Love Will Find A Way ( FreenxBecky)

Chapter 5

It’s destruction, like she’s never had the misfortune of seeing before.

Even when she still practiced medicine, a bad car accident was as close as she got to seeing how truly fragile human bodies are, how easily they’re torn and ripped and made to bleed.

She sees it clearly now.

She hates that August is seeing it, too.

They walk slowly, Becky leaning heavily on August with every consecutive step, until they see other people.

Bodies, at first.

A boy’s body, dark haired, not like Billy, makes bile rise in her throat. She begins to lose the small bit of hope she still held that she’ll see them again faced with the magnitude of what happened.

“There’s a guy there, mom.”

Becky looks to the distance, though she’s so dizzy she can hardly see straight.

An old man, walks between the mud and water with the help of a stick.

“Here! Help!” August screams, calling for the man’s attention.

“He probably needs help, too, Gus,” she reminds him, but August runs from her.

Becky stumbles, and manages to hold herself up with the help of an overturned car nearby. She sees August speaking to the man in the distance, and pointing towards her.

And suddenly she’s staring at the bright, bright blue sky after a storm.

“Mom!”

/f/

It hurt in a way Becky hadn’t expected.

She’d read all the books, and she and Freen had attended all the birthing classes the doctor had recommended (and some she hadn’t, too) but she still wasn’t prepared when the first contraction hit.

She knew what was happening right away, and she tried, she really, really tried to let Freen sleep a little longer.

Not so much because she wanted her wife to get more rest but because she wanted to seem badass, she wanted a good story to tell.

'Yeah, I realized I was going into labor and I just left Freen sleep some more. I went back to sleep for a bit myself. It was so natural, so easy.'

It was natural, she made sure of it, she wanted it that way, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

She woke Freen up after five minutes.

They called the birthing center they’d picked and they recommended she stay home until the contractions were closer together.

Becky never did well with waiting.

And she did wait.

She hurt.

She tried to breathe and stay present, but the pain was like pure fire, licking her from the inside out. And then finally she called again and they told her to come and the drive over was the longest fifteen minutes of Becky's life.

And all the while Freen kept talking to her. 'You're doing so well, baby. We're almost there. Breathe.'

Becky tried so hard to listen.

A few hours and an infinity of pain later she held their baby boy in her hands, her forehead drenched in sweat and her mouth parched and her thighs and back and center on fire, but it was worth it.