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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 2:00:57 GMT -5
"Don't TOUCH me!" she hissed, recoiling against a sweat-soaked pillow. "This is YOUR fault! Damn you to heeeEEEELL!" Her cursing dissolved into a blood-curdling shriek and she collapsed back upon the bed like one possessed. Kathy glanced at her son-in-law's pale face and gave a slight shake of her head.
"She doesnae mean it, Mr. de Winter," she whispered softly above Sorcha's head as the girl buried her face in the pillow, biting the edge of the pillowslip and groaning raggedly like some kind of dumb beast.
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 9:20:47 GMT -5
*Despite the technical knowledge that his mother-in-law's words were true, the words were still a shock, if not a blow. He let go of her hand, and without it he looked lost. Sorcha may have been delirious with pain, but it was his fault. If it had been entirely up to Sorcha, she wouldn't have had the baby at all. In the mix of emotions on his face, there was undoubtedly guilt.*
*So he merely sighed.* "Please, Mrs. Macnamara, call me Liam." *He'd had a similar conversation with the girl writhing on the bed, when they were both eight and sitting in a tree.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 11:14:12 GMT -5
Kathy nodded, saying nothing, and giving him a small, tight smile before she turned back to her daughter. She kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, fluffing the twisted pillow and moving to sit behind Sorcha, wrapping her arms around her torso and holding the girl still, crooning softly in her ear.
Whether her mother's voice soothed her or if the pain became to great, at that point, Sorcha's head drooped and her limbs went slack as she slipped into unconsciousness.
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 11:52:08 GMT -5
*After that, Liam couldn't sit still. He changed position in his chair, he paced, he sat back down, checked his watch, stood and paced more. It was, without a doubt, the longest hour of his life.*
*Exactly fourteen minutes and thirty-three seconds late, the specialist entered the room, accompanied by the elder Mrs. de Winter.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 12:00:17 GMT -5
The specialist worked quickly, but gently.
"I could turn the child," he said quietly, "but not without risking the mother's life. If the child is born breech, it may not be able to get oxygen..."
He looked to Liam, his face grave.
"I can do my best to save one, sir. ...which shall it be?"
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 12:07:00 GMT -5
((Arrrgh Liam can't even pick whether he wants alfredo or tomato sauce on his spaghetti how is he supposed to make this decision))
*His eyes widened slightly, but his facial expression did not really change. He looked from Sorcha, to the specialist, to Kathy, to his own mother, and then repeated the process. He clenched his hands to keep them from shaking.*
"Sorcha. Save Sorcha." *Guilt and fear kept him from saying anything else.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 12:25:04 GMT -5
The specialist gave curt nod and moved back to the bed.
"Alright, people, we need to get this done as quickly as possible!"
Smelling salts were waved under Sorcha's nose and she came too with a coughing gasp, shaking her head wearily, vaguely noting the stranger who now stood nearby, giving orders.
"You have to push, now, girl. NOW! Hard as you can!" the doctor ordered. Kathy helped Sorcha to sit more upright, and Sorcha gathered all that remained of her strength and pushed, letting out a scream as the sharp pain intensified.
"Another! Come on!"
Sobbing for air, Sorcha drew as deep a breath as she could manage and pushed again, and then a third time.
"--there!" said the doctor, as the tiny child was delivered at last, pale blue and silent as it was cut loose and handed to a nurse, who wiped the child's face clean and the doctor pinched the baby's mouth open and use a small instrument to clear the child's mouth. After a moment, he shook his head, and the nurse turned away, conferring with the local doctor, rocking the infant gently. The specialist began to examine Sorcha for signs of internal rupture and dealt with the afterbirth. Sorcha glanced at Liam, then her mother.
"...the--why isn't...what...what's happening? Why isn't it crying?"
Kathy stroked her daughter's brow with a trembling hand.
"Shhh. Be still, Sorcha," she said, knowing the ache of losing a child, and having thought she might lose her eldest only moments ago.
