EESM Fics For The Storybook

"Joakim Caison,"= “Eca’s giving birth!” Sieglinde Losnedahl’s shriek comes down the line, and Alfred has to jerk the phone away from his ears and cover the speaker as they ring. Moving it back towards his ears slowly, the shrieking continues. “Get your butt here, Alfred Caison, or I will kill you, I swear. So do it, damnit!” The dull, monotone beeping that indicates that Linde has hung up contrasts with her high voice, and for a moment, Alfred stands frozen, processing what was said because his ears still rung painfully.

"Wait, Eca's giving birth?! Verdammt!" he exclaims after a moment, slamming down the reciever, pulling on the nearest jacket from its hook and putting his feet quickly into the nearest pair of trainers, which were probably too small for him and made his feet cramp painfully, but right at that moment he didn't care. Almost sprinting right into the door, he had to remember to skid to a stop to open it and to lock it behind him, before running out of his driveway. He barely managed to apparate to outside the hospital without getting splinched. Alin and Veronika were at his grandmother's for the week, so he didn't have to worry about them.

"Alfred Caison, my wife Ecaterina's giving birth," he said breathlessly, flushing bright red, from his flat out run from the entrance. He jogged as fast as he could down the corridor he was directed down, bursting into the room she was in with a sigh, walking to her bed and crouching near it. "Eca, honey," Her face turned to look at him. "I'm here, love," he whispered, squeezing her hand as she let out a moan.

"Alfred," Eca whispered breathily, as the midwife encouraged her to push. "Alfred, I can't do this," she said quietly, squeezing his hand back. "I can't do this, liebe, get me out of here, please!" she begged, and for a moment Alfred didn't know what to say, just looking into her tearful eyes with a sigh. When Alfred didn't respond, she repeated, and Linde's glare was telling him to say something, and say it now.

"You can do it, Eca, you can do it, you can do it," Alfred encouraged her, smiling. "You've done it twice, and Ecaterina Caison, you aren't just my wife, you're the bravest woman I've ever met. You're braver than almost anyone I've ever known. Come on, you can do this - I know you can, liebe." Alfred blinked, smiling as Eca pushed again, continuing to quietly encourage her. The mediwizard did something to numb the pain, and a while later a small baby boy slid out.

"Joakim Caison," Eca said immediately, letting out a deep sigh as the pain ebbed. "Just like you always wanted." She handed their son to his father, who burst into tears looking at the young child.

"He even looks like Joakim," he said, looking at the last picture he took with Joa, that poaked out of his pocket. "Welcome to the world, Joakim Caison," he whispered, planting a kiss on the young babe's forehead. But in his mind, he remembered Joakim's face, his laugh, the way he said his name...and he looked at the babe, and hope that he would be as good a friend to his friend as Joakim had been to him. He Never Said Goodbye= Catrin Bondevik was hurting, as she looked at what was left of home. She'd been looking forward to eternity, but like Benedikt sometimes said, she was a naive little idiot. Of course eternity was never going to happen; the building would have crumbled from age, and the damn place was home to EESM students, damnit. But now her killer was dead, her home destroyed, and she was still dead, but this time, alone. Alone. The word resonated hollowly within her.

Benedikt had left, she knew it - and he hadn't even said goodbye to her. It shouldn't hurt, she should have expected it, because he'd always had the same offhand nature towards her. Except when they found out Brenna was at EESM - that time she hadn't initiated the gesture, and his hand had slipped into hers. Late night conversations about what they remembered, the playful insults they threw around. When they watched people. Catrin felt the bitter tears coming.

'Bondevik, don't be so damn pathetic.' She hears his voice in her head and glances left, and then right. He wasn't there, still. He really had gone and done it. But the sound of his voice sort of made her more determined not to cry. But whatever their relationship with each other could be called, she'd hoped it would be enough to merit a goodbye before he went and did his disappearing act. She knew she'd have said goodbye to him, because she cared about him.

As she began walking into the light, the first bitter tear fell as she realised she'd never told him what she really thought about him, what she really felt about him.