Alma Wade will not give up (its_my_nature) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-03-09 09:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alma wade, beth cassidy, faiza hussain (excalibur), roy harper (red arrow) ii, wrex |
Is this the part where I blame you for everything?
Who: Alma, Faiza, Roy, Wrex and Beth
What: labor pains!
When: 3/8
Where: Urdnot Ranch
Status:complete
Rating: R for birth stuff!
Faiza had come to the cabin, after it was decided that moving Alma wasn’t the best course of action in this case. Wrex was remarkably calm, though it was clear he wanted to run around with his head cut off. Instead, she impressed both him and Beth into her service as nurses. She seemed unfazed by the sky outside turning red, or the fact that the tremors seemed timed to Alma’s contractions.
She decided not to mention that she hadn’t actually delivered a baby since University training.
Wrex did everything Faiza asked. Everything. Even bringing her her tea.
Beth was actually remarkably good at this sort of thing. She had been accepted to university in a pre-med capacity, after all - she wanted to be a doctor herself. She was just being a bit more familiar with the patient than any doctor would be. “You’re doing great, Pretty.”
Alma nodded her head, breathing heavily. "How long will this take?" She was rather hoping it would be quick. She just wasn't expecting it to be. Nothing good ever came easily, after all.
"She'll come when she's ready, Alma," Faiza said, gently, as she directed Wrex to fetch more water. "It's really a waiting game."
The impending mother closed her eyes. "I am tired of waiting. She should be impatient."
That got a chuckle out of Wrex.
Beth smiled, kissing Alma’s forehead and moving to put a cool damp towel under her neck. “It took her a while to grow, it’ll take her a while to leave. But you’ll be snuggling her soon.”
“Took less time than most folks so be grateful for that,” Wrex said. He ruffled Alma’s hair.
Faiza nodded. “We best settle in then. I’ll do what I can to help. Do you want anything for the pain?”
Alma shook her head. “If I am on painkillers, I will not be able to reduce the effects of the tremors.”
“It’ll make the birth take longer, too.” Beth shook her head, moving to lightly massage Alma’s shoulders. She’d do what she could.
"Suit yourself. Just keep doing what you're doing." Faiza chuckled. She gave Beth's shoulder a squeeze, and then headed into the next room to wash her hands.
The cabin shook slightly and Alma gasped in pain.
“I know, Pretty, I’m so sorry.” Beth kissed Alma’s cheeks, shaking her head. “You’re doing great. I wouldn’t be so calm.”
“I am not calm!” Alma laughed, a little hysterically. “But I am trying.” she took Beth’s hand and squeezed it. Hard. “Is this the part where I blame you for everything?”
“You can if it’ll help.” Beth kissed her, leading her in a breathing exercise to get her to focus on something else. “Would you like me to call Roy? He offered to be here with you.”
“...yes, please.” She thought it would be good to have all her loved ones with her. That was something she never got, in her dreams.
Beth nodded, moving to grab her phone and call Roy, smiling brightly. She liked the kid, and she wanted her future wife happy.
Wrex wouldn’t mind seeing Roy, himself. He took a seat. He suspected this waiting would be the worst part, by far.
Beth lightly massaged Alma’s shoulders, kissing along her forehead and smiled. “I love you, and Elise is going to come out just fine. Do you want to get into the tub?”
“Tub?” Alma asked, blinking her eyes. “I do not understand.”
“The bathtub. Water helps.” Beth smiled. “She’s swimming right now, so it’s okay if she’s born into it.”
“That’s a marvelous idea.” Faiza poked her head in. “Wrex, if you could help her into the bathroom? Beth can help her into the tub.”
Alma looked uncertain at this idea.
Beth smiled. “I’ve been thinking that instead of curing cancer, maybe I can become a midwife or something.” Alma hadn’t been the only one affected by the pregnancy; Beth had fallen in love with kids, with the whole process of pregnancy.
“It wouldn’t be a bad career,” the doctor said. “There’s always need to help with babies.”
Alma was smiling. She could picture Beth doing this often. “You would be wonderful at it, love.”
