[turbolift - oh, shit]

[rn_chapel]

It was time.

The contractions had started when she was asleep, and Tina was so used to sleeping poorly that at first she didn't recognize what was waking her up. By the time she figured it out, she was at about twenty minutes between contractions. She got up and sent Jim a message.

Private to Jim Kirk (original-fineExperiencing early labor stage! Don't

Comments

[original_fine]

Jim had been waiting anxiously ever since the first message, busying himself as best he could and unable to concentrate on anything for long. When he got the second, he hastily tapped out a "yes, coming" message and rushed to sickbay, a mix of tension and eagerness in him not unlike a dangerous mission.

[axe_kicker]

Martha showed up a few minutes later, hair sleep-rumpled. She was wearing civvies for once - dark blue pants and a light pink shirt, both fairly worn.

She blinked at James for a few seconds before managing to form a sentence: "Where's Tina?"

[original_fine]

Jim looked awake--but only because he hadn't slept.

"I don't know," he confessed. "I know it takes her a little longer to get places than it did. I should... I mean, there's probably nothing to worry about."

Yet.

[axe_kicker]

"Oh," Martha said, nodding. "Right."

She waved vaguely at Dr Kuhn, and propped herself up against a wall, blinking furiously.

[gold_ambition]

He had meant to stay away. For now, at least. Partly because he was working hard to convince himself he hated her. Partly because he wanted her to understand he could be... understanding. Partly because he felt uncertain enough about his own behavior that he thought seeing her would only complicate issues.

He certainly didn't mean to get trapped in a turbolift.

Of course, it started innocently enough. He hadn't sought her out, after all--it was a distracted, disheveled Tina who moved awkwardly into the lift while he was on his way to the gym. That wasn't his fault.

It was also not his fault that, as he was still staring at her, wondering what he was supposed to say, he felt the turbolift shudder to a halt as the lights went out.

"I'm not following you," he said. His heart was hammering in his chest.

[rn_chapel]

"No," Tina agreed. "You were here first."

She was almost too distracted to be distressed. She hadn't seen James since she kicked him out, or heard from him. She appreciated that he was respecting her wishes, but it made running into him something more of a shock than it might have been.

But she couldn't think about it, because she was having another contraction, strong enough to make her breath catch. Why wasn't the lift moving? What the fuck, universe?

"I think you should know," she choked out, "that I'm in labor."

[gold_ambition]

The emergency lights kicked on, in time to catch James' stricken expression. In that moment, he was not thinking about how much he hated her, or wanted to. Or how she'd unmanned him, or how she'd dismissed something very important to him. Or how maybe she'd been right to.

A moment later, he was at the comm, trying to raise someone.

[rn_chapel]

It lasted just under a minute, and Tina took a few seconds more to recover herself after, letting what James was doing with the comm stay in the background of her awareness. She'd held her breath - she needed to remember not to do that. It was hard, when all the planning and mental rehearsing she'd done to make it possible to be calm and rational had been predicated on not being stuck in a turbolift.

She had about five minutes, maybe closer to four. She leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, trying not to panic. "Is anyone answering?"