Chapter 24: Labor Pains
Hospital
Same day 7:30 pm
Rikki's POV
Emma went into labor about the hours ago. Since her water broke, I had to hold onto her to stop her from changing, but Cleo and Bella both went into preparing mode. Cleo went upstairs to get Ash, and Bella went to grab Emma's overnight bag.
Ash's face when he came in, and saw that Emma was in labor was great because it was pure shock. He got over it though, and helped us to his car, so we could get to the hospital in time. I guess we didn't have to hurry.
Because now, three hours later, she still hasn't had the twins. I've been sitting in her hospital room to make sure that she doesn't change. I'm not sure what would make her change now, but I need to be here to make sure the babies come out as babies, and not mermaids. Our bodies weren't built to push tails out; they are a little bit wider than the babies.
Despite her water breaking, she still has a little bit before the babies come. They told her that she still has to wait, but she was too far along to be sent home. Her contractions are roughly 15 minutes apart, and her cervix is at 6 centimeters, and she only had to get to 10. Our doctor says it'll be roughly two to three more hours. Her labor is pretty slow and long.
Since I can right now, I'm going to call Zane and get some food.
"Hey Em, I'm going to step out for a bit, I'll be back."
"No, don't go, what if they come? I need you," Emma says.
"I won't be long, besides Ash is here," I say.
"Please don't go."
"I need to call Zane, I won't be far," I say before leaving.
I'm not sure why she's so attached to me right now, but I need some time out of that room. As I make my way to the lunch room, I dial Zane's number. It rings only once.
"Hey, where are you? Are you okay? It's been hours," he says right away.
"Hey, I'm fine. Emma went into labor, and we are at the hospital," I say.
"Oh okay. That's great, did she have them yet?"
"No, she's still a few hours off, so I was wondering if you could bring me a few things. She doesn't want me to even leave the room, so there's no way she'll let me go home," I say.
"Alright, what do you need?"
"Just some comfortable clothes and things to do while we wait. I'm also having cramps every once in a while, so can you bring me some Advil or something?"
"Okay, I'll bring all that, but are you sure you should take Advil?"
"Yah, why not?"
"The babies?"
"Would you like me to ask someone if it's okay?"
"Would you? It would just make me feel better," Zane says.
"Alright, I'll ask, but I'm eating first, so they don't tell me I can't eat that," I say.
"Why would they say that?"
"Because they are mean," I say.
"Alright, see you soon, love you."
"Love you too."
Bella's POV
I just talked to Ash," I tell Cleo.
"And?"
"It'll be another few more hours," I say.
"That will put it at about midnight," Cleo says.
"Not exactly, but still pretty late"
"So, what do you want to do?" Cleo asks.
"I want to go home. I mean, what am I doing for her here," I say.
"But what if it hurts her feelings?" Cleo asks.
"Well, Ash and Rikki are still here," I shrug.
"Yah, but maybe she's expecting us to stay."
"WE have class tomorrow, I'm sure she'll understand she's probably upset she's going to miss it," I reason.
"You sure?"
"Definitely, it's Emma. She won't be hurt that we aren't going to be here for the birth. Even when she is having them, we'll be in the waiting room anyways." I say.
"I guess this is true," Cleo says.
"Let's go tell her," I say.
We both get up, and go to her room. We enter and say hi.
"Hey," Emma and Ash reply.
"We are going to take off," I say.
"What? Why?" Emma asks looking crestfallen.
"It's getting late, and we have school tomorrow," I say.
"School? Oh yah, I forgot," Emma says.
"Well, you've been preoccupied," I say as she goes through another contraction.
"We've been here for hours, it's already 9:30, and there's nothing we can do for you. Besides, Rikki will be here and Ash," I say.
"It's already that late?" Emma says.
"Yes, but we will be back tomorrow after school, okay?"
"Promise?"
"Promise," Cleo and I say before taking our leave.
Emma's POV
Bella and Cleo left, and the doctor came in. She told me that we will be starting to push soon; I guess I'm about 9 centimeter, and I need to be at ten. She told me that it will probably be in about half an hour, maybe longer.
So, Ash and I sit in comfortable silence except for the grunts of pain due to the contractions for the next 30 minutes. Then after an additional 15 minutes, I start wondering, where is the doctor, and Rikki?
So, I ask Ash, "Do you know where the doctor and Rikki are?"
"No, do you want me to find out?"
"Yes, please, but there's something I want to tell you," I say.
"What?"
"I don't want you to be in the room when I deliver." I say biting my lip.
"You don't?"
