The Ordeal

"She's not dead, Ignacio."

She opened her eyes, and Ignacio realised he had been staring at her face the whole time. He saw her eyes staring at his sword, and Ignacio suddenly realised that the blade was completely covered in Enrique's blood. He shrugged. She lifted up a pistol that she still clutched in her hands, and smiled a little. He managed to struggle back to his feet using the blood stained sword as a crutch for a moment, before flinging it towards the buggy. He made his way to her, stumbling a little.

Zorro glanced around, getting to his feet to check the whole scene for other outlaws.

Ignacio took the pistol out of her hands, with a little difficulty and threw it towards the sword.

"I can't say anything this time, can I?"

"Why not?" Ignacio said softly. "I didn't have to kill him."

"Yes you did. He would never have left us alone, somehow he would have made our lives impossible," Gushing Stream said firmly. Her breath caught and he ran his hands over her gently, checking to see where she was hurt. He hadn't had a chance to assess her for injuries after the accident. She was pregnant. Her hand moved towards her stomach area, and he watched her face for pain. An injury down there where the baby was would be unacceptable. The baby could die.

He located the injury with his eyes. Blood was seeping slowly out of a firm bandage tied to her arm. Zorro had applied it automatically, it was made of black silk, he noticed.

She drew in her breath again, and he looked at her carefully.

"Are you alright?" He said stupidly. Of course she wasn't alright. She had taken a shot in the arm. Nevertheless she was nodding. He noticed her hand clench near her stomach, and he stared at her eyes for a moment.

"The man on the hill," she murmured. "He…he would have…shot you."

"You are in pain, somewhere," Ignacio said softly. "You can't lie to me."

"It's alright, Ignacio." She took a deep breath, and held it a little too long for his comfort. He glanced towards Zorro who was returning from making a quick sweep of the area.

"There is a dead man on the rocky outcrop, up there," Zorro indicated softly. "I think there were two shots fired simultaneously."

"Her shot killed him?" Zorro shrugged at Ignacio's question.

"She saved your life, I am almost certain. He was positioned for a great shot of your back during the last couple of moments of the fight."

They glanced down at her, and noticed that she had paled again. She was staring into space, and then shut her eyes as if in agony.

"Are you alright?" It was Zorro's turn to sound stupid, Ignacio realised with a slight smile. He was becoming desperately worried for his wife. She wasn't communicating with them well.

"The baby?" Zorro's voice died in his throat. She glanced at him, and suddenly Ignacio could see utter terror in her eyes. He gathered her up in his arms, and held her for a moment.

"What do we do?" Ignacio said, looking at the man in black. Zorro glanced at the buggy, and realised it was absolutely hopeless to expect to transport the woman anywhere.

"We can't do much," Zorro murmured. He glanced at Gushing Stream, questioningly.

Ignacio couldn't imagine what questions to ask, but he knew that Gushing Stream had helped his sister give birth. She must know something.

"What do we do, Gushing Stream?"

"Hot water, and blankets," she murmured, and then stiffened. Zorro was looking at her stunned for a few moments, before Ignacio pushed him.

"Hot water and blankets, Zorro. I can't, she needs me."

Zorro grabbed a blanket from the buggy and tossed it over to Ignacio, who paused with it. He awkwardly draped it around his wife. She was shaking, he noticed.

"We need to get her back to the hacienda," Ignacio said softly.

"How do we do that? It's not as if the buggy is serviceable."

Ignacio sighed. Somehow they had to work together. His wife's life, his baby's life was on the line. They were isolated, and had no idea what they were doing.

Zorro looked at him. "There is nothing for hot water. There's no containers."

"How does this work, Gushing Stream?"

"I will have to have the strength to push the baby out," she said through clenched teeth. "It's going to hurt a lot, and I'm going to scream. Very loudly, very soon."

"What's the hot water for?"

"To clean everything up…" She said with frustration. She let out a scream, and reached for him. The grip on his hand was bone shattering, and he was surprised.

"Don't let her hold too tightly," Zorro said softly. "You might not have a hand soon."

Now he tells me, Ignacio thought.

"It's alright. You're strong. You'll be fine," Ignacio said, glancing at Zorro's face, while his other hand took some of the pressure as well.

"You take the other hand," Ignacio said softly. "If she needs to hold onto something tight, then let's give her something to hold onto."

Zorro nodded, and offered her a gloved hand to squeeze.

She was taking a breath and glanced at them with confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Tell us what to do," Zorro murmured.

"What do other women do when you help another woman?" Ignacio said, stumbling on the idea he was trying to communicate. Surely they didn't sit around holding hands?

"Hot water and blankets," she murmured, as they lost her to pain again. She groaned and screamed, and the pressure increased on their hands.

Zorro glanced at him with concern. Ignacio was wondering about the hot water. Hot water was for washing, wasn't it? Blankets were for warmth, right?

"This is happening…way too fast," she murmured softly when she could speak again. "The pains are meant to come in a pattern….ah….a regular pattern."

"A pattern," Zorro said. If there was science to the whole thing, Zorro would soon have the matter in hand, Ignacio thought.

"How far apart are the pains?" Zorro asked. Gushing Stream was in no condition to answer him. Ignacio glanced at him.

"Pretty close. A few minutes, obviously."

What did the pattern mean? Ignacio shook his head. Zorro was frowning trying to think.

"The closer the pains together, the closer the baby?"

Gushing Stream screamed, long and high pitched, and the men shuddered. She closed her eyes and sagged against them, and they realised she was half sitting up supported by their arms. Ignacio gazed down at her for a moment.

"Gushing Stream?" He shook her gently. Was she breathing?

"I can't do this. I'm not strong enough. I'm sorry," she was murmuring, and she repeated it over and over again.

"She's gone mad?" Ignacio asked Zorro, thinking he might know something.

"Who knows?"

"You can do this," Ignacio said. "You are strong enough. You are so strong," he insisted, trying to get her to focus back on what she was doing. "You can do this. You are so strong."

She gazed at him for a moment. "I love you, Ignacio."

"Try a little more. It's so close. The baby is so close," he murmured. "Just endure a little more, and our baby will be here."

She nodded, and seemed to gather strength.

With a few more pushes, it was clear that the child would soon be born. Ignacio sat firm and resolute and repeated the encouraging words as much as he needed to, and she decided to meet the challenge with strength just as he knew she would.

The baby was born, almost into Ignacio's arms. It was slippery and covered in slime, but after a shocked silence, the baby cried. While Ignacio picked it up carefully and cradled it, Zorro removed his own black silk cape and sliced it in half, providing a very unconventional baby blanket. Zorro wrapped the baby tightly, before laying it in Gushing Stream's arms.

"Well," Gushing Stream said, after a moment of investigating her child's tiny hands and nose and face. "What is it, boy or girl?

The men looked at each other, each expecting the other to have checked. They laughed at each other, realising that neither of them had thought to check to see if it was a boy or a girl. No one was going to undo the baby's blanket to find out now, not until the doctor was there to check both mother and child.

Zorro was the first one composed enough to talk. "I will go to fetch Hernandez, Ignacio. I don't feel confident in travelling with her on horseback. I will set a fire to keep the cold at bay, and you can stay here with your family. I won't be long."

"Can you believe your father, little one? He doesn't even have the sense to check who you are," Gushing Stream said, her eyes twinkling.

"It was a very stressful situation, my princess."

"I could never have done it without you, Ignacio. You saved me."

He draped an arm around her and held her to him. They sat together and gazed down at the sleeping baby in her arms, wrapped in black silk. Zorro set a blazing fire, and they were warmed. They hardly noticed the man leave.