A Crowning Achievement

What an odd question, no offense.

To start, no, no one in my real life knows about this, and if anyone I know in real life somehow let on that they read this blog, I wouldn't tell them it was me.

So the problem here is that my better ideas are in my 'write you fool' pile, and I don't want to give spoilers, but I can share ideas that fell onto the cutting room floor, and why I canceled them.

And if anyone wants to take these ideas and use them, go right ahead. I'm not using them anymore.

-College student going into trade school, and hiding her pregnancy and femininity with binders and baggy clothes until she goes into labor on a test she can't miss or make up. (Canceled because it felt too niche, and couldn't really find the character.)

-Pregnant and alone with a broken down car, and having to walk to the nearest town. (Canceled because I felt like this was pretty low stakes, I mean, why would she leave the car?)

-Pregnant and flying a single person plane from Hawaii to California, and goes into labor at the halfway point in the cramped cockpit. (This one just felt stupid, I mean, I've put my characters in dumb situations before but this one is really stupid. Why would she do that at 40 weeks?)

-Giving birth alone, outside on top of a mountain in a storm. (See above reason. In that story she chose the location, but aside from how monumentally stupid it would be to give birth in an unknown location, that one involved her partner and 2 midwives going along with it. While 1 person might be that dumb, there shouldn't be 4 in the same place.)

-Giving birth while hiding in the attic from the authorities. (Feels a little too close to home and a little too Anne Frank for comfort. Maybe some day, but not touching that one right now.)

-Giving birth in a tower crane, with help unable to get to her, on a hot, humid and windy day. (Insert a horrible 'suspension of disbelief joke' here that will cost me dearly. Get it? Crane? Suspension?)

-Doctor dies and goes to an afterlife and gets sentenced to experience the births she'd put her patients through for eternity. (Then story just didn't really seem to take off the way I wanted, and it would have either been a full length novel, or the only stories I released for nearly 30 consecutive posts.)

-Pregnant woman goes into labor while skydiving. (That birth would be in the Guinness book of world records for fastest birth, which would be an interesting concept, but too short to make a story.)

-Ella Enchanted-esque story. (Writing this one was actually difficult, as it literally only works in a really r@pey sense. Didn't like it.)

-A wreck-it-ralph style story with the protagonist being the laboring woman in a birth vlog, and having to relive it every single day, sometimes being looped, clipped and rebound. (I tried to start this one multiple times, but never really got into it, and wound up canceling it.)

-Giving birth while in a shark cage. (Ironically enough, I think this is where I got the idea for James Bound, but in a shark cage in the middle of a feeding frenzy didn't really work for that one.)

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WELL I HAVE NOW! HOLY CRAP!

One Last Push

A Valiantremnant original

Pre story notes: This is the last part of the story that I started with Deep Breath and Push. I'll get all three collected later to make reading all three easier. Aside from that, I don't really have a whole lot of notes on this particular chapter.

CW/Ingredients list: Birth denial, obstetric abuse, homophobia, near death experience, medical stuff, etc.

~

Ava stretched as she woke up. Ever since her literal saviors, Alex and Jordan, had let her stay with them until she could get back on her feet, she'd taken to stretching as she woke up. Even the first night on the couch was better than sleeping on the passenger seat of her still ruined minivan. The morning after Jordan had found her begging for money on a median, Ava had woken up early as she had gotten used to and had been gathering her things to sneak out. The drive to the house they and Alex owned as a bit further than she had hoped it would be, and knew she had a long walk ahead of her to get back to her van, and from there, to get back to her street corner. At least she had been able to shower and had gotten a pair of decent meals. As she was by the door, pulling her shoes on, Alex had come down, yawning as she made her way to the kitchen. "Morning Ava," She'd said, then did a double take, "Are… Are you headed out?" Ava closed her eyes, wincing. She'd hoped to get out of there before anyone was awake. "Yeah. I need to get back to the other side of town, and it's a long walk," She said, keeping her voice low. Alex made a face, as if trying to figure out what to say, then said, "Why don't you stick around for breakfast? I know your situation is… well, top put it bluntly, it sucks. But at least have one more good meal, ok?" Ava considered refusing, but the promise of another meal where she could sit down somewhere other than a boiling hot broken down van was too good to pass up. "Ok, I'll stick around," She replied, and Alex smiled.

As Ava perched herself on one of the stools in the kitchen, Jordan came down, looking like they'd spent the night with their hair in a blender. Ava started, but managed to suppress the urge to laugh. Alex didn't though, going up to them and planting a kiss on their face, "Morning love." "Mleh," Jordan replied, and blindly reached out for the coffee mug that Alex held out, drinking. "Morning," Ava said when Jordan looked her way. While Jordan nursed their coffee, Alex began making breakfast, and soon, the smell of eggs, pancakes and sausages began filling the room. As they did, Ava turned to see Tilly stumbling to the table and sitting down, yawning. "Early day for you?" Ava asked. "Saturday," Jordan said, sounding a bit more human than earlier, "We do nice breakfast on Saturday." "And I am the one who cooks nice breakfast," Alex said, "So it's a bit earlier than normal."

Jordan and Tilly both woke up more as breakfast got closer to being done, and by the time Alex was piling things onto plates, Ava's stomach was growling. Alex nodded her over to the table as she began bringing plates over, and Ava dug in. After Jordan ate a bit, they heard the baby monitor going off, and they went to go get the baby as Ava was given a second round of food. Despite how hungry she was, she could barely get halfway through the eggs and sausages, let alone the pancakes. "Feeling better?" Alex asked as Ava sat back, sighing with how her belly seemed to be straining holding both the baby and her breakfast. "Feeling full," Ava said, "Thank you." Alex smiled and turned to Tilly, "Why don't you get dressed for the day." "I'm full too." Tilly said, mirroring Ava and sighing while leaning back, putting her hands on her own belly. "Tilly, go on" Alex said. Tilly sighed and got up from the table, forgetting about her complaint and running off to her room as soon as her feet hit the ground. Ava smiled as she watched the exchange, hoping that she would have similar ones in her future. The smile died as she remembered just how bleak that future was. "Ava, can I talk to you for a bit?" Alex asked, and Ava shook her head free of her thoughts. "Sure, sorry, I got lost for a moment there." Alex nodded, as if understanding where Ava had gone, "What is your, shall we say, current situation?" Ava choked out a strained laugh, "My situation? I'm living out of a van by a gas station because that's where it broke down. I don't have enough money to replace it, and I can't find a job that will hire me being eight months pregnant."

Ava went on for a while, feeling tears in her eyes by the end of her rant, and was surprised to see the amount of pain and pity on Alex's face as well. She remembered the last time she had met Alex, and how she had been fiercely defensive of her partner while everything had happened. "Ava, have you heard of the Sparrow's Flight?" "It sounds familiar?" Alex winced, "Yeah, we're still working on outreach. It's an, we're an advocacy group for helping pregnant women and young mothers get legal advocacy for whatever they need for things like divorces, custody battles, housing, things like that." "If this is a pitch for a shelter, I've been to the one here in town, and I'm not interested." "That's not what I'm doing," Alex said, looking down and trying to find the right words. "What my lovely wife is trying to do," Jordan said as they came back in, "Is that I feel somewhat responsible for you getting fired." Ava looked at Jordan as they re entered the kitchen and sat down. "And we'd like to offer you a place to stay for now." Ava looked from Jordan to Alex and back. "Just for now," Alex said, "Just until you can get back on your feet. Until then, you can stay here, rent free, no strings attached."

Ava had sat on the chair and cried until she felt sick when she heard that. Afterwards, Jordan and Alex had led her to the room that Jordan explained was initially going to be a nursery for Melody, but after the nightmare of a birth they'd gone through, neither Alex nor Jordan could go through a night without her being in the same room as the two of them. They'd spent the rest of that Saturday rearranging the room in a way that would be easier for Ava to use, and returning to the gas station where Ava's broken down van was still parked. Between Alex and Ava, Jordan had stayed at the house to mind Tilly and Melody, everything was moved over quickly, and Ava had thanked Michael, the owner of the gas station, for letting her leave her van there. "I hope things work out for you," he said, "Although I will say, it'll be nice to have your van gone." Ava nodded, "It should be picked up later today. I hope it's okay that I said if they have any questions, they can ask you?" Michael nodded, "Sure thing." They exchanged numbers in case he needed to contact her, and then Alex had driven Ava back to the house and they had worked out what to do with her things. "Was this all you had?" Alex asked as they moved the last pair of boxes upstairs. Ava nodded, "I didn't have much when I got evicted. I'd just moved out here, and had left pretty much everything else behind." Alex looked at Ava with eyes that saw through the statement, "How bad?" Ava shook her head, "I don't want to talk about it. I left it behind, and that's where it's staying." Alex looked like she wanted to say something else, but decided against it.

Two weeks later, Ava hadn't had much luck with her job search, but she was in better spirits. "Any luck?" Jordan asked as Ava balanced her way down the stairs to the kitchen to get some water. Ava shook her head, "I think the problem is that no one want to hire someone who'll just hop onto maternity leave a week or so after getting hired." Jordan shook their head, "How'd they phrase it? If they said it's because you're pregnant-" Ava sighed, "They said they wanted someone with 'more immediate long term availability.' Read that how you want, it's them saying they don't want to hire someone nine months pregnant." Jordan huffed, "Damn. I'm sorry, I know you were excited about that one." Ava shrugged, "Yeah. I'm just sorry I'm having such a hard time getting back on my feet." Jordan waved off the apology, "Don't apologize. You are not a burden, we love having you here." Ava smiled ruefully, "If you say so. I'll still keep hunting." Jordan opened their mouth to say something, but Tilly ran in, shouting, ripping off a sweat drenched face mask as she did. "Aunty Ava, look at this!" Alex walked in behind Tilly, both of them looking like they had some out of a swimming pool. They had gone out to pick up mail from the post office, a short five minute walk, and both of them were drenched from sweat. Ava thought back to the time she had spent living out of her van, and silently thanked Alex and Jordan for letting her stay. As a nurse, she'd seen people come in from being overheated while doing a rotation in the emergency room, and knew that she could have been one of them. Ava mentally shook the thoughts out of her head and looked at the bird nest in Tilly's hands. "Wow, that's so pretty," Ava said, genuinely fascinated by the find, "Where did you find it?" "It was by the sidewalk," Tilly said. "Make sure you wash your hands," Alex said, "I'll put it somewhere safe." Tilly handed the nest to her mother and bolted for the bathroom. "I don't know how she can run in this heat," Alex groaned as she put the nest on a shelf in the living room, then returned to the kitchen to wash her hands. Jordan, for their part, looked at Ava, "I'm not the only one who says so, Aunty Ava." Ava smiled, and nodded as she took a drink from her glass and accepted the kind words.

Ava sat at her laptop later that night, mindlessly scrolling through job listings. She'd gone through most of the ones she could realistically do, and had gotten rejections from all of them. the rest of those jobs, she had gone in person for interviews, only to be served with a rejection the next day or so over email. Alex had offered her a job with her advocacy group, but had regretfully explained that they didn't really have the budget for a full time position at the time. Ava had told her she would accept if she couldn't find anything at all, and had continued hunting. She knew Alex didn't mind her turning it down, and had seemed almost relieved at the time. "At least the investigation is over," Ava muttered to herself. When Jordan had given birth, their nurse had been a horrid monster of a woman who had abused them, both physically, emotionally and mentally. Ava had gotten dragged into the story in such a way that when the investigation into Karen Lowe, the nurse, had started, Ava was right in the middle of it. She'd gotten fired for punching Karen later that day in what was legally called a moment of passion. No charges were filed against Ava, but she'd been let go of her position at the hospital. Not that it was a very high position, but it had paid the bills. "No regrets," Ava said, clearing her mind and digging back into the want ads. Now that the investigation was over, she could search for jobs in the medical field, or at least adjacent to it. There were a few she could look into, assistant at a nursing home, personal home caretaker, and a few others, but she was getting tired. "I'll look into it tomorrow," Ava said, closing her computer and stretching. Her back had been acting up all day, and sitting in front of a computer trying to find a job hadn't helped it any. As she stood up, she reached her arms overhead, leaning from side to side and stripping her shirt of as she did so. Despite the air conditioning, it was still almost too hot to wear even the thin tank top she had been all day, and she'd be damned if she was going to wear it to bed.

Ava woke up what felt like only a few minutes later. She glanced at her clock, and sighed as she saw she had slept for a few hours, but it was nowhere near time to get up. Ava always had trouble falling back asleep once she had woken up. The problem hadn't been helped by her homelessness stint, where she had to be up and out before the gas station opened up for business. She felt like if she could just lie down for a minute, she would be able to go back to sleep. Ava adjusted her pillow, and was just about to close her eyes when the baby kicked, and she groaned. Right onto her bladder. Grunting as she pulled herself upright, she staggered to her feet and gasped. Her belly felt much, much lower than it had earlier that evening. She knew that birth had been just around the corner for days now, but this was the first sign of her body really getting ready. The baby kicked at her bladder again, and Ava started walking to the bathroom. Or at least she tried to. Her legs didn't want to cooperate, spreading wide and wider with each step until she felt like she was almost crab walking. She looked at the full length mirror that Jordan and Alex had put in when the room was going to be a nursery, and was amazed to see that her legs were remarkably close together despite how they felt. But when she widened her stance, she groaned in discomfort as she felt the pressure. It felt like she was riding on a bike, and each step felt like hitting a speed bump.

Ava didn't like using the upstairs bathroom at night, as it was right between Alex and Jordan's room and Tilly's room. Despite their reassurances that it was fine, Ava always used the downstairs bathroom to keep the flushing from waking up her hosts. As she clutched the railing to go downstairs, she was beginning to wish she'd just started using the upstairs bathroom. Ava turned sideways, and moved down one step at a time. "Hooffffff….. hoooffffff," She huffed every time she brought her legs together, feeling the pressure grow more intense each time, feeling like a spike was being driven into her cervix. Finally reaching the ground floor, Ava took a second to breath, widening her legs again and panting from the pain. "What the fuuuuck," She groaned under her breath and started walking again. Every single motion she made towards the bathroom felt worse and worse, the pressure getting more intense with each step until she was at the bathroom door, gasping and gritting her teeth from the pain. She pushed the door open and closed it behind her widening her legs even more and slowly squatting down to sit on the toilet. "Oh my goooood," She groaned as going down made the pressure so much worse, wanting nothing more than to get back up, but finding that she simply didn't have the strength to do so, feeling tears sting her eyes, "What's happening?" Pressing one hand to the wall and burying another under her belly, Ava tried to stand up, managing an awkward stance that kept her above the toilet. She was just wondering if she could pee in that position when she heard a gush of water splashing into the toilet and gasped as the pressure vanished, shuddering at the almost euphoric feeling left in it's wake. "Ohhhhh my god," She groaned, sitting back down and sighing in relief, closing her eyes. Then her eyes snapped open as she realized what had happened. "Oh my god!" She panted, getting back up off of the toilet and seeing the faint pink fluid in the toilet. Her water had broken.

Ava slowly made her way back upstairs, holding one of her washcloths to her vagina to stop herself from leaking all over Alex and Jordan's house. Returning to her room, Ava found a leftover gift from Jordan, one of her adult diapers, and pulled it on. She knew that Alex and Jordan would be out of bed and driving her to the hospital in a heartbeat if she told them about her water breaking, but she still felt guilty. They had done so much for her, and she couldn't even pay rent. The least she could do is let them get a full nights sleep. Ava settled back into bed, putting her bath towels underneath her hips to keep the guest bed safe from leaking, and tried to get to sleep. Unfortunately, Ava kept rolling side to side as best as she could, feeling tired, but unable to get to sleep. She knew that with her water broken, she would be seeing her baby, one way or another in less than a day. She was just wondering when she'd start feeling contractions when she gasped, feeling her belly seize up and spasm, feeling like a massive hand was gripping her entire womb and squeezing as hard as it could. "Poooooffffffff," She huffed, rolling to her left and placing a hand over her belly and digging her fingers in as best as she could. The skin of her belly was a soft as it ever was, but the muscle underneath it felt solid and unyielding, and hurt to the touch, but she couldn't stop pressing into her belly until the contraction let up, and she relaxed her muscles, panting with the effort of surviving that one contraction.

Ava didn't get a single moment of sleep for the rest of the night, timing contractions as the room grew brighter and brighter around her. The sheets were soaked from her sweat and the amniotic fluid soaking through the towels, which she replaced more than once. She'd gotten up to pace once in the night, but had laid back down shortly after, feeling too light headed to stay on her feet during a contraction. "God, this sucks," She groaned as she flopped around in bed, rubbing her belly, trying to soothe it with her hands. Ever since getting pregnant, Ava had been obsessed with rubbing her belly, even before there was anything visible. Just the idea of something growing inside her fascinated her, and that fascination grew as her belly did. For the last couple of months, she'd been practically unable to keep both of her hands off of her belly for more than a few moments. It had been a source of comfort to her. And now even the light pressure of her hands hurt, making her instinctive reaction to every contraction an agony. "Come on, come onnnn," Ava whimpered, looking at the clock. Tilly had finished in her kindergarten class the same week Ava had come to the house, and she had loved getting to wake up Aunty Ava, but patiently waited for her mama and nibi to say she could get her. Ava didn't want to shout for help, but felt like she could hardly hold on. As soon as Tilly came to get her, she'd tell her to go get either Alex or Jordan.

"Aunty Ava?" Tilly called as she opened the door and snuck in, "Are you awake?" "Mhmmm," Ava grunted out, "Owwwww…" "Are you ok?" "Tilly, I need you to go get-Augh! Ow…." "Moooom!" Tilly shouted, looking worried and backing up, running out of the room, "Mooooom!" Ava winced and panted as the contraction let up, wiping her hand over her face and groaning in disgust as the sheer amount of sweat. She heard larger feet approaching the door and Alex came in. "Oh god, Ava, are you alright?" Ava shook her head, "No. My water broke around midnight, and I think I need to get to the hospitalllll." shot her hand out and gripped Alex's hand with bone crushing strength as she had another contraction. Ava heard Ava turn and speak to someone, "No, I need you not in here right now, and can you get nibi and have them come to help?" The thumps of footsteps bolted out of the room and Ava closed her eyes as she clutched Alex's hand. "What's happening?" Jordan asked as they entered, holding the baby in a sling. "Ava's in labor, she said her water broke around midnight." "Oh my god," Jordan replied, "Ok, are we taking her in?" Alex turned to Ava, "Do you want to go in to the hospital?" Ava nodded, "Y-yeah."

Ava was surprised at how quickly and efficiently Jordan and Alex leapt into helping her. As soon as Ava said that she wanted to go to the hospital, Jordan had left the room, going to wrangle Tilly and prep the backseat of their van, turning on the engine and getting the AC running to cool it down. Alex found a loose, light t-shirt that protected Ava's modesty, but wasn't too much in the way for what she was going through. "H-hospital bag," Ava panted, and pointed at her bag that she had kept safe this whole time, right by her purse. Alex nodded and carried both to the door and called for Tilly, who arrived to take the bags. "Ok, Ava, I'm gonna get you up, and we'll go down to the van and get to the hospital, that sound ok?" Ava nodded, feeling to miserable to speak. Alex got an arm under both of Ava's, and helped her get up. "OW! Owowowowowwwww," Ava moaned as she felt the full weight of her belly shifting down as she was helped up. "Do you need me to stop?" Alex asked. "No, just… AH! Let's go please," Ava moaned, trying her best to get her feet to cooperate. The stairs were worse than they had been earlier. Ava had to stop on each one, crying as the pressure shifted and drilled down with each step. "What's the plan?" Jordan asked as Alex steadied Ava on the landing. "I think I'll take Ava in if you can wrangle the kids, yeah? Is that ok with you Ava?" "Fine, yes, I-AUGH!" Ava jerked and screamed as she had a contraction right as she stepped down to the last stair, her legs trembling as they tried to hold her up and close together all at once. Jordan moved to help, but the baby in the sling started fussing, and they looked between the baby and Ava. "Go, I got this," Alex said, "I'll help her." Jordan looked their wife in the eye and nodded, "I'll drop Tilly off with the Phams, and I'll be there as soon as I can. Good luck Ava!"

It only took a minute in the car before Ava wished she was back climbing down the stairs. "Oh my god! OW! I WANNA DIE!" Ava screamed as she had a contraction. She wanted to writhe, to shift and move with the contraction, but belted into the seat, the best she could do was arch her back, the seat belt digging into her chest and shoulder, pulling tight under her belly in a way that felt like it was cutting her in half. She wanted to lie down, but the seat only reclined so far, and the half slumped position it dumped her in when she tried felt worse than just sitting up. "No, you'll get through this Ava, ok, I won't let you die." "Shut upppp!" Ava cried, trying to calm her mind enough to get through the next contraction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex nod, but otherwise she didn't react to the comment at all. After the contraction passed, Ava was able to breath a bit easier. "Sorry," She murmured, "I'm sorry…" Alex shook her head, and gave Ava a quick glance of reassurance, "Don't worry, I know, I've been there myself. There isn't really anything you can shout at me while giving birth that I'll take personally." Ava chuckled at the statement, the laugh breaking off into a strangled groan. "OW! Laughing hurts…. AAAUUUUGGHHH! Please hurry!"

Ava had told Alex and Jordan her birth plan in case she needed help, and was grateful that she had. The hospital they were going to was the one she had just been fired from, and Alex already had the smoothest ride there down perfectly. "Bump," Alex warned as she slowed down for a speed bump just before the hospital entrance. "Thank you," Ava moaned as she lurched with the car, pressing a hand to her belly to support it's weight. Alex pulled the car into a parking spot, shaking her head with the small bout of déjà vu as she realized that it was the exact same stall she had parked in when brining Jordan when they were in labor. "Right, uh, wait here, I'll grab a wheelchair." Ava nodded, unbuckling and pulling herself up. Alex ran for a wheelchair and brought it to Ava, who had pulled herself out of the car and was leaning over it as she hissed her way through a contraction. "Getting… close," She grunted out through clenched teeth, "So much pressure!" She slowly backed up, finding the wheelchair and sitting down, yelping as the pressure stabbed at her as soon as she collapsed into the chair. "Ok, let's get inside," Alex muttered, grabbing Ava's hospital bag, closing and locking the car, and turning them towards the building.

"At least you have a negative covid test," Alex said, adjusting her mask, "Jordan said the C ward is a sort of hell." "Everyone who works in there thinks to too," Ava panted out between contractions, hating how hew own face mask clogged with her sweat and heavy breathing, "God, I want this stupid fucking thing offfffffAAAAAAGH!" Ava clutched at both her belly and at one of the armrests as she tried to twist with the contraction, desperately trying to find a position that didn't feel like she was going to burst. With a familiar 'ding' the elevator doors opened, and Alex started wheeling Ava down to the nurses station. "Ava! How are you doing?" One of the nurses asked. "Shut uuupppp!" Ava groaned. "Fair enough," The nurse said, and gestured towards Alex, "Bring her this way." As they walked, Ava kept squirming in the wheelchair, "Owwww, pressure, pressure, pressure, make it stop, please!" "Right in here," The nurse said, leading them into a room and flipping the lights on, "My shift is over in a minute here, so let's get you settled and someone will be in shortly." Getting out of the chair made Ava feel like everything wanted to drop out of her at once. "Oooofffffffffff…. hhaaaaaaaaggggghhhhh!" She was grateful that she had accepted the loose t-shirt from Jordan as well as the wrap around skirt. The two pieces of clothing were easy to remove to get into a hospital gown, and soon, she was laying on a bed, waiting for a nurse to come check her. She knew that with the amount of pressure she was feeling, she had to be almost fully dilated. At least she hoped she would be. her breath hitched and she started crying. "Hey, hey, what's wrong," Alex asked, coming to Ava's side, "What is it?" "I don't know," Ava sobbed, "What if I'm not dilated enough? What if they send me home, I can't do the car again…" "Hey, don't worry," Alex said, keeping her voice calm, "Your water broke hours ago, right? They won't send you home. And I'm sure you're getting close, ok?" Ava nodded, and tried to steady her breathing, only for a knock at the door and a familiar voice greeting her and Alex to start her panicking again. "Hey there Ava, how are we feeling today?"

Alex couldn't believe her eyes. As she looked, she could feel her heartrate rising, and her stomach felt like she had just drunk a cup full of molten metal. "What are you doing here?" Alex asked Karen as she entered the room. "My job of course," Karen said, a brief flicker of recognition flashing across her face as she looked at Alex, but seemed to struggle to place her memory. Karen seemed to remember Alex, "Ah, yes, you tried to get me fired. Fortunately, the investigation cleared my name." "After what you did to my partner and I?" Alex demanded. Ava felt another contraction building, and had to tune out the conversation while Alex started acting like the guard dog Ava remembered her being when she had first met her and Jordan. "…The fact of the matter is, we're short staffed, and if you don't want my help, you might as well go home." "No!" Ava shouted, "I can't, please, nooooAAAAHHH!" Karen nodded, "Alright then. Let's get you checked and see where you're at, ok?" Ava nodded, feeling trapped between going home and letting Karen put her fingers inside her. She knew that on one hand, Karen had worked as a competant, professional nurse for years before Ava had worked with her for the few weeks that she had. On the other, she had hit Karen not too long ago, and all over some of the most heinous things a nurse in her position could do. "OW! Owowowowowow," Ava gasped out as Karen's fingers gently probed deep inside and found her cervix. "Ok… I'd say you're probably at about five centimeters."