"No, I'm just not comfortable with it," I say, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I wasn't totally comfortable with it either, but I was willing to do it for you, and our daughters," Ash says.
"Oh good, I'm glad you're not upset about it. I didn't want to hurt your feelings," I say.
"It's alright. You want me to go find out now?" he asks.
"Yes, please."
"About twenty minutes later, he comes in with the doctor and Rikki.
"Alright. You are ready, and we need to do this fast, so that we can get Rikki back to her room," Ash says.
"What do you mean, her room?" I ask.
"Well, she's kind of in labor, too," Ash says.
"What?"
"I'll explain later," Rikki says as Ash leaves, "We have to do this fast."
"Push," the doctor says.
I began pushing my first daughter out, and with the help of Rikki, I don't have to worry about her tail. It takes a few minutes, but she comes out as a human, although ten seconds later she has a beautiful blue tail.
Then I start screaming again as the pain hits me, and I have to start pushing out my second daughter. She takes a little bit longer, but after about ten minutes, she's out and getting cleaned up. It's over for now, and I know that I'm going to wait or a while before doing this again.
The girls are cleaned off, and one is handed to me, the other to Rikki, who is still by my side, and the doctor goes to get Ash.
"They are beautiful," he says.
"Yes, they are congratulations. Unfortunately, I have to go rather quickly since if my water breaks, my labor is going to be fast," Rikki says, "I'll visit in the morning."
I look to Ash, "Are you going to tell me or should I wait for her?"
"Wait for her."
"Alright," I say before turning my attention to our daughters.
"So, what are we going to name them?" Ash asks.
I've had their names picked out for a few weeks, but I haven't told Ash yet. So, I say, "Which one do you want to name first?"
"How about the one in your arms, since she came first," he suggests.
"Okay, I want to name her Lilly Anna Gilbert. Even though Anne is her middle name I want to call her Lillianne. Kind of make her middle name just as important," I say.
"I love that idea. So, what about this little one?"
"I want to do the same thing with her except her name is Rose Mary Gilbert," I say.
"I love it. I love them. I love their names, and I love you," Ash says smiling.
"I love you too, and I'm glad you like the names," I say just as the nurse comes in with the basinets. We already talked to the doctor about having the babies stay with us instead of going to the nursery, where all newborns go.
"Here you go. I need to measure and weigh them, as well as get their finger prints and names for their birth certificates. I'll take care of them until tomorrow morning, you are advised to rest," the nurse says.
"Oh okay," I say then tell her which one is which, and then heed her advice, and close my eyes.
Rikki's POV
It's 11:45pm and I finally get put into my room, two doors down from Emma's. About an hour and a half before Emma's delivery, I was told that I was in labor, but I had no clue.
I had gone down to the lunch room, and gotten my lunch, when I got another "cramp". I set my lunch down because the pain, and grabbed my stomach. A nurse saw, and asked if I was okay. I told her that I was fine; I just kept having cramps for the last few hours. She politely asked if I was pregnant and how far along. I answered both those questions, and added that I was carrying twins. After learning that I was having twins, she informed me that twins often come early and that I'm most likely in labor. I was in denial. I argued with her for twenty minutes before Zane shows up, and calms me down. Since they really thought I was in labor, they let me eat before taking me upstairs. My water had not broken yet, but they were certain I was going to be too far along into the labor to go home. They had gotten me into a checkup room to make sure; I told them that I need my special doctor just in case. I was six centimeters, and my contractions were about ten minutes apart, and when my water breaks it'll be a quick labor. We were working on getting me a room when the doctor remembers Emma. So, we rushed to her room, the doctor knew why I needed to be there, and that Emma was nearly there, so when we got there, we hoped things went fast and now I'm here.
The doctor came in to check again, and said it should be soon, I'm at eight centimeters and my water should break soon, if it doesn't since there's no way I could keep my twins inside me, the doctor will have to break it.
I found out after Emma's delivery that my brilliant husband to be remembered that he needed to call Lizzie to do what I did for Emma, for me.
"I can't believe that I get to be a part of this with you," Lizzie says excitedly.
"I can't believe that it's happening so soon, I thought I had a week and a half before they were due," I say.
"You did, but they wanted to come early," Zane says.
"Well, it's not fair! Why should I have to go through two deliveries in one night," I say angrily.
"It should be over soon," Zane says.
"I'm only in labor right now, I haven't even started the actual delivery yet," I say.
"It'll be alright, Rikki," Lizzie says.
"Gee thanks," I say sarcastically.
