Disclaimer: All characters belong to Syfy and Muse Entertainment and the writers. I´m just writing for fun and I don´t make any money with it.
As Henry didn´t leave the US Army directly after he was turned vampire by Aidan, he eventually may have worked on as a medic in the Army, as the World War One didn´t end the moment he became immortal. And we have seen the promo images made for Being Human Season 3, episode 3 which show him and Aidan in uniform, going for a feeding (Henry doesn´t look like a neatly eater then. LOL, you may also read; You gonna need a lesson, Henry, in which I pick it up) There´s some French language in dialogues in it (with translation into English too) and as I´m no native French speaker and lessons at school are long ago, I beg our pardon if you may find any mistakes.
As a medic, especially in war, you can´t always choose your patients. They expect from you to give help to those whom you´re ordered to, irrespective if it´s a wounded soldier or a civilian. There are soldiers out there as well as refugees and sometimes situations occur in war when both can´t be separated from each other, depending where the enemy and the front-line are...
France 1918, near Cambrin
The sound of the shells exploding only some 10 miles away were carried in by the wind. Aidan and Henry had gotten used to the permanent noise level of the war. Aidan had asked to be posted to the unit in which Henry was still working as a medic. A newly turned vampire couldn´t be left all on his own. Henry had to be taught how to feed properly as well as he had to learn control and self-restriction to avoid a mount of corpses piling up in his trail. Henry wasn´t a neatly eater in the beginning of his vampire career, Aidan thought. Same with himself in the beginning. Aidan smiled silently and closed the file.
The unit had taken over a large estate for now. Not only tents anywhere in the fields but a solid house build of bricks and with a base covered in the light gray cobblestone. Former stables nearby were now used as storage units and garages for the Army cars and trucks. The front-line was not thought to be moving in within the next weeks. The German Army was kept on distance thanks to improved strategy. Irrespective to it the battlefield took its toll and every day a lot of wounded soldiers were delivered to the Casualty Clearing Station #54 near Cambrin. As a centralized medical unit lots of soldiers went through it, being prepared for further transport to Field Hospitals far behind the front-line. The war was gnawing through the youth of the allied nations, feeding on the mostly young men like a never being sated predator.
A soldier came in, a young British Private.
"Private Waite! Where is the Corporal? We have a trek of refugees outside!" he brought out, trying to stay calm but the newly arrived people threatened to burst the unit´s capacity and it wasn´t meant to cope with civilians in general.
"Which unit? Or are they civilians, Private?"
"Civilians! We are crowded! And only some 10 miles behind the front-line. The Germans might move in and I don´t know where to put..." the British soldier gave back.
"Stay calm! Calm down! We will look how we can handle this. Corporal Farnsworth should be back in half an hour! Tell these people they shall come in first! It´s damn cold outside. They can at least warm up and have some food and then Corporal Farnsworth will decide how to go on...! Give the small room to the right to them...not large but better than the stables..." Aidan ordered.
"Okay, Sir!" The soldier ran out and Aidan heard him hastening down the long hallway outside.
Half an hour later Henry came in from his shift in the makeshift operating room that had been installed in the large living room. He threw his uniform jacket over a hook nearby and let himself fall into a chair. Henry sighed and dug through his curls in an attempt to get them out of his face. He put the glasses on a small table nearby, glasses which were holding plain window glass by now to fake everybody about the fact that he didn´t need his glasses any longer as a vampire.
"What´s up?" a nurse asked him. She might have been in her 40s and he appreciated her cuz of her experience. Having her at his side in the ER made things a lot easier. He could always count on her as most of the other nurses were young women who had decided to give help to these poor soldiers, barely educated, the less experienced, only working by their motivation. Going to see the worst of all a nurse could expect...
Soldiers being shot, being mutilated by exploding shells, bleeding to death, almost being ripped to pieces. Brought in screaming or at the best being unconscious...
"The usual crap! Just taking my 4 hour pause, just in case I might go through it this once! If not a new load of comrades is brought in. We are crowded and the next transfer to 24 Hospital is tomorrow in the morning! My next shift is at 10 pm!"
"I know..." the nurse gave back, sitting down too, "I haven´t had a proper pause since...let´s count...uhm must have been before, when I still worked in the public hospital in Merville some 12 months ago..." she smiled sadly; "This war kills off more good men as women might give birth to for the next decade! These trench fights and the gas shell attacks are pure madness! When will this horror be ending finally?"
"Dunno, Nurse! I wish I might give you an answer but I´m afraid the question will be answered by itself latest the moment when the Germans will capitulate!"
"And this might take long...our spies say that there is still reinforcement moving. The US Army will lead a new attack against their transfers..." she swallowed hard, knowing that every new attack would end up with new wounded soldiers being delivered. Fatal men count. War was an insatiable man eater!
"I´ll get me some tea...Do you want any too, Private Durham?" she asked.
"No, thanks a lot. Just had some...we´ll see later than, I guess..." Henry smiled. He just had fed on a man from the communication unit. Just a bit of blood...no mess. Aidan would rip his ass to pieces if he would kill again. This German badass last month had needed some improved hiding skills as the disappearance of a captive was somewhat problematic. Aidan had been angry but he had taken the leadership in the case. Just have to be a bit more careful, Henry thought.
But for the battlefield noises it was rather calm in the house. The room was on the second floor and at daytime one could look over to the forest beyond the fields. In peacetime this might have been a rather attractive area...a beautiful landscape.
One hour later there were fast steps in the hallway and a mere second later anybody knocked at the door impatiently. Henry sighed and got out of the chair. What was going on by now? Obviously also this time he won´t have his pause...as usually! He went for the door to answer the knock, opening it.
Outside a young man, one of the civilians, was almost short of breath by any reason.
