looked up at the professor, his lips somewhat pursed to keep the lower one from quivering. “If you don’t think it’s in me, why should I?”

A stricken look crossed the professor’s face and all at once he realized his words had been inappropriately aimed. “My boy,” his voice quavered through his tight throat as he stepped closer to his son, putting his arms around Red as much as he could and embracing him. He’d always strived to not react based solely on the shock of his sons actions; after all, his son was no ordinary man, and was prone to commit that which others were too fearful or merely too uninspired to perform. And yet, in this instant, he’d forgone his usual standard, and it had only made things worse. “You know I believe you to be capable of anything you choose to do, it’s always been that way, and it always will be.”

Red had for a long time thought himself too old to be held like this by his father, and he certainly was too old to let himself melt into it, but he was, without thinking about it, until he raised his head to speak, realizing at once the ridiculousness of clinging to his father like he were still a gawky child with one horn that grew longer than the other. He straightened his back and stepped away, but did keep both his hands on the professor’s shoulders, hoping that the moisture he felt at the corner of his eyes was sweat. “Father,” he took another deep breath. “I love her. She loves me.”

Professer Bruttenholm blinked several times, something wet at the corners of his own eyes, but there was a smile forming on his lips. He thought back to what he’d found when he’d walked into the lab, his son’s head nestled against the body of that young lady, and her arms softly stroking the back of his neck. It was nice to see that for once his son was not the only one in love when it came to young ladies. “What’s her name?”

“Larena,” Red answered, happy to see that his father was smiling; he knew the old man would welcome the news like this, but the happiness Red had just begun to revel in was short lived. “And I do love her, Pop. I did from the first time I saw her, and she’ll tell you the same thing about me. That’s why it made it so hard to not…be together…” Red watched a new puzzlement fracture his father’s smile and he didn’t want to continue, but he knew he had to. “You see, there’s something else…”

Never before did any father ever wish so hard to hear that his son’s new love interest was married to another man. What was simple adultery when compared to what the desperate look in Hellboy’s eyes foretold about the prophecy with which the professor was far too familiar. He felt himself grow suddenly cold, the hope that had just begun to bloom, the plans he’d been mentally putting into motion for teaching his son how to be a father, all slipped screaming down into a deep dark pit. How had this come to pass? He’d made certain that his son understood, enforced again and again what it would mean if…but he loved the girl, and she loved him…did that change anything? Either way, Larena was a witch. The professor’s mouth was suddenly dry. “I see.”

“Professor, Red,” the soothing tone of Abe’s voice pierced the thick, despairing silence. “Please forgive the interruption,” he added, clearing his throat as both Bruttenholm and Red turned towards him.

“Is Lar okay?” There was panic in Red’s voice as he stood ready to rush into the lab.

“She is,” Abe nodded, wondering how to put the rest of what he’d come to say. “But I’ve just seen something on the monitors that I think you need to see for yourself.”