Arjun fisted his hands as he walked by his wife's side, "We need to do this by ourselves." His voice rang throughout the room making everyone freeze, "What are you saying? Where is daimaa... " Bheem was cut off between by Arjun. "They both are not here, we need to do this by ourselves." Arjun shouted, his fear and determination ringing in his voice.

"Aryaaaaa" She screamed making all three of them look at her, they gulped as they saw the blood soaking the bed around her. "We need to do this, no times for talks. Bhraata Bheem read this and guide us!" Arjun passed the book to Bheem, who looked deadly scared looking at the bloody sheets and their wife scream. Bheem nodded in trance, taking the book from Sahadev.

He looked down at the book trying to concentrate on anything but the screams of his wife that were tearing his heart.

The pages blurred as tears filled his eyes, he took deep breaths as Panchaali tightened her hand on his, "be strong arya. We need to do this, we can do this for our baby." Her voice was laced with determination that had the three looking at her and nodding with determination.

"labor happens in three stages and lasts on average 12 to 24 hours for a first birth. Usually, labor is shorter for subsequent births." Bheem read out loud, their hearts threatened to give up, but the tightening of their wife's hand around theirs had them leasing the fear in.

"Check her blood pressure, temperature and pulse... " Bheem began to guide and the other two began to follow his lead, Panchaali's screams were getting louder, she tried to hold back the screams and cries as much as possible but all in vain.

The blood flow was increasing, her back was paining even more as her contraction got sharper. Her hands fisted harder on the pillow, "try to breath priye, the dilation needs to be 8 to 10 centimeters before you are ready to give birth. Till then we can't do anything, you need to have patience, take one contraction at a time. Practice the relaxation techniques that we learned during your early pregnancy period." Bheem assured as he patted her head, Yudhisthir shook his head showing that the dilation process had yet to begin.

Arjun kissed her forehead, "Remember princess every contraction is bringing us closer to our child." He mumbled with adoration, his voice filled with love and care. He gave her a watery smile as she looked up at him, "You're so brave princess. You can do this, we can do this for our little baby. " He mumbled as he pressed a kiss on her forehead, his words gave her the strength she didn't even knew she needed as she began taking in deep breath, trying to bare the pain.

Time passed slower than usual making her forget everything, it was the only truth of her life. The pain intensified with every second, she didn't know how long it had been, for how long she had been in this pain she wasn't sure, every minute seemed like a year.

Her mouth was dry from screaming and with every minute the storm was getting stronger and stronger. Lost in the sea of pain and fatigue she wasn't sure if she could make it, she wasn't sure if she would survive but what she knew was that she would help the child survive, if she has to she will give up her life but she won't let anything happen to the baby.

"She's ready!" Yudhisthir exclaimed his voice laced with happiness as tears of relief filled his and his brothers eyes. They were doing their best, whispering soothing words to her trying to calm her down but what they couldn't do was see her in pain, finally the gods had listened to them after six hours.

"Push when the urge comes." Bheem directed, his voice shaking as he breathed in trying to hold in the heart that was threatening to burst with the pain, the step to motherhood would be so difficult for his wife he had no idea.

Arjun dabbed the sweat from her forehead as a tear rolled down his cheek, he was happy that the baby was coming but the pain his wife was going through was breaking his heart, shredding his soul into pieces. With every tear he could feel himself submerge deeper in the pain of his wife, the only thing holding him together was his promise to her, the promise of being together with her through every pain and happiness. She needed him and that was the only thing that was helping him breathe through the pain, Panchaali in pain was the worst kind of torture to him, he who shielded her even from a little paper cut was helpless today in front of this natural process. But he had decided, even if it broke him he would be her strength, even if it destroyed him.

After all that was what love was, forgetting ones pain completely, destroying your own self if it meant the life of other and here he would have two lives, his wife's and his child's.

"My brave girl. I'm so proud of you." He whispered as he kissed her forehead, her hand tightened around his painfully as her shrill scream dripping with pain bounced off the walls of the room, piercing through the hearts of pandavas, there was no stopping the tears now as the three brothers cried.

"Come on Panchaali, give me our baby. Come on push harder." Yudhisthir urged as he rubbed her thigh, trying to assure her, pain laced his voice but the anticipation of his child was thrumming in his chest.

Bheem fisted his hand as she screamed, blood dripped down from his fists. As he gritted his teeth, the urge to protect her was very strong, it was scratching his chest but how was he supposed to protect her from the natural pain, he gulped down the pain as he pushed a smile on his face trying to be strong for the one girl who was his strength and weakness both.

"Come on little one, you can do this." He whispered as he caressed her head, she shut her eyes tight as she took in gulps of breaths, he lifted her a bit and brought the glass of water to her lips, making her sip some water as Arjun cleaned her sweat.

Another scream rang throughout the room, the screamed had their hearts stopping from beating, their blood froze as they held on to her, the scream was laced with so much pain, it was like her last scream, goosebumps broke throughout their skin as their hearts hammered in their chest wildly. Dread spread throughout them like a wild fire consuming every sense in their body and leaving behind nothing but pain, it was like they had died, finished, shattered, like their world had ceased to exist. As though everything was destroyed, death ruled their being but through this darkness the scream of joy penetrated, shattering every pain as the joy that was born cried for the first time.

Yudhisthir looked down at the child in his hand, it was a boy, soaked in blood and other fluids. He pulled him out, the umbilical cord coming with him.

The pandavas looked in wonder at the little baby, a miracle that was what it was. Tears filled their eyes as they stood up, all crowding the baby looking at the little being, he had such little hands, little feet that were kicking in the air as he cried, his little head had a dark patch of hairs.

His eyes so small, his little nose and soft lips that were producing the most wonderful sound of their life, a piece of them he was, they couldn't believe they had created someone so beautiful together. Someone so small, so delicate, so fragile yet held their lives in his little had, was the reason of joy in their life, all the pain, the suffering, the helplessness seemed to didn't matter anymore, nothing mattered but this little boy.

He was precious than any diamond to them, "He's so precious." Yudhisthir whispered his voice laced with awe, Arjun and Bheem could just smile broadly as they looked at their baby, tears of joy ran down their cheeks.

They never knew that a child could be a source of such great joy, today they felt like they had taken a new birth, today it wasn't just their baby who was born but today also a father was born in all of the pandavas. A parent had taken his first breath in them and all this was because of their wife, who had gifted them with such a precious child, they turned towards her.

"Panchaali see our..." Bheem's words of joy died in his throat died in his throat, the smiles vanishing from their faces as they looked at their wife. The joy turned to sorrow as the world that just moments ago seemed heaven was now burning in the fires of hell.

Panchaali lay on the bed, her clothes and bed both blood soaked, so much blood. The umbilical cord still connecting her and their child, her face pale and her eyes were shut, her breathing had stopped. . .

*****

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The baby survived!!!!

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