Chapter 15:
It was early in the morning that was the only fact that John Smith knew as he bolted upright in bed. Something had awakened him, although he didn't know what that could possibly be. Inhaling, the captain did not smell smoke which excluded the house being on fire. His hand reached out, feeling the smooth surface of his wife's back. Looking down, he could tell that she was positioned rather oddly for her.
"Pocahontas?"
John softly whispered and was surprised by her response;
"Did I wake you?"
Her words struck a cord with in him and he quickly grasped her shoulder, "Are you alright? Do you need my mother?"
Pocahontas took a deep breath as another wave of intense pain swept over her, "I, I don't know."
"Are you in pain?"
"Yes," Pocahontas replied in a quivering voice, "I've been in pain for a few hours now."
"Why didn't you wake me?"
John frantically whispered as he got out of bed and pulled on a robe that had been hanging over a chair, "She could've helped lessen it."
"John," Pocahontas said as the contraction subsided, "You can't do anything to lessen the pain of childbirth."
Her husband walked to her side of the bed and knelt beside it, "It's going to be alright, I'll go and get my mother and she'll find the midwife. Everything will be alright."
After softly kissing his wife's cheek, John hurriedly opened then shut the bedroom door; the native princess could hear his quick footsteps go down the hall towards his parent's room.
"I wish I was back home," Pocahontas whispered for not only did she miss her homeland, but waves of nervousness and uncertainty washed over her as her child was going to be born in this odd place.
The native woman had just flipped to her other side when John and Alice entered the room;
"Pocahontas," Alice said, "Come now, we need to get you out of that bed."
"Why?"
Pocahontas inquired as her husband helped her to sit fully up;
"You can not have this child in this bed," Alice replied as she took Pocahontas's hand, "Let me help you up and we'll go in to another room."
"Alice, why do I have to go in another room? I can have this child here."
"No, it wouldn't be right for the child," Alice replied as Pocahontas stood holding onto Alice's hand.
"Mother," John spoke up, "If my wife says she wants to have our baby here I don't see the harm in that."
The older woman sighed and dropped the native woman's hand, "Fine, I'll go and wake up Anne and ask her to go and fetch the midwife."
After Alice left the room, a bewildered Pocahontas turned towards her husband, "Why was your mother so insistent that I leave this room and bed?"
"Because," John sighed as he grasped her hand, "Well, a lot of people believe that it is wrong to deliver a child in the bed that the couple sleeps in. They say that the child is impure if it's born in the bed that a couple conceived the child in."
Pocahontas sighed, "Our child wasn't made here."
John chuckled slightly, "You can always depend on the English when nothing makes sense."
They were interrupted by a knock on the door and then by Alice rushing in to the room with Jane right behind her;
"Anne has gone to fetch the midwife, what did you say her name was again mom?"
"Rebecca Winters, she is the same woman that helped me have John and my daughters so she's wonderful," Alice said as Jane perched herself on the chair that John's robe had been hanging on.
"Oh," Pocahontas replied as another wave of pain past over her and she cried out.
"Just breathe," Alice gently coaxed as the pain intensified then dissipated like a wave that would crash on the beach only to slide away with the currents. Alice helped Pocahontas get back in to bed, the native woman lying on her side and Alice coaxing her on how to breathe through the pain.
"I've been in worse pain than this," Pocahontas said as she gave a weak smile, "I just can't think of any."
"You sound like my brother," Jane commented as John laughed.
"When her father held me prisoner and I was going to be killed, I had told Pocahontas that I had gotten out of worse scrapes than this."
"That's for sure," Jane mumbled as Alice hushed her daughter, telling Jane that Pocahontas needed to concentrate.
"Where's father?"
John inquired as Alice made Jane move the chair next to Pocahontas's bed so that Alice could sit, "He's in bed, don't bother him with women matters such as these. Which reminds me, you don't need to be here you can go sleep downstairs or go to a tavern?"
"No, no John please don't leave," Pocahontas pleaded as she gripped onto her husband's hand.
"Please don't leave me," Pocahontas cried out as the worse pain hit her, and she squeezed onto John's hand. Wincing at his wife's grasp, the captain looked up at his mother, "I will not leave her."
"John, you don't need to witness this, there will be a lot of blood and screaming, you will see her in a lot of pain; you don't…"
"I have fought in many wars mother," John began his voice calm, "I believe that I will be able to handle this."
"Mrs. Smith?"
Pocahontas jumped as an unfamiliar woman's voice floated to her ears and the woman interrupting the conversation between John and his mother;
"In here Rebecca," Alice answered as a tall brown haired woman entered the room. She was a bit older than Alice, her brunette hair showing specks of gray all through it however her brown eyes showed kindness and understanding.
"You aren't the one having the baby are you?"
Rebecca asked as she laughed as Alice chuckled, "I'll not go through that again. No Rebecca, this is my daughter-in-law that I told you about."
"Oh yes," the midwife smiled as she brought out different items from a bag that she had been carrying, "The woman from the new world."