“Do what makes you happy,” Wrex said. “You got the brains to do just about anything.”
Beth smiled, helping Alma to her feet. “I promise, the warm water will feel good. I’ve read up on home births a lot.” She’d figured that Alma would deliver unexpectedly.
"Okay..help me up," Alma said, holding her hands out. She closed her eyes when she touched Beth. I love you.
Wrex took one and nodded at Beth. "On the count of three. One, two, three!"
Love you too, Pretty. Beth helped Alma walk to the bathroom, moving only to start some warm water in the tub. “Here we go. I do this when I have cramps, too.”
Wrex didn’t want to know. He just helped get Alma into the tub, and then gestured towards the door. “I’ll be..out there. If you need me.”
Alma laughed, then grimaced as the ground shook again.
“Don’t worry, Wrex, we’ve got it.” Beth helped Alma in, moving her long hair so that she didn’t get it too wet. “How’s that feeling? Roy’s on his way over.”
“Good.” Alma smiled softly, and closed her eyes. She looked forward to seeing him. He kind of was her first love.
Roy had gotten the message and headed over right at that moment. He wasn’t exactly sure WHAT he was gonna be able to do here, but he wanted to BE there anyway so that he could help or...something. Whatever he got told to do, he assumed he’d do it, even if that meant holding one of Alma’s hands while she squeezed it or something. Because TV made this kind of thing look insane painful, which it probably really really was. He just hoped he could actually help.
He wasn’t exactly panicking here, but he WAS concerned when he arrived, heading in immediately. “What can I do?” he asked immediately.
Faiza smiled at him. "She's in the bathroom with Beth. Wrex has retreated to safety, but you can go in there with her. I was about to check on her dilation. Can you ask Beth to do so?" The good doctor was feeling this urge to take Beth under her wing.
“I can definitely do that.” Roy agreed. And it was probably a testament to the situation that, well, he wasn’t even worried about naked Alma being in there. He gave Faiza a quick nod and darted in there to greet both of them.
“Hey.” He said, giving Beth a wave and crouching down to give Alma a little kiss on the forehead. “Are you three doing okay? The doc asked if you could check her dilation by the way.”
Beth nodded. She went to get the tool that measured dilation and kissed Alma’s hand before approaching her. I’m going to see how far dilated you are, this won’t hurt. Beth smiled at Roy. “I think we’re doing pretty good. She’s at five centimeters already and doing great.” She wanted Roy and Alma to have some time to themselves, so she moved to kiss Alma. “I’m going to go tell Dr. Hussein how far along you are. Do you want some water?”
"Please." Alma felt odd. Poked and prodded were nothing new but she still disliked it. She squeezed her love's hand. "And thank you."
“Of course.” Beth kissed her knuckles before leaving to give those two some time alone.
“Hey,” Roy said, grinning at Alma again. “It’s been a little while. I’m glad you’re both doing okay.” He added, “I saw stuff’s been getting a little bit weird outside. That’s sort of unusual but hey, if it works for you, you get to have and do whatever you want right now, so rock on.” And he really did mean that. “Excited?” he asked.
"I am sorry I have not seen you often. I have been a bad friend." She took his hand and squeezed it. Then her grip turned even harder and she bit back a hiss as the room shook. "God...!"
“Hey, you’ve been pregnant. I think you’ve got an excuse.” Roy started, and then stopped as she started squeezing and tried to think what to do. “Breathing.” He said out loud. “Breathing is supposed to help so uh...” He started mimicking the breaths he’d seen on tv when women were giving birth. “Like this. With me.”
...Yeah, Roy was GOOD at this.
Alma tried to breath, which turned into a series of giggling fits, which turned into more painful gasps between each short giggle.
“What?” Roy asked her, pushing out the breaths a little more, than he paused. “Okay. Yeeah. That’s probably NOT actually helping. Seriously though. Uh breathing.” He tried to think of it in terms of when he’d had the arm regrown, the worst pain in his life. He’d MOSTLY spent it screaming at Ollie but there had been... “Counting breaths.” He said, drawing one in “You breathe for seven seconds, hold it seven, then breathe out seven. It’s supposed to help with stress, so maybe?” At least he was trying?
