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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 15, 2013 0:06:08 GMT -8
The fire was hot as the teenage boys chased the children around the fire with stories. Their tons were hushed, but there was laughter. Bastille smirked at them, from her spot across the pyre. She pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders and turned towards the darkness of the tents. Had it been raining? She was soaking wet for some reason. Buckingham came wheeling up quietly with a smile.
"Leaving for some reason?" He soothed. Bastille raised a brow.
"Why are you still wheeling around? You can walk so do it..." She snarked back, avoiding the question.
"Beg your pardon?" He asked, obviously confused.
"You-..." She blinked. Wait, she wasn't in Spain anymore...nor in Greece or anywhere in Europe. She was supposed to be in America. She looked back at the tents, their visage perfectly clear. Some girls came out of their tents and looked at her with a nod before walking towards the main group. Bastille gave them a frown and turned back to her stomach. She should be....
She touched her flat stomach. Everything was wrong. Then a dull pain continued to rise in her. Shit. For some reason, a reason she could not explain- she began to panic. She closed her eyes tight, but nothing changed. Just the pain, spreading from her hand.
"Why can't I wake up?" She wondered, Buck just looked at her oddly.
-----
Back in their bedroom, where Bastilles body was and frankly, the babies now quickly on their way- The doctor began to work quickly. Bastille had passed out when her water had broke and was no in a mumbling heat. It was not normal for women to pass out while in Labor- but for Bastille it was probably necessary. Her body had received a lot of trauma in the surrounding area, it was probably the only way her body knew how to cope.
Bastille continued to mutter words here and there, and sometimes she would spit a rather full sentence that made her seem completely coherent. It never failed to make the doctor look up. Shaking her head she was finishing getting Bastille into a position she could sit in for a while, so that the doctor could work on getting the room prepared. She'd narrowly arrived a day ago,- talk about narrow timing. She wondered if either of the parents knew they were having twins.
Bastille seemed to ease back into sleep for a long moment, groaning in pain regardless and the doctor took that as enough notice to leave the room for a second, looking for Mathew.
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 15, 2013 0:21:48 GMT -8
Mathew was outside the makeshift hospital pacing. He didn't really know what to do with himself other than slowly wear a path in the middle of the rode as he moved back and forth, back and forth. His hands clenched tightly behind his back.
He was scared, and he didn't normally scare easy. But this was Bastille, and child birth was risky, and they didn't have all of the medical tools they had back before the bombs. He was afraid of losing her. He would rather be fighting Barker with her at his back than facing this. At least with Barker he knew he could protect her and make sure she was safe. Now her safety, and the safety of his soon to be born children were in the hands of strangers, and there was nothing he could do.
He hated being helpless.
And that's where he would be when the doctor came looking for him. Outside, pacing, stressing out, and in a bit of a panic. Enough that he actually seemed stressed as opposed to impassive and collected. The unbreakable stone had a chip.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 15, 2013 0:28:44 GMT -8
"Mr. Amtrum" She said gently. "Cheer up, she's doing great" The poor guy looked wretched.
"Since we have a couple of minutes, I need your help." Doctor Tessa suddenly got assertive and sighed, preparing herself for a long night. This could, and probably would be one. And she could see the sun setting.
"I need you to get me one female helper, and as many towels as you can. I also need three bowls of clean water. Everything else, I've already got. Quickly, send the girl in with them."
She paused before heading back into the room.
"Oh and....do try to calm down. Pacing too much will ware you out, and we all need you to last the night." She said quietly. She turned to Buck who was walking down the hall with his cane in his wobbly manner.
"keep and eye on him, I'm afraid he'll explode." She said before closing the door behind her. Buck just looked up and smiled. "Ah...right"
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 15, 2013 0:36:59 GMT -8
"I'll last the night. Don't you worry. If there is one thing I can do it's endure."
He said nodding at her request. He could do that, and he was actually happy to have something to do. It would give his mind something to do. Other than pace and imagine all of the things that could go wrong for Bastille or the children. It hadn't even been nine months yet. In the best of times that was dangerous. He just had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Come on gimpy, epic quest time."
