Slipping Through -- Baby Making
Book cover by et_muse.
Title: Slipping Through
Snippet: Baby Making
Date Written: 6/17/09
Rating: PG-13/T
Word Count: 2,197
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ryo/Dee, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, OCs, unfortunate Weevils
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood 02 and FAKE Like, Like, Love
Warnings: Semi-explicit description of human birth and gore
Author's Notes: Much thanks to my beta, muse, and all around idea bouncing board, totally4ryo! Thanks to quite a few authors that I could name but aren't, I think some f-lists are in need of a bit of fluff! There are two more chapters by me after this little fic, so keep watching! And I'm sorry but the title isn't as explicit as it sounds.
Slipping Through master list found here.
When the Rift got quiet, Torchwood life got boring. Most of their slow days ended up being filled with mundane but vital paperwork and sorting and filing and solitaire, interspersed with vital Ianto Jones coffee.
So when Tosh got the call for a routine Weevil hunt, everyone started running for the door. Well, everyone but Jack, who was stuck in a conference call. He covered the mouthpiece to yell for them to keep the comms open as they made their way to the garage.
"There are two independent reports of Weevils," Tosh informed them as they hurried into the garage, PDA out and ready.
"Any way they could possibly be the same one?" Ryo asked.
"No," Tosh said. "Simultaneous reports. One's in Cathys Park, while the other's been spotted off of Newport Road."
"Close enough to drive," Dee pointed out. "But not close enough to run that fast to."
"Exactly," Tosh agreed.
"Good thing we have two SUVs then," Ianto deadpanned.
"All right," Gwen said, stopping in front of the SUVs. "The Newport Road Weevil's probably around more people right now."
"Which means it's time for the Weevil Dream Team," Owen said, grinning when Ryo gave him a high-five. With Owen's Weevil Messiah powers and Ryo still registering as a complete null to their resident sewer-dwellers, the two made a pretty impressive team when it came to hunting.
"Yes," Gwen said, grinning at them. "Ryo, Owen, and I will take the Newport Weevil. Ianto, Dee, and Tosh can go and make short work of the Cathys Weevil. We'll be close enough that we can call for backup if we need. Our two new guests will be chowing down with Janet next mealtime.."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Ianto said, tossing the second set of SUV keys at Dee, who pouted when Ryo snatched them out of the air before he could catch them.
-----
It was Kristina's last day before her leave, so she really was trying to finish her last work day off with a bang. But being about a week out from her delivery date, she was having the usual late-term pregnancy problems:
Her ankles were swollen.
Her legs and feet were killing her.
She was getting hot flashes every time the sun shone through the big front windows.
She could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights flickering above her head.
She was close to tears every time she didn't make a sale.
Her big belly was just generally getting in the way of everything, from the clothing she was trying to sell to the register and every other task.
After about twenty minutes, her boss, Mr. Fitzgerald, shooed her out the door for some fresh air and a quick sit-down. He wanted her to go home -- he had three children of his own, he'd gone through this all before with his wife -- but Kristina and Brendan needed every penny to pay for all the nappies little Ciara was going to need.
The back door to the shop opened to an alleyway. The shop was at the end of the alley, and the alley opened up to the parking lot that most of the employees used. She took a hard plastic chair out with her and sat, closing her eyes and enjoying the muted white noise of Cardiff's busy streets.
The sound of a glass bottle rolling over pavement pulled her out of her reverie. She peered down the end of the alley and saw a figure shuffling towards her. She figured him for a drunk, from the stooped posture and the shuffling, stumbling walk. As he neared, she caught a look at his face and couldn't blame the man for drinking. If she'd had half her face burnt off, she'd try to find solace in a bottle too.
She stood warily, hand protectively over her belly as he walked faster towards her. "I don't have any money," she called out to him. "Sorry."
