Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 109 - Tanith's perspective

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

....................................................................

Chapter 109

Tanith's POV

"Do you want some tea?" Ghastly asked, getting up from his workstation.

Tanith smiled and nodded though she could already feel the nausea. She needed food to settle it, something of substance. "Can I have some water too? And a sandwich?"

He smiled at her, more than used to her laundry list requests by now. "Of course."

He left the room and Tanith moved carefully to sit up and closed her eyes again. It was getting harder for her to breath as the baby grew and obstructed her diaphragm, and she knew it was the worst of the pregnancy. Sure, the birth would be hard, but she had ideas and plans for that. There was nothing she could do to even pretend she had control over her lack of breath. At least when baby was out she could do more than one thing, namely, more than sit on her arse and try not to be sick.

The nausea went away and she tried to block out the negative thoughts. In the kitchen, she could hear the kettle boiling and Ghastly getting out mugs and opening the fridge. It was homey in the shop, and she could see why Ghastly had spent so much time trying to convince her to move in at least while the baby was in a crib so Ghastly could work and see his child at the same time, but it was still too small. She tutted aloud and tried to think positive again.

A moment later, Ghastly came in with her water and sandwich. "Here," he said quietly, bringing up the foldout table with his magic and putting the plate and glass on top of it. He sat beside her. "Tea's brewing and I've nearly finished that dress. We can go home when I'm done if you like."

"Could we make another sleeping onesie before we go?" Tanith asked. "The one that's like a blanket?"

He smiled and settled back into the sofa. "I swear, all you think about is the baby."

"It's hard not to when their head is pushing into my lungs and I have a foot in my liver," she told him and washed her bite down with water. "Only two and a bit months to go now."

Ghastly rubbed a hand over his face. "Only a two and a bit months and we don't have a name."

"We'll think of something," Tanith shrugged, a small smile on her lips. "I want to go visit my parents before the baby's born too. They said they'll come when they're born too to help out, but I'm not sure I really want my Mum and Dad hovering around."

"I thought parents need all the help they can get with a newborn?" Ghastly asked, watching her.

Tanith smiled at him, enjoying the attention. "We do need that, but we also have all our brother's and Valkyrie. She said she wants to take time off to help with everything at the start, so I don't think we need much other help."

"I say we save Valkyrie for babysitting later and have your parents help at first," Ghastly told her. "Plus, your parents will want to visit their grandchild anyway."