"Yes," Pocahontas sighed.
"I'm staying with her," John firmly stated as Rebecca turned her eyes upon the captain.
"I was not going to speak out against that although it is nearly unheard of that you're a man that is going to stay," the midwife said as she laughed, "I was only going to ask you if you could please move so that I may be able to examine your wife."
"Oh," John lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry, of course."
John moved and walked over towards the bedchamber door, closing it before he leaned against it;
"Anne says that she wishes you luck," Rebecca told Pocahontas as she breathed through another contraction, "However she was very tired, morning is just a few hours away."
However when morning came four hours later, the child was no closer to being born; John knew that his mother was correct in saying that he wouldn't be able to handle seeing his wife suffering the way she was; however he did not tell her this.
"I'll go get her some water," John said when the clock had struck nine in the morning. He hurriedly exited the room and rushed towards the kitchen where his mother kept the water pitcher. Grabbing the pitcher and a glass, John carried both back towards his room. All the women pulled back as John approached his wife with the drink of cool water;
"My love," he whispered as he looked at her tired face, "I've brought you some water."
Pocahontas glared up at her husband before whispering, "This is your doing, and this is your fault!"
John shrunk back as Alice gave Pocahontas the water, and John quickly excused himself from the room promptly followed by Rebecca, "All women say that," the elder woman softly whispered before the captain was out of earshot.
Still the excruciating pain persisted as Pocahontas struggled through it. The door was kept closed to quiet her wails with each wave of agony that swept over her. It was after one of these an hour later that one of the contractions that the native woman felt the urge to push the child from her womb. Jane gasped as she quickly jumped up from where she had been sitting, "I'll go find John and tell him that it is time."
It was five minutes later, that she found her brother sitting on the couch with his head in his hands in the family's parlor;
"John," Jane began as she ran in to the room, "It's time, she is about to give birth."
"Jane," John began as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "Just, please come back and tell me what she delivers, I can't go in there; mother was right."
"She is your wife John, she needs you," Jane began, "Do not desert her when she really needs you."
"Men aren't supposed to be in a room where women are giving birth; I'm just in the way of everything…"
"That rule is reserved for normal couples John, you and Pocahontas are not normal."
"What? Because I'm white and she's…"
John protested as Jane held up a hand in order to cut him off, "It is that but you two are in love, it's a real, true, deep love that I hope I will find one day however a few people ever find it in this life. She needs you, she's scared and yes she is in pain but you have to be strong for her, she needs you. Of course she requires the medical attention, but she essentially needs your love and support."
For Jane knew her mother had received none in her marriage, neither did Jane's friends that were married, nor she thought did many women around the world; John and Pocahontas were unique to say the least.
John smiled up at his young sister, "Thank you Jane," John softly said as the brother and sister walked silently up the stairs.
"That's it," John could hear Rebecca's voice from behind the door, "Keep going, bear down and push!"
John shoved the door open as he saw his young wife on the bed following the midwife's instructions;
"J-John," Pocahontas gasped as he reached her side, "I can-can't do th-this…"
"Yes you can," the captain replied as he gripped her hand as she panted, her dark eyes looking exhausted up at his face.
"You can do this I know you," John began not taking his eyes off his laboring beloved's face, "I know you, I know you Pocahontas you're strong, you can do anything."
The native woman pushed for what seemed like the millionth time to her, as her husband winced at the grasp of her hand. The native princess took a deep breath as she pushed again, gasping as the long high pitched cry of a baby greeted her ears. John's head shot up as the wail floated to his ears, not knowing what had happened until he looked down at Rebecca. In her hands was a squirming screaming baby with the same hair as her mother's ebony strands;
Pocahontas smiled as tears of joy and exhaustion ran down her cheeks as Rebecca handed her the tiny infant.
"Oh John," Pocahontas whispered as she cried; leaning back and clutching the babe to her chest, "It is a girl, we have a daughter."
John held his wife and baby girl close to him, gazing in awe at the tiny creation that they had made. Her small hands waved in the air, her voice singing what was for now a sweet melody of song, and her sky blue eyes gazing around her.
"I'm just going to clean you up," Rebecca softly said as John kissed his love's cheek.
"What shall we name her?"
"I really like the name Aria," Pocahontas said as the child began to nurse.
"Aria," John repeated as another name came to his mind, "Aria Rose."
Pocahontas smiled as she kissed her husband, "Aria Rose Smith, I love it."
After all was taken care of and Rebecca had left some time later, John tucked the blankets around his wife and around Aria as she slept in a small cradle by the now clean bed.
"I love you," John whispered as the new father smiled with joy.
"And I you," Pocahontas replied back as she fell in to a deep well deserved sleep. That was when John allowed himself to succumb to sleep as there family had just become official.
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A/N: Hi all!
I hope you liked this chapter, thank you for reviewing they really do mean a lot! Also, I put some historical accuracies in this chapter..Extra points to who ever can pick them out!
Lol..Thanks for reviewing and merry Christmas!