Disclaimer: Still don't own.
A/N: The time has come for the flashbacks to stop. This is it. Baby time!
I don't have any children of my own, so I don't actually know much about the pains of childbirth. Keep in mind, this is just a Fanfic.
The story about the toilet was based on my mother and her sister. Yep, that part of the story is based on real events.
Reviews are like maths tests; some you succeed, others you fail, but either way you learn. Please review.
Origins: The Journey Begins
Chapter 17: One More To Go
STARDATE: 2236.117 (Wed, April 27th, 2236) [8 months, 30 Days Pregnant]
Ahadi was working from home. He was already two weeks into his six-week break. He was expected to be back at work on the 27th of May. It was the 27th of April. Miotep's due date.
Medical research and equipment had increased in leaps and bounds over the last 200 years. With the new information on human procreation and upgrades to all hospital facilities across the world, came injections to reduce the risk of stillbirths, oral medication to lower the statistics of miscarriages, and vaccinations to keep the baby healthy during gestation.
After discovering that she was pregnant with identical twins, Dr Rehema Buhari had placed Miotep on a monthly injection to help the babies form properly and reduce the risk of early delivery.
Ashantis had been asked by Ahadi to stay with the family until the time came for Miotep to deliver the babies. She jumped at the offer.
She gladly took the single trundle bed under Nanenna's bed and slept on the floor in Nanenna's room. She had been staying there for the last three nights, she enjoyed playing with the kids, and making sure they were fed and bathed so Miotep and Ahadi didn't have to stress about them.
At night, after the kids were asleep, Ashantis would creep silently out of Nanenna's room, make her way downstairs with her PADD and com-chat with her Australian boyfriend, Lewis.
Lewis Everend was not a tall man. Ashantis was much taller than he. She met him at an International Conference in San Francisco only six weeks ago. The conference was for people who wanted to be trained in sign language. As a respected deaf woman in Kenya, and daughter of well-renown 'Big Mama', she was nominated by her deaf peers to represent the United States of Africa.
She was instantly drawn to his brown eyes, golden hair and perfectly tanned skin. He was a hearing man, but also a fantastic translator. She was allowed to ogle at him as his hands moved quickly to keep up with the pace of the speaker.
It was 8:30 at night in the Uhura household and the kids were all tucked into bed. After waiting for Nanenna to fall asleep Ashantis grabbed her PADD off the nightstand behind her and snuck out the door, trying not to wake Nanenna as she did so. She was deaf which made her perform tasks louder than what she thought was acceptable.
Looking back to see that Nanenna was still sleeping she tip-toed down passed Sehale's room, passed Denahi's room and passed the bathroom. As she passed the bathroom she noticed something quite odd.
Miotep was on her hands and knees, her head near the toilet bowl. Without as much as a second glance Ashantis placed her PADD on the nearby countertop and proceeded into the bathroom.
"Miotep! What's the matter?" She asked, her voice was full of worry. Had she fallen? Was she in pain? What was she doing on her hands and knees?
"I think the toilet's broken," Miotep called from her position on the floor. She then snapped her head in the direction of her younger sister with a look on her face that clearly said 'Well, aren't you going to help your pregnant sister?'
Ashantis, being exceptional at reading facial expressions, immediately understood the silent question of her sister, and dropped to her knees to help look for the leak the toilet had supposedly sprouted.
Both on their hands and knees the search for the mysterious leak continued. Miotep on occasion would haul her body into a sitting position. She felt the water still pouring out around her and let out a gruff exhale.
"It's still leaking." She said as she signed to her deaf sister.
Ashantis nodded and continued to search. Miotep grabbed hold of the toilet bowl and twisted herself so that she was on her knees. She pulled herself up, using the toilet as leverage, so she was standing over the toilet.
She made her way around the toilet and checked the pump of the toilet. She was about to give the pump another good yank but was stopped in her tracks when a loud cough caught her attention.
