Nightshade: A SimLit | Chapter 87: Welcome To The World

One could say that it was either very late at night or unreasonably early in the morning, depending on how they perceived it. Regardless, it was pitch black outside, and Onyx was in a deeper sleep than he'd usually be in. 

What a convenient night for that to happen.

"Onyx, wake up already!"

He groaned lowly and gained a fraction of awareness at the sound of Amelia's strained voice. His brows began to knit together in something between concern and confusion.

"If I have to drag you out of bed in this condition, I swear to--"

"Amelia?" His voice was hoarse with drowsiness as he interrupted her and his eyes struggled to open. "What's wrong...? You should be asleep..."

She shot him an unusually irritable glare, though it was difficult to see in the dark. "Yeah, I should be asleep, but instead I'm in labor. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Wait, what!?" He shot straight up, suddenly wide awake enough to process what was happening. "Y-You're having the baby? Now!?" 

 "No, next Wednesday, Onyx." Her discomfort was evident in her tone.

Onyx frowned and stood up, quickly making his way over to her side of the bed. "S-Sorry, I--"

She cut him off. "It's fine, w-we just... need to get to the hospital at Magic HQ..." 

"Right," he nodded. "I'll find my Glimmerstone and we can use that to teleport there." 

Amelia didn't respond momentarily, instead focusing on struggling to her feet. "Yeah, but first you need to go tell Alexander--"

Her sentence abruptly ended with a yelp and she stumbled forward, leaning against Onyx for support. 

"A-Are you okay?" He stammered, holding her close to him. 

"N-Not particularly," Amelia tried to laugh, but it was more of a pained wheeze. She tightened her grip around him, not really wanting to let go despite the fact she just told him to leave her. "It feels like something's trying to wriggle out of my internal organs."

"...well, uh... I guess that's accurate," Onyx cringed and rubbed her back lightly. She could feel his hand trembling as he did. "I'll go get Alexander and then we'll go to the hospital. Just try to stay calm, okay? You're gonna be fine..."

"Stay calm? No offense, but I really don't think it's possible to stay calm when you're about to have a baby."

"Good point."

---

What felt like centuries later, but was actually no more than half an hour, the pair found themselves navigating the hallway to an available hospital room. Alexander opted to stay in the waiting room, which Amelia didn't really mind. The less people that saw her this vulnerable, the better, in her opinion. To say she was miserable was an understatement. At this point, despite her typically high pain tolerance, every single step felt more like running a marathon while someone wrings out your innards. Every muscle in her throat begged to scream, but she refused. If she did that, Onyx was going to worry himself to death. It was a miracle he hadn't already.

"How are you feeling?"

It must have been the twentieth time he asked her since they got there. She tried to understand. Really, she did. But she wasn't exactly in the mood to tolerate the annoyance. "The same as I did when you asked two minutes ago. About a five million on a one-to-ten pain scale. If you ask me one more time, you'll be a six million."

He flinched at her threatening answer. He knew it was more than likely normal for her to be snappy, but it still stung, even if only slightly. "I'm sorry... I'm just trying to help."

Her heart sank a little. "N-No, don't be... you're being really helpful, I promise. I'm just... not in a good mood right now."

"That's understandable," Onyx sighed. Their pace was slow, but they were nearing the empty hospital room the nurse told them to go to. The nurse offered to wheel Amelia back, but of course, she absolutely insisted she was capable of walking.

It had quickly become clear that Amelia was overestimating herself when she said that. Without warning, she grimaced and staggered aside to the wall, leaning against it. "I-I... need a break from walking for a sec..." Despite her best efforts to sound casual, her voice quivered, indicative that she was on the verge of tears. Contractions were unlike anything she'd ever felt before, there was no doubt about that. Her facade of strength was eventually going to crumble. It was already beginning to.

"Of course," Onyx mumbled, internally debating whether he should give her space or offer consolation. Every part of him wanted to do the latter, but her reactions were highly unpredictable right now. She'd either appreciate it or become more irritated than she already was. In the end, he couldn't resist the urge and approached her, gently placing his hands on her waist. "Come on, we're just a few steps away from the hospital room. You'll feel better when you can rest."

"No, I'll feel better when I can get an epidural," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Well, you can do that once you're settled in your room. The sooner, the better, right?" It was the only incentive to move that he could offer her.