"Evening, Sir! I...I need some help! Is any doctor available? We need a doctor...uhm..." He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to read the name on the jacket in the dim light as Henry had put it on again because it was rather cool in the room. Finally he managed it; "Uhm...Private Durham... We need the doctor! Nous avons besoin d´un docteur; Monsieur!" he pressed out.
"What´s going on? For what and for whom do you need a doctor?"
"My sister! She is pregnant and she has contractions...labor-pain! She needs the doctor! Fast! Please, Private! Where do I find him?"
"Major Dr. Smith is in the operating room! We have casualties on the table! I´m afraid he won´t come to you in the moment because these men are fighting for their lives, Mr.!"
"But you are here!" the man protested. He must have seen the brassard with the red cross on it, indicating Henry as a member of the medical staff. His English had a strong french accent over it.
"I´m in a pause between two shifts, Monsieur. And before you may complain; I´ve been at the table since 11 hours!" Henry gave back just to prevent the man from making wrong assumptions, accusing him to give lame excuses out of idleness...
"Excusez-moi! I didn´t want to...Je n´ai pas prétendu d´affront!" (Excuse me...no offend pretended by me) the man hastily excused to Henry.
"Je vous en prie, Monsieur!" (I beg you/ doesn´t matter) Henry gave back with a slight smile.
"So get me a midwife!" the young man insisted and his voice sounded more desperately.
"We don´t have midwives here. This is a military medical unit and delivering a baby does not happen here! I´m sorry, so you would have to accept a nurse or a medic instead!" Henry tried to explain to the young man.
"I don´t care whosoever! But my sister needs help! Yet! Any help!"
"Is it her first delivery?" Henry asked. His option for a pause was going down the drain now definitely. Again! He stated resignedly.
"Yes! La prémiere fois! Her first baby! We had a doctor in Merville but he was ordered over to another hospital and we can´t go over there because it´s behind the German front-line now! We merely escaped from the attacks and our house was bombed! Can´t go anywhere, the less back to it, Sir!"
"Bad luck!" Henry shook his head no. "I have to look for a nurse or a medic to get to you, wait here! I´m right back!" Henry left the young man behind in the room and went over to the hospital wing.
"Can any nurse or medic come over? One of the refugees is about to deliver a baby!" He asked into the room.
"None available, Private! We lack of hands in here too! Can´t give you any assistance...!" the leading nurse answered. "You will have to do on your own!"
"Okay, thanks!" Henry turned on his heels and sped back to the room and the impatiently waiting man. He heard him wandering around in the room before he even opened the door again.
"Will anybody come for her?" the man asked nervously.
"No! They are all too busy too! As I said...we are overcrowded with casualties!"
"Oh my god in heaven! What shall we do now? She has labor-pain every ten minutes and I don´t know anything about this kinda stuff...only...the doctor said it might become difficult! As it´s her first child!"
"What´s your name?"
"Pierre! Pierre Lemont!"
"Okay, Pierre! Looks like we have to manage this on our own! I will look to get my comrade too as his wife has born a child too! He might be of any help...too!" Henry mumbled. I hope so at least, he thought. He was educated to care for wounded soldiers, treating wounds and save lives. But delivering a baby was none of the stuff he had experience with. Only theoretically he had been educated in it as it was part of human medicine that was on the lesson´s list. Maybe Aidan could give some help as his wife once had born a son to him.
"Follow me!" he ordered Pierre. The young man was all too willing despite the fact that Henry hadn´t been compelling him.
Henry went to the room where he knew Aidan to be. He opened the door without knocking or even waiting, Pierre was close on his heels, almost bumping into him in his haste.
"Aidan! Need your help!" Henry started right away.
Aidan looked at him. What had his son done now? Again! Hopefully not any corpse anywhere but in this case this young guy wouldn´t be with him!
"What´s up, Henry? I thought you have your pause between shifts..."
"Me too! But that´s what it is! Ya know, Aidan!"
"So what? What is it you need my help with?"
"Delivery!" Henry said only one word.
Aidan stared at him.
"Delivery? Who´s about to deliver much more casualties? The next transport isn´t even off?! We are overcrowded!" Aidan gave back.
"Not that delivery! His sister is about to deliver! A baby! Obviously she´s about to give childbirth here and now! Not that we are prepared for stuff like that! But once the little bugger decided to have a look at the world outside of his cuddly warm womb, no one might be able to stop him/her...!" Henry shrugged his shoulders. He felt far away from his personal comfort zone with it but by now they had to make it through this inevitably! He would have felt much better with handling the young lady over to a midwife, a doctor or at least to a nurse, but the first wasn´t available and the rest was stuck with casualties.
With one hand Aidan directed to his own chest, looking at Henry with an expression of doubt.
"Henry! What do you think? I´m no doctor nor a nurse! I have no fucking experience with delivery!" Aidan protested.
"You have had a baby once! A son your wife has born to you!" Henry replied and shot a look at the young man who was waiting, growing more and more nervously. Any discussions between him and Aidan won´t be helping to improve Mr. Lemont´s trust in them.
"Henry!" Aidan bent down to his ear, his voice was a whisper; "What are you expecting? That has been in the 1770s and not the 21st century, and women delivered children with the help of a midwife. It was out of the question that a man, other than being a doctor, would be with them to give any support! Men were banished from a birth room! So don´t expect me to have more knowledge than to wait for the first cry to prove the baby is okay!" Aidan shook his head.
"I can´t care about your doubts, Aidan! Or about your lacking experience with it. I won´t be able to care less about right yet! This guy´s sister is about to deliver! Now and here! And nothing can stop that now, even not me shoving the little brat up her channel again!" Henry hissed in a low voice. "And she needs help and I need some helping hand in helping her! I have strong doubts that Mr. Lemont might be of some help instead. I can smell the nervousness on him and you can too!" Henry shot a look at Mr. Lemont and his facial expression let no doubts grow about the man´s emotional condition; Not only nervousness but he was simply afraid up to fear. "It will rather scare the pants off him!"
