Vale Memorial Hospital's front office and waiting room had been unexpectedly slow for a good portion of the day since the early morning hours. Only a few visitors and admittances to the emergency room for a broken bone or a toddler shoving a choking hazard too far up his nostril during play time had arrived, which is why you could imagine the nursing staff's surprise as the turnstile door was nearly knocked off its central hinge as a pair of soaking wet girls rushed inside, the taller blonde one, carrying a smaller, very noticeably pregnant brunette one. Both looked like they had charged through the pouring rain outside for quite some time to get here, both panting, Yang from the running and Ruby trying to breathe through a weak contraction. Both looked soaked through to their undergarments as Yang left a set of wet footprints along with rain dripping off of them as she made a bee-line through a small group of people in front of the front desk to it.
"One side, people! Heroines of Vale coming through, one having a baby here!" Yang announced as a few orderlies and visitors backed off as Yang plodded her way up to the counter, where an older nurse was looking at them with an unamused expression as she tilted her glasses down to look at them.
"You should know I just had this floor mopped from all the rain being tracked in." she deadpanned.
"That's not important, right now!" Yang shouted. "My sister's in labor here!"
"Well, excuse me, hothead." the nurse sassed back, ignoring Ruby's groan as another cramp ran through her, making her shudder. "You still have to fill this out before we can admit her." she ordered, placing a clipboard and papers on the counter in front of the two.
"Can't that wait? This is Ruby Rose. You may have heard of her? Stopped a plan to destroy Vale with a kid in her belly?" Yang asked. "Surely that means we can skip this part." she said, trying to persuade the nurse to just let them past to get Ruby some help.
"I could care less if she was the queen of Atlas having a baby Deathstalker." the nurse snapped. "You wanna fill this out, or am I gonna have to keep arguing with you while your sister pops out a kid in the lobby?"
Yang was practically fuming at this point as her eyes began to glow red. "Why you-" she growled, balling a fist and cocking it back before a damp hand on her wrist stopped her. Turning, she saw a dripping wet Weiss holding her arm back before Yang did something she'd regret, Blake, Neo and Taiyang not far behind. With a knowing glare at Yang telling her to calm down, she turned to the nurse.
"I can fill it out for her. Can we just get her into the delivery room, please?" Weiss asked in a much calmer tone. With that said, the nurse rolled her eyes as she picked up an intercom and switching it on.
"I need an orderly pickup at the front desk. I've got a young mother ready to pop and in need of some help." she spoke in a monotone order that was announced throughout the halls. With it said, she placed the speaker down and looked at Yang. "Happy now, Hothead?"
Yang opened her mouth to say something before an orderly with a wheelchair, gesturing for her to place Ruby into it. Carefully she shifted her sister so she could plop her into the chair, the younger of the two looking up with teary silver eyes into Yang's in a way that tugged at Yang's heart, knowing she couldn't do anything to ease the agony.
"Y-Yang...I'm scared.." Ruby meekly groaned.
"I know you are, Rubes." Yang nodded. "It's okay though. We're gonna get this kid outta you in no time, and get this whole thing behind us for good, sound okay?"
Ruby gave a nod as she was wheeled down the hall, Yang following her through the doors that lead to the delivery rooms while the other four simply stood around before a very cold and wet cat Faunus spoke up.
"Can we get some towels or something, too?" Blake asked, shivering as she shook off some water, Neo protecting herself from the splash with her parasol.
Metal clanged against steel as it rang out and across the empty indoor training ground at Beacon, rain pattering against the glass roof. Cardin grunted as he was shoved off of Jaune's shield, both teams eagerly watching in their casual clothes from the sidelines.
"Gotta say, Arc." Cardin complemented as they entered a deadlock once again. "You've gotten alot better over summer break, but not good enough."
