Treasure for All

27. Emerald

Exhausted and fighting sleep, San managed to stay awake long enough to find an empty chair to sit on. Propping his elbows on his knees, he buried his face in his hands, his fingers trying to rub the sleep away from his eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth, but he still fought to stay awake.

"Are you alright, San?" Dalia's voice asked him.

"Yeah," he answered before meeting her gaze. "Celestia's-"

"In labor, we know. Hongjoong told us. How is she?"

"She's doing fine. I mean, she's in pain, but no complications that I know of. Dahae's keeping an eye on her."

"Good. We'll land in an hour or two, so we'll get her to hospital."

San nods.

For the next twenty minutes, he fights sleep in order to stay awake long enough to know what the plan was for the exploration. He could hear what the captain was instructing, but it all felt fuzzy as Hongjoong's voice seemed to bounce around in San's head. Thoughts of Celestia were swimming in his mind, and even started to dream she was walking into the meeting. Wooyoung had to elbow his friend in the ribs a few times to keep him from drowning into dreamland.

"San!" Grace-Anne burst into the door, jolting the young man awake, "you need to come with me, now. Celestia's water just broke!"

Without hesitating, San leaped from his seat and zoomed back to his bedchambers to find his wife kneeling in a fetal position on the floor, wheezing and moaning in pain. Dahae was next to her, holding her hand and massaging her lower back best she could. Peeking out from Celestia's knees was a puddle of a liquid substance.

"I'm here, angel," San whispered as he knelt in front of her.

"I'll go get the towels," Dahae said before dashing to the bathroom.

"I'll let you take it from here," Grace-Anne excused herself and left the room.

Celestia's pained whimpers broke San's heart. He didn't know how to make it better, but his conscience told him he needed to at least make sure his wife was comfortable.

"San, it hurts," she whined, her blue eyes now red with tears pooling in them.

"I know, my love," he nodded just before scooping her up to lay her on the bed. "Just hold onto me if you need to."

Dahae soon returned with everything she needed to help Celestia through this last stretch of labor: towels, sterile scissors, and a large bowl of water. The rest of the crew's curiosity got the better of them, and they tried to see what was happening. However, Grace-Anne stopped them.

"No!" she nearly shouted as she held her hands up in a stopping signal. "Leave them be! Celestia needs to focus and needs San and Dahae to be there for her. You'll all get to see the baby after she's born."

"Since we're landing soon, I'll call the hospital," Dinah volunteered.

Grace-Anne followed after her and replied, "She's not pushing yet, but we can at least look up the number for the maternity ward and maybe get an ambulance."

As the two women did so, the rest of the crew went about their businesses in preparing for landing. The air was thick with anxiousness, but Hongjoong reminded them to stay focused.

-

Labor had made the air too hot for Celestia, so she had San pull her night gown off and leave her in just her black bralette. A large but light towel was thrown over her so as to not make her feel embarrassed being nude from the waist down. San was beginning to sweat from being too nervous for his wife that he had to change his exploration attire down to a white shirt and basketball shorts, and Dahae busied herself with trying to make her friend as comfortable as possible and monitoring the baby as well. Byeol had scurried out of the room, frightened by Celestia's stressed moans.