Quills: the Rise of the Northern Matriarch-Chapter 99: It Pours

"I need three units of X Negative now." Janel shouted and looked down. The machine started taking images. The two of them poured over the scans with bloodied gloves.

"I found it." Jarrad said, "I will need a matrix, gel and some clamps." Jarrad said.

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"She needs blood?" Talan cried, desperately looking at the flourish of activity.

"Suction and clamps, please. Run it from her neck. Out of the way, Talan," Janel said. The doctors working on her quickly hooked up the transfusion line. Nora's teeth began to chatter as she received the blood transfusion. The doctors worked quickly. After ten minutes, Nora's surgery was completed. They kept her unconscious as they ran multiple units through her as well as fluids. Janel heaved a sigh of relief as sweat ran down his face.

"That was too close. She is out of danger, finally." Janel announced as he looked at her vital signs improving. He wanted to cry. It was dangerously close. She would not stop bleeding. There were two sources of the bleeding. He ran a scan to double-check his work and magnified the area along the incision to make sure the tissue mended together properly throughout the healed layers.

"Start scanning the male infant first. We will need to see how his lungs are responding to the steroids." Janel ordered. Talan wiped Nora's face clean, avoiding the oxygen, and worked his way down to her lower abdomen and cleaned the blood off her. After going through multiple towels, he finished. He looked at all the medical waste around her and took in the amount of blood she lost from her hemorrhage. It was gruesome. He grabbed a blanket and tenderly covered her, stroking her hair even though she was unconscious. Talan heard a piercing cry from across the room. He turned to see his daughter settling down after having her interfaces installed.

"Do you want to hold her for a moment?" Janel said, handing the small clean bundle to him.

"They look just like her," Talan said, as he smiled. He heard the second cry of his son next.

"Good boy. Looks like the injections are working well. That chamber is great, was it not, little guy? I bet you want to go back in." Jarrad said as, he talked to the infant tenderly as he finished installing the second set of interfaces. "Your mother is going to cherish you. You look just like her." Jarrad said, smiling down at the healthy boy. He was working on the project with Janel. There was nothing as invigorating as holding what could be the first cured male in his arms. Monil and Janel both talked well of Jarrad at dinner. When he started to be able to dress how he wanted to at work, Jarrad knew that Janel was not just enamored with Nora. He did not regret his choice.

"They are both alright to move now. We will move them to an inpatient room here in the clinic so we can monitor them. We will keep her unconscious until we are done running blood infusions. It should take a few hours." Jarrad said. He was finally employed after passing the test to work here seven cycles ago. He was glad he was here to save her once more from death. The sensation of getting a blood transfusion was eerie and unpleasant. He would prefer that she did not feel any discomfort. Jarrad thought the infants were just perfect. They had the looks of their mother. He was glad to be close and able to help. He was also doing what he wanted.

"Janel, do you want to discharge in eight hours or do you feel that we should wait longer?" Jarrad asked his boss.

"Eight should be enough to see if she is fine. Put her in a room with a scanner," Janel said. Talan opened his Interface and sent a message to his spousal group. Nora was wheeled out of the room and through to a room to recover. The room slowly filled up with spouses to check on her, one by one. Cerez and Liem visited first.

"Are you alright Talan?" Liem asked.

"It was really close. She almost died." Talan said, racked with guilt.

"It is common with multiples and with surgical births like this for women to need transfusions. With Fiona and Ivy she needed to stay for two days. Her recovery was brutal. I know it must have been scary," Liem said. Nora was a fighter. Liem was scared because this was the first time that she had complications this bad.

"I saw her vital signs live, her blood pressure plummeted when she started losing blood. You have no idea how much she lost. If Janel had not found the source of the hemorrhage sooner, we would be looking at her corpse." Talan said quietly, so as not to wake Nora. He was angry because of the denial. He walked up to his son who was resting in an oxygen-enriched pressurized maturation chamber meant to help him develop his lungs faster. This would not have happened if he had been gestated artificially. He would be willing to try a female embryo, artificially of his own paternal line, to see if they could gestate her in an artificial womb. A nurse came into the room and added another unit of blood to be transfused. Talan's left eye twitched when he saw this. He was willing to bet that Nora's genetic material, since it was unaltered, would permit this.