"Don't count me out yet, Cardin." Jaune smirked as he moved a foot forward, hooking it around Cardin's ankle and tripping the lumbering mace-wielder onto his back. Before the Winchester boy could get off his back, the tip of Jaune's freshly repaired sword, the original blade salvaged and restored, knicks and all, pointed directly at his Adam's apple. "I win." he smirked before re-sheathing it into Crocea Mors II, a replica of his shield and sheathe, the yellow family crest replaced with a shining bronze one and much more sturdy than his old one.
Cardin gave out a laugh as he stood, clapping Jaune on the back. "That was actually pretty fun, Jauney Boy! Where'd you learn that move? Your girlfriend?" he half-commended, half teased.
"Actually, yes." Pyrrha spoke up, sitting up from her seat on the sideline benches between the rest of CRDL and Nora and Ren, the stoic and the other Huntsmen watching the post-sparring banter while the hyperactive ginger scrolled through social media updates on her Scroll.
"Yeah, she and her family visited mine frequently over the break. It gave us plenty of time for practice." Jaune nodded.
"Among other things, right?" Sky teased, earning a dope slap on the back of his head from Dove.
"Bad Sky. Get that mind out of the gutter." Dove reprimanded, treating his partner more like a child.
While Jaune and Pyrrha shared a blush, and the rest chuckled awkwardly at Sky's joke, Nora gave out a squeal of excitement that immediately shut everyone up.
"Geez, Nora! Maybe do that a little higher and you can shatter glass." Russel complained, covering his ears.
"Sorry!" Nora sheepishly apologized, holding up her phone. "But look what the Ice Cream Lady sent me about what's going on right now!" she ordered as the other seven crowded around her Scroll to read the text message from Neo.
"Nora, for the last time, you can call her Neo." Ren said.
"JUST READ IT!" she yelled, smushing the phone into the stoic's cheek, him pulling her hand away and eyes widening as he read the message.
"Um...woah." Ren muttered.
"What? What does it say?" Pyrrha asked before he handed the Spartan the phone, cupping a hand over her mouth as she read it. "Oh my..."
"Geez, what's going on that's so-" Jaune started before Pyrrha cut him off by holding the Scroll out for him to read. "RUBY'S HAVING THE BABY?"
"Man...that flight felt like it took forever." Sun yawned, wiping the tears that welled up from it from his eyes.
"How can you tell? You were asleep five minutes after we took off from Mistral International." Scarlet commented as he got off the airship's loading ramp, Sage and Neptune following them off.
"I just don't question it with him anymore." Neptune sighed as he flipped his Scroll back on for the first time since shutting it off as they began their descent into Vale's airship port. Immediately after it powered up, it went straight to his ringtone. The smiling face of Beacon's resident Ice Queen took up the screen and putting a confused smile on his face as he answered. "Hey, Snow Angel." he said before a blaring voice of concern replied back.
"You are not going to believe what's going on right now!" Weiss yelled into the phone.
"Woah, woah, calm down. Are you in Vale now? We can be right there to help." Neptune replied.
"...Yeah, actually. What are you doing here then?" Weiss asked, now confused.
"We were gonna surprise you guys, but my genius of a leader decided to get us transferred over from Haven Academy to Beacon as part of an exchange program." Neptune explained.
"Hey, look on the bright side. Now you and the Ice Queen can kiss face to face instead of through the call line." Sun joked.
"Yeah, so can you and Blake." Sage retorted, calling out his leader for his hypocrisy.
"Wow, that's...pretty cool...but not the point. Ruby just went into have her baby and-" Weiss announced, only to be cut off by the outburst of the team of four.
"WHAT?" SSSN cried out in unison, causing Weiss to pull her phone away from her ear to save her hearing.
"Just get to the hospital if you want to be there for it." Weiss finished hanging up as Neptune and Sun made their way towards the exit.
"Where are you guys going?" Sage asked.
"Yeah, what about the baggage?" Scarlet added.
"Leave it! We'll pick it up later!" Sun ordered.
"I don't think they actually hold it for us." Sage pointed out, looking at a sign that explicitly read "Collect your baggage after getting off the aircraft! We will not hold it for you! -A message from Vale International Airport"
"Just come on!" Sun ordered as they rushed out of the airport.
