(Untitled)

[watch_wait]

Bartleby hasn't walked this far in months, and there are grooves of pain beside his mouth by the time he makes it to a convenient table. His breathing a little harsher than he wants you to know. He concentrates on anything other than his surroundings for as long as possible: the grain of wood on the table, Charlie's - his - Driveshaft ring, a

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[sendpeanutbtr]

Walking back in from the lake, her arms full of baby carrier and blanket, Claire stops abrubtly at Bartleby's table.

"Hey, you came down." She smiles.

[watch_wait]

"Can't be called a coward." Bartleby smiles back.

[sendpeanutbtr]

"No." She smiles. "We wouldn't want that. May I join you?"

[watch_wait]

Bartleby nods, and gestures to a chair. "Plus baby? Or does he need a nap?"

[sendpeanutbtr]

"Oh he's fine." She smiles and sits down in the offered chair. She sets the baby carrier on the floor and lifts Seth out.

"I don't think you've met him properly either. Seth this is Bartleby, Bartleby, Seth."

She holds the baby in her arms so he can peer at Bartleby. Seth for his part just blinks disinterestedly.

[watch_wait]

Bartleby nods. "Nice to meet you, Seth."

[ooc: emailed you.]

[sendpeanutbtr]

She smiles at them as Seth lets out a string of gibberish sounds. He might be saying I get that all the time. But maybe not.

"I'm surprised you're alone. I would have expected everyone would be crowding you to say hello." She grins.

[watch_wait]

"There've been people." He shrugs, and sticks his tongue out at Seth. "Is he a good sleeper? You don't seem too frazzled."

[sendpeanutbtr]

"He's a very good sleeper." She nods. "Unless something's going on. Did Charlie tell you he was an empath?"

She doesn't ever talk about that with people who weren't at the birth, but Bartleby should know.

Seth blows a spit bubble at Bartleby. It's his way of saying he's interested in making his acquaintance.

[watch_wait]

"Here, have a finger," Bartleby murmurs, grinning, and offers a finger to be gnawed. He turns to Claire. "Yeah."

[sendpeanutbtr]

The finger is gummed with much affection! Easy bait, that Bartleby.

Claire nods. "That's the hard part. If Charlie's upset or I'm upset, he doesn't sleep for a long time."

She sighs, "And he won't stop crying."

[watch_wait]

"I looked after a sickly baby for a while. There was one night." His face pinches. "On and on and on and on and I hadn't had more than two hours of sleep that week - I ended up shaking Loki awake and telling him I was going out, because otherwise I was going to hit the baby. Walked around the streets for about an hour." He shakes his head. Seth is still gumming, and his face lightens.

[sendpeanutbtr]

Seth will gum forever if he's allowed.

"Yeah." She says softly. "There was at least a whole week where he wouldn't stop crying. And of course that upset me, which only made it worse. Charlie couldn't come near him at all it was so bad."

She bites her lip, staring at her son thoughtfully. "That was right after he was almost taken from us."

[watch_wait]

"If you ever need a break, ask me."

[sendpeanutbtr]

She looks over at him, surprised. "Really? That's very kind of you."

[watch_wait]

"Just remembering that baby." He smiles. "Loki wouldn't do a thing to help, because he was working all day, conked out at night. I had no one else to give me a rest." He strokes Seth's cheek with the fingers attached to the gnaw-thumb.