Addy immediately had her nose in the book. Sira seemed to be progressing quickly and though she had been reading up on delivering the baby for months, now that the birth was eminent every helpful bit of knowledge fled from her brain.
"Hm...We're going to have to start counting your pains then. A guess just isn't good enough." Addy responded to this bit of information provided by Sira belatedly, thumbing through a few more pages before exclaiming softly and tracing a line of text with her index finger as she read aloud for Sira's benefit.
"Labor pains are one of the most accurate judges of how close the baby is to being ready for the act of Birth. The Pains are monitered and noted two different ways: How close together each pain is and how long it lasts for. The closer together and the longer the Pains last, the closer the baby is to being born."
"I paraphrased." Glancing up at Sira, Addy gave the woman a distracted smile. She really had cut herself off from most of her personal feelings. Turning her attention back to the book and letting those still hovering make sure Sira stayed still, Addy continued to read. Until the next contraction came, that is. When Sira started to yell, the little healer was quickly on her feet and at her lovers side. Just as Addy had reached out to hold Sira's hand, the laboring woman curled sweaty and shaking fingers into the collar of her shirt, yanking her downwards so she was bent over the infirmary bed.
"Addy, Addy, it hurts!" Shushing and lifting a hand to gently smooth the sweat soaked hair away from Sira's forehead, Addy did her best to calm the woman down. Allowing a bit of her own emotions to slip past her Medical Mask, the little woman took both her hands and steadied the kelvic woman's face between them.
"You need to try and calm down. Nice, deep breaths... there you go.... in.... out..." Sira's breath steadied for a minute or two before she was pulling Addy back down again, whispering fevererntly in her ear. Something about Rek'keli and being close was all Addy was able to catch before she was shoved away. Good thing too, because the volume at which Sira shouted would have left her ears ringing.
Trying not to laugh, Addy shushed her once more and continued the petting until the contraction was over. "I will make sure that she knows your sentiments the next time I see her, I promise. Now breathe...."
Addy knew the contraction had passed when the pain that held Sira's muscles stiff and rigid disspated, allowing her to collapse in a gasping puddle on the bed. By now the sheets were soaked through with sweat, a nearby aid shoving a pillow quickly under where Sira's head would fall. Glancing up at Miquel who was keeping the time, he nodded and showed her the sheet.
"Half a Chime. I'd say you're still a few hours away from being ready." Caught again by the need to make sure that everything was going according to plan and that she wasn't royally screwing anything up, Addy scuttled back over to her book.
"Oh, dear. It says here that if the contractions are still a half to a quarter bell apart, you need to keep moving and hydrated." Glancing up, Addy waved her hand at the men standing nearby, clearly wanting them to get Sira to her feet. When they hesitated, unwilling to face the Kelvic's wrath again, Addy pinned them with and icy emerald stare. "Now."
Realizing that they would lose either way, the men hurried to life Sira. Luckily, the last bout of pain had sapped her of her strength, as she went along rather meekly. Directing Keah forward with a mug of water, Addy turned back to her book.
From there Sira had contractions at fifteen chime intervals, which was normal. If her lover complained, Addy didn't notice; she was still too caught up in trying to remember everything she learned. Though she had very little experience in herbalism, the little healer knew that she had read somewhere something about an herb that would dull the pain of childbirth and was determined to find mention of it before Sira went into labor.
When the contractions started to come more frequently, Addy directed the men to let Sira lay back down. Propping her head and her hips up, positioning her feet so that they sat on either edge of the bed, legs spread, she felt the first flutters of butterflies in her stomach. Despite her locking away of all her personal feelings, the stress and anticipation was becoming a little to great.
Determined not to let Sira see her nerves, Addy tried to avoid looking her directly in the eyes. The woman were connected on so many levels that she was afraid just one look would not only undo her, but give her completely away. Sira would know. Sira would see it in her eyes, in the tense lines of her face. Addy wasn't the one writhing in pain as their child tried to fight it's way out of her body, she had the easy job. It wouldn't do for her to be upset.
Another contraction wracked Sira's body, this one worse than all the others, the prostrate woman crying out in undiluted pain. Feeling her breath catch in her throat, Addy dove for her book in one last ditch attempt to find the herb that would save her love some of this agony.
"Addy..I... dont know if I can do this." The waver in Sira's voice had the little woman back at her side within moments. Both of of her hands were gathered into Addy's tiny ones and held tightly as she wove their fingers together.
"Of course you can do this! It's just pain. I'm trying to find the herb now that will help.. I'm sorry, I should have had it sooner, I just wasn't expecting this to all happen now, today..." Ah, her emotions threatened to undo her composure, bottom lip wavering before she bit down on it and held the flesh between her teeth. She hadn't even finished her sentence before Sira was shaking her head earnestly, looking away as she opened her mouth to speak.
"...What if I cant control myself?" At that moment, Addy's heart swelled for the woman who lay before her, love and a dozen other indescribable emotions flooding her body as she tried not to simply burst into tears. It wasn't the pain? That was unbelievable, as Addy had told herself more than once throughout the hours of Sira's labor that the pain itself would have undone her.
No, she was worried about her ability to control herself. How foolish.
Reaching down, Addy cupped Sira's chin and turned her face upwards until their eyes met. "Remember I went through this already?" Lifting a brow, Addy waited until Sira confirmed or denied the statement. "I know how you're feeling, I do. But what has happened prior to this, our child, means nothing. No really, it doesn't." Knowing Sira, the statement would have caused the need for protest but this time it was Addy cutting Sira off.
"I'm serious, Sira. No matter how angry you've gotten at others, no matter what the Predator side of you tells you, even when you're in human form, this child is a part of you. The baby will have your eyes, your smile, your blood running in it's veins." Kicking out a foot, Addy hooked a stool under her and she sat down next to Sira's head. "I couldn't love a woman who had the ability to hurt her child. Yes, you'll get mad at her... or him. Yes, you'll be irritated and disappointed and even confused. It's all a part of the process..." Gentle fingers peeled a soggy lock of hair from where it clung to Sira's temple, carefully tucking it back behind her ear. " It's going to be hard and trying. There will be tears, but there will also be laughter. I can't tell you what will happen other than that, but I do know you would never hurt our child. Never."
When she stood again, her hands were shaking from the emotion of it all. Cursing softly under her breath, Addy closed her eyes to gather the calm back around just as Sira cried out as yet another Contraction took her.
"They're closer together now, and at least a chime and a half in length." Miquel waited until Addy opened her eyes again to report, handing the sheet of paper with it's ticks marking the contractions progress into the healers now steady hands.
"We're going to have to get ready for her to push, then." Turning to Sira, Addy gave her a comforting smile from behind her 'Medical Mask' as everyone else in the Infirmary scurried around to get ready.
"It shouldn't be much longer. I'm going to have to ask you to slow your breathing and calm yourself as much as you can in preparation."
