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Miranda Cisinerros: April 4th, 2011
Topic Started: Apr 5 2011, 06:35 AM (1,017 Views)
Athena Stryker
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Apparently, Athena had been in labour most of the day.

It was a completely incredulous look that the acolyte was receiving from her; merlin, did they think she hadn't been able to tell that? No, it wasn't like her insides were deciding to tear themselves apart and she hadn't noticed. Pfft, freaken idiot. Of course she noticed. And of course, now that her water broke, she knew none of it was false labour.

She was about six centimeters dilated, a fact that meant within the next two centimeters she had to get the epidural or she couldn't have one whatsoever - but the healer was currently busy with another birth and they had a lot of paperwork they had to fill out first. Release forms and all such. Did they really expect someone in labour to want to sit down with a sheaf of paper and fill it out? Uhm, no.

Actually, it was no to a bunch of things. No, she didn't want to wear that atrocious hospital gown with the open back. No, she didn't want to lay down all tucked into that bed. No, she didn't want to do all that paperwork, and no, most importantly, she didn't want to wait for the fucking drugs that would make how goddamn agonizing this process felt go away.

Her mood had quickly deteriorated as soon as they reached the hospital, a day full of trying to ignore the pain wearing on her and the stress of what they were about to do getting to her. She had to continually tell herself that she could do this - that she had to do this, because there was no turning back. there was no other way to get past this roadblock. She had to do it.

"Oh sweet merlin." She hissed, pausing in her pacing of the room to hold onto the bed railing with white-knuckled grips, trying to remember the proper way to breathe during these things. The contractions were lasting longer, coming sooner, and Athena didn't want them. In fact, she wanted them so little that every time one started to hit her, she wanted to scream just as much in frustration as she did in pain.

"You would think-" Athena gasped out, wincing as she touched her tender stomach and continued pacing, "-that they would have come up with a...better way...to have children."

She was silent for a few moments, just breathing, and then commented, "I still like the stork concept."
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Carlos Cisinerros
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As it turned out, getting to Mungo's really hadn't turned out to be as urgent as he thought.

Yes, he was still more at ease with the whole thing now that they were in the hospital and if anything were to occur he knew that there would be more than a couple of professionals available to help with this. But with how little attention they were being paid at the moment due to other women currently giving birth, and the fact that they were filling out these forms (Carlos offering to actually fill them out and ask Athena for the answers out loud for some of these), they might as well be waiting for a dentist or a cosmetic procedure or something like that.

Yes, he understood that there was nothing that they could do right now because she wasn't dilated enough, thank you books for preparing him in that manner at least, but that didn't mean that she should just be left there to pace- she had insisted on pacing even though Carlos had told her that standing up only makes the contractions worse (again, books). In all honesty, he just hoped that she wasn't going to decide to strangle someone as a way to cope with the pain because his was the only neck available at the time.

As another contraction hit her, Carlos leaped up, heading over to her side to hold her and support her up or something. But soon enough she was back to pacing again, a fact that just continued to amaze him, and he had to shake his head to pay attention to what she was saying.

Oh, well a better way to have children would be pretty helpful. He could have said something about the fact that evolution this or mother nature that, or even God so and so, deemed this the best way to give birth because they haven't changed or etc but instead he just nodded, not really willing to test patience, as he sat back down to finish filling out these forms.

"You'll have to create your own race after this then," then he commented as well as he kept looking at the forms, happy to notice that his hand was pretty steady with the pen.

Well, steady enough; everything was legible.
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Athena Stryker
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Athena was not...the strongest type of person who could just handle pain and stuff it away to have it bother her at another time. She was the kind of person that felt it, and it continued to wear and wear on her until she was at her breaking point. Unfortunately for her, she had hit her breaking point and was past it...several contractions past it, actually. Now it was just ridiculous. Now, she just wanted the damn thing over.

"Dilate. Dilate, dilate, dilate." She muttered, as if directing herself to do so would actually work. She knew walking around wasn't making things easier on her...on either of them, actually, but laying down sounded so repulsive at that moment she couldn't make herself stop. Besides; Athena was a very motion-oriented person and had it been a lesser situation, she would have been calmed. She liked moving around.

It was helping a little bit.

Every time a contraction hit Carlos was there, like he expected her to fall or something, and she was between two completely polar opposite feelings on it. On one hand, she wanted to curl up in his arms and let him figure out how to make it all go away, but on the other hand she wanted to tell him to calm down. Yes, she was terrified. Oh, god, bloody terrified. But she had to trust her instincts on this where the books could only give the basics and as of so far, Athena'd had some fine mama instincts throughout the pregnancy. She really just had to trust in them.

