Chapter 152 It's a baby girl.
At the hospital, she found her father standing outside the assigned labor ward. Only doctors and nurses were allowed inside. The blue star had five doctors now, including professor Sham. The other four doctors were his former students that he convinced to move to the blue star. He even managed to get two nurses and one pharmacist on board. The number of medical professionals was still too little but it was a start.
Scarlet was surprised to find all the members of her family here for the birth, what surprised her even more was the presence of Esong and his grandparents. As if that was not enough, Markay was here as well an he was holding Carolyn's hand tightly. The one thing ninety percent of the people here had in common was the similar frantic look on their faces.
"Brother," Scarlet called Adler as she approached him slowly, "What happened?"
Adler put his hand around Scarlet's shoulders and sighed, "Mother insisted on having a natural birth, yet again. Very few women survive it, only ten percent,?I don't know why she makes things hard on herself."
Scarlet frowned, the percentage Adler mentioned was too small. If only ten survived then did that mean ninety percent died? "I thought she was having like a C-section kind of operation. She had no idea what it was called here.
"A pre-term extraction." Adler said."
"Yes," Scarlet nodded, "I thought she was having a pre-term extraction. What happened?"
"She went into early labor for some reason," Adler run his free hand through his hair and frowned. "Maybe it's the col....winter, it has a funny way of affecting us all differently when it's approaching."
"I noticed that the animals don't want to go out grazing anymore." Scarlet randomly commented and then she wished she could take it take back. It was the wrong thing to say at this moment, she probably sounded insensitive.?"I should not have said that, sorry."
"What are you apologizing for? There is no manual for things to discuss when one's mother is in labor."
A nurse came out of the labor ward in a hurry, run off and returned with a very vivid blood box.
"What the!! Is she losing blood?" Scarlet grabbed the nurse's arm and asked her.
"That's the second blood box." Adler commented. "Just put her in the med bed already, extract the child, I don't care what she says about natural birth. If she dies it will not be worth it."
The nurse was trying to loosen her arm from Scarlet's iron grip while avoiding Adler that was literally shouting at her.
"Let go of her, Scarlet." their father pulled Scarlet's hand away and the nurse run back into the operating room. "What do both of you think you are doing?" he questioned them. "This is a hospital, grasping and shouting at the nurse will not make things any easier. Mind your manners in public and behave appropriately."
"I apologize." Adler said.
Dorian looked at Scarlet, expecting her to apologize as well but Scarlet was unrepentant. "She is my mother, she is losing blood dad, we are her children and we are allowed to be scared. Now is not the ideal time for appropriateness."
Her father gave her an unhappy look and he asked, "Do you think I am not scared too?"
Right, Scarlet thought, he was probably more anxious than them all, he just couldn't express it.
"If the nurse had dropped the blood box and we were told it was the last in the hospital what would we have done?" he asked them.
"Sorry." Scarlet apologized too.?"Excuse me, I am going to go to the bathroom for a bit."
Esong was about to follow her when Cecily grabbed his arm and shook her head. "Don't , I will go." she said.
Scarlet's plan was to go as a grim reaper and peep into the labor word. If it was necessary she would a few drops of crystal or purifying water in her mother's mouth. But this plan was delayed because Cecily followed her into the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" the woman surprised her by asking such a question. Given how Scarlet was going out of her way to avoid any interaction between them, she was the last person she expected to receive concern from.
"I don't know." Scarlet shook her head. "It's …" Scarlet broke off and sighed. "It's...." she tried to explain her feelings but somehow the words were getting stuck in her throat. Losing a parent was not easy, she knew because she buried her entire family_ , no Scarlet amended her thoughts, there was no burial in those days, no funerals and no time to cry. If your loved one was eaten, you simply kept moving, looking for the next safe shelter. And if they turned into a zombie, you had to kill them, cutting off their heads before they ate you. Parents had killed their own children and children had the same to their parents.
She never got time to mourn the death of her parents back then, it crossed her mind that maybe it's why she was feeling like this. Slowly, their images were fading and the Su's were replacing them.
"I know dear," Cecily patted Scarlet on the back. "But you cannot afford to be weak right now, you should toughen up. You have given birth before and you know how these things work, we women must be stronger than the men when it comes to this. Your mother is going to be fine."
Scarlet nodded her head and wiped away the small beads of tears which had been forming in her eyes.
"I will give you some privacy, come out when you are ready." Cecily patted her back one last time before leaving. Immediately, Scarlet locked herself in a bathroom stall and took a two minute sleeping pill, then she appeared in the labor ward with just the thought of her mind.
The baby had been born already it was in one of those artificial wombs for some reason.?But her mother was pale and one doctor was suggesting putting her in a med bed. Another was arguing that they could not simply put her in a med bed without knowing what to treat. Wasting no time, she carefully dropped some crystal water in her mouth and transferred a little energy to her.
"Her heartbeat is picking up." a nurse said.
"And her pressure is stabilizing." another added.
"Do we put her in the med bed then?" the doctor who had been suggesting it said.
"Let's go for it," professor Sham said, "We can't very well wheel her out with an open wound. She seems to be breathing fine on her own now as well." Scarlet watched the entire process as the bed moved mechanically without being touched to a different area, a med bed assembled itself around her mother. It was different from the ones which had to be manually opened before one was placed inside.
"I never get tired of watching the new med beds at work." a nurse said.
"It's so efficient, but expensive. Do you know that only twenty of these have gone into circulation so far. The other doctors still don't believe that we have one here." a doctor commented
"Thank God the governors are rich." another doctor commented and they laughed.
Scarlet who did not purchase that new type of med bed wondered how much it cost and she certainly thought to herself that in no way was she rich. She returned to her body suddenly because the sleeping pill wore off. When she exited the bathroom, Esong was there waiting for her. He was leaning against the wall, with his legs crossed.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," he smiled softly.
"Did I miss anything?" she asked.
"Not really, are you okay?" he asked her.
She nodded. Esong reached up and touched her face, "Liar," he said softly. "You cried, didn't you?"
She rolled her eyes pretentiously and looked away from him. "Who? Me? I am not a crier."
"I have been listening in with my superior mental strength."?he pointed to his head, "It's a girl and your mother is fine, so..."
She felt this sudden urge to hug him, and she did.