Selma's Note: This little fragment just flowed out of one of our IM conversations, on how Rosemary reacted during Marianne's birth, although it turned more into yet another advice session. The reunion that Liam mentions here was yet another never-started project between the two of us, where Rosemary sends Liam off to the O'Sullivan family reunion just to get rid of him for a little while.

Early Days 1
by Selma McCrory and Deb Cebulski
Copyright 2000

"Gran, she didn't seem too happy to see me when I got to the hospital."

Moira snorted. "She wasn't too happy, dear. Labor's no easy thing. When John showed up at the hospital when I was giving birth to Siobhan, I told him to go down the pub, and that I'd have the barman wake him when the baby arrived."

"She told me to go back to the reunion."

Moira laughed softly. "Liam, she was in pain--and you were partly responsible for that pain. Of course she told you to leave."

Liam's face cleared up. "Oh. So that's why she told me to go do paperwork if I wasn't going to go back to the reunion. I thought that she just didn't understand that I needed to be there."

Moira shook her head. "Liam, I don't think she was thinking about you just then. I'm sure she called you in later, didn't she?"

"Later, yes. I thought Park was going to have to treat me for a crushed hand. But before... it hurt, what she said."

Moira clasped his hand. "Of course it hurt--but she was hurt. In any relationship, you share the good times and bad. It's quite normal, dear."

Liam shook his head. "Somehow, I didn't know or forgot that it would be that bad for her. After all she's done since she's been thrust into this... how much she's done willingly, knowing the danger...." He cut off his thought and closed his eyes.

Moira realized that her grandson was searching his ancestral memories and remained silent.

"If my father's people were still alive, they would have removed her along with me, for safety's sake," Liam said softly. "Just like they'd have done for hundreds of others. But she only has me to protect her."

Moira shook her head. "Liam, I know you love her, but you have to give her space to make her own mistakes. She is her own person, and you have to let her make her own mistakes. You don't have to bear the burden of protecting her by yourself. You both have families that will help, and so will your friends."

"I am letting her live her own life!" Liam protested.

Moira raised an eyebrow. "Really? And have you involved her in your 'protection' arrangements?"

"Those that she'd let me talk to her about, yes," Liam said defensively. "She knows very well how I feel about her safety. I haven't prevented her from doing anything she wanted. I even got her cappuchino ice cream when she insisted she didn't want to get up last month...."

Moira glared at Liam. "Liam, she's your girlfriend--and you've been treating her like a child. Have you actually listened to what she's had to say? Even you don't know everything! You two need to start working together--if you can't communicate with each other now, how do you expect to raise a child?"

Liam cringed and resorted to a favorite line. "But Gran... there's a difference. I haven't been treating her like a child. I know she's an adult, and older than me to boot. We talk fine as long as it doesn't have to do with security. Well, that and the mysterious house listings that anonymously show up on her terminal..."

Moira's eyes narrowed. "I'm sure we can stop the house listings, one way or another. That's a minor issue--the major one is communication. Relationships involve give-and-take. You need to learn to compromise--it's time you learned that you aren't going to get your way all the time. Listen to Rosemary--before it's too late."

Liam winced. "Yes, Gran."

Moira nodded once--her warning had sunk in. She broke out in a broad smile. "Now tell me about little Marianne."