He motioned for Buck to follow him as he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way in search of a woman and bowls of water.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 15, 2013 0:48:18 GMT -8
Buck sighed. "Here we go..." He stood and made his way after Mathew. "spare the girl bit, I know where to find one of those" One of Bastilles old employees. All of them were reliable.
Once they'd retrieved what Tess needed, the waiting game would resume. It would be hours, lots of them. Bastille was silent, and so was the room- which probably meant the hall was filled with the silence like a booming concert. The young girl, who was Katelyn and had been a wetnurse in the camps, had come in and out of the room numerous times carrying bloody rags. She would always smile at the boys but never say anything. But for the last three hours no one had come out or in.
4am. And crying was heard. An infants crying. Minutes later, 5 to be exact, Tessa emerged from the room with a confident smirk. Her white blouse was rolled up at the sleeves and stained all over, but her arms looked clean. She was holding a blanket in her arms and she walked quickly over to Amtrum.
"I have good news" She soothed. "Congratulations, you're the father of two beautiful twin girls." ...
"Hope you weren't expecting boys." She said as she handed them off to the man, taller than her.
She quickly stepped back and sighed. "I have to return to the room, unfortunately, Bastille will be a while. There were some complications, but she'll be fine if I dont dally any longer. I'll leave those angels to you two boys. Dont drop them." She smiled wistfully and returned to the room, shutting the door behind her.
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 16, 2013 22:21:42 GMT -8
Those hours were long and painful. He switched from pacing to sitting outside and staring at nothing, and back to pacing. He was painfully quiet the whole time, straining to hear something from inside. And every time that nurse came out with bloody rags his heart would leap in to his throat, and she would just curse him with that damn smile of hers. It wasn't reassuring at all, it just built the tension.
He didn't know what time it was when he heard the crying and screaming from inside. He did know that he was halfway in a step and he just froze mid motion as his head tilted to hear the sound better. His heart raced as a flood of different emotions raced through his body. Apprehension, joy, fear, regret, excitement. It was all to much to process at first.
When the nurse emerged with his children he was almost soaring as he rushed over taking the offered child with surprising gentleness as he looked down at it. A soft and almost human smile tracing across his lips as he rocked it back and forth gently. He couldn't believe he was a Father, this was so surreal. He didn't even care that they were girls anymore. They were alive! Though hearing about the complications sobered him up real quick. Looking up at the woman he frowned a Mathew frown. A dangerous frown.
"Make sure she is fine."
It was pretty damn close to being an order, and he would watch her go before he looked down at the little girl in his arms again, and he was unable to help it. He smiled.
"Is it bad if I think the baby is ugly?"
It was only five minutes old.
"It must be bad that I don't care."
He almost giggled. This just didn't feel real.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 16, 2013 22:59:52 GMT -8
The nurse would come out with the second baby and smile. "Room for one more?"
The doctor came out fifteen minutes later sighing in an exhausted manner. She rubbed her temple. "You convince her to take the medication,...we had to do a c section because things were too complicated to push, but she wont take the pain meds to sleep. Shes only slightly awake anyway...she doesnt know whats going on quite yet, but you might want to be with her for now. Shes mumbling about warm source or something. If she gets sleep and stays in bed for a day or two she'll be fine. Its all cleaned up so... If youll excuse me, im going to go copy that one over there.." she was pointing to Buck who was solidly asleep now that he had managed to stay awake for one of them.
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Post by Zack Asiv on Jan 17, 2013 11:20:06 GMT -8
You wanna talk epic? Not far from the area of birth was a collection of most every norse god except Loki and Fenrir. Leon and two of his squads, Egyption gods, some mystic beasts, Dionysus and Aphrodite.
Everyone was in a kind of hushed rumble as they spoke between them.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 17, 2013 16:24:18 GMT -8
Bastille locked her fingers and rested her chin there- staring at the lonesome pyre she had started at one of the outer fire pits. Her red eyes stared a bit crossly at it, and again she reached to touch her stomach. One woman tending to her own baby yards away in a tent, was working quickly to hush its cries. Bastille scoffed at it and again found herself confused with her current predicament of being overly annoyed. It must have been the dream- although she couldn't quite remember anything until this moment.
