RP between Emroidz and Zoo
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Emroidz
The pain began late at night, and while Edie was used to being roused from sleep by a certain, unborn someone tap dancing somewhere between layers of blubber and her bladder...this feeling was decidedly, terrifyingly new.
Sitting up in bed and supporting the unbalanced weight of her even more round than usual middle, the Dobarr woman grunted, groaned, and gritted her teeth as the heavy feeling of the babe in her womb sat far lower on her body than she'd come to be familiar with these past eleven months.
Panting, the sow dared not stand on her own. "Ajax? Ajax darling?" The candy maker attempted to rouse her kingpin husband ever-so-gently. As patient as Edie was, however, Edith was far more demanding, and gave her dear sweet mother a good kick in the uterus (and her first distinct and definitive contraction therein). "FUCKING hell!" The poor old girl swore in a way that entirely contradicted her saccharine and saintly nature. "Wake up!" Edie smacked Ajax's big, fat, but unfairly NOT pregnant belly had he refused to stir from his peaceful slumber before now.
"The baby's coming!" Edie hissed, only to have the sharpness in her tone of voice drop suddenly as she whined and whimpered, clutching her middle as though she might very well pop a seam. "The pool. The pool, Ajax! Get me to the pool, DONT CALL DOCTOR GADHAVI! THE MED-BOT IS FINE FOR NOW. FOCUS AJAX!" They had prepared for a Marran-appropriate water birth and Edie would accept no less.
Ajax
Ajax was warm in bed, loafed into a comfortable round blubber lump next to his mate. His rhythmic, heavy breathing suddenly punctuated by a grunt when Edie smacked him awake.
"I... what. NOW?! " He sputtered. "Oh good Lord."
Soon however he was up on his feet, guiding Edie up and towards the pool. They'd gone over the plan, practiced it. Fire drills. The element missing from a drill however is the element of surprise and adrenaline.
The captain of the Albatross barked orders at his robotic staff with the tone of a general at war. "Battlestations. I need all of the med bots down here on standby, with painkillers. Likewise housekeeping with towels, the sterile towels."
The saltwater pool was hardly the churning mighty waters of their native Marr, but the gentle waves and cold temperatures emulated one of its sheltered tide pools well enough. Ajax led her gently to the water.
"Edie my love, how do you feel? Can I get you anything?"
Emroidz
Edie was, justifiably, a mess. Agonized by yet another onslaught of unmistakable contractions, the fact that she didn’t come to a full halt but hobbled on—even while hung from Ajax’s arm and doubled over—might have been impressive under any other circumstance.
“I. Need. Drugs. Give me drugs. Right now. All the drugs. I WANT A FUCKING EPIDURAL WHY DID I INSIST ON A HOME BIRTH THE MED-BOT CAN’T STICK ME WITH A DAMN NEEDLE! Is it too late to call the doctor? OH GOD ITS TOO LATE TO CALL THE DOCTOR ISNT IT?! Oh Ajax, it hurts so bad. W-why does it hurt so bad?”
Her pain gave way to panic, as the first time mother clung to her mate and struggled to get herself up and over the basin lip of the wading pool. She managed, albeit with great difficulty, and thankfully the frigid temperature of the water she sank into seemed to placate some of her more immediate distress.
At least until the next contraction hit.
“H-how did my sister-in-law pop out seven of these fucking things?!”
“I changed my mind! I don’t want a big family! You’re only getting one! She’s gonna be an only child! You hear me, Ajax Killdevil?! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”
…poor Ajax. Good luck reminding Edie to breathe. Gulp!
Ajax
Where is captainly sense of command held power over the droids, poor Ajax was left in a lurch when it came to this.
"I'm right here dearest, it's alright." Well, if she's yelling at least she's breathing, right?
"The med bot can't do an epidural but it can- YOU THERE!" He barked at the poor med droid.
"I ordered those painkillers forty five seconds ago! Hurry up or I'll junk you."
He could take out his own fear and concern on the bots, at least. He slid into the water beside Edie, holding onto her so she could focus on what she had to do without drifting off.
"Trust your instincts, love. You are a dobarr, and a strong specimen at that. You have this."
Emroidz
Ajax had always been able to appeal to the strong pride Edie took in their species, no doubt due to his own sense of superiority. To be told she was strong, that she was the finest specimen of Dobarr he could have ever hoped to procreate with (in her delirium, she might have been paraphrasing just a bit) definitely helped the poor sow get her head right. This was normal. This was natural. The women of Marr delivered in far less of a controlled environment than the luxury catered and customized to her exact wants and needs here at home.
A lull came in the contractions then. A moment was all she needed: to lean back and feel Ajax there, to let the cold creep in with the soft lapping current. “This is it. We’re going to be parents. Our baby is—is—! IS TRYING TO KILL ME FUUUUUUUCK!!!”
Edie had taken Ajax’s hand just in time to crush his fingers. “Melt the butter! Pour the sugar! Add the evaporated milk!” Um…what? “Sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk are two different things! You cannot substitute one for the other in a baking recipe!” W-was she…? “Stir gently and constantly until it feels like your arm is gonna fall off. Five minutes on medium heat. In the last 30 seconds turn off the burner and add semi-sweet chocolate chips and marshmallow fluff.”
Edie was reciting her fudge recipe. From memory. Verbatim. AS A COPING MECHANISM. TAKE THAT LAMAZE CLASS!
Ajax
Despite his proud status as an alpha bull, he let out a pathetic whimper as his paw was caught in the vice of Edie's grip.