Ava shuddered and rolled over as Karen pulled her hand out. "I'll be back later to check on you," Karen said, writing notes down into Ava's chart, and leaving the room. After the door closed, Alex started pacing. "This is un believable. Ava, tell me right now, are you ok with her being your nurse?" Ava closed her eyes, trying her best to keep her breathing calm, "I… I don't know. I know there's a staff shortage, so there probably isn't anyone else right nOW!" Ava cried out as she felt another contraction coming on. "They're coming pretty fast," Alex said, looking at the monitor that displayed the contractions, "How are you holding up?" Ava couldn't answer, concentrating on keeping her breathing as even as she could, whimpers of pain breaking through every now and then. When she could breathe, she opened her eyes and looked at Alex, "Can you… just keep an eye on her? Don't make a fuss…just keep an eye on her." Alex nodded, and seemd to settle down once she had something to do, "Yeah, I can do that. I'll just um, I'm gonna make a call. Just get a friend looped into what's going on." "Your lawyer friend?" Ava asked. Alex nodded, and Ava felt a bit relieved knowing that she had someone like Alex there to help her.

An hour later, Ava barely had a break between contractions. Jordan had texted, letting her and Alex know that she had arrived, but wasn't allowed into the labor room due to the one visitor policies. Ava felt that it might have bothered her earlier, but now, all she could care about was the pressure and pain. "It hurts," She cried, unable to stop the hitching sobs no matter how hard she tried to steady her breathing, "Make it stop! Please!" "I know it hurts, I know, but you got this Ava," Alex reassured her, holding her hand. Another contraction swept over Ava, and she groaned, gripping Alex's hand even tighter, wailing as she tried to cope with the pressure. It hadn't stopped building since getting into the wheelchair earlier, and now it was the only thing she could think about. "There's so much…UNGH… so much pressure!" Ava whined as the contraction slacked off. "I know, but that must mean your close," Alex said kindly, "I'm sure of it." "I want the epidural," Ava said, "I want it, I want it." Alex hesitated. She had gone over Ava's birth plan, and she had stated that she wanted to do it naturally. That no matter how much she begged, she wanted to go all natural. "Ava, you said-" "I don't CARE what I said, I need aaaAAAAAGUH!" She broke off as the next contraction drove into her, and she curled up before arching her back, as if trying to escape the pain by moving away from it. But as she writhed, she felt something new. "Oh, OH! OHMYGOD! I need to push!" Ava shouted, reaching a hand around her belly and pressing hard against her vagina, desperately trying to provide counterpressure. "Ok, let me call the nurse," Alex said, grabbing the button, and pressing call.

Karen sighed as she looked up and saw the call light on over Ava's room. "Great, here we go again," Karen said, getting up and walking calmly to the room. It was a slow day, with only two other patients on the floor at the moment, and one other nurse who was checking in on them. She couldn't believe what had happened. Two of the three women who had been responsible for her getting grilled over her actions were in the room, and she was supposed to help one of them deliver a baby. At least her brother in law was a major benefactor to the hospital, and had gotten to keep her job, despite the actions those two lesbians had tried to take to get her fired. Karen felt her face screw up in disgust. That baby should be raised in a good, God fearing household, not whatever heathen lifestyle those two were undoubtedly forcing on the sweet angel. She cleared her throat and made sure she had a pleasant expression on her face as she approached the door and entered the room. "How are we doing?" Karen asked. "I feel… HNNNNNGGGGGGG!" Ava groaned out, and Karen looked to the other one, Alex she thought her name was. "She feels pushy," She said for Ava, "And depending on where she is, she wants an epidural." Karen nodded, and pulled on a glove, "Ok, let me just check, and I'll see where we're at." She knew that she was supposed to put three of four pumps of lube on her fingers to check, but decided the bottle was looking a bit low, and wanted to make sure there was plenty for the doctor to use. She put a half pump on her fingers when Alex was busy reassuring Ava. "Going in," Karen warned a split second after she had already touched Ava and began wiggling her finger in. "OW! OW OWOWOWOWWOWWWWWWWWW! AUGH! OH MY GOD!" Ava shrieked as Karen felt the glove pulling unevenly into the vagina. "Ok, let me see…" Karen said as she assessed Ava.

She was surprised to find her already at nine centimeters dilated. And the cervix was so thin at the edges, she was probably only a sneeze away from full dilation and pushing. She almost said as such, before she remembered how sore her mouth had been for days after Ava had punched her. 'Do unto others,' Karen thought to herself while pulling her hand out, somehow managing to make it rough while looking like a smooth gesture, then saying out loud, "You're at about six centimeters Ava." "Only six!?!" Ava shouted, before falling back and screaming as she clearly tried not to push through another contraction. "If you're feeling pushy, we should recline you back slightly to help keep you from giving into that urge. If you push too soon, you'll hurt yourself," Karen said, grabbing the remote for the bed and laying it slightly tilted back to do just that. Ava shouted in pain and alarm as the bed shifted underneath her. Karen did her best to hide a self satisfied smile as she wrote six centimeters into Ava's chart and replaced it. "Epidural?" Alex asked Ava, and she nodded. Alex looked pointedly at Karen, who nodded, "I'll give them a call." As Karen left the room, she figured she'd just head back to the nurse's station and sit for a while before reporting that it would be a while before the anesthesiologist would be available.

"I wanna die," Ava sobbed, clutching at the sheets as she did her best not to give into the urge, "I'm gonna diiIIIEEEEEEE!" "You're not going to die," Alex said, "You can do this." "I, no something feels wrong, I want to push!" "You can't yet, it's too soon," Alex said, trying her best to help Ava, but not knowing what to do. If it was Jordan on the bed, she would be holding them, caressing them, peppering them with kisses, but she couldn't really do that with Ava. As it was, she felt about as useless as she had when Jordan was giving birth, forced to sit in a waiting room. "Something…. OW! It doesn't feel right," Ava yelped as she felt another contraction, and she stiffened her legs, almost trying to bring them closer together and dug her hands into the bottom of her belly as if trying to physically hold the baby up and away from her birth canal. "I need to push, I have to PUUUUSSSHHHH!" Ava shouted, trying to hard to keep her legs together they were trembling. Alex jabbed at the call button again, but when no one came in after only waiting a few seconds, she looked at Ava. "I'll be right back, I'm going to get someone, ok?" "Hurry, please hurry," Ava whimpered, letting go of Alex's hand and rolling around in the bed. Alex bolted out of the door.

"Thank god," She said, spotting a nurse, not Karen, halfway down the hallway, and running up to her, "Can you help? My friend is in there, and she just got checked, and she really wants to push!" "How far dilated is she?" the nurse said, genuine concern washing over her face. "The other nurse said she was at six a minute ago, and left to get the epidural work started, but-" Alex broke off as Ava let out a horrific shriek of pain, the sound echoing down the hallway from the open door. "AVA!" Alex shouted, running back down the hall, hearing the nurse running right behind her. Rounding the corner, Alex froze, not sure what she was seeing. Ava's legs were splayed open, and her hands wouldn't stay still, gripping the rails of the bed, the sheets, her legs, anything that was in reach. "I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HELP IT!" She shrieked, her head thrashing as her whole body convulsed. And between her legs, Alex could see the baby's head halfway out. "MOVE!" The nurse shouted at Alex, pulling gloves on with a practiced ease, "Hold her leg!" Alex moved, running on autopilot, getting behind Ava's nearest leg and pulling. "Pull the blue cord on the wall, hurry!" The nurse shouted, "Ok, Ava? I need you to breathe deep now, in and out!"

"I CAN'T I CAN'T I CAN'T….HNNNNNNGGGGGGHHHHH… I CAN'T STOP IT!" Ava wailed, "HHHHHHNNNNNGGGGGGGAAAAAUUUGH!" The head pulsed in and out as Ava fought the urge to push, but it was a fight she was loosing, the head coming out a little bit more with each movement. The sensation was torture, going out stretching everything more, and going back making the pressure worse. She didn't know what was going on between her legs other than that it hurt. All she knew was that she wasn't fully dilated yet, so she needed to stop pushing. She screamed as she felt a surge of burning between her legs, and slapped a hand down to give herself counterpressure again, freezing as she felt. "Is-AUGH! Is that the head?" She asked, her breath burning in her lungs. "Yes, that's the head! Go ahead and push Ava, you can push!" Alex shouted, doing her best to help her friend. Almost as if a part of her had been waiting for permission, Ava curled up, her teeth bared and growling and roaring as the head moved down with a speed that exposed her desperate energy, shrieking as she felt the massive head stretching and burning her, feeling like she was about to split in two. "HNNNNNNNNNNHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Ava screamed as the head burst out in a gush of fluid. The contraction didn't stop, and neither did Ava. She kept pushing, feeling the shoulders pressing down as she did until she had to stop to catch her breath. "That's the head!" The new nurse shouted, "Let me check for a cord… ok, you can push whenever you feel ready."

The pauses between contractions had only been seconds for a while now, so Ava was pushing before the permission was given. She pushed as hard as she could, feeling the shoulders press harder and harder, but not moving. Letting her breath go in an explosive burst, she took another deep breath and pushed again. "TsssssssssssssssssssssssAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHHH!" She roared as she let the push go, feeling frustrated that now that she could push, her pushing wasn't getting anywhere. "Shit, ok," The nurse said, and Ava's blood ran cold. She knew that nurses were supposed to keep those kind of comments in, but if it slipped out, it must have been bad. "What is it? Why isn't it coming?" Ava panted, wiggling her hips as she felt a new, horrible grinding sensation. "I think we have a shoulder dystocia," The nurse said, "I need you to pull her leg back! Come on Ava, PUSH!" Ava squealed as Alex pulled harder on the leg she was on, and began screaming as the nurse stood up and began pressing just below her belly, slamming down like she was doing CPR. "HHHHnnnnggggggHHHHNNNNGGGGgggggggHHHHHHHnnnggggggggHHHUUUAAAAGH!" She screamed as she pushed through the nurses actions. Through the fog of pain and a strange lightheadedness that was starting to blanket her thoughts, she faintly remembered that it was called suprapubic pressure. But the thought vanished as she felt a wet burst between her legs and a strange sensation as the baby wiggled free and practically fell out of her onto the bed.

"What is, oh my god!" Alex looked up to see Karen at the door, her face white as a sheet. She backed up, turned and ran back for the nurses station as soon as she saw Alex make eye contact with her. "Is… is the baby ok?" Ava asked, and Alex looked back to her friend, and froze as she saw how pale Ava had gotten. The nurse was looking back and forth between the baby and Ava, who was bleeding heavily. "Is…baby…" Was all Ava could get out before her eyes rolled back and her head lolled onto the bed. "You, take the baby!" The nurse said, "By the warming station, there are bulbs and blankets, suction his mouth and nose and rub him!" The nurse darted over to another area and started ripping open cabinets and drawers before returning to the foot of the bed, and looking out the door, "HELP IN ROOM 4141!" Alex took the baby, looking far too gray and did what she was told, finding a bulb wrapped in it's sterile packaging and ripping it open. She's used one to clear snot before, and figured it was a similar process. Her hands shook as she worked, not hearing anything over the ringing in her ears. All she could see was the baby as she rubbed, gently but firmly until she felt someone pushing on her shoulder. "GET OFF!" Alex shouted, the ringing vanishing. "Ma'am, step aside!" Another new nurse said loudly as she was pushed away from the warming station. Alex jolted with surprise as she noticed how many people were in the room. She moved back and sat down on the couch in the corner, trying to stay out of everyone's way.

"Ok, prep an O.R., we're moving!" One of the doctors tending to Ava said, and Alex watched as the started running, pushing the bed with them. "NICU!" One of the doctors working on the baby shouted, and they too began moving out of the room. Alex sat, her eyes wide and unseeing for a moment until the original nurse came back after what felt like both hours and a few minutes. "Ava is still in surgery. I don't know how long it will take, but she'll be headed to a different recovery ward when she's done. If you want to head for the waiting room, someone will let you know where to go when we have more information for you." Alex didn't answer, her mind still swirling as she got up and stumbled out of the room, not even noticing that her hands had left bloody prints on the couch. She shuffled to the waiting room, her eyes flashing around, looking for the one person she needed right then and there. "Jordan?" She asked, her voice feeling smaller than it had in years. "Alex? ALEX!" Jordan yelped, getting up, "What happened? Are Ava and the baby ok?" I…I don't know!" Alex burst out, feeling something inside her break as she began crying while Jordan held her.

"Alex?" The nurse asked a few hours later. "Yes!" Alex blurted out, jumping to her feet. She had gone home and washed the blood off of her while Jordan waited at the hospital. Once she had gotten clean, Alex had called Adam, the lawyer who worked with Sparrow's Flight, and filled him in on what had happened. Looking back she knew that Karen had done something. People didn't go from six centimeters to a head halfway out in the span of a minute. He met Alex when she had arrived back at the hospital and had been going over details, his recent time in that same hospital giving him a roadmap to the bureaucracy. Jordan had gone to pick Tilly back up from their friend's house and was at home with her and Melody, Alex promising to keep them updated on anything she heard. "Ava is out of surgery, but she lost a lot of blood. She's in a coma right now, but she's stable." Alex nodded, feeling numb and like her chest was filled with glass all at the same time, "And the baby?" "The baby is fine, he's in the NICU for observation for a day or two. Now, Ava doesn't have any next of kin listed on her paperwork, and she doesn't have a living will. So if you are her friend, you should use those two days to make sure you can take care of him if she's not awake by then." "Ok. And my lawyer gave me this to give to you," Alex handed the nurse a business card, "He wants to hear your statement." The nurse looked angry as she took the card, "Gladly." She looked around and nodded Alex to a corner of the waiting room, "I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but Karen broke some major rules. It looks like she lied on Ava's chart, ran out of a critical situation, and she didn't start any of the epidural paperwork she claimed to have. A lot of us heard about what she did a few weeks back, and are pretty pissed that she's still working here. Trust me, I'll talk to your lawyer."

In the end, Karen was fired, and arrested. The shock value of the story gave a lot of high profile advertisement to Sparrow's Flight, which Alex felt guilty about thinking of as a good thing. When the baby was cleared, Alex and Jordan submitted the paperwork to take care of him until Ava woke up. Each day that passed made it seem less and less likely. Until a week later. "Phonezrining," Jordan mumbled in their sleep. "Gotit," Alex mumbled back. She got out of bed and began zombie walking downstairs. Taking care of one newborn and her older sister had been tiring enough, but adding a second newborn? Alex didn't know how twin parents did it. "Mello," Alex muttered into the phone. "Is this Alex or Jordan Garcia?" "Izthe middle oftha night," She replied. "This is Sunhead hospital, letting you know that Ava is awake." Alex felt like several cups of espresso had just been injected straight into her brain as she shot wide awake in an instant. "She's awake!" She shouted, wincing as she heard her voice echo around the quiet room, "Sorry, she's awake?" "She started coming around an hour ago, and she's awake and alert now. She's been asking for her baby." "Yeah, we'll be there as soon as we can." "Alright, see you when you get here." Alex hung up the phone, and ran up the stairs to give Jordan the good news. Getting the baby into the car seat while not waking him was a challenge, but they managed it, and Alex began the drive to the hospital. Once she got there and was directed to Ava's room, she practically ran the whole way, stopping to catch her breath right before going in.

Ah, one of my greatest shames as a writer. While answering this, I actually had to go back and look up her name, but to tell you the truth, I lost Amanda. Some time in between the last chapter I wrote for that and now, I lost my computer and replaced it, and unfortunately, one of the files that got corrupted was my notes on that entire story. Back up your work people, don't do what I did!

I found this dress a while back, and decided I needed to have a character give birth in it.

Just Breathe

A Valiantremnant original

Pre story notes: Here we are with part 2! So this one felt a bit weird to me to write until I remembered that I've written works that don't have a birth in them before. So as I mentioned in the notes for Deep Breath and Push, I started writing this years ago, and while I found and remembered where the inspiration for what happened in part one came from, I don't really remember what inspired the second and third parts of the story.

CW/Ingredients List: Economic stress, brief homelessness stint, a physical assault, but overall, just a transitory story to the last part.

~

Ava knocked softly on the door to Jordan and Alex's room, and called out in a soft voice to avoid waking the baby sleeping in the bassinet she was wheeling through the hallways, holding her arms out to push it to keep it from bumping into her still growing belly.

"Hey, here you are…"

Jordan, looking like they had been through a war, and in more than one way, they had, struggled to sit up as Ava wheeled the cart with the baby in and parked it.

"Oh god, my baby!"

Ava brought the small bundle to them as they squirmed their way out of their gown. Ava hadn't been a nurse long, but knew that Jordan was getting ready to do some skin to skin. Well, if the baby hadn't been clothed already. She felt awful about what had happened. Karen, a senior nurse with misguided priorities between her duties as a nurse and her religion had essentially mentally tortured Jordan, ruined their birth plan, and had basically attempted to kidnap the baby. She didn't know what was going to happen to her, but she doubted it was going to end well for her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and signed some last minute documentation that she had brought the baby to their room when she heard Jordan making small noises of frustration.

"Come on baby…" They said, holding one breast near the baby.

"Oh, she was just fed, so she might not be hungry right now," Ava said, putting the paperwork down.

She knew almost instantly that it was the exact wrong thing to say. Jordan went very still, their expression going completely flat and empty.

"Jordan, honey," Alex said, a note of worry in her voice.

"Take… take her," Jordan said, their voice cracking and handing the baby over with unsteady hands.

As soon as Alex had the baby, Jordan struggled to get out of bed, and Ava stepped forward as quickly as she could, struggling to support Jordan.

"Hey, I got you, ok, are you alright?"

Jordan didn't answer, stumbling forward until they got to the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind them. Ava felt awful, and thought to what she had said, and closed her eyes in realization. She had just to the person who had given birth, and had been denied access to their baby for hours that someone else had fed her… HER! Ava had also told the couple the baby's gender as casually as if she were commenting on the weather! As Ava began to realize what she had done, she heard something from the bathroom.

"WHHHHYYYYYYY!"

Ava started at the scream, and the pained, hacking sobs and coughs that followed.

"Hey," Alex said, looking at Ava with eyes that weren't unkind, but firm, "I think you should go."

Ava couldn't even bring herself to agree out loud, simply nodding with tears in her eyes and left as quickly as she could.

"Oh my god, why did I say that," Ava groaned to herself as she retreated further down the hall, sluming against an empty stretch of wall and smacking her forehead as she rested, "Come on Ava, use your head."

She decided to head to the nurse's lounge and get a quick drink. Her shift was only about half over, and it had already been one of the longest and most taxing she'd done with all of the drama that had gone around. Not that she could really talk to her coworkers about it. She had only been at Sunhead hospital for a few weeks, and didn't have any friends to speak of yet, while Karen had been there for years, and almost everyone seemed unsure of what to do about the situation. Ava had been working in the recovery ward, and had been closer to the heart of the situation than most, and knew for a fact that Karen had gone too far, manipulating her authority and knowledge of the system to try to keep the baby away from her parents, using Ava to deliver documents for them to voluntarily surrender their parental rights. Ava hadn't known that this wasn't what they wanted until Jordan had started having a panic attack in front of her and Alex had begun screaming in her face until their lawyer had advised her to stand down. Karen, meanwhile, had ordered the baby taken to the nursery before either of her parents had seen her, fabricated paperwork to claim that it was abandoned in the safe haven box, removed the matching hospital bracelet and effectively tried to claim the baby she was working with had nothing to do with the practically grieving couple upstairs, all in the name of her religion not liking same sex couples.

'Or couples that appeared same sex,' Ava thought to herself, shaking her head, remembering that part of Jordan's complaints were the constant misgendering while they gave birth.

After Ava tried and failed to reassure herself that while she might have made a small error when bringing the baby to them, the fault wasn't with her, she peeled herself free from the wall and headed to the breakroom. Her shift was almost over, but she needed a quick bite to eat from the vending machine. Pushing the door open, Ava didn't pay attention to anything going on in the breakroom until she heard Karen's voice speaking.

"Oh she was just being dramatic. But like I said, she had repeatedly said that she wasn't the mother. I didn't know if she was acting as a surrogate and the intended parents weren't there, but all she had was her friend who she kept calling her 'wife'."

"And they're firing you for that?"

"Putting me on administrative leave for trying to keep that poor baby safe," Karen replied, shaking her head.

"Keeping it-, do you mean the Garcia's baby?" Ava asked, unable to stop herself.

Everyone turned to look at Ava.

"Yes," Karen said, "And don't think I don't want to talk to you about that, if you had just gotten them to sign-"

"I just came from their room," Ava said, stepping forward, thoughts of the vending machine forgotten, "Bringing their daughter to them. Jordan basically had a panic attack while trying to bond with their daughter from the trauma you caused them!"

"You mean her, I had nothing to do with her friend."

"I, you… That doesn't matter, you tried to kidnap their child!"

"SO I'm getting fired because that what that bitch is claiming? I was trying to save their baby from their lifestyle! I would do the same for yo-OOOOWWW!"

Ava could feel her heart in her throat, and her ears were ringing. It wasn't until someone put their hands on her shoulders, pulling her back that she realized her right hand was clenched into a fist and there were deep cuts in the backs of some of her fingers from-

"SHE HIT ME!" Karen wailed, "SHE HIT ME, HELP!"

Ava felt like she was back in school, sitting outside of a conference room in the hallway while her bosses discussed what to do with her inside.

"It'll be ok," She muttered to herself, rubbing her belly as she tried not to cry, "I'll be ok. I'll be ok…"

Ava kept whispering the mantra to herself until she heard the door opening, a quiet click that still made her jump like she'd been poked with a needle.

"Ava?" Her supervisor, a woman named Barbera said, calling her in.

Ava got to her feet, pressing a hand to the small of her back as she did and waddled into the room after her, sitting down across from Barbera, the hospital's HR director, and the hospital's administrator.

"Right, Ava Richards," The administrator, a woman named June said, looking over her file, "This is the second meeting we've had like this today, so you can understand we're not very happy about this."

"I know, I'm sorry," Ava began, but Barbera cut her off.

"Listen, I think you have what it takes to be a great nurse and even more."

Ava didn't like the sound of where that was going.

"But…?" She prompted, and the HR director, a man named Karl cleared his throat, "But not here. Unfortunately, you still have two days left on your probationary period, and we have a zero tolerance policy for employee on employee assault, violence and harassment."

"I… But Karen-" Ava began, her heart racing, feeling sick to her stomach at what she was being told.

"Karen is being dealt with," June said, "With a full investigation that you are a part of. We understand that your part in that whole mess was not your doing, or your fault. AM I correct in guessing that the altercation in the break room was related to that?"

"I'd just come from the Garcia's room," Ava said, feeling cold, her mind nearly blank with panic, "Jordan had a panic attack because of me… Because… I…" Ava stopped talking, everything boiling over and she buried her face in her hands, crying.

"Ms… Ms. Richards?" Karl asked, "We understand that this is not ideal for you, but we can offer you this. We can chalk up the altercation to emotional turmoil brought on by the situation, but you still will need to seek employment elsewhere."

"Can-can… Can I?" Ava tried to ask if she could have another chance, but could hardly get the words out. Barbera shook her head, understanding what Ava was trying to ask.

"I'm sorry. I tried to get that for you, but… Unfortunately it's policy."

"But," Karl said, "We will keep the reason for your termination confidential. Since you were still on probation, we do not need to provide future employers any details about your termination, so it shouldn't hinder other opportunities. We will also keep you on your current insurance plan until you find another job."

Ava couldn't find words to respond to that, simply breaking down more and sobbing until her bosses left, offering their best wishes for the future, and telling her she could take some time to settle herself before being asked to collect her things and leave.

Jordan had finally settled into something resembling calm while holding their baby, Alex sitting next to them on the bed, her first child sleeping on the rocking chair on the corner, tired from the long day of waiting excitedly at Aunt Mia and Aunt Kya's house for her younger sister to be born, and meeting her.

"Alex," Jordan said, still feeling a bit raw from the events of that morning, "When we do the paperwork for you to adopt Melody, can I do something?"

"Sure, anything," Alex replied, leaning her head on Jordan's shoulder.

Jordan cleared their throat, both feeling it itch again as she coughed and to stall for time, "Can we start the paperwork for me to adopt Tilly?"

Alex held still, then shifted to look Jordan in the eyes.

"Are you sure? I know we talked about it when we first started getting serious, but…"

"After what happened today, I'm dead serious," Jordan said, "Never again."

Alex and Jordan discussed their plans for the future when a nurse came by to check in on Jordan and the baby.

"Excuse me," Jordan said, "The nurse who brought Melody to us. Is she still here?"

"Who would that have been?" The nurse asked, flipping the chart open to read through it.

"I just wanted to thank her, and apologize for… well for what happened while she was in here. I wanted to let her know it wasn't her fault."

"Jordan," Alex said, "Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault."

"What happened wasn't her fault either," Jordan replied calmly, "I want her to know that."

"Oh," the nurse said, looking stunned, "Um… So that nurse no longer works here."

Jordan blinked in surprise, "She… What?"

"She got into a fight with a senior nurse and was fired this afternoon."

Ava sat behind the wheel of her minivan, the single box containing everything from her locker on the passenger seat. It wasn't too long before all of her things had been in this van as she ran from her old life. Her ex boyfriend had been abusive. It had taken her far too long and a trip to the hospital to realize that she had to leave, not just for her own safety, but for her baby's safety as well. While her ex was out, she had gotten what she needed and had taken her van and moved, driving until she'd left several states behind her and she had run out of money. Before she had quit her job, she had worked as a nurse, and used that and not much else to get a job where she had stopped moving. Sunhead hospital had taken a risk hiring a nurse who was six months pregnant, but they had done so, only to fire her for a single incident, two days before her thirty day probation was up.

"I shouldn't have done that… fuck. Fuck. FUCK!" Ava screamed, pounding the steering wheel and crying again.

She had been sitting in the employee parking lot for an hour now, trying to calm down enough to return to her apartment, but every time she calmed down enough to consider it, she broke down sobbing again. Eventually, both her aching bladder and her growling stomach overrode her, and she started her van, wincing at it's normal rough start and drove home. Normally, she would have stopped for food on the way home, but she had started running numbers in her head, panic filling her until she parked her car and got upstairs to her small studio apartment. Between her grocery shopping she had just done, paying the security deposit and first month's rent…

"Oh fuck," She gasped out, her breath coming faster and faster, "Oh FUCK!"

