A/N: life birth warning again here. If you're squeamish about how that works, then you'll need to skip much of the end of this chapter here.
Khujand sat on the edge of the bed, feeding Tiondel the flawed, unnatural formula as he held the boy. Even in light of his youngest son's ravenous appetite, he felt guilty for every drop of the artificial nourishment that he mixed. Nothing could compensate for the mother's milk, and it would only be a matter of time before Cecilia gave birth and her body was able to grant him - and Sharimara, whenever she arrived - that significant, natural sustenance.
His fake milk finished, Tiondel smacked his lips until he seemed to realize that there was nothing in his mouth anymore. Khujand lifted the boy slowly to burp him, simply amazed at how easily his son accepted the formula from him. When Cecilia had tried, Tiondel flatly refused and increased her already high level of stress. When he tried himself, it worked like a charm. How ironic that both of their adopted children were biologically night elves yet, even in the case of six day old Tiondel, were also much more attached to their jungle troll father.
Just as Tiondel started to drift off, Cecilia groaned again. Khujand knew that she hadn't been able to sleep, but her discomfort was so severe that she didn't want to talk. The sound was agonizing to hear: Cecilia was in a great deal of pain, but Khujand was powerless to help her, just as they'd been in the case of Anathil six years prior. For hours, the longest labor process his wife had been through had caused her to suffer with every contraction.
The pain wasn't too great; the spirits informed him of that. Discomfort, however, was her real problem, and was just as bad. No matter her laying position, she couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep through her earliest contractions, and once they'd increased in intensity, slumber and even relaxation were out of the question. After indirectly trying to figure out what he could do to make her more comfortable, he'd determined that the only option was for him to handle everything regarding their son, the hut and speaking to the volunteers. It was the least he could do for her, though he still felt like his efforts weren't sufficient whenever he heard her groan again.
Cecilia shifted the pillow beneath her baby bump, unable to find the exactly correct position to lay in. Even when she'd been pregnant with the twins, she'd always been able to find just the right position to lay in after two or three tries at most. He'd assisted her less than a dozen times during that pregnancy, and during her pregnancy with Navarion, she'd never needed any help at all. In this case, however, there really wasn't anything for him to do other than absorb any responsibilities in terms of speaking to people and feeding Tiondel so she could at least be left to suffer on her own. It was heart rending for him, but the whole time, he just kept trying to remind himself that he was already doing the most he could.
Eventually he fell asleep, guilty the entire time but no longer able to force himself awake. Tiondel had already nodded off, the Hearthglen family's youngest son's tiny, chubby hands clinging to Khujand's beard with his little pincer grip. When he was awoken by Cecilia's trembling fingers reaching for his hair to gently wake him up, he panicked at first worried that he was having a nightmare about Bomswandi or some other death loa.
"Not yet!" Khujand gurgled as he pulled himself back into consciousness, clutching Tiondel to his chest like a treasure. When he realized that it was his wife, her face tightened as if she was trying to suppress a grimace, he became worried. "Cici...what's goin' on?"
"I'm okay...I'm okay...it's just painful...this time," she panted, her voice still retaining a strange clarity and lucidity. "But I'm close...this labor is difficult...but I felt my cervix..."
Though she was too exhausted to continue, he understood what she meant, and his eyes widened. "Aw shit, Cici...ya want me to go get somebody? Can ya...can ya watch Del while I do?"
She shook her head. "Hold him to you...chest, then drape your shoulder. Drape him and your shoulder...the sun won't...bother him," she panted, very up front about her apprehension considering how much she hated to ask for help at any time other than her pregnancies.
"I'll go ask fast as I can without wakin' him," Khujand replied while taking a baby blanket and shielding his son's face from the impending sunlight.
"Thank...you...please hurry," she said while trying to pat him on the arm, though she was so tired by then that she just let her hand fall on him.
Outside, Khujand walked as carefully as possible, his eyes straining to adjust after having lived a mostly nocturnal lifestyle for his wife's sake for the past eight years. At that time, nobody was out and about in the traditional night elf birthing compound. Out of the hundred or so huts, nearly eighty were occupied, all of the fathers also night elves except for Khujand and a man who appeared to be half night elf and half dark troll but didn't want to talk about it. And since that guy was also nocturnal on both sides of his family, it meant that Khujand found nobody directly on the road he could turn to.
Toward the first bend, he turned a corner and spotted a lone sentinel newbie who'd been stuck with the dreaded day shift. The poor woman had resorted to playing solitaire in her hands while walking, her barbed crescent hanging from her belt as she looked pitifully bored. Khujand felt zero remorse when disturbing her for the sake of his own wife.
