She smiled and wiped a hand across her brow. "And now you're sitting in a strange house with a strange woman in labor and you're helping her. That's not the mark of a bad person."
Seconds later a scream ripped through the room. Marissa's labor was speeding up quickly and I didn't have a clue what needed to be done.
"Water!" I shouted to no one in particular. "I'll boil water. Can you point me to your towels?" I asked her.
She weakly pointed in a direction, so I tore through her house opening doors and cupboards before I finally found a large fresh load of clean towels. I raced through several rooms before I found the bathroom. I searched through her cabinets for awhile before I finally found peroxide, rubbing alcohol and bandages. I had no idea what she needed but I knew infection was always a possibility.
The doorbell rang and I hurried to the door dropping the items on the table next to the moaning and writhing pregnant woman.
My life was officially super weird.
I opened the door to my sister wearing a pricelesswhat the fucklook. She stepped in, thankfully carrying her first aid bag and looked around until her eyes fell on Marissa. "Why the hell is she not at the hospital?"
I shrugged. "She won't tell me. Says it's dangerous."
At that my sister's gaze flew back to me. "Dangerous?"
I shrugged. "I'm not quite sure how dangerous a baby can be, but that's what she said."
My sis snorted. "Have you never watched a single horror movie?"
"Alien," I admitted. "Didn't see a hand. Called it good."
Patience shoved past me and knelt by Marissa, ignoring my woeful lack of all things horror. She placed a hand on Marissa's head. "Shh, you're going to be alright." I noticed she didn't bitch her out about not going to the hospital. She just took it out on me.
Patience winced as she felt Marissa's forehead. "You're burning up. I need you to be honest with me. What's going on?"
Marissa shook her head.
"I am your nurse and right now I am the only thing standing between you and potential death. If you don't tell me right now, I'm walking away. I will not place myself or my sister in harm's way because you're being stubborn."
Marissa whispered something in my sister's ear, and I watched as all color faded from Patience's face.
"Fuck," she muttered under her breath. "I didn't bring enough tools for this."
"What?" I asked as I moved closer. "What's going on?"
Marissa shook her head and Patience gave me a single look. "Doc patient confidentiality."
"You are not a doctor!" I hissed.
"Close enough." My sister began to remove things from her bag, swiftly but methodically. She helped prop Marissa up into a semi-seated position. I stayed toward Marissa's head because I was pretty sure I'd pass out if I saw any blood or gore. Marissa was clammy with sweat. I rushed to the kitchen, taking some washcloths with me. I filled a bowl with ice water and dropped a couple of the cloths inside.
When I came back out, she was undressed from the waist down and had a cover over her belly. I averted my eyes, sat in the chair next to the couch and rang out one of the towels. I placed it on the back of Marissa's neck. She sighed in relief. I wrung out another one and wiped her forehead with it. My sis gave an approving nod.
"Marissa, this is where it's going to start going extremely fast. You're dilated enough to where you're going to feel the urge to push soon. Understand?"
Marissa nodded. I continued adding cool water to the rag.
About two minutes later, holy mortal hell rang out.
Apparently beingan immortal did not excuse you from the hell that was natural childbirth. Even though it had been at least an hour since the birth, the sounds of Marissa's screaming still rang in my ears. I was traumatized by the entire thing, but her baby was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. I'd seen no signs of alien life so I was calling this disaster a success. Marissa was funny, too, once she'd stopped screaming, so I was hopeful I'd made a new friend. Plus, I wanted to keep holding her baby and I needed some leverage so when I kept showing up to her house, I wouldn't look like a weirdo.
Even Patience was wearing a smile, though there was still a deep worry in her eyes that hadn't been there before she'd shown up to help. I didn't know what Marissa had whispered to her, but whatever it was wasn't good. Patience wasn't the type to sweat the small stuff.
I handed the baby back to the new mom and watched as Marissa snuggled the little boy to her breast. His rooting reflex kicked in and he nuzzled against her. I averted my eyes as she tried to feed him.
I was just standing up to fix myself a glass a water when the door burst open and a man rushed in looking panicked and wild-eyed.
