In honor of finals week and my stress levels going through the roof, there is a new part to Fade Away.
Trigger warnings: Death, blood, implied gore, miscarriage, child abuse, deliberate misgendering of a trans-gender individual
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Do You Still Believe in Love (I Wonder)?
Ool goes into labor two months early. Yondu only knows this because he's visiting her when she starts screaming and clutching at her belly. She starts sobbing then and Yondu listens to her cries in Home Tongue. She's begging her aba and papa and Anthos and anyone who will listen to just make the pain stop.
Yondu's aba was a healer who knew how to deliver babies. Everyone sent for his aba when they were gonna have a baby, and she'd travel for a week straight if she had to, to help out. Yondu knows what to do, because sometimes Aba let him help. (He's always been young enough that he doesn't count and is allowed in the hollow tree that serves as a birthing house. Papas and boys aren't allowed in.)
Master Reban hears about Ool going into labor and sends his doctor to help Ool. Yondu takes one look at the doctor and starts screaming that the man must leave, he'll kill Ool. He tries to push the man away, but gets knocked into a wall. The seven year old gets up again and charges at the doctor, shrieking that he's not allowed to be near Ool because she'll get sick. Men aren't supposed to be in the same room when a baby's being born!
The seven-year-old winds up sprawled on the floor again, sobbing and hiccupping, holding a hand over the side of his face. The doctor tells the guards to keep him out of the way. Yondu paces worriedly outside the door, waiting for Master Reban to arrive. When the shaskolr arrives, Yondu tries to look like a Xandarian and not a dirty savage before he speaks up timidly.
"Men aren't s'posed to be in the same room," he squeaks, hands clasped behind his back, red eyes wide with fear. "Ab…Mama said men make mamas sick when they're havin' a baby. Ool needs a…a…" He doesn't know the right word in Xandarian, and whistles the Home Tongue one, tongue clicking against his bottom teeth on the off syllable. Master Reban glares at him and Yondu flinches on instinct, hands going up to shield his face.
"She needs a proper doctor," Master Reban finally snaps. "Not whatever mumbo-jumbo you savages keep cooking up." Yondu trembles as Master Reban steps past him into the room where Ool is still shrieking in pain. Ool needs aba's help, but aba's dead and Yondu thinks he might know one person who can help and is a doctor. He turns and runs towards the women's quarters, ducking past the guards at the entrance. There's a healer there who keeps getting shoved in women's quarters even though he's a male, but he's allowed to be in a birthing chamber because he's a temple man and is neutral in Anthos' eyes…
Karsil is sitting in the women's quarters, arms crossed over his chest and glaring at the far wall. Yondu sees the remains of another dress in the basket of rags that Karsil keeps for when someone needs a quick patch up and picks it up, babbling as fast as he can to explain what's wrong with Ool. Karsil's red eyes widen and he grabs Yondu up, yelling for some women to follow them and takes off sprinting down the hall. He bellows instructions over his shoulder as he picks up speed, Yondu in one arm and the basket of rags in the other.
They make it to Ool's room before the Xandarian doctor can try anything. Yondu starts quivering under Master Reban's cool stare and clings to Karsil's neck as Karsil gets the women to cluster around Ool, forcing the male doctor away. Karsil's the only man allowed in the room, but Yondu doesn't think Master Reban will be forced out like the doctor is. He clings to someone else's skirt and watches as Karsil tries to undo the damage.
Except…
Except Ool is still screaming and shuddering, and nothing Karsil tries from his bag of tricks is working. Yondu wonders if the guards outside are too close, but he doesn't want to leave Ool's side to make them go further away. He knows Master Reban shouldn't be in the room at all, but no one's brave enough to tell their master that. Not even Karsil, who's a healer and a temple man and a fighter when he's angry.
Yondu feels numb as Ool flops back on the bed, red eyes staring up at the ceiling, arms and legs slack. He knows why she's not screaming anymore, in a faint, distant part of his brain. He doesn't respond as the woman who was keeping the rhythm for the Birth Song picks him up and begins wailing that awful, awful song that Yondu only ever heard when someone died. Everyone takes up the song as well and Yondu starts sobbing, unable to keep himself numb.
Ool is dead. Karsil says, softly, that the baby is dead too. The mourning song gets louder and Yondu wonders if everyone in the compound can hear it. He wonders if the song will carry Ool and her baby to Anthos, where no one can hurt them.
Master Reban has all the women and Karsil and even Yondu whipped the next morning, in front of everyone.
Yondu doesn't speak again for a month.
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So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Sharpening your axes for when Reban finally gets what's coming? Drop a line and let me know.