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"She's nesting again, isn't she..." Raven leaned in the doorway of the baby's room and watched in quiet amusement as Yeande continued to bustle about the place, here and there in an effort to clean up things that only really seemed to be noticed by herself.

"Yup." Omi was watching as well, head tilted to the side curiously as she paid close attention to each detail. Was this what happened to all women who were pregnant? Granted, she was a neat freak herself, but this was just a BIT much. She wasn't sure she could handle being this obsessive.

Snickering, Raven just shook her head and grabbed Omi's arm. "C'mon. I'm only home for a couple of days, let's go get some ice cream!"

Yeande let her face break into a smirk as the two girls dove for the kitchen. She could hear them both perfectly well, even if they were trying their best to be quiet. While they seemed to find amusement in her, she seemed to be finding it in them as well. Part of her wondered if their child would be as curious and inventive.

Of course, Youko would likely call it 'nosy and sneaky', especially today. The fox was in bed with one of his migraines, and had threatened anyone who woke him with painful, agonizing death.

So, naturally, this was the day that Yeande's body decided to pull the ultimate joke on her. As she padded to the crib and set a blanket carefully inside, she felt a bit of a twinge in her stomach. It wasn't enough to bother her, just enough to make her stop and lay her hand against her belly. "Strange," she murmured, letting her fingers splay over the short she wore. That was when she looked down and saw that the pants she wore were now soaked, looking as though she'd wet herself, when she knew she'd done no such thing. "Uh oh.... RAVEN!"

The coon girl darted into the room almost immediately and skidded to a stop with wide eyes when she saw Yeande's condition. "Oh man, you're making me go wake him up, aren't you...."

"Better you than me. I don't think I can make it up the stairs and I have the baby to consider."

Rolling her eyes, Raven turned and caught sight of Omi in the doorway just before the girl could slink away. "Jan ten po?" she asked, grabbing hold of one of the Fa'e child's wings and yanking her back in.

"Jan ten po," Omi muttered darkly, half glaring up at her older 'sister'. The two of them held out their right fist then, dropping them three times in succession as they chanted the words 'Jan... ten... po!' and made their guesses. Raven's hand was closed into a tight fist, while Omi's was laid out flat. "HAH!" she crowed, grinning at the coon girl. "YOU go wake him up." With that, she was gone, vanishing out into the backyard where she MIGHT be safe. (For those wondering, Jan ten po is exactly like Rock paper scissors.)

Raven glared after the girl, then turned to Yeande. "You get your bag ready, I'll go wake up Mr. Hyde."

Mr. Hyde indeed... Yeande had not-so fond memories of having to bother Youko in one of his modds before. Hopefully, once he found out WHY he was being woken, he'd let Raven live and drive Yeande to the hospital. First thing she was doing, however, was changing clothes. She still only felt 'funny', so she had plenty of time to actually get ready and go. First a shower, THEN she'd go.

Youko, who was now stumbling down the stairs in a haze after having taken enough migraine meds to make a broken bone seem like just a hassle, stopped as he saw Yeande moving towards the bathroom. "Shower only," he muttered, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "Don't take a bath if your water broke already. Lemme know when you're ready, I need to go find something to make me coherent again." He moved into the kitchen then, and Yeande could hear him readying a pot of coffee and telling Raven to help him get things prepared to go. The foxcoon just seemed relieved that this WAS considered a 'good reason' for waking him up.

It took her perhaps a half an hour to get herself clean enough to feel better. Yeande still felt 'funny', but assumed that was just because her body knew it was in labour, even if it wasn't making it agonizingly obvious. The 'twinges' were getting a bit worse, however, and she knew that she should likely get going soon. "Someone call over to Karma's and have them call Talon?" she called on her way back to her room to get her bag.

"Already did," Youko said, holding up Yeande's bag to stop her halfway through the hall. "C'mon, let's go. Your pregnancy went really fast, I'm not going to wait and have you give birth in the car."

Nodding, Yeande moved to follow him, her mind racing. She'd heard horror stories about labour and childbirth, and now they were all coming back to her. As she made her way out to the car, she just hoped that SOMEONE got hold of Talon soon. Even though Youko would be there if needed, she didn't want to go through this without him.

The honda did not so much pull into the parking garage across from the GMFC so much as it screeched in sideways, fishtailed, and then righted itself. Talon was still a shaky driver under -good- conditions, and found that he was utterly horrid under present circumstances. In the process of leaving Dolphin and arriving at the Gaian Maternity and Fertility Clinic, he had nearly crashed twice, narrowly avoided running over a jaywalker, almost plowed over a cat, and by some minor miracle, had not been noticed by the police in doing so.

No sooner was the car in park than a very wired ijiuo tore from the confines and darted across the street without looking, ignoring the protesting honks from irate motorists. A moment later he arrived at the GMFC's doors and elbowed them open, heading straight for the desk. If any of the mothers and children there for visits or appointments had given him strange looks, he hadn't noticed. Or cared.

The receptionist favored the distraught antlered man approaching him with an arched eyebrow and little else as Talon nearly collapsed on the desktop, catching his breath a moment before trying to speak.

"They brought Yeande in. Where is she?" he asked, his voice sounding like a croak. Thankfully in a clinic that was as intimate as the GMFC, most of the staff was well-aware of who their patients and patients' partners were on a first-name basis. That and they seldomly dealt with more than one labor at a time and only one woman had been admitted for childbirth recently that he was aware of.

"Room eight." he stated, pointing at a hallway that people other than staff were seldomly allowed into. "And you're the father?" it was moreso a statement than a question. Of COURSE he was the father. They all had the same look of panic to some degree when they arrived. Talonfaust muttered something that may have been a yes, but was already heading in the direction indicated. "Doctor Jenkins is already on her way." the receptionist called after him casually and then returned to his work as though nothing had happened.

