Page 82 of The Beta: Part Three
He pulls out his phone and makes the call on speaker. His mother answers after a few rings, sounding completely annoyed that he's interrupted whatever she was doing. “Alexander Rosen, do you have any idea what time it is? You better be on fire or bleeding out.”
“Sorry, Ma. Talia is in labor. Corso said to call you, so I did.” Alex sounds as pinched and worn as I feel.
“What's wrong? Is she alright? Are the babies okay? What do you need?” She said babies. She knows our big secret. That's trouble for later.
“She's so tired. And they're not coming, she's just having contraction after contraction and they just won't come out. We can't make it better, we can't do anything. Corso just said to call you, that's all. I don't know why.”
“Are you alright, Alex?” Like most mothers, so goes from irritation to concern to worry within a few blinks.
“No. Corso, why did we call my mom?” He hands me the phone.
“I thought you'd have a suggestion. From a beta point of view. I don't know if there's a difference between a beta and an omega in labor, but I thought...I don't know. I thought you might know something that would help.” It sounds completely stupid said aloud. Of course there's no difference between an omega and a beta having babies.
“Can she hear me?”
“Yes,” Talia hisses.
“I know you're tired, but you've got to get three little bodies out of you. If you were in major distress, Obi would already have you out of there. How far apart are your contractions?”
“About a minute, for the last hour or so. I can't make anything move forward. I'm stuck.” Her voice is watery and thin. It's horrible to hear.
I hear a tea kettle whistle in the background and cups clinking. “Stuck. Hmm. Would you like for me to tell you about when Alex was born?”
Talia nods and drops back onto her hands and knees, her fingers digging into the nest as she begins to rock back and forth again. I answer for her. “Yes, she's nodding. She's having another contraction.”
“You keep working, sweetheart. Just listen to me. We never joined a pack, so I didn't have any alphas there to get in my way and try to fix everything. That's what they do, honey. They don't know how to help, not in a way that's helpful to the work that needs to be done. They want to fix things. If they can't fix things right away, they tend to make things worse. That's one of the reasons I never wanted to tie myself to a pack, I don't have the patience to coddle them. I think that's what you're trying to do right now. Can you feel them through your bonds?”
Talia nods again, just once. Her eyes are squeezed shut and she's moved one hand to wrap around Jasper's wrist. He's sitting in front of her, breathing with her through her pain. I don't know exactly what their connection feels like to them, so I don't know how much of her pain he is actually able to shoulder. All I do know for certain is what I feel, and I know the others are sure to be feeling something similar. I want to take her pain into myself, but I can't. I was able to take on a little at first, I think we all were, but I can't now. What I felt through my bond with her when the first real contraction hit her took my breath and they just progressively got worse until I stopped being able to feel them at all.
“She can feel them,” Jasper answers.
“You're bottling up all the pain. You're protecting them from it. That's what omegas do, and that's alright. But right now you have important work to do, so you're going to be a beta. I'm going to tell you all about Alex and his big head. He came in the middle of the night. Why wouldn't he? It was so hot that night, I couldn't get comfortable. His father had a feeling that it might be time, but I didn't worry about it because there's no planning that sort of thing. Babies come when they're ready.“ She pauses to hush Alex's dad and I hear the creak of the rocking chair that I know to be in front of the fireplace in their living room.
Talia sits back on her heels and reaches for Jasper. She has him sit between her knees so she can lean against him. “Did he take a very long time to be born?” She's quiet, a small tremble to her voice. I hate it.
“Yes and no. I got up to get a drink and my water broke, then I labored for almost the whole night before he came. We called the midwife to let her know how things were progressing, but since they mostly weren't, she told us to call her when the contractions were five minutes apart. She offered to be there from the beginning, but I didn't see the point in that because everything was going so smoothly. She and Jake both fussed about that, but, ultimately, I was the one giving birth so I made the choice. I got the idea that I wanted to get into a bath and that's where he was born. It felt so much better to be in the water, poor Jake had to keep warming it. Alex was born at sunrise in a tub of lukewarm water. His hair was black when he was born, it didn't start turning blonde until he was two. Can you imagine Alex with dark hair?”
I personally cannot imagine Alex with anything but a long, blonde mane. As Alex's mother continues talking about him as an infant, I begin to feel more of Talia's emotions, and more of her pain. I'm not the only one. Her bond with each of us is different; the function is the same, but what we feel through it is a unique thing between us and her. Based on Nathan's sharp intake of breath, he's feeling more than any of us.
“I like Alex’s hair,” Talia says through her teeth.
“Don't grit your teeth. Think loose thoughts. Think about water or a nice breeze. Relax your jaws. Alex didn't cry all that much when he was a baby, just when the occasion called for tears. He loved to babble, though. He would go on and on, for hours it seemed. He even woke up in the night sometimes to babble instead of crying. And he was always smiling.” The longer she talks about baby Alex the more Talia shares the weight of what she's going through, if I could take it all from her I would. I'm sending Alex's parents on a vacation. A cruise. I don't care. Whatever they want.
Obi comes to check Talia's progress while Alex's mom keeps telling stories. He looks at me and nods, relief evident. “Almost time to push, Talia. You can do this. Lean on your alphas. Let them carry as much as you can. You're doing so good, honey.”
I have never been present for a birth, but I have done enough research that I know it's almost time just from the feelings she is letting come across the bonds. Talia is turning inward now, she's not here with us anymore. Her focus is completely on what she needs to do next.
“Send me pictures once they're here, Alex. Hold her up, all of you. Do the purr thing. The omega part of her will respond to it. Don't distract her, don't be offended, and don't get in the way. Call me once everything is settled.”
I end the call just as Talia makes the first vocal sound of pain I think I've ever heard from her. She gasps Jasper's name and he helps her raise up into a modified squatting position.
“Wait, Talia, just a second.” Obi is moving fast to get the warmers and the cart laden with suction bulbs, surgical scissors, and a collection of other necessary things. “I'm almost ready. Reid, get ready. Devon. Hurry.” The plan is for Obi to suction out tiny noses and clamp umbilical cords then hand the babies off to Reid and Devon to wrap and hold.
That isn't what's happening, though. Talia is ready, but Obi isn't. He 's still lining up equipment and blankets when she hisses Jasper's name again. “It's coming. I feel it. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.” Jasper reaches down between them and he bites both of his lips between his teeth to keep from making whatever sound was about to come out of him.
“This one has hair. I've got you, Talia, I've got you. Obi, what do I do? I can't get out of the way.”
“Just catch, Jasper. Talia's doing the hard part.”