Still. He was there for her. He had to be there for her. And the medical bot FINALLY arrived with a heavy dose of liquid relaxation.
"You're making something better than fudge, dearest. Just breathe and think. Think of your beautiful baby girl safe in your a-AAAH-"
He gasped as another contraction radiated through Edie's body and down to her powerful grip on his hand. Next pup was getting an epidural. For both their sakes.
"Doctor... is she almost done?" He whined to the bot.
"The infant is oriented in the correct position and the birth is progressing normally."
"That is not what I asked."
Emroidz
Edie panicked as Ajax whimpered, seeming to realize she had hurt him even through the haze of her own internal agony. "Sorry love. Oh dear, I'm sor--ooo, that's good stuff," the Dobarr woman practically drooled with relief as the administered drugs quickly reached her nervous system and alleviated some of the anguish she'd been feeling. The sow took her bull's hand, petting and pecking the back of it apologetically as she slumped and slid down his front and deeper into the water.
Blowing bubbles from her nostrils, she'd sunk so low into the pool, the candymaker rolled onto her side and rested her cheek in the crook of the kingpin's thick, cleaved elbow. Her breathing had slowed from anxious panting to something more deliberate: deep inhale, in through the mouth, and a slow exhale, out through the nose. "It's time to push," Edie told Ajax, sounding quite sure as she answered his question: even before the med-bot had elaborated further.
Ajax
"Don't worry about it." He cooed to his bride as the med bot surreptitiously stuck the kingpin with his own less potent dose of pain killer.
He held her gently and stroked her whiskers with his paw, hoping the rhythmic touch could at least be a comfort, or an anchor point.
"Push, then, if you are ready. We are all excited to meet the pup you worked so hard on." He cast a glance to the medical team, all of whom took another step forward to illustrate to their captain they were ready to jump in.
"What do you need me to do, love?"
Emroidz
Edie closed her eyes, and then squeezed them shut tighter, as Ajax's affectionate touching helped but did not lessen the intensity of the contractions which increased with every wave. She was panting yet again at this point, straining with whimpered, heaving gasps as she struggled to keep her breathing controlled and productive.
"Even future sciences have not yet come so far as to have you carry our next one of these," the sow joked with her bull, somehow managing to find humor in the sweet offer of her mate to at least try and help with her labor. But inevitably, and alas, she'd have to go the last leg of this pregnancy on her own.
It was no short effort either: they were in for the long haul. As hours ticked away, so too would her energy for the pushing needing to be done to guide their daughter along into the world be whittled away. The poor woman was exhausted, nothing was soothing her anymore: not Ajax, not the calming lull of the artificially tidal waters, not even the routinely administered painkillers. At a certain point, with their aid becoming moot, she'd declined the med bots even being present.
...and it was a good thing she had, because it let the eventual, final momentum of the end to Edith's hard fought, first born birth be a private moment between new mother and father. Ajax would be the first one to see an unmistakable flash of white drop through a cloud of red that tainted the previously clear waters, before Edie's maternal instinct had her fatigued body up in an instant, turning and snatching the newborn child from the pool and tucking her immediately into the warm crook between her breast and the wide wing of her arm.
"She's here. We did it. Look what we made."
Ajax
"I would if I could, dear." Though honestly, he was secretly happy he couldn't birth any children, being quite sure he wasn't strong enough to survive it.
There was no true ocean, but all of the other pieces of a natural Marran birth were there. And when Edith finally slid out into the water, her father was there to catch her and bring her up for her first gulp of air. She was immediately pushed to her mother's paws, fished from the water and into the warmth of maternal embrace.
Ajax leaned forward, craning to get a good look at the damp pup. "Shes quiet... is that normal?"
As if on cue, huge dark eyes opened and blinked at her parents. And she began to scream.
Emroidz
Quiet was definitely not normal when it came to babies of any kind. As Ajax passed their newborn off, Edie had just enough time to worry before the black of those beady little eyes opened against the snow white of her angel face…and let both parents immediately know just who was in charge here.
“Goodness!” Edie laughed in surprise and grinned up at Ajax. Adjusting the squawking child in her arms with a very natural inclination, their daughter disappeared into the dark coat of her mother’s bosom.
Together, quite sweetly, they looked like Yin and Yang: black and white, a nursing pair. The pup’s strong-lunged shrieking first muffled by fur, and then by what she was really after. Colostrum. And what was essential for baby was equally necessary for the bonding of mother with child. Edie melted the moment she felt her babe latch, right there on the spot, and began to quietly cry very happy tears.
“Please don’t let the bots take her. Not yet, okay?” Edie whispered to Ajax, knowing his robotic medical staff were standing by—even with the best of intentions—to check up on mother and child post-delivery. Separation simply wasn’t an option right now.
Ajax
"Anyone who disturbs you is getting my cane lodged in the dead center of their brain." He reassured her. Instincts of his own were taking hold fast, namely the bullish notion of stay away from my mate. The medbots, trained well, sat back and waited to be signaled forward.
He rubbed her back gently as the new pup took her milk. "Well done, love. Was it all worth it?"
Emroidz
Edie hummed and swayed as Edith suckled, clearly entranced by the little darling. Oh yeah, she was sold on the whole experience: pregnancy, labor, all of it. If this was the light at the end of the tunnel? Worth it.