Miotep looked over at the door of the bathroom. Ashantis, realising that her sister had stopped hitting the toilet, looked in the same direction. Miotep's husband was leaning up against the frame of the door, arms crossed, smile plastered on his face.
"What in the world are you two doing?" He asked as he took in the scene before him.
Embarrassed for being caught out, Miotep's honey-golden skin flushed a deep bronze. She pointed at the toilet and stammered over her words, "I…well…we were just…I think the toilet's leaking."
Ahadi bent forward and laughed hard. It was a while before he came up for air. Ashantis just looked at Miotep with confusion etched on her face. Miotep shrugged in response.
"Take a look at yourself, Mio." He said between gasps of air.
Miotep looked at herself. Although, it was quite difficult to see anything below her protruding stomach. She shrugged again and looked back at her husband.
Ahadi entered the bathroom and stopped before his wife. He bent over slightly to pick up the hem of her maternity kaftan. It was soaked.
"The toilet isn't leaking, Mio. You are." He said with a smirk. His wife was going into labour and she thinks it the toilet.
"My water?" She asked, looking at him for confirmation.
"Yep." He replied.
Ashantis clapped her hands in excitement as reality dawned on her. Her sister was going to have the babies!
"Ashantis are you alright here with the kids?" He asked Ashantis.
"Yep." She responded with a solid nod. She was almost dancing with excitement.
Ahadi guided his wife out the door and into the hallway. Miotep went straight to her room to collect the bags.
Ashantis followed the couple to the bedroom, just in case they needed her help with something.
Ahadi turned to Ashantis as she entered the room. "You know where everything is. Numbers are on the fridge. There is no cereal left but Denahi knows how to make the best pancake batter." He said as his wife walked past him with a large duffle bag in her hands.
"No worry. I've got it under control." She said barely managing to hide the beaming smile. She ran after Miotep and drew her into a bone crushing hug. Miotep dropped the bag and hugged her sister back, giving Ahadi enough time to reach down and take the bag from his wife.
Miotep's contractions became stronger the closer she came to the hospital. Once at the hospital she was placed in a hover chair and wheeled off to one of the delivery rooms.
They approached one of the suites and Miotep noticed the number on the door – 1701.
"I've been in this room before -" Miotep cut herself off with a painful grunt. Another contraction. "When I was having Sehale." She finished.
Ahadi and one of the nurses had helped her onto the bed when Dr Buhari entered.
From her last experience with Miotep, Dr Buhari did not want to ask how she was going. The doctor and Miotep were good friends, but the last Miotep was in labour she had growled at her. Growled! Dr Buhari decided to try a different approach this time. "What would you like, Uhura?"
"I'm fine, thank you," Ahadi said seriously as he rubbed his wife's back.
"She meant me!" Miotep spoke through another contraction, her teeth gritting to prevent herself from screaming.
"Oh, of course. Can I get you anything?" He asked.
"Ball. I want the ball." She said as the contraction passed. She leant back into the bed and rubbed her stomach to soothe the tension within her belly.
Ahadi looked over at Dr Buhari for any sign of confirmation. Dr Buhari crossed the room, quickly hooked Miotep up to the monitor and read Miotep's current statistics. She shook her head at Ahadi.
"I'm sorry, Miotep. With the state that you're in, using the ball would only increase the dangers when it came time to give birth. At the moment you're labelled as 'critical', I will let you know if you become 'stable', but that is highly unlikely." Dr Buhari stated.
Last time Miotep was in labour she found the exercise ball a great benefit to the labour pains. Nanenna's birth was the best birth she had had yet, all thanks to the ball. But now she was being deprived of it. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Your contractions are still quite far apart. You won't be pushing anytime soon. I have got another patient to attend to in the other room. If you need me, just buzz." The doctor said and pointed to the small comm unit attached to the bed before exiting the suite.