“Okay...okay...” Alma nodded and did as she was instructed. It wasn’t much different than she’d been instructed before, but having Roy there made it somehow easier to do.
Did it? Good. Roy smiled as she started breathing, moving to do that with her, to make it easier to keep count of it. He’d thought of how Clint had walked him through this back when he’d lost his arm and had gone into sheer panic over it in the middle of the night that first week he’d been out of the hospital and how keeping pace had helped him then so...that was the instinct he went for. At least it sort of seemed to be helping now.
Alma closed her eyes, and continued to breathe. The sky outside continued to swirl with red anger, and she did her best to counter it, but eventually gave up trying, needing to concentrate on the baby. She wasn’t sure how long it was before she opened her eyes again, and pressed her head back against the tub, whimpering.
When the contractions really started up, Beth couldn’t give a shit about the outside. She was worried about the girl she loved and the daughter she’d made with her. Running back into the bathroom, Beth had both a glass of ice chips and a cool damp towel for her neck. “Pretty? Let me see if you’re crowning.”
Roy stepped aside to let Beth hop in there, since yeah, he had NO idea what was going on. He was worried too, but he knew enough that people who knew what they were doing should be the ones taking care of Alma right now. “I’ll be right over here.” he told her, quickly moving.
Alma nodded her head, trying to breath again. Where was the doctor? Was the doctor there? Not that she didn't trust Beth but doctor.
Faiza stepped in, mostly to supervise. She'd given Beth a crash course while Roy and Alma had been talking. Wrex crowded in behind her, anxious looking.
“Dr. Hussein is here. Okay, you’re crowning. Go ahead and push, Pretty, you can do this.” Beth smiled, holding her hand. “Deep breaths and one long sustained push. You can move mountains, you can help Elise come into the world.”
Outside, the world shook, the sky burned, and literal shockwaves coursed over the county. Windows shattered, and Alma pushed, screaming.
“Come on.” Roy encouraged her. “You’re doing great. Just keep this up and everything will be fine.” He grabbed onto the toilet tank to have something to brace himself against in case this progressed to crater level quake again. He’d learned that lesson the last time. Not that it stopped him being here of course. There was nowhere else he COULD be.
Beth held her hands out, feeling blood hit them, feeling the baby’s head and bursting into happy tears. “One more good push, just get her shoulders and we’re there.” She looked over her shoulders at Faiza, and Beth realized this was what she wanted to do with her whole life. Be a mom, and help other women be moms.
Alma’s scream probably made some psychics wish that their brains weren’t turning inside out. As suddenly as it all began, though, it was over. The skies cleared, and the earthquakes stopped, and she blinked tears out of her eyes, gasping.
Faiza smiled proudly. “Well done, both of you!” She dabbed at her own brow, then Alma and Beth’s brows. That had gotten a little frightening, now that she’d had time to think about it.
She looked to make sure Wrex hadn’t passed out or anything. The man was beaming.
Beth’s arms had gone into the water and come up with a squalling, purple thing that was covered in mucous, blood, and some other gore that she didn’t want to know what was. But it was her daughter. It was screaming and cold and her daughter. Their daughter.
Still crying, Beth handed the baby to Alma. “Oh, Pretty, she’s perfect.”
“Elise,” Alma whispered. She carefully held the baby, gazing into her eyes. Into her soul. “You have such a beautiful soul.” She looked at Beth. “She has your eyes.”
Wrex put an arm around Roy and squeezed. There was dust in the room. That had to explain his blurry vision.
Roy gave Wrex a little grin back as he watched them with the baby for a minute. That had been, well, kind of incredible. He knew that the human body was amazing, but even so, this was one of those things you didn’t appreciate until it happened. And she really DID look like both of them a little. He could see the traits here the same way he’d seen his own in Lian’s face in the dreams. And it made him kind of wish his daughter would be HERE someday as crazy as that sounded. Aww.