There was a moment where no one knew do anything, and then, like a drill sergeant, Da started barking orders.
"Get this place cleaned up," He shouts to Vienna. "Get all this shit out of the way and lay down some towels or blankets or something!"
She nods and begins clearing the living room.
"Kakorot, go and retrieve the woman." He orders Da.
Papa nods, and instant transmissions away.
"You," Da says with venom to Kage, "Stay out of my way."
He climbs out from on top of him and stalks over to me, leaving Kage to lay on the flood, dazed.
Da leads me over to the pile of towels and has me sit down.
"Aren't I supposed to feel something?" I ask as Papa returns with mom in tow.
"Sometimes the water breaks before the contractions start, sometimes after." Mom replies, and kneels down beside me on the floor. She has a stethoscope that she uses to listen to my stomach.
As she does this, my stomach suddenly seizes up into a painful cramp, becoming rock hard. I groan and then begin to scream from the pain.
"That's the first contraction," Mom says to me calmly. She feels my stomach. "The head's still in position, so that's a good sign. Do you want something for the pain?"
I can't answer until the contraction passes. "Yes, God, yes," I say.
"Wait, won't that hurt the baby?" Kage asks.
Mom nods reluctantly. "Well, usually not, but it can cause some complications during the birth."
"What kind of complications?" Kage insists.
"Well because the drugs will numb him up, he won't feel when the contractions hit so he won't always know when to push… This is potentially dangerous for the baby, but usually it's perfectly fine."
He wets his lips. "Can we talk about this for a minute?"
"Kage, I am in so much paaaain…" I groan out, feeling the beginnings of another contraction.
He comes over to crouch next to me. "I know, love, but don't you think it would be better not to have the drugs?"
"How could that be better?" I demand.
"I just think it would better if our baby didn't come into the world all drugged up…" He trails off.
I can see that he feels very strongly about this. Even though I am in immense pain, I nod in agreement. "Fine, no drugs."
"Aizel-" Mom begins, trying to talk me out of it.
"I already said no; don't try to change my mind." I say, and then cry out when another contraction hits me.
"This is so exciting!" Vienna says from over near the couch. "I'm going to be an auntie!"
I give her a dirty look.
"Ok, I'm leaving," She says disappointedly. "I'm going to go find Lysander. He should be here too." She leaves right after that.
After the contraction passes, I feel like I need to stand up.
"Why don't you stay on the floor, love," Kage says.
"Why don't you shut the hell up!" I snap, not a question. I was very irritable, and he was just pissing me off more. I was in pain, and I didn't want to be questioned or told what to do.
With my muscles moving, the pain eased just a little bit. My back was killing me. I reached back and touched it. It was as hard as a rock.
"All we can do now is wait." Mom says, taking a seat on the couch.
"Hmph." Da says.
Papa grabs his arm. "Come on, Vegeta, I don't think we're needed here."
Da whirls around and gives him a look as if to say 'What?'.
"I know you want to be here, but we're just in the way. Come on, we have some things we need to talk about." Papa leads him outside, much to his irritation.
I give Papa a look of gratitude before the two of them disappear outside.
I could now focus on getting this child out of me!
I paced for several minutes before another contraction nearly brings me to my knees. Kage rushes to my side, and has me sit on his lap on the couch while he massages my back. It didn't help much, but I appreciated the gesture. It did loosen my back just a little bit.
"Aizel, honey, can you take off your pants? I want to take a look at what's going on." Mom says.
I stand up and with Kage's help, ease out of my pants. My shirt is just long enough to barley cover me when I am standing. Mom kneels down between my legs and takes a look. I blush furiously. She had never even changed my diapers when I was little. This was more intimate of a position than I was used to being in with her.
"Nothing yet," She says, and pulls away. "It's going to be a while, I think." She settles back onto the couch to continue waiting.
I groan and pace some more. Kage followed me around, getting me whatever I wanted. We went to lie on the bottom bunk in my room, which I guess was no longer mine anymore.
He got in first, and I lay on my side as the little spoon in front of him. Brining my legs up to bend slightly helped ease some of my discomfort.
He began to massage my aching muscles, trying to work the knots out of my back and shoulders.
I cringe as my body seizes up again into tight coils. I groan in agony, whishing this were all already over.
He pulls my shirt off over my head so I am completely naked, and plants kisses on my neck and bare shoulders while he rubs my aching belly. "Someday, we'll look back on this as the best day of our lives." He whispers to me.
Yeah right. I wanted to forger this day, to never have to think about it again. The pain was traveling up and down my legs, tightening them like a vice. He started to rub them, but the pain wouldn't end.
When this contraction finally passed, I was left exhausted. I didn't know how many more of those I could take. I try to take a little nap, but I couldn't. I couldn't find a comfortable position. Every half hour or so, a contraction would hit me and I would feel like I was going to die.
"It's alright, love," He coos into my ear. "You're doing wonderfully."
