A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. Each one means so much to me. Don't forget to continue to let me know what you think of this chapter.
It was exactly one week later, while Hermione was filing the last of her paperwork for the day that Cheryl ran in all in a tizzy. She'd had a trying day and was looking forward to going home and having a hot bath before bed. She tried not to sound annoyed when she asked Cheryl what it was that was so important, as she grabbed her lab coat to go home.
"It's Lady Malfoy! She's in labor, Healer Granger!" Those words immediately woke up the tired witch and had her running off to the largest birthing suite in the department. When she arrived, there was no one in the room yet. She looked around for Cheryl, confused as to why the Malfoys weren't already here waiting for her.
"Cheryl, where are they?" No sooner had the words gotten out of her mouth than a transporter from the emergency department came pushing Astoria through in a wheelchair. Draco followed behind looking around frantically, clearly at a loss for what to do.
"Draco, keep up!" Astoria was clearly in pain as she rarely spoke sharply to anyone, especially the love of her life. The young man with them tried to push her into the birthing room closest to him, probably wanting to ditch the couple as quickly as possible. Hermione couldn't have any of that!
"Excuse me. Please, bring them in here." She stopped the man from down the hall and led the way to where she wanted the couple. She thanked the man and took over getting Astoria from the chair to the bed in the room.
"Thank Salazar you're here, Granger! We weren't sure what to do when they sent us up here and said that everyone had already gone home for the day!" Draco looked both disheveled and relieved. He'd clearly been running his hands through his hair for quite some time, as it was all sticking up at odd angles.
"Please calm down, Draco. You aren't helping anything by freaking out. Women have babies everyday and your wife and son will be fine." Hermione had Astoria lay back on the bed and vanished her clothing for a hospital gown. She caste a quick spell before putting on a glove and slipping her fingers up into the other witch's vaginal opening.
"What are you doing now, Granger? Didn't you do enough of that over the last nine months?" Draco sounded bewildered so Hermione ignored him for a moment as she finished her examination.
"Hush, Draco. Let Hermione do her job." Astoria glared at her husband, taking his questions as rude. Hermione finished her examination and calmly covered Astoria's legs with a blanket. She got up and disposed of her glove and washed her hands very well before speaking to the couple.
"Astoria, you're already two centimeters dilated, but you could be there for awhile, as your water hasn't broken yet. I'll be back to check on you in about an hour, if you're no further dilated, I may go ahead and break your water manually. Until then, try to relax and breath through your contractions. You want to continue to get as much oxygen as you can to the baby."
Hermione smiled at the couple pleasantly before exiting the room. She would give them some time to themselves for the time being. When she went back to check on Astoria's progress in awhile, she would offer some pain management to the woman. It was going to be a long night; it was already going on nine-fifteen. She had some time and was feeling a bit peckish, she may as well find an all night diner around somewhere and grab something to go. She could eat in her office.
The more she thought on it, the more she thought she'd rather go home to get something to eat. Eating alone in her office just sounded sad. She also had a long day tomorrow. Maybe she should call in the guys. Theo would love to sit with Astoria and Draco while she went home and got some sleep. They were friends after all. She wasn't sure if she should call Dean in so late, but he might be interested. She'd call them before she went to do anything else.
With that in mind, she slipped into her office to make the calls. She called Dean first and was surprised when Ginny Weasley answered the call.
"Oh! 'Ello, Hermione. It's been so long! What can I do for you?" She'd forgotten how much she'd missed her friend. She really hadn't seen much of anyone for the past several months since she'd started working at St. Mungo's.
"Ginny? Wow, it's been ages! How are you? I didn't know you were seeing Dean?" Hermione was truly excited to see her friend. It took her a moment to remember why she'd called, and whom she'd called, in the first place. "Oh! Sorry, Gin, we'll have to talk later. Could you get Dean for me, please? I have something that he might like to see."
"Of course, Mione! Just let me get him. We are definitely going to have to catch up soon though!" With that, Ginny disappeared from the fireplace. She was gone for a few moments in which Hermione realized that her knees were starting to ache from kneeling for so long. She'd missed Ginny, and the other Weasley's for that matter. All of them. Even a certain older, gruffer, sexier Weasley. One with a few werewolf tendencies. She was broken out of her thoughts by Dean's face appearing in the flames where Ginny's had been just a few minutes before.
"Hey, Mione. What can I do for you at this time of night?" Dean looked excited, knowing that she would never call if she didn't have something interesting for him to see.
"Hello, Dean, sorry to ruin your evening. I just wanted to let you know that Astoria Malfoy has gone into labor and see if you would like to come in." She waited for his answer, his smile slipping a bit.
"So, no emergency surgeries?" He sounded disappointed.
"Well, no. Not as of yet." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Dean. You don't have to come in. I'll let you know if anything changes though."
Dean nodded in understanding. Hermione really should have known that he'd only want to come in for some sort of surgery. They said their good-byes and Hermione prepared herself to call Theo in. She flooed his home and didn't have to wait long for him to answer the call.
