In, out.

In, out.

In, out.

Ignore the pain, push through the pain. Stay calm, stay calm.

"We've got to get her to Ace's," Donorcycle was saying.

"But he's not here!" Angel said. Dear Angel. Always so serious, hard-edged like a triangle. Her little voice of reason, her realist. But sharp edges was not what Harmony needed now.

In, out.

In, out.

Someone was taking hold of her, lifting her up. Strong warm arms. "Can you stand for me, Harmony?" Donorcycle was saying. "Come on, girl, stand for me."

Her legs felt weak, rubbery. Not like the strong legs of the rabbit that was kicking its way out of her.

"I c-c-c-"

"Come on girl, we've got to go."

"Ace gave us a key," Angel said. "But -"

"The room is set up, that's all we need. Just so long as we can get in. Where's Midas?"

An image sprang to Harmony's mind. Midas' strong, muscled back. Black enamelled steel. "Car," she murmured.

"Where's the car?"

"Shed."

"Someone get the father in here, he needs to be here."

In the corner of her eye, Harmony glimpsed Poison sprinting from the room. Quick and lithe as a cricket, that girl. She'd been like that once. Would she be like that again? Or was her time up?

She mused on the idea of death. Surely falling into Gaea's embrace would be better than this.

Another powerful band of pain wrapped around her body. She gritted her teeth. "Don't kick so hard, little rabbit," she whimpered.

"She's dilating fast," Kitty said. "This baby should be out soon."

And then Donorcycle's arms were gone, and Harmony was wrapped into a warm, golden familiar embrace. Warmth spread through her body. Was her Midas turning her body to gold?

"Someone should have told me she was in labour," his voice thundered through her body. It reverberated into her bones, silencing the rabbit momentarily. "Oh don't be afraid, he's your father," Harmony murmured.

"What's wrong with her?" His voice was terse. "You didn't give her drugs or some shit?"

"No, she's just in a lot of pain," Kitty said. "It's making her a little delirious. We can give her some natural pain relief once we get her to the birthing room -"

"Well then why didn't you say so?"

She felt herself lifted, up up and up; towards the sky, into the clouds. She felt herself being carried, transported, transferred – she winced through another wave of pain.

"Open the goddamn door!" Keys jangling, sharp and musical through her haze of pain.

She must have blacked out momentarily, because suddenly she was being laid down. She was no longer in her lover's warm embrace, but in the cold clasp of the birthing chair. She panicked; she sat up and reached out for Midas, grabbing his hand.

"M-Midas," she whimpered, and he was there; arms wrapped around her torso, just above the heaving swollen mass that was her rabbit forcing its way out of her body. Cracking ribs, tearing flesh; its feet were powerful.

The smell of smoke and sandalwood tickled her nose; various herbs and scents were thrust under her nose. These were the ones that were supposed to dull the pain. Were they working? She couldn't tell.

In, out.

In, out.

A fan was turned on; waves of hot air buffeted across her skin. A cold cloth scraped over her forehead. Everything felt so strange, so surreal.

It was happening. She'd prepared nine months for this moment, and now that it was finally happening, she felt so vulnerable and underprepared. Why hadn't they smuggled in real painkillers? Why wasn't Acetone here? Why had the breaking waters come as such a shock to her?

"I d-don't want to die," she gasped.

Pain, so much pain. High pitched screaming. Was that her? She honestly didn't know. She didn't think she'd be able to make any noise through her gasping.

In, out.

In, out.

To her slight surprise, her mother's face floated in front of her. "What are you doing here?" Harmony asked. Her mother smiled, kind green eyes reflected hers. A lily-soft hand patted her cheek, long manicured nails gently pressing into her skin.

Through everything, through all the pain and panic and the haze of sounds and smells and sensations, despite it all one voice remained clear as day.

"Florence, my dear, you should concentrate now."

Her last thought before her mind drifted into black was how strange it was that even despite being a ghost, a memory, a hallucination conjured by her panicking mind, her mother still remained so wonderfully, ordinarily practical.

Angel was in shock.

Her sister was in labour, and it was a disaster.

"The baby's fucking backwards!" Donorcycle shrieked. "It rotated backwards! The wrong fucking way around!"

"Donorcycle, shut the fuck up!" Kitty shrieked. Nobody had ever heard Kitty speak louder than a shrill whisper before. Even Donorcycle was stunned into silence.

"We can fix this," Kitty panted, blue-grey eyes steely. "We're goddamned trained doctors, we can do this."

"Is my girlfriend going to die?" Midas asked. His voice was rough, cold. He gripped Harmony around her body as if her body was going to float away with her ever more fragile soul.

"No," Kitty said firmly. "Your baby and your girlfriend will live."