Instead of turning and walking away, like she'd hoped he would, he drew closer. The stench coming off of him almost made her retch, but when he reached out towards her with claws instead of hands and baring two rows of sharp teeth, she stumbled back. She tripped over one of the flimsy plastic legs, falling onto her back, totally exposed.
The... thing let out a snarl and lunged, ready to attack, when a middle aged man with sandy-blonde hair came out of nowhere and smacked it upside the head with a pipe. It turned and made to attack him instead, properly diverted, when it made a complete 180, cowering away and making a noise of lamentation. Two other people came running forward, another man and a woman, their attention focused on the animal cowering in the corner like it was frightened.
The blonde, her savior, reached out and slowly helped her to her feet. "Hey there sweetheart," he soothed in an American accent, smiling at her. "You two okay, yeah?"
Kristina could have died when she felt a sudden burst of wetness blast through her granny knickers and soak both her shoes and the other man's. Her embarrassment must have been visible on her face because the man just grinned. "Hey," he said, putting a hand on her belly to rub it soothingly. "Everybody's gotta be born sometime, right?"
-----
Gwen looked over from bagging the Weevil when the almost victim let out a cry of pain. She turned to see Ryo leading a heavily pregnant, pretty, black woman to the flimsy chair, and realized what had happened. "Doctor Harper, I think you're needed," she said, nudging Owen a little.
Owen sedated the Weevil with practiced ease and stood, turning to see what she was talking about. He took one look at Ryo quietly talking to the woman and shook his head. "Nope. Not me."
"What, you didn't cover childbirth in those expensive medical classes?"
"Yes, but they were just theory. I prefer to have a little practice first before preforming it in real time." The medic held up his bandaged hand. "And I can't exactly do it like this."
Ryo was crouched next to the woman. He looked up when the other two neared. "This is Kristina and Ciara," he introduced, putting a hand on the woman's belly when he said the baby's name. He kept his voice nice and level, friendly bordering on light. "They work in the shop. Kristina, this is Doctor Owen and Gwen, and I'm Randy."
"How far are you from your due date?" Owen asked, habitually taking her pulse. It was racing and spiked when she gasped and ground her teeth. Ryo offered her a hand and quietly told her to breathe, going over the Lamaze breathing.
"She had her first contraction when I walked her over here," Ryo said, looking up at Owen. Quick contractions, she was already close to childbirth.
The contraction passed after a moment. "A week," she managed through gritted teeth.
"Well, that's good," Owen said almost offhandedly. "Everything's in its proper place..."
"Would you like to check how dilated she is, Doctor?" Ryo stressed.
Owen opened his mouth, but Gwen beat him to the punch. "He's a baby virgin."
Ryo let out a bit of a groan. "Of course. And you, PC Cooper?"
"I know how," she admitted. "But I've never had the pleasure."
The half-Japanese man nodded. "Right. Good thing I'm here then." He pulled off his suit jacket and started undoing his button up shirt. "Owen, get the Weevil into the SUV, call the others, call a bus -- "
"A what?" Owen asked.
"An ambulance, idiot," Ryo snapped. "And get the first aid kit out of the boot. We'll definitely need scissors and something to tie off the umbilical cord with."
"What about me?" Gwen asked as Owen went off to do as told.
"Do you have anything on underneath that blouse?" Ryo asked, pulling his shirt off. He had a plain white undershirt on underneath it.
"A camisole," she admitted.
"Then lose the top," Ryo ordered.
Gwen sighed and started stripping out of her shirt. "I'm so filing this as an expense."
"Take it up with Ianto," Ryo said, setting his coat jacket over Kristina's knees for a bit of privacy. He was grateful she'd decided on a maternity dress today.
"Have you ever done this before?" Kristina asked, her dark hair already starting to stick to her sweaty forehead.
Ryo flashed her a smile. "Twice, while I was with the NYPD. Once on the Staten Island Ferry, and once in the subway when I was a uni."
"You're with a pro, sweetheart," Gwen soothed.
"Now I know this is going to be a bit embarrassing," Ryo soothed. "But I'm going to have to take your underwear off to see how things are progressing."
