The conflict Melpomene was feeling right now was intense; Apollo had stepped into Alan's spot and she wanted to hate him for daring, but she couldn't do it, she couldn't hate Apollo. He had his hand stroking her arm and for a moment her arm was the only part of her that felt good. She wanted to swear at Thalia because nothing about this moment was okay, but the anger rose and just crashed down to nothing, and she clung onto Thalia's hand harder.
She needed her family here too much to yell at them, but by all the gods, living, dead or forgotten - she wanted Alan here too.
"We tried some nitrous oxide, it didn't have any effect on her," Alan told Calliope, running his hand over Melpomene's hip, trying to sooth what he could there. "There's an anesthesiologist who's going to come and have a look at you in a minute, and Cassidy here's going to strap a monitor onto you to keep track of the baby's heartbeat." He kept talking as Cassidy worked, setting two sensors on her stomach under an elastic band.
"What if there's no heartbeat?" Melpomene whispered, to Calliope, to Thalia, to Apollo. "What if he's dead already? What if I never get to see him? What if it's too late? It's going to be - it's going to be too late-"