Aidan looked at the young man and silently he had to concede the point to Henry. He sighed and nodded finally.
"Okay, Henry! That´s a point. So...even if I don´t feel certain about it...let´s go! Where is she anyway?"
"He´ll show us. I guess she is in the room on the first floor, the one they gave to the refugees." Henry waved to Mr. Lemont to follow them.
They left the room and went downstairs to a room at the end of the hallway. Even before they reached the door they could hear the suppressed cries of a woman in labor pain. A wave of a salty scent penetrated from the room. Aidan recognized it as broken waters and he twitched when it reminded him of the hours he had been waiting in the simple kitchen of their home when Suzanna was in the same situation. Their first child died while being born. Their second one, Isaac, survived with the help of God. Some ten happy years as a little family, then everything ended...
Aidan swallowed hard. He pushed down the door handle and opened the door.
The woman was lying on the bed and there were two other men and three children sitting on chairs or along the wall. A group of men and some children. None of help really.
Henry went to the bed.
"Okay...what do we have here...?" Henry bent over the woman, his hand felt for her pulse point.
Mr. Lemont came to his side, his hands knotted into each other by his nervousness. Obviously he didn´t want anybody to see how hard they were shaking. Henry silently smiled when Lemont´s smell of fear reached his nostrils.
Someone´s fear could rise the appetite...adrenaline shot blood had a special taste...
Wrong moment, Henry!
"When did her waters break? How long ago?" Henry asked. Mr. Lemont didn´t answer, was only staring with wide eyes at his sister who cried out again.
"He! I asked you something, Mr. Lemont. Don´t freeze fixed over here! Gonna need some information from you!" Henry looked at him, his face stern. Inwardly he sighed. This guy would be more disturbing than helpful anyway. Better to send all these people out now. A woman in cramps under giving child birth- no sight for children. The men: one was old, maybe her grandfather, the other one was walking with a stick and Henry saw that he was limping when he came nearer. The guy was ineligible for military service. He turned his attention back to Mr. Lemont who finally had managed it to concentrate on Henry again;
"Excusez moi! (Sorry)" he sighed, counting backwards.
"Calm toi, calm toi! (calm down)" Henry tried to bring him down from his nervousness. In his nervousness Mr. Lemont had switched to French and Henry was one of the few medics and nurses who were able to understand French. "Okay, how many hours ago? How long is your sister having labor pain by now?"
"Quatre heurs! Ohm, sorry, four hours! Since four hours, Private..."
"Well! You can help us...please send these men and the children out of the room, they won´t have to watch her crying!"
Mr. Lemont nodded and went over to his relatives, explaining it to them in French and they left the room finally.
While he was busy with his family, Aidan bent down to Henry, whispering in such a low voice that the woman couldn´t understand him:
"Did you feed recently?"
"Not enough!" Henry hissed back.
He looked at Aidan and could read the thought in his face. It would become pretty hard for him to cope with the woman. While delivering a child a lot of blood could be spilt and he wasn´t by far sated... All the smell of blood in the operating room had risen his hunger and the few sips of blood from the communication soldier had only soothed it down. Mr. Lemont appeared back at his side and Aidan laid his hands on his shoulders. His eyes became darker and his voice was convincing when he decided that it had become time to send him off too.
His sister cried out again and his eyes grew wide, Aidan could feel him twitch under his hands.
"She will be okay, Mr. Lemont! Your sister will be okay. She is in good hands now with private Durham and me!" She´s in good hands! When a woman being with vampires could be announced to be in good hands! "No worries...you will feel relaxed and you can leave now until we tell you to come back...it´s all okay!" Aidan looked into the man´s eyes and he could see this hint of absence on his face that indicated that the compelling was working on him. Then a smile of relief appeared on his face and he nodded.
Aidan gave him a reassuring smile and patted his shoulder like a father would do with his son.
"I´ll leave now...see you later when you call for me again..." Lemont mumbled. He turned on his heels and left the room.
Aidan and Henry were alone now with the woman in birth mode.
"What is your name, Madam?" Henry asked the woman. "I´m Private Durham, Henry Durham...you won´t have to worry. Trust me! I´m a medic here in the CCS...!" He felt for her pulse despite the fact that he won´t have to as he could hear her heartbeat from the distance. But he didn´t want her to become afraid of him.
Trust me! How could a woman in birth mode, with all the blood to come, trust a...still hungry...vampire? Aidan thought. If any of them was about to lose control she was in real danger and another case of death in the CCS couldn´t be hidden so easily. If not being insisting on the fact that this poor woman might have bled to death in delivery.
"Docteur?" she pressed out, obviously mistaking him for a doctor.
"No, Madam! Simply being a medic. Infirmier! But we will help you to deliver this child of yours!"
"Vous avez faire déjà...pour une fois...?" (You did this before? Once at least) ,she asked with a weak voice.
"Pas exactement (not exactly)" Henry smiled at her and repeated his question from before. Better to know her name as they needed some trust. "Quel est votre nom svp? (What´s your name)"
"Sandrine. Sandrine Lemont..." she answered and her face twitched when labor pain went through her belly. Henry laid a soothing hand on her lower belly. He could feel the cramps which went through her lower abdomen, contracting her uterus.
"Okay, Sandrine...we´ll make it through this...calm toi, calm toi!" Henry turned his face to Aidan. "Aidan, get me sheets. Anywhere here should be clean sheets! She can´t deliver in this dirt!" directing to the sheets that were soaked through by her broken waters. Aidan went to the large closet and he opened it, searching through the boards. There wasn´t much left over as the CCS staff had taken almost what was available. In a moment he was back with the bedclothes.