Ava looked at her bank statement, and realizing she was far short. She had been fired on an off week, so she'd be expecting a bit less than half her normal paycheck, which would help, but still not be enough to fully cover rent.

"It'll be fine, I'll… I'll talk to the building manager in the morning, see if we can work something out, maybe a payment plan or something," Ava rationalized, trying to calm herself down by putting together a plan, "I can do this, it'll be fine."

"Heartless asshole," Ava muttered as she dropped her apartment keys into the mailbox, slamming it shut.

She had no more tears to shed over the situation, feeling completely emptied out. The manager hadn't been willing to compromise, even with Ava only being a hundred dollars short. With no family she could reach out to, and no friends left after her ex had made her cut them all out, she was left with no way of borrowing the extra cash, and so, she'd gotten an eviction notice. Two days later, everything she owned was back in the minivan, and her security deposit was back in her account, ironically enough to cover the rent now. Her entire life now in the vehicle with her, Ava drove away, headed for anywhere else. She stopped at a gas station at the edge of the city, partly because she was almost out of gas, but mostly because her van had been warning her of overly high engine temperatures for a while now, and when she popped the hood, steam blew out of it.

"Excuse me," Ava asked, "Are you any good with fixing vans?"

The man behind the counter of the non-chain gas station looked out to the pump to see Ava's van still steaming.

"Not really. Are you able to call anyone?"

Ava looked down, almost feeling ashamed, "I… I don't have anyone to call."

"Oh. Well, I can help you move it to the side lot for now. There's a tow service a few blocks away if you want to get them."

"That would be great, thank you," Ava said as she returned to pull the hood down.

The van wouldn't start. Michael, the owner of the gas station helped her push it to the side lot he mentioned. He did most of the work with two other patrons of the gas station, with Ava only able to help steer it, with one of them offering to give her a ride to the tow service, who only had bad news for her.

"Yeah, cracked engine block. Probably why you were overheating, and definitely why it won't start. I bet… yep, there she is," The mechanic said, looking underneath the van and coming back up with a pale brown mud on his glove, "That's what's coming out of your oil pan."

"How much would it be to fix it?" Ava asked, already counting how little she had, and feeling grateful this had happened before she put a full tank of gas into the van.

The mechanic looked apologetic, "That's not really a good option. With how old the van is and what I can see is wrong, plus what I think is also probably dead in it now, you'd be looking at a minimum of seven grand, probably more considering that I'd have to really hunt for one. I don't think Chrysler has made this model in what, fifteen years? You'd be better off buying a new one."

Ava's heart sank at the news, "I can't afford that right now," She said.

Michael offered to let her leave the van in the side lot for the time being, and gave her the address for a nearby motel to stay at. She looked it up on her phone while in her van, but immediately decided against it. It seemed nice enough, but she couldn't afford to spend ninety dollars a night right now. Rearranging the boxes behind the passenger seat, she was able to make enough room to recline it to almost lie down.

"Home sweet home," Ava said sadly as she pulled her blanket out of one of the boxes and settled into the seat to sleep.

The lights from the gas station were bright enough to make the task hard, but eventually she drifted off into a restless sleep, waking up only to roll the window partially down and throw the blanket off when it got too warm. She woke up early in the morning to find the inside of the windshield covered in condensation and groggily stretched in the gravel next to where she had been parked. The station wasn't due to open for another hour, so she began walking downtown for the library. Ava felt like it would look better if it didn't seem like she had spent the night in the parking lot of a gas station when Michael returned. The library was only a mile or so away, but it took Ava most of that hour to get there, seeing that she only had to wait a few more minutes for it to open. When the librarian opened the door, she nodded gratefully as she rushed to the bathroom, sighing in relief as she was able to sit in a clean bathroom and empty herself. She was even more grateful for the drinking fountain next to the bathrooms and rolled her neck, trying to rub out the kink that had worked it's way into it during the night. Speaking of work…

"We don't really have the budget for anyone new on staff right now," The librarian said, "But I'm sure you'll find something. In the meantime, you can rest here a bit. You looked a bit rough when I opened."

Ava thanked the librarian and wandered back to the computers, hoping to find anything she could do. When she looked up the hiring sites for the area, she found more bad news. No hospital's other than Sunhead, so nothing in the nursing field she could do. There were openings for heavy manual labor jobs, and some minimum wage jobs, but again, nothing that she could do. The manual labor wasn't something she could physically do, and she needed more than minimum wage. She browsed the internet, looking for anything all day until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Sorry love, but we're closing in a few minutes."

"Thank you," Ava said, nodding and closing her browsers.

There were a few web pages for women's shelters, but having stayed at the one in town before she got her apartment, she decided she'd rather live out of her ruined van than go back there. Ava found herself walking back now, stopping when she could see the gas station. Through the window, she could see Michael behind the counter, and decided to go for it.

"Hey there, any luck with… well, figuring anything out?"

"Not really," Ava admitted as she bought a bottle of water and a hotdog, "And… I was hoping I could ask for a favor?"

"I'm all ears," Michael said.

"I'm kind of looking for a job right now, but until I find something, I'm going to need a place to leave my van until I can get it fixed."

"I already said you could leave it here for a while," Michael reassured Ava, but she shook her head.

"Would it be a problem if I was staying in the van for now as well? I promise I'll be gone before you open so I won't be a problem or anything, I just…" Ava hung her head, taking a breath before she started crying, "I just need somewhere I can stay for now."

Michael nodded slowly, "I see. Well, I'd offer you a place to stay at my place, but I don't really have the space for that right now, and even if I did, I'm sure you probably wouldn't take me up on that?"

Ava shook her head, "Sorry, but I don't know you."

Truth be told, Ava was considering that, but a part of her, the part still hurting from her ex was screaming at her not to trust that offer.

"I have no problem with it," Michael decided, "Just don't make a mess and don't scare off customers."

Ava settled in for a second night in her van, the window already partially open, her blanket loosely draped over her, rather than tucked around her. A third night. A fourth. By the fifth night, she had gotten used to the feeling of sleeping in the van, getting up early and walking to the library. Every job she looked for ended up being a waste of time. The jobs that paid well either didn't want to hire someone who was about to have a baby, or were too strenuous for her condition. Nothing else paid enough without having to work three of them to make ends meet.

"I can't believe I'm at this now," She said, her throat thick as she scribbled on the torn off flap of one of her moving boxes with a sharpie.

As a child, she'd watched as her own mother had stonily sat at red lights, not making eye contact with people begging for money at intersections, telling her that they would only use the money for drugs or alcohol. As an adult, she'd always offered what she could when she could, a twenty here, a bottle of water and leftovers from a restaurant there, but she'd never imagined she'd be the one holding a cardboard sign, reading, 'Homeless and pregnant. Anything helps.'

It had only taken a few hours to learn that there was a pecking order. She'd moved around from intersection to intersection, being yelled at by other people to leave their spots alone until she finally found a place where no one else seemed to have a claim on. Within a few hours, she'd had a few people offer her folded bills, each one making her tear up a bit as she felt what was left of her pride shriveling up and dying. She could also feel herself shriveling up as the sun climbed higher and higher into the sky.

"Thank you," She rasped out, her mouth feeling dry and sticky at the same time as a driver handed her a wadded up bill.

"God bless," The driver said as he drove off.

Putting the money into her pocket, she went back to her pacing. She'd found that if she sat down, it was more comfortable, but no one stopped. If she was standing, people would offer her the occasional cash, but it was tiring, and she could feel pain radiating up from her feet, her legs, her hips and into her back. And there was another problem.

"Fuuuuck," Ava moaned as a gust of wind blew more smells past her, the usual smells of the city, the occasional driver with a diesel car and more, but most cruelly, were the smells of the restaurants nearby. She could smell a Japanese place that she used to drive past, but never ate at, the mouth watering greasy smells from a pizza place she had gotten food from more than once. Even the exhaust vents of the fast food joints she tried to avoid were trying her empty stomach into hard knots. Well, her almost empty belly.

"I know, I'm hungry too," She reassured her baby, rubbing her bump as she rocked from side to side, taking pressure off of her hips. Eventually, she had to throw in the towel, and collected what she had. Her sign, her water bottle, and her shoes, her feet swelling too much for her to wear them anymore. She swung by a twenty four hour Walmart to by some flip-flops that would fit her aching feet, some aloe-vera and some food that she hoped would last a while and returned to her van, falling asleep as soon as she closed and locked the door.

Over the next week, Ava learned a few things. Firstly, to take a backpack with her to carry some snacks, extra water and her aloe. Secondly, to take lunch breaks. Thirdly, when she would dip into her nearly depleted savings, to buy camping meals.

"Thank you so much," She said, not needing to fake the sincerity in her voice as a driver pressed a twenty into her hands, "Thank you."

"No problem," The driver said, smiling and driving off as the light turned green.

Ava wouldn't say that she was getting used to her life, but it was all she could think to do. She would spend the morning at the library searching for job listings, and finding nothing close enough to get to. Then she would return to the van, get a quick bite and her backpack and sign and return to her small claim to beg for handouts. At night, she would browse on he phone, trying to find any way she could make money that wouldn't crush her spirit any more than it already was. But as the sun got lower on her seventh day of standing out in the sun, she knew she might have to resort to other lines of work. The little bit she had looked into for camming proved that for some reason, pregnant streamers seemed to make good money in tips. But she still struggled to bend her pride enough to do it.

"For you," She finally decided, rubbing her belly, "I'll do it for you."

Jordan smiled, looking into the rearview mirror of her car as they looked at their daughter who was burbling contentedly while trying to chew her feet.

"You silly," They laughed, "You can't eat your feet. You can't eat your feet!"

They had yet to hear Melody laugh, but that never stopped them from trying. Smiling, Jordan put on their signal and moved into the turn lane to get to the frontage road. As they did, they noticed a homeless woman standing in the median.

"Oh, poor dear," They said, grabbing their wallet and looking to see if they had any cash.

Wincing as they only found a pair of ones, they rolled down the window and waved the woman over.

"Excuse me!" Jordan called.

"Thank you so much," The woman replied, looking into Jordan's eyes as she gratefully accepted the money.

Jordan's eyes widened as the woman shuffled back to where they had been standing earlier, almost missing the green arrow. Jordan moved, turning her car into the nearest parking lot and staring until they confirmed it. It was Ava, the nurse who had brought Melody to them and Alex. The one who had been fired.

Alex had looked into it, the hospital still twitchy around the sheer number of lawyers she knew and the amount of bad press she could bring down on them, and had learned that Ava Richards had been fired for punching the absolute bitch of a nurse, Karen, in the face. The act had endeared Ava to Jordan, but they had no idea how to find them to shake their hand for the deed. Jordan felt guilty that the sweet, timid nurse who had, in the end, brought them Melody, hadn't entered their mind in the last week or so. And now she was right in front of them, holding a cardboard sign, her skin an angry red from the sun. Making up their mind, Jordan put the van in reverse and went to the nearest restaurant, buying a large pizza and some soda, as well as cool water, and returned to the parking lot. Ava was still there, but seemed to be getting ready to leave.

"Ava!" Jordan called, honking and waving their arm out the window.

Ava flinched and whipped her head around until she saw them, and approached cautiously.

"Yes?"

"Ava Richards?" Jordan asked, although they knew it was them, "I don't know if you remember me, but-"

"Oh my god! Jordan?"

Ava looked worried, and took a step back, but Jordan smiled at her.

"No, it's, well, yes, I'm Jordan but I'm… I'm making a mess of this. Look, I have a pizza, cold water and or soda if you'd like?"

"I don't know, I need to," Ava began, but her stomach took that moment to betray her, a wet empty gurgle crying out for the greasy cheese laden pie.

"At least sit down for a bit," Jordan begged, "It's nice and cool in here, and if you'd like, I can drive you to wherever you're going.'

Ava only put up a half second of resistance before the promise of air conditioning, food and drink won her over. She waddled around the minivan and climbed into the passenger seat, moaning unintentionally as the much softer seat of Jordan's van took her weight.

"Oh thank god," She moaned, and turned to thank Jordan only to find them opening the pizza box and pulling out a pair of large slices to hand to her, "And thank you," She said, eagerly taking the pizza and taking a huge bite.

The cheese was hot and burned her tongue, but she didn't care, barely chewing before swallowing.

"So uh… what happened to you?" Jordan asked as Ava finished the second slice and began drinking from the water bottle Jordan had offered.

"Well, Ava said, swallowing, "I uh… after I brought your dau-baby to you, I found Karen, the nurse that uh…"

Jordan held up a hand, "The less said about that, the better."

Ava nodded, understanding, "Well, I overheard her complaining about how she was getting fired, blaming you for it, and well, after what happened when I brought the baby to your room, I kind of… lost it. I punched her in the mouth."

Ava held up her hand to show Jordan the scars on the back of her fingers from Karen's teeth.

"Youch," Jordan winced, "Then what happened?"

"They fired me," Ava admitted, "Most hospitals have a zero tolerance policy, and it didn't help that I was on probation."

"So they fired you," Jordan said, "But how did you get to…" They trailed off, looking for the right words, but Ava jumped to it.

"Homeless, begging on a street corner and living out of a van? I don't know anyone out here, I have no family, I couldn't make rent on my apartment, and got evicted."

Ava told Jordan about what the last two weeks had looked like, how she refused to go to the women's shelter, hunting for, but not finding any jobs, but not mentioning her tentative plans to start camming for money.

"Ok. I need to make a quick call, can you just… sit tight? I promise you I'll drive you right after."

Ava nodded, eyeing the pizza box, "Yeah, no problem. Uh, can I…?"

Jordan flipped the box open and handed it to Ava, "Back in one sec."

Jordan turned their bluetooth off and called Alex.

"Come on, pick up, pick up…" Jordan pleaded, hoping that for once, Alex would have a free moment to answer.

"Hey love," Her voice called through the phone speaker, "What's up?"

"Hey baby," Jordan replied, suddenly feeling nervous, "Uh, I have… it's a big one, but I have a favor to ask?"

"Jordan, I thought we were past that, that's not how-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, not how a marriage works, I just ask. Ok. Do you remember Ava?"

"Ava… Ava… Oh, the nurse from… the nurse who brought Melody?"

"Yes, her," Jordan agreed, "Well, I just ran into her."

"I really hope you don't mean with your car."

"Ha ha ha, this is serious," Jordan deadpanned, "Just… She got fired for punching the bitch in the mouth after she brought Melody to us."

"She did what?" Alex asked, sounding impressed, "Dang, I wish I had been the one to do it. Give her an attagirl from me."

"Yeah. So when she lost her job, she got evicted. She's homeless."

"Oh. So when you say you ran into her…"

"She was on a median begging for cash."

"Ok. What are you asking?"

"I bought her a pizza and she's sitting down for what looks like the first time in a week. Alex. She needs help. I want to help her."

"Jordan…"

"I know, but she helped us. Without her calling out the bitch on her bullshit, we would have had to fight even harder to get our daughter."

"That's… what are you asking me sweetie?"

"I want to give her a place to stay."

Alex sat silently for a bit, so Jordan pressed ahead.

"We have an extra room, Melody doesn't sleep in the nursery yet, and it would only be for a while. Alex, Ava's pregnant, like, huge pregnant, and she's living out of a broken down minivan."

"Ok," Alex said, "Ok ok, you can bring her over for dinner, and she can spend the night, but we'll need to talk before anything else, ok?"

"You're the best Alex," Jordan said, "I'll see you when you get home."

"I know I said no favors, but you owe me a backrub."

"Backrubs lead to babies," Jordan shot back, an old inside joke between them, and kissed at the speaker, "Bye love."

hanging up the phone, Jordan returned to the minivan to find that Ava had finished the pizza off entirely.

"Sorry," She said, "I didn't realize how much I had eaten."

"It's perfectly fine," Jordan replied, "I already ate."

Ava looked nervously as Jordan pulled up to a quiet looking, well cared for house. It wasn't huge, and it wasn't in the bougie part of town, but it looked loved.

"Here we are," Jordan said, turning the engine off and getting out, "Need any help?"

Ava had grabbed a few things from her van when Jordan had finally convinced her to come over, and had spent the whole drive looking nervous and clutching her things tightly.

"I'm good."

Jordan nodded and began unbuckling their daughter and the few bags they had collected while shopping, "Alright, let's get in."

Ava followed Jordan inside and stood awkwardly as Jordan shrugged the bags onto the counter while balancing the car seat with the baby in it like they were born to the juggling act. She did end up stepping in to help put the car seat on the floor and helped Jordan put away the items that they had bought while out. When everything was put where it belongs, Jordan led Ava to an upstairs bathroom.

"Alright, if you want to take a shower, towels are in the closet in there, along with soap, and if you want, I can get a fresh razor. And I'll grab some of my old maternity clothes, hopefully they fit you well enough. You can just drop yours on the floor, and I'll get them laundered."

Ava couldn't bring herself to speak, just nodding at every extra bit of kindness that Jordan kept giving her. When Jordan left, Ava began stripping down, turning on the shower and stepping into the hot water. She flinched as it initially felt burning hot to the touch, but slowly got used to it, her muscles slowly easing and relaxing as the hot water soothed every part of her body.

"Ava, I'm leaving your new clothes and a razor by the vanity, and I'll take these to wash, ok?"

Ava nodded, then remembered that Jordan couldn't see her in the shower, so finally spoke, "Ok."

She heard Jordan hesitate at how her voice cracked, but the door closed once again with a click, and Ava couldn't help herself. She slowly sank to her knees, sobbing. It all felt like too much. For the first time in weeks, she was clean, she had enough food in her belly, she felt safe, she had someone offering her clean clothes, soap and a razor. She snaked her arm out of the shower to grab it and, with as much difficulty as she remembered, took care of her legs and crotch as well as she could. She didn't know how long she spent in the shower, but she cried at least two more times before she felt like she was ready to get out. stepping out, she found the pile of neatly folded clothes Jordan had left, and pulled them on. They were somewhat more masculine than what she normally wore, but they felt soft, were clean and fit well enough. She ran her fingers through her hair, doing her best to take out the tangled knots before leaving the bathroom.

Finally returning downstairs, she found that Jordan's wife, Alex, must have returned home, because she nearly ran into a young child who was running around.

"Tilly, we don't run in the house," A woman who Ava remembered as Alex called out as the child giggled and darted around Ava, vanishing up the stairs.

"I'm sorry about that," Alex said, giving Ava a thin smile, "So, Ava. How are you feeling?"

"Much," Ava began, her voice a bit strained and thin, so she cleared her throat and restarted, "Much better, thank you."

"Ava," Jordan said, making an appearance, "Looking much better. How are you feeling?"

Ava went for humor, but felt herself wince when it felt a little too true, "Human."

The conversation died a bit until Jordan cleared their throat, "Well, Dinner will be ready in a moment here. We're having a chicken fajita. Sound good?"

Ava thought about trying for humor, but decided against it, "Really, anything sounds good, thank you."

Jordan nodded, a smile back on their face, and turned to Alex, "If you want to get Tilly, she should wash up before dinner."

Alex nodded, giving her partner a kiss, and gesturing for Ava, "You can follow them."

The chicken fajita was one of the best meals Ava had ever eaten, partially because it was just that good, but she knew a part of it was that it was the first home cooked meal she'd had in a while.

"So you're having a baby like Nibi?" Tilly asked Ava during dinner.

"Nibi?" Ava asked Jordan and Alex, and Jordan raised their hand.

"That would be me," They explained.

Ava nodded understanding and turned back to Tilly, "Yeah, sometime soon."

Tilly nodded and went back to eating. Dinner was mostly made up of awkward small talk. Ava didn't really know Jordan and Alex, and they didn't really know her. After dinner, Alex took the baby and Tilly upstairs to start bedtime, and Jordan helped make up the couch.

"Sorry we don't really have a spare room ready, I hope this is ok."

Ava nodded, feeling her throat tighten up, "It'll be fine, great. It'll be great."

Jordan finished setting up the couch and looked at Ava, "Look. I just wanted to say, well, I wanted to say it on Melody's birthday, it wasn't your fault. However I was feeling at that point had nothing to do with you. And also… thank you for punching Karen in the jaw, that, well, hearing that made me feel a little better."

Ava flinched, "Yeah, I wish I hadn't done it though."

Jordan winced internally as they realized that they had stepped in it.

"Well, goodnight. I'll see you in the morning."

After making sure Ava was settled in, Jordan went upstairs to help with bedtime and, tired as any parent would be, went to bed, snuggling up next to Alex.

"Alex?" They asked after a while.

"Hmm?"

"I think I want to help Ava."

"We already are honey."

"No I mean… Look, after what happened, I can't let Melody sleep in another room," They gestured to the crib next to the bed, "And that kind of means the nursey is a bit of a waste of space."

"Jordan," Alex said, "I don't know. Again, we don't really know Ava."

"Other than that she basically had her life ruined by the same person who tried to take our daughter from us."

Alex didn't respond, looking ahead silently.

"Just… Just think on it, ok?" Jordan asked.

"Ok," Alex said, "I'll… I'll give you an answer in the morning."

Jordan kissed Alex on the nose, and they both went to sleep.

Deep Breath and Push

A Valiantremnant original

Pre story notes: So I was just going through saved drives of stuff from years ago (weird that I can apply 'years ago' to writing) and came across articles that I had saved with the idea of doing something with before I started posting the stuff I wrote. Nothing specific, but a lot of people talking about how making a woman in labor wear a face mask back in 2020 in the height of the pandemic was cruel. Well, as I was going through and re reading that and what I wrote all those years ago, I started reworking it, and a couple of days of overthinking the plot, I wound up with something that is a bit more than I had initially intended. As such, this is going to be the first of what I assume is going to be three parts. It's going to be a bit more sappy/emotional than the usual work, but I honestly enjoy the emotional payoff of what I have planned out. Another thing, writing coughing is harder than I thought it would be, so I tried to mix it up as I went, but it looked really unnatural, so I trimmed most of the extra styles of it out. Now that I've rambled a bit more than usual, I'll leave you with the final note of this part will have a birth in it, the next part probably won't, but the third part should. (Unless I make it a four parter, yada yada yada…)

CW/Ingredients List - Hospital birth, obstetric abuse, homophobia, intentional misgendering, religious trauma-ish stuff, and IDK if it's necessary, but I'm putting a content warning on here for Covid related stuff.

~

"Just hold on honey," Alex said as she risked driving through a red light. "Please… hurry," Jordan rasped as they tried to pant through a contraction. Tried being the keyword. Jordan had tested positive for covid a week ago, and they and Alex had hoped that the worst of it would be over by the time labor started. They'd been unable to get a decent breath for several days now. Even for someone not pregnant, it would have been difficult. For someone who was pregnant, it was even worse. For someone who was not just pregnant, but was also in labor? "I wanna die…" Jordan wheezed as Alex pulled into the parking lot, getting a space as close to the door as she could. "You don't want to die love," Alex said, squeezing Jordan's hand, "I'll be right back with a wheelchair, ok? Right back."

Alex leapt out of the car and ran to the front door. Jordan knew that Alex didn't want to bring them here. Jordan also didn't want to have their baby at the hospital, but Alex had other reasons. She had gone through a horrifyingly traumatic birth while having her daughter Kellen own long before the two had met. As a result, Jordan had wanted a home birth, and they had been looking forward to the experience. But it had only taken one. They had just wanted a frozen salisbury steak meal. So despite the lockdown and everything, they had gone to their local Walmart and had braved it's strange and eerily quiet aisles to get their lunch, pay for it and leave. Only to have an aggressive, anti-masking lunatic cough on her while they were in line. They'd jumped back, and dropped their steaks and ran, frantically wiping themself down with hand sanitizer and showering when they got home, praying it would be enough. They still had Alex and Kellen stay away to keep them safe. But a few days later, once again, Jordan found themself looking at a little plastic stick with a plus on it, only this time with bad news on it.

While their midwife wasn't the first person Jordan and Alex called, she had been close to the top of the list. "Have you gotten a professional test done?" "I got swabbed today," Jordan replied, rubbing vicks onto their chest, "I should know in a couple of days." "Any symptoms?" "I'll-" Jordon broke off coughing, her whole body flinching and shuddering with each breath, until she was limp and left panting, desperate for more air than she could find, "I'll give you a wild guess." "I'm sorry," The midwife said, taking Jordan's snark in stride, "I know that covid can really suck." "Yeah," Jordan rasped, taking a drink of water, hissing through their teeth as they swallowed. "And… I'm sorry for this too. I don't think you're a good candidate for a homebirth anymore." "WHAT!" Jordan yelped, breaking off into a coughing fit, "What do you mean?" "Jordan, I need you to listen to me. I can't attend your birth anymore, I have other mothers who I can't risk exposing to covid. Some of them are immunocompromised. And while you might be over the worst of it before you go into labor… well, I can hear just how hard you're working to breathe just talking to me. If you went into labor now, I would feel much better if an oxygen mask were available to you." Jordan sat silent for a moment, not knowing how to answer. "Jordan, listen, I know you don't like it when I sugar coat things, so I haven't. Right now, giving birth at home is not a good option for you." "I… I hear you," Jordan said, closing their eyes, "I just… I don't… I had a plan." "I know," The midwife said, sympathy clear in their voice, "But sometimes plans can adapt. You should be able to do most of your plan in the hospital. They'll be wanting to keep contact tot a minimum there, so unless you need help, you should be left more or less alone." "Ok," Jordan relented, "I just… Ok."

After hanging up, Jordan had broken the news to Alex, trying not to cry the whole time. "Stupid hormones," Jordan growled angrily, "It's stupid! It's not that big of a deal." "No, it is," Alex said, sitting at the other end of the bed, "This was your plan, and now we have to change it." Jordan shook their head. They were worried, but they knew Alex's spiral that was about to happen. "Alex?" "And now you have to go to a hospital, and how knows what will happen there!" "Alex." "And with the lockdown rules, will I even be able to be there for you? What if-" "Alex!" Jordan shouted, starting a heavy coughing fit, "Alex… I will be fine. It'll work out."