Adam finished writing up his paperwork before sliding it over to Glynda from across the table. She gave it an almost scrutinizing look as she glanced it over before handing it to the one sitting in front of him.
"Is it okay?" Adam asked.
"Well, there are a few things I would've left out on a resume..." Ozpin murmured, looking it over, especially focusing on where Adam had listed his background and skills. "However, we can assist you with that if you ever need to edit it should you seek employment elsewhere."
Adam raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?" he asked, unsure what Ozpin was insinuating.
"Adam, Glynda tells me you were a great help in the preparation for the operation to liberate Vale three months ago, as well as helped train Blake to be one of the greatest Huntresses enrolled into this school." Ozpin complimented, the red-haired bull Faunus unsure what to say. He'd never gotten a compliment from a human before. "Which is why we'd be grateful to have you as a demonstration instructor at our school." His eyes lit up with a rare genuine smile as he rose to shake hands with the headmaster, waiting a second as he took his cane to help steady himself, the Huntsman's weapon now serving its more casual purpose more than ever as Ozpin's legs slowly healed, even with his Aura working at it. He finally got steadily to his feet as he shook Adam's hand. "Welcome to Beacon, Mister Taurus."
"Thank you, Professors." Adam nodded.
"I'll have Glynda here finish your paperwork and help arrange your on-campus lodging-" Ozpin started to explain before they were burst in on by a surprised Raven. "Raven? Is something wrong?"
"I just got a call from Taiyang. Ruby's in the hospital right now, having the baby!" Raven explained, surprising the three others in the room.
"Oh dear." was all Glynda could say at this new information. "Is she all right?"
"Taiyang didn't say. I'm going down to see for myself." Raven answered, drawing her sword and opening a portal to the hospital enterance.
"We're right behind you." Ozpin spoke up as he hobbled around his desk and up to the portal, Glynda and Adam right behind them as they went inside.
Neo slowly swayed her feet around absentmindedly as she sat in the waiting room next to Taiyang. The man knew his daughter was in good hands, as he had brought both his children here for checkups and medical treatment here since they were young and never had an issue with them, but there was always that pit of doubt in the back of his mind that made him worry for her. He was dragged out of his thoughts by a small plastic cup of water being placed in front of his vision and breaking his thousand yard stare. Looking, up, he found Blake with a small cardbord tray of glasses for them.
"Need something to drink?" she asked as he took the cup.
"Thank you, Blake." he nodded, taking a sip as Blake handed another to Neo. "Weiss do you need any?"
The heiress almost didn't answer as she continued to pace the floor in front of them between rows of chairs in the waiting room. "I'm not exactly in the mood to relax right now, Blake." Weiss replied curtly. "How can you be so relaxed with Ruby in there in pain?"
"She's in good hands here, Weiss. This is the best hospital on Vytal after all." Taiyang spoke up.
"And we're relaxed because unless you know anything about delivering a baby, there's nothing we can do but wait for news from Yang or the staff about Ruby and the child." Blake added. "Making a rut in the floor from pacing around in circles isn't going to help at anything but wearing you out."
Before Weiss could say anything to respond the sound of the revolving door being spun open at a rate that almost unscrewed it from its central hinge brought everyone in the lobby's attention to it. This time, en masse much more numerous than the last group to arrive, and now re-soaking the previously re-mopped floor with rainwater and muddy footprints ran in most of the group's friends from Beacon, staff and students alike.
"You guys all got the news?" Weiss asked, unaware anyone else but SSSN were coming.
"Well, yeah. We ran here straight from the airport as soon as we got your call." Sun answered, wringing out his soaked shirt before putting it back on.
"We were both together when Nora got the text from Neo." Jaune explained before he and Cardin were both shoved aside by Nora, toting two gift baskets, one pink and the other blue and both with an 'It's a Boy/Girl' balloon taped to each handle.
