TW FOR MEDICAL STUFF. IT GREAT DETAIL. MENTIONS OF POTENTIAL INFANT DEATH. ALSO BLOOD.
Astrid's POV
I remember the first contraction hitting at 3 AM. A small, subtle pushing at my pelvis, akin to my memory of a period cramp. I didn't feel anything for another hour or so, but then the pain increased and my contractions were getting closer and closer together. By 8 I felt dizzy and nearly collapsed trying to open the door to my bedroom, not having woken up Damon or Stefan, both of which had been sleeping beside me.
"What are you doing up so early, Striddy?" Laurel asked as she put a hand to my forehead.
I couldn't look up, could barely stay on my feet. My head wandered away from me, or so it seemed, and I felt like I was in some sort of trance. If I'd have not been a vampire I would've thought my heart on the brink of collapse.
"Oh shit, you're in labor."
My vision went blank.
---
Laurel's POV
Shit shit shit shit! I felt the panic rush through my veins as I tried to save my sister-in-law from her fall, nearly missing as she almost fell to the floor. i was at a loss, completely unaware of what I was supposed to do about this. I should have read up more about pregnancy complications. Stupid me. She's fainted and what about the twins?
Even if I was frozen in place, I hadn't seen the vase that Astrid knocked over as she passed out, that of which caused enough noise to wake up a few household members. Nik, a sleepy Elijah, and Stefan came out to check on what caused such commotion.
From behind me I felt the terror looming from Stefan, who immediately started to grab Astrid and tap her shoulders, attempting to wake her up. I knew Stefan was trying to ask me what happened, if she'd taken a fall or whatever someone asks another person when they're holding an unconscious pregnant woman, but I couldn't process anything. I felt hollow, like the world was at a standstill and the only thing left was me and my shaking hands.
Wet tears streamed down my face and my lip quivered with my jaw, which was glued shut.
I was a coward, for not doing anything, for sitting there and weeping like a small child. Tears stained my vision and the faces around me blurred. Everyone must have known by now, the house was probably in a panic. If the vase hadn't dropped who knows how long it would have taken for someone to help Astrid.
She had been overdue, we knew that, but she'd shown no signs of anything being wrong before now. Being a vampire must have diminished symptoms of something terrible being wrong with her, or the twins. We should have been keeping a closer eye on her, I should have known.
She can't die, but her girls could.
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Stefan's POV
"She's been in there for an hour, Elijah, and they still don't know what happened?" I was beyond worried. My pacing was evident of it, and Damon hadn't looked away from the wall in the small infirmary that was created in case of any problems with the birth of Aric or the twins...
Astrid is immortal, she could survive anything that the world throws at her, our children aren't.
My children could be gone before they ever took their first breath. If they don't get enough oxygen, they'll die, and I doubt that a vampire child can or should be created. My children, whose heartbeats I'd watched for every time I entered a room with them in. My twin girls, who I read stories and even a few of my oldest diary entries to. Those little souls who should get a chance to live.
We couldn't lose that bond we had already. My mate can't go through the loss of losing not one but two children.
With Valerie, I'd already lost a child. I didn't know them, but that was still a life that was wanted. That child was wanted and wasn't able to live. Ripped away from life by a terrible man, and now my children could be taken away by an unseen force that I can't stop.
I'm not even allowed in the room.
"I'm terribly afraid not, Stefan, I've heard nothing from inside that room. Kai has blocked us off from deciphering what they say to one another," Elijah says with a short sigh. "All we can do is wait and have hope that this won't effect the children."
Elijah has been the one to hold our hand through this, the one who stayed strong while Damon checked out and Finn barged his way into the infirmary before Nora and Mary Louise could close the door, making sure that no others could come in. He still stood, and I knew he was just as worried as I, but his stone cold expression never changed.
"They have to give us something soon," Damon whispers for the first time since he saw our mate's pale face in Laurel's arms. "We have to know. I can't just sit here and not know if they're alive in there."
Elijah didn't respond, because he knew that they weren't coming out until this nightmare was over. We wouldn't have a clue if our hearts were broken, if the children we loved were dead and gone.
It was a waiting game.
---
Nora's POV
"HER BODY DOESN'T RESPOND THE SAME WAY A HUMAN'S WOULD, KAI!" Mary Louise yelled at our covenmate as she wielded a scalpel in her left hand. "IT JUST CLOSES BACK UP WHEN I TRY TO CUT INTO HER!"
"Do you people have any idea of what you're doing?" Finn questioned as he threw his hands up in the air.
My body shook. They'd been fighting throughout this thing. As soon as the magic went into the room, Mary Louise was yelling and Kai was pacing back and forth, thinking out loud of different ways to get the twins out of the womb within the next half of an hour.
And it surely didn't help that Finn had pushed past our defenses and gotten in. He's usually not this argumentative.
They didn't have much time left if Astrid dies. She hasn't, she's barely holding on while on life support. We fed her blood but that hasn't worked well.
We can't even figure out what caused this mess in the first place. Valerie thinks its Eclampsia but Astrid would have shown symptoms of pre-eclampsia if that were the case.
Please spirits allow me to live through this. Let whatever we do work. I can't tell Stefan and Damon that their children are dead and I can't see two babies gone. They're too young to go like this.
"Well Mary Louise we need to perform the C-section now or the twins will die. And yes, Finn, I know what I'm doing because my twin sister is a doctor and I made sure to call her three weeks ago to figure all of this shit out so we don't fuck up," Kai says as he grabs another scalpel. "I'm getting the pliers. We're keeping her open long enough for the girls to come out safely. Finn, you get the suction thingy so we can clear the amniotic fluid."
Valerie rushed over to Astrid's bedside and proceeded to cut into her, making the initial incision before Kai gave her the go ahead to cut further. Kai carefully placed a few clamps down to make sure that the cut wouldn't close, as Finn still had a job to do. Astrid's oldest brother took in a deep breath and quickly tried to suction any fluid he saw, which I could see was working. You could see two little heads and a lot of blood.
"They're still pink!" Finn almost cheered as Mary Louise picked out one head. "Someone get the other baby please."
"We're working on it, big man," Kai said as he gently pulled up the other baby from Astrid's exposed womb. Two small snips could be heard and nearly instantly I could hear little coming from the girls in Mary Louise and Kai's arms. "Nora lovie, can you remove the clamps since you've been standing there for the past ten minutes?"
I trembled a bit as I walked over and quickly pulled away the clamps, noticing how I hadn't been very careful in doing so. Oh, it'll be fine. She's an Original Vampire. Astrid will heal and then we can find out what's wrong with her. For now, the twins need their fathers.
Just like that, Sigrid and Helga Mikaelson-Salvatore had been born into this world.
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I changed the names of the twins because they were too similar besties.