"At least here I can get an epidural," Jordan groaned as Alex wheeled them through the front door. "At least that's an option," Alex agreed, "I'm not jealous, but…" "I know baby," Jordan said, taking the time between contractions to soothe their partner, and adjust their mask. "Still hanging in there?" Alex asked as they approached the front desk. "So far… Ow!" Alex wheeled them up to the front desk and started the check in process while Jordan tried to breathe. Not just through the contraction, but in general. It was all they could focus on doing. Rasping breath in, wheezing breath out. Rasp in. Wheeze out. Rasp in… "What? No, We're not doing that!" Jordan snapped their eyes open and looked up. "I'm sorry, but if she's tested positive for covid, they'll need to transfer to the C Ward and deliver there. It's hospital policy right now." "THEY," Alex growled out, "Are not going into anything but a standard labor room, with a birthing tub like they have in their birth plan." "Listen, I get it, but I can't break the rules here." "Alex?" Jordan asked, feeling nervous. Alex crouched down, "Don't worry, I'll…" "What's going on?" "He wants to put in some sort of… quarantine to labor in! I won't-" "Hnnnngggg OW!" Jordan gasped out, clutching at their belly and feeling their throat tighten as they tried to catch a breath. "I get it," The man at the receptionist desk said, "I really do. I'm guessing you were planning on a homebirth and got sent here last minute because of covid? I feel for you. But here's the thing, she ain't the only one who's been here like this." "Alex, please," Jordan gasped out, struggling more than before with just recovering from it, "Can we get to a room?" Alex looked like she was breaking in half and turned to look at the receptionist, "Where do we go?"

Jordan struggled to keep their breathing as even as they could while Alex wheeled them to the nearby elevator and went up to the maternity floor. When they arrived, instead of following the signs to the labor and deliver ward, they followed a set of signs that were marked C ward. "I'm so sorry," Alex kept repeating as she pushed Jordan, "I'm so sorry." Jordan, who knew that Alex was apologizing for pushing them towards a hospital birth, towards certain doom and horror, reached a hand up to reassure their wife, "It's not your fault," They said, "It'll be fine. You'll be with me and -augnnnnnnnhhhhhhh" Alex squeezed Jordan's hand as they lost their breath to the contraction, but didn't stop pushing until they reached a set of double doors with signs informing them that they had reached the C ward. "No visitors allowed?" Alex muttered, but shrugged, "Makes sense, must be a covid thing. Ah, press for nurse to enter." Alex pressed the button and after a minute or two, with Jordan having another contraction in the meantime, a nurse arrived. She strode briskly up to the door and pressed a button that let it slid open. "Hello, and who do we have here?" "Jordannnnnnnnhghhhhhhoooooohhh," Jordan groaned out as they shifted uncomfortably through another contraction. "Oh, that sounded painful mama," The nurse said. Jordan felt uncomfortable with the comment, but was struggling too much with the contraction to handle it. Alex on the other hand bristled. "Jordan isn't a 'mama'," She said, "Please don't refer to them like that." The nurse blinked in surprise, "Oh, Alright. Well, I'm afraid that there are no visitors, so you'll have to wait there." The nurse pointed at a collection of chairs nearby, many of the seats occupied with people who seemed to be waiting. "Oh, I'm not a visitor, I'm their wife." "Wife?" The nurse asked, one eyebrow arching, "Ok. Well, I'm afraid that goes for you too. Only mothers in the C ward for quarantine purposes." "Listen nurse… Karen? Are you for real right now?" "I'm sorry," Karen replied, stepping forward and taking the wheelchair, "But you'll have to remain out here with the rest of the visitors and friends." "No, what are- Jordan!" Alex called as Karen took the wheelchair and began pushing it inside.

Jordan tried to call out, but was still trying to get their breath back from the last contraction. "Now then," Karen said, "Let's get you to a bed then, alright?" "Can… can my wife come with? Please!" "No, no husbands, and no friends are allowed in," Karen replied. Something about the way she seemed to callously refused to respond to them calling Alex their wife sent a chill down Jordan's spine. Jordan turned to look at Karen as best as they could, stopping when the twisting motion sent little stabs of agony zinging up and down their belly. But what they saw seemed to confirm some of what they were thinking. Karen had a look that seemed equal parts smug and haughty. Not the concerned sympathy they would have expected someone working in a labor ward to be wearing. Or even the cautious excitement of someone about to watch a baby be born. The expression seemed self satisfied. Jordan would have thought they were just imagining it when they noticed something else. They had never worked as a nurse, and had very few friends in the medical field at all. But they knew that necklaces were not supposed to be worn while on duty as a safety thing. But sitting proudly around Karen's neck was a large, shining pendant in the shape of a cross. Jordan knew that not every Christian was openly hostile towards the LGBT community. In fact, in the area where they lived, it was a very small population of people who bore that level out outright resentment at all. But Jordan had typically found that any time someone was that level of homophobic, that someone was usually Christian to the point of wearing religious jewelry.

Alex paced in front of the door for a while before her nerves couldn't take it anymore, and she retreated to the waiting chairs. "First time?" One of the other occupants asked. Alex grimaced and shrugged, "First time for them. First time for me doing the waiting." "Well, as someone who's had to wait before, you'll be alright." Alex smiled thinly at the man, who nodded back. Sighing, Alex leaned forward, resting her forehead on her knees, and realized she was still holding the hospital bag. "Oh shit, I need to get this to her!" Alex cried out, jumping up. "I'm afraid that isn't going to be possible," A new voice said, making Alex turn. A different nurse had come out and was giving some news to one of the other waiting parents. "What do you mean?" "Well, the C ward isn't exactly spacious enough for much more than essential equipment and personnel, but you can bring it with you to the recovery ward after." "Recovery… ok, ok," Alex said, sitting back down, and letting out a puff of air. Having both given birth and now going through the waiting, she knew which she preferred. At least with giving birth, she wasn't just sitting there waiting for something to happen.

Jordan was pushed into what she assumed was the triage room for the C ward. Dozens of what looked like recovery areas were sectioned off by curtains. As they were wheeled past bed after bed, they felt their chest grow cold with anxiety as they saw beds occupied with laboring women. Each one alone, each one gasping for breath and wearing a face mask. "What is this place?" Jordan rasped out, their voice raw from coughing. "C ward," Karen replied, "It's where laboring women with covid go to labor, such as yourself." "Not-HNNNG!" Jordan began as they were hit with another contraction, "Not a woman!" Karen clicked her tongue as she wheeled Jordan towards a curtained off alcove, whisking the curtain aside to reveal an empty bed, "Well, you're here, and you're in labor, so what else could you be? Come on mom, up we go." Karen's sudden movements to lift Jordan out of the wheelchair and into the bed were so quick, they didn't have time to protest, the verbal jabs beginning to make them more and more uncomfortable. "I'll leave you a moment to change into the gown," Karen said, indicating the thin blue garment draped over the bed, "You can have the curtain closed for that, but then we'll need to keep it open for monitoring." "But… AHHhnnnnn….. What about… privacy?" Karen shook her head, "Sorry mama, but we only have one doctor and two nurses here, we need to be able to do visual checks on a moment's notice. Once you're changed, the curtains stay open."

Jordan knew they shouldn't waste the effort it took to cry with covid still gripping their lungs, but it was all so much they couldn't help but do just that. When they envisioned giving birth, it was at home, with a midwife, with Alex, with people who knew that they were not a woman, were not 'mama'. Where they had privacy, and quiet. Here, all they could hear was the beeping of dozens of monitors, the mechanical rasps of ventilators, the coughing, screams and sobs of their fellow patients in labor all around them, a nurse who seemed determined to erase their identity, and a doctor who they hadn't yet met who would deliver their baby. "I can't…" Jordan sobbed, breaking, "I can't do this…" But they had no choice. Sobbing harder, they began stripping down, taking everything off until the only article of their own clothing was the sports bra they had begun using in place of their usual binder. Looking down, Jordan couldn't help but gasp out another choked sob. They had managed to keep their dysphoria about pregnancy under control for the last nine months. More or less. There was always the odd person who commented on their body which would send them into a spiral, but Alex was always able to pull them out of it. "I can't," Jordan sobbed again, gripping their breasts and pressing on them, trying to squash them out of existence. The extra pressure on their chest started a coughing fit, strong enough that they leaned over the bed, making the plastic sheets crinkle like a cheap tablecloth. They coughed until their vision spotted with the effort, the violent explosions from their lungs only lessening slightly when yet another contraction forced them to their knees.

"Alright, all gowned up," Karen said as she returned and began hauling Jorden to their feet, "Let's get you looked at mom, ok?" "Can…you…stop…calling…me…that," Jordan huffed out as they clawed their way into the bed. "Ah, you want to wait for the big moment, I understand ma'am." Jordan wanted to respond, but before they could, Karen had gloved up and had settled between their legs. "What, what are you-OHhhhhhhhhnnnnngggggaaaaaahhhh!" "Just checking your dilation dear… Oh my, already at eight centimeters. You'll be a mama in no time." "Please, just… I'm not a mama… or a mother… or mom. I'm Jordan. I use they and them, and-" "Ma'am," Karen cut Jordan off, "We can't pander to that sort of pretend here, it's dangerous and slows us down, and quite frankly, you shouldn't be playing that sort of pretend game when you're about to have a baby. Are you going to force them to do that too?" "See?" Jordan gasped, "You can use 'them' too." Karen's mouth twitched and she checked the clipboard, "I'll be checking in on you, the doctor will come over when it's time to push unless someone else needs him more urgently. Please stay here to not disturb any of the other patients."

Jordan laid in bed for a while after Karen left, breathing deep and trying not to let what she said bother them too badly. It barely helped, as the sounds of coughing fits and moaning through contractions, both their own and others, distracted them. Jordan looked for their phone. If nothing else, they could talk to Alex over the phone… Only for Jordan to moan in despair and fall back on the bed. Their phone was in the hospital bag, and in all the commotion, they had left the bag with Alex. "Excuse me," Jordan asked the nurse, a different one, who came to check on them, "Can I get my bag brought to me? I left it with my wife, and, Ouwgh…..hooooooooooooouuuuughhh." The nurse looked sympathetically at Jordan, "I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to leave the ward unless we're transferring a patient in or out." But on the plus side, it looks like you waited a good long while before coming in, you're nearly eight centimeters dilated!" Jordan groaned through the contraction while the nurse checked a few other things. "I don't like where your oxygen levels are at. Ok, sit back in the bed now, we're moving." THe nurse unlocked the wheels on Jordan's bed and began rolling her. "Where are we going?" "We're just moving you to get some oxygen for a little bit, try to get your levels back up." "Why not…. OW! Owowowowowowwwww…" "Unfortunately, we don't have enough to go around right now, so we'll put you on one for now, and once you've gotten a bit better, we'll cycle you out for someone else."

Jordan stayed at the oxygen hub for about an hour. The whole time was spent trying to breathe deeply, coughing into the plastic mask and just feeling miserable. They could tell that they weren't the only one. At the other stations in the area, they could see several other patients, all laboring with similar expressions of misery beyond that of just labor pains. Jordan was just starting to feel a bit stronger when Karen arrived, going over everyone's oxygen levels. "Alright mama, you still have some time here… You aren't looking like you're ready to move off… Alright miss, you're looking alright," Karen said, looking at Jordan's levels. "Can… can you please stop that?" Jordan asked, feeling a bit more able to deal with the constant needling, and feeling supported by just having others near enough to hear it. "Oh, let's not fuss over a little thing like that. Come on, this spot is needed for someone else now," Karen said, unhooking the mask from the machine and pushing Jordan's bed back to their curtained off area from earlier, "And le'ts check that dilation, sound good mom?" "Stop it," Jordan said, "I am not mom, or mama, or miss. I am not a woman! I-KHHHHHHKHHHKHHHHHH!" Jordan's protest cut off as they had a major coughing fit, Karen standing at the end of the bed, with an unamused expression poking over her mask, pulling her gloves on and just diving in to check their dilation. "Well, everything I'm feeling down here tells me that you are a woman, so I won't be putting up with anymore of that nonsense. You can have your delusions out there, but not in my ward." "Khhhkhhhhhhhuukkkk…. Your ward?" Jordan asked, feeling the need to snipe back, before gritting their teeth and pressing flat into the bed as Karen jabbed deeper into their vagina, a contraction building at the same time. "Hmm. Nine centtmeters. It should be soon," Karen said, pulling her hand out mid contraction, the motion feeling like a hot iron being ripped out. Jordan jerked their hips away, crying out and rolling to the side, pressing a hand to their aching vagina, hating the reflexive action. "And I bet you feel like a woman to yourself too," Karen muttered, stripping off the gloves and dropping them in the trash, "I'll be back to check on you later." "Nooooo," Jordan moaned, too pained and suddenly exhausted to properly protest her inevitable return.

Jordan spent the next hour trying to get comfortable, either mentally or physically, they didn't care which. Between the anxiety of dealing with Karen and the hyperventilating it caused, and the newfound pressure building in their hips made worse by their constant coughing, they were teetering on the brink of a breakdown. "Oh god, oh hukkkkhkkkhkkkkkkHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They coughed and groaned, rubbing their belly and trying not to cry. They knew that birth was always different than what anyone ever planned for, but never in their worst dreams did they imagine anything this upsetting. They wanted to get up to relieve the pressure on their back, but doing so put so much pressure on their vagina, that they were always forced to lie back down. Jordan hated that they were now thinking about their body in those terms now too, their vagina aching from Karen's rough treatment during the last check. "I'm sorry Alex, I'm sorry," They panted, thinking back to a few months ago. Alex had insisted that Jordan take some childbirth classes, or at least do some research online with her, but Jordan had waved the ideas off. Everything was tailored for women, not enbies. The language referring to them as mom or mother, or goddess in some of the more spiritual based ones made her so tense with discomfort that it physically hurt. "You'll get me through it when it's time." But now Alex wasn't here. But the baby almost was.

Jordan began pressing their legs together and shrinking back into the bed as best as they could when Karen walked in an hour later. The pressure had gotten so bad that on a few occasions, Jordan had caught themself pushing, small, almost invisible efforts that did little to soothe the pressure. Jordan did their best to make themselves as small as possible in the bed while Karen silently pulled on her gloves, the pressure getting worse as their hips ground against something while they tried to close their legs. "Come on now mama," Karen said, snapping a glove on and positioning herself at the end of the bed, "I can't check you if your legs are closed." "That's the idea…" Jordan grunted as they struggled through another contraction. They held out as Karen pulled the second glove on began removing the blanket coverings their legs, but as Jordan strained to keep everything tight, they started coughing, their whole body convulsing with the violent hacking rasps. "OW-KUUUUHHHHH! NO, STO-KUUUUUKUHHHKUHH! OWWW!" They screamed as the pressure surging from the coughs forced their legs open and Karen darted in, her hand finding their vagina easily and shoving inside. "AAAAAAUGHHHHHHKHHHHUHHHKKKK! S-STOP! OH GOD GET OUT!" Karen's hand dug forward, each millimeter feeling like she was dragging her nails against the sensitive tissue, the passage fighting her the whole way while Jordan's body still contracted.

Jordan writhed and coughed through the entire check, their eyes unable to see as they filled with tears at the pain. they barely heard Karen as she pulled her hand out almost as roughly as she had pushed in. "Fully dilated. I'll go inform the doctor," Karen said, "Try not to push until someone gets back here, ok mama?" Before Jordan could respond, Karen turned and strode out of the curtained off area. Jordan groaned, their legs shaking as they closed them, their vagina aching and stinging from Karen's harsh treatment. But even worse than that, possibly because Karen had said not to, the urge to push was getting worse. All Jordan could think about was how badly they needed to just leg go. Clenching their teeth, Jordan hissed in and out, knees shaking as they tried not to. They were fully dilated, the doctor would be along soon, the baby would come out, and they could get back to Alex. "I…I can do this," Jordan strained out through clenched teeth, "I can do this…"

After what seemed like an eternity, the curtain rustled as Karen returned. "The doctor is busy with a more complicated delivery, She said, "I'll be taking care of you until he finishes up." "No, nonononooooooooOOOOOOOOGGGGHHHHHHHHH AHukkkkkkhhhhhhkhkhkkh" Jordan protested, their words drawing out into groans and coughs as another contraction brought a renewed surge in pressure. Jordan's legs trembled as they struggled to keep them closed, to keep themself safe from Karen's rough treatment. "Oh don't be so worried, I've delivered babies with hundreds of women, and you will be no different." "I… am…. Not… a woman," Jordan bit out as they tried to breathe. "Oh, leave the make believe out of this, you don't have the energy to keep it up now. Now let's get things going, shall we?" Karen set about transforming the bed into it's delivery mode, the bottom third dropping down and out of the way, stirrups being slotted into brackets and Jordan felt their legs being lifted and dropped in. "Can… can you get someone else? I don'tttttttttchhhhhhhuaaarrrgh!" Karen shook her head as she finished her preparations and began pulling a fresh pair of gloves on, "None of that now, it's time to push." With that, Karen got on a stool she had placed at the end of the bed and dug her fingers into Jordan once again. "Now, deep breath and push!"

Jordan felt like there was no progress. Between the stress and the coughing, they felt too tense to push properly, and every attempt just made the pressure worse. "Right down here mama, push my fingers out." "TSSSssssskuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhkhkkkkkhukhukkkk Ow ow ow……" Jordan coughed out, trying their best to do just that. Jordan didn't like people touching them all that much, and while they didn't know much about hospital births, they were pretty certain that having fingers in their vagina the entire time while pushing wasn't normal. It hurt, it was distracting, and worst of all, it felt malicious. Something about the way Karen was doing it almost seemed like she was trying to tell Jordan 'You are a woman. This down here is what makes you a woman.' Not matter how hard Jordan tried to get those thoughts out of their head, they just couldn't shake them. Taking as deep of a breath as they could, Jordan pushed again, clenching their teeth, their neck and head trembling from the effort. "Good job mama, see, that's a good push, that's what you were made to do," Karen crooned, making Jordan shudder, loosing the push. "You… need… stop calling me a mother, I am not a motherrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAGGGGGHGHH!"

Jordan arched their back and forced it flat against the bed as another contraction came right on the heels of the last, pushing as hard as they could with it. Karen dug her fingers in like a tick and pressed down, but Jordan barely felt it. What they felt instead was something huge descending. Karen began saying something, but Jordan couldn't hear her over their coughing that the sudden shift in their body caused. By the time the coughing had cleared, Karen was looking expectantly at Jordan. "Wh..what?" "I can see the head when you cough, so we're getting close. Now I don't want you to tear, so I'll help slow the baby down when it starts crowning." Jordan paled. They had been so worked up about the pressure, they had forgotten about crowning. The ring of fire. They tried to shift, to close their legs a bit, but each attempted movement sent jabs of pain into their hips and back, making them cry out and cough more. Before they knew it, they were pushing along with another contraction. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god make it stoooppp," Jordan begged, hating the feeling of the head driving down. They could feel every last fraction of an inch as it moved down, stretching and pushing, filling the space between their hips and going further down. They'd heard that pushing helped with the pressure, made it more bearable, but it did anything but that. "Please, please stop, please pull it out," Jordan gasped between pushes, "I can't, I can't…" "You were made for this," Karen said, an edge of frustration in her voice, "You need to push now."

Jordan kept pushing, their groans and coughing turning into raw, ragged screams as the head began to get low enough to be seen, the massive size of it stretching their lips wider and wider. "Ok Jordan, you're nearly crowning, this is where I help you, ok mama?" "STOOOOOPPPPPPHHHHHAAAAAARRRRGGGGGH!" Jordan screamed, the protest turning into a convulsion as they tried to scream, push and cough all at once. The head seemed to throb inside of them, making their lips burn with each miniscule movement in and out. Desperate to make it stop, Jordan pushed, trying to get it out. But something seemed to hold it back. Jordan looked down to see Karen holding her arms between their legs, but couldn't see anything past their belly. "What.. why? What's happening?" "I'm slowing it down so you don't tear sweetie," Karen said, sounding innocent, "Just standard procedure." "Let it out, stop! Let me PUUUUUSSSSHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAGHK!" Jordan began coughing again, screaming as each cough sent surges of pressure through them. It felt like they were about to blow apart. And with a desperate final push, Jordan gasped and fell limp on the bed as they felt themselves stretch just a little bit more and a popping sensation that was followed by a gush of fluids. "There's the head mama!" Karen said, "Thank you god, oh good job!" Jordan wanted to cry. They were so close to meeting their baby, but all they could think about was how they wanted anyone but this nurse delivering. Anyone. With a final exhausted push, Jordan felt the baby slip and tumble out of them, the pressure seeming to drain away, making them cough and shake as they head the baby crying. "Give…give me my baby," Jordan said as they struggled to pull themself together. "I'm sorry," Karen said, their voice getting eerily calm, "But I thought you said you weren't the mother." "What? No, give me my baby… what are you doing, stop!" Jordan watched in horror as Karen took the last part of their birth plan away from them, cutting the cord.

Alex was biting her nails in the waiting room when she heard the door to the C ward hissing open. Looking up, they did a double take as she saw Jordan, looking half dead being wheeled out, sobbing incoherently, their eyes seeming to roam without focusing on anything. "Jordan! Jordan, what happened?" "I'm sorry, I KUUUUHUUUUKKKUUUHHUUHH, I fell! I'm sorry!" "You fell, what, what happened? Where's the baby?" "She took them," Jordan wailed, gripping Alex, their eyes fixing on her, "She took the baby!" "What?" Alex asked as she walked alongside the bed, "What do you mean?" It took a while before Alex could get the story. The nurse who had wheeled Jordan out didn't seem to know what was happening, but promised to look into it. It took Jordan almost twenty minutes before they could catch enough of their breath to explain. The nurse, Karen, had claimed that she couldn't release the baby to anyone but the baby's mother, which Jordan had 'repeatedly denied being', in her words. So the baby was in the nursery, and without a matching band, neither Jordan nor Alex could go to see them. "I don't even know if it's a boy or girl…" Jordan sobbed. Alex was frozen in pure fury. She had known that something bad would happen. It had happened to her when she had given birth, and it was happening again. Alex grabbed the bed remote and pressed the call button. "Yes?" The nurse asked, sounding concerned and hesitant. "I want our baby brought to us, and I'd like to speak with the charge nurse."

It turned out that Karen was the charge nurse, as she explained while bringing in a small bundle. "I'm told that you wanted to see me?" Karen said with something hiding under her tone that made the otherwise pleasant looking woman seem vicious. "We want our baby," Alex said, "Give them to us." Karen's face twitched slightly as she made a show of looking around the room, "I can't just release the baby to anyone but the mother or father. Jordan has repeatedly claimed to not be the mother, if the father around?" "I am Jordan's wife, and the baby's mother, I-" "Wife? No, that's not how that works," Karen said, "Not at all. I'm sorry, but if the parents aren't here, I'll be taking this little one back to the nursery." "Please, bring… I want my baby," Jordan sobbed, trying to get up, groaning in pain as they tried, prompting Alex to rush to them. At the sound of Jordan's voice, the baby began making snuffling noises and crying, and Jordan cried harder hearing it. Before anyone could say anything else, Karen left the room, taking the baby with her, Jordan collapsing and sobbing against Alex. Alex looked frantically between Jordan and the door, her partner, and the direction of their baby, feeling like she was being torn in two. "One second Jordan, ok? Give me one second." "Don't leave me," Jordan begged, still crying and coughing. "I won't," Alex replied, pulling her phone out of her pocket and calling a number she had saved, "Hey, Veronica? I need help at Sunhead hospital. I'll need one of our lawyers and probably one of our advocates. I… I can't be in two places at once. Ok, thanks."

It was only a half hour before Alex's backup arrived, but it felt like an eternity. "Thank you so much," She said, "I just… I can't be in two places at once." "You said that," Adam, Alex's friend, and a lawyer with their advocacy group replied, "Why don't you fill me in?" Alex looked at Jordan, who was curled on their side, still crying, "Jordan, I'll be right back, ok?" Jordan made no sign that they heard Alex. Alex bit her lip, trying not to cry herself, and stepped into the hallway with Adam. "Ok, here's what's been going on," Alex began, and started telling Adam everything.

Karen knew she should have gone back to the C ward. But she knew that this was more important. She had to keep this baby safe from those two heathens who wanted to take her and corrupt her. "Don't worry love," She said, looking down at the baby she was supposedly taking back tot he nursery, "I have you. I'll take care of you." She knew that in order to do this, she would have to take drastic action. She started by swinging by the nurses station at the other end of the maternity wing. "You, come here," She said, and the young nurse, a woman who's nametag read 'Ava' set down her clipboard and waddled over. Karen could see the large swell of her belly as she came to a stop and leaned on the counter to take the weight off of her back, "Yeah, what's up?" Karen bristled, not liking the casual tone, but decided to hold off on the retort. She had more important matters to deal with. "The mother in room 4145 says she's not the mother of this baby." "Is there a mistake with the band, or…" "No, nothing like that. I don't think she wants this sweet baby girl. I'd like you to start the paperwork for infant surrender." Ava started, wincing as the sudden motion seemed to strain her back, "Uh. I don't-" Karen cut her off, "I'm the senior charge nurse. Just do it."