I didn't feel like I was doing wonderfully. We laid there for hours and hours. The sun went down. I had no idea what time it was, but it was growing late.
The contractions came harder and closer together.
Mom eventually knocks on the door to the bedroom. "I think it's time to push sweetie," She tells me, not commenting on the fact that I was now naked. I didn't care. I was in too much agony to care.
I sit up and allow them to lead me into the other room. I sit down and she instructs me to push when the next contraction hits. Kage sits behind me, and I lean against him. He wraps an arm around my chest to support me.
"Ok," She says, feeling across my belly. "The little guy feels like he may have turned over."
"It's a boy?" Kage asks, excited.
Bulma shrugs. "I don't know. I was just talking figuratively. But he rolled over, so I think he's almost ready to come out."
My belly clenches into another contraction and I scream.
"Alright, Aizel, no more screaming. Concentrate your energy into pushing." She tells me, getting into the position to catch.
The first few pushes are ok, but then it grows more and more difficult as my energy begins to wane. "I'm too tired," I announce. "I can't do this!"
Kage kisses my neck and shoulder, "Of course you can. You're doing beautifully, love, just keep going."
I push again, but the pain is too much. "I can't! I need something to dull the pain! I can't do this!" I'd hit a wall, and there was no way this kid was coming out if they didn't give me something, anything to make the pain tolerable.
"It's too late for that now, Aizel," She tells me. "The head is beginning to crown. Just a few more pushes should do it."
I groan with agony and push in spite of myself. I knew I couldn't do it, but I was doing it anyways. I push several more times half-heartedly until the head finally made its way out.
"Stop!" Mom cries all of a sudden. "Stop pushing, Aizel, stop!"
I freeze, panicked. "What? What's wrong?"
"The cord's wrapped around his neck," She tells me, "If you push you'll strangle him. Just stop for a minute." She grabs a pair of gloves and shoves them onto her hands.
I feel her cool hands invade me, and I look down to see what's going on.
"I'm going to push him back in," She tells me.
"What?" I cry. All the hard work I'd put into getting him out, and now she wanted to shove him back in?
She nods. "I'm going to push him in, unwrap the cord, and then hopefully that will fix it, ok?"
"Noooo…" I groan.
Kage turns my head towards him. "Aizel, I know you're very tired, and you've done such a good job so far, but it's better for the baby if he goes back in so Bulma can fix him. This is just a little set back, but it will be ok, alright?"
Tears were rolling down my face. I know he is right, but I was so tired, I just didn't want to do this anymore. I wanted him out, right now. I didn't want to have to start all over.
Eventually, I nod my head and Bulma begins pressing him back into me. This feeling is almost worse than pushing out. I didn't like the feeling at all, but she ended up not having to push him all the way back in. The cord got enough slack to where she could untie it from around his neck and free him.
"Alright, it's done," She says. "You can push now."
I was determined to get this kid out now. I muster all the strength I can, and start pushing again. This time he slides out a little easier; the cord must have been fighting me the whole time.
His head gets out, and then I feel him twist so his shoulders could get out. It is excruciating getting those shoulders out. He was going to be a linebacker or something, I swear.
Once the shoulders are out, mom says to me, "Alright, honey, one more push and we should be done."
I had been gripping Kage's hand hard while I pushed, and this time I clutched it so hard I felt a few bones snap. He doesn't say anything, or even grimace. He does not take his eyes away from between my legs as I push out the rest of the baby.
Once I feel it gone, I sit up straight to see it.
Mom has the baby in her arms, and she quickly places it onto my chest, where I grab it with surprise.
"Congratulations," She says, "It's a girl."
"A girl…" I coo, suddenly becoming euphoric. I can't stop smiling.
Kage cuts the cord under mom's instructions, and then the baby starts to wail as it takes it's very first breath of life.
This breaks my heart and I start to sob. "A girl…" I say again. "We have a girl…"
Kage ruffles my hair and kisses me.
I pull her away from me a little bit and look at her little face. Her eyes aren't open, and her little mouth is wide with a scream. "She's so beautiful…" I sob, and clean off some of the mucus on her face. Her little tail uncoils from her body and falls limp between her scrunched up legs.
I hold her to my chest and wrap a towel around her to clean off some of the blood and to keep her warm. She continued to scream until she became closer to me, then she settled down. She seemed to know that I was her bearer.
I look up and Kage is watching us intently, his face pulled into a grin. "I did it," I tell him.
He nods. "I knew you would."
I shake my head in wonderment. "I didn't think I could…"
He reaches out and runs the back of his finger against her cheek.
"Oh!" I realize, "Do you want to hold her?"
He nods and I pass her to him. I feel strangely empty to have her out of my arm, but it makes me smile when I see him cuddle her to his chest. She whines, not liking being separated from me.
He counts her fingers and toes.
"Does she have all ten?" I ask, suddenly worried, and angry with myself for not counting them earlier.
"She's perfect." He says and kisses her little cheek.