Miotep's contractions became more aggressive the further into the labour she went. It had been seven and a half hours since her waters had broken. It was now four in the morning and Miotep was getting tired.
Dr Buhari had re-entered the room several times to check how she was going. Things were progressing very slowly. Too slowly for the doctors liking. After seven and a half hours she still hadn't dilated.
The doctor groaned as she took another look at her patient. She said something that Miotep couldn't comprehend. Something to do with a hypospray. Next thing Miotep knew, she was injected with a hypospray.
The doctor waited to see the drugs take effect. She was expecting to see Miotep go into another contraction, to speed up the process so she could deliver, but for some reason, the hypospray wasn't working.
The babies within her womb were still not getting into position and Miotep wasn't reacting to the hypospray the way the Doctor thought she might.
"What's happening? I thought the hypospray was to speed this whole thing up?" Miotep was scared, not only for her own health but for her babies too.
"It seems that the hypo isn't having any effect on you or the babies at all." Dr Buhari said as she rushed to the side of Miotep, and adjusted the monitors. She knew that it would be dangerous if she administered another hypo. Deciding against giving Miotep the second dose, Doctor Buhari went to stand at the end of the medibed once more.
"I don't know what's happened. It should have worked. We won't know exactly what's going on until after the babies are born. It looks like we will be delivering your girls when they want to be delivered." The doctor stated. It was going to be a long night.
Ahadi hated seeing his wife in pain. She would scream or grunt through a contraction and he couldn't do anything to ease the pain. She had been given strict painkillers in small dosages, so they only work for a short amount of time. Anything stronger would affect the babies.
He had been with her throughout the entire labour of each of their children, but none of them were as intense or as long as this one. Denahi was ten hours, Sehale was four hours, and Nanenna had been six.
Miotep was entering her twelfth hour of labour. It was now 8:30 am. Her other children would've woken up, been fed, gotten dressed and ready for the day.
Miotep had asked the doctor if a caesarean would help deliver the babies faster. It would've been a good idea if they had planned to perform a caesarean from the beginning, but seeing as Miotep was now seven centimetres dilated, and the first child moving into position, it wasn't going to be long until she was ready to deliver her first child.
At 10:00 am on the 28th of April, thirteen-and-a-half hours into labour, the first child had moved into position and Miotep was fully dilated. Dr Buhari moved to the end of the bed after checking all three monitors. Everything was in order; the blood pressure of all three patients was fine, their brain function was normal, as well as their temperature.
Miotep hadn't even begun to push and she was already so very tired. If it weren't for the contractions keeping her awake, she would be asleep by now.
"Alright, Uhura. I need you to push on your next contraction." Dr Buhari called from the other end of the bed. There were two nurses waiting on either side of the doctor and another two entering the room. Each wheeling a humidity crib into the room and placing them against the wall.
On her next contraction, Miotep did what she was told and began to push. She had learnt from experience that keeping her mouth open while she pushed helped her focus all of her energy on the parts that needed it most.
It wasn't long before the head had appeared and the hardest part of the delivery was approaching; the shoulders.
With the help of Ahadi, Miotep centred her breathing again before the next contraction hit. Miotep bore down and her screams going silent as she focused all of her energy on this child.
"That's the way, Uhura. You got it." Dr Buhari said as she helped guide the rest of the baby out. Once the doctor had turned the child right side up she was welcomed with the tiny cries of the newborn. The doctor gave the baby a once over, saw that she was fine and handed her to the nurse on her right. "Nurse Simmons, make sure the father gets to see his little girl."
Nurse Simmons took the baby and motioned for Ahadi to follow. Ahadi was in awe. He had witnessed the birth of his previous children but each birth was different and each child was unique in their own way.
After Ahadi had cut the cord, he took the time to marvel at the first-born twin. She was beautiful. She had golden caramel skin, just like her mother. She had all of her fingers and all of her toes and even a small tuft of black hair on the top of her head.
