Work Text:
On July 17th, 2005, at exactly 5:48 PM, Violet Curious was born.
Cassandra sat on a stool in the hospital room as she held a wrinkly green baby in her hands, who was wrapped inside of a purple blanket. Vidcund laid besides her in the hospital bed, watching them both with a wistful look on his face.
"You know," Cassandra said, "When I imagined this happening, I was expecting our positions to be swapped."
"Agreed."
Cassandra stared down at Violet's face, noticing the baby blinking before staring up at her with large, black eyes. Cassandra handed Violet back to Vidcund, watching him as he held the baby close to him.
Would it be too soon to ask him if he'd open to have another kid in the future?
Well, we're already here. I might as well.
"…Would you be open to us swapping positions at some point in the future?" Cassandra asked.
"It depends," Vidcund responded, "Are you okay with that?"
"Of course. Violet would want a sibling eventually, right? And it would be nice to have a baby who can take after the both of us."
Vidcund gently rocked the baby as Cassandra placed a hand on their shoulder, the two of them staring down at Violet together before the door suddenly burst open.
"WE'RE HERE!"
Vidcund and Cassandra quickly turned their heads towards the door as Violet started crying from the noise, noticing Lazlo and Jenny running into the room. Lazlo was carrying two bags of what Cassandra assumed was take-out food with him, while Jenny was holding a her green purse.
"Sorry we're late," Lazlo said, partially out of breath, "I figured you two would be hungry, so we stopped to get some pierogi from that new Polish restaurant that opened in Downtown Strangetown."
"And then Lazlo thought it'd be a good idea to flirt with one of the employees there for about an hour and ended up getting her number," Jenny added.
"Jenny! They don't need to know that part."
"Well, they would've figured it out anyway!"
"If your relationship with that girl ends up becoming serious," Vidcund said, handing Violet back to Cassandra, "You're welcome."
Cassandra and Jenny both laughed as Lazlo shrugged nonchalantly, before walking over to place the takeout boxes on Vidcund's lap.
"So," Jenny said eagerly, "How's the baby? Is it a boy or a girl?"
"Girl," Vidcund said, "Her name's Violet."
"Of course it is."
"And the doctor said she was in perfect health," Cassandra added, holding out Violet towards Jenny, "Do you want to hold her?"
Jenny pointed to herself, stunned, before nodding as Cassandra handed Violet over to her. Lazlo peered over at Jenny as she propped Violet up into an upright position, using a hand to support Violet's head as she stared at Violet's face.
"She's got a bit of your nose, Vidcund," Jenny said, continuing to stare at Violet, "And the same eye shape as you. Kind of looks a bit like Johnny when he was first born."
Jenny rocked Violet for a bit, managing to get her to calm down before moving Violet into a horizontal position in her arms.
"Boop!"
Violet giggled as Jenny lightly tapped her on the nose with her index finger.
"Can I hold her too?" Lazlo asked.
Vidcund and Cassandra glanced at each other, before Vidcund shrugged.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt," he said, "Just make sure to support her head."
Jenny handed Violet to Lazlo, adjusting his holding position before giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder. Lazlo stared down at Violet with a slightly worried look on his face, while Cassandra watched Vidcund take a bite of a pierogi. Vidcund held his fork out towards Cassandra to let her take a bite too, before shovering more pierogi into his mouth.
"Woah," Lazlo said, watching Vidcund in shock, "Damn, dude. Is it that good?"
"He hasn't eaten for the entire day," Jenny said, "Let him have this, alright? Just focus on Violet."
"Alright…"
Lazlo stared down at Violet warily, before smiling awkwardly as he tried to rock her.
"Lazlo, this isn't your first time holding a baby," Jenny said, "why are you so nervous?"
"I was terrified holding Johnny and Jill too, man. And like…this is a fresh baby. She's all wrinkly and stuff. Literally didn't exist until, like, three hours ago. More fragile, ya know?"
"You know what?" Jenny said, taking Violet back from Lazlo, "Maybe we can wait a bit until you're more comfortable."
Cassandra watched the two silently before feeling Vidcund tap her on the arm. She turned towards him, noticing him holding the second box of pierogi up to her.
"You can have this one."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. I don't want you to starve."
Cassandra reluctantly took the box and the fork, eating her share of the pierogi before feeling her mobile phone vibrate. She pulled it out, realizing that her father was trying to call her, before placing the box of pierogi back on Vidcund's lap.
"I'm going to take this real quick," she said, "I'll be back to finish the rest."
—
Cassandra left the room, standing near the doorway as she held the phone up to her ear.
