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[mnt_mike]

Lemme tell you a story...

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The Fray-Hamato household.

[mnt_mike]

"...Stampy?"

"Stampy!"

"Aaaaaht! I see you! Don't you think I don't see you hiding behind that ficus, because I totally do. Get your tail over here. Come on."

"What is this? This right here?"

"Well?"

"Don't make me rub your trunk it in, young lady! You know the drill. You need to make tinky, you go to the door."

"Oh don't give me that look. There's like, one carpet in this whole room of easily wipe-able floors, and you just happened to happened to have an accident right here. Uh uh. Pull the other one, it's got bells."

"Go on. Get the cleaning wagon. I'll still probably only be half way to the floor by the time you get back. Shoo."







"...

oh no."

Re: The Fray-Hamato household.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie was doing some cleaning of her own. Boring, but necessary when you keep a home anywhere in the 'verse.

Until Bar is up front and center behind her eyelids in a way she's rarely experienced since she was bonded to her, and --

"Oh my holy -- Mike!"

Sallie doesn't even take her apron and rubber gloves off before she runs out her apartment door.

[slayer_fray]

Mel is whistling as she comes into the apartment. You'd be whistling, too, if you'd just killed three vampires in quick succession, all while falling from the top of the TT monument to the city streets below.

...well, you would if you were Mel and you'd just done that.

She makes it all the way to the kitchen and a bottle of cold beer before she noticed that all is not right in the apartment.

[mnt_mike]

She's not wrong.

For one, there's a red Radio Flyer wagon tipped to its side in the middle of the hallway, with its Earth Friendly^tm cleaning supplies strewn about the floor.

For another, it's just too quiet. This isn't the quiet that comes from sharing an abode with a retired ninja, but the quiet that is indicative of Something Bad In The Process Of Happening. It's the kind of quiet that horror movies specialize in.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie's running in through the door behind Mel.

"Mel! The baby's comin'!"

[slayer_fray]

Forget the quiet; Mel lives in quiet like that. It's Sallie's running in that gets Mel's juices going.

And vaulting over the breakfast bar, apparently not registering said entrance.

"MIKE!"

[mnt_mike]

Collapsed on the floor, in the fetal position, lays Mike. His skin is grey, and the only real sign of life that he's exhibiting is a slow, slight rocking. Stampy, for her part, is curled around his head, stroking his hair with her trunk.

She looks up at Mommy Mel and Auntie Sallie with mournful and watery eyes.

[slayer_fray]

"Mike?"

Mel, white, doesn't give Stampy a second glance, dropping right to her knees to the puddle of - well, that's going to come back and haunt Stampy later.

"Oh god, Mike?"

[realmrsreynolds]

If Sallie is good at anything, she is good at getting people taken care of before allowing herself to go completely up a wall with worry.

"Mel - see if you can't get him to talk to you at all. I'm going to get whoever's on duty in the infirmary and get a rutting gurney in here."

You stay still, Mike. We'll take care of you son.

[mnt_mike]

Across the connection is a steady stream of conflicting sounds and thoughts. Almost like a deep space radio stuck between broadcasting frequencies. There is, however, one underlying rhythm. A pulse, if you will. And it moves in time with his rocking.

hurt. so much. hurting.

He's trying to hard to remember his training but every time he thinks he gets a foothold on the proper meditative tone, Magellan moves.

"i'm in a puddle of wee, aren't i?" he whispers while reaching out for Mel's hand.

[slayer_fray]

"I've found you in worse positions," says Mel, breaking her solemn promice Never To Talk of That Again.

She sits right down in that same puddle of wee, hands taking Stampy's place in his hair.

"Remember?"

[mnt_mike]

"only every time i close my eyes."
His voice is thin and reedy to start, but slowly begins to come back to itself the more he talks. There might even be a hint of a smile there.

"and sometimes, even when they're open."

Stampy scoots to the side in order to allow Mel better access to her daddy, but that scoot is about as far from him as she's willing to go.

Then at once, Mike seizes. The contraction hits with such a force that he's not even able to cry out.

[slayer_fray]

Mel tightens against him when he seizes, going absolutely nowhere until that's over. She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly, loudly.

"That's cause I got bar to remind you in case you forget."

The Infirmary

[guppy_sandhu]

The infirmary has, for a while, had one of the beds set up for an ... unusual procedure.

A large collection of sterile surgical equipment is in a storage chest on one side, next to a baby incubator, and a large cushion. Preparing for various eventualities.

