His mouth falls open, and he just stands there, big blue eyes open wide.
"Are you having a stroke? Wake up!" I yell, and hit on the arm.
"Vallandra!" I shout.
She rushes into the room. "Sookie! The baby is coming!" The bath house was prepared a month ago as a birthing pavilion. I had looked several times on the fur strewn bed that was going to be my personal hell in a world without drugs.
"Eric, take your wife to the bath house. Eric!"
He's standing there, staring.
"Eric!" his mother shouts. Nothing.
"Bring a doctor, I think he needs one", I hiss.
"Eric!" She shakes his arm. "Eric!"
His head turns finally and he stares down at her. "Son, you need to get the midwife. Sookie is giving birth."
He meets my eyes. I just nod my head. We're both terrified.
He scoops me up in his arms and I try to ignore everything except the smell of the sun on his skin, the feel of his hair against my face, even the stink of the animal furs. I know half the village is assembled watching. Best wishes are being shouted my way by dirt-covered men, with heavy deer slung over their shoulders. I squeeze my eyes closed. The entrance to the bathhouse is covered with thick furs that fall almost to the floor. He shoves them aside, and then sets me down gently, and runs off again.
"It will be all right", Vallandra says, with a smile.
He comes back, nearly dragging the poor woman with him. I've met the midwife before, but only once. She's a thrall, a slave one of his men had brought back as a bed slave. She has a tan, and her hair and eyes are dark.
"Help", he yells, pointing to me. Me caveman. C'mon Eric, I need 2012 you today.
She kneels down, and I can't see her.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Putting a knife beneath the bed. To cut the pain."
"Are you f*cking kidding me?!"
Vallandra just stares. "It means she doesn't like it in her culture", Eric says.
"Eric…." I hiss.
He comes up beside me and leans down. I whisper hard.
"I can't push until I'm at 10 centimeters. I need you to keep an eye on this, literally. Don't let this bitch kill me."
He smiles and bites back a chuckle. "We're doing this together", he says.
None too gentle, Eric grabs the midwife by the furs draped around her, and hauls her to her feet. "We need warm water. And clean cloth. Make sure it's clean. Boil water over the stove and I want you to rinse your hands in hot water every time before you touch my wife." Infections killed. There was no anti-bacterial soap, no sterilized hospitals. Hot water would make a big difference though.
"It's wrong for a man to be in the room with a delivering woman", the midwife informs him, not listening.
How did I tell her it was best not to piss Eric off on a good day, much less right now?
Luckily, Vallandra sees him seething. "Have you forgotten you're addressing our next King?" Vallandra asks, and the woman turns red.
"Go, woman!" he barks and she scuttles off.
He orders a bench put beside the bed and he sits down.
"So what is it you like so much about him?" he says, squeezing my hand.
"Who?"
"Me. Only not me. Him. Like the man I was when I lost my memory, what is it about him?"
"You're asking me this now?"
"Yes. I need to be distracted or I'll lose my mind. You've seen me, all of me. Do you love the Eric I am now?" he asks, almost desperately.
"You know that I do. I married you, and I want to spend my life with you."
"I've changed though I know", he whispers. "I was…happy. I believed I was invincible, that life always turned out how it should. I was truly a Viking, and I believed I could accomplish anything…but I've lost that."
"You haven't changed at all", I say, but he doesn't detect the aggravation in my voice. "You can build and you can hunt, and you can protect the village. You're still tall, handsome, strong, capable…."
He smiles.
"And dumber than a box of rocks! Stop talking bullshit to me and go see what's holding up the midwife!"
His face falls, he growls, and stomps off.
They both come back with buckets of steaming water and cloths.
An intense pain shoots from my spine all the way through me. "Don't you people have any kind of drugs or something? Anything?"
He looks unnerved.
"You have many hours left, Princess, maybe a day", the midwife points out.
"A day?!"
Eric sits beside me again and grabs my hand. "You can do this. I've underestimated you many times, but not this time. You can do this, I know you can."