But…
“I don’t know, Dad, you tell me,” the candy maker smiled up at the kingpin before surprising him with a plump little milk-filled baby right there in his arms. Eclair was exhausted from her entry into this world, and her squawking had been stifled by being immediately stuffed with her first meal. She was quiet again, but this time it wasn’t concerning: it was peaceful.
Ajax
He stood still for a moment as if frozen in shock. The little infant fit so perfectly into her father's massive paws. She was so fragile, like a little white snowflake that could be damaged by a single false move. It frightened him.
Carefully (awkwardly) he adjusted his hold. A fierce kingpin didn't have much experience in the sort of delicate and nurturing care an infant needed to thrive, and he knew it. Out of his element, but determined to make it work, he mimicked Edie's hold and brought her up to his chest.
"She's more beautiful than the finest Marran pearl. I almost can't believe half of her came from me. Look how delicate she is."
Emroidz
Edie watched but did not interfere. She trusted Ajax implicitly, and it showed in the fact she felt no need to micromanage as a new mother. With a smile and approving pat on the forearm once her husband at last situated their daughter in the snuggly space between chest and bicep, the Dobarr woman took a deep breath...and stood of her own accord. No fuss, no real struggle, just living proof that--like most animals--her body was meant to procreate and had not undergone anything especially traumatic.
"Now, now love," Edie tsked with mirth in her own, dark eyes. "You have your delicate moments." She chuckled, knowing very well just how full his heart was at that moment, seeing as she too felt so much of that same, immediate, intensely unconditional, parental love.
"Will you stay with her?" This was the only time worry would enter the mother's voice: the time to be escorted away by the med-bots was imminent, and to have either of her two great loves out of her sight right now was a difficult thing to endure...but knowing Ajax was overseeing Edith's care put Edie at least a little more at ease.
For all the absurd luxuries the bull lavished upon his wife, surely he'd never deny her this very necessary request. And so, upon inevitably answering in the affirmative, the sow would peck both husband and child--the babe squirming just brief enough to blow a sleepy, milky bubble against her mother's cheek--before following her android midwife for a post-natal exam.
Ajax
He had a look of worry as she stood up and walked- but she didn't shake or stumble. Apparently, despite everything, all was well.
"Of course. It would be very difficult to remove her from me now." He smiled. As she was led away by the midwife, the other droids moved forward.
One stuck its hands out to grab the infant, only to be met by a low growl of warning from a defensive bull. That heavy vibration was enough to get the bots to back off a few feet, but also enough for the baby to open her eyes and see just what the fuss was about.
Ajax gave her his paw to gum on for a moment. "Now listen to me. You'll have her when I hand her to you. Do not try and remove her from me. This is your only warning."
His violence was kept in check by the fact that he didn't want to frighten the baby. After his warning had sunk in, he reluctantly passed her to the medical team to be measured and weighed, to have her pawprints taken, and her vitals checked.
The medical team on board the ship was used to working on the captain and his various complaints, but were now treated to the novel sensation of him hovering.
Emroidz
Little Edith Clair fussed just long enough under the rumbling earthquake of Ajax’s protective growl to be presented with a knuckle to suck on. Popping the furry Vienna sausage of her father’s fat mafioso finger in her mouth, the babe gummed happily at his claw.
Being so content, however, made the inevitability of his hand off that much more egregious. Oh boy did she cry! The girl seemed to know, from the moment of her birth, if she raised a fuss, Daddy would be quick to fix things for her. That sob rose from a whimper to a wail fairly soon after being passed over, but fortunately the robotic medical staff were nothing if not highly efficient. Vitals had been checked, initial measurements had been taken, and the white fur and soft pink flesh of her own tiny hands returned with the sooty evidence of their printing still upon them: a cleansing wipe offered up from droid to hovering father so he might wipe the ink from the web of her fingers.
And then? Those blackened baby hands reached—for him.
Eclair knew where safety was.
Ajax
He knit his brows in concern as she began to cry. Was she hurt? Were they hurting her? No. She was just cold, and scared, two things medbots weren't able to fix.
They didn't need to. That was his job. Deftly he scooped the pup away from the medbots, without a hint of his former apprehension, and nestled her back into the protective hook of his arm. She recognized her father, and the fact of it brought a small tear to his typically cool facade.
No doubt the months of his being near, touching Edie's belly and talking to the growing grub of a dobarr had paid off. She was freshly out, but he was already a familiar voice.
"There there, love. Let's get you cleaned up." He cooed as he gently removed the ink from her tiny white paws. He paused to examine the pink paw pads- probably a sign she'd inherited Edie's mitted coat, but it would be a while before they knew for sure.
"Let's go find mum, yes? I bet she misses you."
Emroidz
Edith's insistent caterwauling halted the moment she was returned to her father. Oh yes, already she seemed fully aware of exactly how to get her way: Daddy must be so proud.
Grabbing at the wipe used to clean her little paws, it almost appeared as though the newborn was trying to help her father with a hand-washing...before shoving both of her freshly cleansed paws right back into her mouth as a contented pacifier.
By the time they returned to Edie, Eclair's dark, beady eyes had fallen closed, child as exhausted as they found her mother to be in the hospital bed, both fatigued by her laborious entry into this world. And while daughter would not stir, the other parent instinctively did when she felt her mate and babe draw near.
"How'd it go?" Edie asked quietly, quick to sit up...only to wince and pull the sterile sheets a little higher around her middle.
Ajax
"It went well. I am told she is among the finest specimens of young dobarr, superlative in every way."
Did the med bots say that? Probably but mostly to placate their stressed, emotional boss.
