Chapter 47
Chapter forty-seven
Anna
Anna took deep breaths. This was it. She took Atlas’s hand to help her into the back seat of the hover. The seat shifted as she organized herself, placing a towel underneath her. “Is this going be good enough?”
Atlas sat in the front and started the hover. “Yes. We aren’t going that far.”
Nora, recently changed into clean clothing, rushed out of the barn. Tilly and Simon were right on her heels. She opened the door and slid in next to Anna. “It’s baby time?”
Anna gripped her belly, nerves as tight as the contractions. “That’s what Atlas says.”
Nora threw her arms in the air. “Finally.” She reached up to Anna’s neck. “I heard you also got rid of your accessory too.”
“Yeah.” Anna laughed, then grimaced as a contraction hit. “I fell a bit ago. Atlas can fill you in, but I think that’s what started everything. He ripped it right off.” She rubbed across her front again. “Got rid of it in time to get mad with how damn painful these contractions are.”
Nora chuckled, patting her front. “It will be worth it.”
Tilly grabbed on to the side of the hover, throwing a drawn picture into Nora’s lap. “Here, I made the baby this! Remember, I get to be the sister.”
“Thanks, Tilly.” Anna took the drawing. It was a picture of Tilly and a cow with a heart around it. She managed a smile. “You can come right after she’s born, okay?”
“Yeah!”
Simon held Tilly’s hand. “We’ll be fine. See you soon, Anna. Can’t wait to meet her.”
Nora waved back to them. “Be good. Stay out of trouble okay?”
Tilly was still waving as Atlas pulled out onto the dirt road.
Anna closed her eyes. She felt every bump, even though the hover glided over the ground instead of directly on top.
Luckily, Atlas drove fast. His singular focus was fortunate, as she didn’t really have it in her for more conversation.
Sometime during the walk from her home to the hover, and sitting now on the seat, the contractions had started in earnest. She tensed as they hit, breathing through the pain. “They’re definitely getting worse.”
Nora grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly.
The facility’s front was mostly empty when they pulled up. The only ones present were Sterling and Zero waiting by the entrance, a wheelchair by Zero’s side. Zero opened the hover door and helped Anna down.
Sterling pulled the wheelchair close. “How are the contractions?”
Atlas took over once Anna was seated, wheeling her in. “Spaced apart, might be awhile.”
But Anna shook her head, shifting in the wheelchair. “Painful as heck.”
“Okay. The baby is ready to come.” Sterling smiled down at Anna. “Ready to meet her?”
No. That wasn’t true. She wasn’t ready for this experience, but . . . “Yeah. Ready as anything.”
Thankfully the facility walkway stayed mostly empty as they walked in, though a few model-Ms lining the hall wished her luck.
Her hands worried in her lap as Sterling led the way toward the human area.
And then through the common room, empty, and down that long hallway with the bedroom she’d spent her first night on Mars in.
Anna eyed the photographs as they went by before turning her gaze away from the pictures lining the walls.
She also avoided looking in the glass room altogether to see if that extra crib was still in there.
Doesn’t matter. We have her crib set up back home.
Being here at all, even temporarily, made her skin crawl. “Are Ria and Pearl around?”
“Most likely already asleep.” Sterling’s voice was chilled. “They are curious though.”
Anna scrunched her nose. “How do you know? I heard they just complain?”
Sterling chuckled. “Why would they waste so much energy complaining if they weren’t?”
Finally they arrived in the same room that Sterling gave her the ultrasound in a few weeks before. Only now the plants had been removed, placed in the back room. And Sterling himself put on a clean gown over his standard suit, washed his hands, and put on gloves.
Zero suited up as well, exchanging his regular outfit for a surgical smock.
Anna eyed him in confusion until he gave a sheepish grin.
“Are you okay with me being the nurse? I have been learning about medical processes. We thought you might feel better with me than someone random, but I can go get Alice or another female nurse.”
Anna cut him off, thinking of that unsmiling Alice in the glass room. “No. You’re fine, Zero. Thank you.”
“Great!” Zero finished suiting up, snapping the buttons on his shirt excitedly. “This will be my first delivery. But I linked up to Sterling earlier—he’s delivered over six hundred babies. Everything is pretty straightforward now.”
Atlas rolled his eyes as he helped Anna out of the wheelchair. “Don’t oversimplify it.” He held up a gown. “Here. Let’s get you changed.”
Anna sat on the table after she was dressed, pulling a blanket over her legs. She felt exposed. “So. How long does this take? What happens? Do we just wait?”
“Yeah. Nature kind of does its thing. At any rate.” Nora waved her hand at the monitors, now all tracking Anna’s vitals. “Back when I had Tilly, we had none of this stuff on Earth. Everything was still fine. I had her at the schoolhouse, with a few older ladies helping.”
Anna settled back further in the chair. Cold and uncomfortable.
Even with a blanket over herself she felt exposed.
She remembered that day well. Nora had already been living in the desert on her own by then.
Anna had gone to visit to help get her set up.
One of the few and only times she had, back before she had the bakery. And Paul.
That thought didn’t sting much. Not anymore. And especially not right now with Atlas worrying over her, stretching the contraction monitor band over her belly. “Yeah, by the time I got to the schoolhouse, you already had her.”
“Tilly didn’t want to wait at all.” Nora chuckled. “Still doesn’t.”
Sterling frowned. “Did you see any doctor at all?”
“Nope,” Nora said. “Everything was a surprise. I didn’t even know Tilly was a girl until she was born.”