Kristina nodded, her face darkening as Ryo reached up under her dress. Gwen took her hand comfortingly and grinned. "Just lie back and think of England," she joked.
The choked off laugh she got in response turned into a wail of pain as Kristina tried her best to break all the bones in Gwen's hand. The former PC winced, but didn't complain. She didn't even want to think about what sort of pain Kristina was experiencing.
"Whoa! We are ready to go here," Ryo said, looking up at Gwen. "You're going to see your little one a bit early."
Owen came running back, first aid kit in hand. "Here," he said, setting it by Ryo's knees and opening the top. "I got a hold of Ianto, they're on their way."
"Right. Owen, stay here with me." He looked up at Kristina. "Okay, on the count of three I need you to start pushing, okay?"
With Gwen as a coach, Ryo and Owen helping brace her legs for leverage, and poor Kristina screaming her head off, they delivered a slippery, gooey, wriggling baby that thankfully started crying the moment she was out.
Ryo set little Ciara on his shirt, clamped and cut the umbilical cord while mentally thanking Ianto for keeping a very well-stocked first aid kit in the SUVs. He cleaned her off and wrapped the infant in Gwen's softer blouse before handing her to her mother.
"Oh, she's beautiful," both women cooed, peering down at the infant, who had settled once she'd been put in her mother's arms. In the distance they could hear the wail of the approaching ambulance.
"How about a little painkiller?" Owen asked soothingly, already moving one of Kristina's arms and sliding the hypodermic needle into a vein. "The ambulance is almost here."
Kristina's head swooned and her eyes closed almost immediately. Ryo looked up as Gwen took the baby from the mother's limp arms. "Touch of Retcon?"
"Can't think of a better way to get rid of the pain," Owen chuckled softly.
Gwen made a face as she walked around to stand to Ryo. "What the bloody hell is that?" she asked, gesturing to the bloody mass of tissue lying on Ryo's now-ruined shirt.
"Afterbirth, Gwen," Ryo replied with a grin.
"The placenta," Owen added, teasing her. "You know, the thing the baby's in? The body expels it after childbirth."
"Television shows don't really show it," Ryo explained, "like how they don't show that people void their bowels after death. It's not glamorous."
"It's disgusting!"
Ryo laughed as both the ambulance and the SUV screeched to a stop as close to the alley as possible. "Gwen? It's a good day. Don't let a little nasty ruin it."
He didn't mention what some people actually do with it.
-----
Jack met them up on the Plass, none to pleased with them. "I told you to leave your comms on!"
"Sorry, sorry," Dee apologized. "We got a bit distracted."
"You called for an ambulance. Who got hurt?"
"No one," Ianto reassured him, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder. "No deaths, no injuries."
"We delivered a baby!" Gwen said, grinning from ear to ear.
Jack realized she was wearing Dee's suit jacket, and Ryo was in an undershirt. "You're kidding."
"Nope," Ryo said, shaking his head. "Weevil scared a woman into early labor. No time for the ambulance to show up."
"And... Ryo delivered it," Jack said, pointing at Owen. "Where were you, Doctor Harper?"
"I thought it best... to let the man with the most experience deliver," Owen defended after a split second of thought.
"He was scared of the blood," Tosh teased.
"I was not!"
"Squeamish," Ianto deadpanned, joining in taking the mickey out of Owen. "Some doctors suffer from that, you know."
"I am not afraid of blood!" Owen said. "Besides, she was mostly white."
"Technically she was mostly black," Tosh corrected, completely poker-faced, "but she was covered in white."
"I can't believe you just said that, Neesan!" Dee said with a laugh.
"And with a straight face!" Jack agreed, grinning. "Ianto, you're a bad influence."
"We try our best, sir," Ianto said in his best Tea Boy voice.
Jack laughed. "All right then... We see death more than enough in this place." He clapped Ianto on the shoulder, grinning. "Let's go out and celebrate life for a bit."