He let his eyes drift over his daughter's small body. His daughter. She was an identical twin. There was still one more to come and she will, genetically, be identical to this one.
"Hello, Baby One." He cooed softly, trying not to let the nurses in the room see him cry.
He continued to stare at his little miracle but stopped when he came to a small patch of discoloured skin. He started to panic. Is this a skin disease? Is she unhealthy? Will the other twin have the same illness?
"Excuse me, nurse?" He said as he grabbed the attention of Nurse Chandler. Nurse Chandler, a chubby older lady, was put in charge of the humidity cribs and was never far away from the babies.
"What is this?" Ahadi asked and pointed to the small patch of dark skin just behind her right ear. The patch of discoloured skin was on the child's neck hidden behind the flap of the baby's ear and was several shades darker than the child's natural skin tone.
Nurse Chandler looked at the baby in Ahadi's arms, then looked up and smiled warmly at Ahadi. "That's just a birthmark." She stated. "Looks like you'll be able to tell the difference after all."
Only a birthmark. Phew.
Ahadi was pulled from his conversation by Dr Buhari's stern voice. "Baba, need you over here now. Baby Two is in position."
Ahadi reluctantly gave the nurse his little girl before racing to be at his wife's side again, seeing his daughter gave him a spur of adrenaline. "Alright, Mio. Round two, you can do this."
He looked down at his wife and the face that greeted him scared him. Miotep's face had paled. She no longer had her natural golden glow. Her pupils were smaller, the white of her eye were almost red from exhaustion, her face was covered with droplets of sweat, her lips were cracking from being so dry, and her voice was barely a whisper.
"I can't do this anymore, 'hadi." She said soft enough for only him to hear.
"Yes, you can. I know you can. I believe in you." He said as he held tightly onto her hand. He crouched down beside her, his lips near her ear.
"No, 'hadi." She whispered back. She tilted her head toward him, her eyes were begging. "Make it stop. Just make it stop, please." She looked up into his eyes pleading for release.
"I can't." He responded as he stroked her sweat glistened hair.
Suddenly, shouts from the doctor pulled his attention away from his wife. "Temperature rapidly dropping on mother! Heart rate unstable!" Dr Buhari called to the nurse present in the room.
Ahadi glanced from the doctor back to his wife. Her eyes were now closed. Her cracked lips slightly parted.
"Mio? Miotep!" Ahadi yelled as his hand darted out to grasp hers tightly in his. He squeezed tightly, silently begging for her to speak, open her eyes, scream, anything!
"Brain activity declining." One of the nurses, Nurse Wilkes, alerted the doctor.
"Shit." Dr Buhari said under her breath, but Ahadi's hearing picked up on what she said.
"What? What is it?! What's wrong with her?! What's happening?!" Ahadi dropped his wife's hand and approached the doctor. The hair from his man-bun was beginning to loosen under the stress. His dark hair that reached his shoulders were starting to glisten with sweat.
"Should I call for Medical Emergency?" Nurse Simmons said into the comm unit near the door.
"Medical Emergency?" Ahadi's voice was quivering with concern.
"Nurse Grantly, please escort Mr Uhura to the waiting room." Dr Buhari spoke seriously as she administered the adrenaline based hypospray into the neck of Miotep.
"Wait! Tell me what's happening!" Ahadi said, spinning around to avoid the grasp of the tall male nurse.
"Your wife is in critical danger. You cannot be here, Mr Uhura." The doctor tried to reason.
"Like hell! I'm not leaving my wife!" He shouted as the Nurse Grantly came up behind him and tried to usher him out of the room.
"Ahadi, your wife is in danger, which means the child that is still inside of her is also in danger. I will do everything I can to save them both, but in order to do that, I need you in the waiting room and not in this suite." Doctor Buhari was stern and blunt in the delivery of her words.
Ahadi allowed himself to be dragged to the door of the suite. He never took his eyes off his wife.