"Kitty, fucking look at this," Donorcycle growled. "That is not a good prognosis -"

"Shut up, Donor."

Angel looked at her hands, and realised that her hands were shaking. They were shaking so hard, they were a blur.

Cool, downy brown hands closed over them. Angel looked up into Phobia's strange pale eyes. She looked so oddly calm. Angel hadn't seen her like this since the spider incident.

"Oh god, oh god," Donorcycle said shakily. "Oh god, Kitty..."

Angel tore her eyes away from Phobia's. Horror crept down her spine when she saw all the red. Please don't let that be blood, oh god please let it be anything but blood.

The two women appeared to be fighting to stay calm. Angel saw Kitty swaying; her squeamishness was taking over at an awful time.

"Kitty, give me those forceps," Donorcycle demanded. Kitty shakily handed over the forceps. Donorcycle forced the metal implement into Harmony's body, invading her. Angel felt sick.

"I'm going to vomit," she whispered. Phobia thrust a white plastic bowl under her face. Angel gagged into it, dry retching for the second time that day. They hadn't even had their daily meal, and everything was already going so wrong. Had Harmony eaten yet? Did she have enough strength to get through this?

Kitty screamed.

Angel looked up, and had to fight the urge to scream as well, her scream instead manifesting itself into hot tears that ran down her face and into the bowl, mixing with her saliva.

"She's haemorrhaging," Donorcycle said, her voice shaky. "Badly. It's... not good."

Donorcycle only ever spoke like that when things were really bad. Donorcycle never even slightly minced her words, unless she knew that the victim in question was likely going to die.

Her sister was going to die.

At that moment, Phobia suddenly stood up. She strode over to Harmony. As the girl stood up, Angel noticed something odd through her tears. Phobia's eyes were red.

She placed a hand on Harmony's cheek, whispering something unintelligible. Angel was sure it wasn't real English. Harmony's eyes closed and her head lolled back, her body going limp.

"Shit!" Midas yelped. He shook Harmony, slapping her cheeks and yelling in her ears. "Wake up, girl! Don't you dare die on me, wake up!"

Phobia forcefully shoved Kitty and Donorcycle aside. Angel was stunned by her strength; Donorcycle wasn't small.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Donorcycle roared, trying to shove back. But Phobia held firm.

"Please allow me some room to work," Phobia said. Her voice was unrecognisably cold and composed. Angel wondered if the shock of the event was making her hallucinate. "What are you doing to my girlfriend?" Midas yelled.

She eased the bloody forceps out of Harmony's body, setting them aside on a towel. She quickly inspected the area, eyes passing over the bloody war scene as a quality control inspector might glance over manufactured goods. She did all this with a terrifying air of detached professionalism, her brown hands nimbly and easily doing the work as if she'd done this before. And then Phobia then shoved her hands up into Harmony's body.

Donorcycle yelped, Kitty promptly fainted. Midas fell into a stunned silence, his jaw agape. Angel swayed, realising that she was about to faint too.

It was all over in a few seconds. Phobia rummaged around for a moment, then withdrew her bloody arms. In her arms was a baby. A screaming, alive, gloriously alive baby. Not deformed, but wholly and utterly perfect. Phobia dumped the wailing child into a stunned Donorcycle's arms.

"If you would cut the cord and clean the child for me please, Doctor," she said with the unruffled serenity of an airplane stewardess.

She reached up and with one long, bloody finger drew a red line down Harmony's sweaty forehead. The line faded, absorbing eerily into Harmony's sweaty skin. To Angel's absolute disbelief, she watched the red recede. The huge pool of blood appeared to be flowing back into Harmony's body. Glorious pink colour filled Harmony's cheeks as she flushed with her restored supply of blood.

Phobia watched serenely as all of the blood – even the blood on her hands – flowed back into Harmony, then she turned and looked at Angel. Her eyes widened in what looked like surprise as they changed back from red to white, and she slumped forward. Angel caught the prone girl just in time.

Harmony jolted awake, gasping and wheezing. "What happened?" she asked shrilly. "I blacked out, what's going on? My baby!"

Donorcycle thrust the baby into Harmony's outstretched arms. Angel watched as tears rolled down Harmony's face, the woman's body shaking with uncontrollable sobs. Midas sighed in relief, Angel saw his eyes were shiny with suppressed emotion. The couple stared down at their long-awaited baby.

"I agree, what the hell just happened?" Donorcycle asked, staring at Phobia's prone body.

Angel ignored her, looking at her new baby niece. "It's a girl," she said in disbelief.

Harmony smiled at her child through her tears. She wiped a cloth over the baby's dark skin, revealing tufts of pink and white hair. The baby opened its watery eyes, revealing a deep rosy red gaze. "We can call her her full name then," she said, sniffing.

