For meliz875 ;)
(For a picture prompt on Tricky Raven - pic is viewable in my wolfpack omnibus on TR.)
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Together
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"You can do it," he whispered as he curled forward, wrapping his body around the sweaty, straining back of the exhausted woman in his arms.
She shook, her teeth chattering as a low sob escaped, clawing its way up to a wail.
Pain with a purpose, she reminded herself, pushing back, taking comfort from the solid wall of his chest at her back, the strong arms that held her so tenderly, the hands … his hands. Hands that had loved her gently, thoroughly, worshiping her from head to toe as they labored together months earlier, unknowingly creating the life she was laboring so hard now to bring into this world.
"One more push and we'll have the head," the tribal midwife patted her knee, "You're doing so good, sweetheart. Nearly there."
"You hear that, babe? Almost done. You're so strong. You can do this," he reached forward, running his hands over her distended abdomen.
His son.
She tensed, curling around her middle.
"Push, honey!" the midwife cheered, kneeling at their feet, her sure hands ready to help if it was needed.
Threading her fingers through his, she squeezed, bearing down, legs slick with sweat slipping on his thighs beneath her. She dug her toes into the soft mat on the floor.
So close.
She could feel it.
The finish line-holding her baby-was right there.
She could practically brush it with her fingertips, she was that close.
Pain-a moment of it-so searing, she thought she couldn't possibly survive it.
Then it was done, the pain subsiding. The shaking stopped.
"I have the head," she heard as if through a long tunnel. "One more push."
But no push was needed.
She took a deep breath and breathed her baby into the world.
And just like that, it was done.
A baby was born.
And so was a mother.
The midwife threw her head back, her delighted laughter peeling rich and silvery-cutting through the dark, stormy night as she turned the babe in her arms, swaddling it with a special white blanket, the one her parents had been wrapped in the day they were joined in marriage before the tribe.
She looked down on the baby and turned to face its parents.
"I hope you like surprises because this little one just proved three ultrasounds wrong. Meet your daughter."
"Do you have names picked out?" Sue, the attending nurse-practitioner, asked.
"Bryanna. Bryanna Call," Bella whispered, touching her finger gently to one tiny, pink cheek as Embry reached from behind her back to gather their daughter into their embrace.
"A daughter," he breathed, touching his lips reverently to the skin of her shoulder as they gazed on their little girl for the first time. Together.
Word Count: 500