Chapter 34 - Here We Go

Tris

I stroke the top of Mom's hand trying to comfort her. She has had to be in labor for at least a day now.

I've been focusing on Mom more than anything because if I let my mind drift, then my brain processes the overwhelming pain in my leg.

Mom starts to breath heavily again. She's having another contraction. I can tell that they are getting a little closer together, but not much. She gets like two an hour.

But yet again, I don't have a clock...

So I have no clue how far apart they really are.

Nor am I a doctor,

So I surely cannot deliver a baby.

The only thing I really can do is try to make her feel as safe and as comfortable as possible.

"Your doing good mom. Don't worry, we will get through this together. I'm so proud of you. I love you. Your doing good." I murmur encouragingly.

I put my head on her shoulder and she rests her head on top of mine. The simple gesture brings tears to my eyes. We may have our lives at stake right now, but at least we can comfort one another.

Of course, another contraction ruins the moment. She jumps in pain and yells out louder than ever. Cara, who was taking a nap, jumps up and stares at me wide eyed. Then she realizes that it's just my mother and sits up calmer and rests her head on the bars. She looks overtired. Well, she is the only one here with some form of medical smartness, so she's been dealing with mom and I for who knows how long.

"What's the pain, Mrs. Prior? One to ten?" She asks.

"Ahh. Seven." She says heavily breathing.

"According to that she's close." She says quietly but loud enough for me to hear.

"And.... It's Natalie." Mom breathes.

I look over to mom and see that she's pulling herself up on the bars trying to stand.

"Mom! Don't hurt yourself!"

"Beatrice. I'm fine." She snaps.

"I just don't want you to hurt yourself mom." I say back calmer.

"I'm sorr-y. I-I didn-'t mea-n to sn-nap a-at y-y-you." She sobs.

"It's okay. Just the hormones talking mom."

I scoot over toward Cara biting my teeth in pain.

"I don't know much about childbirth. I only ever assisted in childbirth a few times as a nurse, but I never was trained in it; nor have I ever experienced it yet." She says with a hand on her stomach. I see guilt in her eyes.

"She has experienced it before though with Caleb and I. She has to have some clue of what she is doing." At least I hope.

She nods. "Sometimes it helps for some women to stand during labor. I'd trust that your mom knows what she's doing. Like you said, she has experienced it before."

I nod.

Caleb is looking at the two of us. I wonder what he is thinking. He never talks much. He's probably so upset to have to just sit there having no way to help any of us on this side. I can't blame him though... I would rather die than sit there and not be able to help in any way.

All of a sudden his eyes shift toward the celing. He doesn't move his eyes at all for what feels like forever. He doesn't flinch when mom cried out. He doesn't react to dad yelling encouraging things to her from his cell. He doesn't react to me staring at him.

What is he looking at?

Is he trying to show or tell me something?

"Caleb!" I whisper yell across to him.

He doesn't react or he soesnt hear me.

Biting my cheek in pain I basically drag myself up to the front of my cell.

"Caleb!" I say a little louder.

That got his attention. He looks at me then points to to celing in the corner. I look but don't see anything other than the old, cracked concrete celing. I give him a confused look and shrug my shoulders to tell him I don't understand.

He points again at the celing in the corner and I look really closely. I feel the blood flush out if my cheeks.

A camera.

Someone is watching us.

I look back at Caleb, then at the camera, then back at Caleb.

They are seeing our every move, our every word we say, every reaction, every flinch, every tear,

Everything.

Mom's yell breaks me from my thoughts.

I can't worry about this now. My mother needs me.

Maybe I can try to get her mind off of the pain.

I don't know if it'll work, but it's worth a shot.

I scoot over to her biting a deeper hole in my cheek in the process. Since she's standing, she is pacing, more like waddling back and forth in her cell.

"I thought I was in the most pain when I was in labor with you, but boy was I wrong!" She chuckles.

She continues, "They had forced me to go to the hospital because of how much pain I was in. They didn't know what to do at home. When we did get to the hospital, I felt all alone considering that it was just the doctors and me; your father wasn't allowed in. That was probably one of the worst parts. " She sits down with the help of the bars.

I remember learning that Abnegation births were pretty straight forward. They were always done at home and female neighbors would come and help you. The men and father were never allowed in the house at the time.

"Once you were born, you weren't breathing and I wouldn't stop bleeding. They ended up paying attention to me and not to the fact that you weren't breathing and almost lost both of us anyway. You were born almost seven weeks early, the doctors have no clue why you were though... You were so small, I wasn't under any stress, I was home resting and doing housework all the time. I guess you just couldn't wait to get here."

I chuckle, tears brimming my eyes. This moment is one that I only have ever had few in my lifetime; it was considered selfish back in Abnegation.

"I didn't get to hold you until you were almost a week old. They were to scared of taking you off the oxygen and having you stop breathing. Your heart was always strong though; that's rare in a baby so small like you were. When I held you for the first time, you opened your eyes the tiniest bit, revealing a pair of blue ones just like mine. I recognized them from the last time I had cut my hair. We didn't get to take you home until you were two weeks. Your father stayed with Caleb back home while I stayed at the hospital not only for them wanting to keep an eye on me, but also for you. Once I did take you home, you never slept. You were always crying. I found that as a blessing though because I'd rather have you keeping me awake by crying and breathing rather than having you quiet but not breathing. Your crying was a blessing toward me."

She looks like she's going to keep telling a story, but then grips her stomach and cries out. She sits like that for a while but then her eyes grow wide while she looks at the floor.

"Oh my goodness. Oh no. Ahh. No. No. No. I FEEL THE HEAD!" She screams so loudly I flinch.

We all just try to suthe her as she breathes and whimpers and anything in between.

"Natalie. Just calm down and take off your pants. It's defiantly time. Holding the baby in will not help. Just get the baby out and all of this will be over!" Cara calls between the cells.

Here we go.

A/N-

Hi Humans!!

(If you celebrate it) Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅🏻🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏽🎄🎅🏾🎄🎅🏿

I hope you all got wonderful things for Christmas!

Me, well, I haven't managed to get out of bed yet... It's 8:30am. I've got another half hour till I get up! Lol.

We all (including me) love getting the presents and gifts and family and food, well just about everything that comes with Christmas Day. Just don't forget the baby in the manger that was born today. Keep the Christ in Christmas.

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