"Baby Two's heart rate has accelerated." Came the voice Nurse Wilkes.
"What?" Doctor Buhari asked in blatant confusion. She moved from one side of the bed to the other. As she neared the monitor that was connected to Baby Two, she noticed something unusual.
"Temperature rising." Nurse Wilkes spoke again. The nurse and the doctor were staring at the monitor.
Dr Buhari was shocked at what she saw, "The adrenaline in the hypospray." She said quietly to the nurse beside her. "It's finally taking effect."
"And the child?" The nurse looked at her with a quizzical expression.
"The child will be fine, although she needs to be delivered soon so I can give her the hypospray that reverses the effects." The doctor responded.
Ahadi broke free of the male's nurse grasp and came to his wife's side again. He reached for her unmoving hand once more.
Nurse Grantly approached Ahadi to try, once again, to remove him from the suite.
The doctor, upon seeing something interesting upon the monitor, turned to observe Miotep's body. "Leave him, Grantly. He can stay."
"As you wish," Grantly responded before joining another nurse in checking the vitals of Baby One.
"What is it? What's happening?" Ahadi seemed to be asking these questions a lot in the last hour.
"Baby Two is about to make her debut." Doctor Buhari said as she placed herself into position at the end of the bed.
"Really? What about Miotep?" Ahadi asked as he sat on the stool by Miotep's head.
"The baby's vital signs are triggering the mother's. She will come about soon." As if on cue Miotep's eyes fluttered open, her breathing returned, in short, sharp intakes of air.
"Mio." Ahadi soothed as he stroked her hair.
"How is this happening?" Nurse Simmons, a young woman, asked in amazement.
"It's the reaction to the adrenaline we tried to give Miotep before. It's finally working." The doctor said as she glanced over her shoulder to view the baby monitor.
"What does that mean?" Ahadi asked, feeling somewhat out of the loop.
Miotep's faced the ceiling and let out a decent cry of pain. Her fist clenching tightly around the hands of her husband. Ahadi grimaced slightly as he felt the circulation to his fingers being cut off.
"Come on, Mio. You have a beautiful little girl already waiting to be reacquainted with her sister." Ahadi spoke softly into his wife's ear.
As the next contraction swept over Miotep, she put all of her strength into delivering their final child.
Minutes later the small cries of Baby Two pierced the air. Miotep relaxed back into the medibed and rested her eyes. It was over. She had done it. It was finished.
Ahadi kissed his wife on the forehead multiple times before hurrying to the other side of the room where Baby Two had been taken.
After severing the cord, he scanned the child's small body like he did with Baby One. He let out a small laugh. They were indeed identical. They shared the same honey golden skin, the same small tuft of hair, and the same eyes.
He let out another laugh as reality hit him; the boys of the house were now outnumbered.
Ahadi looked closely at the neck of Baby Two and noted the lack of birthmark there. He studied the baby closely trying to see if this baby had any prominent birthmarks like her twin.
He didn't have to look far. On her tiny chest, just above her right nipple, was a dark patch of discoloured skin. Ahadi called for the attention of Nurse Chandler once again and pointed to the mark on the baby's chest. "Is that a birthmark?"
"It is." Nurse Chandler's chubby face broke into a grin. "Ironic, don't you think?" She asked through a chuckle.
"Ironic?" Ahadi asked as he studied the older Nurse's face.
"People are awarded the Medal of Honour when they have shown obvious bravery at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." The nurse replied with a smile.
After spending time with Captain Pike, Ahadi knew exactly what the medal of honour was.
Taking Ahadi's silence as a sign of confusion, the nurse continued her explanation. "The Medal of Honour is in a shape of a star. Just like that," she said as she pointed to the star-shaped birthmark on the chest of the baby.
"Star," Ahadi said softly as he gently ran his thumb over the star-shaped birthmark on his daughter's chest.