"Is it here yet? I wanna see! I wanna see!" Nora squealed excitedly before Ren held her back to try and calm her down, Raven and Ozpin taking her place.
"Has there been any news yet?" Raven asked her former husband, only for him to shake his head.
"She got taken in about thirty minutes ago, and her water broke about fifty-five minutes ago." he recalled. "If anything, we should be hearing something shortly."
Sure enough, as if on cue, a clearing of someone's throat from the same hallway entrance that Ruby was whisked down to the delivery room grabbed everyone's attention. They turned to see a older man in a doctor's coat with greying cyan hair and a slight beard of the same color. He took off a pair of surgical gloves, slightly marred with dried blood from his work, tossing them into the wastebasket behind the admission desk before looking into the lobby. "Um, are ay of you here for a Ruby Rose?" he asked, very surprised when all but a select few patrons made a bee-line towards him. "Woah, easy there, everyone." he spoke up, stopping the crowd from rushing past him. "Does she have any immediate family among you?"
Raven and Taiyang stepped forward, Weiss and Blake right behind them. "We're her father and stepmother. What can you tell us?" Taiyang asked.
"Well it's nice to meet you both. I'm Doctor Oys, and I've been put in charge of her delivery, and I just wanted to come out and give you an update." he spoke, shaking Taiyang and Raven's hands.
"Oys...Your Turk's dad?" Jaune asked, surprising the medical practicioner.
"Yes, actually. Are you all from Beacon yourselves?" He asked, a slight lack of enthusiasm in his voice.
"We are. I kinda expected him and his team to be here too though." Neptune answered.
"Teams STRM, CFVY and SABR all took the summer going through an apprenticeship course with Huntsmen we offered since before the attacks on Vale nine months ago." Ozpin answered. "They were supposed to be returning tomorrow."
"Can't be helped I suppose." Adam shrugged.
"Can we get back on topic please?" Weiss asked, turning to the doctor. "How's Ruby doing?"
He looked back to her parents, his tone more professional as he got back to the point of journeying out to the waiting room. "Right, well, Ruby's still not fully dilated, but she's very close to it." he explained. "She's been very resilient through the process so far, despite under the effects of only a fraction of the painkillers we normally would use."
"Why's that?" Blake asked.
"Our stockpiles of supplies have been low since the recovery effort went into effect as Vale was restored. We've been needing to ration everything out in smaller dosages than normal. Even so, she's staying quite strong compared to some teenage mothers I've had to work with in the past." Doctor Oys explained.
"Is there any possibility we can go in and see her?" Taiyang asked.
"I'm afraid not. Hospital policy only allows one person at her bedside during the delivery." he said, a few dejected looks coming from her closest friends. "However, there is another waiting room much closer to the delivery rooms and nursery. You're more than welcome to wait there..." He was almost cut off as the group started to move past him. "...on the condition that you all wipe your feet first." he gestured to the large tracking of mud and rain across the floor, a janitor off to the side with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Ruby, I can't get you some ice without leaving the room, you know!" Yang tried to explain as she shut the door behind her, muffling the bawling reply of her sister through the door before walking down the hall to the vending machines just before the nursery. As she let the cup fill, she gave out a sigh as she slid to a sitting position against the wall, head in her hands. Ruby was groaning how the pain she was in was killing her, but what was killing Yang was the fact she knew she couldn't do a thing to help with that.
A hand in front of her holding her plastic cup filled with ice chips brought her out of it, looking up to see one of her teammates holding it in front of her. "Need some of this?" Weiss asked, taking her other hand to pull the blonde brawler off the floor.
"What are you guys doing back here?" Yang asked, taking the cup as her vision shifted between Weiss and Blake, the Faunus girl looking through the snack machine next to the ice dispenser.
"Doctor Oys came out and gave us a progress report." Blake replied, taking some change and putting it into the coin slot, a package of fish crackers falling into the dispensing tray. "Then he moved us to the waiting room outside the nursery."