"…And that's when she took the baby out and away from us," Alex finished telling the story to Adam. "Ok," Adam said, and finished jotting notes down, "Have you or Jordan signed anything?" "No, nothing like that," Alex said, "I think it just boils down to that really shit level of homophobia where they think that babies need to be raised in a nuclear household. Like most of our cases in Mississippi or Tennessee." "Oh, so prejudice. Well, if they haven't done any official steps to keep separation, it would suggest that this nurse Karen is acting alone, and the hospital is probably fully unaware of what's been happening. I'll need to interview Jordan as soon as they-" "GET OUT!" Jordan's voice screamed from the hospital room. Alex blanched and bolted down the hallway until she was in the room, looking at a heavily pregnant nurse looking shocked, and Jordan coughing and screaming and crying all at once. "I don't, I'm sorry, but I was told," The nurse stammered, holding a clipboard with a few pages and a pen. "Jordan, what is it?" Alex asked, climbing onto the bed and curling around their partner, Jordan gripping onto her for dear life. "They want to steal my baby," Jordan wailed. Alex looked up with a furious look, and Adam turned to the nurse. "I'm Adam Fischer, I am Alex and Jordan Garcia's lawyer. May I?" The nurse looked visibly startled at hearing that there was a lawyer involved, and mutely handed the documents over. "Thank you… Ah, Ava," Adam said, reading the nametag, and began looking over the paperwork, "This is a document for surrendering an infant to the hospital to be placed in the foster system. These are only supposed to be brought on request."

Ava began trembling as Adam looked at her. "I want my baby," Jordan wailed, and Adam glanced at them before looking back at Ava. "Sounds to me like that isn't the case. May I ask why this was brought here?" "Th-the charge nurse t-told me to b-bring it here," Ava stammered, holding a hand to her belly and looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. "Who is the charge nurse," Alex asked, glaring daggers at Ava, who, upon seeing the furious look on her face began trembling more. "I-I-I-I-I," Ava stammered, looking like she was about to cry. "Alex, take care of Jordan," Adam said, "You called me to handle this. Let me handle this." Once Adam calmed Ava down, he got the name. Karen had sent the paperwork in. Adam was starting to want to meet Karen when he heard this, but decided that he should see the baby first. Ava led him to the nursery to get a nasty surprise. "What do you mean the baby isn't here?" Ava asked the nurse monitoring the rows of newborns. "There isn't anyone with a band for 4145," The nurse replied, "I don't know what to tell you. Is this a code pink?" Ava hesitated, then nodded, "I think so. No matter what's going on, there's a missing baby."

Karen had just stepped outside and was making her way around the side of the building to the emergency room when her pager went off. Muttering, she hurried to her destination before she checked it. Newly added to the outside of the emergency room was a Safe Haven box, her way to keep the baby out of the hands of those two. She opened the door and placed the baby in, closing it and moving quickly back to the side door she had propped open to re-enter. Looking at her pager, she swore under her breath. "Ungrateful little bitch," She snarled as she read the words 'code pink' scanning across the screen. Clearing it, she ran down the service hallway and entered the emergency room to find a commotion as the baby was removed from the Safe Haven box and was being examined. Nodding in satisfaction, Karen moved to talk with the social work department. She could think of no one better to raise the baby than herself. Her own son had recently moved out, and she had been feeling lonely. While she didn't want to give birth again, she would absolutely raise this new lost soul.

"Who called for the code pink?" The hospital administrator, a stern looking woman named June asked as she entered the room. "I did," Ava admitted, "I-" "Did you bring this up with your charge nurse?" June asked, but Adam stepped in. "That is part of the problem Administrator June. We don't know where the charge nurse is, and she is the one who has been causing my clients problems." June recognized the tone of voice instantly and realized that Adam was a lawyer. "I see. Ava, who is your charge nurse?" "Karen Lowe," Ava replied, and June pulled out her phone and dialed a number into it. "Security? I need a building lockdown, and I need someone to go over the security footage for the last hour for this floor."

It didn't take long to track down where the baby had gone, and to bring Karen in for questioning. While that was being handled, June and Ava went to find the baby in the emergency room. "Thank god she's alright," Ava said as she found the baby being fed by one of the ER staff. "Yeah, she was just dropped off, I was just feeding her before-" "She was removed from the building without permission," June interrupted, "Was she hurt in anyway?" "No, no, she was in perfect health." June closed her eyes and sighed in relief, "Alright. Was a blood sample taken?" "Yep, just sent to the lab." "Call and see if they can have it matched to Jordan Garcia, they're a patient with us. Until then, Ava, I would like you to return her to the Garcias. I need to put out a few fires." Ava nodded and grabbed a bassinet to bring the girl back to where she belonged.

"Hey," A soft voice called out as Ava came in, wheeling in the bassinet in with the baby in it, "Here you are…" "Oh god," Jordan sobbed, wanting to get up, but feeling too drained to do more than sit up, "My baby!" Ava parked the bassinet and picked the baby up, bringing the small bundle to Jordan, who began shrugging out of their gown to finally do skin to skin like they had planned. The baby, dressed in soft clothes, no the ones they and Alex had brought, but the hospital had provided, whimpered and squirmed as Jordan adjusted to holding them for the first time. As they did, the baby woke up and began snuffling. "Oh, ok baby, hold on," Jordan said, guiding a breast to the baby. They had been aching for hours now, seeming to fill with milk, only to just feel tight, hot and swollen, making all of the comments from Karen feel more pointed. The baby moved their mouth around, but didn't latch, just yawning and falling back asleep. "Come on baby…" They begged, hoping to get at least this, hoping to get this one part of first bonding after birth. "Oh, she was just fed, so she might not be hungry right now," Ava said, as she signed something and stepped back.

James Bound

A Valiantremnant original

Pre story notes: No, this is not a James Bond story, although it is sort of a spy novel. In the aspect that there is a spy in it. Lemme back up. We all know the 80s spy movie formula, roguish spy, man of action, total ladies' man, punches the bad guy in the face, disables the world destroying laser, and saves the girl the bad guy captured, and escapes the evil island on a helicopter with explosions in the background, and then title screen with a lot of brass and bass in the theme song. You know the type. Well, this idea got crossed with a few other ideas I had been mixing around and around in my head. Now, I'm not going to be writing the spy aspect of this as such. Not really what I wanted anyway. What those movies and shows never focus on is the captured woman, the damsel in distress, placed in a horrifying trap, forcing the hero to choose between saving the world and saving her. So I decided to have fun there. And yes, the shoes are based off of Hannibal Chau's shoes. This is also the longest story I've written in one piece so far, so enjoy!

CW/Ingredients List - General peril, laboring and giving birth while restrained, kidnapping, birth denial, (attempted,) and to top it all off, this is going to be campy. Like really cliched and over the top. So expect campy over the top bond villain violence and stuff.

~

Hadley James woke up slowly. Her head hurt, and she could feel part of her head pounding harder than the rest of it. She remembered… Hadley remembered returning home from work, her last day as the main weapon technician at GSS, or Global Spy Service. She remembered getting to her apartment… Hadley jerked and tried to sit up, only to feel a rope bite hard into her shoulder, making her cry out. "She's awake, Hacklin," A thin, high voice commented somewhere behind her. "Who cares," A deeper voice responded, "She's hooded, and we're almost there. And besides, She's maybe five foot nothing? Even pregnant, she don't have enough weight to do anything." "I don't know," The first voice said, "I should put her back under." "No you ain't. I know you can't fight anything but a scared child you twiggy halfwit, but she ain't gonna put up a fight worth fighting, and the boss will want to get her secured as fast as possible. And he can't do that if she's unconscious." "I don't know," The first speaker said again. "You don't know nothin'" The second voice grunted, "Now shut up. We're here."

A loud hum that Hadley had barely been aware of began to lower in pitch until it became a churning rumble, and the motion that she had assumed was her head spinning had changed. Hadley had never wanted to be a field agent, but she had been involved with setting up the in house tests for field agents. And dating one of them, against all regulations, had meant that she picked up on a few tricks. Not in escaping or fighting, but at least in identifying her surroundings. She could hear waves crashing. Between that, the motion and the humming, which was definitely an engine meant a boat. Something that could move fast. And based on the rocking, something somewhat small. She cracked open her eyes and winced as bright lances of sunshine bored through the weave holes in a burlap sack that had been fixed over her head. Running her tongue over her mouth, she could tell she wasn't gagged or anything like that. Moving her arms slowly, she could tell that she was on a sort of padded bench, facing the backrest. She winced as her bare arm brushed against the sun baked vinyl, burning her slightly. "Where are you taking me?" She asked, hating how her voice wavered as she did. She knew she should have waited, but the uncertainty was scaring her too much to think clearly anymore. "Shut it," The thin voiced speaker said, and Hadley gasped in pain as she felt a hard jab into her back. "Garrin!" The second speaker said, "Knock it off." Hadley didn't dare say anything else.

The motor sound changed again, this time echoing and reverberating, and Hadley sighed in relief as the sun was blocked out by something. Now she could hear the waves slapping against rock. The boat slowed more and more until the motor cut out completely and she could hear other voices overlapping in the echoing environment. The boat lurched as it bumped up against something, and Hadley squeaked in alarm as she nearly fell off of the bench seat. She flexed and braced herself as well as she could, just barely staying in place. Hadley gasped and reached for her belly, both hands moving, bound together as she felt the baby kicking and squirming. The flurry of motion filled her with relief. She hadn't felt the baby move since she'd woken up. "Let's go," The deeper voice said, and she felt a huge set of hands picking her up, and slinging her over a shoulder. Hadley groaned and squirmed as her full body weight was put on her belly, the baby kicking in protest at the pressure put on it. "Ah, OW! Please! The baby! That hurts!" "I said shut it," The thin voice said. Hadley gasped as the one who was carrying her spun around and held stock still. "Garrin, I don't want you to speak until the boss talks to you." "But-" "SHUT IT!" Hadley whimpered, trembling as she felt herself adjusted, and while still carried and uncomfortable from the ropes, at least she could breathe.

She tried to tell what direction she was being taken in, but her still aching head was not up to the task. Soon, she heard a set of doors open and she was set down. Hadley gasped and wobbled, surprised to find that her legs were not bound. The big hands guided her forward, her bare feet slapping against a stone floor. After only a few paces, she was sat down in a chair, and she flinched as the hood was ripped off of her head. "Ow!" She yelped as the dried blood from the side of her head had partially glued the hood to her face. She reached her hands up to massage the wound, looking around her. She seemed to be on a sort of outdoor dining area, sitting at a table. She had a view of a massive, brightly colored house set into a cliff, overlooking a deep blue lagoon, waves crashing over white sand beaches. It was the sort of place she might have been to on a fancy date with Marks, the baby's father.

As she looked around, she heard the clack of footsteps and froze. Not just a clack. It was the hard sharp sound of dress shoes, followed by a metallic jingle. Another clacking jingle. And another. "Oh my," A voice, low and well controlled, but with a rough burr to it said calmly off to the side, "What have we here." Hadley was too afraid to look, and flinched again, trying to get away as a gentle touch brushed the wound on her head. "My instructions were to bring her without harming her," The voice said, more clacking and jingling as the speaker moved, "Were they not?" "Yeah boss," The deeper voice said, "They were." "Would you care to explain to me the injury on her head, and the welts on her back?" "Well boss," Garrin piped up, "She was pretty feisty when I went to nab her, so I had to-" Hadley screamed as she heard a violent sounding blow, accompanied by Garrin's screech as he was struck somewhere behind her. "I imagine you struck her in the head with a pistol," The calm voice said, "And as for the welts? Hacklin?" "Uh, Garrin kicked her in the back to shut her up as we were driving boss." "Did you now," The calm voice said, and she could hear Garrin whimpering, "And you felt that this was necessary to subdue a petite pregnant woman who you were supposed to take by surprise?" "I couldn't use the stun gun, you said not to!" "I also said not to harm her," The calm voice said, now sounding less calm. "Oh no, no no no no, please boss, PLEASE!" Hadley jerked as she watched someone carrying a thin balding man with little effort to the edge of the patio. Garrin was set down, right at the edge of the patio. "Now, I want you to look out there." "Please boss, please don't, please don't shoot me in the head." "Why would I do that. You didn't shoot Ms. James, now did you?" "N-n-no boss." "Then I won't shoot you. Now turn and look out there. Garrin, trembling, turned and looked out.

Hadley screamed as the man who carried him there lifted a leg and planted a hard kick to Garrin's back, sending him over the edge, screaming until a hard, meaty smack was heard, silencing the scream. "Hacklin? Have someone clean that up, and have lunch brought up." "Right away boss." Hadley turned and her eyes widened. Hacklin was huge, easily over six and a half feet tall if not seven, and built like a linebacker. He pulled out a radio and began speaking into it. "I apologize for the rudeness you experienced Ms. James," The other, once again calm voice said, getting closer, "But my men had orders, and one of them violated those orders. Are you hurt badly." "What do you want from me?" Hadley asked, trembling so bad her chest hurt. "We will get to that," The man said, sitting down across from the table Hadley was at, and leaning forward to examine Hadley's head wound, "I asked if you are hurt?" "A little," Hadley admitted. "Hacklin, have the medic arrive too. We might as well get that part done as well." "Medic?" "All in good time," The man said, leaning back.

"You know who I am?" The man asked, and Hadley nodded. "The Dragonfish," Hadley said, "Why am I here?" The Dragonfish head up a hand, "All in good time. I simply felt I had the advantage on you, and I wanted you to know who's company you are in. Now, I understand you were taken before you had chance to eat, so you must be famished. I've taken the liberty of having a lunch prepared. Ah, here we are!" Hadley turned to see a white suited man in a chef's hat bringing a cart with covered trays. "I normally eat fresh caught seafood, but I understand that you are to avoid that during pregnancy," The Dragonfish said as the trays were removed from the cart and placed in front of herself and the Dragonfish, "So I had the liberty of having something else prepared." The lids were removed, exposing steaming chicken on a lettuce leaf. Hadley's mouth began watering despite herself. Her appetite hadn't been very active the last couple of weeks, with the baby taking up all the available room and all, but missing dinner, breakfast and now presented with this lunch? "Your hands please," The Dragonfish said, gesturing to Hadley's still bound wrists. She gingerly lifted them forward and whimpered as the chef took out a large knife and nearly split the ropes. "Feel free, dig in," The Dragonfish said as he began neatly cutting bits off of his own chicken. Hadley didn't waste time with that. Urged on by hunger, she used her fork to simply rip bits of bird off and eat them. The Dragonfish watched with some amusement as Hadley ate until she felt gorged. "Now that lunch is out of the way, let's see to your wounds, and we'll address why you're here. Hacklin?" Hadley heard the giant of a man lumbering forward and she yelped and struggled as she felt her arms pressed to the chair and tied down, one at a time. "Let go! What are you doing to me?" Hadley cried out, "Let me go!" "I'm afraid that isn't possible," The Dragonfish replied, "I have great need of you, and I need to ensure that you are healthy enough for it."

The medic who came in was professional and quick, cleaning the wound on her head and rubbing a sort of paste on it. He then took her blood pressure, a blood sample and asked her questions that she would have told her regular doctor, but this stranger? "Weight?" "Go to hell," Hadley said, feeling a little bit of fire now that her head wasn't hurting as badly. "Miss, I need that information." "Hacklin?" The dragonfish prompted. Hadley screamed as the chair was lifted off of the ground and hefted a few times. She was panting and trembling as the chair was set back down, and Hacklin picked up another, empty chair. "About one forty, maybe one forty five," Hacklin declared. "Will that suffice?" The dragonfish asked the medic. The medic nodded, "It'll be close enough. I'll err on the side of caution, but the wider tube will be more uncomfortable." "That would appear to be Hadley's choice. Go make the preparations." The medic collected his tools and left.

"Now, as to why you're here. I'm working on a little project, but I need something I cannot get on my own. The recently recovered Soviet Comm unit brought back to your GSS by a certain Agent Marks. Ironic, isn't it? Marks, Marx. Now, I know that you and Agent Marks are…" The dragonfish gestured to Hadley's belly, prompting her to try to curl around the swell. "…Entangled. And that using you as leverage, he'll do exactly what I want." "He won't steal the comm unit for you," Hadley snarled, "He'd never." "Not even to save you?" "He'll come for me," Hadley bit back. "Not fast enough he won't. Hacklin, are the preparations done?" "They will be by the time we get down there boss." "Well then, by all means."

Hacklin carried Hadley down, chair and all to an outdoor dock Hadley was sweating, even though she hadn't climbed down the hundreds of steps to the beachfront from the patio. She whimpered in fear as she was a pair of men scrubbing what was left of Garrin off of the stone at the bottom. Hacklin set her on the deck of a pontoon boat and began attaching a set of heavy cuffs to her ankles. She tried to lash out, but she was still wearing the dress she had been going wear to her date last night. Ankle length and tight, with one long sleeve and her other arm bare, her legs were already pinned close enough together that Hacklin didn't need to work too hard to chain both of her ankles together. As he did that, the Dragonfish pulled out a phone and began setting up a video call. Hadley's eye widened as she realized he was using her phone. "You know he can track that, right?" Hadley almost said out loud, before realizing that saying that would ruin her chances of rescue. The Dragonfish waited until Hacklin had untied Hadley's arms from the chair and put her in handcuffs behind her back before unlocking the phone that GSS's technicians had assured her was uncrackable, and opened the messenger app, starting a video call, leaving the camera off. "Hadley? Thank god, I was so worried. You haven't called, texted or anything! Where are you, are you alright?" "JAS-" Hadley shouted before Hacklin placed one of his hands over her mouth. "Hadley is fine Agent Marks," The Dragonfish said calmly, "As long as you do what I say. I can see that you are in a car. Are you alone?" "I want to talk to Hadley!" "Not how this works," The Dragonfish said, his calm voice shifting to let a bit of steel through, "Are you alone?" "I… I'm alone." "Good."

The Dragonfish turned on the phone camera, and panned it over Hadley. "As you can see, your lovely friend, the mother of your child is just fine. And she will remain so as long as you do what I say." "What do you want?" "Right to the point. Alright. The Soviet comm device? The one that connects to the supposedly decommissioned nuclear satellites? I want it. And I want the real thing too, not some phony, or a replica, or even the more modern replacement. I want the original." "You want a glorified cellphone from the 80s?" "Don't insult my intelligence. You and I both know that there's more to that 'cellphone from the 80s' than that. Why else would it be guarded?" "I don't-" "And before you say anything about how you don't have clearance to take it, find a way. Because you don't have time to save Hadley. I figure with your resources, you can get to me inside an hour. To be fair, you can get to most anywhere in the world inside of an hour. Do you know how long it takes someone to drown?" The Dragonfish snapped his fingers. Hadley whipped her head around to see Hacklin picking up a chunk of concrete the size of a dishwasher with a chain coming out of it. A chain that was connected to… "JASPER!" Hadley screamed, before the block was tossed over the side of the boat. She desperately sucked in a breath the moment her body went airborne, pulled like a ragdoll over the side of the boat and into the clear blue water.

"HADLEY!" Agent Jasper Marks screamed on the phone, his eyes swimming with tears. "Relax," The Dragonfish said in that damn calm tone he always used, "Just watch." The feed changed and Jasper watched as the feed changed to a camera held by a diver. The diver swam forward to a plume of dust, the block of cement. Swimming closer, the diver found Hadley and shoved a clear tube into her mouth, a tube that went up to the surface, shown as the camera panned up. The diver gave a thumbs up after he fixed the tube in place with a mask that made Hadley look like a snorkeling Hannibal Lector and the feed jumped back to the Dragonfish, now standing on the pier instead of his boat. "As you can see, Hadley is alive, but not safe. The end of her breathing tube is right here next to me. If you do not do as I ask, all I have to do is plug the tube. Or pour water down it. It depends on how upset I get with you." "You bastard." "Careful," The Dragonfish said, resting one hand delicately on the tube, "Aggravating me right now might not be wise. I'm sure Hadley would agree." "Let her go you sick son of a-" "Perhaps a demonstration?" The Dragonfish dropped his hand.

Hadley struggled desperately against her chains, both the ones on her wrists and the ones on her ankles. She had thought she was going to drown instantly because of what the Dragonfish had said, right up until a dive had appeared. At first, she thought it was a GSS agent, he was using some of their gear, but upon closer inspection, it had been defaced, and was older, so probably stolen or lost. The diver had roughly shoved a tube into her mouth, shoving it so far back she nearly gagged. Then he had wrapped a mask around her, which pinned the tube in place, and then shoved two plugs into her nose. Hadley coughed and gagged into the tube, unable to do more than make guttural moans with her mouth immobilized around the tube which let her breathe. It was hard, the pressure from the water trying to squeeze her from every direction. She could feel the baby kicking and squirming in her belly as she thrashed, trying to get loose, her lower back aching from the sudden drop to the bottom of the lagoon. Once the block had dropped down and she had begun stabilizing, she realized that she was floating upward, drifting maybe three feet away from the block, as far as the chain would allow. Her dress clung to her, somehow making the pressure of the water feel worse. As Hadley struggled, she felt a pop of pressure in the tube, and her eyes widened as she realized there was no more airflow. She desperately sucked against it, gagging as the action pulled the tube just far enough to trigger the reflex. She thrashed, her eyes pounding with her pulse, her heartbeat going erratic as she struggled, struggled to get free, to find air, to find… light…

"JESUS, ALRIGHT! STOP!" Jasper bellowed at the phone, watching the feed of Hadley on the bottom of the lagoon, struggling and writhing in the dress she had chosen for their date last night. The half cape drifted around her, occasionally hiding her face from the camera, but he could see the sheer terror on her face as her struggling grew weaker and weaker, until she went limp, drifting against the chain. "Oh god, Hadley," Jasper whispered, feeling his heart surge in relief as she suddenly spasmed, jerking back awake, looking confused, panicked, but alive. The feed cut back to the Dragonfish. "Now, do I have your undivided, and more polite attention?" "Yes, yes, for god's sake, just don't hurt her." "Good. Now, I'm certain that you are thinking that you can have your collogues trace this call, and while I cannot do anything about that, I promise you, I will be waiting right here, and if you do not do exactly as I say, I will plug the tube again. When you bring me the device, it will be you, and you alone. If I see anything I don't like out in my ocean, a GSS taskforce, a naval vessel out of it's normal patrol circuit, anything intruding on my airspace, I will pour seawater and tar into the tube and put an end to Ms. James. Do you understand me?" "Yes," Jasper ground out. "Good. Now obviously if you ask for the device, they will say no. And even if your superiors say yes, they will find a way of disabling it before it gets to me. So you are going to steal it, and bring it to me, unaltered, unbugged, and untampered. And if you don't remember, it only takes two minutes for a man to drown. I wonder how long it would take pretty little Hadley James?" The feed switched to Hadley, fully alert once again. Jasper knew he only had once choice.

Hadley shook herself awake, and felt the diver pressing something into her ear. She tried to shake herself clear until she heard the Dragonfish speaking. "I apologize for the theatrics, but you know what they say, go big, or go home. You understand that I couldn't well tell you what I was planning before I pushed you overboard. The fear on your face really sold our Agent Jasper Marks. Thank you for the first name by the way." Hadley closed her eyes, burning from the salt water already as she realized her slip. "And I also apologize for cutting your air off. You see, Agent Marks is going to do exactly what I say, and if he doesn't, I will simply do it again. You are his motivation to work to perfection, and bring me what I want." Hadley tried to shout, to spit hatred at the man who had sent her down to the bottom, but just heard distressed gurgling and moaning over the earbud pressed in her ear. "Please don't try to speak," The Dragonfish said, cutting her off, "I'm afraid that not only can I not understand you, but you'll need to conserve energy. Breathe evenly through the tube, it'll get easier as you develop the rhythm. And at least your dress was as long as it was. I understand that the bottom of the lagoon can get quite chilly after a while." Hadley then writhed, moaning into the tube as she felt something. It wasn't a kick, it felt like her belly was twisting, her whole core turning in knots. "I see. Well, tire yourself out and we'll see how you feel later on." There was a click and the earbud fell silent. Hadley continued moaning through the tube, hoping to get the point across. Gagging out the same phrase over and over through the tube that garbled her words beyond recognition. "The baby! The baby is coming!"

Hadley had felt a warm gush during the first contraction, and had struggled to look down. She had seen a few dark shapes drifting near the edges of what she could see, and while those terrified her, the fear was magnified by the sensation of the gush. She was convinced her water had broken, and was horrified that there might be blood in the water now. But as she looked down, she would only see a faint burst of white clouds that quickly vanished into the water. But to her relief, the only one she had, there was no blood. "Gguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuchhhhhhhhh-OGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Hadley screamed into the tube as she had another contraction, this one feeling worse than the first. She didn't know much about labor, having only taken a few childbirth classes herself and gone through the mandatory first aid training she was supposed to with GSS, but nothing of what she had learned covered being chained up and dropped to the bottom of a lagoon. "Huuuuurkghh," She ground out, shivering slightly at the chill that had begun creeping into her body. The Dragonfish's island fortress might have been tropical, but the water at the bottom was still far colder than was comfortable after a few minutes. As Hadley shivered, she heard a click in her ear again. "Now you see why I said to conserve energy. It will get somewhat chilly down there, but I promise, you will survive." "HUUUUGGGH!" There was another click and the earbud shut off again. Hadley wondered how clearly the Dragonfish could see her, then remembered the diver from earlier. She looked around and saw the camera fixed to a rock nearby, pointed directly at her. The Dragonfish could see her every move, every twitch, every shiver. Hadley was suddenly glad her dress was tight enough not to drift up her legs, like the half cape kept doing.

Hadley drifted for what felt like hours, her only constant method of telling the time was the contractions that came and went, each one making her gurgle into the tube as she bit down on it, wanting to scream, or hold her breath. Her jaw ached with it being jammed open by the solid mouth piece, and her throat burned with the effort of controlling her breathing. It wasn't the only thing that burned. Her chest felt like she had been runover with the extra energy it took to breathe, each breath working against the water, a full body hug that never let go, each inhale a monumental effort, and each exhale shaky as she tried to control it. Letting her breath go explosively each time made her light headed, and she had gotten to the brink of passing out, only to be woken up by the other thing that passed the time. Either the Dragonfish or one of his henchmen would blow clean, fresh air into the tube on occasion, to, as the Dragonfish said, "Blow out the stale air. Can't have you passing out, now can I?"