"Hermione? What did you need?" He was always to the point, no reason to drag out pleasantries when there was obviously a reason that she would call so late at night.
"Hello, Theo. I was just calling to see if you'd be interested in coming in tonight. Astoria Malfoy is in labor and I was hoping that I'd have a bit of help. Everyone else has gone home for the night, and it would be a good experience for you to have." She had so much confidence in Theo that she figured that he would be able to deliver a baby on his own relatively quickly. He really was very good with the women.
"Of course, Hermione. I'll be in shortly. I've been meaning to ask if you would teach me the spells that you use on women while they're in labor. The diagnostics and the pain management spells." Hermione smiled at his excitement. She knew he'd be interested.
"Alright, Theo. I'm going to go home for a bit and then I'll be back. Give me about thirty minutes and I'll meet you in my office." She cut off the call without further conversation. Theo never really liked idle chatter anyways.
Hermione flooed home. She was tired, sweaty, dirty, and grumpy. She really didn't want to go back into work so late, but she couldn't disappoint Draco and Astoria. They'd come to be pretty close friends and she knew that she could never live with herself if she wasn't back to their room in, she glanced at the clock on the microwave, twenty-five minutes. She still needed to shower and grab something to eat.
In about fifteen minutes, she was clean and polished, ready to go back to work. She quickly made herself a turkey sandwich and ate before flooing back into her office. When she got there, she brushed herself off and turned to see Theo already there waiting for her. She gasped and jumped before laughing at herself.
"You scared me! Come on, let's go check on the Malfoys." She walked off down the hall, trusting that Theo was hot on her heels. When she stepped into the room, it was to Draco pacing like a madman and Astoria snapping at him through a contraction again.
"Draco! Sit down! You're driving me mad!" Hermione cleared her throat and the couple snapped their heads over to see whom had just walked into the private room.
"Oh, thank Salazar! Hermione, the contractions are getting worse! Can you give her anything for the pain?" Draco immediately started asking questions, much to Hermione's amusement and Astoria's annoyance.
"Draco, do calm down. Theo and I are here to check Astoria's progress and you'd be more of a help if you just stayed out of the way for now." The young couple hadn't seemed to notice that anyone else was in the room until Hermione had mentioned Theo's name. They both greeted him as friends would; Astoria giving him a kiss on the cheek, and Draco a firm handshake.
Hermione washed her hands in the sink located in the corner of the room, prompting Theo to do the same. He followed her lead and stood next to her as she began to check on Astoria's progress. She explained the complicated wand movements she was doing and with a final swift flick of her wand, a number 8 appeared to be floating midair not far from her eye level.
"She's already eight centimeters dilated. If you'd like something for the pain, we need to talk a few options." Hermione looked expectantly at the petite, blonde witch laying before her in bed. The Malfoys shared a brief look before both of them answered in the affirmative. "We could do a potion. It's generally the less-used choice as it tends to render the witch nearly comatose. There are no side affects to the baby, but we have to be rather creative in getting the child out, since the witch can't feel anything to help with the pushing. Your other choice would be a pain-management spell. We would re-administer it as needed, but all it would really do would be to take the edge off of the pain that you're feeling. It would be some relief, but you would still be aware of everything going on, and alert when the time to push comes." Having given the explanations for both types of pain control, Hermione awaited their decision. It was, unsurprisingly, the spell. Hermione decided to show Theo the first time, and then have him keep up with the re-casting. It was a relatively simple spell, similar to something a fourth-year would learn. The only difference, is that there were a few extra flourishes with your wand, sending the spell away from the abdomen to prevent any harm to the baby.
Theo, per usual, caught on quickly. It wasn't more than an hour later that Astoria was at ten centimeters and ready to push. She did well, considering Draco was an alarming shade of chartreuse throughout the entire process. She huffed and puffed her way through, what she assured Hermione later, was the worst pain of her life. It was a struggle for nearly two hours before any progress seemed to be made. Hermione was just getting to the point where she was going to do an emergency c-section when she finally saw the very top of a little head. Instructing Astoria to push, she prepared herself to catch the tiny human being.
Everything went quickly after that. In an instant, the baby was born, Astoria was recovering for the night in her room, and Draco smiled for the first time since they'd come in several hours previous. Hermione allowed Theo to do the first measurements for the baby. He was efficient and was done quickly. She quietly slipped out of the room, waving for Theo to follow.
"We'll give them a bit of time together before taking the baby to the nursery. You can feel free to leave, or stick around for awhile longer. Either way, we'll both be back in first thing in the morning." She fully expected him to stay, and wasn't disappointed. The two went to Hermione's office while she did some paperwork on the night's events. A half hour later, the two went back to retrieve the baby and get him situated in the nursery. Hermione told Draco that he was welcome to stay or go for the night and then she was finally allowed to go home herself.
A/N: Let me know what you think.