"How will we go along with?" he asked. In the very moment he condemned the fact that in late 18th century any men were warded off from a woman during childbirth. Suzanna had to fight through this with a midwife only. Twice. The first time she had almost died in it and the baby had died while being born. The second time she happily delivered their son. The boy the priest had called the fruit of a cursed house... Aidan growled under his breath when he reminded his double loss and Henry stared at him for a moment, whispering:
"Aidan! What´s up? You gonna scare the shit out of her if she still wouldn´t have done until yet!" directing to the stained sheet under her. Sandrine had stained the sheet with the content of her intestines...an uncomfortable but typical thing when the labor pain caused cramps in allover her belly.
"Help me lifting her up, so I can get rid of these..." Henry ordered and Aidan helped him with exchanging the sheets under her. Henry undressed her carefully what gave him a helpless and very embarrassed look from her when she was finally nude. Her belly was rounded very well what was plain visibly now and for a moment Henry looked at her belly as the sight of a naked pregnant woman was rather rare. He had woman with him in his bed when he enjoyed to mix sex with feeding. But he felt a natural reluctance to feed on pregnant woman, even denying their wrists.
Aidan had told him about vampires who preferred to feed on pregnant women as their blood was meant to have a special essence in it. Henry had never tried it and he didn´t want to. He was a sometimes merciless and messy eater, by all means, but pregnant women were off limits for him due to his rules, set up by himself. If there ever were any rules about feeding...
Sandrine cried out and her head sank back when she was lying on the bed again. Her forehead was moist with sweat from the efforts. She gasped and her fingers clung to Henry´s forearms, so tightly that it started to hurt.
"Easy...easy, Sandrine...it´s all okay...try to relax...relax...ssshhh...it´s all good...you´re safe with me..." His voice had come down to a soothing tone and he smiled at her.
Henry carefully wriggled out of her fingers and took hold of her hands until the wave of pain subsided in her.
"Okay...let´s have a look what we have here..." he bent down, closing his hands around her ankles and carefully he shoved her legs up and spread them on the covers, so he would have access to her channel. Sandrine stared at him from between her bent knees. She gasped and twitched again, her hips moving under the labor pain. Her face tensed and her teeth clenched when the pain was almost consuming her.
Henry crouched down at the base of the bed and his eyes narrowed when he watched more closely. What he saw was, as far as he could tell, not the way it should have looked. Aidan was at his side, his lips were pressed together and his brows knitted. From Henry´s view he could read that something seemed to be wrong with Sandrine.
"What is it?" he asked, his voice inaudible to Sandrine, out of reason.
"I have to check this! As far as I remember..." Henry gave back when he tried to remind what he had learned in his basic medic education. He didn´t give further explanations, got up again and went over to the table where a bowl with hot water was placed on. Aidan gave Sandrine a reassuring smile then he followed Henry to the table, bent to his ear, his voice became a whisper, while Henry started to clean his hands.
"What is it, Henry? Any...problems?" Aidan sounded concerned. Women could die in childbirth and some he had known had died, in the past. Even modern medicine could not save all of them. Henry washed his hands thoroughly and while he did, he turned his face to Aidan after he had looked over to Sandrine again.
Preparing himself for the moment when he would have to help a woman in delivery had been one thing. He had thought it to be a simple thing; Getting the baby out of her and giving it over to her and, best of it, to a nurse if one would be available. He hadn´t taken in the possibility that there would any problems arise from it, problems which would force him to take actions he wasn´t sure about if he would be able to keep control...of his urges.
Nervously he shot a repeating look over to Sandrine. She was in pain and despite his mind tried to deny the facts, he would have to do surgery on her in order to save her and the kid´s life. No way out of this by now! Hope dies last and maybe the examination would show that this cup might pass from him. He clung to that thought like a drowning man to a straw.
He hadn´t fed since two days but for the few sips from the man in the communication room...not enough to silence the growling in his intestines and far from being sated at all. Henry doubted that he would be able to make it through lots of blood being shed...
Blood. Red and hot, thick... his stomach still hurt and suddenly he meant to taste blood on his tongue as if he did burp. Henry swallowed and cleared his throat and the sudden taste vanished into nothing. His mind was playing tricks on his hungry body. He had been glad to have a pause between two shifts. The constant smell of blood in the surgeon´s room had jarred at him with sharp claws. When he could feed enough he had no problem to cope with the smell but last days and nights had been chaotic. Casualties had been brought into the CCS in an almost never ending row and there had been also a handful of Germans among them; severely hurt young guys from shelling a truck that had tried to make it back behind the front-line...As a medic he had to handle everybody who was brought in, irrespective if it was friend or enemy. Normally prisoners of war were brought to a jail camp but the CCS was the nearest medical point available. By the time they could be in the condition to be transported they would be gone to it.
Henry bit his lower lip and closed his eyes for a mere second just to fix himself in reality again. He dearly tried to push the thought of blood aside. Don´t even think of it! That may help, he thought.
"Henry...?" Aidan still looked at his son who obviously was lost in thoughts. Henry seemed to switch back to him and finally answered his question from before.
"Crap that we can´t get a doctor in here for her! We´ll try this out all alone...!" Henry whispered.
"Try? What does that mean? Try...? Trying what?" Aidan stared at his son. His view was demanding and intense. He got a more than slight feeling that this might turn out problematic if not calling it disastrous. Not only because of the fact that a...still hungry...vampire was about to handle a delivering woman. Henry had kept in control with badly bleeding casualties, he simply had to! But obviously he had seen something that might rise severe problems for the young woman out of medical reasons and not by a hungry Henry.
"What´s on, Henry!?" Aidan repeated, his voice was harsher now. He had to know.
