Page 81 of The Beta: Part Three
The next contraction takes my concentration and my breath. They're getting longer and more intense. “Help me take off the leads, I need them off,” I grit out, pulling at the belt around my stomach that's supposed to monitor the contractions. It's ridiculous. I know when I'm having contractions. This is unnecessary and cumbersome. I can't move with all this stuff all over me. Hands start pulling things off of me, I don't know whose, I don't want to open my eyes long enough to look. It doesn't really matter, so long as they help.
The contraction passes and I can breathe again, so I talk while I can. “I'll try not to be hateful, but I'm probably about to be the worst version of myself. I'm sorry in advance. Please stay with me, unless it gets to be too much for you, but please don't leave.”
Devon leans in so that his forehead touches mine. “Never. We'll never leave you. You can be as mean as you need to be. We can take it.” I nod and close my eyes again to try to keep from crying with the relief and joy overwhelming me. I do not want to weep as I bring my children into the light. Devon said it so it's true. I won't be alone for a minute of this.
Things are harder once there are only a couple minutes between contractions. Trent is clocking them like it's his job, so I know that there were exactly two minutes and thirty-seven seconds between the last contraction and this one. I'm getting very tired now. And I have the sudden urge to hear my mother's voice. “Jamie!” I yell as soon as I can get a big enough breath to do it.
My brother is there before I finish calling his name. “I was in the hall. What do you need? Just tell me and I'll do it.”
“Call mom. You talk to her, I can't. Hurry. Tell her I'm okay, keep her updated. Don't let her come yet. Wait till tomorrow. I just need to hear her. I don't know what the fuck's wrong with me.”
Corso pushes my hair back from my face and starts twisting it up into another bun. They keep coming undone and falling down. My hair is hot and weighs a hundred pounds right now. I've been fantasizing about cutting it off to my ears for the past hour. “There's nothing wrong with you, tesoro. Are you sure you wouldn't like your mother to be here?”
“No, definitely not. I just want to hear her. I might cry. Hurry, Jamie. Before the next one.”
I hear the dull ringing and my mother is on the line. “It's too late in the evening for you to call, my son. What's wrong?”
“It's Talia. She asked me to call.”
My father, or one of them, grunts on the other end of the call and I hear a curse from one of the others. “What's wrong? Where is she? Marcus, it's Talia. Something's wrong.” They were asleep, and now she's shoving them all out of bed for a phone call.
“No, no. Mom. Listen. She's alright. She's having the baby.”
“Now!” she hisses, “I'm coming. Tell her I'm on my way.”
“No. Mom. Wait. I'm here with her. I came with Obi. She just wanted to hear you. The contractions are a couple minutes apart now, so it shouldn't be too much longer. She wants you to come tomorrow. She just wanted you to know, she wanted to hear you. That's all. Go back to bed.”
She laughs into the phone. “My silly, silly son. Go back to bed, are you kidding? Am I on speaker?”
“Yes,” Corso answers.
“Good. Talia, honey, you're going to be just fine. You're the strongest person I've ever known in my life and I'm so proud of you. Your baby is the luckiest baby in the entire world because you're going to be his mother. Your pack is there with you, and they'll help you. Jasper, sweetheart, are you doing alright?” I'm so relieved that someone asked after Jasper. He says he's alright, and he's been helping me through every contraction that Croso hasn't. They've been taking turns pushing against my hips, rubbing my back, containing my hair.
“I'm good. Just trying to help Talia however I can.”
“Push on her hips,” she suggests. “Help her onto her hands and knees and rock with her. It'll help. That position is just as good at birthing a baby as it is making one.”
“Jesus, Mother. Goddamn. I don't want that visual.” Jamison is every bit as horrified as I am right now. It's wonderful.
“Stay in the room much longer and you'll have a far more detailed visual.” Of course my mother is making crude remarks in the middle of my labor. It's perfect, and the exact reason I wanted to call her. “I'm going to make some tea and read a book until you call me with my new baby grandson screaming in the background. Don't get in the way, Jamie, and don't get on your sister's nerves. This is not the time to test her. I love you, my children.” Then she hangs up. That was the phone call I needed. Short, rude, just what I needed, and ending just in time for the next contraction.
“Thank you, Jamie. Now, get out. Unless you want an eye-full of your sister's snatch.”
“For fuck sake,” he drags his hand down his face and walks out the door. “I'll be right out here if you need me.”
Chapter thirty-four
Corso
The contractions have stalled at a minute apart, with no progression, for nearly an hour. Obi is concerned. I am a little past worried. And Trent is trying very hard to not climb the walls in his terror. I have never seen a man so afraid. He's also issued several death-threats to Obi if he doesn't 'get those babies out of his omega before they kill her'. I'm just about ready to issue a few of my own.
Talia is utterly exhausted. She's so pale that I can clearly see veins webbing beneath her skin. She's still working, though. She and Jasper are a unit. At this moment, she's leaning into him with her face buried in his shoulder, swaying with yet another contraction while I apply pressure to her hips. Jasper is making a quiet, altered version of the odd noise he made before that earned him a slap at the time, and it seems to be helping to relieve some of her pain and stress. Devon is driving everyone crazy with his pacing, and Kaleb is very literally wringing his hands. We are all useless and powerless right now and I hate it more than anything I've ever hated.
I've been trying to keep her hair back, feeding her chipped ice, rubbing and pressing any part she or Jasper points to, anything to try to help. But there's nothing. Talia is so stubborn. She is determined to have the babies without any interventions, but Obi sent out a secret text to me and Devon telling us that we may have to call it on her behalf. There are procedures he can perform here and medications he can give to help things along, but if she or the babies show another drop of stress he wants to carry her down to the sterile mobile clinic parked out front so he can get the babies out. I hope it doesn't come to that, she'll be so disappointed. Disappointed and no longer in this much distress with three healthy babies is better than the other alternative, though.
I keep feeling something tugging at me, something from Talia. Almost like a small sadness, but not like she's giving up. Just a small, nagging feeling of...loneliness? Being alone? We're all here with her, though. Encouraging her, purring for her, terrified for her. She must know that she's not alone. How could she not? I know omegas occasionally feel irrationally emotional, but... But Talia isn't an omega. Technically, biologically, she is, obviously. Inwardly, in her own mind's eye, deep inside her heart or hearts, Talia is a beta. She will always be a beta. And now she's surrounded by a bunch of alphas who don't do anything but react the way alphas do and a male omega who thinks and reacts like an omega. Obi is here, doing his job to monitor his patient and the infants she's trying to bring into the world, exactly as he should. He loves Talia like a sister, but right now he is being the best doctor he can be. He is doing his job. Talia is flailing and flagging because she's having trouble finishing her job, and that is the worst possible thing for a beta.
“Alex, get your mother on the phone.” Everyone but Talia looks at me like I've lost my mind. I suppose it does sound like a ridiculous thing, since Talia isn't even asking for her own mother again. But I know this will help. “Just do it, alright. Trust me.”
