Can things get worse?

In the hospital room

I watched the scene unfolding and tried to keep from piercing the flesh of my palms with my own finger nails. Call me crazy...but situations like this make me tense...and more then a little irate. If Astoroth hung around, at least I'd have a vent for my frustration. I saw the shape of a woman take form over Gigs' body and hover there for a moment staring at Ramses...she spoke...I could tell she did...but I couldn't hear her words. It seemed like hours had passed since this whole debacle had begun...but it couldn't have been more then a thirty minutes...time sure does fly when you're having fun.

"What Kashuana...does it upset you to see them so?" Astoroth asked snidely...the effect would have been better if there hadn't been smears of dried blood on his nose and mouth...when I punch a man in the nose I like to see the evidence of my handiwork. I grinned at him. I could tell he knew what I was thinking and didn't like it. "Wouldn't you like to know Astro." I replied mockingly my eyes flicking back to the scene.

The woman was shaking her head...and this time I heard the voices.

Ramses: It will not work.

Asher: Mon dieu...she can't die, I will not allow it.

Tamara: We have to do something.

I looked at Dathan. "Why didn't it work?" I asked in a tightly controlled voice...screaming was not going to help the situation...sides I'd rather scream as Astro turf.

Dathan bit his lip for a minute...it'd have been a cute gesture...except I wasn't in the mood. "What?" I asked.

He sighed. "Well Gigs has made it very clear she has no liking for Luce...and Hecate...that's the demoness Ramses summoned...she can't help someone who's rejected us...and Gigs...she has...repeatedly."

I suppressed a groan...things like this always had a way of biting you on the ass when you least expected it.

Ramses voice interrupted my train of thought.

Ramses: We can't stop it...we'll just have to sustain her until it runs its course.

Tam: What do you mean?

Ramses: We'll have to feed her our energy...otherwise all of hers will go into the children and she won't be able to heal from the wounds.

Asher: What wounds?

Ramses: The birth will be...violent...very violent.

Tam: How violent?

Ramses: A human woman would never survive it not with all the help in the world.

Asher: She isn't human anymore.

Ramses: And that's the only reason she MIGHT survive.

I transferred my eyes to the bed...Gigs stomach was about twice the size it had been a few minutes ago. This was so not going to be fun.

Ramses: We can sustain her from here...I just hope we have enough strength.

Asher: We WILL have enough...she can NOT die.

I could hear the anguish in his voice...it was heart breaking...if there'd ever been any doubt in my mind at all that he loved her...fiercely...it was gone.

I started pacing again. I don't deal well in situations where there is nothing...absolutely nothing I can do. That reminded me. "Dathan you have to go tell Anita about Crystal..." I turned to look at Astoroth. "Where is Rachon keeping her?" I made it a question...but just barely. He smiled and I snapped. I had his throat in my hand in under three seconds. "WHERE IS SHE?" He gasped out a laugh. "You can't destroy me Kashauna..." I smiled at him. "No...I can't...but I can demote you...you die...you go back into the cells...for how long this time? A few hundred years...how much punishment have you racked up this time? And then...when you're done...you'll start off again...back at the level of a second secretary to some demon who doesn't have half your experience...do you really want that...just to see her die?" I asked very casually. It was his choice...he could play nice...or not at all. I was in no mood for games.

He gazed at me for a long moment, my nails digging into his flesh. I could feel blood seeping slowly from the wounds. He gave a jerky nod. "She's in the Sargasso Caverns...there's no way in from above ground...it in the ocean floors." I smiled and nodded releasing my grip. He stepped away from me putting his hand to his throat. I turned to Dathan. "Go...take them to her."

I turned back to the scene...but if had faded...couldn't watch without Dathan to help...damnit all to hell.

I walked back over to the bed...the delivery...someone would have to handle that...and what did I know about child birth? Can you say diddly squat? Gigs looked a bit better...however she choose that moment to let out a huge scream of pain. The other two's bodies flinched in reply.

A voice jerked me out of my panic...saved by the bell...or in this case...the Tanya and Pug...whatever worked.

Pug: What the hell is going on...power levels are spiking all over town...I almost burnt Tanya's......pot roast. (he glanced away guiltily)

My eyebrows rose at that...what exactly had they been doing I wondered. Well there was no time for speculation...we may have been in a hospital but the Doctor here was an idiot...what kind of Doctor leaves a poor woman on the verge of delivery in the tender mercies of her friends. (Just shut up...its not my fault we're intimidating.) I grabbed Pug's arm and jerked away. "What have you been doing standing on the sun?" I looked down at my injured hand then glared back up at him.

