B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

100. Birth

Unlike the first two pregnancies, labor started more subtly. Grace had to be told she was about to give birth by Harvey. That was only one of the two leniencies this birth gave her.

Everyone except Cooper was there for it and they all did their best to help. Winston held Grace up. Shuu made impromptu blocks topped with furs for Grace to brace her shins on top of while Harvey awaited below.

The ape king was asked (~threatened~) by Mitchell to remain just outside the door in case Grace needed him. Said scorpion spent the time burying his tail into the stone wall in an expression of anxiety. Bard watched that tail warily and stood as far away as he could.

Curtis would swap positions with Winston as needed while Muir would run any errand Harvey or the ape king sent him on. Fetching and preparing clean water was his main task.

After 8 hours of labor, the first child was born. Before they could celebrate, the ape king informed them of some bad news.

"She's coming out backwards."

The majority of males in the room did not understand what that meant or why it was a problem, but there was one that did.

Harvey's face paled. "What can we do?" His voice held barely concealed panic.

Grace answered before the ape king king. Through gritted teeth, Grace practically growled. "Turn her around!"

Harvey and Bard startled. "Around?" asked Bard.

Harvey didn't ask. He knew what she meant. He had just let the panic of potential consequences overcome him in the heat of the moment. With dilated eyes and sweaty palms, he willed his heart to quiet down enough so he could talk clearly.

"Breach?" Harvey asked.

"Breach," Grace confirmed. She looked pale and tired, but her eyes showed little fear. "You can do it."

Harvey felt the weight of those words simultaneously crush him and boost his confidence. He had to do it. From what Grace told him and what he'd witnessed as a healer, he knew he had to try to avoid the worst outcome.

The group shifted as they allowed Harvey and Bard to try and turn the baby around. They helped Grace lay down and manually turned the baby. Although Grace hadn't been familiar enough with the technique to share more, Harvey knew that he could also attempt to turn the cub internally. But without further knowledge, he would only do that if this method failed first.

Grace couldn't exactly stop the contractions while the two of them worked on turning her baby, so her position was changed several times to accommodate their attempts. She was fed a transparent crystal by a shaky Shuu to keep her strength up. It helped, just like it usually did.

Thanks to the ape king's ability, they were able to know what kind of progress they were making.

"Stop. The cord will tangle." All action ceased and so did the breathing in the room.

Harvey forced himself to take a swallow of air. "Which way?"

Beads of sweat dripped down Bard's brow. He licked his painfully dry lips as he carefully manipulated the direction the cub was turning.

Grace was scared; no, terrified, but she didn't show it. She couldn't. Curtis was one comment away from doing something drastic. Shuu was maybe two.

'One, two, three, four...breathe. One, two three, four...' She focused everything on breathing as she got lost in her own head.

Only the distressed feelings of her mates occasionally penetrated her thoughts beyond that point. She listened to directions and only vaguely heard Bard speak.