Chapter 17: Aid

It had been four hours since Chase had been admitted. All the women were doing their best to try and suggest thing to stop any forthcoming pain. Pain meds, walking, even rolling balls on the curve of his spine, Chase had turned them all down, and reverted to lying on his left side on the hospital bed, clutching Pip's far-too-soft hand.

Nobody really talked about the issue at hand; maybe they were afraid of upsetting him. Once the small talk had run out, they'd been asking him every now and then if he was alright. How could they ask that? He felt like he had stomach ulcers, appendicitis, kidney stones and food poisoning all at once, and all they could ask was "Are you alright?"! Of course not, it hurt like hell every eight minutes now, how could he be…

"Rob, it's been nice holding your hand again, but I'd like my circulation back now." Pip candidly said, holding up their joint hands. He noticed that his nails were digging into her flesh, and two of her fingers were turning purple from lack of blood.

"Oh, God. Sorry. Did I drift off?" Chase asked sheepishly, realising that he wasn't having a contraction at the moment and letting go of Pip's hand.

Cameron smiled "For a while. We'd asked you if you wanted any pain meds, but you said no." she walked around the bed to kneel down next to his face.

"Hey, pethidine or an epidural is not going to hurt the baby. We're not going to make fun of you because you're in pain."

"Yeah, I know Cameron, but there are chances complications could arise, I could prolong my labour, and-" Chase immediately leant back, focusing on breathing in and out, the tension on Pip's palm increased.

"Women give birth in their own homes every day with just a towel and a bucket of water-"

"Women die in their own homes giving birth every day." Angela piped up from the corner, watching Martine snap on a pair of gloves, ready to measure again. All three surrounding the bed glared at her.

"Shut up Ella." They all snapped.

"Excuse me Miss Nombre, but I'm going to have to get Robert to sit up again, for another check." Brenda instructed, nodding to Cameron that it was now a good time to help Chase up again.

Meanwhile, Idnax had just hopped out of the lift from collecting a coffee on the floor below. It wasn't that she was tired, more the fact that she needed something to calm herself down with. Becoming a mother in a few hours time was a very scary prospect.

"Relax; everything's going to be just fine with Rob. Nothing much will have happened while you were gone…"

As she watched trough the glass from a few metres away, she saw her friends and co-workers cuddling each other as close as possible. Maybe not.

--

Elaine was feeling tired, but Dr. Racknell couldn't allow that, especially seeing in maybe a few hours time she'd have to deliver. Yet she was in need of a break, and snapping off her gloves and heading to the nearest coffee machine sounded appealing at the moment. Her chances of this happening right now were cut short as her boss and his friend approached.

"Checked five minutes ago, dilated to five and a half. He's not screaming or being an ass, yet he's refusing all pain meds, which I think is stupid but I'm not the one pushing a baby out my front." She rattled off and threw her hands up in the air for defence.

"Great, that's great. I remember my first baby, it was a big baby, and it hurt like hell. I congratulate him for thinking that he can go through it." House snarked back.

"Hey, there's no way of convincing him. It looks like he's in a lot of pain-"

"Oh! I get it! Water spurts out from his belly, then his muscles start tensing together to remove the offending object, and from that I could have deducted that he's in a lot of pain! God, I feel so stupid!"

"You know that's not what I meant. Just let me get a coffee and-"Racknell paused as she looked down at her now beeping pager.

"Cameron's calling me. It looks pretty urgent, and he's asking for you." She raced off down the hall back to the private room.

House turned to Wilson, inquisitively. Chase could wait for a minute. "Do you know if Joey's past being an it yet?"

Wilson gave one of those grins you give when somebody's asking you about a big secret; you know the answer and want to play. "I do…"

"Why didn't you tell me!"

"Why, you never asked. Like you said, you haven't said please since you were four." He smiled manically.

"Grow up; I need to go see what type of lamingtons he wants."

--

Things were different this time when House walked in to the private room. The nurses and Angela were clumped in a corner, unsure of what to do. Cameron and Pip were either side of Chase, who was bolt up right in the slightly more comfortable bed. He had a look of fear in his eyes, arms like supporting stick behind him. There was even some sweat on his patient gown.

House privately felt very concerned, and curious to why he was so uptight now.

"House, there's something I need you to do for me."

One eyebrow raised, "A new abdomen? Sorry, I'm fresh out."

"No, seriously. I need you to find Meri; I haven't seen her since I got here. She'd better be lying on the street, dead before she doesn't come here, because-"

With a small grunt and through clenched teeth, Chase continued talking through a contraction "-I am having her baby, and she's got to be here to help me through this! I can't do it alone-"

"Chase, we're here for you." Cameron whispered as a last-ditch attempt to calm him down.

"You didn't bump into me in the bar!" Chase snapped back, scrunching up his eyes. Cameron brushed it off as a reaction to the pain, giving House a look to do as he was told.

Where could Idnax be?

A/N: Oops! I did it again. I left you hanging there, and I hope you like drama, because that's what next chapter is!