Carefully he found a seat on the bed at her side, and passed the baby gently back to her mother.
"Given the fine stock she comes from, I'm not surprised. She is entirely perfect in every way." He leaned in to kiss Edie on the cheek.
"All she needs is an outfit, and I know you're the perfect one to ask for that."
Emroidz
Edie smirked as Ajax paraphrased his medical staff's professional assessment with every paternal hyperbole imaginable. Receiving Eclair, the mother cooed to her (lightly) sleeping daughter before leaning delicately into the kiss from her mate. "She is beautiful, isn't she?" the sow whispered and sighed wistfully as she stared down into the face of their babe.
The Dobarr female perked up as the bull mentioned an outfit, and grinned ear to ear as he touted her undoubted ability to stylishly dress their child for the very first time. "Her official debut!" Edie had to resist squealing with more than eleven months of pent up excitement. "Be a dear and get me my go bag, would you, love?" The candymaker pointed the kingpin towards her belongings, the ones they had prepared just in case an emergency visit to the Saundarya had been necessary for the delivery.
"Do you remember that lovely Caprus woman we met in the park? Chartreuse? She was endlessly patient with me, and..." Once Ajax had fetched her bag and Edie had finished rummaging around in it, she pulled out...a crudely constructed, but lovingly crafted, knitted gown. The yarn was a lovely seafoam green color, made of the alien equivalent to angora wool: so soft and snuggly warm.
The funniest part was when she tried to put it on Eclair, however. Essentially a tube sock just with two ends instead of one, no matter how carefully Edie rolled it up and attempted to swaddle her baby...it got stuck. Looking like a fat little crocheted worm, Edith promptly woke up and began stretching and squawking and--understandably--upsetting her mother in the process. "O-oh dear. O-oh no. It's okay! No, no baby. Shh. Shh. I'll get you out!"
Even in a panic, it was clear the new Mommy didn't want to ruin her handiwork, and so it was her ever-so-carefully stretching the wooly garment to try and get the little darling's furry white head through.
Ajax
He bit his lip, out of concern for Edie's emotions and Edith's comfort, and was also trying very hard not to laugh at the poor little dobarr caterpillar that had been formed by the knitting. Finally the baby's head came out with almost an audible pop! like a fuzzy pompom on a long woolen hat.
"Goodness. Just when I thought she wouldn't get any cuter."
Emroidz
Edie breathed a sigh of relief when at last Eclair's little head popped through the neck hole of that tube sock-style swaddling gown. Looking proudly up at Ajax, it was only then that the sow realized that he'd been biting back laughter this entire time...and while during her pregnancy this might have caused a haze of hormonal confusion that manifested itself in an inevitable torrent of tears, at last the sun had come out, and the blue skies of clarity allowed her to laugh with him.
"I forgot the arm holes."
...and she really had too.
More than that? Chartreuse hadn't had the heart to tell her (or, alternatively, been smart enough not to tell her and make the poor, expectant mother at the time cry yet again).
Ajax
"Well. She seems content enough." He smiled down at the very swaddled pup, looking cozy if not confused in her sock.
He leaned over and popped a pacifier into her mouth, quieting her grunting and letting her drift off once more.
"So. How soon do we want to make another?"
It hadn't been long, but he was apparently sold on the idea.
Emroidz
"She kinda looks like a piping bag," the candymaker joked, half tempted to pick the baby up and hold her the way she would when busy icing baked goods in her sweet shop. (She didn't, of course!)
Breathing a sigh of relief as her daughter accepted the pacifier offered and fell right back to sleep (that newborn fatigue wouldn't last for long, y'all; enjoy it while it lasts!), Edie smirked as Ajax wasted no time negotiating the terms of their second child.
"Hmm...how far apart are you and Georgie in age?" The sow considered, countering her bull's eagerness with a more level-headed rationale. Still, the fact that she made no mention of the med-bot's insistence that she give herself time to heal from the delivery suggested that Edie had forgotten all about her labor pains the moment Edith flooded her body with all that new-mother oxytocin.
Ajax
"A year and a half, give or take. But who could wait that long?"
He squeezed himself gently onto the cot next to her. It groaned under their combined weight, but held.
"Besides. We have so many other good baby names on the list." He yawned loudly and rested his head against her own.
"How do you feel?"
Emroidz
Edie rolled her eyes and chuckled as Ajax doubled down on words with action and cozied right up to her there in that hospital bed. "I think I'll be taking one night off, at least, my love. Besides, you don't want to be made to feel small, do you?" A joke, of course! And a rather crude one at that, given that she'd just delivered a rather large Dobarr child naturally into this world. Yeah...a few days rest was probably wise, but the sow knew the bull would not be kept at bay for too long.
"Chrysanthemum for our next daughter?" Edie grinned and teased Ajax, recalling the rather hoity-toity name Georgie assumed would be at the very top of his elitist big brother's list. "Or are we going to try extra hard for a boy this round, hmm?" She pecked his lips and tweaked his whiskers playfully before snuggling in against her husband.
He'd asked her how she felt, and before she got good and comfortable, the new mother might have answered him with words...but the snores which came from her practically in the next instant were, perhaps, even more reassuring.
Ajax
He could have blushed to hear her tease like that, but in short order she was asleep, and so was baby, and papa wasn't far behind.
He cast a lazy look to the medbots that were still hovering and grumbled a quiet "get out."
To which they all immediately obliged. He curled back inward and soon joined his family in fitful sleeping.