"Right." She gave a little laugh, pausing to take a sip out of the cup and pitcher of water that they had in every room. "I'll sketch it; you can figure out how to bring it to life."

Like those cards...oh merlin, those were so cool when they weren't sticking her in them...

As always when thinking of the devil card she'd been in, goosebumps rose on her arms and a shiver went down her spine, and she decided that maybe tucking herself into a bed maybe wasn't the worst idea. It took her a minute to climb into it and get the covers all situated...but then she started tapping her fingers on her knees. She was literally unable to stay completely still.

"I still can't believe they asked when my last cycle was." Athena muttered, less amused about the inquiry returning to think about it than she was when it was originally asked. Stupid form, if she was in there having a freaken baby, did they think she was having regular cycles? Pfft. Just, pfft.

"Are those done yet?" How much info did they really need to pull a baby out of her vagina?
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Carlos Cisinerros
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If only speaking to the vagina could work, Carlos thought to himself as he heard Athena's chant. Might have been amusing at any other time, but not today. He was sure that eventually, hopefully, they'd look on this day and laugh...alright, maybe he would be capable of laughter at some point. Or maybe he'd never bring up the day again save to only a few others to comment on the fact that his daughter was born but he was pretty sure Athena would rather everyone not remember a time where she was looking this...well tired, and in pain and not looking like her usual perfect self.

"Just call me Dr. Franken-nerros," he added with a small smile. The thought of him as a mad scientist trying to make whatever specimen Athena drew on a sketchpad come back to life was enough to amuse him greatly. At least for the moment anyways. He was already in a...relatively good mood, kind of, but it served to make him smile and chuckle and that was definitely necessary at this time.

Sighing in relief as Athena finally decided to stay in bed, he simply helped get her into one of the beds, looking down at the clipboard with the papers as Athena brings up the questions they've had to keep answering. "I'm almost done," he answered, scribbling the few and final answers at the bottom of the paper and signing. He handed her the papers as well, giving her the pen. "Here, take out your frustration on this unknowing piece of paper." It was better than him.

"Did they say when they were going to be around?"[/b
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Athena Stryker
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Dr. Franken-nerros. At that, Athena did have to laugh. While it was not matching the "Frankenstein" and, while Frankenstein was actually a creation of a mad scientist, it was still very clever. Hell, that could be said for the concoctions he created in his kitchen as well...deathly delicious. It was devilishly delectable; it begged for gluttony.

"I can't believe we have to start this parenthood thing with her already depriving me of dinner." Athena commented once she was in the bed, eyes narrowing at the papers Carlos had in his hands. Nosy little bastards. He handed them to her and she seriously had to resist just tossing them away; these were the damn things that were keeping her from those incredible, magical drugs. The ones that were going to make this stop hurting. Athena just continued to shy away from thinking about what was just going to happen down there soon enough. If she did, she was going to stress about how it was going to stretch her out and how many Kegel exercises she was going to have to do to get it back to where it was.

Instead of tossing the papers aside, Athena flipped them over to their blank sides, making a face at the pen for a second. Pens weren't good for sketching. And if it was going to be a pen, a ballpoint would have been preferable...they didn't have that.

Halfway through the first line Athena's free hand flew to her hardening stomach, left hand clenching around the pen painfully tight as another contraction swept through her. This one felt worse than the others had, as if her stomach was experiencing charlie horse and period cramps and a knife digging around the area all at once, and by the first ridiculously long 30 seconds, tears were streaming down her face. She hadn't made the conscious decision to cry; it just happened. Athena was trying to remember how the books said to breathe during these times, but as the contraction continued another thirty seconds, all thoughts had fled from her mind.

With a rather audible snap, the pen broke in her hands, blackish blue ink spurting over her hand, onto the sheets and her hospital gown, and sprinkling the blank side of the papers. At first, she didn't even notice, coming down dizzily from the pain. It was only after her heart rate had slowed a little and she'd reached up to wipe her face that she noticed the ink. For a moment she thought maybe her vision was going dark from the lack of oxygen, but it stayed. Looking down showed her the pieces of the pen sitting in her lap, and annoyed, she hit them off the bed completely. Instinctively she reached for her wand to clean it all up...but her wand was tucked safely in their baby bag, subtly taken from her while she was changing into the hospital gown.

Well, wasn't that lovely? She was flushed, probably sweating by now, her eyes were going to get puffy because of the tears, she had ink all over her....and it was only going to get worse.

A pillow went over her face.

Muffled, her voice answered, "They said after the paperwork was done. Don't look at me."