"Everyone's here now; your mother, Jaune, Sun and their teams, Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, Adam, even CRDL came." Weiss explained.
"Wow, all here to cheer Ruby on, eh?" Yang chuckled slightly.
"How is she by the way?" Blake asked, the blonde's smile fading before giving an answer.
"I really don't know." Yang sighed. "The doc and the nurses are saying we're both doing a great job, but in reality, all I feel like I'm doing is arm wrestling Ruby while she screams in pain."
"Is it that bad?" Weiss asked, wincing from the retelling of Yang's experience.
"Not as bad as you're probably picturing it, but I still feel awful that I can't do much to ease her hurting through this." Yang replied, looking down at the cup of rapidly melting ice in her hand, before two more cupped around it as well. She looked up in surprise to find herself eye level with Weiss, the heiress with a quiet determination in her gaze to encourage Yang to stay strong.
"You're being there for her, aren't you?" Weiss asked.
"Of course I am, but..." Yang started.
"Ah ah ah, not another word past that." Weiss interjected. "The doctors are right. You're doing a good job already just by being there for Ruby. You're a better sister to her than you lead us to believe, Yang, so stop doubting yourself that you aren't." Weiss finished, letting go of Yang's hand and leaving the two others in the hallway stunned.
"Weiss..."was all Yang could say before Doctor Oys rushed past the three of them, the beeper on his belt loop going off like crazy.
"Yang, you might want to get back to the room. It's time." he explained, not stopping as he marched down the hallway to Ruby's room. Yang didn't think twice as she ran after him and both stepped back inside the room, leaving Weiss and Blake back by the vending machines, Weiss taking a second to sit down on a bench behind where they stood while talking with the elder of the two Rose-Xiao Long sisters.
"Something wrong, Weiss?" Blake asked, noticing the white-haired duelist's expression fading to self-pity.
"Sometimes, I just wish my sister was as good to me as Yang is to Ruby." she answered, looking down into her hands that she let sit in her lap, not really reacting as Blake draped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a hug to try and comfort her.
"We're almost done here, Ruby! We just need a couple more good ones and we're done." the doctor announced as he looked back under the sheets draped over Ruby's lower half. The poor girl was already panting from exhaustion, her hair stuck to her sweat-matted forehead. Yang was trying her best to keep her younger sister cooled down, taking a small piece of cloth with ice wrapped inside it and dabbing it across her face. She grunted as she bore down again, the pain excruciating.
"OH, MONTY THIS IS KILLING ME!" Ruby cried out as she hit the pillow as she finished her next push. "Remind me to rip Timber's head off once this is over, Yang..." she panted, turning to her sister.
"It's okay, Rubes. We're really close to all this being over; just a little longer." Yang encouraged, turning to the doctor. "Right, Doc?"
"We should be done after one more push." Doctor Oys replied, looking up to his patient. "You hear that, Ruby? One more is all we need out of you."
"I c-can't...It's so hard.." Ruby whimpered, starting to reach her limit.
"You can do this, Ruby. It's just one more!" Yang encouraged. With a hesitant nod, the smaller brunette took a deep breath as she gave out a loud cry as she gave one final push with the last of her strength, not stopping until she felt something slide out and a quiet but shrill cry ring out throughout the room.
"We got a live one!" Doctor Oys exclaimed, Yang beaming as she gave her sister a peck on her forehead, still dripping with sweat.
"You did it, Ruby! Ruby?" Yang cheered, noticing her sister's consciousness slowly fading as her head sank into the pillow and her eyes started to flutter close.
"Her vitals are fine. It's probably just from being tired after all of that." one of the nurses pointed out, looking over the monitors over Ruby's bed.
"Let her rest. Once she's back up, she can meet her little...wait a minute." Doctor Oys paused, looking over the newborn.
"What's wrong, Doc?" Yang asked.
He didn't respond as he quickly whisked the moments-old child into a covered basinet. "Nurse Azul, finish up here. We need to get him to the lab ASAP."
TO BE CONCLUDED