"I guess little Bunny Rabbit finally kicked her way out."

When Phobia awoke, she had no recollection of the incident. Though Angel and Poison interrogated her thoroughly, they could draw no explanation of what had truly happened in that surreal moment. Phobia just stared at them blankly while Angel recounted the event, blinking in surprise as she described how Phobia delivered the child and saved Harmony.

"I just don't remember," Phobia insisted. "I really don't."

However, Phobia appeared extremely unsettled. She kept frowning, a sliver of fear flickering into her wide pale eyes. Her pupils were narrowed into tiny slits. She kept blinking as if in confusion, staring at Angel almost as if she didn't recognise her. For the rest of the day, she wandered around as if in a daze, jumping if anyone touched her or said her name. She was distracted, fearful. And even Phobia didn't seem able to understand why.

By contrast, Harmony and Midas were practically dancing in the air. Despite being exhausted and in pain from the birth, Harmony still bounced around the house, singing and rocking the baby in her arms. Midas left the house to announce the birth in the streets, hugging every person he saw and deliriously inviting everyone and anyone to a spontaneous "birthday party". He even took the car to Black Jack's, and came back with the big man himself, who cooed over the baby like a grandmother – a bizarre sight.

Donorcycle officially signed Kitty off as an experienced midwife, congratulating her on her first birth and signing the Battery City St Gerard's Institute of Obstetrics and Midwifery forms that confirmed Kitty as a qualified nurse and midwife. Kitty could officially go back to Battery City and start her career as a nurse, but she tearfully announced in a somewhat alcohol-slurred speech that she would be staying in The Sanctum to offer her services as long as she was needed.

The house was filled with celebration and activity as neighbours visited to see the child and congratulate Harmony and Midas, bringing gifts, food and drink, even beer and other alcoholic drinks. Everyone was amazed and ecstatic that Harmony had successfully survived her first birth. Births tended to be followed by partying and celebration, as it was not common for both mother and child to emerge healthy and virtually unscathed from a birth. Angel still remembered the births of Dinah and Alice, particularly Dinah's birth, as it was borderline miraculous for a woman to successfully carry two consecutive pregnancies, let alone survive both, let alone birth two healthy babies. Carol loudly expressed how impressed she was over a bottle of vodka, and went on to describe in graphic detail the births of her two daughters, and upon her describing of their conception Lewis red-facedly guided his wife into the basement for a nap.

By mid-afternoon, everyone but Harmony, the three girls and the baby were red-cheeked, tearful and melodramatically emotional. Eventually the girls gently escorted the guests out of the house amidst proclamations of love and support, so that Harmony and the baby could get some rest. Midas put his wife to bed, then left the house to continue spreading the good news.

When they finished cleaning the house, the girls left for the plateau. They recalled the events of the party with much laughter, Poison doing a hilarious impression of Carol's drunken anecdotes. However Angel noticed that Phobia was still quieter than usual, her face frowning into a worried expression whenever she thought the others weren't looking.

Later, as they sat on the edge of the cliff watching the sunset, Angel worked up the guts to ask.

"Phobia, what's wrong?" she asked.

Phobia looked away, not meeting Angel's eyes. Angel took her hand. "C'mon, you made me tell you what was wrong yesterday, you can't wriggle out now," she reminded her. "Otherwise it's not fair."

"Yeah, we need to tell each other this stuff," Poison agreed. "No secrets, remember?"

Phobia was chewing her lip. Her sharp canine made angry red marks on her skin.

"I just don't understand what happened today," she said. Her voice was timid, fearful. "I mean, one second I was holding Angel's hand, the next you guys were standing over me, asking what I'd done, how I'd done it. I had no idea what you guys were talking about. I blanked out completely."

She blinked. "No, that's not true," she said. "Not completely. But.. something weird happened. I think I was dreaming, or hallucinating, or something.

"Whatever I was doing, I wasn't with you guys... I can't remember what happened very well. But I remember everything was bright and colourful. Like a kaleidoscope. It hurt my eyes. But someone was holding me, and they were all white, and they were telling me it was okay.

"She was so white, her skin, her hair, even her nails and lips were painted white. Her clothes.. I don't know what she was wearing, some kind of dress poncho cloak thing? I couldn't tell, it was made up of all these layers of transparent fabric, all fluttering and floating. She was all white, but her eyes were red, I remember that. She was so beautiful. I think I felt like she was my mother... I don't know for sure, I've never had a mother so I wouldn't know. But I just wanted to curl up to her, I wanted her to hold me and protect me. I liked her telling me it would all be okay.

"I don't understand it. She could have been from BL/ind, she could have been from my past, she could have just been some kind of hallucination. But she was so calm and serene when before I'd been so scared, and all I knew was that she was perfect and she would make everything okay."