[[ooc: everyone please note that Frankenstein was the doctor...the monster was unnamed. Athena's never read the book; she's just going off of things she picked up about it in school, likely from the movies. Obvi her info is wrong...but that's her thought process.]]
Edited by Athena Stryker, Apr 5 2011, 09:08 PM.
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Carlos Cisinerros
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Laughter; laughter was good, laughter was swell, laughter would prevent any other kind of reactions that would by default be just too unpleasant to think about. The laughter didn't last long, of course, because who really laughed during labor? Not many people, actually he hoped no one at all. He could only imagine hysterical laughing at this moment and it was rather frightening to be honest.

"I'll sneak you some food afterwards," he assured with a small smile. "I won't let you become victim to inadequate hospital food after all." It was the least that he could do, and the most that he could, and would do, is make sure that both Athena and their daughter got through this safely and with as much support as he could offer. Maybe it wasn't much, but apart from being short of a miracle worker and giving Athena a painless childbirth it was the best he could do.

Carlos was about to go and see if he could finally find some Acoytes to attend them when he saw Athena's hand dart from the paper to her stomach and Carlos immediately got closer to her on the bed even if a part of him was telling him to run away and run away fast. And return of course, with drugs, but hell if he was going to leave Athena in the middle of a contraction. That had reduced Athena to tears, that was an immediate red light. His hands held her shoulders, and rubbed them in what he hoped was a comforting gesture but he thought that hardly anything could comfort Athena right now.

As the contraction ended, Carlos heard a snap and looked down in worry, thinking that it might have been a bone or something (no, he really wasn't thinking logically at the moment) and exhaled under his breath in relief as he saw it was only the pen. As Athena chucked the pieces of the pen off the bed and tried to clean her hands, Carlos took out his wand from his pocket. "Here, let me," he told her quietly as he scourgified the ink from the sheets, her hands, and her hospital gown. Pocketing the wand once more, he looked around and found a hand towel or rag of sorts and used it to wipe the sweat and tears off her face as gently as he could.

And then her face was covered immediately by a pillow.

Exhaling as she spoke out about the lack of acolytes once more, Carlos walked annoyed to the call button and pushed it once. Twice. Alright three times. Plus two. Squared.

They weren't getting here fast enough, Carlos decided. He walked towards the door, opened it and peeked around outside to immediately spot a group of acolytes walking, chatting idly as they passed.

"Excuse me? Can you find whoever's in charge in here and tell them to bring some drugs?! I have a woman in labor here, and we've been waiting for," he checked his non-existent watch, "Too long. So could you please cease the gossiping and actually do your job? It's just a suggestion."

He might have a been a little riled. But it got things done- the small group of acolytes were walking fast to get their Healer, or someone, anyone.

He walked back to Athena's side and spoke out rather normally, "They're on their way."
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Julianna Eppes

aspofdiasdlfj. lmao
Edited by Julianna Eppes, Apr 12 2011, 11:40 PM.

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Athena Stryker
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Athena nodded at Carlos' promise to bring her food 'afterwards'. Afterwards, meaning after she pushed out a baby the size of a watermelon from an opening that was literally 'dilating' like one's eyes did in the darkness. That was happening, down there. It was the weirdest most awkward thing ever.

Luckily she wasn't shy and having a healer in that area wouldn't bother her too much. Of course, she really didn't feel like being touched period. She wanted to close her eyes and just...have it all happen without her. She would blink and bam, beautiful pink little baby girl waiting for them. Why couldn't the stork story be true?

Through her last contraction, Athena focused instead on the feel of Carlos' hands on her skin. Though...it was Carlos' hands on her skin that got her leading up into this pain anyways. He was just too damn delicious for his own good, and now she was the one having to pay for it. Even the thought of finally getting to meet her daughter couldn't cool the tender heat she felt in her stomach, nor the pressure she could feel on her hips.

But she would much rather have him there with her than be doing this on her own. She couldn't imagine how terrified she might have been if she was in the room by herself.

Carlos took care of the ink for her without so much of a joke about better it than his hand, and he was being sweet enough to try and cool her face down before she decided she looked atrocious and didn't want him to see her that way. It was hard to remember that this was his first time doing anything like this before as well, until she realized that he was freaking out. To her, he was doing a good job of schooling it. However when he started clicking the call button incessantly, and leaned out the door to put what she really hoped were acolytes passing by in their place. She'd never heard him snap at anyone like that, and it would have unnerved her if she didn't know it was for their child's behalf.

Keeping the cool pillow over her face, Athena merely mumbled, "Kay."

It seemed like Carlos' hard hand got them bumped up the list to be checked on; soon after an acolyte stepped into the room, proficiently walking over to the call button to plug it in. "Sorry about that; I think the last person in the room may have pulled it out of the wall. Let's see how far along you are, shall we?"