The pain began late at night, and while Edie was used to being roused from sleep by a certain, unborn someone tap dancing somewhere between layers of blubber and her bladder...this feeling was decidedly, terrifyingly new.
Sitting up in bed and supporting the unbalanced weight of her even more round than usual middle, the Dobarr woman grunted, groaned, and gritted her teeth as the heavy feeling of the babe in her womb sat far lower on her body than she'd come to be familiar with these past eleven months.
Panting, the sow dared not stand on her own. "Ajax? Ajax darling?" The candy maker attempted to rouse her kingpin husband ever-so-gently. As patient as Edie was, however, Edith was far more demanding, and gave her dear sweet mother a good kick in the uterus (and her first distinct and definitive contraction therein). "FUCKING hell!" The poor old girl swore in a way that entirely contradicted her saccharine and saintly nature. "Wake up!" Edie smacked Ajax's big, fat, but unfairly NOT pregnant belly had he refused to stir from his peaceful slumber before now.
"The baby's coming!" Edie hissed, only to have the sharpness in her tone of voice drop suddenly as she whined and whimpered, clutching her middle as though she might very well pop a seam. "The pool. The pool, Ajax! Get me to the pool, DONT CALL DOCTOR GADHAVI! THE MED-BOT IS FINE FOR NOW. FOCUS AJAX!" They had prepared for a Marran-appropriate water birth and Edie would accept no less.
Ajax
Ajax was warm in bed, loafed into a comfortable round blubber lump next to his mate. His rhythmic, heavy breathing suddenly punctuated by a grunt when Edie smacked him awake.
"I... what. NOW?! " He sputtered. "Oh good Lord."
Soon however he was up on his feet, guiding Edie up and towards the pool. They'd gone over the plan, practiced it. Fire drills. The element missing from a drill however is the element of surprise and adrenaline.
The captain of the Albatross barked orders at his robotic staff with the tone of a general at war. "Battlestations. I need all of the med bots down here on standby, with painkillers. Likewise housekeeping with towels, the sterile towels."
The saltwater pool was hardly the churning mighty waters of their native Marr, but the gentle waves and cold temperatures emulated one of its sheltered tide pools well enough. Ajax led her gently to the water.
"Edie my love, how do you feel? Can I get you anything?"
Emroidz
Edie was, justifiably, a mess. Agonized by yet another onslaught of unmistakable contractions, the fact that she didn’t come to a full halt but hobbled on—even while hung from Ajax’s arm and doubled over—might have been impressive under any other circumstance.
“I. Need. Drugs. Give me drugs. Right now. All the drugs. I WANT A FUCKING EPIDURAL WHY DID I INSIST ON A HOME BIRTH THE MED-BOT CAN’T STICK ME WITH A DAMN NEEDLE! Is it too late to call the doctor? OH GOD ITS TOO LATE TO CALL THE DOCTOR ISNT IT?! Oh Ajax, it hurts so bad. W-why does it hurt so bad?”
Her pain gave way to panic, as the first time mother clung to her mate and struggled to get herself up and over the basin lip of the wading pool. She managed, albeit with great difficulty, and thankfully the frigid temperature of the water she sank into seemed to placate some of her more immediate distress.
At least until the next contraction hit.
“H-how did my sister-in-law pop out seven of these fucking things?!”
“I changed my mind! I don’t want a big family! You’re only getting one! She’s gonna be an only child! You hear me, Ajax Killdevil?! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”
…poor Ajax. Good luck reminding Edie to breathe. Gulp!
Ajax
Where is captainly sense of command held power over the droids, poor Ajax was left in a lurch when it came to this.
"I'm right here dearest, it's alright." Well, if she's yelling at least she's breathing, right?
"The med bot can't do an epidural but it can- YOU THERE!" He barked at the poor med droid.
"I ordered those painkillers forty five seconds ago! Hurry up or I'll junk you."
He could take out his own fear and concern on the bots, at least. He slid into the water beside Edie, holding onto her so she could focus on what she had to do without drifting off.
"Trust your instincts, love. You are a dobarr, and a strong specimen at that. You have this."
Emroidz
Ajax had always been able to appeal to the strong pride Edie took in their species, no doubt due to his own sense of superiority. To be told she was strong, that she was the finest specimen of Dobarr he could have ever hoped to procreate with (in her delirium, she might have been paraphrasing just a bit) definitely helped the poor sow get her head right. This was normal. This was natural. The women of Marr delivered in far less of a controlled environment than the luxury catered and customized to her exact wants and needs here at home.
A lull came in the contractions then. A moment was all she needed: to lean back and feel Ajax there, to let the cold creep in with the soft lapping current. “This is it. We’re going to be parents. Our baby is—is—! IS TRYING TO KILL ME FUUUUUUUCK!!!”
Edie had taken Ajax’s hand just in time to crush his fingers. “Melt the butter! Pour the sugar! Add the evaporated milk!” Um…what? “Sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk are two different things! You cannot substitute one for the other in a baking recipe!” W-was she…? “Stir gently and constantly until it feels like your arm is gonna fall off. Five minutes on medium heat. In the last 30 seconds turn off the burner and add semi-sweet chocolate chips and marshmallow fluff.”
Edie was reciting her fudge recipe. From memory. Verbatim. AS A COPING MECHANISM. TAKE THAT LAMAZE CLASS!
Ajax
Despite his proud status as an alpha bull, he let out a pathetic whimper as his paw was caught in the vice of Edie's grip.
