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[showmyauthority]

Who: Penny, Terry and Susan (and baby makes four!)
Where: Susan and Terry's room
When: Roughly 6 hours after this thread; 10 March 2002
Status: Complete

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[showmyauthority]

For one dreadful moment when Terry started to move, Susan thought he was going to go. But instead he merely slid in behind her and she felt her body being lifted just a titch more.

"Stay with me... make sure you stay..." she pleaded, gripping his hand tightly in her own. Susan wasn't aware how tight or how loose she was holding his hand, just that she was holding it and was never going to let go.

In amongst all of that, the last contraction ebbed and she could take a moment to refocus her breathing. She swallowed and closed her eyes for a long moment. And when the pressure and pain started again she tried to breathe her way through it.

"Now?" The word came out like a grunt and without realising, she started to bear down. An instinct bigger than she was drove her onward.

[weaversgrace]

Penelope's heart was somewhere around her throat and beating louder than it ever had. Her voice went into auto-pilot, counting Susan through her breaths and letting her know how it was going. The medical side of Penelope's brain was in overdrive, relishing the chance to be a part of this amazing feat of the human body - the rest was by and large devoted to fretting about doing something wrong.

"That's it Susan, you're doing really well. Take a deep breath - that's it - now let it out when you're ready to push again." As Susan gripped her knees and bore down once more, Penelope waved her wand and cast another spell to relieve some of the pain, hoping that it would help to make the exertion easier.

[flywithoutwings]

Susan's labourious grunting and loud inhale-exhale continued for some time as she rode out wave after wave of contractions. Terry continued coaching, his steady stream of "push, push, push, puuuush" echoed off the walls to mix with the gentle tone of Penelope's occasional instruction. Day began to wane into early evening, the light in the room shifting to that of pure candlelight, enveloping the trio in a soft, homey glow.

Throughout, he felt all 27 little bones in his hand grind together from the force of Susan's grasp. Goodness! Who knew such a tiny girl was capable of that kind of grip?

"Penelope?" Terry ventured to enquire between another bout of pushing; she'd turned away for just a second or three, and in that short span of time everything began to change.

"I think it's..."

[showmyauthority]

Somewhere in amongst the blood roaring in her ears and Penny's movements, somewhere in between Terry's encouragement Susan could hear little bits of words. Someone could see the head. Susan had never felt such pain before and even with Penelope's spells to keep most of the pain at bay, it was never entirely gone and the little bursts of magic quickly wore off.

Nature seemed to have a way to circumvent it all.

"Oh god... please... how much longer?" gasped Susan, sucking in a breath struggling to blow it out slow and steady.

And then there was this moment where time stood completely still and the one thing she could hear, that she definitely heard, was Penelope saying that the head was out. That there was lots of hair. And tiny ears. And...

At that point Susan didn't know if it was perspiration or tears on her cheeks.

[weaversgrace]

As Susan made the last final push, Penelope practically crowed with triumph for her younger friend, and cradled the young child in her arms. Swiftly severing and tying the cord with her wand, Penelope paused for a moment, staring down with disbelief at the new life in her arms, before remembering to remove the fluid from the baby's mouth.

And then it began to cry, and so did Penelope.

"You did it, Susan, you did it!" she said, her voice high in pitch and triumphant, as she wrapped the young child in a cloth. "It's a beautiful, bouncing, noisy baby boy!"

With a full beaming smile on her face, Penelope brought the little boy forward and placed him in Susan's shaking arms.