Obediently, Athena uncrossed her legs and ignored the somewhat uncomfortable feeling of her cervix being measured, and then even more so the sound of the acolyte's voice from down there. The pillow was starting to get less cool and more clammy, so she moved it back underneath her, eyes going to the ceiling. "And you opted in for the epi, right?"

"Yeah." Athena breathed out, sitting up slightly at the tone of the acolyte.

"We'll get a team in here right now to give that to you then; you're very nearly 8 and that's the latest we can administer. If you'll sit up I'll get you prepped and call in a healer."

Again, Athena did what she was supposed to, turning so that her back was on the edge of the bed facing towards the acolyte, bending over her stomach as much as she possibly could to round her spine. A simple cleaner stained her back yellow, the place the epidural was supposed to get to marked carefully.

"Someone will be right back to give you the epidural." The urgency of the acolyte's voice as she left the room told Athena that she was very close to that eight mark and they didn't have much time.
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Carlos Cisinerros
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Thankful that Athena didn't comment about his small neurotic moment, it really wasn't that big of a deal anyways, he just put his hand on top of hers and drew small circles on the back of her hand while they waited for the acolytes to get there. Which thankfully wasn't even two minutes. He nodded once in approval as they got there, exhaling a breath as they actually started attending her. Carlos could start getting a bit more relaxed knowing that she was being taken care of. They might not have been saying or doing anything productive at the moment but they were doing something at least.

Oh, well, a pulled cord was a good reason for why no one was answering before. But at the same time it made him wonder...how on earth someone managed to pull the cord out of the wall. Did the woman manage to rip it out in a fit of pain because she was desperately trying to hold on to something or...

Maybe it wasn't a smart thing to think about right at this very moment.

Yes, Athena was definitely opting for the drugs. He didn't know how she would manage otherwise. He was also aware that some women opted out and did it fully natural out of...well many reasons ranging from the health of the baby and a belief and reliance in the human body being 'perfect', but Carlos wasn't a fan of pain and neither was Athena.

As they began to prep Athena for the epidural, the acolyte left with a small worry and urgency that only made Carlos' own worry and urgency increase. "Quickly, please," he requested once more in his usual polite manner.
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Athena Stryker
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The wait for a healer literally took no time at all. Within a minute of the acolyte leaving, a harried healer hurried into the room, tapping the massive needle that would give her the catheter she needed for the epidural. Athena made the mistake of looking at it. The needle itself was about five inches long or so, as long as much of her heels, and was thick. She could fully see it, and see that it was hollow, and...

And she was freaking out. "Oh my god." Carlos' hand had been rubbing hers, but at the sight of the needle she twisted around and held onto him tightly. That thing, that long, thick thing, was about to go into her spine. And she'd read horror stories about them missing and having to inject several times, or them hitting the wrong place in the spine and paralyzing the pregnant woman, or not applying enough pressure and having to jam it in...Athena didn't like needles. She really, didn't like needles.

"This will just pinch a little." The healer muttered, pressing her hand against Athena's numb skin to get the right placement. A second later the needle was sliding into Athena's skin, a choked gasp and a tightening of her fingers being the only reaction. She was good. She was being good. She didn't cry, or scream, and now she could have the drugs. She was uncomfortable as the catheter was slid into the hole created, but at least it didn't hurt. Actually, after it was all in and she felt the warm rush of the medicine going into her system, it felt pretty good.

Soon she was being settled back down against the pillows, her grip on Carlos loosening unintentionally.

"You have about two more centimeters to dilate and then we'll start the delivery process. From the speed you've been dilating I'd say we'll have you meeting your newborn within the next two hours."

The healer rushed back out again, leaving Carlos and Athena back to the waiting game. "Oh this feels wonderful." She sighed to him, a smile actually rising to her face. Relief felt so sweet. So, so sweet. She couldn't feel the pressure, nor the heat, or the tenderness. And it was that fast!
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Carlos Cisinerros
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This was one of the perfect examples of a catch-22. If you wanted to avoid unnecessary pain during labor, you had to take the epidural. But the administration of the epidural involved a freakishly long needle and catheter inserted into your body which would of course hurt as well. He stepped instinctively closer to Athena at the same time that she turned around to hold on to him. He held her arms tightly as they prepared to stick her with that needle. 'Pinch just a little' was healer/doctor code for 'this is going to hurt like hell'. And judging by Athena's reaction as the giant needle slid into her back, he knew he was right.

He continued to rub her arms as they slid the catheter into her, trying to ease the pain and make her feel more comfortable even as he knew that she would soon be feeling a lot better or rather a lot number. The time actually came quicker than he thought as Athena's grip loosened and he helped her set back down into the bed.