"I...I could see something...looks like she´s...too tight! I have to examine this...but when she turns out to be too tight...it can happen that either she will suffer from a perineal rupture or if the tissue turns out to be too strong...I´ll have to cut! To give the child´s head the space it needs to come out...!" Henry whispered. The thought of doing surgery on a woman drove cold shudders down his spine. He had never done anything like this before.
Getting bullets out of a wounded soldier; yes. But not carrying out surgery in such a case, more definitely...carrying out a incision of the perineum (*perineum is the muscular segment between a woman´s anus and her vagina)
"You. Mean. What? Henry? You gonna mean..." Aidan hissed under his breath, directing over to the woman who cried out again. Her cries were coming in some shorter intervals now what indicated that the birth procedure was improving. "You have to cut...her open? Henry!" Aidan stared at him in some disbelief.
"Not cutting her open as with a Cesarian, but making an incision on her perineum...that is less dramatically but I won´t prefer that either! But looks like I have no other chance..." Henry swallowed hard. There would be blood. A lot of blood!
Sandrine would be bleeding tremendously in relation to a normal birth. The area was strongly supplied with blood by natural reasons. He heard Aidan gasp at his side.
"Otherwise?" his voice was worse than concerned. He had no clue about gynecology, but he could imagine a lot of terrifying scenarios due to anatomy.
"Otherwise her child can die by suffocation or her uterus might burst in worst case...what would inevitably kill her!" Henry gave back. His cerulean eyes closed and Aidan could see his Adam´s apple moving when he swallowed down a hot knot. For sure Henry did feel anything but comfortable with it.
The life of mother and child were lying in their hands now.
Sandrine might haven´t thought about anything worse...not being aware in whose hands she was now. Otherwise she might have given herself over to the forces of hell, just in case one of both of them would run out of control!
"Clean your hands too! Gonna need you..." Henry ordered when he went back to the bed. Preparing for the medical aspects of what was about to come now, helped him to distract himself from the gnawing hunger and the constant thoughts of blood. He bent down to Sandrine, putting his hands on her knees and spreading them. He crouched down between her feet and he laid one hand on her lower belly. Sandrine gasped and he could feel another wave of labor pain running through her abdomen. Sandrine cried out and dug her fingers into the sheets. Her fingernails scratched over the material and the cry became a scream when the pain was rising to a new level. Her belly tensed and her knees were shaking, almost closing again.
"Relax! Relax Sandrine! Do not! Press yet! Relax!" Henry demanded and had to put his hands on her knees again, spreading her shaking legs again to have access to her opening. He took a deep breath to regain his concentration. Poor Sandrine was caught in her cramps and couldn´t do much to help him.
She moaned and clenched her teeth.
"Okay...all okay...it´s alright, Sandrine...just relax...it´s all good..." he mumbled and looked into her eyes. His cerulean eyes had turned bled black, becoming dark pools. She stared at him and her heart was beating wildly when she looked at the guy whose eyes strangely had gone through an incredible change from blue to something that could only be called pitch black.
"All okay, Sandrine...no harm! You´ll be alright...any better soon...I´ll help you!" His voice had become convincing. Aidan sighed as he knew that Henry was so much better in compelling than him. Hopefully the smell of blood would not pull him down into the abyss of hunger and vampire instincts. Aidan hoped that he could keep his own composure too.
So easy to give in and kill...!
He had killed so often that he had lost count a long time ago. The thing he had also confessed to Henry before he had turned him.
Sandrine was trembling and she couldn´t control her movements. Henry could either spread her legs or putting his hands on her lower abdomen. No way to make the examinations he needed to do. This way they won´t be able to go forward. He sighed, lifted his head from between her knees and Aidan looked at him.
"Come over here, to my side. I need you to keep her legs open! I need my hands on her!" Henry ordered and Aidan came to his side. "Lay your hands on her knees and keep them open, Aidan...she has strong pain and can´t do by herself!" She couldn´t hurt him really, but when her knees were banging into his temples while he tried to examine her, this might turn out more than uncomfortable, Henry thought.
With Aidan spreading Sandrine´s knees Henry finally could put one hand on her lower belly. With the other hand he moved in front of her opening. Carefully he shoved one finger into her channel, feeling for where the child´s head would be.
He had so often touched a woman like that, playing with them before he went to feed on them. Sometimes he could keep control and it turned out to be a pleasure for both sides, sometimes it ended up with draining them completely...
Sandrine twitched under a new wave and her hips buckled. She cramped and he felt resistance when her muscles tensed around his fingers. She moaned with pain and he had to retract a bit to prevent him from hurting her. Henry sighed slightly, took a deep breath and decided to wait a moment until the cramps would subside. She was so tensed that it would become difficult to examine her.
"Ssshhh...keep still! Don´t move, Sandrine...don´t!" His left hand pressed down on her lower abdomen, keeping her down onto the sheets.
"Keep her down, Aidan!...gonna...need to...feel...for the head..." He pushed his fingers deeper into her, until he could feel the mouth of her uterus beside the little head. He closed his eyes, trying to visualize what he could only feel.
"And...what´s up?" Aidan tried uncertain waters.
"The head...it is deep down...only minutes until the next wave of labor pain will push it down. Have to wait until and then I will have to cut!" Henry answered without lifting his head from Sandrine´s belly.
"Okay...so far..." Aidan sighed. Henry pulled his hands back and got up from his position. He went over to the table, grabbed a scalpel from the box and went over to the chimney. He wrapped a cloth around the scalpel and held the blade into the flames to get the slim blade cleaned up thoroughly. He pulled the blade away from the flames, shaking it to cool the metal down.
"No risk with that! I don´t trust the disinfection here, at least in this case...better to do double!" Henry mumbled when Aidan watched him coming back.
Sandrine stared at Henry´s hand that was holding the scalpel. Her eyes widened with fear. He could smell the fear on her and her hand was trembling when she tried to get hold of his wrist in a desperate attempt to stop him.