Still. He was there for her. He had to be there for her. And the medical bot FINALLY arrived with a heavy dose of liquid relaxation.
"You're making something better than fudge, dearest. Just breathe and think. Think of your beautiful baby girl safe in your a-AAAH-"
He gasped as another contraction radiated through Edie's body and down to her powerful grip on his hand. Next pup was getting an epidural. For both their sakes.
"Doctor... is she almost done?" He whined to the bot.
"The infant is oriented in the correct position and the birth is progressing normally."
"That is not what I asked."
Emroidz
Edie panicked as Ajax whimpered, seeming to realize she had hurt him even through the haze of her own internal agony. "Sorry love. Oh dear, I'm sor--ooo, that's good stuff," the Dobarr woman practically drooled with relief as the administered drugs quickly reached her nervous system and alleviated some of the anguish she'd been feeling. The sow took her bull's hand, petting and pecking the back of it apologetically as she slumped and slid down his front and deeper into the water.
Blowing bubbles from her nostrils, she'd sunk so low into the pool, the candymaker rolled onto her side and rested her cheek in the crook of the kingpin's thick, cleaved elbow. Her breathing had slowed from anxious panting to something more deliberate: deep inhale, in through the mouth, and a slow exhale, out through the nose. "It's time to push," Edie told Ajax, sounding quite sure as she answered his question: even before the med-bot had elaborated further.
Ajax
"Don't worry about it." He cooed to his bride as the med bot surreptitiously stuck the kingpin with his own less potent dose of pain killer.
He held her gently and stroked her whiskers with his paw, hoping the rhythmic touch could at least be a comfort, or an anchor point.
"Push, then, if you are ready. We are all excited to meet the pup you worked so hard on." He cast a glance to the medical team, all of whom took another step forward to illustrate to their captain they were ready to jump in.
"What do you need me to do, love?"
Emroidz
Edie closed her eyes, and then squeezed them shut tighter, as Ajax's affectionate touching helped but did not lessen the intensity of the contractions which increased with every wave. She was panting yet again at this point, straining with whimpered, heaving gasps as she struggled to keep her breathing controlled and productive.
"Even future sciences have not yet come so far as to have you carry our next one of these," the sow joked with her bull, somehow managing to find humor in the sweet offer of her mate to at least try and help with her labor. But inevitably, and alas, she'd have to go the last leg of this pregnancy on her own.
It was no short effort either: they were in for the long haul. As hours ticked away, so too would her energy for the pushing needing to be done to guide their daughter along into the world be whittled away. The poor woman was exhausted, nothing was soothing her anymore: not Ajax, not the calming lull of the artificially tidal waters, not even the routinely administered painkillers. At a certain point, with their aid becoming moot, she'd declined the med bots even being present.
...and it was a good thing she had, because it let the eventual, final momentum of the end to Edith's hard fought, first born birth be a private moment between new mother and father. Ajax would be the first one to see an unmistakable flash of white drop through a cloud of red that tainted the previously clear waters, before Edie's maternal instinct had her fatigued body up in an instant, turning and snatching the newborn child from the pool and tucking her immediately into the warm crook between her breast and the wide wing of her arm.
"She's here. We did it. Look what we made."
Ajax
"I would if I could, dear." Though honestly, he was secretly happy he couldn't birth any children, being quite sure he wasn't strong enough to survive it.
There was no true ocean, but all of the other pieces of a natural Marran birth were there. And when Edith finally slid out into the water, her father was there to catch her and bring her up for her first gulp of air. She was immediately pushed to her mother's paws, fished from the water and into the warmth of maternal embrace.
Ajax leaned forward, craning to get a good look at the damp pup. "Shes quiet... is that normal?"
As if on cue, huge dark eyes opened and blinked at her parents. And she began to scream.
Emroidz
Quiet was definitely not normal when it came to babies of any kind. As Ajax passed their newborn off, Edie had just enough time to worry before the black of those beady little eyes opened against the snow white of her angel face…and let both parents immediately know just who was in charge here.
“Goodness!” Edie laughed in surprise and grinned up at Ajax. Adjusting the squawking child in her arms with a very natural inclination, their daughter disappeared into the dark coat of her mother’s bosom.
Together, quite sweetly, they looked like Yin and Yang: black and white, a nursing pair. The pup’s strong-lunged shrieking first muffled by fur, and then by what she was really after. Colostrum. And what was essential for baby was equally necessary for the bonding of mother with child. Edie melted the moment she felt her babe latch, right there on the spot, and began to quietly cry very happy tears.
“Please don’t let the bots take her. Not yet, okay?” Edie whispered to Ajax, knowing his robotic medical staff were standing by—even with the best of intentions—to check up on mother and child post-delivery. Separation simply wasn’t an option right now.
Ajax
"Anyone who disturbs you is getting my cane lodged in the dead center of their brain." He reassured her. Instincts of his own were taking hold fast, namely the bullish notion of stay away from my mate. The medbots, trained well, sat back and waited to be signaled forward.
He rubbed her back gently as the new pup took her milk. "Well done, love. Was it all worth it?"
Emroidz
Edie hummed and swayed as Edith suckled, clearly entranced by the little darling. Oh yeah, she was sold on the whole experience: pregnancy, labor, all of it. If this was the light at the end of the tunnel? Worth it.