"Hey lady!" he called out to her, not giving himself enough time to think of a more polite way to address an armored officer of the law. She turned down indignantly and glared at him, knowing he was the outlander father who had permission to be there but not necessarily liking that fact. "My wife is in labor, and...she's in pain. Please, I can't leave her, but we need ta get help!"
Responding to the call of duty but wearing a sour facial expression the entire time, the woman put her lonely set of cards in her belt pouch. "Return to your assigned unit, outlander," she said despite the fact that he was clearly holding a baby in his hands, and that the baby had glowing silver eyes shining from beneath the blanket. "I'll send somebody." After her terse reply, she waved her hand for him to shoo and then promptly walked in the direction of the volunteers' quarters.
Not needing a second admonishment, Khujand hurried back to the hut, stepping carefully so as not to disturb Tiondel due to his brisk pace. The infant remained sleeping the entire time, much to the worried father and husband's relief. By the time he stepped inside of the hut, Cecilia had somehow managed to slide off the foot of the bed, pulling the comforter onto the floor with her as she braced her upper body in the edge and squatted as if using a hole in the ground latrine like trolls preferred.
"Cici, be careful!" he whispered as loudly as could still be considered a whisper. Within seconds he'd hurried to her side, clinging to Tiondel even after tossing the baby blanket off and squatting next to his wife.
Gritting her teeth, Cecilia kept her eyes closed as she visibly shook at the contractions. "Help?" she asked, using a single word for her high context sentence
"Help is on tha way, very soon," he replied while pulling her knee length maternity gown up to her hips for her. "How bad is tha pain?"
"Not critical," she replied tersely, using her rationalization rather than irritability as her defense mechanism that time, thankfully.
"Tha pressure?"
"Intense, but...not critical. I'm just...so...tired," she gasped, her arms shaking merely from the strain of laying on the bed in front of her.
"Do ya want me ta hold ya?"
"No...hold on to Del so he doesn't...wake up. Just...don't let me fall and roll...backwards."
At least she'd managed to string more words together in between each breath that time. "I'm right here, girl. I'm not gonna go anywhere."
He spent the next few minutes watching her contractions come rapidly, her groans dying out due to her lack of energy. When the sound of footsteps pattered up to the door, Cecilia gained a distant look in her eyes he'd only observed twice previously, right before she gave birth but after she seemed to disappear to a more feral, instinctual place.
"I'm here, I...oh," came the voice of Lurella, one of the most experienced volunteers. She also seemed bothered by Khujand's presence the most, and the way she spoke so casually prior to pausing in her tracks already upset him. "Sister Hearthglen, are you in any pain?"
Cecilia nodded toward Khujand, and he understood the signal. "She's in a bit of pain, and feels a bit of pressure, but mainly she's just tired," he replied on her behalf.
"Do you feel any internal pressure during the contractions?" Lurella asked Cecilia, ignoring what Khujand had said half a second before.
Shaking her head, Cecilia struggled to speak in between the now rapid contractions, coming only two minutes or so apart. "No...just...tire."
"Tire?" Lurella asked for clarification she didn't need. "Are you tired?"
Irate at how his wife was being bothered to push, breathe and talk all at the same time - when he was standing right there - Khujand tried to get through to the volunteer. Technically, he'd requested she came anyway, and he was wary of offending her. "I told ya, she's tired. That's why she doesn't wanna talk."
Never looking over toward him, Lurella approached Cecilia from the other side and knelt down to observe her. "Sister, are you in need of a healer here for support during the process?"
"I can heal," Khujand replied, and a bit defensively considering the fact that Lurella already knew that.
Finally making eye contact with him, she gave him a hard stare despite her congenial smile. "Sir, this is a serious medical issue; amateur interference puts the mother's wellbeing at risk," Lurella replied curtly.
Khujand bit down on his tongue, but the sound from his wife's throat worried him. Cecilia was exhausted, stressed out and beyond the point of talking, yet he could tell from the way that her fingers tried to clench the bedsheets that she was upset. During labor, it was the worst place for her to be, and he knew that her protectiveness might possibly cloud her judgment.
"He...heals," Cecilia panted, forcing herself to speak despite the toll that the lost breath took on her condition.
"Our goal is to look out for your interests," Lurella said while actually laying a hand on Cecilia's shoulder. That only caused her shoulders to twitch as if she was trying to stiffen them but lacked the power for holding her muscles taut. "Please, allow me to contact a proper healer-"
"Stop!" Cecilia replied, her voice weaker than she'd probably intended.