"It´s okay...relax, Sandrine...I´ll help you...you won´t have to worry..." his voice had gone down to a soothing, comforting timbre; "Calm toi, calm toi..." He knew that it would hurt because he had no morphine at hand and additionally it might endanger the unborn. They had to go through this without. All he could do for her was trying to get her under control so far, that he could make it better for her by using his compelling skills...this time for good. Henry felt pity for her. Her name indicated that she wasn´t married yet by any means...maybe the father of the child was at war and they couldn´t come up with it properly by now.
Aidan bent over Sandrine, his hand went at her temple and he stroked her temple and her forehead.
"All will turn out well for you and your child...trust him! He knows what to do!" Aidan mumbled to her and gave his best convincing smile. Hopefully Henry knew what to do and hopefully he would keep control of the situation, Aidan thought. Henry could almost go on a rampage when it came to blood, sometimes. And he, Aidan, was a killer too!
Bon chance à mourir, Madame! Calm toi...nothing to worry about!
The sarcasm of it drove pain through his heart. He didn´t want this woman to die. She was an innocent one. Got killed so much innocents but there had been other women too who had deserved to die. Not that he had switched completely on killing only the evildoers, but...
"Je n´en plus peux! Aidez moi! Aidez moi!(I can´t anymore! Help me, help me!)" Sandrine pressed out and her face tensed with the pain.
"Calm toi, calm toi, Sandrine! Je suis lá! Je suis ici, avec toi!" (Calm down! I´m here, I´m here with you) Henry bent over her, his left hand was lying on her pubic bone, the scalpel was in his right hand and he felt for the contractions when she was pressing to get relieved from the pain, with no success. The head of the baby was pressing down her channel now but anyway it didn´t go on further.
"Je meurs, je meurs! O mon dieu! Mon dieu, aide moi!" (I die, I die, oh my God! My God help me!)
"Tu ne vas pas à mourir!" (You won´t die!) Henry tried to calm her down. In her fear and pain Sandrine had switched back to French.
He needed her to be relaxed as much as possible, a hard task as he could not make use of any anesthetic here. The only strong stuff available at the CCS was morphine and this couldn´t be used because it would suppress the baby´s breathing reflex...
Sandrine cried out again and her hips twitched and threatened to move upwards under Henry´s hands.
"Aidan! Come to my left side! Gonna need you to hold her down on the bed! I can´t make this when she moves around in her pain! Gonna risk to hurt her when she´s moving around in the moment I´ll have to cut down!" Henry shot Aidan a desperate view and Aidan was at his side in less than a moment.
His hands closed around Sandrine´s upper thighs and she groaned with surprise when Aidan´s hands nailed her down to the sheets with some force. He turned his face to her in the hope that she might have kept some receptiveness in her pain and fear. No easy task to make use of a vampire´s strength without hurting her additionally as she was still suffering enough now.
And it would grow worse the very moment when Henry would cut into her tensed and pain stricken flesh.
His groans became a scream, despite the belt between his teeth, when Private Durham´s hand drove the scalpel into his side, splitting the muscle to get that fucking bullet out. He almost bit his tongue off in his pain... The scalpel moved through his flesh and blood ran down his side in thin rivulets... Blood!
"You got her, Aidan?" Henry pressed out. His voice had a hint of nervousness on it.
"Have her! Go on, Henry! I don´t know how long I´ll be able to keep her down without hurting her!" Aidan gave back. "Heaven! I never made the midwife way!"
His hands pressed down on her thighs and Sandrine screamed between her teeth when the next wave of contractions swept over her like a tidal wave.
Henry took a deep breath for reassuring, then his left hand touched the way too tensed muscles between her legs.
"Calm toi, Sandrine! I´ll do this as fast and as swift as possible! Relax...easy...easy...!"
Sandrine tried to lift her head, gasping, groaning when she tried to look down on her lower abdomen. Her eyes were wide with pain and fear and her smell was hanging in the air like a thick cloud.
He could feel the little head pressing on her perineum and her labia. The muscular tissue was expanded up to the breaking point. No more time to lose...
Henry shot Aidan a last look and Aidan nodded in agreement and his lips formed a silent Yes.
Henry pressed the blade to her flesh, moved it down from her opening to her anus as carefully as possible. The fingers of his left hand cupped her opening to fix the protruding head in the channel. Inwardly he was shaking nervously. Don´t hurt her! Don´t hurt her...careful...careful...! he ordered to himself, his lips were pressed together in tensed concentration when he tried to split the muscular tissue without so much as cutting too deep and hurting either the child or her anus. This was far beyond from what experience he had in surgery.
Sandrine groaned, then a scream slipped from her clenched teeth and Aidan felt her buckle against his hands which were stabilizing her thighs. He know that he was causing her additional pain but he had to keep her still. Otherwise Henry´s scalpel could cause serious damage. Femoral arteries were nearby and a slipping blade...! She would bleed to death within minutes!
The muscular tissue split open under the sharp blade and a gush of blood shot from the incision, running over Henry´s hands and building up a small pool between her legs. The sheets got soaked through in less than a second.
Sandrine screamed with doubled pain. Her fingers dug into Aidan´s wrist and he moaned. Her fingers clung to his wrists like bands of steel. Tears were streaming down her face and Aidan had to put some pressure on her twitching body to keep her down.
"Got it, Henry? Are you...ready? Can´t keep her down much longer without hurting her! Henry! For heaven´s sake! Got it ready!" Aidan closed his eyes, turning his face to the side when the smell of her blood grew to a stench like intensity, his vampire senses almost going into overdrive with it. With the utmost effort he fought to keep control, not giving in to his instincts.
Henry cut down deeper. He had to be fast as Sandrine wouldn´t be able to stand it any longer, the less to endure much more pain.
