Chapter 2: Women's Work
Tuesday's child is full of grace - Temari/Shikamaru
This was bad.
This was really bad.
Shikamaru had been to all the childbirth classes Temari had dragged him along to. He thought he was as prepared as he could be for the actual physical processes the female body went through during birth. Somebody should have warned him to brush up on the psychology involved, too.
Temari was weak and nauseated. She'd spent as much time in the bathroom upchucking through her contractions as she had in the childbirth bed. Now she lay curled up in the bed, suffering through the latest wave of pain.
"Temari?" he asked softly, trying to rub her lower back for her. "Temari, do you want any more ice chips?"
"NO! I don't want any more damned ice chips," she snarled, jerking away from his touch as best she could. "I want to DIE! Can you understand that? I want to DIE!"
Taking a deep breath, curious as to when her alleged maternal instincts were going to kick in, Shikamaru looked around the room and wondered where the hell Shizune was. She'd been popping in and out checking on Temari, clucking every once in a while about 'progress.' It seemed like she had been gone for an awfully damned long time now.
And she'd left him alone with a woman intent on suicide. Or murder. Or infanticide. Probably all three. The really scary thing was she was capable of all three.
Temari whimpered and he realized to his shock that she was crying, now. Temari never cried. He settled himself on the edge of the bed beside her, daring to rest one hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" he asked as softly as he could, overlooking the obvious that she was in a tremendous amount of pain.
She snuffled against the pillow, whispering so that he had a hard time hearing her. "I'm going to die, aren't I, Shikamaru? I'm going to die. I don't want to die."
Okay, now where the hell had THAT come from? Just 30 seconds ago hadn't she told him she wanted to die?
"Temari," he patted her shoulder clumsily. "You're healthy. You're not going to die or Shizune would have said something."
There. That should do it. A simple statement of fact. She couldn't argue with logic like that.
Instead she was engulfed in a fresh wave of sobs and tears.
Well, shit. Now what?
"It's going to die, isn't it? It's going to die or I'll kill it. I'll do something wrong and kill it."
'It' - they never had found out the baby's gender. Although the trend throughout Konoha was to find your favorite Byakuugan user and have them tell you the baby's sex, Temari had shied away from that. He'd chalked it up to cultural differences, it seemed that not knowing the gender before birth was the norm in Suna. He hadn't really cared himself, boy or girl, there wasn't much they could do about it now, he'd thought pragmatically.
But now he had a sneaking suspicion that there may have been more to it than that from Temari's point of view. Not knowing the gender may have kept the baby, their baby, a more abstract concept in her mind. He'd noticed that she'd gotten quieter as her pregnancy progressed, more withdrawn. He'd chalked it up to hormones, glad for the extra sleep, and let it go at that.
While the other kunoichi participating in Konoha's little baby boomlet seemed thrilled at each little change and happy to tell you about every fluttery feeling inside when their baby kicked, Temari had seemed nervous through it all, especially when the baby started kicking. She'd only seemed relieved in the third trimester as the child grew larger in her womb and its motions became less frequent.
Again, he'd just chalked it all up to hormones and cultural differences. Maybe in Suna they weren't as chatty about their pregnancies as the girls in Konoha were.
"Shizune! I told you to let me know when Temari went into labor!" the door swung open and Tsunade swept in, Sakura and Shizune in tow.
Finally, action, Shikamaru thought. Tsunade was here so they could get things done.
"Temari," Tsunade was by her patient's bedside now, her voice calm and soft. "Shizune tells me you're nauseated. Do you want us to give you something for that?"
"I don't want it," Temari shook her head vehemently. "I don't. I don't want it."
"You don't want the medicine?" Tsunade's question was exceedingly cautious.
"I don't want IT! I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done this. I don't want IT!" Temari sobbed throwing herself back against the pillows.
"Well, it's a little late now," Tsunade said gently, resting her hand on Temari's sweaty forehead. "That baby's in there and it's coming out today." Turning to Sakura she instructed her on the dosage of the anti-nausea medicine to prepare.
"Tsunade-sama, this has been going on for hours," Shikamaru blurted out. "I think you should just do a C-section and..."
"Oh?" Tsunade turned to glare at him, hands on her hips. "And just who do you want making decisions as to when to cut you open, Nara?" she hissed under her breath at him so that Temari couldn't hear.
Accepting the syringe from Sakura, Tsunade administered the dose herself. "Better?" she asked, then not giving her a chance to answer she continued, "we'll wait for the next contraction and see."
They didn't have long to wait, Temari gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw through the next one but at least she wasn't dry-heaving through it. Tsunade studied her carefully, speaking very firmly at the end of it, "We're not going to get anywhere if you fight against them Temari. You know that. I know you're strong and you can probably keep this up for a long while, but eventually even you will be worn out. Like it or not, this is one fight you can't win."
Against them? Shikamaru thought dumbfounded. Temari had been working against her own contractions? Why the hell would she do that? He started to speak but Tsunade shot him a look that threatened bodily harm so he shut up instantly.