"Sister, if you'll just-"
"Ma'am!" Cecilia finally hissed. She stopped pushing, and Khujand feared that she'd likely set herself back a few minutes in terms of the birthing process, but he knew the lid on her temper had become unhinged, no matter how fatigued she felt. "Hold my son!" she hissed again, all in one breath.
Immediately, Khujand could feel his heart thump anxiously. They'd requested Lurella's help, and the woman was a volunteer. Although the compound lend its aid freely, she as an individual's wasn't obligated to assist them specifically, and if she was offended, she could always excuse herself to use the latrine and just never return to the hut.
Not wanting to give her the chance, Khujand thrust Tiondel's sleeping form into Lurella's hands. She bristled when the jungle troll's leather hide came into contact with her hands, but she hadn't expected the move and ended up cradling the babe before she'd even realized that Khujand had positioned himself behind Cecilia again.
"Do ya need me ta apply counterpressure?" he asked while already feeling her lower back.
"Hmmm," Cecilia relied, the pitch of her hum rising in confirmation.
He began pushing against her lower back as he'd done during her first pregnancy, and she continued to hum whenever his hands neared the right spot needed to relieve the extreme discomfort she felt internally. Lurella knelt frozen, unsure of what to do when her attempts to hold Tiondel out in front of her for Khujand to take the baby back went unanswered. Even if her ego had been bruised by her relegation to a sentient cradle, he knew that there was little she could do if he simply left her in that role unassisted.
"Sir, I need to run a checkup of your wife's condition!" Lurella protested, her voice falling on two pairs of deaf ears.
What happened next came so fast that it even seemed to surprise Cecilia. A high pitched grunt emitted from deep within her throat, soft and almost squeaky despite the depth from which Khujand could sense it originating. He could almost physically sense the shift as she struggled to push, choking on saliva and even whining a bit in between breaths as their last biological child proved difficult in bringing into the world. After a few more agonizing moments that caused him to fear for them both, he released her back and caught their new daughter before she landed on the comforter. A measure of afterbirth fell on to the fabric anyway, but Lurella thankfully slipped two towels beneath Cecilia with her feet while struggling to hold the unusually large full blooded night elf baby in her arms.
Khujand left Cecilia to birth the placenta on her own, knowing she'd have an easier time at that based on their previous experiences. At that moment, all he could focus on was wrapping Sharimara in a baby towel to keep her warm. As if the girl didn't even know that she'd been born, she didn't thrash or cry at all, remaining in a fetal position even as her lungs took their first breaths of fresh air. The umbilical cord continued to pulsate for a few minutes, and Khujand just held her silently as they all listened to Cecilia pant and complete the last contraction. Once he'd cut the cord, he accepted Tiondel back from Lurella, cradling both sleeping infants as the volunteer removed the soiled towels and placed fresh ones down for Cecilia to slump on.
"Thank you for accepting my help," Lurella said to Cecilia while sighing in defeat, surprisingly letting the slight against her ego go. She moved a pillow to the edge of the bed for the exhausted mother to lean her head against, and worked at moving Cecilia - who was nearly motionless by that point - into a stable sitting position. "Thankfully there are no tears, and bleeding is minimal, but I'm concerned about your blood sugar levels. Here, drink first."
Lurella assisted her in drinking, though Cecilia never opened her eyes the entire time. Slumping against the edge of the bed, she turned her head toward Khujand, unable to lift her arms. "Please...help...hold," she panted speech at least returning to her once she was seated and at rest.
Khujand and Lurella both worked the two infants into her arms, letting them lay against her chest. Since she was too tired to lift her arms, Khujand had to support both babies so they didn't move, allowing her skin on skin contact with Tiondel for the first time in hours and with Sharimara for the first time in the girl's five minute life. Short gasps began to emit from Cecilia's mouth, which gradually pulled into a frown.
Scooting closer to her, Khujand tried to shield her from view, much to Lurella's confusion. She pushed him back, not the least bit shy as her gasps turned into full blown sobs. They weren't loud enough to wake the babies, but the few tears sliding down her cheeks were clear enough for her husband to know what a rarity was occurring.
Throughout her entire life, Cecilia had cried only five times. She wasn't a crier, not even when her mother had been martyred during the War of the Shifting Sands; it simply wasn't in her nature. But as she sat there, finally raising her tired hands to clutch the last two of their six children, Cecilia Hearthglen cried.
Thoroughly uncomfortable, Lurella actually looked to Khujand expectantly, her standoffishness quicky melting away. He bore no answers, however, and only sat down next to his wife to put his arm around her.