Blood!
The air was thick with blood. A red cloud swept over Henry and he gasped, his hands moving only by experience. He had to keep his eyes open, had to keep his eyes fixed on her. On Sandrine and the wave of blood that shot from her split flesh now. It poured over his fingers and they became slippery within a moment. He groaned with despair when the all too strong smell swept over him, threatened to overwhelm his senses, threatened to break his last walls and threatened to make him give in to his vampire instincts.
The instincts that drove him to take what was to be his! Take her hot blood and feed! Take her blood and satisfy the hunger!
His veins cringed with hunger and her blood was tempting beyond imagination. Red, hot, a glistening liquid...to him it looked like a river of glowing red gold...he only had to take it, he only had to bite down and feed on her as... Her blood, her veins and her whole warm and living body was singing to him. The staccato of her pulse was humming in his preternaturally heightened hearing. Aidan wouldn´t be any better! He couldn´t smell anything else now in his nostrils but her scent and her blood, his blackened eyes were staring at the incision that poured the hot blood out between her legs. The walls of the room were dissolving into fog and all he could hear was her heart that pounded in his ears. His tongue moved and he felt this mouth watering with saliva in expectation of her blood, his fangs were piercing in his inner lower lip when they slipped in position.
Aidan saw Henry´s eyes fixing on Sandrine´s genitals and the growing red pool beneath. He looked like being just before letting slip all controls. Aidan shuddered and tried to distract from it himself, turning to Henry.
"HENRY!"
Aidan´s voice drove like a knife into his ears. He wanted it to be silent, wanted it to stop, but there was...anyway he had to...
"Henry! Get that finished! Heaven! She´s bleeding like hell! Never have seen so much blood on a woman´s butt! Henry!...Get that fixed!" Aidan was almost shouting at him, He couldn´t do anything to stop the bleeding as he had to keep poor Sandrine fixed on the bed. Henry would have to manage that on his own! He was the medic! He had to know how to get that fixed!
Henry gasped and he licked his lips. For a mere second he closed his eyes to regain his composure and to ward off the roaring beast within him, banishing it behind the bars of the cage that kept him from giving in and taking what was to be his.
With much effort he fought down the hunger, very difficult when the smell of her blood was hanging in the air like fog and more blood was pouring out from the incision he had made. Sandrine groaned and the groan became a scream under an almost unbearable pain when the next wave of labor pain swept over her.
"Press! Sandrine! Press! Come on! Come on now!" He urged her to give in to her contractions. Henry let the scalpel drop down between her spread thighs. The sheets were soaked through with her blood and Henry cupped the edges of the incision with his hands, pulling it more open and stabilizing it at the same time.
He felt the head pressing against his hands with the force of the contractions.
"Press, Sandrine! For heaven´s sake! You´ll make it!" He urged her and she screamed with pain when she tried to press. Sandrine was weakened and she fought for breath under the contractions, her fingers let go of Aidan´s wrists and they clung to the sheets with desperate strength.
"Je n´en plus peux! N´en plus...peux!" (can´t...anymore) Sandrine pressed out under tears, her voice was desperate and she gasped, crying out again and again.
The blood poured out from her and Henry gasped when the head came in sight. His hands went around it, cupping and trying to stabilize it. He had to take care that it would come out slowly. Slowly enough so he could keep control of the movement.
"Breathe! Easy...easy...Trés bien! Tu fais trés bien, Sandrine!" (Very good! You´re are (making this) very good, Sandrine!) "Go on...go on...yes...come on! Come on...you´ll make it through this...!" he urged her.
Sandrine cried out, her whole body tensed and with one last desperate effort she pressed. She screamed with pain and...
...the baby slipped out off her.
Henry caught it with his hands, slightly turning the little body, carefully wriggling it out of her channel. Head, shoulders, little arms, a body and finally the legs with feet so small they might have disappeared under Henry´s thumb... The contractions had pressed out another gush of blood and Henry closed his eyes, swallowing hard to fight down the temptation. The little body was glistening from a thin layer of waters and stains of blood. The umbilical cord was of dark red, almost purple color. It looked all completely and healthy as far as he could say after a first look.
For a moment his walls threatened to break, then he regained control and Henry let out a sharp breath. His head moved up and tilted to his neck when he closed his eyes, his lips were open and his fangs itched to fall. The very moment his eyelids closed Aidan could see that Henry´s eyes were bled black, the vampire was about to break out from beneath the surface.
Aidan swallowed hard himself. He couldn´t get away from Sandrine and the smell was almost overwhelming. He gasped and clenched his teeth so hard it started to hurt. Seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity then it was over.
The tidal wave broke and Aidan opened his eyes again. Henry was moving anywhere beside him, crouching between Sandrine´s legs and Aidan dared to turn his face to him.
Henry carefully pulled the baby out from between Sandrine´s legs and he laid it on her lower belly. For a moment he stared at the little body.
A little boy. Sandrine had given life to a son!
Aidan breathed with relief. Then he tensed again. Anything seemed to be wrong. Wrong. Then his mind got it!
The silence in the room was disturbing. There was no sound but Sandrine´s fast and raspy breathing...
"Is it...?!" Aidan pressed out, his heartbeat was speeding up with fear when there was utter silence from the baby.
No cry!
The baby didn´t cry!
"HENRY!"
What the hell had happened? Had the baby died while childbirth? Like his first child had died when it was born. Aidan stared at Henry in fear. Why didn´t he do anything?
But Henry was moving already.
He cut the umbilical cord and his hands laid the child down on the table nearby, faster than any human could move. For a mere second he stared down on the lifeless boy. Hoping to be wrong but...
He wasn´t wrong. The baby didn´t breathe!