Turning away from Athena momentarily to listen to the Healer, his breath caught in the back of his throat as he said that in just two hours they'd have their baby girl, in two hours they would be parents.

Oh boy.

As Athena sighed her relief, he turned back to her chuckling. "Drugs working then?" he asked with a smile on his face as well as he poked her thigh. "I didn't know it worked that fast."
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Athena Stryker
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It was unbelievable how fast the epidural worked. She could feel another wash of warm liquid going into her spine, suddenly feeling a hell of a lot better. The panick seemed to go away with the pain, leaving her just with excitement. Soon, so so soon, they would be going back to his place with a pink-wrapped baby girl. She didn't even think about all the work that it was going to create for them, no, she was just excited. She couldn't wait to hold her, and see her open her eyes for the first time. She couldn't wait to feel her tiny fingers and watch her toothless yawns.

If she wasn't careful, she was going to start sniffling from the sappy emotions of it all.

The support she was getting really was amazing. Again and again she would wonder how her mother did this all on her own, when Athena felt it was hard enough while having the incredible support of her friends and Carlos. All of that didn't really matter then though; the only thing that mattered was soon it would all be worth something.

Being left in the room again feeling as good as she suddenly was made her feel like she could take a little nap or something. Relax, play a card game. Watch a movie. Her smile never faltered on her face as Carlos turned back to her, happy to see that he seemed a lot less tense and worried too.

Her eyes followed the poke, and that was when the smile faded. It wavered, looking back at him for a minute before she was struggling to push herself into a sitting position. Her arms felt numb, shaky, but that wasn't what had scared her. What scared her was that she couldn't feel his finger on her thigh.

Further attempts to move revealed that she couldn't feel her legs at all; they just laid there on the bed where the healer had left them. Funny; she had read that the epidural would take away the pain, not the feelings.

"Carlos." She choked out his name, "Do that again."
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Carlos Cisinerros
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Emotions in this hospital room were being fast changing, ever since they stepped into it. They seemed to cycle between anxious, nervous, happy, angry, in pain, frustrated, plus a couple of other general feelings that came with expecting a newborn baby. But the speed in which Athena's face went from happy and relieved to scared and worried was the fastest he had seen yet. He eyed her curiously as he subconsciously tilted his head, waiting for her to explain herself; he didn't have to wait long.

He could literally hear the fear in her voice as she spoke out her name, and asked him to poke her thigh again. He was confused at first, wondering why on earth she would ask him to do that. Nevertheless, he poked her again. This time it was slower, and he pushed his finger a little bit more into her skin and then retreated it. He looked up from the thigh, to her face and as he noticed the increasing amount of fear he suddenly became afraid himself.

"Athena, what's wrong?" he asked quickly in concern. He looked back down at her thigh but first caught sight of her shaky arms, and how much Athena was trying to put an effort into...something. Frowning, Carlos asked again. "What are you feeling?"
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Athena Stryker
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Athena was staring at her legs, trying to ignore the fact that the walls were closing in. Air in the room was quickly being used up by her fast, shallow breaths until there really wasn't any oxygen left for her to breath. Breath? Ha. She could barely remember to even attempt it. Carlos' hesitation made her look back up at him, desperation starting to show in her eyes. Maybe he just didn't touch her hard enough. Maybe...maybe she was just numb for a second, and it was back.

Except for Carlos reached out and pressed his finger deep into her skin slowly, and retracted. Again, she couldn't feel it even as she watched her leg give to the pressure. She should have felt that. She should have definitely, felt that. And she should have been able to move her legs. She couldn't even feel any of her lower body. In fact, she hadn't felt contractions since she had been given the epidural.

Terror began to build inside of her, wrapping an ice cold hand around her heart and freezing her lungs so she literally couldn't breathe...just like she couldn't move. She couldn't move. She couldn't walk. She couldn't dance. She couldn't even feel the contractions to push their baby out. She couldn't go through with the labour. Their baby was maybe ready to come out and she couldn't even feel it. She couldn't move whatsoever.

She couldn't...they wouldn't...it...

Athena's mouth worked to tell Carlos what was wrong, but no sound came out; instead she whimpered, her mind frozen in lack of understanding. What was she going to do? How could she do anything? She couldn't move. In Carlos' second question though, the words suddenly seemed to tumble out as fast as her tears, her tone panicked and climbing in octaves.

