all that remains is you

[jovahs_heiress]

It has been a couple of months now since the wedding, since the revelation about Jovah. Isabella has been busy. She is not as overt as some of her counterparts. It is not now impossible on Samaria to commit crimes of violence, for example - although anyone who gets going with one will tend to feel a sensation of being watched, and this is enough to noticeably ding reports of such misbehavior.

She's been noticed.

Linus has been calling all of the changes, collectively - because once one or two got overt attention the others were plain as day - "Jovah's hand moving among us".

Isabella is all right with the ship getting credit for her handiwork. It will be more accepted that way. No one riots over the god choosing to peer closely at them if they raise their hands to strike; no one theorizes about the appropriateness of meddling in the natural processes of things like childbirth when they believe Jovah is the active party.

Meanwhile she shadows Delilah. She makes routine visits to Monteverde to talk with Linus about this or that. (She can bring Micaiah, now that they're married.)

She gets steadily more pregnant. The heaviness is no burden to an angel, but it is somewhat physically awkward to be so bulky. She works around it. She's going to have a baby, and she just glows with it.

And, one day, for the first time since before the wedding, she finds Milliways in her and Micaiah's guest room in Monteverde.

"Oh, here it is, I was wondering when it would come by again," Isabella says.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Oh. I'm sorry," he says softly.

[arenaria]

[she_sells_seashells]

"Me too."

[pythbox]

He nods.

[she_sells_seashells]

"What do you do, Nathaniel?" asks Shell Bell.

[jovahs_heiress]

"For the last few months he was rehearsing with a children's choir for the Gloria, but that's just concluded, so the choir has disbanded - Nathaniel, is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

[pythbox]

"Yes," he murmurs.

[arenaria]

[jovahs_heiress]

"Have you thought about where you want to go next?" prompts Angela.

[pythbox]

He looks nervous.

"I'd like to stay at the Eyrie, if... if that's all right."

[arenaria]

[jovahs_heiress]

"I think that will be fine. It's not uncommon for angels to move one or two in-laws in, and you are that." And she finally notices what is up with her counterpart. "Shell Bell, are you okay?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"...I'll tell you later. Alone."

[pythbox]

Nathaniel looks very nervous.

[arenaria]

Shell Bell makes an awful face, mostly at her lap but distinctly about Nathaniel, and she mutters, "I'm going to the Belltower," and disappears.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Do you know what that was about?" Angela asks Sherlock quizzically, putting a hand on Nathaniel's shoulder.

[pythbox]

He shivers.

[sicaria]

"Yes," says Sherlock, and also disappears.

[jovahs_heiress]

"I... don't know what that was. I'm sorry, Nathaniel, they were being unkind and I have no idea why. It's not like them."

[pythbox]

"Is it all right if I go and wait for you in the pavilion?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Yes, of course, go right ahead. I'll be out a moment later."

[pythbox]

Out he goes.

[jovahs_heiress]

Up she goes.

"What was that?"

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell turns her face towards Sherlock's shoulder, and presses it there, and makes a soft noise.

[sicaria]

Sherlock hugs her girlfriend.