Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 22:54:50 -0000 From: Barbara Vainio Subject: Challenge: Lori's shower To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Here's my contribution to Lori's shower. *********************************** Whose Name is it, Anyway? (01/01) By Barbara Vainio Lori was sitting up in her hospital bed, editing another piece of "Forever Knight" fan fiction. She should have known better than to make a general offer to beta read everyone's stories. Why did she tell the writers to just "send them without asking"? She'd been swamped with fiction for months. She guessed she was glad that people liked her comments enough that they kept sending her their work, but it had gotten way out of hand. She'd even had to bring several stories to the hospital when she went into labor just to try to keep up. She laughed softly as she wondered how the authors would react to the comments she'd written down between contractions. Her laugh turned to a contented sigh as she put the story aside and thought about her newborn son. She looked at the clock opposite her bed and realized he was already 5 hours old. Soon she'd be able to hold him for his first feeding. She stretched and instantly regretted it as her abdominal muscles protested the sudden movement. But, all in all, her labor hadn't been too bad - except, of course, for those few minutes when she'd screamed at Mark that she'd rather drink rat's blood than go through this again. She also vaguely remembered saying something about feeding him to Uncle - drop by drop. But she hadn't really meant that...had she? The thought of LaCroix brought her back to the problem at hand: she and Mark still hadn't agreed on a name. He'd been partial to Roger, but she couldn't name their son after a serial killer. Javier might be nice, but would that mean he'd grow up to blink all the time? Richard? No, she wouldn't want to worry that he'd suddenly lose all control. Feliks? No one would ever spell it correctly. Lucius? She might be a historian, but that was carrying things too far. Oh well, they still had time before they needed to put anything in writing. She was sure they'd think of something. Lori yawned, physically tired from the effort she'd expended and just a little groggy from the remnants of the "twilight sleep" they'd given her during her last couple of hours of . labor. That was sure great stuff. She hardly remembered anything that happened once she'd began to float on that nice comfortable cloud. It's not that she hadn't been awake, it just made everything seem distant and detached. The door to her room opened and suddenly there he was, so small in the nurse's arms. Lori sat up straighter, ignoring the pull from her stitches, and eagerly reached out to take...Joe? Don? Aristotle? Ludwig? "It's terrific that you already had his name picked out. My husband and I agonized over our decision for weeks." The nurse's comment snapped Lori's attention back to the present. "What do you mean? We haven't agreed on a name yet." "You must have. We asked you several times after you left the labor room and you always gave the same answer. You were very...adamant about it. We put it in the official records that his birth certificate will be generated from." "But you can't...we haven't...I didn't..." Lori's confusion turned into panic as she tried to remember when she had been asked for his name. The memory at first just tickled her brain and slid away. But then it became clearer...and clearer. And her panic turned to horror. It had been just as she was being wheeled out of the delivery room. Her attention had been snagged by a word. "...name?" She'd shaken her head trying to concentrate on what she was being asked, but again only heard "...name?" She'd tried to figure out what they were asking, working hard to push the cobwebs out of the way. She'd smiled proudly as she realized what must be happening. Someone must have been asking what her name was to find out if she was coming out of the twilight sleep. She'd swallowed a couple of times and mumbled "Dehn. Lori Dehn." Another voice had asked, "Are you sure?" and she'd replied, "Yes , of course, I'm sure." The first voice again. "You're sure it's Dehn?" She'd finally gotten annoyed and snapped, "Yes, yes, yes. It's Dehn and that's the last time I'm going to tell you," before she'd drifted back into her private little twilight zone. Now she gingerly took her son's tiny hand, distracted momentarily as his fingers curled around one of her larger ones, and swiveled the bracelet that circled his wrist until she could read what had been typed there. "Oh my God." Her gasp brought the nurse to her side, ready to help in whatever way she could. But before she could offer her assistance, Lori began to laugh and pointed at the name on the matching bracelet on her wrist. "How am I ever going to explain to Mark that our son's name is listed as 'Dane Dehn'?"