A Nurse In Need—Chapter 4

Once again in this strangest of days, Marla found herself brushing her hand over her face and desperately trying to triage her patient. She pursed her lips for a second, closed her eyes and mentally put her plan in order. Then she began to act.

"Okay—Sam—don't panic. Guys? Could you wait outside? I need to find out where this came from."

Dean looked at Sam, and despite all the teasing that had gone on since the beginning of this particular ordeal ("I bet you have a vajayjay, Sam. No wait…you always did."), the love and dedication the brothers had for each other was as strong as it ever was. Sam was scared shitless and Dean could see it. They'd been through some ordeals together—their entire lives had been an ordeal—but they always had each other, even if they weren't getting along at the time. It wasn't Dean's way to leave his brother in the hands of anyone but himself. This wasn't a possession or an angel attack—hell, that would have been easy. They were working with a little-documented phenomenon and neither was sure about how this would turn out. Since, even in the documentation they did find (there was nothing about a pregnant man in the lore), any prediction was pure speculation and had no functional pattern to follow. Working in tandem had its benefits, and even though the angels had ions of fighting together, they had some serious competition with the Winchesters…

This wasn't one of those times.

Sam was alone. Dean couldn't share in this pain. He had to leave his brother in the hands of a stranger, and before Dean closed the door, the look of uncertainty he got from his brother injected a level of fear in his heart he hadn't felt in quite some time.

He looked at Marla, eyes again pleading with her to 'take care of my brother.' "I'll be right outside."

She nodded at the exiting men and then returned her attention to Sam.

"Okay, honey, we have to see what's going on. Can I take a look?"

Sam silently nodded, heart pounding. "What do I need to do?"

"Just lay back. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just going to look."

After donning a pair of latex gloves, she gently nudged his knees apart and peered between them. Yes—he still had the parts he was blessed with from birth, but just under them, she could see a small opening. It was red and swollen, and not totally unfamiliar, given her additional history of being utilized from time to time in labor and delivery when things in the ER were slow.

She looked at Sam and offered him her best smile. "Well, it looks like there's an escape route."

"I wish there was one for me."

She smiled again and in the next moment, returned her focus to treatment.

"Sooo…I'm gonna assume for medicine's sake this is gonna be as normal a delivery as it can under the circumstances. "

"What does that mean?"

"Well, your water already broke, which means that you're probably dilated, but it's hard to tell how far along you are in all this without checking to see."

Sam's eyes widened. Of all the things he'd seen through the years, he'd never seen how babies were born. Yeah, he'd heard Amelia talking to a friend about her labor and delivery, but to see or experience it? Nope.

"How do you do that?"

"Examine the cervix."

"You have to put your hand in there?"

"Yeah."

"Does it hurt?"

"It can. Not all the time. Some women don't feel it at all, others say it's a little bit of pressure, and you'd think with some other women that you were killing them."

"Will it make it go faster?"

She shook her head. "No, but it'll give us an idea."

Sam drew up his legs and spread his knees. There wasn't any real way to prepare for this…he'd had no comparative experience, so he decided to focus on his breathing, like he was taught when he was young and had to stitch up his own arm…

He felt Marla's fingers on the outside of him, just under his "real" parts, then they pressed inward.

At first, it was strange. He'd never felt anything like that before. Nothing had ever been there…he could feel her moving deeper and deeper, and then, he felt pressure—almost like he had to poop. He decided the best route from here was just to focus on his breathing…

She avoided any eye contact with him, for a couple of reasons: well, let's be honest—it was awkward. Fingering a guy with a vagina wasn't one of the highlights of her career. And, just as importantly, he was frightened, and even with all her years of blood, tears, and grief, that look, from anyone, stirred enough compassion in her enough to distract her.

She heard Sam draw in a quick breath and hold it for a second, and then let it out, and do it again. Her fingers bumped into something hard, and he yipped out loud.

"I'm sorry, Sam."

She looked up and saw tears streaming from the corners of his eyes, through his hair and into the pillow. She didn't though, retract her hand yet. If this was close to anything like a female delivery, he was about where he needed to be, given that this would be the equivalent of giving birth to a first child.

"Okay, well, there's some good news. You're about halfway there."

"What does that mean?"

"The cervix is about 5 centimeters dilated. You got five more before you can start to push."

Sam felt like he was going to vomit. Push?

"Once it comes out, give it to my brother so he can kill it."

"Kill it?"

"Yeah. It's not human."

Marla had to wait for her next question, and she was full of them.

Sam felt his abdomen tightening up again and started to pant. Wow, this was bad.

"It might get a little worse, now, Sam, since your water broke. It might move things along a little more."

"No kidding." Sam grunted and rolled to his side and pushed his head into the pillow. His breaths came fast and shallow now, and fresh sweat began to bead on his forehead. When his stomach muscles contracted even more, a frustrated grunt escaped and he bared his teeth at the embarrassment.

Marla moved behind him on the bed and began to firmly massage his lower back. Offering counterpressure during the labor process can bring some amount of comfort, as least for human mothers with regular, uncomplicated deliveries. She heard Sam's breathing slow a little. When the contraction was over, she decided she needed more information. Especially about killing the newborn. That didn't sit okay with her…

"Did that help?"

"Yeah, a little. Thank you."

"Take a cleansing breath."

"What's that mean?"

"Take a deep breath and let it go."

Sam did exactly what he was asked, and felt some relief that at least one person here had some competence with what was happening to him.

"Thank you."

Just then, there was a light tap on the door and Dean and Cas walked in.

"Everything okay?"

Sam and Marla exchanged a glance. "Without getting too technical, it's progressing. He's about halfway there. The biggest thing is helping him relax for right now."

"I told her we have to kill it," Sam added softly, offering a fleeting look his brother's way.

Dean set his jaw. "Yeah. We'll take care of it. We just have to get you through this."

"Wait a minute. You're going to kill a newborn? Don't you want to see it first? Maybe it's not so bad-."

"Look. It's not human. It's not ours-."

"I have a suggestion," Cas interrupted. " I can seek some assistance from the Mer-people-."

"Wait. What?! Cas—they're raping women and getting them pregnant! Am I crazy or does this seem a little off to you?" Dean shook his head. "Don't answer that."

"Not one woman you spoke to objected-."

"It's a spell, Cas!" It was obvious that Dean was stressed, and this is not an emotion he has dealt well with in the past.

"It's a spell that sustains life, not takes it," Cas pressed. He silently looked around the room, his mind set on his goal. "I'll be back." In a whisp of feathers rustling, he was gone.

Dean rolled his eyes and huffed, knowing that changing Cas' opinion at this point was pointless.