The searing pain erupted from her stomach. She looked down and saw her own fingers digging into her flesh, crimson blood began to ooze through her fingers and then another ripping sensation and her eyes fluttered open....
-------
Oh right. She'd been feeling queezey all day. At one point it had gotten so oddly painful that she had sauntered off to an empty room with a fire place to lay down away from the commotion. She didn't like being around people while being in this much pain. It was in route to this room that Buck had come to follow her and the moment he opened his mouth, Bastille felt lighter...and suddenly wet. And then she woke up in her memories.
Now she was awake and it hit her. She was having children. Right now. Her fast was plastered with sweat, and for a second she couldn't help but mentally comment on how gross it felt. But then she looked to the pain- and her vision was blurry. She couldn't see more that a foot in front of her clearly. But she could tell she was being cut open by the red head who was whispering in a hurried voice to the girl next to her who held a platter of utensils. Bastille bit back a scream and managed to just choke out-
"That's just...slightly painful" she muttered with a snicker then went back to profusely digging her teeth into her bottom lip.
"Stop that Bastille, and breathe- this isn't going to be pleasant but if you can- stay awake and present."
"Right, just make sure he's okay..." She muttered. "The baby....I didn't carry- h.....his ass around for nothing"
The joke was a bit lost as Bastille whimpered and once again found herself fighting reality and memory more than the pain.
It felt like years ..
"We have to cut her open... her old scar tissue is tearing from the stress and she isn't dilating any further. " "Theres one....get the water quick, we need to clear her lungs." "Towels...and get some changing clothes, then take the babies to the father, I need to have peace in here to get her stitched up right..." "She had a collection of kimonos I brought over- they're perfect to keep the healing open without weight. Also, a new pair of bed sheets please."
These were the things Bastille heard, although in what location of her mind- it was all a bit muddy. But upon hearing one of the babies crying...her eyes fluttered. She saw the image of a child, the outline, and then her eyes shut.
"good, he's ...he's alive." She muttered. She wasn't aware there were two (thank you denial) and she wasn't aware they were girls. She wasn't awake long enough to hold them either...
---
"Lady Kahleesi, would you like to hold him?" Teresa, one of the girls working as a 'companion' under the head matriarch, smiled as she held out the bouncing baby boy.
"No, I have a habit of dropping them..." She teased, lounging back in her chair. She was antsy to get back to the meeting room. She was going to squander another tent settlement over the ridge in the next city- and she was just melting in her shoes with excitement. It was the only time she ever got to play around close to the way she used to.
"Did you ever have children m'lady?" another girl asked.
"No. And I wouldn't care to. No child deserves a mother like me...- but you precious girl, you would all be fine mothers I'm sure." She mused to herself in a bored tone.
"Not I" One retorted hotly, and a group of them began to laugh- they were few who had strong wills and stomachs...those who had been first to volunteer.
"What are we going to do with him...I dont even know the father..." The young mother said as her new son was returned to him.
"What would you like to do with him?" Bastille, under the guise of Kahleesi soothed gently. There was no tease, no tone- just a simple question.
"We cannot keep him...Someday, someday I'd like to be a mother...but he will not survive this world....and I dont think I'll ever be a mother after this..." She said with a resolution of a saint.
The entire tent became hushes. Kahleesi raised a brow then stood and walked over to her.
"You will be a great mother someday" She said picking up the child and smiling at him. The baby began to cry and Bastille snickered. The baby sensed the danger, but all to quickly it was over. She dropped the child.
But the young mother caught him and immediatly began to shush him- her eyes full of worry. She would not be able to kill the child.
"See, you have a nack for it already" She said- and bent down touching the cheek of the young mother. "To give life, is not the same as to take it-...remember what is precious, and what may be...would you rather find the strength to end it, or find the strength to battle it against all odd. I can tell you which you will do"
The entire tent had gasped at the display, and now were watching her with almost horrified interest. Kahleesi rose and walked away...