Fter calming down, she opened her eyes a crack to look at him. "I'm done...this was my last time," she whispered. "I'll...I'll never know what it feels like to pass on life within my again."
Hugging her and their children close, he refrained from kissing her for Lurella's sake but but his chin on top of her head. "It isn't over, Cici...it's just started," he whispered back, rocking them all a bit as his wife panted and their midwife fidgeted.
Lurella didn't even move until more footsteps approached, and Raene knocked on the door. "Cici, may I come in?" Raene asked from the other side of the door, causing Khujand to grin at her usage of the nickname. "I rushed to get dressed as soon as I heard, but I was pulled into another stop along the way."
"Please...come on in," Cecilia replied, a sort of tired determination anchoring her to a consistent, if low, energy level.
Raene walked inside, her eyes lit up upon the sight of the new sister next to her brother. "It seems I missed Shari's entrance into the world," she sighed while kneeling down in front of them. "May I check, brother?" she asked...someone. When Lurella's eyes widened like saucers, Khujand realized that the compound founder meant him, giving him the shock of his life, albeit a welcome one.
"I...wha? Oh...yeah, yeah! Of course!" He scooted backward and then stood up to give them some space, standing near the door. Lurella rose as well, her mouth fallen agape as her attention turned between him and Raene.
Her strength partially returned, Cecilia held both babies up until Raene started to assist her. As the woman knelt over them, a bright green light - similar to the natural magic of a cleansing spell - shone from their spot. Lurella's mouth fell open even wider, and Khujand felt positively confounded by the sudden smile on Cecilia's.
"That isn't...fel green...what's that?" he asked, perplexed.
"Natural green," Raene replied. "Like the wardens of our people - their talents lead to a non fel green, one from the natural magic they tap in to. Nobody knows why, and for a girl to be born with them like some sort of talent is even rarer than amber eyes in a boy. But...there's no doubt about it."
Cecilia finished Raene's sentence for her, her political leanings showing again and just shocking Lurella beyond the pale. "May she follow in lady Maiev Shadowsong's footsteps," she half panted and half chortled.
Though Raene didn't react openly, she took an ambiguous enough route that left Khujand in realization of her more opaque views on current events. "I'm sure she'll make you proud yet," the compound founder chortled.
As Raene continued to both run a general checkup on Cecilia herself and marvel at two more lives promising a strong future for their people, Khujand noticed Lurella's odd shift. Whether she'd been put in her place after her attempt to browbeat Khujand away had earned her a rebuke from the birthing mother, or she legitimately did regret the contempt she'd shown toward him, the volunteer appeared uneasy in her own skin. She just folded her hands over her dress and watched quietly, her lips pulled into a loose but straight line.
Even if she'd been less than polite to him at times across the previous six years, he wasn't a vengeful person. Not wanting a woman who'd devoted much of her own time to serving the needs of innocent newborns, Khujand put her complaints and occasional snarkiness out of his mind.
"Lurella," he said quietly, gaining a deer in the headlights expression as he spoke her name for the first time ever. "If I ever said or did anythin' that offended ya, then please know that I'm sorry. Ya'are a good person."
Her brow furrowed in confusion. Though she certainly wasn't touched by his words, the surprise that followed the confusion did seem to be a pleasant form. "Well...I...thanks," she replied, taken aback by the gesture. "Me too."
Knowing that he'd have plenty of time to hold his own children shortly, he watched Raene taking her turn for a few seconds before he leaned toward Lurella surreptitiously. "Please...I'd be honored if ya checked yaself. Just so ya'are familiar with them, since we're gonna be here a few more days before we can go."
As if she weren't listening that closely, Lurella didn't react right away. After blinking a few times and then twitching her ear, she looked up at him briefly as if she thought he might not be serious. When he didn't react, she seemed to figure out that he was being serious.
Cautiously, almost timidly, she walked back over to Cecilia, unsure of whether or not the tired mother was still irate or not. When she knelt down close, Cecilia noticed and gave her a good look over. Khujand worried that his wife might not be ready to extend the olive branch, but that worry was allayed when Cecilia's face softened and she motioned for Lurella to approach.
For a good while, Khujand just stood in the porch, watching the declining day roll by as Raene and Lurella took their turns holding the two sleeping infants. It was hard for Khujand to imagine that, after so many years together, they'd only just then begin to really raising the family they'd wanted. Six were enough; more than enough, even. And the two they had with them would need to brace themselves for their first flight...unfortunately, their first introduction to the family wouldn't be a wholly cheery one. He just hoped that, while they waited for Cecilia to recouperate, they didn't miss their chance for an introduction that would give the extended family a sense of closure.