Surveying her team, Tsunade had to admit that Temari had, without a doubt, the three top medical nins in all of the Land of Fire, quite probably in all the Five Great Nations attending to her. There certainly wasn't a lack of clinical skills here. But there was more to her problem than that. Kicking herself mentally, thinking back to all she knew about the girl's background, her history with her own mother and Gaara she realized that Temari didn't need clinical assistance at all. And what she did need, neither she nor Sakura nor Shizune could give her.
"Shikamaru - who's out in the waiting room for you?"
"Huh?" he jerked his attention away from his wife to his Hokage. "Oh, um, my mom and dad and Chouza I think."
"Temari. Listen to me. I want Yoshino to come in here. I want her with you. Is that okay with you?"
Temari closed her eyes and threw her head back, tendons in her neck straining as she fought against the pain in her body once again. "I don't care," she wailed. "It doesn't matter anyway. I don't care."
"Shikamaru, go ask Yoshino to come in here."
"Huh? Tsunade, I don't think..."
"You're right, you don't think!" the blond woman snapped. "I didn't ask you to think, I told you to go get your mom and bring her in here. That's an order. Now go!"
Shikamaru scampered from the room, if the truth be known, eternally grateful to Tsunade for giving him an excuse to get out of there.
Typically, Tsunade wouldn't think of asking additional non-medical personnel in to a delivery but this wasn't a typical case. Besides, she'd seen that Yoshino and Temari seemed relatively close, not your average mother-in-law/daughter-in-law fractious relationship. And Temari didn't need any medical assistance right now, she needed a labor doula, someone whose experience came from having gone through labor and delivery herself before, not just being an attendent at them.
The girl was scared to death. And who wouldn't be after what had happened to her own mother when Gaara was born? Temari had been three, old enough to remember her mother and old enough to know that she'd died in childbirth. Homebirths were the norm in Suna, Temari may have even been in the house when it happened.
Shikamaru returned to the room, Yoshino slightly behind him. She hesitated at the door. "Tsunade-sama? Shikamaru said you wanted to see me?"
"Come in, Yoshino-san. I think Temari would benefit if you could stay with her. Will you stay?"
"Hai, yes, but I'm no medic, Tsunade-sama....I..."
"No, but you've been through this before," Tsunade smiled over at her. Just then Temari gave a loud cry.
"Temari-chan," Yoshino whispered, infinitely soft and tender, she was instantly by her side. Taking her daughter-in-law's hand in one of hers, she smoothed the girl's hair back out of her face. "Temari-chan, what is wrong? How can I help you?"
"I'm scared, okaa-...Yoshino-san. I'm scared."
"Shhh, it is scary, neh?" Yoshino whispered. "Shh, I know."
"AHHHH!" Temari cried out and gripped Yoshino's hand so tight that her fingers turned white. Panting she managed to sob out, "My mother died....and she hated her baby. She hated him. Before she died. What if I...."
The contraction subsiding, Temari sagged back against Yoshino who kissed her forehead and whispered against her. "What if you hate it? What if you don't love the baby? Tch. Temari-chan. Don't think you're the only one who's ever had this fear."
In the respite between contractions, Temari turned to Yoshino amazed. "Yoshino-san?"
The older woman was shaking her head gently. "I know. You feel like you must be a monster yourself for even entertaining the thought. Poor Temari-chan. No mother for herself. Poor little lost fawn." She had Temari's head cradled against her chest now. "A terrible thing was done to your mother, Temari. But she loved Gaara-chan, I'm sure of it. And look at him now. She would be so proud of him, so proud she brought him into this world. I know she would."
Temari sat up for another contraction, tears abating a bit as Yoshino crooned on about every potential fear he could imagine that parenthood entailed. It flew in the face of all logic, Shikamaru thought she should be telling her not to be afraid. Instead she was listing them for her, fear of dropping the baby, fear of not loving the baby enough, fear of smothering the baby if you fell asleep nursing it. He started to speak up to tell his mom to knock it off, but Sakura stamped on his foot and he shut up, sidling over to his wife's side as Tsunade motioned for him to do so.
And he noticed that none of them involved fear of the actual delivery itself. And some of them were so outrageous that he chuckled and even Temari managed a weak smile. He'd never known that his mother had an irrational fear when he was an infant that he would be carried off by baza hawks. And he also realized that every one of them was a fear that his mother had had herself.
Shikamaru was wondering who this imposter was who had snuck into the delivery room in the guise of his mother. He had never heard her speak so softly and tenderly in his entire life. Guiltily he had to admit that maybe, okay, once or twice, he'd heard her sound like that when he was little and had a fever. Or that time that his father had come home from the mission with the gashes on his face that led to his resultant scars and they'd spent so much time in the hospital with him.
"Temari-chan, you're lips are cracked. Do you want some ice chips?" his mother asked.
Weakly Temari nodded, "Yes, please," she croaked out hoarsely.
