Chapter 20 #3
“What’s wrong?” Talon growled and peeked down around underneath Mercury’s tunic where the birth line was open and a dragon baby head was breeching. “Like now! Is that the head?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?” Mercury sounded very concerned, and Talon could understand it.
“Oh, you’re having a baby,” Talon said.
“Yes, I know, Talon,” Mercury said, “but why is everybody staring at me that way?”
Rowan just shook his head and went to wash his hands. “Why don’t you hold his shoulders?”
“Mercury’s or the baby’s?”
“Oh, the head’s still not all the way out.”
Mercury stared at them. “What?”
“I think he wants me to hold your shoulders, love, and help you lean. The baby’s coming. The head is already part of the way out.”
Mercury’s eyes went wide. “Oh, wow! It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like it’s still very stuck.”
“Well, you’re doing it.” Talon was a little panicky actually because he thought they’d had several hours to get used to this idea and for him to prepare to hold his baby, but this was fast.
Mercury was kind of starting to glow with a silvery mirror-like radiance that Talon had never seen. He’d heard stories about how some of the other omega’s, Elowyn and Jack’s Dex had glowed golden when they’d had their babies. And he supposed this was a side effect of all the magic.
“Do I need to be scared, braaken?” Mercury asked, gaze clinging to his.
“No, hailee. There’s no reason to be scared. The baby knows exactly what to do. We’ve got this. I think probably our child is going to be way smarter than either one of us.”
Mercury chuckled but then grunted and tried to curl up on himself again.
Talon figured this was where holding the shoulders came in, so he kept more upright.
Rowan was back then, and he raised the tunic up and put a sheet around Mercury’s hips and legs, sort of like a little tent.
He pushed Mercury’s legs up so his feet were on the bed, his knees raised.
“Here we go, Mercury. Breathe for me, and the next time you feel a contraction starting, give me a good, hard push.”
Talon looked at Rowan and tried a little bit of mental communication. Is this normal, the way he’s glowing?
Rowan just gave him a soft smile. When it comes to dragon births, nothing is abnormal.
Oh, that was a good thing. He felt like he could live with that. Talon didn’t want abnormal, because that always meant danger. What if Rowan wasn’t worried? He wasn’t worried. They just needed to get through this.
Mercury glanced up at him, his silvery eyes glowing. “This would be a terrible time to slide, wouldn’t it?”
“Don’t you even think about it,” he laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. He couldn’t think of anything that would be worse to be honest. That said, he held on tight just in case.
“It’s not going to take long now, Mercury,” Rowan told them. “You’re just powering through this.”
“I thought it was supposed to take hours?”
Rowan shrugged. “Babies come when they come. You have precious little choice about the whole thing. Your son is on his way.”
There was one more hard contraction and a desperate push that made his mate scream, and he wanted to demand that the pain stop, right now.
And then Mercury suddenly relaxed, the glow blinding.
Talon squeezed his eyes closed and held on, thinking about nothing but wanting to be right here, nowhere but right here with his hailee, right here in this room with his hailee, just in case.
“He’s beautiful, Mercury. He looks just like you. You just need to push one more time, gently, for the shoulders, and he’ll be out. You’ll have done it.”
“The hard part is over?” Mercury whispered, and Rowan chuckled.
“No, that’s coming when you have to raise this child. But the hard part of giving birth is over, yes.”
Mercury smiled, the look trembling, and then the glow began to fade a bit.
“Just one more little push, hailee, and you’ll hold your son.”
Mercury sniffled, “Our son.”
“Yes.”
Goddess, he needed to let people know. Kami?
Yeah? You okay?
The baby’s here.
What?
The baby’s here. Could you please go to the apartment and make sure everything’s ready for us? We came down to visit Donnal, and the baby’s here.
Are you serious? I’m going to kick Mercury’s butt. I was in labor for a hundred thousand years, and he just pops his baby out like he’s peeling a grape?
Well, I’m not sure it’s like peeling a grape. More like gravity pulling a fruit down off the vine.
Ew. I’m on my way to your place again with Reno and Triton. We’ve got your back, my friend.
Thank you.
He held Mercury during that last hard push, Mercury grunting and groaning, and there he was. Their son. Right there in Rowan’s hands.
“Look at him, hailee. He’s so beautiful.” Their sweet boy was huge considering how small Mercury was. He was going to have Talon’s size, but it looked like he was going to have Mercury’s coloring. He was a tiny, bright, shining mirror.
“Oh, he’s so pretty.” Mercury sniffed, the tears coming now that the labor was over.
Talon thought he understood. It had all happened so fast.
“I’m so proud of you, my love. You did so well.” He beamed down at his hailee while Rowan, and the attendant he hadn’t even seen until now, worked to clean up the baby and Mercury.
They allowed Talon to take care of the cord, which made him feel ten feet tall.
Mercury blinked at him, licking his lips. “Thank you, braaken.”
“You are most welcome, love. My hailee. Thank you for this gift. My son. My sokkar. I will protect you both always.” He bent to nuzzle Mercury’s cheek. “No more hunting rocks with Kami without me. That way I will be there if you slide.”
“And you can always lead us home.”
He chuckled as Rowan handed their son to Mercury. “Exactly. Shall we call him Biram?”
“Yes. We will name him Biram, but I want to call him Silver.” Mercury sounded completely sure. Firm.
“Silver it is. And if Kami makes jokes about old TV shows, I will smite him.”
Mercury raised an eyebrow. “I do not know this TV show.”
“Good. Don’t allow him to make you watch it.” He would kick Kami for that.
“It won’t matter. That’s what we’ll call him, because that’s his name.” And just like so much with his Mercury, that was that.