Suddenly, I feel water around my more or less exposed area. I look up and Lizzie grabs my left hand as Zane goes to get the doctor. The doctor comes in with Zane, and quickly checks to see it is time.
She looks up, "It's time."
Zane quickly grabs my right hand, as the doctor says, "Push!"
I start pushing, groaning, and screaming obscenities at everyone in the room, specifically Zane since he did this to me. It only takes a few minutes before our son is born, I smile. I'm glad that he's born first since it'll be nice knowing he'll probably be the overprotective older brother.
I rest for a few minutes, while I can, until the doctor tells me to start pushing again. So, I go through the entire process again for the next ten minutes until my baby girl comes out. Once Lizzie sees her come out, she lets go of my hand, and I imedately change.
I sigh in relief as the nurse cleans my babies, and the doctor tells me I need to rest. The nurse then hand me my son, and Zane our daughter. Lizzie smiles.
"Can I take a picture?"
"No, I probably look like crap," I answer.
"Oh come on Rikki, our first family photo," Zane says.
"You realize I'm currently a mermaid, no one will ever see this photo," I say.
"Our families can," he says simply.
"Fine," I say as Zane moves close to me, and Lizzie moves to take the pictures.
"Smile.
Zane and I smile as she takes the picture, then the nurse says that she needs to do all the stuff they normally do when they take the babies to the nursery, but after she does all those things, she'll bring them back here.
After the nurse leaves, Zane says, "You should probably rest."
"Are you sure? We haven't even named them."
"We'll name them in the morning. Go to sleep, I love you," he says.
"I love you to, good night." I say before going to sleep.
The next day
Two o'clock pm
Cleo's POV
I am done for school for the day, and the weekend is here. I look around for Rikki and Bella knowing that we were going to visit Emma and her babies together today. I spot Bella in the courtyard with Will.
"Hey guys, have you seen Rikki?"
"Nope or Zane either. Maybe they just had a late night, and skipped today," Bella answers.
"Well, Zane doesn't have class on Friday," I say.
"Oh yah, well why don't we just call her?"
I know before dialing Rikki's number. It went straight to voicemail, "Should I leave a message?" At Bella's nod, I say into the phone, "Hey Rikki, we were waiting on you to see Emma and her girls, but we didn't see you at school so we are going without you, come meet up with us." Then I hang up.
"Alright, let's go," Bella says and we head out.
We get to the hospital within ten minutes, and since we already know which room Emma was in, we just headed there.
As we approach the room, we see Emma and Ash holding their babies, but leaving the room. I look to Bella, and she nods. We follow them. They don't go far, just a couple doors down. I see Ash knock, and someone opening the door. I hear him speak.
"She's still sleeping, but you can come in, the nurse should be here to bring the birth certificates soon."
"Thanks Zane how is she? Two deliveries in one night must have been hard," Emma says as they enter.
Bella looks at me, "Rikki had her twins?"
"I guess so, let's go find out."
So, we walk up to the room, the same time as the nurse, who knocks then enters without waiting for a reply. We follow her inside.
Rikki's POV
I hear Zane's voice nudging me awake. Then a stranger's voice saying it's time to name my babies. I open one eye to see that it's a nurse and that there are more than just those two in the room.
I suddenly find that I am really awake.
"Good morning guys," I say.
"It's good afternoon," Cleo says.
"Oh shush, it was a long night," I say.
"Tell us about it," Emma says.
I guess she's curious because I left her so soon after her delivery. So, I explain what happened with the nurse and my labor pains that I had no idea about. Zane occasionally interjects with his own comments. When the story is over, the nurse says she needs the names for the birth certificates.
Zane had handed me our son when he woke up so I looked down at him before deciding on his name, "James Anthony Bennett."
"Are you sure about the last name?" Zane asks.
"Yes, we will all be Bennett's soon. Now what about our daughter?"
Zane looks at out little girl in his hands, smiles, and says, "Maria Isabelle Bennett."
I love it. So, does everyone else. After that Emma introduces us to her children and we spend the rest of the time hanging out. Now it's time to see what being a mother is all about.
A/N here you go, sorry it's a bit late. Please read and review they really help me along
To Chinaluv: thank you for always reviewing.
To Swimngym: thank you for your idea, and if you have any others please feel free to let me know. Thanks for the reviews too.
To: Avatar Kat: I'm glad that it went to together and surprised you, I try to know where I want to end before I start a chapter. Also did Rikki having her babies surprise you? Thanks for your reviews.
Thanks to everyone else for reading and favoriting. Leave me a review and I'll talk to you too