Pulmonary reanimation! The boy needed a CPR. (* cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
But Henry wasn´t certain if his vampire lungs would be giving any air to him. A vampire´s body worked different from a human. Breathing had become less important than in humans. He still breathed but slower and less intensively. A vampire´s breath only sped up in running or fighting or when he had...sex... Same with the heart. Henry wasn´t certain about anything now. But if he won´t react now, the little boy would die!
He bent down to the little head, his thumb rubbed off the remains of blood on it. He opened his mouth and took a very deep breath to fill his lungs and then he pressed his lips on the baby´s mouth whose lips looked bluish by now.
By mere instinct he started to blow his breath into the baby´s mouth in a constant rhythm. Never before he had done anything like that but it was the only chance the little child would have. Breathe or die, breathing...or dying without even having a chance to live!
When the child didn´t react he turned the little body over to one side, shoved his finger into the mouth and carefully dug into it. His finger brought out some slick material and he turned the baby on its back again, starting again to press air into the small lungs. Henry´s heart was beating fast now with excitement.
He turned his head to the side, listening for a heartbeat. His fingers moved over the little chest, searching for the sternum. Carefully he pressed down with one finger, again and again...
What the hell?! He didn´t want to lose the child now! Not after what he had done to get it out from his mother! Damn, he wasn´t about to lose the fight! Not now! Not this time! He had lost way too much wounded soldiers on the table, men wounded to death with no chance to survive even with the best efforts the doctor could come up with!
This child has to stay alive! It had to!
Again and again he pressed air into the child´s mouth and lungs.
Time seemed to stretch into eternity. Then...
...the baby took a raspy breath!
A cry that almost made Henry´s sensitive vampire ears bursting when the baby breathed for the first time in his life!
"YEAH! Yeah!" Henry shouted with relief and he pushed his fist up in the air when the baby started to weep and to cry. For a moment he looked down at the child and then he carefully lifted it up on his arms, with one hand he wrapped a linen around the boy, his hands supporting the little body and he nuzzled the child in his arms, carrying it over to Sandrine.
He never had the chance to father a child of his own...
For a moment he enjoyed it to hold the little boy in his arms. He didn´t feel the urge for blood now. Children were precious and had to be protected! He never had regretted a kill since Aidan had turned him. He had killed and he would kill again...
But never ever a child!
He smiled at her and carefully he put the little boy into the arms of his mother.
"Vous avez un fils, Madame! C´est un bel enfant! You made it, Sandrine..."(You´re having a son, Madam. It´s a beautiful child) Henry smiled at her and he could see tears on her cheeks, tears of exhaustion and relief.
"Heaven, Henry! You almost scared the shit out of me!"
"At least it was worth it!" Henry gave back with a grin. He licked his bloody lips, cleaning them from the remains of the stuff he had sucked from the boy´s mouth in an attempt to get him breathing. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned his attention to Sandrine again.
She needed stitches to close the deep incision. And to stop the bleeding.
"Aidan! Get me some morphine from the operation room! Need to get her stitches fast! She´s bleeding like hell...!" Henry looked around and he took the small metal box from the table. It contained sterilized needles and some catgut.
"Okay, that´ll have to do...!" he mumbled and he cleaned his hands from blood what would be useless as Sandrine was still bleeding from the wound. He got himself a seat and placed it at the foot of the bed. He sat down on it and shoved some folded sheet under Sandrine´s buttocks. She moaned with pain.
The intense smell of blood didn´t make it easier for him. But he had gone through this with some success before, he told to himself.
"Calm toi! I´m going to finish this...you need stitches, Sandrine! Relax...it´s all okay...don´t worry! I´ll get you some morphine for it...no more pain! Pas de doleur!" he patted her belly to give her some comfort. He would have to be careful with the morphine cuz of breastfeeding...but with a little bit of it she might be able to cope with...
Henry turned his face to Aidan when he came back with the anesthetic.
"You´ll manage this?" Aidan asked him and Henry could hear the concern in his voice. He was fully aware of the reason. Lots of blood had been spilt and Aidan and he had been having trouble enough with keeping things under control.
"I can cope with it, no worries, Aidan!" Henry whispered. Aidan nodded in agreement and bent down to Sandrine.
"Just a moment! You´ll be better soon, Sandrine..." Aidan whispered to her, stroking her temple with one hand. Henry was between her spread legs, pressing some gauze to the soaking wound.
"Gonna need your help, Aidan! Take that over..." he placed the gauze in Aidan´s hands and he looked at it, hesitating a moment before he pressed it on the wound again.
"No time to become hungry, Aidan!" Henry whispered with a grin.
"Who´s talking food here!?" Aidan shot back. Their voices were so low that Sandrine couldn´t understand them. For good reason.
Henry got up from his position and went to her side, inserting a needle into her arm. She looked at him, her eyes grew wide.
"Un peu seulement, ma chére! Pas de doleur maintenant. Vous avez eu trop beaucoup...et pour ca; il me fait finir!" (just a bit of it, my dear, No pain now, you have had enough of it and I have to finish this ) Henry directed to her belly and she moaned and he injected her a low dosage of the morphine, just enough to tilt her pain and to keep her calm when he would stitch it. Sandrine was exhausted and the bleeding would weaken her additionally.
And the constant smell of her blood was pulling at all his learned controls, and at Aidan´s too! Time to get this to an end. For all of them. Her head sank back into the pillows and he sat down at her legs again. Henry sighed and it took him only minutes until he had closed the incision with a few stitches. He had done stitches before on wounded soldiers so it was no problem for him. Sandrine had fallen asleep when he had finished with her.
Henry looked at the child who was sleeping now in the arms of his mother. He wiped his forehead with the back of his head and turned over to the door.
"Let´s get out of here, Aidan! I´ll tell a nurse to look for her!"
This once they had made it through this...without going on a bloody rampage.
But for how long?, Henry asked himself when the door closed in their backs.
The End