She wanted to move. Hadley wanted to lean on her legs, rolling her hips in their sockets. To bend forward and lean on something. To hold and rub her belly during and after contractions, to soothe the aches. She wanted to stop shivering, the hard knots building up in her body from the miniature spasms making each contraction more painful, little blades of pain that stabbed at her everywhere. "Leuh…eeeeugh…gggghhooogh!" Hadley begged after a particularly brutal contraction, one that left her floating limply against the chain as it tried to crush her belly more than the rest of her body. "Hleeagh?" Her earbud clicked on, but whatever the Dragonfish said was drowned out as she fell into another contraction and tried to scream her way through it. Over the earbud, she was horrified and almost disgusted by the wet, guttural, animal noises that came over the earbud, the results of her screaming with a tube in her mouth. When she finished, the Dragonfish began speaking with controlled patience. "If I had to guess, you were begging to be let go?" Hadley nodded, looking directly at the camera. "I see. And I assume you think I will do so because you are clearly having contractions?" Hadley nodded again. "I assure you, you are sadly mistaken. Not to worry though, I'm told that waterbirths are more relaxing in any event. Not under these circumstances, obviously, and with the video feed up, I can't well remove you. My advice, don't fight it. It will only make the process more painful. And don't worry about the wildlife." And Hadley was alone again as she screamed through another contraction.

The contractions had begun changing. Not in intensity or frequency, but they began to feel different. Each one brought the same pain, but now they also brought pressure. She could feel it gathering in her belly and hips like some sort of energy waiting to be released. Even without having given birth before, Hadley knew what it was. She was nearing the end. She would be pushing soon. Pushing. Hadley's mind floundered like the rest of her body as the tried to figure out what she would do. She gave an experimental effort, inhaling and doing her best to hold her breath, her chest inflating and bringing her taut against the chains, her torso trembling with effort. The motion felt weak and powerless. She released the breath, hoping that the helpless feeling was just due to her not having a contraction. When the next contraction began, she tried pushing along with it. Hadley knew it was probably too soon, but she had to know. She had to know how she was going to push. "Gguuuuggghghghghghgggguuuuhhhhn," She grunted out, biting down hard on the tube, trying to keep her breath in. She trembled, her legs locking and going rigid as she pushed. The pressure that had been building fluttered and grew worse as she tried to push, only for it to overwhelm her, cutting off her attempt. Hadley panted though the tube, hating the slimy feel of the thing in her mouth. And she felt something else too. Right on the heels of the last contraction, which had just barely begun to fade, she could feel another one building, her belly feeling like it was rippling, giving smaller cramps ahead of the full contraction. Far too soon. She gagged in pain as it tore into her, her belly imploding before she had a chance to recover from the last one.

As Hadley started getting accustomed to the new faster pattern of contractions, she became aware of motion above her. Looking up was difficult because of the tube, but she managed to see blurry and distorted forms a little ways away from her, probably the Dragonfish and his henchmen. Just as she was wondering what was going on, the one form she assume was the Dragonfish held an arm out and rested it on something next to him. Immediately, Hadley felt that there was no air in the tube anymore. "HNNNNNNGHPH!" She shouted, muffled now from the lack of airflow. Her lungs burned as she tried to suck against what felt like a solid wall. The tube pulled against the back of her throat and she gagged, her body lurching as she tried to cough. Even as her mind fell into sheer panic, a new sensation made the whole experience worse. She felt a contraction building, and she thrashed desperately, her eyes frantically looking for the camera, begging for Jasper to give in, to give the Dragonfish what he wanted. A few heartbeats later, slow and labored, she couldn't even think that. Her womb clenched down, the muscles trembling as she desperately tried to suck in air. Something about not being able to breathe made the contraction feel worse, each nerve ending feeling like it was on fire, consuming every inch of space in her mind. She couldn't fight, there was just pain. She couldn't cope, there was just pain. She couldn't. There was nothing, just pain. Hadley could see the ocean around her getting darker, the edges of her vison growing darker, and the pain, while still there, seeming to grow distant. Her vision pulsed, her ears roared and her heartbeats grew slower…and slower…and…slower…

With a desperate panicked inhale, Hadley felt fresh air blasting down the tube and she shot awake, thrashing as the contraction, if it was still the same one, ripped through her. A diver had poked her, and seeming satisfied, swam away. Hadley gulped in huge lungfuls of air, her chest feeling like it was filled with flames as her oxygen starved body helped itself to all of air it could. Her whole body still hurt, and her head pounded with the aftereffects of the attack. She half expected the Dragonfish to call her and talk to her. She wanted him to, anything to explain what had just happened, why he had done that. But he stayed silent, and that was almost more unnerving. She began to cry, hitching sobs that did nothing but make the contractions feel worse. She let it all out as she sobbed, the pain, the fear, the unfairness of it all, her self loathing that she wanted the Dragonfish to talk to her. She sobbed until it was almost as painful as having the air to her cut off.

For the next few minutes, Hadley barely was able to catch her limited breath as the contractions began piling on each other, until it felt like there was no longer breaks between them, her whole body convulsing from the cold, the effort to stay steady against the drifting, and the contractions. The pressure that had been building took on a new desperate feel, almost begging for her hips to move, to make room. Hadley tried, pulling her legs as far apart as she could. If she kept them straight, she could only get a few inches from the shackles around her ankles, and bending them at the knee didn't help, the tight dress keeping her legs bound together. "HLEEEEAGH!" Hadley screamed, begging once more to be released as she went once again from one contraction to the next. Something had to give soon, and she didn't know what it was going to be, either her, or the pressure. The contractions, she could almost handle, even with as close together as they were. The pressure was something else entirely. She kicked her legs as best as she could, wiggled, thrust her hips, doing everything she could try to relive it, to sooth her body, but nothing she could do helped. Hadley knew at some level that even if she were giving birth in a safer, more controlled environment, the same pressure would be there, but being chained down made everything so much worse, so much more intense. She could tell it was nearing something, some inevitable barrier that she couldn't avoid. She knew that soon, she would have to push.

Hadley had done little research on births, but had done some. She knew that some women reportedly said that when it was time to push, it was a sort of wordless signal from their bodies that told them it was time to give into the urge to push, and then they began. Hadley had always envisioned this as something gentle, something relieving, as one could finally do something about the contractions and pressure. When she knew it was time to push, it was not subtle, gentle, or even wordless. She didn't know how long she had been dealing with back to back contractions, but one came on that felt different. She had finally gotten a short pause, almost like the end of a sentence and the beginning of the next, and had just begun to wonder what was happening when it struck. "IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAUUUUUUHHHHGGGGGGHHHHH!" She howled as the contraction drove not in, but down, and she felt her hips grinding against something. She thrashed against the chain, the pressure moving and driving her insane with pain and the instinct to move with it, but totally unable to. And worst of all, was a frightening message from her body. Nothing wordless about it. A single demand that she had no idea how to give into: 'PUSH!'

Hadley tried. In the movies and classes, she knew how women pushed, but she had nothing to brace against, nothing to offer counterpressure. All she had was a desperate urge to give in, and no way to do it. She held her breath and tried with each contraction, now somewhat spaced apart, but more intense, and felt no progress. Like her practice push, Hadley pulled her legs tight against the shackles, arching her back, and holding her breath, trying her best to funnel the pressure down between her legs, and feeling nothing but the pressure getting more intense. She could only hold it for a few seconds, letting go of an explosive burst of air and panting heavily before trying again. Her hips trembled and flexed as she pulled against them and the chains, wanting to make more room, to make the awful grinding sensation stop, but nothing helped. Unsure of what to do to make it work, she simply tried again and again with each push, feeling a tight wad of frustration building in her chest with each useless, futile failed push. Between contractions, she lolled her head against the tube, and while doing this, she froze, a splash of color catching her eye, the very thing she had feared earlier. Red. Blood.

As the next contraction came, Hadley pushed as hard as she could, desperate to get the baby to at least move, and all the while, looking frantically for what she knew would be coming. Sharks. She knew they could small even a small amount of blood from great distances, and knew that there had to be at least one on it's way, hungry and crazed. Hadley pushed despite the fear, unable to hold back from the now frenzied urge. Halfway through the contraction, she got so frustrated with the lack of progress that she stopped, simply trashing against the mounting pressure, screaming into the tube until her throat felt raw. When it passed, Hadley took as calming of breaths as she could trying to sort out her situation. 'Ok, I can't keep trying to push like that, it's not working,' She thought to herself, 'What if…' Her thoughts were interrupted by the next contraction, and she put her plan into use. She pushed her knees out as wide as they could, which wasn't much, and it pulled the dress tight against her hips, which surprisingly, felt somewhat better for it. Instead of arching her back, she did her best to curl forward. Without anything to brace her back, it looked more like she was just hunching her shoulders, but in the end, it felt better. The pressure was still a vicious, living thing, but at least it seemed to not grow worse that time, moving down instead. As she pushed, now facing the bottom of the lagoon, Hadley could see more blood gently flowing out of her. She didn't think it was a huge amount, but it still unnerved her, and hoped that it wouldn't attract anything.

The first thing that arrived was a school of small blue fish that darted around the thin rapidly dissipating clouds of blood, some of them nipping at small white flecks that also drifted out of her. None of them touched her, which relieved her. Not that she was afraid of them, but she didn't think she could handle being bumped by hundreds of small fish as she pushed. There were others too, long purple and yellow fish, that did the same, and tall looking yellow and white fish. Each fish would seem to float through the blood and swim around before darting away. Hadley watched them between contractions, unable to keep her eyes open during them anymore, hoping that they would be the extent of the sea life that came to sniff at her. As the contractions and blood went on, more and more fish showed up to investigate until suddenly, with a flash of movement, all of them scattered. Hadley froze, trembling, her heart, which had already been pounding, going into overdrive. She could feel the baby sitting so ow that it was making her hips hurt from just sitting in place. The next contraction came and she struggled to hold still, but finding herself totally unable to. "You might want to stay calm," The Dragonfish's voice came in her ear, making her jerk as she lost her concentration mid push, "But don't worry, Scalloped Hammers rarely attack humans."

Before Hadley could figure out what that meant, she lurched and screamed as something rough bumped her from behind. A shark, long thin body, capped off at one end by a long fluted tail and at the other end by a wide, flat head wiggled it's way through the water, drifting through the cloud of blood and other fluid that kept coming out of her. It jerked its head, changing direction quickly, the water coming from it's tail's powerful movements buffeting her, making her cry in fear. "HLEEEEAGH, HLEEEEAGH EUAGH EEEGH OOGGGH!" Hadley screamed, begging once again to be let go. As she screamed for release, she had to stop as another contraction came on, and despite her terror, Hadley had no choice but to give into the urge once again, bearing down as much as she could, feeling the baby drag ever so slightly further down. She whimpered and groaned in frustration, knowing that on one hand, if she were able to stay still, or was on a stable surface, she could push so much better, but at the same time, was grateful that her weak pushes kept the baby where the shark couldn't get at it.

It kept circling and circling, the shark getting closer and closer each time, it's tail flicking sharply as it moved. Hadley watched it in fear, trembling and whimpering between contractions, which while she still pushed through them, tried to keep silent as she did now. As she pushed, she could feel the head moving lower and lower, at an almost glacial pace. It was fast enough that when she started feeling stretching and burning between her leg, she wished it would slow down. "UnnnngggghhhhhhHHHAAAAAAGGGHGG" she gurgled into the tube, unable to keep the sound inside as she moaned from the new sharp sensation. As she pushed with the new burning, the slow flow of blood seemed to spurt, more flowing into the ocean and it seemed to aggravate the shark. It whipped it's head and the circles drew tighter, occasionally cutting hard towards her and missing her by inches, only touching her with it's tail as it passed. "Not to worry Ms. James," The Dragonfish said over the earpiece, "It looks like your trials will soon be over, one way or another." Hadley twitched and struggled to look at the pier to see a new figure running up only to be stopped by a massive one who she assumed as Hacklin. "AAAAAAASHHHHHHEEEEEGGGGHHH!" Hadley tried screaming Jasper's name as she recognized him, only to stop and scream as she had another contraction. The baby inched forward again, the burning between her legs getting worse. Not only was her bad position making every push seem hopelessly weak, but her legs still being so close together seemed to be actively holding the head in place.

The contractions were overlapping again, and Hadley didn't know if it was the stress, or just the baby almost coming out, but as she heard muffled voices above her, she kept pushing, over and over, the head moving down slightly, only to get pushed back by her thighs. It seemed useless, but she could tell that each time, it got pushed back a little less, and soon, she was screaming as the head began a new wave of stretching. It seemed unfair to Hadley that the ring of fire still burned hotly underwater, but she struggled to widen her legs more, feeling a few strands pop in the seams of the dress as she did so. As she did, the head seemed to move more, stretching her wider, prompting her to let out another gagging, gurgling scream. "Hadley, I am trying to negotiate here, if you could be so kind as to quiet down for a spell?" Hadley's eyes bulged in rage as she heard the calm voice asking her to quiet down while in labor, and began screaming abuse up the tube as best as she could, only to start coughing as she felt smoke blown down the end of the tube, the awful taste of a cigarette cloud drifting into her breathing device. Hadley could feel the head lurching with each cough, and each lurch brought the head just a little bit further. Without being able to touch anything, Hadley felt like she was splitting apart, like if she stretched one more fraction of an inch, she would tear, and struggled not to push with the next contraction, giving in and screaming once again as the shark did another quick pass right next to her.

Hadley could feel it. One more contraction. One more effort and the baby would be here. She had to hold back. She had to wait. Jasper was right above her, and as soon as things were done, she would be brought up and it would be safe to push the baby out. She tried to brace herself, this time not to push when it struck. She held her breath, keeping it high in her chest, trying to arch backward like before and her legs shook with the effort of keeping them closed. Her hips bucked as much as they were able to, her own body rebelling against her attempts, not knowing or caring that pushing would put the baby in danger. The shark darted in again, and Hadley flinched, the small movement being enough to break her. Letting her breath go, she began relaxing her legs, and began curling forward to take a deep breath, knowing that no matter what was happening, she. Had. To. PUSH.

Hadley began to inhale, feeling air fill her lungs only for a sharp, strong taste to clog the back of her throat. She tried to scream, but felt nothing but the pressure in the tube spiking. There were loud noises above the water and some sort of commotion, but she couldn't care about it. The contraction wasn't letting up, and neither was the urge to push. The only thing she didn't have was air. She thrashed, her body going berserk as it fought to get more air. As she wriggled and thrashed, the shark seemed to get more agitated, but Hadley couldn't care about that either. The only thing her mind could bring any focus to was the new and intense demand to push. It was as if the earlier pressure and urges were nothing but practice runs. Every cell in her oxygen starved body was screaming at her to push. Her head pounding and her vision swimming from more than just the water, Hadley curled as best as she could and pushed, choking on the awful taste in her mouth, her scream a soundless vibration in her throat. Her belly clamped down like a machine, the contraction seeming to want to press her entire body flat, the effort feeling more intense than the rest of her labor combined. The only other thing Hadley could feel was the burning. She could see clouds of blood as she felt herself splitting apart, feeling like her lips were on fire as she pushed, feeling the baby move faster than it had the entire time she was pushing, the head shoving forward, opening her wider and wider until with a pop or relief, she could feel her vagina relaxing as the head came fully out. With a strange shuddering tumble that made her shudder with what little energy she had left, Hadley could feel the body slipping out immediately after.

To her astonishment, the baby began kicking and squirming in the water, surrounded by blood, fluid and with white gunk floating off of it, drifting higher and higher until the umbilical cord kept it near her. It's kicks were growing weaker, and Hadley tried to scream, her vision going dark. Her baby was in danger! It's movements slowed, but that wasn't the only danger. Apparently sensing something new, the shark turned one last time and darted towards Hadley and the baby, it's mouth, hundreds of sharp teeth promising a swift and violent end as it arrowed towards the baby. Hadley could only watch in horror as it got closer and closer. Ten feet. Five. Less than a foot. Jsut as Hadley was convinced that her world was about to come crashing down, a dark line shot down, catching the shark in the head, driving it down. A harpoon stuck out of the head, the shark spasming as it died. Jasper dove into view, looking briefly at Hadley, before turning and doing what she was screaming at him to do in her head. Her last thoughts as her vision began failing and flickering out. 'Save him… save…my… baby…'

With a final pound on her chest, Hadley gagged and coughed as seawater burst from her mouth, and she felt herself being turned to the side, letting all of the fluid drain out. "Hadley Thank god! Oh my god you're alive!" Hadley couldn't talk, still gagging and sputtering as the last few drops made their way out of her lungs. Her head pounded, her eyes hurt, her ears were ringing, she could feel that one of her ribs was cracked, but there was only one thing she cared about. "Gaackch… Ba- baby! Where is-?" She cut off as another fit of coughing wracked her body, reducing her to a heaving mess on the pier. "Right here, he's right here Hadley," Jasper said, coming over and holding out a dripping bundle to Hadley. Hadley cried out and tried to take the baby, nearly dropping him as her ribs cried out in protest. "I'm so sorry, I tried to get here as soon as I could, I just-" "Let her breath," A deep voice, interrupted. Hacklin! Hadley gasped, wincing in pain as she turned to see the big man sitting back on his heels. "St-stay away!" Hadley gasped out and tried to scoot back, but Jasper held her in place. "It's ok," Jasper replied, "I think he's on our side?" "Not really. I just am not on the Dragonfish's side anymore."

You know how salmon have this instinct to return to where they spawned to lay eggs? What if humans had this?

So in my mind, this would look like a pregnant woman getting the urge to get back to, or at least close to where she was born just before she goes into labor, to the point where it becomes a physical compulsion as strong as the urge to push.

Now, I've written a bunch of blurbs in my notes on this concept, to the point where i need to step back and consider how to approach this.

Hiking Up, Bearing Down

A Valiantremnant original

Pre story notes: I don't have a ton of notes for this one, other than I couldn't find any real-world locations that fit what I needed, so I invented Verne's Peak for the purposes of this story. The only other note I have is that this is the first story I've written since Labor Day 2025, an it's good to be back. That said, between that and the wildly different format than I'm used to, this one might feel a bit strange. But I am considering writing the 3rd person perspective birth story the way I normally do for my work.

CW/Ingredients List - Giving birth alone, animal attack, some birth denial and severe, near death inducing injuries

~

The lights flared to life and music started playing as the show began. Adam Knight, the host brightened as much as the lights did and he started the program. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to Late Knight Knews, your favorite place to get your news. I'm your host, Adam Knight, and tonight, we have a special interview for all of you." The audience cheered and Adam waited patiently for them to settle down. "With me already is Dr. Hailee Cooper, a certified midwife in five states. I'm sorry, is doctor correct?" The woman on one of the chairs next to Adam's desk smiled and nodded, "That's correct. Not all midwives are doctors, but I am. I spent a good six years as an OB/GYN, but I wound up leaving hospital care to move into midwifery about three years ago." "I see. And do you feel that it's more fulfilling of a call? And would you prefer Dr. Cooper?" "Hailee is fine, and yes, absolutely. I find much more satisfaction in not only helping women give birth, but helping them craft birthing plans that allow them to be more in control of their bodies, their experience, their… everything!" Adam smiled and nodded, "Well, tonight, we were going to talk about a birth that had very little of that, but before we get to it, I'd like to introduce another guest, Lieutenant Peter Lee, a park ranger from Colorado." Peter, a tall man, walked on stage, wearing what looked a ranger's uniform like he had been born in it. "Peter, welcome to the show." "It's good to be here," Peter said, shaking Adam's hand and sitting down, Shaking Hailee's hand too as he did so.

"So Peter, we were going to talk about a, let's say, unusual event that happened in your park about a year ago." "Well, it isn't my park," Peter said with a good humored smile, "But unusual things happen there all the time." "Ooh, that sounds intriguing, but we'll have to invite you back to discuss the other events, as tonight we kind of need to stick to our schedule." "Right." Adam sensed that Peter wasn't completely comfortable being in the spotlight, so took the reins and kept the show going. "Well, a year ago, while you and three others were manning a ranger station at the top of Verne's Peak, a woman walked out of the mist and collapsed." Peter nodded, and joined in, "Yeah, I was just outside getting a breath of fresh air, let me tell you, the inside of that station can get a bit stuffy with four people there. When, out of the mist, a woman just showed up, looking like, well, she had just fought the fight of her life and collapsed. When we started making sure she was ok, we found a newborn strapped to her chest." "Do you know how old?" Hailee asked. Peter slowly turned to look at her, "We later found out that the baby couldn't have been more than a day, maybe two old." Hailee put a hand to her mouth in shock, "But… forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Verne's Peak was a good three day hike?" "Two if you're in good condition," Peter admitted, "But there are a few oddly placed campsites for those who want to take a more leisurely pace."

"After we got the woman inside, I was sent down the trail to investigate what had happened. She had some lacerations that looked like animal wounds of some sort, so I had a rifle with me. There's a site we call 'Last Ditch' about six hours down trail of the station, a campsite you can stay at rather than finish the hike in the dark. That was where I found her campsite. It was a mess. her tent had been torn to pieces, most of it rigged up as a makeshift shelter against a tree and a large boulder, what was left of her sleeping bag used as the floor. She had a satellite phone, but that had been smashed to pieces. The whole campsite was a mess. I came back a day later and picked it all up and found a camera in the ruins of the tent, but the battery was dead. From what I found, I can only imagine that she gave birth in Last Ditch and then hiked up to the station the next day."

"But you don't know for certain," Adam asked, looking serious. "Not really. We're not allowed to go through cameras if we can reliably find the owner unless it's part of an active criminal investigation, so we had no idea what was on it." "But you're sure she gave birth on the trail," Hailee asked. "Pretty sure," Peter replied, "We found blood soaked into most of the fabric goods still at the site, we found what was left of what I assume was the placenta. There was bear spray residue on a lot of what was there, so it was pretty hard to see what might have happened. Bear spray residue attracts bears, so if a can was used, once they determined it was safe, they would have descended on the place looking for something to eat." "What kind of bears?" Adam asked. "It would have been grizzlies," Peter replied, "And at that time of year… well, let's just be grateful it was late summer and not early spring. If it was, they would have obliterated that camp, and if that woman had wound up using bear spray, I can only imagine how poorly that might have gone." "Oh, because of hibernation?" "That and the possibility of there being cubs involved." "Well, we can clear some of that up for you," Adam said, "We have gotten permission, and have made sure to censor anything too revealing, but we have for the very first time, the footage from that camera you found. but before we get to that, we have one other guest. Please welcome, Paige Roberts!"

The audience shifted from stunned silence to thunderous cheering and applause as Paige, a wound brunette woman came from the wings of the stage, limping heavily on a cane. She waved and made her way to the third and final chair be the Adam's desk, Peter reflexively coming to his feet and helping her sit. "Paige, it's so good to have you here." "It's good to be here," She replied, a smile on her face. "And I'd like to thank you for letting us tell your story. Tell us, why now?" "Why tell it now? Well, for one, it's about a month past the first anniversary, or rather, a month after my daughter's first birthday." The audience 'aww'ed at the news, and Paige continued. "So she's old enough to spend a night here with you guys." "So we don't get to meet her?" Adam asked with good humor. "She's a little young for being on tv I think," Paige replied, and leaned in with a stage whisper, "And it's past her bedtime." "Ah, that's a good reason to stay at home," Adam agreed, "But one would think that you had a good reason to stay at home a little over a year ago?" "Not really," Paige countered, "I… how best to start this. I've been hiking for years, since I was in middle school."

"I'd hiked Verne's Peak before, I do it at least once every two years or so. I used to do it every year, but I swap it out every other year with a kayaking trip with a friend of mine in Montana instead. But I was about thirty eight weeks along, and hadn't gotten any labor signs, so I didn't see the harm in it." "Nothing at all?" Hailee asked, leaning forward. "Nothing. No… sorry if this is TMI, but no mucus plug, no nesting, not even Braxton Hicks. My doctor was wary, but he knew I'd been hiking my entire pregnancy, and signed off on it." "And this was your first?" Hailee asked. "My first," Paige agreed, "And if there's a next time, the only one I plan on having on a hiking trail." The audience laughed at the quip, but settled down quickly as Paige continued. "I wasn't stupid about what I brought, a first aid kit, satellite radio, things like that, and like I said, I'd hiked it before, so I didn't think there was going to be a huge issue."

"So, let's talk about Verne's Peak for a bit," Adam said, "I know it perfectly, but let's pretend my microphone guy doesn't, right Sam?" An old style boom microphone dipped down and lightly bonked Adam in the head, making the audience laugh. When they settled, Peter took up the narrative. "So there are several routes up Verne's Peak, and Paige took one that's rated as a two on the YDS, which is a sort of mountaineering difficulty scale. A two isn't really a beginner trail, but there's no technical climbing, which means anything involving rope, harnesses and the like. But regardless of the path you take up, all of the routes are at least two to three days, the longest one, which is also the easiest one being a five day hike." "How do people get down?" Adam asked. "It varies. There is a cable car that runs people back down once a week, but a lot of people usually hike up one way an hike down another way." "So it's a two to five day hike up, and more or less the same back down?" "Like I said, it's not really a beginner's trail," Peter said, nodding, "But the views are unbeatable, and the sky at night… well, it's part of the reason I started working there."

"And it's why I started hiking there," Paige agreed, "But like I said, I hadn't had any labor signs, so I thought I was ok to hike it." "And your doctor agreed," Hailee asked. "My doctor agreed," Paige confirmed, "I was measuring a bit big, but other than that, he had no concrete objections to me going." "We have a picture of you the day you started," Adam said, turning and gesturing to the big screen, and a picture of Paige appeared. "Yeah, turns out my girl was a bit big, she weighed a little over ten pounds when she was born." Hailee appeared to be studying the image closely, "Even so… I don't want to sound rude, but your belly seems a bit large, even for that." Adam laughed, "I'm glad you said something first." After a brief laugh from the audience, Paige gave a brief nod. "There's no way around it, I felt like a beached whale at the end there. It's part of the reason why I went on the trip. To remind myself that I could still do it." Hailee nodded, but seemed like she had more thoughts on the subject, but stayed silent as Paige continued her narrative.

