Welcome to the World

Welcome to the World
Rhys

Alice squeezes my hand like a knife is cutting through her and screams my name. On instinct, I reach forward with my other arm and catch her as she sinks down to her knees.

‘Gio, it’s time,’ I tell him through telepathy. Thankfully, he’s still in Duskmoore.

‘Coming,’ he answers succinctly. 

I make a note of the time to track the contractions and turn my attention to Alice. The idea of becoming a father soon both thrills and terrifies me, but I brush my emotions aside. Now is the time to implement everything Gio has been training me for over these past months. 

“Slow breaths, sweetheart,” I tell her in my calmest voice. Though breathing is no longer a necessity since her transformation, we have found that many of the traditional human techniques, like deep breathing, seem to calm her. I hope they do the same for her during childbirth. 

She nods rapidly, her tight grasp still locked on my hand. She reaches out for my arm with her other hand and tries to steady herself while I assist. “That was strong,” she says after breathing through the contraction. 

“Let’s get you upstairs.” Gio appears just as I’ve already lifted Alice honeymoon-style. “Her water broke,” I tell him, “and she’s beginning contractions.”

“I’m all set up,” he tells me.

Alice buries her face in my shoulder, and I hold her tight, carefully but quickly making my way up the staircase. Gio holds his office door open, first to the sitting area and then to his exam room. I gently lay her on the soft bed Gio has put in place for the childbirth, preferable to the hard exam table. 

I  suggested that Alice simply use our own bed, but she insisted that she doesn’t want to make a mess in it. I would have easily replaced it if she had, but I’ve been doing whatever makes Alice comfortable for the past several months. With her, that role is a pleasure. 

Her head settles onto the pillow, and I brush her hair back from her eyes while Gio prepares to examine her, draping a sterile sheet over her legs. 

“Everything looks good,” he reports after a minute. “You’ve only had the one contraction?”

“Two, I think,” Alice replies. “But I’m not sure.”

“That’s all right,” Gio tells her. “We’ll time it from the latest one.”

“Twelve minutes past the hour,” I tell him before he can ask. 

He nods thoughtfully. “Good,” he says. “Track the next one. Once we’re at about five minutes apart, things should move ahead quickly.”

“Try to relax in the meantime,” I tell Alice, stroking her hand with my thumb. “Do you need anything?”

She shakes her head against the pillow. “I just need this baby to come.”

“We’re almost there,” I assure her.

I cannot bear to let go of her hand, and Gio seems to sense that since he pushes the chair we’ve set up for me over my way. I lower myself into it and bring it in as close as I can. 

“I need to get a few things from the other room,” Gio tells us. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Alice nods again then turns to me. “We’re going to meet our son!”

“We are,” I agree, stroking her cheek with my palm. “You can do this.”

“I know,” she says, her lips curling up in a smile. “That contraction hurt, but it wasn’t anything compared to the transformation. I’m guessing it’ll get worse when it gets closer to the baby coming, but I really feel like I can handle anything at this point.”

“Of course you can.” I lift her hand and kiss her knuckles. 

Several minutes later, she cries out again just as Gio is returning. She squeezes my hand again, so tightly that my fingers go white, but I grasp hold of her other hand and talk her through the breathing exercises. 

“Eight minutes,” Gio reports. “About what I would expect.”

I wipe Alice’s brow with a cloth. “You’re doing well,” I tell her. 

She nods. “I am so ready to be a mother finally,” she says. “I just wish my mother could be here.”

“As do I,” I tell her. “I will do all I can to be a worthy substitute.”

This causes her to erupt into giggles, a pleasant surprise considering her pain. “I think you’d have the same job, with or without her.”

“Perhaps so,” I agree. 

Another hour passes, and the contractions close in to about five minutes apart. Gio examines her again. 

“You’re making progress,” he reports. “We have slight dilation and effacement already. This could be quicker than I assumed.”

“I hope so,” Alice says breathlessly, adding a chuckle at the end. 

I am glad to see her in good spirits. The anticipation has been troubling her, not nearly as much as our fears before she became a vampire, but I could sense she has been nervous over the past few weeks. 

Naomi shuffles in and out of the room, bringing glasses filled with ice, clean towels, and bags of blood. Gio thinks it best for Alice to at least take sips of blood throughout the birthing process to keep her life force strong. So, I hold one over her about every hour to encourage her to at least take a sip. When she does, the color seems to return to her complexion, despite the pain when a contraction hits. 

Four hours in, I continue to assist her with the breathing exercises, offer her ice or blood, and generally encourage her as much as I can whenever the pain hits. It’s more frequent now, averaging once every three minutes, and Gio continues to report progress after his exams. 

I am just beginning to prepare for another hour of her labor when a particularly strong contraction hits her. “Rhys!” she screams through the pain. 

Though I try to help, it soon becomes clear that human breathing techniques won’t be of much assistance at this point. I call for Gio telepathically since he has been taking a break downstairs. 

He runs in shortly after, just as another powerful contraction causes Alice to scream again. “Two minutes now,” I tell him. Tension encompasses me, much as it did when I was forced to simply watch while she underwent the painful transition. 

It is a disturbing feeling, watching the woman I love experience pain that is beyond my control to suppress. Even in the case of Alicia attacking the humans in the tavern, there was an action I could take, terrible as it was. 

Here, I must wait, watching, encouraging Alice with words and touch that seem so lacking compared with what she is experiencing. 

Yet, Alice is so very strong. Even as the contractions begin to pile up on each other, she still holds firm, and her screams fade into calls of determination in sounds that surpass mere words. 

“All right, Alice,” Gio says eventually. “Good job. On the next contraction, I want you to push.” 

Alice nods briskly and lies back for a moment. I barely perceive Naomi slipping back into the room until she takes her place on the other side of Alice. 

The next contraction erupts with a groan from Alice.

“Push, Alice!” Gio says.

Naomi and I support Alice as she gathers all her force into the push. We all encourage her as the process goes on for several minutes. Gio apparently reads the concern in my eyes, assuring me through telepathy that everything is progressing normally. 

My relief is profound. 

Finally, he encourages one more push, and our son arrives. 

Heavy anticipation weighs in the air for the few moments between the birth and the telltale infant cries, but finally, our son lets out a healthy wail that echoes throughout the room. 

Alice collapses against the pillow, and I bring my forehead to her temple. “You did it,” I whisper. 

She simply nods as tears pour out her eyes. 

Gio arranges the umbilical cord in such a way that I can make the cut, then he and Naomi take the baby over to the table arranged for cleanup and examination. 

I don’t want to leave Alice’s side, but she nods toward the others. “Go get me our son,” she tells me. 

I chuckle. “With pleasure.”

Naomi swaddles our boy into a warm blanket and hands him to me gently. He looks up at me with bright blue eyes, and the tiny dark hairs on his head are unmistakably Severin. I stare for a moment, knowing Alice is waiting but feeling the love for this small vampire already simmering deep inside me. 

The best way to describe it is... awestruck. 

Naomi hurries back to Alice to assist her with pillows so she can sit up. “Congratulations,” she tells her. 

Alice nods through her continuing tears. 

I step back to her, careful with the tiny infant in my hands, mesmerized by how fragile he seems, and yet, he is so strong to have gone through so much already. 

“Here’s your mother,” I say as I place him in Alice’s arms.

She sits gazing at him, her mouth open in near disbelief... a feeling I share at this moment. 

After all these months of waiting, we are finally a family. 

“Welcome to the world, little one,” she whispers to our son.