"Hello, dearie!" Bella said, "Has the baby arrived yet?"
"Yeah," Cassandra said, nodding, "About…three hours ago. How's the house?"
"Oh, it's great! Your father and I did some cleaning and someone came by with a present for you both. Said it was a celebration present."
Cassandra felt her heart skip a beat as her mind ran down a list of shared enemies that she and Vidcund both had.
Don, Nina and Dina surely had to have moved on by this point, right? It's been years since I've left Pleasantview. Surely they're not carrying their grudges over to here as well, are they?
Or worse, it could be Loki and Circe plotting something destructive…
"Who was it?" Cassandra asked.
"I think she said her name was…Kristy? She was a blonde Vietnamese woman."
Oh, it's just Crystal. Lazlo's lesbian ex-girlfriend.
"Crystal," Cassandra said, breathing a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness."
"Morty," Cassandra could hear Bella saying in the background, "Do you want to go talk to her?"
"In a minute! Let me turn off the stove…"
Cassandra waited silently as she heard Bella pass the phone to Mortimer.
"Cassandra!" Mortimer said cheerfully, "How are you feeling? The birth didn't take too much energy out of you, did it?"
"I'm fine," Cassandra said, "And I wasn't the one who gave birth."
The other end of the phone went silent as Mortimer processed what Cassandra just said.
"…So it's an alien baby!" Mortimer said excitedly, "How marvelous. We've never had an alien in the family before."
"You're not mad about me lying?"
"What lying? You said that you two were having a baby, and we just assumed that it was you who was…you know. You didn't lie about a thing. That's on us."
Fair enough.
"Now, what day are you expecting to return back to the house?" Mortimer said, "Bella and I wanted to set up something special for that day. Figured it'd be a good way to celebrate before the two of us have to fly back to Pleasantview."
"I'm not sure yet."
"Alright, well…just let us know! And tell Vidcund that your mother and I wish him a quick recovery. The two of us may try to visit you tomorrow if we can, since Lazlo doesn't have work."
"I will. Thank you."
"Of course. Both of us are here for anything that you two may need. We've been there before, and after…everything that happened in the past…it's probably the least we can do."
"Don't beat yourself up for it, Morty," Cassandra could hear Bella saying in the background, "Those three run an impressive scam. I likely would've fallen for it myself, had I been there."
"We nearly lost our house, Bella! How could you talk about it so lightly?"
"Well, we didn't, did we? We saved our house and our fortune and managed to get those three in jail. And Cassandra found a nice man through all of it! It could've been much, much worse."
"You do have a point, my dear Bella…"
Cassandra grimaced, fully certain of what would be occurring next based on her pattern recognition.
"We'll talk later, alright?" Mortimer said, "Your mother and I have things to attend to."
Like making a third child on one of the pieces of furniture in the house.
"Of course," Cassandra said, "Talk soon."
Cassandra hung up, before placing her phone back in her pocket and returning back inside of the room. Jenny was now on a phone call as Vidcund was holding Violet, while Lazlo was now holding the box of pierogi and staring down at it as it were his own baby.
"Lazlo, give that back to me."
Lazlo remained quiet, staring at Cassandra with puppy-dog eyes as she took the box of pierogi back from him.
"I'm sure you can order more next time," Cassandra said, "I'm sure that girl you met at the restaurant wouldn't mind."
"Oh, yeah!" Lazlo said, lighting up, "I can get more mizeria for you two, too! That girl gave me a bunch for free but Jenny and I ate all of it while we were driving here."
"Wow," Vidcund said.
"Hey, it was good! And I paid for your pierogi with MY money, so excuse me if I want to eat the free food that I got on the side!"
Cassandra chuckled before glancing over at Jenny, noticing the older blonde woman pacing around the room as she held her phone to her ear.
"Yeah, they're both fine," Jenny said, "You and Lola can probably come by to visit tomorrow, Chloe. I know you don't have a job to wake up early for."
Jenny moved a hand to her hip as she frowned.
"Well, I'm not wrong, am I?"
Cassandra put two pieces of pierogi in her mouth as she glanced over at Violet, who was now asleep in Vidcund's arms.
I never thought I'd see the day where I'd get to see my first child being born…even if it's not entirely mine.
But I'm sure one day, I'll be the one in the hospital bed holding a baby while Vidcund is the one sitting on the stool besides me. And Lazlo and Jenny would probably be here again as well, as they always tended to be.
Maybe Mother and Father would get the chance to be in the room as well.
And I'm sure that day will be just as wonderful as today.