"So I started at the Doc's trailhead, and moved up the mountain at a fairly steady pace. Well, as steady as I could. It felt like my hips were trying to swivel out of their sockets, and, well, with as active as my girl was, I didn't have the balance to take one of the more difficult routes." "How much were you carrying?" Peter asked, "It was hard to tell in the aftermath." "I had maybe a 30 pound pack. I've done ultralight hiking before, and didn't much enjoy the experience, and I had extra snacks along, and I had gotten a heavier sleeping pad, because, let me tell you, using a regular one when you're pregnant? Not a good option." "I could imagine not," Peter agreed, "I don't like them much, and I've never been pregnant!" The audience laughed at his comment, and Paige continued. "So the first day was pretty uneventful. I pushed pretty hard since there's only one good camping spot, and even then, I only made camp around nine in the evening. Which, I know you're not supposed to hike in the dark, but it was that or camp literally on the trail. The next day though, well, that's where everything changed." "Well, that sounds like a great place for a break," Adam put in, "Let's get a word from out sponsors, and we'll get right back at it."

~

The music played again and the lights burned back up to full power as the break ended, and Adam got the show running again. "Welcome back viewers, and a big thank you to our sponsors. Now, we were getting into the nitty-gritty of the most wild birth story I think any of us has ever heard. So, Paige, you said that your first day hiking was normal, but day two was wear things started changing?" Paige nodded, "That's about right. So to back up a bit, I was moving maybe about half as fast I would have normally. So I made it to the first campsite more or less on the first day, but I knew that instead of a two day hike, I was probably going to be in for a three day hike. Not the Doc trail isn't the hardest way up, but it isn't the easiest either. Around noon on day two, I hit a section called the Cold Run. Peter, do you want to explain it?" Peter cleared his throat and started. "Well, the Cold Run is, like Paige said, part of the Doc trail. It's a bit of a river walk upstream with plenty of boulders. Now, there are a few man made trails up the river, mostly made out of rocks and stuff, but most people tend to just cross it at the base of the Run and follow upstream on the riverbank." "Which is what I did," Paige said nodding, "Although, I have done it as a river walk before, and, while it is fun, I wasn't carrying waders."

"So about halfway up the Cold Run, so maybe three in the afternoon, I felt a gush, and when I looked down, it looked like I had peed myself. Now, anyone who's ever been pregnant knows that peeing yourself? Not a thing that 'might happen', it's more of a 'it will happen'. So I just assumed I had peed my pants, except it was a LOT of fluid, and it wouldn't stop." "How much would you say?" Hailee asked, adjusting herself in the seat. Paige thought about it for a moment, "Hard to say, it was a year ago. But the initial gush pretty much soaked my pants completely. But based on that… I'd say maybe a quarter gallon? Maybe a bit less?" "That was just your initial break?" Hailee asked, seeming shocked, "Are you sure you're remembering that right?" "Pretty sure," Paige said, "Actually if you look, I realized what happened and took a video of it."

The screen on the stage changed from the knight logo to the footage Paige had taken. "Hey, so… I think my water just broke." The footage, which had been of Paige's face, turned to show a large wet spot on the ground, around two feet across with two dry-ish footprints in it. "I was standing there and I felt a 'pop', and all of this fluid just started coming out, and look. It's like, not stopping. And I might just be overrating, because I haven't peed at all today, but it doesn't smell like pee." The camera turned back to Paige. "So I don't know what I'm going to do. Well, first I'm going to clean myself up as best as I can, but honestly, since I'm still leaking, I'm probably just going to go commando and figure out if I'm going up or down. I'll figure that out after I clean up somewhat. But if that was my water breaking, I think I should push on upward. If I can get to the ranger station, I can take the cable car down, or maybe they can, I don't know, call a chopper to get me out of here. But, either way, I'm gonna go now. Bye!" The camera footage ended and Paige turned back to the others. "Well, right after that video, I figured it was pee, because it stopped completely. But in hindsight, that was definitely my water breaking, not pee." "That was… Paige, did you have polyhydramnios?" Hailee asked. Paige tilted her head, and Hailee explained. "So in a normal pregnancy, you'd produce around maybe three or four cups of amniotic fluid total, but you said that you probably lost about that much when your water broke?" "I think so." "And there was more later on in the birth?" "Oh yes," Paige said, nodding. "So I would guess that you not only had a very large baby, but you had a large amount of Amniotic fluid. That would explain the size of your belly."

"If she had that much amniotic fluid, that would explain what ended up happening later," Peter commented, "What does it smell like?" Hailee thought about it for a second, "Kind of sweet? Usually it's odorless, but it can smell sweet, and can have a sweet and salty flavor to it." "Flavor?" Adam said with a bewildered expression on his face, making Hailee laugh. "Trust me, at a birth, fluid going in my mouth isn't exactly unheard of. I don't set out to do it, but it's not unusual." "But yeah," Peter said, picking up his original train of thought, "That would explain what I figure happens later on in this story." "Speaking of, let's get back to it," Adam said, steering things back to the main point of the interview, and addressing Paige, "So your water broke, but at the time, you didn't realize it was your water?" "Well, I'm sure at some level, I knew it was my water, but denial isn't just a river in Egypt, am I right?" The audience rang out with laughter while Paige picked up the thread of the story again.

"So after the fluid pretty much stopped, I took a break to grab a snack, wash out my underwear in the stream as best as I could, and then I just hiked commando for a while. And let me tell you, that was not the most comfortable thing. I mean, it wouldn't be in the best of times, but when your pregnant, you are so. Sensitive!" "Mmhmm, all that extra blood flow, the hormones, yeah, I'd believe it," Hailee said, and Paige nodded in agreement. "Exactly. But I'd say about a half hour after my water breaking, I had my first ever contraction. Like I said, going up to this, I didn't even have Braxton Hicks. Now, I was about… normally, I'd say around six hours from my next campsite, the Last Ditch. But once I started having contractions, I knew it was going to take longer. And every time I had another contraction, more fluid would just pour out of me. And that was about when I knew I was in labor." "Why not turn around?" Adam asked. Peter cleared his throat, "In all honesty, I think she made the right move to keep going up. hiking back down with weight can be dicey, even if you aren't pregnant. Not to mention that it would be almost two days back to the trail head at her pace, and once she got down, she would be looking at a five to six hour drive back to the nearest town. Moving uphill meant she at least would be closer to the station where we could… well, I'll chime in more at the end."

Paige nodded, not looking upset with the interruption, if anything, looking settled by the reassurance of the fact that she had made the right call. "Now I wasn't exactly thinking that in so many terms," Paige admitted, "But seeing as how things went, it probably saved my life. So I kept hiking up the trail, and with how often I had to stop for contractions and just to breathe, I'd say the six hour stretch turned into seven or eight hours. So it was pretty much midnight by the time I made it to the Last Ditch. I was timing the contractions, and they were coming every four minutes, I was feeling a lot of pressure, my back was killing me, so when I got there, I pretty much just set up my bear bag, my tent grabbed a power bar and my water and settled in for, what I knew at that point would be giving birth." "What's a bear bag?" Adam asked. "Well, bears have an amazing sense of smell," Peter answered, "So when you're hiking in bear country, it's good practice to put all your food and other smelly items into a bag or a container of some kind and put it in a tree a good ways away from camp with a sort of rope harness. Basically it makes it so that if a bear comes by, it doesn't swing through your camp, and if it finds your food, it can't get at it." "Well that's smart," Adam said, nodding, "So you set up your camp and settled in, yeah?" "Well, settled in isn't exactly what happened." "Well, we gotta check in with our sponsors, so we'll see and hear exactly what happened when we get back!"

~

"And welcome back ladies and gentlemen. Once again, we are here with Lieutenant Peter Lee, Doctor Hailee Cooper and Paige Roberts. Paige was about to tell us what it was like for her to give birth alone on a hiking trail halfway up a mountain." Paige nodded, "That's about right. So We've gone over how my hike started, what turned out to be my water breaking, so now we're at my camp at the Last Ditch." "Well, the audio for the video you managed to get of the whole thing isn't great, so we've muted it, if you just want to narrate what happens for us?" Paige nodded and the camera feed started rolling. "Once I got the tent up, I brought my first aid kit and my emergency kit into the tent and got going. I have taken a number of first aid courses, and a few of them covered emergency childbirth. I just never thought I'd be using those classes on myself. But once I got in my tent, got my pants off, and checked myself, I felt that I was already about nine centimeters dilated. That was about when I got the camera running. So at this point, I was feeling really pushy, and I just couldn't get comfortable, and I was getting really warm in the tent, so I opened the flap and just kept going in and out of the tent, pacing around my camp, going back in when I got tired, until finally, FINALLY I was at ten centimeters. Well, I don't really know if I was fully at ten, but I couldn't hold back from pushing anymore. So I gave in, and if you skip ahead a bit… yep, there I am, pushing for the first time." The video skipped ahead, and the audio cut back in for a moment, making the entire audience flinch. "AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHH! OH MY GOD!" Paige on the screen howled until the audio cut back out. "Sorry about that folks," Adam said, looking a little shaken himself, "Apparently when you skip ahead on the video, the sound cuts back in." Paige narrated her birth for a while, the audience watching push after push after reposition after push. "And this is about where it all goes wrong. You might be able to hear it?" The sound cut back in, much quieter this time.

"OH MY-" Paige began screaming, but stopped, her face going pale. A whuffing noise was heard on the video, and more than one audience member leaned in. On screen, Paige began visibly trembling, laying down as smoothly as she was able to. Her legs flopped open as she leaned back, revealing that she was at a full crown. There was more snorting and some mild crashing noises, but still, all that was seen was Paige, laying on her back. Her belly seized and began shifting, and she groaned softly before biting her lip so hard her head shook. The head, still only partially out between her legs pulsed as if Paige were holding back her need to push, but only barely succeeding. "What's happening?" Adam asked, interested. "Well," Paige said, her voice a bit thin with the memory, "I can only assume it caught my scent from the amniotic fluid I was leaking all day, but while I was pushing, hell, while I was crowning, a bear wandered into my campsite. I sniffed at the bear bag, which it couldn't get to, so it started wandering around the clearing. It pawed at the fluid I had leaked on the ground while laboring in the camp until it followed it back to the tent." Paige gestured at the screen, and more than one audience member gasped as a huge, furry head entered the view. It sniffed at Paige's leg, it's tongue flicking out to taste more of the fluid coating her shins.

"And the entire time, I knew that I couldn't move, I had to play dead, which in between contractions I could do, you saw more than once I nearly slept during the breaks, but during contractions, I couldn't move, I couldn't push, I couldn't even breathe." Peter nodded, his eyes glued to the activity on the screen, "Yeah, a grizzly like that? If you made it mad, it could have… oh my god." Peter cut off as if remembering the state he had first seen Paige in. On screen, Paige whimpered, and every eye snapped back to watch. The bear had flinched as Paige tried to hold still for another contraction, a small spurt of fluid coming out from around the still crowning head. The bear sniffed, and moved closer to the head, it's tongue darting out again at the head. It began licking the fluid trailing down her legs, the large powerful tongue cleaning huge swathes of fluid with each pass. "It wasn't until it moved to lick elsewhere where things went wrong," Paige said quietly, and as she did, the bear moved. It began licking closer and closer to the head, seeming to savor the fluid around where the head was before licking the head once. "All at once, I had a contraction, and I couldn't hold back anymore. My body didn't care that there was a bear right there, so it just began pushing, and knowing that a bear was right there made me panic. I closed my legs to protect the head from the bear." The bear snorted and snarled, pulling it's head back and a massive paw entered the frame. "It swatted at my thigh first." As if on cue, it sent a short sharp blow to Paige's leg, making her cry out on the screen while she desperately reached for something. "Then I think it reacted to the noise, and it swatted at my belly." As before, the bear moved, it's massive paw dwarfing Paige's still massive belly. It struck, leaving a series of gashes from it's claws. Paige tumbled sideways in the tent, landing heavily on her side.

"But when it hit my belly, it rolled me close enough to my bear spray, and I let the bear have it." Paige grabbed a can that looked like an airhorn and shot a stream of orangish fluid out, straight at the camera and the bear. While there wasn't much more footage, the roar the bear made was deafening, and there were ripping, crashing noises, with Paige screaming in pain and fear in the background. "When I sprayed it, it went berserk, and tried to stand up, which pretty much ruined the tent and made it collapse. Uh, fun thing about bear spray, if you have to use it when your in a tent, it was probably a last resort option, but… Well, being in a tent where bear spray just went off kinda sucks, but when you're actively crowning? It's way worse." "So bear spray, it's a deterrent of some kind?" Adam asked. Peter jumped in, "It's like pepper spray on steroids. More heat, stronger propellant. And it'll sting and burn even on skin, not just eyes." Paige nodded, "You can imagine how it felt on open wounds or… sensitive areas." Everyone in the studio collectively shuddered at the idea. "Oh god, you mean…" Hailee asked, making a vague downward gesture. Paige nodded, "I mean, it was already burning since a head was sitting right there, but the bear spray didn't help. And I couldn't breathe." "Well, the footage we have is all pretty much like this, so We'll turn it off and let you continue." Adam said, and the screen went blank.

"Well," Paige said, "After the spray, I didn't have a contraction for a minute or so, even though they had been pretty much back to back for a while. I managed to find my way out of my tent, but I couldn't really see anything. So I just kind of crawled, trying to find a tree or something. It was hard though, I still couldn't breathe from the spray, my leg felt completely numb, the cuts on my belly felt like they were on fire. I couldn't really think. It was like I was there, but I couldn't think anything. But when I finally had my next contraction, I basically collapsed where I was. The head felt huge, and no matter how hard I pushed, it felt like it would completely jammed. Something screamed at me to move one leg forward, so I tried to. But when I did, the one the bear hit gave out and I pretty much collapsed, and the head burst out of me. I don't really remember the body coming out at all, but it must have pretty quickly. I was still covered in bear spray, so I tried to scrub it off with dirt as best as I could, and picked up my baby girl." There was a lot of aww-ing from the audience as Paige described holding her, feeding her and cutting the cord. "I tossed the placenta… I should describe Last Ditch. It isn't quite on a cliff, but there's a sort of lookout area where you can see quite a ways down the mountain. I tossed the placenta off from there to make sure nothing got attracted to the came. Well, nothing else." "Probably a good choice," Peter said, "You'd probably have to bury that a good three feet or more, and you probably weren't up to that kind of activity at that point." Paige shook her head, "I was barely up to making a shelter. The bottom of the tent was pretty much ok, so I cut that free and used it to make a shelter against the big pine tree and the big boulder at the edge of the clearing, and pretty much passed out."

"I woke up to my watch alarm the next day, and knew that I needed to get to help. I just felt groggy and weak, and my leg felt like there was a board in it. It didn't really hurt yet, but it was getting there. I was maybe six hours downhill from the ranger station, and needed to get going quickly. I dumped everything from my pack except for some food, water and a first aid kit. Well, first I stitched up the wounds from the bear attack, which I think there's a picture of?" Adam nodded, and turned to the audience, "This is just a picture of the scars, not the fresh wounds ladies and gentlemen." The image flashed onto the screen, four long ropy scars that stretched across Paige's belly. "How deep were they?" Hailee asked. "Pretty deep," Paige answered, "The surgeon said afterward that the two middle ones actually managed to damage the outside of my uterus. Which, yeah, in hindsight, I remember the contractions I had after that hurting a lot worse than the previous ones. " "I should think so," Hailee said, going pale. "But I cleaned them and stitched them as best as I could. Then I made a sling for my girl and bundled up under my jacket. It wasn't really raining, but it was misting pretty good. And it was cold. I got warmed up while hiking, but not for long. After about five minutes, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes and had to stop. I had to stop and sit every five minutes or so. I'd feed my girl, eat something and keep going. I sort of started getting tunnel vision, and my ears were ringing. All I could do was keep walking. I don't know for how long, but eventually the terrain leveled off and I saw the ranger station and faintly heard someone shouting, and then I collapsed."

"Which is pretty much were my part starts," Peter said, "Like I said, she just appeared from the mist and collapsed. I called for help and ran over. She had fallen onto her side and was partially curled up. I got her onto her back and checked her vitals as best as I could. Her pulse was weak, she was barely breathing. There was blood on her jacket, and when we opened it up to see where it was coming from, we found the baby. We brought them both inside, and while I have training, this was a bit past my scope of expertise, so the others took over. Our lead ranger, Karla, used to be a nurse, so she took control, and personally took care of the baby. I radioed for a chopper to airlift the two out of there, and both were on their way to a hospital inside of twenty minutes." "So then you went down to see where she cam from," Adam prompted. Peter nodded, "That's right. The others were cleaning up our medbay, and I offered to see where she came from. Paige was unconscious pretty much the entire time she was with us, she only woke up a bit when we moved her to the chopper. Obviously we weren't going to interview her at that point, so I went to find her camp. I found everything, radioed back and took pictures of the site." The images came on screen, and the audience gasped at the carnage. The tent was hardly recognizable as a tent, a collapsed pile of support poles and orange fabric. Dried blood was smeared over a good portion of it. A bear bag was on the ground, torn to pieces from where Paige had left it. A crude shelter made of the tarp from the bottom of a tent was tied badly in place around a branch and pinned under a rock to provide a small hollow. The ground at the bottom was covered with a ruined sleeping bag, stained with more dried blood and other fluids. "It was pretty obvious that a bear had been through there, so once I got the pictures, I went back up to the station, and came back down later with an extra pair of eyes so we could box everything up."

"And that's pretty much it," Paige said, "I woke up in a hospital three days later. The doctors said that they repaired the damage to my uterus, but any future pregnancies are going to be classified as high risk, so no more hiking during pregnancy for me." "I'm amazed you'd want to," Hailee said with some honesty, "I mean, there's nothing wring with staying active during pregnancy, even right up till the end, but after that experience?" Paige shook her head, "I think it's more of a wistful thing now. That hike is going to be my last one up Verne's Peak." She stretched her leg out, "The first strike from the bear must have been worse than I thought. The doctors said that if I had stayed put and gotten carried out of there, I probably would have made a full recovery, but walking on it for however long it took me to reach help? It caused a lot of deep tissue damage and nerve damage that's pretty much permanent. I actually only graduated to a cane three months ago. But I'll never get my leg back to a hundred percent." "So no more hiking?" Adam asked, looking concerned. Paige shook her head, "Not for a while. I can do a couple of hours a day right now, maybe five if I push it, but the next day makes it feel like a log. Maybe when it's better, I'll be able to do easier trails, but my mountain hiking days are done, which… I'm sorry." Paige turned away and wiped a few tears away, "I knew that having a baby would mean I had to change my life, but not loosing mountains entirely." "But you and your baby made it out safe," Hailee said, taking one of her hands, "And that's what's important." Paige nodded, "I know, and it sounds selfish, but I wish I could do one last hike up there." Peter stirred, "Well, if you ever get to a point where you can go at all, I'm sure I speak for my entire team when I say we would be with you every step of the way."

Ok, for tomorrow's story, like I will mention in the pre-story notes, I needed a mountain that didn't fit any real life one, so I made one up. The problem with that is, I'm trying to do a LOT of detailing this mountain, and I can't help but feel that I fall far short of it. So, without further ado, my crappy attempt at making a trail map (I am not much of a visual artist)

Long live MS paint.

When I started posting stories on here, it was mostly based off of some advice I gave recently, which is along the lines of 'write the stories you want to read'.

So that's what I did, and felt like I was giving back to this community, which I've enjoyed for however many years. And apparently, you guys wanted to read those stories too. I never really paid too much attention to the numbers, because I didn't want to get discouraged with writing, and I felt that if even one person enjoyed what I wrote, I would be happy.

So I was beyond staggered and humbled to find that there are over 1500 of you who want to read the stories I've written. So to all of you, thank you! I never thought I'd have more than a few dozen, so thank you all so much!

Labor of Love, Pt. 1

A Valiantremnant original

Pre-story notes: Firstly, an important note. I get that the premise/setup of closing hospitals for the location of this story is somewhat topical, and genuinely, my heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves in this situation, be they a doctor or a patient. Moving on, with birth, there is a large 'mind-over-matter' mindset. If you go into labor in high spirits, it might still be difficult, but you'll at least be starting from a good point. If you go in feeling more defeated from the get go, it's only going to get worse from there. So I've put my characters though decent amounts of physical torment throughout my stories, I figured for once, I'll let labor just be labor, but play mind games. Extra note written while this story is awaiting release: I had not seen really any amount of Friends aside from the occasional clip that shows up on reels, so imagine my surprise when at someone's house, I found, essentially, the plot of this story being played out on tv! Extra extra note: This wound up being much longer than I intended, so I'm splitting it into two parts. But all things considered, it works out better that way.

CW/Ingredients List - Mostly emotional warfare and a difficult birth

~

Jenny Bird rubbed her belly, huffing through the latest contraction as a nurse wheeled her through the county hospital. Due to budget cuts, the hospital near her had shut down a few weeks prior to her due date, and had been forced to get a ride from a friend. The original, five minute drive replaced with a forty-five minute rush to the nearest hospital that, even though was much large than her own, preferred clinic, was far too small to be taking the sheer volume of patients from the city and surrounding towns. At least her OB was working at this one. Or was supposed to be. "But you're sure he's not in today?" Jenny asked as the Nurse leaned forward to push the elevator button to get them up to the labor and delivery ward. "I can check, but I think Dr. Kail called in today. But don't worry, Dr. Jay is just as good as Dr. Kail." Jenny didn't doubt that this Dr. Jay would be just as competent, but more importantly, whoever they were, they weren't her doctor. The nurse kept on talking while Jenny worried over this. "But the good news is right now we have an empty labor room. If you're lucky, you might not have to share before you give birth." "Wait, what?" "Well, we aren't really a large enough hospital to take on the patient influx we have been, and we're trying to keep up, we we've gone back to shared labor rooms. But it's all good, like I said, you get your own for now!" "No," Jenny protested, and put her hands down to try to stop the wheelchair, and she began to claw her way out of it, "I don't… I want to go home, I can't do this… AH! OWWW!" Just as the other contractions had been, this one felt like it ripped through her back and legs more than her belly.

Jenny, her hands now raw from trying to stop the wheelchair, writhed and tried to press where the pain was worse. By the time the contraction had ended, she found herself in a labor room that looks like it was dropped from another decade. Three beds were in a row, but could be separated by curtains. Or at least could have been. The tracks for the curtains were present, but the fabric walls themselves were gone. But the beds at least looked like they were new, or new-ish. "Let's get you into bed then," The nurse said, and helped Jenny get out of the wheelchair. Jenny knew she had a ways to go, but the amount of pain she felt when standing up was why she had wanted the wheelchair. "Can't I just stay here?" Jenny moaned, her breath hitching a the mere idea of getting up. "Sorry, but we'll need the chair. We'll have you in a gown and into bed in no time, you'll see." Jenny didn't remember much of that process, but eventually, she had a gown that exposed her back on, and she was laying, sobbing and gasping for breath on the bed. "Alright, we have the remote here, it controls the bed, the tv and has a nurse call button. Like I said earlier, we don't have a ton of women in labor right now, so we have enough rooms for privacy, but that could change." The nurse looked like she was about to say something else, but a beeping came from the pager at her side, and she checked it. "Sorry, I need to dash off. I'll check in on you soon, alright?"

The nurse was gone before Jenny could say anything. Before she could ask if her doctor was even in. If an epidural was possible. That if someone else came in, if curtains could be found. While she was quiet, or at least quieter between contractions, she could hear voices out in the hallway, the voices of nurses, doctors, other women in labor, and their partners. Something she didn't have. Her boyfriend, Greg, had cheated on her with a former high school… friend wasn't the right word, and while Jenny had never been the target of it, bully was the correct term. Once Jenny had walked in to see Greg and Crystal on their be-her bed! She had been the one to sign everything for the apartment and pay for everything, she had had kicked him out. Her grieving for the death of the relationship had nearly killed her, but she had managed to pull herself together and shape up. She buried her feelings at the gym, working harder than she ever had in her life. It hadn't taken long for her notice changes. Her arms were stronger, her shoulders were more defined, her legs were so fit she could almost imagine doing that trick where one crushes a watermelon in them, and her abs were cut to a razor's perfection. At least they were. No sooner than she had started getting noticeable improvements in that area when it seemed like all of her progress on her tummy had started undoing itself. After changing her regimen, her diet and even her fluid intake without any change, at least for the better, she went to the doctor. One positive pregnancy test later, and she knew that no amount of working out would flatten her belly. At least not for a while. She had kept working out during her pregnancy, enduring all of the comments and judgement of cramming her body into tight, moisture-wicking bodysuits for at the gym, and completely changed her lifestyle around. She had hoped that getting into the best shape in her life would help make the inevitable labor and delivery easier.

So far, it hadn't been. Hours after she had been put into the room, Jenny hadn't been able to get through a single contraction without nearly crying by the end of it. "Hi Jenny, how are you holding up?" "Oooooooooohhh….OW! I feel like I'm dying." "Oh no, let's look you over, ok?" The nurse helped get Jenny back into her bed, and propped her up to check her dilation. "Well, you're dilating nicely, looks like you're at five centimeters." "Five? Can I get an epidural?" The nurse pulled her hand out and stripped the glove off to throw away, "I can put in the request, but it might take a while, We only have one anesthesiologist here today, and she's tied up right now. But we'll get you numbed up as soon as we can, ok?" "Ok," Jenny mumbled, feeling miserable, and began writhing as another contraction began ripping mercilessly into her. "OW! HuuaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAGH! AH!"

