Page 120 of Bully for Sale
“I know.” Ezer took a slow, deep breath, gazed determinedly at Ned. “All right. Let’s do this.” He then dissolved mentally back into the space he retreated to in between the pain.
Ned met Amos’s eyes and they shared a moment of agonizing fear for Ezer.
Dr. Savage was all business. He kept several gleaming tools handy, saying he might need them later. For what, Ned didn’t know and was afraid to ask. Dr. Savage crouched by Ezer, getting a look at Ezer’s asshole, which Ned, when he did the same, saw was stretched and distended with the effort to push the first twin out.
Off and on, Amos’s eyes went almost black with terror, like when Ezer’s scream was so loud and brutal that it seemed it would punch a hole in the roof and expose them to the sky above. Other times, Amos hesitated in his reassurances, his expression shifting between so many emotions Ned couldn’t name them all. But always after steadying himself he’d put up his chin and say, “Ezer, I’m here. Da’s here. You’re doing great.”
“I know this is the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but I promise, Ezer, you can do this,” Ned murmured, kissing the side of his head after Ezer twisted and screamed his way through another contraction.
“I don’t think I can,” Ezer wailed.
“You can,” Amos encouraged. He caught Ned’s eye. “Here now, lean on your alpha. That’s right.” Amos put Ezer’s weight fully into Ned’s arms, and then sat at Ezer’s side, shakily taking hold of one of his hands. “I’m here, we’re both here for you. Your da and your alpha. You’re going to be okay.”
Dr. Savage did another check and then got up to his knees, nodding. “The first one is fully in the passage.” He turned his attention to Ezer. “These next few contractions will be intense, but after that, it shouldn’t be long before you greet your firstborn son.” He clapped Ned on the shoulder. “Ready, Papa?”
Ned snatched up all the courage he had inside and nodded. “I will be.” He turned to Ezer again. “This is it. The first one is coming now.”
Ezer didn’t need to be told, Ned could see, because he was gripped by another intense pain. He shouted and pushed, straining with effort, his body twisting, his legs and arms, and every muscle working to get the child out. Even his eyes bulged.
“A little more,” the doctor said, from where he was now lying on the floor beneath Ezer’s butt, staring up at his asshole, waiting. “I can see just the start of his head.”
The next contraction turned Ezer’s face purple with effort, and silence ruled the room because he was pushing too hard to shout or scream.
“There we go!” Dr. Savage said. “This is it.” He got up to kneel behind Ezer, his hands dropping down behind him, as if to catch the baby.
“I’ll do that,” Ned said, suddenly sure it was the right thing to do. The first hands to touch his son should be his own.
“Hurry then,” Dr. Savage said, moving aside and getting Ned into position. “He’ll be slippery coming out. Grab him fast.”
“Ned?” Ezer said, his voice shaking.
“I’m here.” Ned kissed Ezer’s shoulder and nuzzled his neck. “I’m right here ready to catch our son.”
Ezer reached back, touching Ned’s thigh, and then bore into another contraction. His small body shook and strained and then, like a cannonball, their son came free and slid right into Ned’s hands.
“He’s here,” Ned gasped, gripping the baby so that he didn’t slip away. “He’s here!”
Dr. Savage leaned close, did something to the baby’s mouth and nose, and then a scream pierced the room. Not Ezer’s. The new babe’s.
“Is that him?” Ezer asked, sounding frantic. “Let me see. I need to see.” Ezer panted and shook as Dr. Savage helped Ned wrap the baby in a blanket, and then guided Ned around to show Ezer the fruit of his efforts. “This is our son,” Ned said, his heart pounding, his throat tight. Ezer reached for the bundle in Ned’s arms.
“Let him take him,” Dr. Savage said. “He’ll be distracted by how marvelous the babe is, and the next contraction won’t—”
Ezer shouted, thrusting the baby back toward Ned, who grabbed it quickly, as Ezer grunted, turned purple, strained and fought, and pushedhard. A second child was born, this one caught by Amos, who’d taken Ned’s position after the first babe was free.
Another scream.
“Oh, he’s beautiful,” Amos murmured, wrapping and bringing the babe around to show Ned and Ezer. “He’s perfect.”
Ezer reached for both babies and struggled to get them near enough. Tears ran down his face, his breathing coming in harsh gasps. His entire body shook, and he threatened to collapse, having squatted or kneeled for most of his labor.
Tears ran down Ned’s face as he and Ezer held their sons. Ezer was coated in sweat, and blood came from his ass. He wanted to lie down, but Dr. Savage encouraged them to wait a moment.
As the babies screamed, confused and scared by this new world they’d slid into, Dr. Savage got on the floor again, this time with some of his tools. He checked on the delivery of the placenta and then, showing them that it had passed as well, thick and purple, he nodded, pleased.
“There’s no hemorrhaging,” he said, helping them ease Ezer, quaking and small, onto the blankets. “This was a shockingly successful and normal birth. Truly surprising since he’s so small. I thought we’d need our friends from the ambulance for sure. That’s why I asked them to stay.” Dr. Savage helped cover Ezer with soft blankets, and then motioned at Yissan to bring over the water he was holding and which he’d tried to get down Ezer’s throat from time to time during the lulls in contractions. “He’s got some luck. You both do.”
Finally, once Ezer was settled, propped by pillows, and sure not to faint, Amos passed the swaddled, second baby to his son, and Ned did the same with the first. They curled together as the room around them gradually emptied—first of the EMTs, then Heath left, and finally Yissan and Amos departed. The last to go was Dr. Savage who took his job seriously—making sure both Ezer and the babies were truly all right before saying, “I’ll be upstairs. I’m not leaving until tomorrow morning. This has been a miraculous outcome, and I won’t leave until I’m satisfied there will be no reversal.”
