[And of course Dominique is there to gather her up and wipe those tears away. She doesn't bother assuring her that the doctor is nice, because what effect would that have on the shots themselves?]
[She protests this, her last-ditch effort but it's really much too late and the doctor has already appeared to make smalltalk with her mommy while he fills out some things on her forms.
Calendre attempts to shrink into a tiny unnoticeable ball in Dominique's arms.]
[Yes, she was, strong and healthy, didn't even really need the shots considering the glitter in her blood. But Jackie had insisted, just as she had with the twins, and the shots couldn't harm Calendre, could only serve to boost her immune system. So Dominique brought her to the hospital, wiped her tears and completely failed at making smalltalk with the doctor. And when it comes time for the needles themselves, she doen't let go of her daughter, only shifts her so the doctor can have access to her arm.]
Just look at me, sweetheart. [She smooths fingers through her hair. No sugar-coated words or little white lies, but she was no stranger to distraction techniques.] I was thinking of picking up groceries on the way home. Do you think I should do pasta for dinner, or Thai?
[Calendre sniffs one more time for good measure and marks a garbled little sound which is all the letters of 'I don't know' smooshed together. She did not like Thai, it was too spicy, but the big kids liked it and so did the mommies.
But they were not the ones getting shots and turning themselves into snotty tear-stained messes, now were they.
She makes a face when the doctor takes her arm, trying to flinch away from him but the grownups are conspiring against her and so she answers in misery,]
Can we have the pasta, please?
[She makes a noise of complaint when the needle pinches her, and it takes forever to be done but then she gets bury herself in against her mother's shoulder and ignore that horrible doctor entirely.]
[She exchanges a few more words with the doctor before standing, carrying Calendre against her shoulder easily. A polite goodbye that she doubts the doctor will spite Calendre for not echoing, and she heads out of his office, working her way through the hospital corridors to exit the building entirely.]
[Jackie is waiting for them, looking a little surly herself because she'd had to sit and let a doctor berate her about being underweight and anemic. Her expression softens a bit as Dominique buckles Calendre into the back seat.]
[She pulls a tissue out of her pocket quickly to wipe Calendre's cheeks.]
Too brave to have some silly needles worry her that much, yes?
[A slight, soft smile, and she holds the tissue over Calendre's nose and instructs her to blow, folding up the mess afterwards and leaving a clean tissue in her hand, should there be any more stray tears.]
[Jackie's answer is not as reassuring as it could be considering how dry her tone is, but it does the trick. With the crying child successfully buckled in and her mother after her, Jackie chauffers them along to the grocery store as requested.]
And I think that's plenty of health care provisions for a while.
[Or at least until the twins needed their last round of shots if they wanted to be allowed in school...]
[Dominique does not particularly like car travel, the way the cars and roads are set up meaning that Jackie is always to her left, on her blind side. The car is necessary, often, with the children, and so she makes do, but she will never be completely comfortable with it.
She looks at Jackie quietly after that comment. She wants to ask what exactly it was the doctor had to say to her, but would rather they were home or in a setting where it wasn't quite so easy for Calendre to listen, even though she doubts there was any truly bad news from the visit. She reaches across to brush fingers over Jackie's hair briefly, the one good thing about car travel being that it made it difficult for Jackie to shrug her touches off as vehemently as she might do otherwise.]
[Jackie glances up into the rear view mirror to see if Calendre is even still listening. She isn't, she's folding her tissue into different shapes. She likes to do that, shaping things, and Jackie supposes she knows exactly where her tiny glitter baby got that from.]
[She is just going to carry on fiddling with Jackie's hair for a moment before dropping her hand, trailing over the other woman's shoulder as it goes.]
I was thinking to get mince for meatballs, although I may do a green pesto sauce tonight. I haven't decided.
[Her own attention already shifted to putting together a shopping list, ideas for meals for the rest of the week. Two teenagers and a growing child had to be planned around carefully, plus making sure she worked around Jackie's finicky eating habits in order to get some food into the other woman.]
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It will only take a second, you'll see.
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It hurts. [Sniff.] And they go extra slow so it's scary longer.
[;~~~~~~~~; it was inhumane.]
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[Her voice is soft, even if she isn't sugar-coating her words or feeding her daughter white lies. She's never done that with any of the children.]
They only take as long as necessary. It's to help keep you strong, not to scare you.
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[She protests this, her last-ditch effort but it's really much too late and the doctor has already appeared to make smalltalk with her mommy while he fills out some things on her forms.
Calendre attempts to shrink into a tiny unnoticeable ball in Dominique's arms.]
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Just look at me, sweetheart. [She smooths fingers through her hair. No sugar-coated words or little white lies, but she was no stranger to distraction techniques.] I was thinking of picking up groceries on the way home. Do you think I should do pasta for dinner, or Thai?
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But they were not the ones getting shots and turning themselves into snotty tear-stained messes, now were they.
She makes a face when the doctor takes her arm, trying to flinch away from him but the grownups are conspiring against her and so she answers in misery,]
Can we have the pasta, please?
[She makes a noise of complaint when the needle pinches her, and it takes forever to be done but then she gets bury herself in against her mother's shoulder and ignore that horrible doctor entirely.]
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[She exchanges a few more words with the doctor before standing, carrying Calendre against her shoulder easily. A polite goodbye that she doubts the doctor will spite Calendre for not echoing, and she heads out of his office, working her way through the hospital corridors to exit the building entirely.]
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Not too traumatized?
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[She pulls a tissue out of her pocket quickly to wipe Calendre's cheeks.]
Too brave to have some silly needles worry her that much, yes?
[A slight, soft smile, and she holds the tissue over Calendre's nose and instructs her to blow, folding up the mess afterwards and leaving a clean tissue in her hand, should there be any more stray tears.]
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I'm okay. The doctor was nice to you?
[Neither of her mommies cried, but that was no excuse for doctors to be mean to them.]
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[Jackie's answer is not as reassuring as it could be considering how dry her tone is, but it does the trick. With the crying child successfully buckled in and her mother after her, Jackie chauffers them along to the grocery store as requested.]
And I think that's plenty of health care provisions for a while.
[Or at least until the twins needed their last round of shots if they wanted to be allowed in school...]
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She looks at Jackie quietly after that comment. She wants to ask what exactly it was the doctor had to say to her, but would rather they were home or in a setting where it wasn't quite so easy for Calendre to listen, even though she doubts there was any truly bad news from the visit. She reaches across to brush fingers over Jackie's hair briefly, the one good thing about car travel being that it made it difficult for Jackie to shrug her touches off as vehemently as she might do otherwise.]
Calendre has chosen pasta for dinner tonight.
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Luckily, her mother has a recipe for that.
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I was thinking to get mince for meatballs, although I may do a green pesto sauce tonight. I haven't decided.
[Her own attention already shifted to putting together a shopping list, ideas for meals for the rest of the week. Two teenagers and a growing child had to be planned around carefully, plus making sure she worked around Jackie's finicky eating habits in order to get some food into the other woman.]
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I can help make meatballs.
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