"It is a risk to her and a risk to them. Where would we be without her? She is my happiness, Liem. I do not think she should do this again." Talan said. He moved to see his daughter who was in another pressurized maturation chamber. He watched his daughter sleeping quietly. She could have died, he could have died and Nora could have died. It would be worth a try if Nora decided she wanted to have more children. He could easily do the same for Nora with her permission, that he did to his own mother nefariously and allow her a way to control births.

"She is all of our happiness, we all have heirs. We should stop." Kai said. He was shaken by what happened today. He trusted Talan. If he was alarmed, then there was a good reason for it.

"What about trying the racks? So she does not need to suffer anymore. You do not get sick with her when she is pregnant or feel her pain or worries. She should not have to risk her life and deal with that anymore." Talan said. The room fell briefly silent.

"You always say we should wait to discuss things that involve Nora, when she is present. Why can we just wait to talk it over with her instead of guiltily ruminating? Why focus on this now, when you could be happy? Look at them, Talan. They are beautiful. I love them." Cerez said as he approached the cradles. He was so jealous that they looked so much like Nora. His twins looked like Halid, minus the freckles Janel had influenced to express on Fiona through an mRNA injection and their eyes. If they were not so special, Fiona would not even have them.

"Look at the hair, I think it might be straight. She might be jealous" Kadir said and smiled as he looked at the female child. Cerez looked at the sweet pink tiny newborns.

"I should go, but think about what I said," Cerez said as he patted Talan on the back. Liem pecked Nora on the forehead before he turned to Talan, who would be staying there with Nora for the meantime while they took care of things at home. Considering the circumstances, he was glad that the facilities were finally up and running. It was nice to be able to cook for themselves, but he had the feeling that they would start to use the food service team that fed everyone else in the facility a lot more now. They had guests at the moment, and it was time for the children to eat again.

"What do you want to eat? I will send it up." Liem said. Talan shrugged.

"Send up whatever you guys are eating." Talan said thankfully. Kai broke down crying beside Nora. He cupped her tiny hand in his own large hands. She felt so cold. A deep frown spread across his face.

"Can we turn up the temperature here? She is so cold." Kai asked sadly.

"It is the transfusions. Do not worry Kai." Kadir said as he placed a blanket on top of her and placed a kiss on her forehead. He looked down lovingly at Nora and stroked her cheek. A whirlwind of emotions stirred inside of him, he released a relieved sigh, bracing himself against the threat of tears.

"I heard how scary it got in there from Janel. When Fiona and Ivy were born, we were a mess afterwards and that was a planned surgery. I cannot imagine seeing her like that. Are you okay?" Kadir said as he tried to comfort his friend. Nora had no scars. The recovery might be different. This time they accidently tore an artery, placenta separation, blood pressure and atony caused her to need more care. He approached the infants.

"Just like her. Beautiful. Have you seen their eyes yet?" Kadir asked Talan. Talan shook his head.

"Cerez told me that I should not overthink things right now and enjoy my son and daughter. I think he is right. I let something very negative cloud something I should be very grateful about. They are all alive." Talan said. He embraced Kadir.

"I am just grateful they look like her. Can you imagine a girl looking like you?" Kadir teased Talan and returned the hug.

"Hey, I am glad too." Talan laughed. He finally began to relax after everything that had happened over the past couple of hours. They were all going to be fine. The time seemed to drag as they quietly waited in the room for Nora to wake up. Talan washed his face and hands, while the other two were outside. When he came back, the food that Liem had promised had already arrived. Liem even included food for Kadir and Kai as well. They all ate in silence and wheeled the cart out of the room. Kai handed them each hot damp towel to clean off their hands from the second compartment of the warmer that held the hot blankets for patients. They cleaned themselves up quickly and tossed the dirty rags in the pneumatic tube for soiled cloth in the room.