Talon stood uncertainly in the doorway as he listened to Youko speak to him, not quite hearing him and then watched the foxdemon leave. It was odd...all throughout the pregnancy he had complained that he hadn't wanted anyone else in the room because there were some things the others didn't need to be involved in. Yet he had a crazy urge to call out to Youko's retreating back and ask him to stay.

In the end, he held his silence and turned to the bed where Yeande was huddled. Drawing a deep breath, he approached and knelt, smoothing the commas and wisps of dark hair away from her face. "Yeande...?" he asked gently. He was not about to ask if she was all right since she was clearly anything but.

"I'm not going anywhere." he assured her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze and leaning in to kiss her forehead. Inwardly, he was fuming. WHY wouldn't they give her anything for it? That was utterly ridiculous...especially when she was clearly in pain. "Its going to be all right...and you'll only have to do this once, I promise."

He was sure of that much, at least. HE sure as hell didn't have plans to go through this or put her through it again.

Talon held Yeande as she was examined and the assistant slipped out of the room as quickly as she'd arrived. He looked after the woman briefly with narrowed eyes as a remark about how friendly they were around here surfaced to his lips but wasn't said. The staff and what they were up to wasn't what was important at the moment anyway. He was moreso focused on his wife.

Yeande wasn't someone who succombed to pain easily, so he found her current state worrisome. Even when she'd occasionally knick herself with a kitchen knife, she would have moreso of a reaction to the fact she'd just gotten blood on her shirt than to the fact her hand had been cut.

"You'll be fine." he whispered, feeling like he was babbling senseless words of encouragement, but he didn't know what else to do in this situation. A moment later there were footsteps from the doorway again and he turned abruptly, just in time for the same assistant to hand him a styrofoam cup and a plastic spoon.

"To keep her hydrated." The woman explained, smiling before leaving once more. Talon blinked and peered into the cup, greeted by the sight of chipped ice. Here he'd thought the Expectant Fathers chat channel had been full of s**t, and they were telling the truth. Gods be damned...ice chips, of all things.

Shaking his head, he set the cup and spoon aside for the moment. Perhaps when there was a lull in the waves, he'd ask if she wanted them.

As her claws dug into his flesh, producing thin pink scrapes and threatening to draw blood, Talon gritted his teeth and fought the urge to pry her fingers off. "You can do this, Yeande." he assured her in a steady voice that he didn't feel as one eye strayed to the door watchfully. As soon as that assistant or doctor or whatever-the-hell she was came back, he was going to demand they do something.

"I know you can." he kept talking, trying to offer encouragement. "You've never backed down from anything in your life...you haven't let ME back down either."

"Can't you give her anything?" Talon asked, not entirely caring if the question sounded polite or not. Courteousy was a luxury he couldn't afford much of at the moment...maybe later, when all of this was over, he would apologize for any nastiness that took place on their part.

"The GMFC's policy is to provide natural and healthy child birth." the woman told him in her agonizingly-cheery voice that made the statement sound like she was reading it straight from a pamphlet with cheery illustrations. "So, no, I'm afraid I can't."

"You have to have SOMETHING!" the ijiuo snapped. This was ridiculous.

"She's doing a wonderful job." the assistant assured him. "She doesn't need--"

"How many times have YOU had a baby??" Talon demanded, his patience with the woman snapping. "Look at her! She's been in agony that's only getting worse and you're pretending not to notice it!" The woman's smile faltered and then thinned.

"Mister Breslin..." she said in a voice that now meant business. "Please lower your voice or I'll have to ask you to move to the waiting area. I understand that she's in pain, but I'll ask YOU to understand that the women who've birthed here before her have managed to do so without being medicated. As of now, we've seen no sign of complications and no need for any drugs."

((note: we were given permission to puppet Dr. Jenkins by Tara since she said she likely wouldn't be here for the birth RP))

As though on cue, there was the sound of rapidly-approaching footsteps and Dr. Jenkins appeared a moment later, still fumbling her hands into a pair of latex gloves. "I didn't mean to take so long. Rush hour traffic was just starting when I got the call." she informed any and all of them. "How is she?" her eyes turned to the assistant.

"Doing fine," the woman assured her, and then lowered her voice to a whisper so that neither ijiuo could hear it. "if a bit melodramatic."

One of Talon's tapered blue ears twitched, having heard her just fine and fixing her with a withering glare. No, they were never doing this again...EVER. He nestled beside the bed as best as he could from where he knelt on the floor, his head resting protectively over hers and, though he knew it was awful to think so, wishing he somehow could have gone back in time a few months and prevented any of this from happening to her.

Dr. Jenkins gave Yeande an appraising look and furrowed her brow. This wasn't melodrama, and she'd been worried this might happen. The female ijiuo had narrow hips that were far from ideal for birthing and she'd warned her that it would likely be a complicated labor on the secondary checkup they'd had just a couple of weeks ago. Yeande had not struck her as a weak woman in the times they'd met, and her current state was worrying.

"How far is she dilated?"

"Almost fully now, Doctor." Dr. Jenkins bit her lip thoughtfully.

"Get me 100 micrograms of hydromorphone."

"But there isn't time for that..." the assistant protested.

"There isn't time for an epidural, but I think we can still help her a little, don't you?" the brown eyes behind the spectacles dared the other woman to argue. She opened her mouth as though to do just that, closed it, sighed, and left the room. Once she was gone, Dr. Jenkins smiled and moved to examine Yeande herself.

"This is all going to be over very soon now." she assured both Yeande and Talon. "I'm going to give you a very small dose of medicine that's going to deaden the pain but keep you alert enough so you can push when the time comes, all right?"