Mr. Mom II: Birth
It's a strange feeling, sitting outside a hospital room while the groans and grunts of a laboring mother come from the other side of the door. I look up as Rennan comes down the hall with another glass of ice chips in his hand, and I smile at him, just a little shyly. I know one day I will be doing this, and it's strange, coming from the perspective of a teenage girl knowing that the one who will be bringing my baby brother into this world in just a few short hours is the same one that TOOK so many lives when he dropped the plate on Sector Seven 15 years ago. Yes, that's right, he. What, are you really that surprised? My name is Rina Marie Tarshil, and Reno of the Turks is my mother.
Some people don't understand what it's like to have Turks for parents really in the first place, and to have been born of a man. . . well that adds a bit more of a twist really to it. I remember the looks Mom got in the grocery store while carrying this newest baby, the people would STARE at him, but he seemed to just glide through it all with a smile on his face the whole way. Of course, that's just his way, to spit in the face of adversity as it comes his way. Mom didn't have the kind of childhood that left him a choice.
Grandma was young when she had Mom, wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. She was 16 at that point, and had gotten involved with Garndpa Tarshil, which also wasn't all that smart, from what Grandma has told me. Grandma did her best to protect him, of course, because she's that way, but it still was a difficult childhood, and Mom ran from home when he was 15. Some people claim Mom's childhood messed him up, but in my opinion it made him stronger. Now, I see Grandma Tarshil sitting on the other side of the bed encouraging Mom, and it just makes me smile.
Then, it seemed as if a wave of POWER passed over Mom, his eyes focusing inward, from the look of it, face setting into an expression of sheer determination as that slender chest and bulging belly HEAVED, legs tensing, power and strength obvious in every line of his body. It was a natural wonder, really, something I had never expected to witness in quite that way, one human being bringing another into the world after having nurtured it for months. It was a thing of power and beauty, and I will never forget it. The strong legs, one I knew had the kicking power of a MULE, were lifted to his chest, and the slender hips flexed. I always wondered how he managed it, shoving something so big as a full term baby out of that little pelvis, and I'm now getting my answer.
I know it's more difficult than it would be for one who had been born fully female, as though he was one of those VERY lucky few who were born as he was not only to have the ability to conceive and bear, but to have the correct pelvic shape to be able to do so naturally, everything was SMALLER, more slender, through there. but Mom had made it almost look effortless as the tiny head slid free, Mom's trademark red down on top of the baby's dark skinned scalp, brown eyes sliding open as the rest of the tiny babe came popping out like a cork with one last determined push.
I knew he had to be exhausted, the labor itself had been nearly 18 hours, and I had had to leave because the dress fitting for my wedding had been earlier that day, I was just glad not to have missed the birth itself. But instead of collapsing back into the bed as I would have expected, he held out his arms for his baby. "It's a boy. . .no wait. . ." the words of confusion from the doctor drew a smile, then a bit of a chuckle from Mom. "He ain't a boy or a girl really, just like Momma he's got th'best of both worlds, an' it ain't always a bad thing. Now let me hold m'baby, we c'n figure it out later."
Since the baby had more masculine than feminine traits, like Mom, he'd chosen a male name. Renji Alexander. I knew there would be decisions being foisted on Mom soon enough about what to do with Renji, but I suspected I knew what he would choose. He would allow Renji to grow up, just as he was, and let him make the decision whether to remain that way or whether to be one or the other once he was old enough to decide for himself. After all, it is only the right thing to do, right?