"Shikamaru! What kind of husband are you! Can't you see our Temari-chan needs some ice? Go get her some!"
Okay, it really was mom after all he thought, starting to realize that maybe things were going to be all right.
When he came back to the room, Temari was up walking around, one arm over Yoshino's shoulders, his mother holding her at her waist. "Tch," Yoshino clucked, "Shizune tells us the baby's not descending. It's probably a boy. A typical Nara man. Lazy from birth. You wouldn't come down either."
"MOM! Why have you got her up out of bed? Where's Shizune or Sakura?"
"Temari wants to be up, don't you Temari-chan?" Yoshino snapped in reply. "Why shouldn't she? It's the only way your lazy baby will come down!"
Shikamaru just sighed and handed the cup of ice chips to his mother who spooned a few to Temari. Another contraction coming on, Temari gripped Yoshino's shoulders and rested her forehead against her mother-in-laws and panted regularly through this one.
Shizune and Sakura breezed back in after checking on a couple more patients down the hall. "How are you, Temari?" Shizune asked, sounding a little more cheerful than last time.
"O-o-okay," Temari stammered.
"Did the walking help?"
Temari nodded her chin up and down a little.
"Great. We've been gone for a bit. Get back in the bed and let me check you and..."
Temari clutched Yoshino and whimpered, "Nooooo..."
"Temari, just get back in bed, okay," Shikmaru pleaded. Three sets of female eyes glared daggers at him, he found himself grateful that kunai and shuriken were forbidden in the maternity ward.
"She doesn't want to have the baby in the bed," Yoshino said matter of factly, speaking for her daughter in law.
"Oh? Well, then, okay," Shizune said. "Will you at least let me check you in the bed? I promise you can get right back up and continue walking."
Glancing at the petite brunette for reassurance, Temari nodded and Shikamaru helped her ease herself onto the bed for the few brief moments it took to check her cervix.
"You're there!" Shizune said excitedly as she and Yoshino helped Temari struggle to her feet. Temari managed a smile of satisfaction, one goal having been reached. But Shikamaru wasn't at all satisfied with this not-in-the-bed business.
"Temari, please get back in the bed..." he started and Temari just crumpled into a wailing mass of sobs, clinging to Yoshino.
Gulping out between wails, she whimpered, "Okaa-chan, okaa-chan was in the bed...and...she wasn't moving...and...and...there was blood and...I tried to get her to wake up...and she wouldnt' wake up...and...she wouldn't wake up and...I tried."
If looks could kill, Shikamaru realized he would have been a dead man three times over.
"Shikamaru! Get OUT!" his mother yelled at him.
"No, okaa-san, no, I want him to stay," Temari cried.
"Tell me what you want, Temari-chan and we will do it," Yoshino said authoritatively, speaking for all of them.
"I want Shikamaru-kun to hold me, in the chair. I don't want it to happen in the bed," she was shaking her head forlornly like a little girl, "not like okaa-chan."
"Shh, of course, little one, of course," she said soothingly then snapped into drill sargeant mode, "Shikamaru! Sit down in the chair so Temari-chan can rest against you."
And Shikamaru did as he was told, settling back into the chair, Temari leaning against him, with his arms wrapped around her, just below her breasts at the swell of her belly. They weren't through with the screaming yet, but at least now it seemed rhythmic and with a purpose, although Shikamaru wasn't sure his hearing would ever return to normal.
Yoshino and Sakura braced themselves against Temari's legs as she leaned back against Shikamaru, knees up to her chest, giving her something to push against.
"Almost, almost, oh! She keeps slipping back!" Shizune said, excitement creeping into her voice.
"She?" Shikamaru asked.
Shizune snorted, "All babies are 'she' Shikamaru, until you know the gender, in Suna that's usually not until birth."
"That's right," Temari agreed and he was more than relieved to hear her sound so normal again, that is before she screamed.
"She's crowning!" Shizune said overjoyed.
"Sakura! I want Sakura!" Temari demanded. "I want Sakura to catch her."
"Wha-?" Sakura sounded startled, "I-I haven't done that before, Temari."
Through gritted teeth, Temari shouted out her, "And I haven't had one before either, dammit. There's a first time for everything!"
Shizune was standing and her smile was brilliant as she pushed her assistant down, "Hurry Sakura! Get down here, hurry!"
And Shikamaru found himself feeling extremely superfluous as his daughter came into the world surrounded by the laughter and tears of the four women in the room with him.
A/N: okaa-san = mother
okaa-chan = mommy
doula = a greek word meaning a women's servant, a labor doula is an experienced woman who attends to the mother during childbirth. Not the same as a midwife, she doesn't provide clinical/medical skills, she's more there to speak on the mother's behalf and to see to her comfort and wishes and most importantly to stay with her.
Anyway, difficult to explain the role of a doula but when I got to thinking about who the medical nin were in Konoha it occurred to me that none of them, that we know of, would have had children yet. So, it gave me a chance to use one of my favorite characters, Yoshino!