On the floor around the bed, and unique to this bed, is a yellow line marking an area of about a metre and a half each side of the bed. The rectangle encloses the bed except for the head end. Next to the head end is a chair.

There's a couple of other chairs outside the yellow rectangle, along with a water fountain and a discreet pile of disposible vomit bowls, to cover evantualities with the observers.

And the final useful piece of equipment, a stereo, from which some nice relaxing music may be played, if desired.

Re: The Infirmary

[slayer_fray]

Mel lifts Mike up as dlicately as she can to transfer him form the gurney. with the drugs taking effect, she's grinning at his stoned face.

"Y'know. I should probably go and wash up, Babe. Dont want Versi gettin' into the equation."

Re: The Infirmary

[mnt_mike]

"really? do you gotta? i mean, stampy pee is like, toxic. wouldn't that like kill anything?"

He flops himself against the bed. WOW has he missed this feeling. This...this is a nice feeling. Very nice. Nice nice nice.

"is she on like, an asparagus only diet or something? i mean, seriously."

Re: The Infirmary

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy pulls the curtain around.

"Mike, we need to get you into a gown." He says. "Are you happy for me to help while Mel gets cleaned up, or do you want to wait until she comes back?"

He gets the scanner out in his other hand and runs it over him, to check what it is he's pulled.

Re: The Infirmary

[mnt_mike]

Mike's watching of Mel exiting the room is hampered by the curtain Guppy has just drawn, and so he hrumphs.

"probably best if we do it now, because if she's here it might lead to sexy times."

He's only partly kidding.

The pull isn't so much a pull as it is a rupture of the amniotic sack, and the pain he was feeling more to do with the excess fluid in his abdomen, than with the contractions that are slowly increasing with time.

For instance....

"...oh boy."

now.

Re: The Infirmary

[guppy_sandhu]

"When you get a contraction, I want you to breathe through them, pant like this." Guppy says, demonstrating. He holds Mike's hand in case he needs one to squeeze.

He waits until the contraction passes before trying to get Mike out of his shirt. A glance at the scan has ensured that he's safe to do so.

"Your waters have broken inside." he says. "But everything's contained, and there's no damage to your uterus. The pain you're feeling is because it's contracting with nowhere to go, not because anything else is rupturing, okay?"

Re: The Infirmary

[mnt_mike]

Mike doesn't need one to squeeze, but since one is there he might as well take advantage of it. Who's he to turn down an offer like that?

And squeeze he does.
Hard.
Because sometimes even Mike forgets that Mel is super strong.

"...breathe, he says. this will take away the pain, he says. your water is busted inside, he...wait...my what as what?"

Re: The Infirmary

[guppy_sandhu]

Ow, ninja grip. Guppy goes very slightly red in the face at the crushing of his hand, but fortunately nothing actually breaks. Would be hard to do surgery if it had.

"It's taken away some of the pain, hasn't it?" He asks. "If not I can give you something else. Once I anaesthetise your lower body for the surgery you shouldn't feel the pain then."

That's the thing about caesareans, it's not convenient to have the parent to be leaping off the table yelling ow.

"You need to pant so that you don't push." he explains. "Your baby is in a big balloon of water, inside your womb. The balloon of water has burst but the womb itself is okay, and it's holding all the water in it. The pain is your womb squeezing that water, which is hard for it to do because water doesn't compress very easily."

He gets Mike's shirt off and puts the gown around him, tying it up.

"Are you able to take your trousers off or do you want me to help?"

Re: The Infirmary

[slayer_fray]

Mel by this point has reappeared. To 'your water has broken inside.'. Which makes her blink. Hard.

Before coming back towards the bed. "I'll help."

Re: The Infirmary

[mnt_mike]

Mike's face breaks into one of his characteristic wide smiles when Mel reappears.

"she's good at this. it's like...like...that trick with the tablecloth and the plates on the table." He leans over towards Guppy and stage whispers, "trust me, with Mel around? the flowers always stay standing, if you know what i mean."

...

If nothing else, now they both know that the good drugs are still working.

Re: The Infirmary

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy smirks.

"I'm sure ninja trouser removal is a very useful skill." he says.

To Mel. "If you can get him into these disposable surgical underpants too, that would also help." He hands them over.

He turns away to give them some privacy and studies the scanner to check the exact location and size of Mike's uterus.

"When did you last eat or drink Mike?"

Re: The Infirmary

[slayer_fray]

Mel takes the underpants in both hands and looks at them.

Then waves them at Mike.

"See what I have to put up with. Looking at you in those."

Funny, apparently ninja pants removal is one of her skills. They both off quickly. Although that's because Mel tore them.