Phobia stopped biting her lip, but her forehead was still creased into a frown.

"I just wish I knew who she was," she said. "I've been trying to work it out all day, but I've got nothing. It scares me, because it sounds like I wasn't myself when I saved Harmony.. it sounds weird just saying it. I just don't think that was me. My body did it, but it wasn't me."

She glanced at both Angel and Poison, her eyes pleading. "I just want to know what happened," she said. "I want an explanation. That's why I've been acting weird, it's because I've been trying to work it out, and I'm afraid about what it could be."

The walk back to the Sanctum was quiet, but the three girls walked hand in hand. Angel felt safe and comfortable with them, and with their close and easy friendship. Everything was just so uncertain and strange and full of dangers, but being with the girls made her feel sheltered and protected from it.

When they got back to the house, Midas was back, rocking the baby who'd woken up while Harmony was still sleeping. He grinned at the girls, calling them over.

"Hey baby, these are your aunties," he cooed, holding Bunny up so she could stare wide-eyed at the girls. "This one's Aunty Angel –" Angel obligingly smiled and kissed the child on her downy cheek; "This one's Aunty Poison –" Poison too nuzzled Bunny's cheek and cooed softly at her; "And this is Aunty Phobes!" Phobia leaned down and rubbed her nose against the child's; she gurgled happily and batted Phobia's cheek with a tiny outstretched hand.

"And those are your aunties! You all good to go back to Mama, now?" Midas continued, smiling at the girls, who made their way back to Angel's room. Even in the room, the girls could still hear Midas softy singing and cooing as he rocked the baby to sleep.

"Are you going to christen or baptize her?" Poison asked. Angel shrugged. "I dunno, Harmony's not Christian," she said. "She might make up her own ceremony based on Gaea or something, I'd have no idea."

"She's one cute kid," Phobia said. Angel grinned. "She is, isn't she?" she mused. "It's gonna be interesting seeing how she grows up."

Over the next few days, the little family threw themselves into the first tedious months of raising a baby. Midas had to take days off to help take care of Bunny; to help support the family, the girls began making jewellery and accessories to keep Harmony's jewellery stall going. Poison even showed the girls how to make oatmeal soap, something the girls made plenty of – soap was always popular in the Sanctum, as it was hard to come by yet very much a perceived need. The girls themselves rarely used it though – as Angel put it, "What's the use of soap when we barely have enough water to wash ourselves anyway?"

Angel noticed how Phobia was surprisingly good with baby Bunny. Despite not being particularly socially adept, Phobia was unexpectedly comfortable with the child. Indeed, Bunny was infatuated with her. If Bunny was crying, all they had to do was to give her to Phobia – she would stop immediately and instead gaze curiously up at her aunt with a contented smile.

Angel also noticed how Harmony was beginning to feel about this. She didn't miss Harmony's reluctance to pass over a screaming Bunny to Phobia, only to watch the child fall silent in another woman's arms, nor did she miss the jealous glances Harmony stole when Phobia and Bunny played together.

She felt bad for Harmony. The child was in the strange situation that her mother was a different species, and the only person who was the same species was completely unrelated to her. The supernatural effect Phobia held over children only reinforced this. Even though Harmony was aware of it though, she couldn't help but be jealous.

One evening, while Phobia and Poison were playing outside with Bunny, Harmony actually burst into tears and threw her arms around Angel. "I wish she'd never come," she sobbed. "She's my baby, not hers! I'm supposed to be her favourite!"

Angel knew Harmony didn't mean it. She was fond of Phobia, like everyone else. But Angel understood her jealousy, too. Of course as the child grew older it would recognise that Phobia was just an aunt, but Angel understood how Harmony could be fearful that Bunny would recognise Phobia as her mother, not her. It was an awkward situation.

However the situation only grew worse as Harmony's resent for Phobia grew. To Angel's horror, she realised that Harmony had started to keep the child from Phobia, even running to the basement to keep Bunny to herself when she started crying.

Phobia was becoming aware of the situation too, and Angel saw how this upset her. Phobia was torn between wanting to keep Harmony happy and wanting to spend time with the baby. She was also hurt that Harmony had begun to resent her. She couldn't help what was happening, after all. And then Phobia began to resent Harmony too.

Angel prayed that the situation would end, that Harmony and Phobia would drop this stupid conflict, that they would realise that the baby was simply being a baby, and just raise the baby together already. This happened all the time – sometimes babies would prefer the father over the mother, or even a relative. Of course Phobia was neither the father nor technically a relative, but the point was that Harmony's insecurity was irrelevant, pointless. Angel wished that Harmony would just realise this already and the two women would get over it.

Unfortunately, however, the situation was to end, and not necessarily in the way Angel would have wanted it to.