Disclaimer: Daria and all related characters are the property of MTV and Viacom productions.

Note: This story is the next in the "Unseen Phenomenon Series" and takes place between "The Things We Put Ourselves Through" and "The Empty Hourglass"


Generations
By
Wildgoose


The day had started off so smoothly... Daria had managed to work her way out of bed as she always had over the past nine months. Each day becoming more and more labored as her abdomen swelled to what Daria had begun to refer to as "the addition on the house". The extra weight she carried caused a variety of aches and pains... visits to the doctor, and a change of wardrobe. However despite all this, Duncan marveled how well she bore it all. Right up until the moment the rate at which life happened accelerated to near warp speed, at least from Daria and Duncan's perspective. It was realized that the time had come and Duncan, in true fatherly form went berserk. Upon being "informed" he promptly grabbed the suitcase that had been prepared ahead of time just in case this happened early and dashed out to the car with suitcase in hand to leave for the hospital. Halfway down the road Duncan realized that he had forgotten something very important... his labored wife. Stomping on the brakes, Duncan spun the car around, in the very middle of traffic causing a fender bender or two in the process, and headed back to pick up Daria. After she had lumbered into the car, Duncan once again took off, driving like a maniac the whole way all the while Daria is beating him up from the passenger seat for doing so.

It was as if the three stooges were the nurses upon arrival at the hospital, they all seemed to appear with the utmost urgency eggar to take care of whatever emergency was presented to them while getting in each others way the whole time. They checked Daria's vitals, wrapped a pretty little tag around her wrist, performed a few other necessary odds and ends, right before they shoved her into the maternity ward and left her there as if forgotten about. Duncan was livid that the doctor was not yet there, citing all the different things that could go wrong without the doctors presence and citing also that he would get Helen to sue SOMEBODY the second they got out of the hospital. Daria meanwhile, having recovered from her ride in car and from her attention given by the female counterparts to Larry, Moe, and Curly, was lying on her back on the Gurney counting the cracks in the ceiling between contractions. And once THEY would hit Daria would reach over for Duncan's arm and rip off a few hairs just so he could share in some of the pain. There was no way in hell Daria was going to go through this much pain without at least getting to watch somebody ELSE go through some as well. After about thirty minutes of sitting there and ripping off Duncan's arm hair a few at a time, once the arm was bald she'd thought about working on his groin if he would just move close enough, Jane arrived and was allowed to be in the delivery room during the birth. She'd brought a few items with her, knowing full well that neither Daria nor Duncan had called anyone else yet for fear that the soon to be grandparents would attempt to take over, to take full advantage of the opportunity to distract her friend from her painful endeavor.

Labor seemed to take forever... the doctor arrived and after staring at Daria's cervix for what Daria swore was an hour, she even asked if he was going to take a picture, he put Daria's legs up in the stirrups, sat there like Johny Binch and waited until both arrivals practically fell into his lap. At the very worst of the delivery, Jane decided that it was her time to make the experience as memorable as possible. While Daria was cursing Duncan's very name and sweating fit to melt onto the sheets, Jane pulled out a small vial of holy water she'd obtained from a church on the way to the hospital, and a bible which she opened to whatever page the book opened to for the sake of effect, and began to perform an exorcism on Daria. Spraying Daria with the holy water once or twice, Jane proceeded with the exorcism. All the while drawing laughter from the doctor and the nurse because Daria was unintentionally playing the perfect part.

Upon the birth of each child after which Duncan would jump for joy, literally in fact, and then proceed to snap five thousand or so pictures. Being already exhausted from giving birth and grumpy as all hell from the pain, Daria allowed Duncan to take one final picture after the birth of the second child and then smashed the camera. She then asked to hold her children, smiled at them as they cooed and fell asleep in her arms, and then decided that they had stumbled onto an excellent idea. "So smart for newborns" she said as she handed them back to her husband. After which Daria fell promptly asleep as if somebody had just shut off the power to her body.

Helen and Jake, along with Duncan's parents Kyrsten and Michael, arrived that evening having eventually been told once Daria had regained some of her strength. Duncan and Jane had thought that to be best for Daria since the parental units were certain to throw a fit for having missed the delivery. And they did... for a GREAT length of time, at which point Daria told them all that is they didn't shut the F*** up and get the F*** out of her F***ing face, she was still in a good deal of discomfort, that they would not be permitted to see the children at ALL. The previous portion of this statement went completely over the parents heads... they'd only heard the word "children" indicating more than one, which Daria had not told them about at any time during the pregnancy. There was a long awkward moment of silence which Daria misinterpreted as their understanding of her resolve, followed by the parents doing the hundred yard dash from Daria's room back down to maternity to look at the babies sleeping in their cribs.

Having watched the entire days events unfold from the very beginning, to the mad dash in the car, to Jane's acts of humor being caught on film during the delivery, to the ranting of the now "grandparents", Quinn now watched the newborns from the most choice spot in the hospital. She was standing right next to the cribs, having the advantage of not being seen, while all of the others had to watch and make faces through the window from outside the room. The grandparents looked so stupid as they waved and pressed their noses against the glass, Quinn wished she could take a picture to give to Daria. She'd love nothing better then to torture Helen and Jake with their childlike behavior caught on film. Quinn turned to look back at the infants, they were so small Quinn thought, so fragile... they were living miracles. And although she had not actually "lived" per say to see Daria's moment, Quinn still felt privileged to be there. "I'll always be watching you" Quinn confessed, "I'll be there to watch every step that your parents see you make,... and I'll be there to see every one that they don't. That's my job... and not just as your aunt."

A nurse walking towards the cribs with tags in hand passed unknowingly through Quinn and placed them on the cribs before her, It was official now. Daria and Duncan had named their fraternal children. The child to the left of Quinn, being a boy, was granted by his parents the name Nicodemus. The child to the right, being of the female persuasion, was granted the name Ariel.

As Quinn watched unseen by anyone... Daria and Duncan came down to join everyone else in the staring contest. Still very exhausted from the delivery as early as half a day ago, Daria slowly leaned forward in her wheelchair to press her face against the cool glass and then reeled backward as she was blinded by the flash of Jake's camera reflecting off the glass into Daria's eyes. "Sorry kiddo" he exclaimed with a smile as he took another picture of the grandchildren without the hindrance of the flash this time. Jane, at the same time as Jake, took a Polaroid of her own and handed the picture to Daria as a keepsake . "Would you like to hold them" said the nurse who had wheeled Daria down from her room. "Yes... but not right now" Daria said with a sigh, "I'm so tired I'm afraid I'll drop them." Daria subtly directs the nurses attention to the grandparents, "And I'm afraid that if I let THEM hold the kids I'll either get back damaged goods or I won't get them back at all." The nurse tried not to laugh as she informed everyone that she was going to take Daria upstairs to get some rest. They all nodded as if what was said was nothing of importance and continued to watch through the glass. While being wheeled towards the elevator, Daria looked down at the Polaroid Jane had taken of the newborns, between the two cribs was a small white spot that one would normally say had been caused by a flash reflecting off the glass. Except that Jane hadn't used one. "I had a feeling you'd drop by" Daria thought to herself, "all I ask Quinn, is that you make yourself useful and keep an eye on them for me." Upon concluding her thoughts the elevator door made a bell like sound and swung it's doors wide, and then closed them obscuring her from view and concluding for her a day that had started a new generation.


The End...

Comments and suggestions are always appreciated... I may be contacted at wildgoose81@hotmail.com