But…
“I don’t know, Dad, you tell me,” the candy maker smiled up at the kingpin before surprising him with a plump little milk-filled baby right there in his arms. Eclair was exhausted from her entry into this world, and her squawking had been stifled by being immediately stuffed with her first meal. She was quiet again, but this time it wasn’t concerning: it was peaceful.
Ajax
He stood still for a moment as if frozen in shock. The little infant fit so perfectly into her father's massive paws. She was so fragile, like a little white snowflake that could be damaged by a single false move. It frightened him.
Carefully (awkwardly) he adjusted his hold. A fierce kingpin didn't have much experience in the sort of delicate and nurturing care an infant needed to thrive, and he knew it. Out of his element, but determined to make it work, he mimicked Edie's hold and brought her up to his chest.
"She's more beautiful than the finest Marran pearl. I almost can't believe half of her came from me. Look how delicate she is."
Emroidz
Edie watched but did not interfere. She trusted Ajax implicitly, and it showed in the fact she felt no need to micromanage as a new mother. With a smile and approving pat on the forearm once her husband at last situated their daughter in the snuggly space between chest and bicep, the Dobarr woman took a deep breath...and stood of her own accord. No fuss, no real struggle, just living proof that--like most animals--her body was meant to procreate and had not undergone anything especially traumatic.
"Now, now love," Edie tsked with mirth in her own, dark eyes. "You have your delicate moments." She chuckled, knowing very well just how full his heart was at that moment, seeing as she too felt so much of that same, immediate, intensely unconditional, parental love.
"Will you stay with her?" This was the only time worry would enter the mother's voice: the time to be escorted away by the med-bots was imminent, and to have either of her two great loves out of her sight right now was a difficult thing to endure...but knowing Ajax was overseeing Edith's care put Edie at least a little more at ease.
For all the absurd luxuries the bull lavished upon his wife, surely he'd never deny her this very necessary request. And so, upon inevitably answering in the affirmative, the sow would peck both husband and child--the babe squirming just brief enough to blow a sleepy, milky bubble against her mother's cheek--before following her android midwife for a post-natal exam.
Ajax
He had a look of worry as she stood up and walked- but she didn't shake or stumble. Apparently, despite everything, all was well.
"Of course. It would be very difficult to remove her from me now." He smiled. As she was led away by the midwife, the other droids moved forward.
One stuck its hands out to grab the infant, only to be met by a low growl of warning from a defensive bull. That heavy vibration was enough to get the bots to back off a few feet, but also enough for the baby to open her eyes and see just what the fuss was about.
Ajax gave her his paw to gum on for a moment. "Now listen to me. You'll have her when I hand her to you. Do not try and remove her from me. This is your only warning."
His violence was kept in check by the fact that he didn't want to frighten the baby. After his warning had sunk in, he reluctantly passed her to the medical team to be measured and weighed, to have her pawprints taken, and her vitals checked.
The medical team on board the ship was used to working on the captain and his various complaints, but were now treated to the novel sensation of him hovering.
Emroidz
Little Edith Clair fussed just long enough under the rumbling earthquake of Ajax’s protective growl to be presented with a knuckle to suck on. Popping the furry Vienna sausage of her father’s fat mafioso finger in her mouth, the babe gummed happily at his claw.
Being so content, however, made the inevitability of his hand off that much more egregious. Oh boy did she cry! The girl seemed to know, from the moment of her birth, if she raised a fuss, Daddy would be quick to fix things for her. That sob rose from a whimper to a wail fairly soon after being passed over, but fortunately the robotic medical staff were nothing if not highly efficient. Vitals had been checked, initial measurements had been taken, and the white fur and soft pink flesh of her own tiny hands returned with the sooty evidence of their printing still upon them: a cleansing wipe offered up from droid to hovering father so he might wipe the ink from the web of her fingers.
And then? Those blackened baby hands reached—for him.
Eclair knew where safety was.
Ajax
He knit his brows in concern as she began to cry. Was she hurt? Were they hurting her? No. She was just cold, and scared, two things medbots weren't able to fix.
They didn't need to. That was his job. Deftly he scooped the pup away from the medbots, without a hint of his former apprehension, and nestled her back into the protective hook of his arm. She recognized her father, and the fact of it brought a small tear to his typically cool facade.
No doubt the months of his being near, touching Edie's belly and talking to the growing grub of a dobarr had paid off. She was freshly out, but he was already a familiar voice.
"There there, love. Let's get you cleaned up." He cooed as he gently removed the ink from her tiny white paws. He paused to examine the pink paw pads- probably a sign she'd inherited Edie's mitted coat, but it would be a while before they knew for sure.
"Let's go find mum, yes? I bet she misses you."
Emroidz
Edith's insistent caterwauling halted the moment she was returned to her father. Oh yes, already she seemed fully aware of exactly how to get her way: Daddy must be so proud.
Grabbing at the wipe used to clean her little paws, it almost appeared as though the newborn was trying to help her father with a hand-washing...before shoving both of her freshly cleansed paws right back into her mouth as a contented pacifier.
By the time they returned to Edie, Eclair's dark, beady eyes had fallen closed, child as exhausted as they found her mother to be in the hospital bed, both fatigued by her laborious entry into this world. And while daughter would not stir, the other parent instinctively did when she felt her mate and babe draw near.
"How'd it go?" Edie asked quietly, quick to sit up...only to wince and pull the sterile sheets a little higher around her middle.
Ajax
"It went well. I am told she is among the finest specimens of young dobarr, superlative in every way."
Did the med bots say that? Probably but mostly to placate their stressed, emotional boss.