"Nothing! I can't feel anything! I can't feel my legs and I can't move them and I can't feel the baby or the contractions and I can't...they won't..." One hand went to her mouth, eyes squeezing closed like she could block out the room and pretend it wasn't happening.
Edited by Athena Stryker, Apr 13 2011, 03:04 AM.
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Carlos Cisinerros
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His fear was rapidly growing larger as Athena remained silent, and couldn't put two words together. She whimpered and the sound literally made Carlos' heart stop and accelerate to the point of it almost exploding. He didn't understand what could be wrong, or if she was hurt or what. Which is why he asked again, using a different arrangement of words. He wanted to know what was wrong so that he could help her, or rather find someone to help her immediately because he was completely out of his limit here and totally dependent on other people to make this better.

The question caused an immediate response out of Athena, her words spilling out her mouth quickly in a jumble of words, all of them desperate in their tone, and all of them were too abnormally high-pitched. His eyes widened as he caught the meaning of her words. She couldn't move her legs, she couldn't feel her legs, she couldn't feel anything down there. Her getting freaked out was causing him to freak out, but he knew that he had to calm down. Well, he was going to try to at least.

His hand immediately pushed the call button, this time buzzing it more incessantly than before. He turned back to Athena, and rubbed her arms, speaking quietly and urgently. "It's okay, they're going to fix this, and it's going to be okay, don't panic, don't-" he shook his head, words suddenly stopping before he turned his head to the direction of the door. "Can we get some help in here?!" he asked loudly, which he was sure was not working with his whole plan of staying calm.
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Athena Stryker
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Athena had a fair amount of upper body strength. She had to, in order to dance the way she did and paint the objects she did. The fact that she could barely move herself using her arms worried her further, tingling shooting all the way down to her hands. After a little bit of work she was able to prop herself up by the pillows so her hands, quickly weakening, could fly to her stomach. It was just as she thought; underneath her hands, her stomach was rock hard. She was in the middle of a contraction and she couldn't feel a goddamn thing.

This was a nightmare.

She had seen Carlos' eyes register the panick, but he was right there trying to comfort her and tell her that everything was alright and that it could be fixed. She wanted to ask him how, especially as her mind leapt to the absolutely worst conclusion: they had managed to hit the wrong part of her spine and she was never going to walk again. She would never dance, and they were going to have to cut her open to make sure that the baby didn't die. And because she wasn't going to be able to walk, she wasn't going to be able to stand, which would limit her ability to paint. She wouldn't be able to apparate because she couldn't turn on her heel...she couldn't even get up to her apartment. She was going to have to quit her job, and find something else to do. But what could she do without her legs? She used her legs for everything she was good at. And more than that, what if their baby needed help or assistance and she couldn't get to her?

It was all going to hell, and despite the fading feeling of his hands on her arms, Athena couldn't stop sobbing. She was already an emotional person due to all the hormones, and the horror made it ten times worse.

The call button worked this time, but Mungo's was short-staffed and so this time an acolyte came in instead of the healer.

"Are you getting the urge to push, honey?" The gloves went on, cheerfully going to help Athena back into position for her to check the cervix. Kindly she added, "It's perfectly normal to feel anxious knowing delivery time is near."

At Athena's fresh burst of tears, the acolyte found that Athena's legs were not staying in the bent position she had guided her into. This time she just assumed that the soon-to-be mother was having an anxiety attack about being a mother - especially given the fact that they didn't have rings on, and assumability this baby wasn't planned - and added, "Look, this baby is going to come out whether or not you feel like you're ready. It'll be better for the both of us if you cooperate with me."

Getting the urge to push? Feeling anxious? Feeling like she was ready? Though the acolyte had no way of knowing, the insensitive words still hit Athena and she shook her head, too overtaken to explain. She couldn't explain, because she didn't understand herself.
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Carlos Cisinerros
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Never once did Carlos think, never once did his brain pick up on the fact, that they were inserting a needle into her spine. Her spine; one of the most important and delicate parts of the human body. He didn't occur to him that there was even the slightest chance that it could happen. For being a logical person, he hadn't been logical right at that moment. He was worried, he was panicked. he had no idea if this was permanent or not, but he couldn't let himself to think of this in a permanent situation. They were going to fix this because they had to, because there was no other option, because they simply had to.

As an acolyte came in, Carlos glared a tiny bit. He was annoyed that they were sending in a simple acolyte to deal with this problem. Carlos was sure that the woman was qualified and whatever else, but they didn't need an acolyte at this very moment. They needed a Healer. More specifically, they needed the Healer who had just fucking messed up his job and endangered Athena and his daughter.

And why was the woman smiling? Did both of them look like they were ready for smiles? Did both of them look like typical almost parents dealing with the anxiety and nerves of a new baby child- he didn't think so! There was a clear distinction between nerves and absolute horror and right now they were both wearing faces of absolute horror, despite his attempt to hide his worry. He was going to be strong for Athena, because merlindamn he had never seen her this bad, this hysterical, this afraid.