"I guess you're right," she groaned, forcibly shoving herself away from the wall. "Or maybe you could just carry me..."

"I don't want to accidentally hurt you," Onyx said.

Amelia shot him an only half-serious glare and walked towards the doorway. "What difference does it make? Everything already hurts."

---

If there was anything that could possibly make her more irritable than she already was, it was all of the poking and prodding from the doctors. As the contractions worsened, Amelia internally swore that the next person that touched her was going to wind up checked into the hospital too, but the next person ended up being the nurse who was going to deliver her some wonderfully numbing drugs.

She'd make an exception for the drugs, she decided.

Being stabbed in the spinal column with a giant needle wasn't something she ever thought she'd appreciate, but after a while, the epidural started taking effect. The discomfort subsided only for a tingling numbness to overcome everything from her torso down, which was equally as unpleasant, but at least she could think about something other than the pain. Every minute that passed by only made Onyx grow more anxious. He tried not to make it obvious, but she could feel his nervousness, not that she was much of a source of comfort when she couldn't even comfort herself. The room was silent aside from the sounds of his deep, shaky breaths and her far more rapid ones. Neither of them could tell if it was minutes or hours later when the doctors returned. Time was a void concept by now.

After assessing the situation, the red-haired doctor -- clearly a fellow vampire -- gave an affirmative nod to the nurse and turned her attention to Amelia. "Alright, it seems like it's just about time for your baby to be born."

Onyx grabbed onto her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Good... I'm ready for this to be over with."

"N-Not as ready as I am..." Amelia's nervousness was finally starting to show. She glanced at the nurse as he grabbed onto her other hand. He was familiar -- the same nurse that had been there when Orion was hospitalized. Fabian was his name, if she remembered correctly from the once or twice it was mentioned. 

"Great," the doctor began, "because you're going to have to start pushing now."

Amelia's expression turned to one of worry. "Um... I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work considering most of my body is almost completely numb..."

"You'll do fine," the doctor reassured her. "I'm going to start counting and you follow my lead, okay?"

She hesitated, but then nodded. "...okay."

The delivery itself was like a blur to her. She flipped between focusing on the doctor's instructions and Onyx's words of reassurance. Surprisingly, he was squeezing her hand far tighter than she held onto his, and it made her wonder who was actually comforting who. His eyes were locked onto her, and although he was smiling as though nothing was wrong, his eyes only expressed fear. Neither of them were oblivious to the fact that something could go horribly wrong, but they did their best to push the scenario out of their minds. 

"Get ready. One, two, three..." 

The doctor's steady commands weren't as easy as she made them sound. Amelia couldn't tell how long it had been since this started, but she knew that the exhaustion was starting to catch up to her.

"You're almost there. You're doing great..."

That was the same thing Onyx told her five minutes ago. And five minutes before that. And five minutes before--

Her thought process was interrupted by a sudden shrill cry.

Onyx lit up and immediately turned his attention to the tiny infant, who was now screaming bloody murder. Tears welled in his eyes. "Amelia, you did it!"

"...I did it," she replied in disbelief.

The doctor grinned triumphantly. "Just as expected, it's a girl!"

---

Finally, things were calm. Despite all of the worries, everything had turned out completely fine, and it was all either of them could have asked for. 

"She looks just like you..." Onyx smiled and leaned over the side of the bed, pressing a kiss to the top of Amelia's head. 

Amelia smiled too. "I won't deny that. But she kind of has your..." She paused, trying to think of any feature to compare. "...fangs?"

His face was still pressed against her hair, which muffled his slight chuckle. "You can't tell that. She has baby fangs, not adult ones." 

At the sound of her parents' banter, the baby stirred slightly in her sleep.

"I'm trying to make you feel less left out," Amelia playfully replied. "Now shush. You're going to wake her up."

Onyx fell silent and looked down at the baby. He knew that it would be an overwhelming experience when she came into the world, but he never realized just how much he'd love her as soon as he saw her. "So what? She's cute, I like it when she's awake."

"You won't be saying that in about a week when she keeps us up all night," Amelia whispered.

The baby's eyes finally fluttered open and she gazed curiously up at her father.

"That's not true. We'll have the most well behaved baby in the world." He grinned and reached out to stroke the baby's hair. "Isn't that right, Kiera?"

Amelia sighed. "...Don't jinx it."

The mischievous glint that was already in Kiera's eyes proved that it had been jinxed to begin with.