When the contraction finally let her go, she saw that the nurse was still in the room. "Jenny, I know I said that we'd try to keep you in your own room for as long as we could, but we're starting to get some overflow. I initially came in here to tell you that your roomie will be in here in a few minutes." "Is there anywhere else?" "Sorry honey, but this is the last room we can use." "What about… there are tracks for curtains, can we get something put up as a divider?" "I can look, but I don't think we have anything that goes in those tracks anymore." The nurse left after a short word of encouragement and Jenny did her best to hold herself together for another few contractions. "Oh. My. God. Jenny? Of all the rooms in this hospital…" Jenny flinched, and turned in her bed to see the one person she didn't want to. Crystal was being helped into the other bed in the room, and the nurse left, saying something about getting swamped. "Crystal? What the hell are you doing here?" Jenny could feel her cheeks getting flushed, and not from labor. "I thought I'd have a baby, see where things go from there." Jenny knew she looked like a mess, her hair was disheveled, the little makeup she'd had on when she came into the hospital was a fading dream, and her eye were running with tears from the pain, and now the stress of Crystal showing up. Crystal on the other hand looked like a goddess of labor. Her hair was immaculate, her full face of makeup was flawless and even her nails were boasting a polished sheen as if she had just come from a spa and salon day and got interrupted by having a baby.

"Is it Greg's?" Crystal's voice came from across the room. "Shut up," Jenny moaned as she worked her way through another contraction, "OW owowowowowowowwwwwwWWWWW!" Crystal sighed and adjusted herself in her bed, rubbing her belly, "If it is Greg's, don't expect him to have to take on any responsibilities for it. He's mine, and I won't have you getting involved." 'The feeling is mutual,' Jenny thought to herself, but winced and held a hand to her own belly. She hadn't been able to stay in her bed. Laying back or on her side felt like hot irons were being pressed into her spine. Standing was tiring, but at least it offered some respite from the abuse her own uterus was putting her through. After a handful of contractions, Jenny began wondering why she hadn't heard so much as a peep from Crystal. At least nothing to indicate she was having contractions. She didn't like how much space Crystal was taking in her head, and tried to ignore it, but she couldn't help but discreetly watch for a moment. There! the monitor she was hooked up to was indicating she was having a contraction, but… As Jenny began to have a contraction of her own, the overwrought muscles in her belly rippling with pain and tension, she couldn't believe it. Crystal had merely closed her eyes, shifted slightly and was lightly moaning, a smile on her face. It was almost as if… "Ahhhhhhh…. Oh my god…" Crystal moaned, opening her eyes and looking at Jenny with something like fake remorse, "I'm sorry, I can't help that. Labor just feels so good, doesn't it?" Before Jenny could even think about responding, she was taken by yet another contraction.

It wasn't fair. Jenny was suffering, unable to even sit from the wretched throbbing and tearing in her back, one hand pressed there for support and the other under her massive stretchmark covered belly. She knew that negative thoughts were more than just unhelpful during labor, but she couldn't help but feel jealous at comparing her massive stretched out belly to Crystal's neat, cute, almost picturesque bump. "Hooooooooooo, Oh my goooooooddddd," Jenny moaned, her lips pressing together after and humming her way through the contraction, "HmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm….." As she did, she became aware of a sound from the other side of the room. her head snapped up and she could see Crystal's lips pressed together, making a humming noise of her own. At first, Jenny felt a surge of vindictive satisfaction, thinking that Crystal was starting to get a taste of what labor was REALLY like. But as she had another, and yet another contraction that she hummed through, with Crystal following suit, Jenny began to realize that Crystal wasn't doing it to cope at all. It was a small look that Crystal gave her, a sly smile that barely formed before it vanished, but Jenny saw it, and knew. Crystal was mocking her. "What-Augh!….. What are you doing?" Jenny bit out after a contraction fitfully died away. "Nothing," Crystal said with mock sweetness, "Just trying to have my baby. You're being awfully loud."

Before Jenny could say anything, her nurse came in, having clearly heard only the last bit, "Well, some women have more difficult labors than others. How are you holding up Jenny?" Jenny glared at Crystal, but decided not to bring it up, "Not great… can I get the epidural? My back is killing me!" The nurse nodded, helping Jenny into bed so she could check her, "She's out of the surgery she was in, and is making rounds right now. I can see if she can swing by this way. Does it feel worse if you're in bed? Like the only way you can get comfortable is when you're standing up and leaning over?" "Yeah…" Jenny whined, feeling her belly tighten up again as another contraction built up. "Yeah, that sounds like textbook back labor. I'll get you up to the top of the list. But good news, you're at six centimeters! It shouldn't be long now." The nurse left, leaving Jenny alone with Crystal again. "So, getting the epidural? Can't handle it naturally?" "Shut uuuuppp…" Jenny moaned as the contraction peaked, taking her breath away again.

It took another few contractions with Crystal mocking her during every single one before the anesthesiologist came through. "Hello there," The anesthesiologist said, bringing his cart to a stop, "Let's get you numbed up, ok? Stop that back labor." "Ok," Jenny mumbled, feeling defeated. She knew that it wasn't rational, but somehow, knowing that Crystal was in the same room, doing the same thing, yet not getting an epidural made her feel weak, and like a quitter. Getting the epidural was a nightmare. All she wanted to do through the three contractions while she was getting it was to move, to rock and to pace, but she had to sit on the edge of the bed, curled over and around her belly to let the anesthesiologist get at her with the needle. But after, she could feel it working right away. "Thank you…" Jenny moaned as the nurse helped her lay back into bed. She knew that she couldn't pace anymore with the epidural in, and now she was tethered with plethora of I.V. lines and monitors. But she knew that it wouldn't matter, cause now she could relax through them. She could feel her legs getting heavy, warm and somehow cold all at the same time, and soon, she couldn't move them at all. "Ok… that's better," She breathed to herself.

The next contraction took her off guard. "WhoaUUUUUGGHHHH! OWWWWWWwowowowowowowwwWWWWWW. Holy FUCK!" Jenny howled as she mashed down on the epidural button and tried to writhe away from the pain. The blissful feeling in her legs kept her from moving too much, but Jenny managed to sit more upright as she dug her hands into her back and belly as the contraction rolled around her torso, gripping and biting her back and belly with a fury. When it was done, Jenny collapsed back on her pillow, panting. "Epidural didn't take?" Crystal asked pointedly from her side of the room, "That's what happens when you try to not do it naturally. Oh! OW! Owowowow fuck!" Jenny could feel tears brimming in her eyes as Crystal mocked her own desperate cries. "It's fine!" Jenny snapped, barely able to see through her tears of pain and growing frustration, "It just needs more time to kick in." "Whatever. Just keep it down. You're making it difficult for me to focus." Jenny snarled silently, and settled back in, willing the numb sensation to move up. To leave her legs and settle into her belly. Her back. She just had to wait… just had to wait… just had to-

"Auuuugh! OWWWWWWw owowowowowohmygOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" Jenny screamed again through another contraction that was horrifically devoid of any sort of relief. The epidural wasn't helping, and she couldn't even get out of bed to help. "Oh my god, can you stop being so dramatic?" Crystal asked from the other side of the room. "SHUT UP!" Jenny sobbed, arching her back and shuddering as she tried to get through the contraction. This was a nightmare. Little did Jenny know though, it was about to get worse. The first came when Crystal's nurse came in and she overheard Crystal's question. "Is it possible to get moved to another room? I don't want to be rude, but she's making it hard to concentrate on my own labor." "I'm sorry," The nurse said, "But our rooms are all full right now. And unfortunately, unless we're moving you into the delivery room, we're not allowed to move patients around, it's a liability thing." Jenny didn't know if Crystal genuinely wanted to move, or was just making herself a victim in all of this, but the end result was the same. Jenny was stuck here until she got to 10 centimeters and was ready to push. The second thing that made it all worse was who came in next.

"How's my girl?" Greg asked as he came in and gave Crystal a hug. "I'm doing just fine honey," Crystal said, hugging Greg right back, "I think the classes are paying off, I keep having orgasms while I go!" "Nice," Greg said, giving her another squeeze. "And you'll never guess who my roomie is?" "You have to share a room?" "Yes, but look!" Crystal said, the sickly cheerful attitude clearly hiding a malicious enjoyment of Jenny's suffering. "Holy crap, Jenny?" Greg said, looking genuinely startled to see her, "You're here? In labor?" Jenny didn't respond, instead looking away, feeling fresh tears she didn't know she had left run down her face, as well as feeling another contraction building. "OoooooooHHHHH MY GOD! OWOWOWOWOWOW…." As she struggled to pull fresh air into her lungs, she could hear Crystal speaking with fake concern to Greg, "She opted for an epidural, but it failed, and now she has to deal with back labor without being able to move anymore. Isn't that awful?" "Geez, that sounds like it sucks," Greg agreed. At least for his part, Greg sounded like he actually meant it, if only a little.

"How are you doing Jenny?" The nurse asked when she came back in. "I wanna die…" Jenny moaned as she tried to writhe through the contraction, only to be hampered by the epidural's effects, "Why isn't it working?" "Have you pushed the button?" The nurse asked, checking everything that she could. "It isn't workinggggg," Jenny whined, even though she did her best to keep the pleading tones from her voice. "It might not be set up properly," The nurse said, "Let me check you dilation and we'll see if we have time to get it fixed, ok?" "Ok," Jenny mumbled, miserable. She had another two contractions back to back before the nurse pulled her gloves on to check. Jenny tried to hold still for the check, but with as much as she was going through, she wouldn't help but pathetically trying to roll away, her numb legs still completely useless. "You're at a solid… I'd say eight? But it feels stretchy, so I'd actually call that nine. I don't think we have time to get that epidural fixed sweetie. But I'll let the doctor know, and we should have you pushing soon." The nurse left, and Jenny broke down.

Her face was buried in her hands as she sobbed. It was so unfair! Everything was going wrong! She couldn't labor the way she wanted to because of the back pain, she couldn't get pain relief that worked, and worst of all- "See, that's why I wouldn't get the epidural. It would be so crushing for it to not work if I gave up and got it." "SHUT UP!" Jenny screamed, the sudden jolt her body gave for the effort trigging another tsunami of a contraction. She'd never got why people called contractions waves, but now she did. She felt like she was drowning in contractions, each one squeezing her, ripping the air from her, and just when she thought she could breath, another one came crashing over her, starting the process all over again. "Not that you'd need it baby," Greg said in a sickly sweet voice to Crystal, "You're so strong." Mid contraction, all Jenny could do was struggle not to cry, the hitching motion making the pain unbearable.

But despite her efforts, each time she sobbed, she was becoming aware of a new sensation building, one that filled her with dread. Deep in her hips, she could feel pressure. It was almost time. Jenny could almost hear her hips creaking as something massive began making it's way down. "Whoa, noooo," She groaned, trying to open her legs up, but only succeeding in making them twitch limply. Using her arms, Jenny managed to get herself positioned better, and struggled through the next contraction. Both her efforts to move and the contraction only made the pressure worse, a feeling that told her that not only did the epidural not help her aching belly, it also wouldn't dull a single sensation while pushing. Pushing! She had to push it out soon! "I change my mind, I wanna c-section!" Jenny began pleading to no one at first, but then to the doctor as he came in. "Only if you need one," He said, pulling gloves on, "We don't really have the resources to do voluntary cesareans at the moment…" "I can't! The pressure is so bad, AIIIEE!" Jenny yelped as the doctor went in and checked her without so much as asking. "Yeah, I'd say that you're at a nine for sure… No, I'd say nine and a half. Let's get her into delivery." "What? Right now?" Jenny panicked, her breathing coming fast and then strangling off as she had another contraction. "Yes ma'am, between the pressure and your dilation, you're ready to push." The nurse had gone over to the phone in the room, and was speaking softly, "Can we get a delivery room ready for Ms. Jenny Bird? We'll be right over."

As the Doctor and Nurses swarmed, getting Jenny's bed ready to roll, Crystal made a soft sound of surprise, and she pulled her blankets down. "Oh my god, is that my water? I think my water broke!" Jenny was too preoccupied to care, but the last thing she heard from the labor suite was the nurse calling for Crystal's doctor, "I think she's just about fully dilated." The hallway Jenny was wheeled down was both the longest and the shortest Jenny had ever experienced. On one hand, she knew that getting to the delivery suite meant that her labor would end and the pain would stop, and that made the journey seem to take forever. On the other hand, giving birth meant that her first true step into raising her baby would begin, and the dread that filled her with made the trip seem all too short. "Oh my god, I think I want to push!" She groaned as she felt another contraction, the last one she would have outside of the delivery suite. "Don't push yet," The doctor said, "I gotta help you that last little bit so your don't hurt yourself. Just pant until we get there, ok?" "But I want to push!" Jenny wailed as the bed was wheeled into the delivery suite. At least these were private. Jenny didn't know how she would have pushed her baby out if she'd had to share this space with Crystal and Greg.

"Ok Jenny, you ready to have this baby?" Jenny couldn't answer as the next contraction had started, "Hnnnnnggggggg!" "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't push yet," The doctor said as the overhead light was turned on and aimed at Jenny vagina, now exposed with her sheets ripped away and her gown hiked up above her belly. "I… I can't stop!" "You need to wait until I can help you, just breathe!" Jenny began hyperventilating. The pressure felt like someone was trying to rip her pelvis apart. All she wanted to do was find a comfortable position and push with everything she had. Not being able to move very well, she would have settled for pushing, but even that option was being denied to her. "Please, please hurry!" She cried as the contraction faded, only to ramp back up almost as soon as it had faded, "NooooOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGHHH! AUGH! PLEASE HURRY!" "Ok Jenny," The doctor said, "I'm going to help move that last bit of cervix out of the way and then we can get this show rolling!" Before Jenny could ask what meant, she felt the doctor's hand going deep inside her. She screamed, trying with all her might to buck her hips to get the hand out. All she wanted to do was push something out, and now something was trying to go in? But the worst was yet to come. With her next contraction, she knew she couldn't hold back from pushing any more, and pushed with all her might, only to feel a sharp jab at her cervix, and a sensation of hard pinching inside.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! OW, OW, OW! STOP IT!" "You need to push Jenny," The doctor said between her legs, "Push and I can stop." "I am pushing!" she shrieked, but the doctor shook his head. "You're wasting all your energy when you scream, take a deep breath, hold it and push!" Jenny did her best to follow his instructions, but the pressure behind her eyes and in her cheeks grew unbearable. She was faintly aware of the nurses holding her legs back counting down from ten, and she thought she made it farther than seven, but got lectured again when she fell back, panting and gasping for air. "Jenny, you need to buckle down and push. If you only push for like, three seconds, you're never going to have this baby." Jenny started crying at the seemingly harsh words, and she heard one of the nurses talking to her. "When you hold your breath, hold it in your chest and belly, not your cheeks. It'll help, ok?" Jenny nodded, and began whimpering as she felt another contraction. Taking a deep breath, she tried doing what she'd been told, and to her amazement, this push didn't hurt her head as much. But it did hurt her vagina more, and she felt the doctor dig harder into her cervix as she did. She wanted to stop, but found that she couldn't her body was pushing on it's own, a frantic, unyielding drive that took her breath away. Just as she felt her vision swimming, she felt something inside lurch and she gasped, pulling in a huge lungful of air as she felt the baby jolt down.

"That's the cervix gone Jenny," The doctor said, pulling his hand out, "Let's have a baby!" Jenny was crying too much to answer, her whole body shaking with her sobs. She watched the doctor and a pair of nurses going through items on a metal tray that all terrified her. Scissors, scalpels, clamps, and more items she didn't recognize. But after all too short of a rest period, she felt another contraction and tried to squirm into a more comfortable position, the dead weight of her legs making the task difficult. "Oh, here we go again," a nurse said, and helped pull her legs back. Jenny hooked her hands behind her knees and flinched as she felt the doctor's fingers press into her vagina. "No, don't touch me," She whimpered, her voice nearly lost with how tired and breathless she was, but couldn't repeat herself as she was fully taken in by the contraction. "That's it Jenny, push push push push puuuush!" "Oooooohhhhh… HaaaaaAAAAAAARRRRGH! OW! AAAAAHHH!" It felt like as she pushed, something was trying to push the baby back up, or at least stop it. Jenny gave everything she had, and still, at the end of the contraction, the pressure barely felt lower than it had before. "Why isn't it coming," She moaned, letting her arms flop down. "It's just because baby is posterior," The nurse next to her said, "It's just going to be a bit more work to get them here, but you got this!" Jenny didn't feel like she had this, but another contraction took her focus before she could do anything about it. "Hoo…hooo… HooooUUUUAAAAARRRGH!"

"Good push Jenny, good job!" The nurse reassured Jenny after what seemed like an eternity. Jenny was no longer capable of verbally responding between contractions, instead just weeping bitterly between pushes. Looking at the clock on the wall, Jenny figured she had been pushing for roughly an hour, and didn't feel like she was making any progress. Each contraction kept building pressure, and if she could, Jenny would have been writhing to try to make it stop. She wanted to change position, hands and knees, squatting, anything, but her numb legs wouldn't cooperate, so she had to stay in place. The best she could do was wiggle back further into the bed, only to get pulled back down by the nurses each time. "I think we should try the vacuum," The doctor said quietly to the nurse who was helping him between Jenny's legs. Jenny could barely pay attention, and hardly noticed as the nurse began setting up on the bits of equipment on the metal tray, a pump attached to a cup with some tubes. "Jenny, I know you said you didn't want a c-section, but your baby isn't making any progress. I want you to give everything you have on this next push, and we'll see how things are sitting, ok?" Jenny nodded miserably, and braced herself for the next push. "HooooooOOOOAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH….. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGHH!" As much as she tried, Jenny couldn't keep quiet, no matter how many times the nurses and doctor told her that screaming wasted energy. But given how long she had been pushing, Jenny didn't think that the occasional screaming was doing much overall. The doctor grimaced and shook his head. "Jenny, I'd like to try a vacuum pump. It's very simple, I just put this cup on the baby's head, and I'll help guide it down. I think once we get it started, it should come out much easier. What do you think." "Fine, yes, please, yes," Jenny sobbed, to broken to care what happened so long as the baby came out. It didn't take long for her to regret that mindset.

The doctor started by inserting the cup. She could feel every curve and feature of the instrument as the doctor slowly pushed it and his hand inside her vagina. "Oh gooooddd!" She moaned, trying to squirm back in the bed and away from the feeling. "Jenny, I need you to hold still for me," The doctor said, and nodded at one of the nurses. The nurse came and helped hold Jenny steady while the cup was pushed in until it was on the baby's head. Once it was in, the doctor began pumping on the handle, and Jenny groaned. She could feel the cup sucking further in and flattening, and she tried to move again, only to be guided back to the edge of the bed. "Ok, now Jenny, next contraction, I want you to give it all you got. When I start pulling, we're gonna feel some progress, but you gotta keep pushing through whatever you fell, or it's gonna hurt the baby. Can you do that?" Jenny nodded, unable to speak, her chest tight from fear. Fear of things going wrong, fear of what was about to come, and fear that it would never be over. Her belly hurt each time she sobbed, but she couldn't stop. The only thing that could make her stop were the endless contractions, which didn't leave her enough breath or energy to cry.

The next contraction came well before Jenny was ready. Her sobbing halting as she felt every one of her muscles clamping down, Jenny arched her back and began to push. Then the doctor pulled on the vacuum. Her eyes shot open and she let out her breath in an explosive scream, her back arching against the sudden intense pressure that built up and began to drive down into the deepest parts of her hips. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! OH MY GOD! OW, STOP IT!" But no matter what she screamed, the doctor didn't stop. And his warning about her not pushing now could hurt the baby, she sucked in a deep breath and pushed into the building pressure. She pushed and pushed as hard as she could, but no matter how much effort she put into pushing, the baby didn't seem to be descending any faster than what the doctor pulled. A part of her began to wonder if she could have delivered the baby without assistance at all, or if she was too weak to do so. But she kept pushing as hard as she could, her teeth gritted so hard her jaw began cramping. The contraction began to let up, and Jenny let out her breath, shuddering and panting, but still the doctor didn't stop pulling. Panicked, Jenny rallied herself and began to push again, the sensation feeling far weaker without the contraction, and she wiggled her hips trying to help the pressure move faster.

"Need… to… stop…" Jenny grit out after another minute of this. The doctor blinked and looked at the monitor in surprise, "Whoops, kept that one going a little long there. Ok, let's have a look and see…" He took one of monitors strapped to Jenny's belly and began probing the bottom of her belly and moving down. "There we are, that's some good progress. Tell you what, I think on the next contraction, we might get the head out. You ready to have your baby?" Jenny nodded, and began groaning as the next contraction began to build. "Ok, let's go," The doctor said, and began pulling again. "AAAAAAAAUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGH! OW!" "Try to keep that inside," The nurse told Jenny. "YOU TRY!" Jenny howled, and bore down again. Then she felt it. Her lips began pulling apart and stretching, the feeling so alike the sensation in her birth canal she could barely tell the difference. But it quickly grew worse, as if instead of a vacuum tube, the doctor had shoved a hot brand into her vagina. "OH MY GOD!" Jenny screamed as she felt the head stretching her wider and wider. And with an audible pop and a jerk that send shocks of pain through Jenny's entire body, the cup came off of the head. "There we go," The doctor said, and stuck a finger in, running it around the edge of Jenny's lips, making her shudder with the overstimulation of her most sensitive area, "Told you we'd see the head. Now if you still have the contraction, give us a nice big push." "It's… It's gone," Jenny moaned, panting, her mind buzzing from the pain of the full crown in her hips. "Ok, let's give you time to stretch then."

The next contraction seemed to both take forever and come all too soon. Jenny felt her belly starting to seize up and she shifted uncomfortably. "Oh godddddddd," She groaned, deep and low as she gathered everything she had left and pushed as hard as she could. As she pushed, she began making a whining noise in the back of her throat as she felt the burning growing, getting more and more intense. She could feel her heartbeat pulsing in the ring of fire, each pulse making the sensation burn hotter and hotter… Until with a sudden release, she felt the burning vanish! Not entirely, but it dropped to a much lower point so quickly, she fell back and just panted and groaned in relief. "And that's a head," The doctor said, but Jenny could barely pay attention. The head had barely come out before the baby began turning and Jenny made a gagging noise. She almost felt sick at the slick sensation of the mass of the baby roiling inside of her, repositioning itself for the final push. And with a final surge of effort and pressure, Jenny pushed one last time and felt the body tumbling it's way out of her. "And we have a baby!" The nurse who had dragged Jenny back into position over and over again shouted as the baby began crying. The cord was cut and the baby was taken to get examined right away. On one level, Jenny hated that. She had read about the benefits of immediate skin to skin, but she was so worn and so mentally disconnected from everything that she didn't think she could have safely held the baby at first. To her, it was still, 'the baby' not 'my baby.' But after a few seconds, it was brought back to her and she felt her heart swelling, and her mind sharpening into clear focus. "Here's your baby," The doctor said, laying the bundle on Jenny's chest.

Despite her initial mind fog, Jenny bonded quickly, crying and smiling at her little girl. "Only five and a half pounds?" Jenny asked, disbelieving. "Sometimes their position can make the descent a little difficult," The doctor said, "But that is awfully small…" Jenny felt another contraction and groaned, shifting her hips. The epidural was starting to wear off a bit, and she had some movement back, but everything still felt heavy and sluggish. "Ah, that will by the placenta," The doctor said, and grabbed one of the steel trays, ready to catch the afterbirth. Jenny groaned and strained, feeling her belly ripple and seize again. "Just push like you did for your baby," The nurse said, "And it should come right out." "She didn't come right out," Jenny murmured before feeling something solid press into her hips. She groaned as she felt an all too familiar pressure driving down. "Oh god, I think there's another baby," She groaned, twisting as far as she could while still holding her daughter. "No, that's just the placenta," The nurse said, but the doctor cleared his throat. "Uh, can I get a monitor in here, that felt… pretty solid." Blinking, the nurse grabbed the fetal monitor and pressed it to Jenny's partially deflated belly. And everyone fell silent as another heartbeat began pulsing over the speakers. "Did you know you were having twins?" The doctor asked, his eyes wide. Jenny shook her head, and began groaning as she felt another contraction building.

"Page the station, get a second set of care gear here," The doctor said, and turned back to Jenny," Why don't you let the nurse take her for a bit, this is going to be a pretty intense feeling down here." As soon as Jenny handed her baby off to one of the nurses, the doctor put his fingers in her. And he didn't stop there. Jenny gagged and writhed, feeling the doctor's whole hand and wrist feeding slowly inside of her. "Oh my GOD! What are you DOING?" Jenny screamed. "I need to see what position baby is in," The doctor said, pulling his hand out, "But it feels like it's head down, so I think we're good to go if you wanna do it vaginally?" Before Jenny could answer, another contraction drove into her, and she curled forward, gripping the rails of the bed and pushing as hard as she could. "Whoa, I guess that's a yes. Ok yes, Jenny, push, push, push, push, push, push, puuuush." Jenny felt her thighs quivering as she pushed even harder, the head of the second baby stretching her birth canal all over again. If anything, it felt bigger than the first. But it was coming faster. "OH GOD! MAKE IT STOP!" Jenny screamed as she felt her lips stretching open into the ring of fire once again. "Keep going Jenny, push, push, push…" Jenny didn't have a choice but to keep pushing. And she knew that if the doctor said 'push' one more time, she would try to kick him in the head. She knew she had to push, she didn't need him to remind her to do that. "You are so close Jenny, you gotta push, push, puuuush… "I know I need to push! Fuck!" Jenny howled as she bore down. She tried to kick the doctor, but only barely managed to make her leg spasm, half jumping out of the stirrup and landing flat. The nurse grabbed it and shoved it back. "OWWWW! OW OW OW, STOP IT!" Jenny shrieked, before she felt her belly seize again and she was unable to do anything but push as hard as she could. "And there we go!" The doctor shouted as the baby went from a full crown to spilling out in the span of that single last push.