“In fact,” Anna added, “usually if you see a doctor back on Earth, you get sicker.”
“That’s true!” Nora said. “You come back having caught something else.”
Nora shared stories with Atlas and Sterling of medical care and life back on Earth. She attempted to involve Anna in them, mostly about how they learned to cook when they worked at an inn together, but Anna could hardly focus.
She winced. The contractions were getting worse, more painful. She held her breath as the contractions came in waves, Atlas by her side, stroking down her arm.
Atlas seemed to only be half listening to Nora's stories, his eyes glued to the monitor. “Check again, Sterling?”
“Alright.” Sterling slowly lifted the blanket. “Getting ready, but not yet.”
Anna tried to ignore the prodding, but eventually stopped caring as another contraction hit, making her gasp.
Atlas smoothed down her hair, which was already covered in sweat. “Do you want anything for the pain? An epidural?”
“. . . Is that a medicine?”
“Yes. A shot that numbs you from the waist down.”
“No!” She shook her head fast. “After the chip, I . . . no.”
He squeezed her hand. “I thought so. Okay.”
Night was fast approaching, the dusk outside long gone.
The clock on the wall indicated it had been almost three hours since she first arrived.
Anna closed her eyes when another contraction hit, making her whole body shake.
Damn, that hurts. She gripped Atlas’s hand so tight that she was happy he was made of metal. “How long does this usually take?”
“As long as it needs to,” Nora answered. “Here, I’ll tell some more stories . . .”
Time passed. The contractions were coming closer together now. She hardly got a break in between before the next wave hit. And pain, so much pain.
Atlas’s eyes were glued to the monitor, watching them there as Anna felt them in real time. “You’re almost there. Almost, Anna.”
“Bull crap,” Anna ground out between her teeth. “You said that like an hour ago.”
Atlas hooked her hair behind her ear. “I mean it this time.”
Anna side-eyed him.
“. . . You’re beautiful.” He pushed back her sweaty hair.
“Thanks.” She chuckled. “But, your standards need work.”
Atlas was right this time though. Very soon, she felt a different kind of pain. A pressure from down low as her body shook. “I think they’re coming faster?”
“Yep.” Atlas quickly smiled at her before looking back at the monitor that showed the contractions in real time. “They are.”
Very quickly after that Anna lost control, but in a different way from how the chip had made her. Only this time she felt everything. Remembered everything. And it hurt. Damn it hurt.
Atlas was behind her, rubbing circles on her back.
Her breathing changed, becoming more ragged. The pressure shifted, and she felt an urge to push. “Something is happening.”
“I bet something is.” Sterling lifted up the blanket covering her knees, causing her to squirm in place. “Yes. It’s time Anna. When you feel like you can, push.”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Instinct took over.
Her entire body began tensing and curling over.
And it was anger that saw her through, making her yell and curse.
Atlas’s eyes widened at her side as she gripped his hand even tighter, the scrapes on her palms from earlier only adding to her rage. She was mad. She was livid.
Anna was furious at the pain of childbirth, at the loss of control, but mostly because she could be mad.
She wordlessly hummed, which started as the star nursery rhyme but quickly just turned into scattered notes.
If the chip was still attached, she would have probably long since passed out.
As it was, the room narrowed as her focus tightened.
Even Atlas by her side disappeared, and it didn’t matter right then if she was on Earth. Or Mars.
Atlas was at her side, eyes focused intently. “Push, Anna!”
Bright lights overhead were all she could see, and the ceiling tiles above them. After being suppressed for a little over two weeks, her heartbeat pounded so loud that her ears rang. Everything below her waist was on fire. And she pushed, losing control as time stopped having meaning.
Finally the pain eased. A cry, thin and unsure, followed several heartbeats after.
Anna lay back, gasping for air. “Did I do it? Is she out?”
The baby cried more. Loud and strong. Pink and furious.
“Yes you did!” Sterling held the baby up, wiping her gently with a waiting towel, then took her to a scale. Then he wrapped her in a blanket. “Baby girl. Right here. Six pounds, point five ounces. Twenty-one inches. Healthy. Nine Apgar score.”
Anna focused on the baby crying. “My baby girl?” Everything still felt raw and painful, but she only had eyes for the baby in Sterling’s arms. Perfect. Healthy. Born.
Carefully, Sterling handed her to Atlas. “I need to stitch you up some; stay still, okay Anna?”
Anna nodded, but her focus was elsewhere as Atlas gently lowered the baby on her chest. “Look at that. Ten perfect fingers and toes,” he said.
“Look how beautiful she is.” Nora was at her side, peeking over Atlas’s shoulder. “Oh I love her already. Good job, Anna cakes.”
She reached out her scraped hand groggily.
That’s her? Her fingers gently brushed the blanket the little girl had been wrapped in.
Her daughter’s cheeks were round and pink with hands clenched tight into fists up by her face.
And she screamed as her entire body squirmed and kicked.
She screamed at the world. Perfect and alive.
Anna let out a breathy laugh. “You’re so mad, huh? My angry baby girl. That’s just right. You be mad. You be as angry as you want.”
The baby squirmed on Anna's chest. She fumbled until Nora leaned over, helping guide the baby to latch to her breast. Only then did the crying stop. And the little fists, one by one, splayed out and relaxed.
Anna touched her little head, soft as she could. “You’re perfect.” She whispered up to Atlas, “Atlas, look?”
Atlas’s eyes were soft. “I see, Anna.”
She touched her baby’s head, her body shaking. Here. And safe.