As she started crying, Carlos momentarily forgot to address the acolyte and tell her how wrong she was about everything and that she needed to quiet down right about now. Instead he simply wiped at her eyes, "Sweetie, we're going to make this right again, we'll fix it, it'll be okay, you'll both be okay," whispered assurances again. He kissed her forehead once before dabbling into Spanish for a few words, "Todo va a estar bien, no te preocupes querida."

At the acolyte's words of Athena not cooperating however, Carlos just scoffed and turned around to face the woman. "She's not being difficult, she can't fuc-" -he stopped himself from swearing- "She can't move! She had an epidural and she can't feel anything, no contractions, no pain, no feeling, no movement of any kind! So can you please stand up and get someone who can actually help her right now?!"
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Athena Stryker
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Athena was seconds away from falling into hysterics, the kind of hysterics that one could not logically just "stop". She was seconds away from letting herself actually believe that her entire life just fell apart and that she was endangering their baby because she couldn't take the pain. Already the memory of how horrible the contractions felt had faded in her mind, for she would have rather taken the contractions than this feeling of nothingness. It felt so wrong, it left like she was missing an entire half of her body, except for that she had so much dead weight when she tried to move.

It just felt, wrong.

The only reason she hadn't fallen into hysterics was because she was hoping somewhere in the back of her brain that this was just a little tiny accident and they could fix it immediately and she could go back to delivering this baby, feelings and all.

"Ah yes, you are fully dilated. I'll go-" The acolyte stopped short at the words the man she presumed was the daddy was telling the patient. There were three variations of new fathers; the ones that couldn't handle the labour and tended to get sick or faint, the ones that were overly excited and smothering, and the ones that looked like they wanted nothing more for it all to be over so the fuss could stop. All three of these types of dads tended to use the same words 'It'll be over soon", "you're doing great!", "I love you so much."

Never before had she heard "We'll fix it", and hoping that the baby wasn't the 'it', she shrugged and wrote a quick note on the clipboard that the patient was fully dilated. Before she could finish writing it though, the father had turned to her with something quite...disturbing. "Oh. You can't..." Deciding it would be better to just let the healer deal with this, the acolyte held up one finger and rushed out of the room to get him.


Had Athena been able to roll over, she would have curled up in a fetal position. However, she couldn't even do that. Her legs wouldn't stay in place anyways. Silver lining, at least laying on her back didn't hurt from the pressure of her stomach, right? Because there was no pressure. There was no feeling whatsoever.

Though she wanted to believe Carlos, so, so badly, it was hard to. Right then she couldn't move. It had happened so fast; she didn't have any warning, and bam. And now how could she believe that everything was going to be okay? The goddamn acolyte just thought she was having pre-baby jitters! Thankfully Athena didn't have to worry about correcting her; Carlos did that for her in a way that definitely got results. Had she not been so distracted by the fact that she was stuck in that bed and couldn't move, she might have been interested in watching this new side of him.

It was barely a minute before the healer was coming in again, gloves with a little bit of blood on them still on. Apparently many mothers were having babies at that exact moment; he was looking quite exhausted. "The acolyte said something about losing feeling in your lower extremities?" He said as he came in, stripping off the gloves and throwing it into the trash. "Aren't you having twins?" That was the dosage he'd been given to administer to her, after all. If she wasn't having twins...then it was a simple mistake of over-dosage on the epidural. Nothing to be freaking out about.

Mothers and their hysterics.

"Well, it'll wear off anywhere from twelve to twenty four hours and you should have full range of mobility back." He told them, wearily setting the clipboard down as he slid on a new pair of gloves. "And it says you're fully dilated, so let's get to pushing, shall we?"


Athena simply echoed the word, "Might?" In a hushed tone, her voice cracking even then. And push? How did he expect her to push when she couldn't even feel it? How would she know how hard to push or when to pull back like the books said so she wouldn't rip? How did she even know when she was supposed to be having a contraction? Her hand searched for Carlos'. Again she spoke one single word, a still-terrified question, "How?"

The healer settled himself down at her hips and looked back up at her in short patience. "I'll tell you when you're contracting, and you just push."
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Carlos Cisinerros
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So obviously, one needed to act like a total asshole and adopt a heavy tone and rude disposition to get anybody to pay attention to them around here. This wasn't how Carlos normally operated, he was never one to use harsh words or anything louder than polite and normal conversation would dictate but he was finding himself at a loss. He couldn't even think about doing anything except yell and show he was frustrated and demand that the healer correct this immediately because it was his fault and a consequence of his incompetence and that he better damn find a way to fix it or so help him he'd fillet him like a salmon.

Now that he'd ever say anything like that out loud. Well, so far but he reserved the right to change his mind any time he wanted.

