"Keep going, Harmony."
His words and the tone of his voice said that he had her back.
He believed in her.
And Harmony?
All she could do was have that same belief in herself.
Harmony said a quick prayer and called out for Allie to, "Push..."
From there, everything happened in a rush.
The birth happened in the blink of an eye and that's when everything went south.
THREE
CROIS
He knewthe moment that things went bad.
There was a subtle shift in Harmony's temperament.
She was steeling herself.
"It's a boy."
He heard the quiet in her tone, but he didn't see her expression.
Vega did.
He was facing Harmony and Crois could see his expression.
"Harmony, I'll take over with Mom."
She nodded and turned her back on Allie.
Crois' eyes narrowed at the movement.
Allie relaxed back on the gurney relieved. She hadn't noticed what Crois had.
The baby was limp in Harmony's hands.
Crois, who had seen a number of his own siblings born at home, knew that this wasn't good.
The babies his mom had given birth to in their family home were all pink and covered in... stuff.
But even as gross as he'd considered them, they were moving, eyes open and squeezing shut. Alive with a kind of stilted energy.
The same couldn't be said for Allie's baby.
Pilar stepped closer to Allie, still holding her hand while Vega moved down to Allie's feet to continue treatment.
Reaching into the basket that she'd set down sometime during the chaos, Harmony took out a suction device.
He'd seen something like it in the baby aisle of stores when he'd gone to pick up supplies for his family when he'd been a teen.
He watched, with bated breath as Harmony cleared the baby's airway.
