Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

Dark Mode

*THREE MONTHS LATER*

Quinn growled when his rare hour of peace was rudely interrupted by a knock at the apothecary door.

"Fuck off!" he snarled, not bothering to check who it was; because he didn't care.

Insistent knocking again.

He closed his eyes and took a calming breath. The past few weeks' upheaval had frayed his nerves, making any recent peace and quiet he could muster incredibly precious to him.

"Quinn?"

Fucking Earth. Again. He slammed his book down onto the side table and stood, storming over to the door and throwing it open.

"I swear to Satan, Earth, if this is another one of your stupid fucking questions I'm going to rip out your throat and shove it so far up your ass you'll be..." He blinked when he came face to face with Zoe, flanked by Earth. "Oh. Hi, Zoe."

She smirked up at him.

"Hi, Quinn."

Earth nudged Zoe forwards and Quinn moved aside to let them in.

"Of course. Where are my fucking manners? Just come the fuck in, why don't you?"

He closed the door behind them.

"I'm not even going to ask what your fucking problem is," Earth said.

Quinn scowled at him.

"To what do I owe this immense and extremely inconvenient pleasure?" he said, ignoring that comment.

Zoe sighed, her hand straying to her lower belly, and Quinn felt a tiny pang of guilt for being annoyed at the interruption when he registered the two of them were worried.

"I just wondered if you could check everything's okay with the kit?" Zoe said, glancing up at Earth and then back to Quinn. "I've had some weird feelings today, and it would just put our minds at rest."

Yeah, Quinn felt like a massive bastard. He met Earth's eyes and sighed.

"Please," Earth said. "I know we're bothering you. It'll just take a minute."

Quinn pointed to the sofa, and Zoe went to sit on it.

"What kind of weird feelings? Pain? Cramps?" he asked.

Zoe hummed.

"Not really? I can't describe it."

This had happened a couple of times in the past few weeks. Little niggles or concerns, and Quinn had reassured them that all was okay. He'd become the pack's on-call midwife, according to Air and much to his amusement. He didn't mind. Honestly. Really.

"Put your feet up," Quinn said, and she did.

He knelt down beside her and Earth hovered behind him, waves of anxiety rolling off him. Quinn sent him some calm and the big ghoul took a deep breath.

"Thanks," he said.

Quinn ignored him.

"May I?" he said to Zoe, gesturing to her belly.

She nodded, and Quinn laid his hand over the slight bump that was already beginning to form.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the child growing there. The kit was lively, his strength evident already, if his energy was anything to go by. Quinn smiled and opened his eyes again, meeting Zoe's worried gaze. He tried to sense any injuries or clues that anything could be wrong, but everything seemed to be good.