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 12:31:21 GMT -5
*Liam watched the pandemonium around him, bewildered and pale and terrified. The child wouldn't live, he realized--like the last one. Sorcha would live, but she'd hate him, like she had last time. Everything she had feared would go wrong had.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 12:48:52 GMT -5
Sorcha glimpsed the baby as it was handed off to the doctor--the near-purple skin, the eerie silence amidst the rush of people in the room.
"NO!" she shrieked. "YOU HAVE TO--BREATHE!"
She wrenched herself out of Kathy's grasp and would have leapt up, if her strength would have allowed. "BREATHE, YOU SLIMY LITTLE SON OF A BITCH!"
There was a gasp that rippled around the room, and in that hush came the smallest of them all--and then a thin wail as the baby's skin began to turn faintly rosy, and the indignant sound soon became a bellow.
Sorcha's shoulders heaved with heavy breaths, trembling with exhaustion as she finally lay back and burst into tears.
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 12:54:24 GMT -5
((I don't remember if we picked a gender or name or anything, so I'll just keep writing Liam and you go on ahead))
*Under nearly any other circumstances, he would have laughed. As it was, Liam let out a disbelieving puff of air that sounded really more like a sputtering cough than anything else. He moved as if to stand next to Sorcha, but words didn't come to his lips and he simply stood there looking bewildered--though now, there was color in his cheeks, and he didn't look as if he was about to be ill.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 3, 2009 13:06:45 GMT -5
((Wasn't it gonna be a little girl so Liam can get his Daddyness on?))
Sorcha barely noticed the servants cleaning up around her, or Kathy trying to brush her hair or sponge off her face, she just went on crying and stretched out her arms.
"Give me the baby...p-please," she blubbered, and the doctor capitulated after satisfying himself that the child was well.
"...a little daughter, ma'am," he said softly as he handed her the squirming, shrieking bundle.
"A girl? It's a little girl...?"
She looked at her mother, then at Liam.
"...Kathleen Micaela, we'll call her," she said firmly, stroking the top of the baby's head, which was covered in a fine red-gold downy shimmer of soft hair.
The specialist approached them, then.
"Excuse me, but there is a medical matter to discuss..." he said seriously. "I doubt Mrs. de Winter could survive another birth, as these events have wrecked her body. There is a simple surgery to be performed, in London, that will neaten things up, but it will render her unable to have more children..."
He shrugged.
"...the choice is yours," he said, looking at Sorcha. She nodded blankly.
"...I will...think about it," she said.
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Post by Liam on Jul 3, 2009 17:53:37 GMT -5
"Kathleen Micaela." *He murmured. It was the first he'd spoken.*
*She was tiny. He had of course expected her to be small, but not that small. An entire miniature human being, with tiny fingers and toes and hair and ears and a nose the size of his fingernail. He still couldn't quite believe that the child had actually lived, and Sorcha too.*
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 4, 2009 0:20:33 GMT -5
Sorcha was reeling, herself, barely paying attention as the doctor stuck her with another needle--a sedative of some kind, as her eyelids began to droop within a few moments.
"I never thought that--hey...heeeeey..."
Kathy managed to scoop up the infant before Sorcha's limbs went slack and she dozed off.
"...she ought to rest easily for a while," said the doctor. "It's been a very trying day."
Kathy smiled shyly at Liam and held the baby out for him to take.
"Watch that ye've got her head," she warned gently.
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Post by Liam on Jul 4, 2009 0:26:05 GMT -5
*He took the child awkwardly, trying to support the tiny head and managing to tuck her safely against his chest. Father and daughter stared at each other for a moment before little Kathleen Micaela squirmed again and Liam smiled instinctively. Why exactly he smiled was beyond him, but it was a big, dopey grin and it was certainly a positive change from looking around like he'd been sucker-punched in the gut.*
"Hi."
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Post by Sorcha on Jul 4, 2009 0:40:41 GMT -5
In time, the servants carted away the last of the soiled sheets and had tidied the room, and the doctors left along with the grandmothers, talking quietly amongst themselves.
Someone had put a clean nightgown on Sorcha and tucked her into the bed, and still, she slept deeply, snoring lightly, looking pale and exhausted, but not the ill-looking shade of gray she'd been for the past several hours.
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