Logan woke with a frown, not long after one am. At first he wasn't sure what had woken him, until a few minutes later he felt the gentle clenching of Marie's stomach under his hand. She sighed softly as her internal muscles rippled and tensed but didn’t wake. Logan left her to sleep, as he monitored the slowly increasing frequency of her contractions through the early hours of the morning.
By five the gentle contractions had increased to both a frequency and intensity that her body was now visibly reacting to them. Her soft sighs had become gentle moans, and she would shift unconsciously into each contraction in an effort to relieve pressure. He didn't know how they hadn't woken her already but he had promised that he wouldn't wake her up if labour started while she was asleep. She had been chatting with mothers on online forums as part of her research and preparation for the birth, and had determined she would like to sleep through as much of the labour as possible.
A particularly strong contraction a short time later woke Marie, and Logan felt her grip his arm as she tried to breathe through it.
"You're doing great darlin," he assured her, placing a kiss on her shoulder as the tenseness began to drain away as the contraction ended.
"How long?" Marie asked, as the discomfort reduced.
"Woke me up about four hours ago," Logan replied softly, "They're roughly every five minutes now, and about forty seconds long, so you're just about there. Do you need me to do anything for you?"
Marie was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking through her haze of sleep fog. "Could you run me a bath, please?" she asked sleepily.
"Don’t need to say please darlin, one bath coming right up," Logan answered softly, gently extracting himself from the bed so as not to jostle Marie too much. He tucked the body warmed blankets back around her before he made the quick trip to their suite’s bathroom.
He started the bath filling and collected all the towels he could find, setting them at the ready in easy reach. He filled the sink with cold water and placed a few face cloths nearby just in case. He was listening closely to Marie as he gathered what he figured they would need, she appeared to be dozing again, and the next few contractions she effortlessly breathed her way through with barely a sound.
As the bath reached the appropriate level Logan shut the water off, and lay down an extra bath mat, before returning to the bedroom to get Marie.
"You should have called me Marie, I could have helped you up," he said, as he spied Marie now standing, leaning forward with her elbows resting on the top of the dresser, she was gently rocking her hips side to side before another contraction rippled through her abdomen.
She sighed heavily a few seconds later as the muscles released again. "Didn't need help, just needed to move, and you were already busy. Is the bath done?" she asked, as she straightened up some, still rocking her hips at the cramping ache in her core.
"Bath's done," Logan confirmed, "Want me to carry you there?" he asked, moving to hover over her, uncertain about whether or not she wanted him too close to her. He knew some women got pretty pissed with their other half when they were in labour, and while he wouldn't begrudge her taking out some of her coming pain on him, he knew she wouldn't like that.
Marie shook her head, a soft smile on her lips as she straightened up further, one hand moving to rest on the small of her back, while the other reached for him. "No, just walk me there, I need to move a bit after lying down so long."
Taking her hand, Logan moved around her, slowly guiding her out of the room, at a pace Marie's waddling gait and shaky legs could manage. He could smell just the slightest hint of blood, and an increase in the smell he had come to associate with pregnancy, which Jean had suggested may be the amniotic fluid, rather than hormones. It was all a little overwhelming but Marie was, so far, handling events in a focused and calm manner, so he was going to try to do the same.
They had to pause twice on the way to the bathroom for more contractions but they finally reached the pleasantly humid room. Marie sighed in relief as she slowly stepped into the tub, leaning heavily on Logan, before lowering herself onto her knees in the water. She leaned forward against the end of the plunge tub and let her head rest on her folded arms as the warm water lapped over her lower back.
Logan soaked a small towel in the warm water before laying it over her back to concentrate heat, before he quickly and efficiently gathered up Marie's hair and braided it loosely to keep it somewhat out of the way. He caught her smile, as she watched him out of the corner of her eye between contractions. A particularly long contraction caught them both by surprise and Marie gripped his hand tightly. Logan let her squeeze his hand, thankful for the metal that coated his bones that stopped her from crushing his hand to mincemeat. He got as close to her as he could, wrapping his spare arm around her shoulders and quietly murmured encouragement to her.
After almost two minutes, that felt like hours, the contraction finally ebbed away and Marie could breathe again.
"Do you want me to go get Jean?" Logan queried softly. Marie had been adamant she didn't want a doctor present for the birth unless there was an emergency, and had written out a detailed birthing plan to that effect. Jean was convinced Marie would be begging for her, and pain relief, before the first baby was crowning though.
"Is something wrong?" Marie responded, an edge of panic in her tone.
"No, nothing's wrong darlin, just making sure you haven't changed your mind, that was a big one and they're probably all going to be like that one from now on, I don’t want you wearing yourself out or suffering unnecessarily," Logan replied soothingly, cupping fresh warm water over the towel on her lower back to keep the warmth in.
"I'm good," Marie assured him, "I haven't changed my mind and--" she broke off as another strong contraction ripped through her.
Logan had his hand resting across the back of her hips as she gripped his other hand, he felt a soft popping sensation as the scent of amniotic fluid increased, her waters must have finally broken. He remembered Jean's advice to check the colour of the resulting fluid, he couldn't be sure if it was just because the waters had broken into the bath water but there didn't appear to be much in the way of colour discrepancy, which Jean had said was good.
After another few contractions Logan noted Marie stopped rocking her hips, settling into position on her knees, her only request between contractions was for a towel that she could put under her knees to soften the surface. The contractions were coming regularly and intense now, it seemed every other minute now was a contraction. Marie had released his hand in favour of wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder as her vocalizations through each contraction grew in volume.
Eventually Logan sensed a shift as Marie's contractions became less preparatory and more functional, she let out a small huff as her body involuntarily pushed at the end of a couple of contractions. Logan reached down between her legs just as another contraction, this one resulting in a hard push, ripped through Marie, who let out a muffled shout, as a slimy soft lump was pushed into Logan's hand.
"That's my girl, you're doing great darlin, that's the head, you ready for the next part?" he asked.
Marie huffed what might have been a laugh and 'mmhmm'd against his neck before she tensed again. Logan felt the tiny body shifting as another forceful push shoved the rest of the tiny body into the warm water. Marie gasped for breath, trying to get her racing heart under control, as she looked down into the water between her thighs to get her first look at the scrunched-up new born. She held him under the water as Logan gently cradled him, the little boy was still and relaxed as he floated in the larger liquid area as if he didn't even realise yet he had been born.
After a minute of enjoying the perfection of the moment Marie let Logan lift the baby out of the water, and they both watched in awe and relief, as their tiny son took his first breaths before his piercing wail filled the still, warm air. Keeping his body under the warm water Logan held the boy against his mother’s chest as he reached for another small towel to soak and wrap around him. For several minutes they soaked up the emotion of the moment, and cuddled with their child, until Marie was hit by another large contraction.
"You want me to take him?" Logan asked, gesturing to the baby who was now silently snuggled against his mother’s skin.
"No," Marie answered, one arm securing the infant in place as the other braced herself on the tub again. "But catch Thing 2 will you," she murmured with a small giggle, as her body pushed again.
It took another push before the head was free, and a further two pushes, one for each shoulder, before the rest of baby number two slid out to join his brother. Marie was visibly exhausted but managed, with Logan's help, to turn herself around so she was now sitting on the towel that had been under her knees, allowing Logan to lift the second child onto her chest before he covered him also with the towel he had enveloped the first baby in, so both tiny boys were lying skin on skin against their mothers chest.
Marie let out a satisfied sigh, as she gazed tiredly but adoringly down at her two children, as baby number one joined baby number two in another round of lung exercises.
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