Carefully he found a seat on the bed at her side, and passed the baby gently back to her mother.
"Given the fine stock she comes from, I'm not surprised. She is entirely perfect in every way." He leaned in to kiss Edie on the cheek.
"All she needs is an outfit, and I know you're the perfect one to ask for that."
Emroidz
Edie smirked as Ajax paraphrased his medical staff's professional assessment with every paternal hyperbole imaginable. Receiving Eclair, the mother cooed to her (lightly) sleeping daughter before leaning delicately into the kiss from her mate. "She is beautiful, isn't she?" the sow whispered and sighed wistfully as she stared down into the face of their babe.
The Dobarr female perked up as the bull mentioned an outfit, and grinned ear to ear as he touted her undoubted ability to stylishly dress their child for the very first time. "Her official debut!" Edie had to resist squealing with more than eleven months of pent up excitement. "Be a dear and get me my go bag, would you, love?" The candymaker pointed the kingpin towards her belongings, the ones they had prepared just in case an emergency visit to the Saundarya had been necessary for the delivery.
"Do you remember that lovely Caprus woman we met in the park? Chartreuse? She was endlessly patient with me, and..." Once Ajax had fetched her bag and Edie had finished rummaging around in it, she pulled out...a crudely constructed, but lovingly crafted, knitted gown. The yarn was a lovely seafoam green color, made of the alien equivalent to angora wool: so soft and snuggly warm.
The funniest part was when she tried to put it on Eclair, however. Essentially a tube sock just with two ends instead of one, no matter how carefully Edie rolled it up and attempted to swaddle her baby...it got stuck. Looking like a fat little crocheted worm, Edith promptly woke up and began stretching and squawking and--understandably--upsetting her mother in the process. "O-oh dear. O-oh no. It's okay! No, no baby. Shh. Shh. I'll get you out!"
Even in a panic, it was clear the new Mommy didn't want to ruin her handiwork, and so it was her ever-so-carefully stretching the wooly garment to try and get the little darling's furry white head through.
Ajax
He bit his lip, out of concern for Edie's emotions and Edith's comfort, and was also trying very hard not to laugh at the poor little dobarr caterpillar that had been formed by the knitting. Finally the baby's head came out with almost an audible pop! like a fuzzy pompom on a long woolen hat.
"Goodness. Just when I thought she wouldn't get any cuter."
Emroidz
Edie breathed a sigh of relief when at last Eclair's little head popped through the neck hole of that tube sock-style swaddling gown. Looking proudly up at Ajax, it was only then that the sow realized that he'd been biting back laughter this entire time...and while during her pregnancy this might have caused a haze of hormonal confusion that manifested itself in an inevitable torrent of tears, at last the sun had come out, and the blue skies of clarity allowed her to laugh with him.
"I forgot the arm holes."
...and she really had too.
More than that? Chartreuse hadn't had the heart to tell her (or, alternatively, been smart enough not to tell her and make the poor, expectant mother at the time cry yet again).
Ajax
"Well. She seems content enough." He smiled down at the very swaddled pup, looking cozy if not confused in her sock.
He leaned over and popped a pacifier into her mouth, quieting her grunting and letting her drift off once more.
"So. How soon do we want to make another?"
It hadn't been long, but he was apparently sold on the idea.
Emroidz
"She kinda looks like a piping bag," the candymaker joked, half tempted to pick the baby up and hold her the way she would when busy icing baked goods in her sweet shop. (She didn't, of course!)
Breathing a sigh of relief as her daughter accepted the pacifier offered and fell right back to sleep (that newborn fatigue wouldn't last for long, y'all; enjoy it while it lasts!), Edie smirked as Ajax wasted no time negotiating the terms of their second child.
"Hmm...how far apart are you and Georgie in age?" The sow considered, countering her bull's eagerness with a more level-headed rationale. Still, the fact that she made no mention of the med-bot's insistence that she give herself time to heal from the delivery suggested that Edie had forgotten all about her labor pains the moment Edith flooded her body with all that new-mother oxytocin.
Ajax
"A year and a half, give or take. But who could wait that long?"
He squeezed himself gently onto the cot next to her. It groaned under their combined weight, but held.
"Besides. We have so many other good baby names on the list." He yawned loudly and rested his head against her own.
"How do you feel?"
Emroidz
Edie rolled her eyes and chuckled as Ajax doubled down on words with action and cozied right up to her there in that hospital bed. "I think I'll be taking one night off, at least, my love. Besides, you don't want to be made to feel small, do you?" A joke, of course! And a rather crude one at that, given that she'd just delivered a rather large Dobarr child naturally into this world. Yeah...a few days rest was probably wise, but the sow knew the bull would not be kept at bay for too long.
"Chrysanthemum for our next daughter?" Edie grinned and teased Ajax, recalling the rather hoity-toity name Georgie assumed would be at the very top of his elitist big brother's list. "Or are we going to try extra hard for a boy this round, hmm?" She pecked his lips and tweaked his whiskers playfully before snuggling in against her husband.
He'd asked her how she felt, and before she got good and comfortable, the new mother might have answered him with words...but the snores which came from her practically in the next instant were, perhaps, even more reassuring.
Ajax
He could have blushed to hear her tease like that, but in short order she was asleep, and so was baby, and papa wasn't far behind.
He cast a lazy look to the medbots that were still hovering and grumbled a quiet "get out."
To which they all immediately obliged. He curled back inward and soon joined his family in fitful sleeping.