I'm not completely unaccustomed to pain. I've been stabbed and beaten, all part of the price of association with vampires. And I've been bitten of course, more times than I can count. Maybe it won't be too bad.
It's been hours and the only sound I can hear anymore is my own scream. Poor Eric. I almost feel worse for him than for me. He presses my hand against his lips, covering it with hot tears. He gets up and paces. He goes outside and screams. I can hear him throwing things.
"Son!" Ulfrick shouts from outside. "I know how hard it is to wait. But she will give you a healthy child, I know it. And hopefully she will survive too."
"Hopefully?!" Eric booms, "What you feel for my mother isn't a shadow of what I feel for Sookie. I would die to save her. I would die to take away her pain. If you don't understand that, get away from me old man!"
"Who said I didn't understand it! I love your mother just as much, and it nearly killed me waiting for you."
Silence.
"Eric!" It's Asgar that I hear now. Of course. His men are also waiting for word. "Calm yourself!"
"It's not your wife." But of course Asgar lost Ingrid when she left him for another man. But Eric is too upset to be tactful.
Eric shoves away the curtain of furs and comes back in the room, sitting and grabbing my hand.
"I can't turn you, baby, I can't turn you. You have to survive this. Hang on, just hang on, I'm here." He kisses my forehead, my cheeks, my lips.
"Check again", I say, and he gets up, ducking his head beneath a thin cover.
"Your Highness, that is obscene!" the midwife screams again but there's nothing she can do about it. Again, I know she's apart from them. Virtually nothing is "obscene" to a Viking.
"Almost there", he says, and sits down, taking my hand.
This could not possibly be a dream could it? If it was only a dream, I could make this feel like a day in the park, but it doesn't.
A scream tears through me. Eric gets up again. "Time to push", he says.
I hear my own scream and what feels like being torn in half. But I'm welcoming the pain at this point, it means I'm not dead and still conscious.
"One more big push", he says.
"I can't. I've never been this tired in my life", I gasp.
"One more, you can do it, you can do anything." I squeeze his hand hard as I can and he screams the same time I do.
But the baby screams louder.
"You have a healthy son", the midwife beams, proudly.
Eric's mouth falls open. He takes the baby from her and stares down at his son like he's the miracle he is. He may actually be drooling he's so lost in thought. I can't believe we pulled this off here. Eric has waited to be a father far longer than anyone should.
"Let me see him", I say and he lays the baby on my chest. He's a big baby with an impressive set of lungs.
Eric kneels by the bed, kissing us both. "What will we call him?" he asks.
"Eric Jason."
He raises an eyebrow. "Eric Jason? Really?"
"Or Earl for my granddaddy", I offer.
"Eric Jason it is", he says. Neither of us can stop smiling.
Whatever his name is, he's hungry and I jump the first time he eats. But as he settles down, the pull is strangely familiar. Everything is a blur to me. Eric thanks the midwife and hugs his mother. Vallandra has to stare down at the baby, smiling. Ulfrick comes in, and for once, smiles at me, and nods his approval.
I can hear Eric outside, boisterous now, as his men clap him on the back and shout with happiness. Word has gotten around. It's a son, and a big, healthy one. I can hear them yelling like only drunken men can about Eric's prowess. I did all the work, thank you very much. Eric calls for more beer for everyone. They'll be passed out by morning.
It's been a while when the baby starts to fall asleep. Eric tickles his cheek. "He has a big appetite", I tell Eric with a kiss.
"He's his father's son", Eric says with a wink. The midwife comes back to take our sleeping son away.
"I could never stop feeding either", Eric whispers hotly against my ear. I can't understand how on earth I could get sexually excited at the present moment, but Eric has done it, like always.
The midwife returns to put me to bed. "Your Highness, your wife needs to rest", the midwife says.
Eric hops up in bed and cradles my head on his shoulder. He doesn't need to speak to let everyone else know it's time to leave. Emotionally exhausted, he passes out immediately. I roll my eyes, and can hear him snoring when I fall asleep.
And so he is not there once again when there is a knock at the door. And a hooded man asks for some sheep for his wolves.