"Be who you are, because one will always loose when they fight themselves first" She said as she left the tent.
It was later that night, Bastille - clad in something closer to her old garb (a loose chinese shirt and her white pants and boots) sat next to a fire off away from the rest. She heard the mother quieting the child and crying to herself. She was in an outer tent to not bother so many people...closer to the cold of the river breeze. Bastille stood and walked into the tent as soon as the lights flickered out. The mother was asleep..as was the baby. Bastille bent down and unwrapped the child, It began to shudder and awaken- ready to cry. But a hand, gently covered its mouth and withdrew it from the tent. The Mother- exhausted- would not notice the danger her child was in. Even if she did wake- prone to something being wrong. It would be too late. Minutes later the child was back in the wrapping- dead from the cold.
---
Bastille woke up as Tessa came closer with the medicine.
"No- get away from me with that" She snipped. Her eyes finally rolling open.
"Bastille- you need this to sleep, it will dull the pain so you can rest. Giving birth to twins through a c-section without the proper medication killed people back in the day- and personally, I'd like not to join the masses when I didnt even have the kids." She snipped
"I'm trying to stay AWAKE you git-....feel like sleeping beauty under a curse here..." She coughed, sitting up lightly and moaning as soon as she felt the shot of pain race up her sides.
"See what I mean..." She huffed.
"Warmth...Heat source...." She managed to mumble, her head racing again. The Doctor huffed and began to say something else, but Bastille just heard it like she was under water. Closing her eyes she just rolled her head to the side and ignored her- even as she headed out of the room.
"Know who you are....."
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 22:27:58 GMT -8
Mathew awkwardly took the second baby, trying to cradle both in his arms, without dropping them, and supporting their heads. It was no easy task for the rookie Father. Gentle had never been his strong suit. Just to be on the safe side he shifted the stone under his clothing out from under his sleeves to make a small platform. Just a little insurance in case one of the babies moved or something! He didn't know how much they could move though. Seriously, he was a rookie with this.
Entering the room with the children still held awkwardly he moved his way over to the bed. A frown etched on his face, despite the turmoil he felt within as emotions shifted. He knew what face he wanted to present to Bastille, because she needed to take her medication, and she needed to rest.
"You're really going to half ass this? Unfucking believable."
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 22:38:58 GMT -8
"Dont give me that you sorry oaf..." She grumbled out, her voice strong despite her keeping her eyes calmly shut. The light in the room was dim so she could sleep better, and she looked rather comfortable. Her eyes stayed shut, but she shifted her head in his direction- taking a deep breathe in and wincing a bit.
"I took it and more-....pain was a bit much this time. Try having old wounds reopen...literally." She muttered tiredly. Clearing her throat she finally tried to open her eyes.
"Drugs did more than i thought, you're holding two blankets--- " she said, her brows furrowing before her eyes closed again. Denial was a beautiful thing.
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 22:49:26 GMT -8
"So you are taking the your medications? Because I swear to God if you get a damn infection and leave me alone with these children. I will send your body to Barker."
No he wouldn't. But there wasn't much he could do if she died.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 22:51:53 GMT -8
"children?"......her eyes flashed open. forgive her, she was still a bit delirious- one subject at a time.
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Post by Mathew Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 22:53:29 GMT -8
"Two of them. Daughters." He was gently rocking back and forth, still holding the babies.
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Post by Bastille Amtrum on Jan 24, 2013 23:08:00 GMT -8
Oddly enough, Bastille just stared for a long moment at nothing. But then, emotion began to spread across her face. First it was confusion as her brows furrowed into her head. She looked as if she was about to say something, but then her expression calmed. It was a new look to anyone who knew Bastille, it appeared innocent and .....dare say it- happy. Still with slight confusion and wonder in her eyes she pushed herself up. Wincing in pain as she did so and laid herself quickly back against the head board.
"Can I...hold them?" she almost begged, shyly. It was a real question- and not without slight fear behind her eyes, but it seemed smothered by a need to hold them.
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