Speak and the devil and the devil will appear. Except right at that moment he was very grateful for said devil because he was absolutely failing at keeping Athena calm. The poor thing was near hysterics, and with good reason. He kept telling her that this was all going to be fine, and that they were going to fix it, but it wasn't working, he could practically see the panic in her eyes- the thought of not being able to walk ever again.

Losing feeling in your lower extremities? Doctors just had a natural talent of making every wound seem no more serious than a paper cut. And the next question? He had to restrain himself from calling the healer a dumbass, or something of the same caliber. "Of course she's not having twins," he answered in exasperation, as he passed a hand over his face.

He was able to breathe a little easier when the healer said that Athena should get her full motion back by the next twenty four hours but it wasn't very much easier because a) he didn't like the use of the word 'should' in that sentence and b) Athena still had to deliver this baby and she was currently without any kind of feeling at all! Would she even be able to push?

Well, they had to give it a try, even if the method turned very sketchy. "And the baby, she's not going to be harmed because of your mistake, right?" Trusting the man who messed up an epidural because of carelessness? Well, they didn't have much of a choice in the matter now. Either way, if he didn't leave this hospital with two, fully healthy, and perfect females, the man would have Carlos to answer to.

"I'm right here, beautiful." He held on to Athena's hand as the Healer stopped talking, instructing her on what she was going to do. Granted, she wouldn't need to snap his hand to relieve the pain but he was still there to offer her support and-

Wait, wait, had the healer walked in wearing blood covered gloves?

...Just what the hell was going on down there?
Edited by Carlos Cisinerros, Apr 13 2011, 06:40 AM.
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Athena Stryker
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"I apologize." The healer told them both stiffly, though directing the comment more to Carlos than his still panicking patient. "The baby should have absolutely no complications given we push as we're supposed to."

But really, this was a first time mother who couldn't rely on her instincts to know when and how to push, so the healer wasn't optimistic there weren't going to be complications. He set to petrifying her legs so that they would stay in the spread, bent position he needed them to be for best location for him to help pull out the baby, and then grabbed a few monitors. "Your heartbeat is raised right now, so the baby's will be even faster." He warned them, strapping on the heartbeat monitor to Athena's stomach. "Their heartbeat is usually already heightened during pregnancy and any further could be dangerous so if we can get you to calm down, that would be fantastic."

He was really hoping this would be a fast delivery. "I'm going to tell you when your contraction is, and the second I do you need to start pushing. I'll count to ten and when I stop, you can stop to take a breath."


Athena hadn't even thought about the idea of having twins. That would have been horrible; she would have been nearly double the size she was and have to buy two of everything and push out two babies and...merlin, she was so glad they weren't having twins. What she wasn't glad about was the fast beating through the room; she almost couldn't keep up with it. His words scared her because of that, she she tried...she really tried. She took deep, calming breaths, she pretended like it was her keeping her legs in position, and she tried to ignore the man down probing her vagina. Problem was, she was already so worked up that the idea of having to have this kind of stilted labour made her feel like a failure. She should have just dealt with the pain.

At least she was given some kind of explanation for why she couldn't feel her legs, and between that and Carlos' hand she was able to find some semblance of control. Or rather, she was okay at faking it; her eyes were still relatively wild as she looked at the man's hand on her stomach, waiting for him to tell her to push. Basically waiting for him to tell her to do something she didn't know how and couldn't feel to know she was doing it right.

She still ended up squeezing Carlos' hand hard, using it as an anchor for the power of her pushes.

Half an hour later, she felt like she had made absolutely no progress. The healer was frowning down at her legs, she still couldn't feel anything, and she felt like she just pushed out twenty babies. She was winded, weakening, exhausted. She was pushing to no profit, nothing to tell her that she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. All she was getting was sharper and more demanding directions to push.

Chest heaving from the last contraction, Athena sunk into the pillows behind her, eyes sliding shut. She was burning up, so hot, so tired, so done. "I don't think I'm in labour anymore." She said quietly. There was just some kind of unrest in her; her water had broken, she felt the contractions, but now it had been such a long time since she'd felt any motion at all that it ended up being completely surreal. Maybe this was just a dream. Maybe she would wake up.

In fact, she probably could just go to sleep right then, and wake up in Carlos' bed. It was normal for mothers to have nightmares about labour, she remembered reading about it. It was just her subconscious expressing that she didn't think she was ready yet. So Athena adjusted her head to make herself comfortable and blocked out everything; the lack of feel, the sounds of the healer speaking, of the heart-beat monitor...everything. She just breathed in deeply, and out slowly. If she just went to sleep, she'd wake up safe and none of this would have happened.

She just needed to sleep.
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