Tanya: You think that's bad you should feel what its like to have his hands on your...(she stopped abruptly)...pot roast when that happens...(she giggled)...It almost ruined dinner.

I glanced between the two of them...and shook my head...no time for this. "Go get Doc Lillian...we need her like ten minutes ago." I said careful not to touch him. "And be careful...I'd like the good doctor unsinged when she gets here." He didn't even hesitate he just vanished. Sometimes its good to be the queen. Okay so maybe I'm not the queen...but same difference. Tanya walked over to my side.

"Care to explain what exactly is going on?"

I looked at her and sighed. "If I said not really would that suffice?" She smiled and shook her head. "Figures." I walked closer to Gigs...she was still fully clothed...though her jeans were gaping open...and a good thing too, her stomach had swollen to thrice the size it had been when I looked at the sonogram the first time. Ohhh it was getting close...very close. "Accelerated pregnancy...the triplets will be here in ohh...I'd give em fifteen minutes by the size of em." Tanya's eyes widened.

"How'd that happen," she asked. I rubbed my temples. "Demon influence...isn't life grand." I started pacing again...well I wasn't really sure I'd ever really stopped.

Pug reappeared with the good doctor...his hand conveniently gloved. Lillian looked none the worse for the wear...a little confused...but she mastered that with amazing grace. I would have marveled...except my heart was tap dancing in my brain at the moment...and I was still trying to figure a way to either get it to change the tempo or move a little south.

"What's going on?" She asked directing the question at me. I blushed a little...Pug had kidnapped her obviously. "Gigs is about to give birth...in a less then conventional fashion." I tried for a wry grin...I was betting I failed miserably.

"She's not even in her second trimester." Lillian responded moving with doctor-ly efficiency to Gigs side and checking her pulse. I like Doc Lillian. She then began examining Gigs' stomach, then she turned to me. "Help me get these jeans off...its difficult to give birth in pants." I had to admit that made sense...sides why ruin a perfectly good pair of pants.

I helped her and we had them off in a jiff. Gigs let out another loud scream. Lillian looked up at me. "She's not at all dilated and her water seems to be intact." She looked puzzled...I wished I didn't know the answer to that question.

"They aren't going to come through the birth control most likely...They'll just pop out...like a cesarean...only messier." I heard Pug make a chocking noise behind me. Men are such babies.

Lillian stared at me blankly for a moment then nodded. "We'll do what we can...and let God take care of the rest." I blinked and smiled. Yeah...we'd do what we good...I felt useless...but when all you can do is sit back and wait to clean up the mess...well then you do just that.

My head jerked up at the sound of pounding on the door. "Security, open up in there." Came the deep masculine voice...wonderful...just what we needed. I glanced at Pug, he nodded and disappeared. I looked around noticing for the first time that Astoroth had fled the scene as well. That could be good or bad...I didn't want to lay odds on which. Tanya looked about as frazzled as I felt. There's nothing worse then watching and waiting.

We didn't wait long. Gigs sat upright in bed about the moment Pug vanished and started screaming bloody murder and clawing at her stomach...her claws hadn't been sheathed. This wasn't good. Tanya and I got on opposite sides of her and tried to keep her hands away from her belly. She'd hurt the babies if she kept it up. Lillian grabbed a scalpel from on of the cabinets and quickly sliced a long incision across her abdomen. I took a deep breath and braced myself against Gigs' arm. Tanya had done the same...we were both going to suffer for this later...neither one of us have superhuman strength...and well were tiger claws hurt.

I watched in something like morbid fascination as Lillian peeled back layers of skin...she was doing a c-section...she was brilliant...utterly brilliant...if we took the children out of the womb before they had a chance to burst from it...then...well catastrophe averted...least that sounded logical in my head. God I hoped it worked.

Another scream echoed through the room...and Gigs slumped back...blood was leaking from her nose and dribbling from her mouth...I watched eyes wide as her nose began to disappear and a muzzle began to form....her body was trying to heal itself...not a good idea right now.

"Hurry...do it NOW." I practically screamed at Lillian. She didn't disappoint...she ripped through the last layers of skin and made a neat cut into the uterus...then broke the placenta...and a baby screamed...or maybe it was Babies...I'm not sure...all I know is that in under two minutes all three were free of their mother and toes were being counted.

Gigs was still changing form...but now it was safe...I didn't think she'd have the energy to do much of anything but...well sleep. I'd just handed one of the girls back to Lillian when Asher and Tamara fell to the ground in unison. Asher looked as pale as a ghost...and Tam looked like she'd been hit by a bus and then asked to repave a parking lot with her bare hands. We were all a little tired.