Half and Half

Chapter Thirty Five

Thankfully, it didn't take Uma and Harry long before they arrived and soon the five of them resumed pulling Henry's mom to the hospital.

Remind me why we didn't ask your dad for help? Uma thought to Mal as they pulled.

Because he's finally got a break between the restaurant and the Underworld, so he's spending time with Hadie. I'm not exposing Hadie to a woman potentially dying if I don't have to.

Excellent point, I didn't even think about that.

To be fair, we're all rather focused on a much more important thing right now.

Very true.

By some stroke of luck, they managed to pull the mattress into the hospital; Henry running ahead to get the attention of the doctors or at least someone.

"Lady Anastasia!" Henry exclaimed as he saw Anastasia Tremaine. "My mom, she needs help! She's having her baby and—."

"Show me," Anastasia said before looking over at one of the nurses who was near by. "Page OB, let them know that we have a woman in labor and needing immediate assistance."

"Right away," the nurse nodded and Anastasia quickly followed Henry back to the lobby where the others were. Anastasia's eyes went wide as she took in the sight in front of her but she made sure to school her expressions enough as to not worry the children in front of her. Even if they were mostly VKs, they were still children.

"What do we have?" An approaching doctor said as he ran up, a team of people following him.

"My mom!" Henry told him. "She...she was at work at the taverns when she said she started having...what's the word? The pain?"

"Contractions?" Ben offered.

"Right, yeah that," Henry nodded, not even bothering to ask how a kid younger than him knew the word he was looking for. They didn't have time for that.

One of the doctors nodded and looked at the staff. "Right then, let's get her on a gurney and then straight into an OR. If she's this weak that she can't walk in, we're going to have to do a caesarean. Let's go!"

"A...a caesarean? What's that?" Henry asked as they lifted his mom off of the mattress and onto the gurney before quickly wheeling her out of the lobby.

"It's...it's where they have to cut the baby out of her—."

"They're going to cut my mom open? They're supposed to help her, not kill her!" Henry exclaimed and tried to run after his mom.

"Whoa! Henry!" Anastasia said, quickly grabbing Henry and pulling him back. "I know, I know, it's scary but calm down. Yes, they will need to cut her open but it's not going to hurt her. They'll give her something that'll make it seem like she's asleep and when she wakes up, you'll have a new brother or sister. I promise, they won't leave your mom like that."

"Yeah Henry," Ben said softly. "The doctors aren't going to hurt your maman. Chip says that sometimes they do that to save the mom and the baby..."

Who's Chip? Uma thought to Mal.

Benny's 'brother' of sorts, Mal thought back. Think what Virgil kinda is to me, only not as nervous all the time.

""We'll stay with you Henry," Mal said. "We won't leave you alone."

"Yeah mate," Harry nodded.

Anastasia gave them all a small smile as Henry almost didn't seem to acknowledge them as he was still staring in the direction his mother had gone. "I'm sure he appreciates that...why don't you kids sit down and catch your breath? I'll get all a drink and then I'll reach out to Lady Persephone or Lord Hades so we don't have you all here without someone looking out for you. Like I said Henry, go sit down. You have my word that I'll bring you any news on your mom as soon as I know, okay? You just try to relax."