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 Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:44 am
With some assistance, despite her insistance she didn't need it, Karma was brought back to the dealer's den to wait. That was all she was able to do, really, was wait until SOMEONE came to help her whether it was her husband or the paramedics.
"Here, move that table back. Let's make her comfortable." the young man on her right said, dropping Karma's arm to run forward and start scooting aside a currently-vacant dealer's table.
"Hey, is she okay?" one of the older artists inquired, looking up from the sketchbook he was working on and squinting through his glasses at the prone foxcoon who was flushing brightly, head down, and trying her damnnest not to be noticed.
"She'll be all right once the ambulance gets here. Just keep doing what you're doing."
"Ambulance??" this time it was one of the passersby who was wearing a long black trenchcoat and large furry brown pawgloves. "What happened?"
"Just...mind your own business, okay?" the hotel staff worker said impatiently as he tore a tablecloth from its resting place and wadded it into more or less of a pillow on the floor before moving to assist Karma in laying down. "Here...easy, now."
"I'm going to kill him..." the foxcoon grunted as she settled onto the floor, tears prickling the corner of her eyes as her abdomen squeezed and cramped unbearably. Sure, THEY could wait for the paramedics. DAVE could take his sweet time coming back. They had all of the time in the world. As for her, she had however long her body said she did, and at the moment, it seemed to have forgotten that it was, in fact, a body and seemed to think it was a vice.
Karma's face contorted in pain as a bead of sweat trickled down her brow as another contraction struck. The truth of the matter, very simply, was that this baby was not planning on being polite enough to wait for the paramedics and, even as she laid there, could feel something impossibly large beginning to shift downward within her.
"Are you all right? Can I get you anything?" a voice to her left was saying. Karma didn't answer and, instead, drew in her breath, exhaling a long loud wail in counterpoint to her pain.
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!!!"
Under better circumstances she would have marvelled at such a large noise coming out of her, the way it silenced everyone around her and seemed to reverberate off of the convention hall for several minutes. However, at the moment she was just glad it seemed to have its desired effect.
"I'm here!!" came a faint response from the other side of the den, followed by pounding footsteps as a thin-framed blue skunk careened across the room, shoving congoers out of his way left and right. He did not so much kneel at his wife's side as he did fall and skid across the carpet until he was more or less in her viscinity. "I'm here!" he repeated again, panting thickly.
"Its about goddamn time!" she hissed through clenched teeth as he reached out to smooth her sweat-matted hair from her brow.
"Are you all right? Can you make it to the car, do you think?" he asked.
"There's an ambulance on the way, sir."
"I don't think I can wait that long..." Karma whimpered, breathing shallowly in small little puffs as though it might stave off the pain.
"How bad is it?" Dave asked.
"Pretty bad." she replied through gritted teeth, face screwed up in a wince as she planted both hands on her belly and gave a mewl. David and the staffer exchanged worried glances and, without another word, the young man scurried off, leaving Dave and Karma to their own devices.
"Its going to be all right." the blue skunk attempted to assure his wife as he twined his fingers with hers.
"No it isn't..."
"Sure it is. The paramedics will get here, we'll get you to a hospital, you'll have the baby, and it'll be great. You'll see."
Her fingers contracted on his hand and she drew in a gasp as another contraction squeezed her body.
"Dave...don't lie to me." she panted, arching her back. "s**t...David, I'm having this baby."
"I know you are, just hold on--"
"No. I'm HAVING this baby..." she snapped, reaching down to clumsily unbutton her jeans, oblivious to the fact they had, by now, attracted a crowd.
"Oh my gawd, is she taking her pants off??" someone gasped. There was a murmur of unease from the assembled fanboys as she impatiently wadded her pants around her ankles and kicked out of them.
Her body involuntarily pushed again, making a yelp escape her throat. The pain was enormous...like she was being split in half as, with maddening slowness, the baby within her nudged its way, bit-by-bit, into existance.
"Holy s**t, dude...!" someone else whispered.
"What? You've seen girls down there before..." his friend chided.
"Dude...dude, it was never doing -tricks- before..."
Karma's ears flattened along the bullet of her skull and her eyes squeezed shut tightly, seeming to disappear from view behind their black mask. She didn't care about the gawkers. She didn't care about the remarks. She was lost, tossed in her own personal sea of agony as the birthing began.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:19 am
"Dave....?"
"I'm here. Its okay, just push."
"It hurts...god, it hurts so bad...!"
"I know, it'll be over soon. Its all right."
"Can't they--don't they have -anything- to make it stop hurting?"
"Its a hotel, Karma. Maybe some aspirin...you're doing fine."
"How the hell do YOU know...?? You're not a doctor! I---aghhh!"
Push
"I can see something...! Her head, I think! Push again!"
"Christ, give me a minute..."
"Come on, one more good one."
"I'd like to see YOU do this, god dammit! You think its easy??"
"I never said it was easy. Come on, now..."
"I'll push when I'm ready to push! Don't--nghh!"
Push
"I--I've got her! Karma, she's here...oh my god, she's beautiful..."
"Let...let me see...give her to me."
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:40 am
When the paramedics trooped into the room nearly ten minutes later, all of it was over. The cord had been cut with a borrowed pocket knife and tied off and the afterbirth had been delivered into the tablecloth which had then been quietly disposed of.
Karma, exhausted and sore, reclined on the floor with their new daughter sound asleep on her chest, wrapped in David's jacket. The baby, after she had been cleaned up, looked very much like her mother with the same chocolate fur, white underbelly, and black hair. However, the leafhopper DNA had left a very prominant mark on the child as well.
Large red-and-blue insect wings protruded from her back and her fur was swirled with tints of azure, scarlet, and gold. To complete the odd illusion, a small series of spines protruded from the sides of her arms and legs
No wonder she hurt so much coming out... Karma thought idly, running a fingertip along the tiny protrusions inquisitively.
"So that's what it looks like when you and me reproduce..." David smiled, crooking a finger and reaching out to gingerly run it along the infant's cheek.
"Something like that..." she chuckled, wincing as she did so. Oww...
A stretcher was being placed next to her as the paramedics prepared to transfer her onto it and carry her and the baby out to the ambulance so that they could be rushed to the hospital for observation.
"Did you ever decide on a name?" he inquired.
"Mmhmm....Aislynn Rose." Karma smiled gently down at the sleeping baby.
"Aislynn like your middle name?"
"It was my great-grandma's name. That's where I got it." she explained. "And Rose, I...I don't know. It seemed fitting."
"Ma'am, we're going to need to take her from you now." one of the paramedics informed Karma. The new mother bristled defensively, not wanting to give up her baby to anyone, but then, reluctantly, released Aislynn into their care.
The infant gave a squawk of discontent as she was removed from her mother's warmth and immediately wrapped in a blanket as they suctioned out her nostrils and throat.
As this was taking place, Karma found herself lifted and placed on the stretcher which was then bumpily carried out of the conference room with Dave scampering after them.
The room, for several moments, remained silent as its occupants reflected on what they'd just witnessed.
The reverence was broken after twenty seconds or so by a short bearded man snorting and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I don't get what the big deal is. *I* roleplay better birth scenes than that."
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