Chapter Text
It's time. Johnny is in labour for at least a few hours now. Simon is scared, just like Johnny himself. But Elspet is with him and tries to reassure him that everything will be alright.
But it's not, Johnny can feel it, something is wrong with the pup. His mother soothes him.
“Everything is alright my boy, nothing is wrong. It's normal for ye to experience that pain.”
“It's not the pain Ma! Something isn't right. Can ye just take a look?” He pleads with his mother.
Elspet attended a lot of births and helpt many times. So she’s sure she knows what she's doing.
So she pushes and presses at several places around the belly. At some point, she stiffens. The pup lays wrong, it didn't turn like it was supposed to.
The problem is that the umbilical cord could choke the pup even if she rotates it herself. Something like that does not happen often but most of the time the pups don't survive that.
She knows of seals whose pups survived that, but these were helped by humans while in captivity.
“Ma? I’m right, no? What is it?” Her son asks, scared.
“The pup isn't laying right.”
“But-but ye can fix it! Tell me ye can help!” At the loud voice of his mate, Simon comes into the room grabbing his hand.
“No, I can't, I'm sorry John. We can only hope that the little one turns before it's time to give birth. And don't choke themselves on the umbilical cord.” No mother, in her right mind, wants to see her child as scared as John is right now.
Simon tries to comfort John even though he is extremely scared himself.
“Is there anything we can do?” Her son-in-law asks.
“We can do nothing, but I’ve heard that humans can. They help pregnant merfolk with a difficult birth.”
Simon looked alarmed. There is no way that he brings his mate to humans! They do nothing but harm! He looks at Johnny, shaking his head.
Both of them do not notice Elspet leaving them so they can talk alone.
“Simon, I know ye don't want to but I'm not going to sit here and do nothing but hope that it will work itself out when our pup’s life is in danger! The Laswell woman will help us, I’m sure of that.”
“You don't know that! What if they take you away from me, away from our pup! I can't let it happen again, Johnny! I don't wanna lose you!” Simon is frantic.
“Ye are going to lose us if ye don't bring me there! I and the pup will most likely die! Ye need to get me to the Laswell human!” John is scared, but firm in his idea.
“Please, Simon! Please! I want to see our pup. Want to see her growing up. I want to be by ye’r side. I don’t wanna leave ye!” He's crying again. He is so scared, John does not want his pup to die.
He looks at Simon who is also crying.
“Alright. I'll get you there.”
Laswell and her wife stand outside with a cup of coffee, drinking it and enjoying the sea view.
But their idyllic moment is broken when someone splashes water on them.
“What the hell!” She asks angrily.
“Kate. Look down and be careful.” Her wife says with a low voice.
She just does that and her whole face drops. There swims Ghost with Soap in his arms. Both looked scared.
“What-?” Before Kate could ask, her wife gasped.
“Look! Little Soap is pregnant!” She says excitedly.
“I see that, but why are they here? Ghost doesn’t trust us and neither does Soap.”
Kate looks down again. Ghost holds Soap up even more, and Soap rubs his belly and whines at her.
“I think they want our help. Something must be wrong.” Kate looks at her wife again.
“Then why are we still standing here? Let's get them up and then we'll take a closer look.”
The blond woman nods and prepares everything so both of the mers can get up on the ship.
Now both of them are in the laboratory in a small tank. Ghost holds Soap tight as if he fears he will be taken away from him.
“It’s alright I won't take him away from you just yet, I just need to look at him to know what's wrong with him. I’m going to put on my swimsuit and then I’m going into the tank with you.”
She warns the pair.
After she suits up she jumps into the water. She is as far away as possible and even then Ghost growls in warning. Soap squeezes his hands and swims to Kate. He points at his belly and whines again.
“You have problems with your child?” She asks, and Soap nods, holding up his right hand sideways just to turn it vertically and pointing at his belly again.
“Your baby is laying sideways?” She asks again, to which the seal nods hectic. Ghost hands clasp around Soap's shoulder, nuzzling his neck.
“Alright, we help you.” She ensures them and emerges from the tank.
“Darling, his baby is laying sideways. We need to C-section him. The risk that the child's umbilical cord is around its neck is too high.”
Kate calls more of her team to help them with the operation. From time to time she looks over to the mers and sees Ghost holding Soap with gentle hands, the seal obviously in pain.
“We need to hurry!” She calls to her team.
And with a few more minutes all is ready. Kate goes to the tank and knocks gently on it.
“We are ready, but I need to get Soap out of the tank to help him.”
Both of them nod. Ghost kisses Soap and pets his belly. In the time they cuddle, she brings a sling down and Ghost sets him on it. Kissing his mate again and then his unborn pup.
Soap is transferred onto a medical table and then he is injected with pain relief.
Simon can do nothing but oversee what the humans do with Johnny. Watch them cut him open and get their hand in him.
John is awake, looking at Simon who has both hands on the tank glass.
The blond looks up at his face and whines loudly, his claws digging and scratching the glass.
John only smiles lightly at him, knowing that he and the pup will be alright. Even though he is scared it's worth it in the end.
One hour later the quiet whimpers of a pup are heard. The main human, Kate, is holding a little seal, with a fluffy white tail in her arms. The screeching can be heard throughout the whole room. She puts the pup on John's chest, the little one searching for something to suck on.
In the meantime, the humans sew him shut and get everything ready so John and the pup can join Simon in the tank.
Johnny strokes the little head of his pup. Amazed at how small she is. He can hear Simon beside him restless clawing at the glass.
But they don't have to wait long. They move Johnny and the pup into the tank and Simon is all over them. Looking and touching everything he can get his hands on, till he reached the little seal in John's arms.
“How are you love? Is everything alright?” Simon asks frantically.
“All good love. Now that she’s here everything will be alright.” Both smile down at her.
“She's so beautiful. She looks just like you.” Simon says and pets her head with one finger.
“She might look like me but she's bigger than a normal pup, she got that from ye.”
The orca kisses both their foreheads and hugs Johnny, cautious of the little girl in his arms.
Both of them purr loudly so the little one falls asleep.
“What are we going to call her?”
“It's a girl, so maybe Alice?” Now Simon looks at him with his big eyes.
“You would name our pup after my mother?” He asks with tears in his eyes.
“Of course my Love, why not. Your mother was a beautiful soul. And I liked to honour her and thank her for bringing you into my life.” He said and cups his cheeks.
Simon hugs him close and purrs loudly.
“I would like that. I love you so much.” He mumbles into his hair.
“I love ye too.”
After a week of observation, Johnny, Simon and little Alice are released into the seas.
The whole family is waiting for them. They told them the whole story and showed them little Alice. All of them were ecstatic to meet her.
The three of them are living in the crystal cave where Johnny and Simon meet each other one year ago, with all the ups and downs parenthood has to offer.
Little Alice grows up to be a beautiful mer with the brown locks of Johnny and the tall body of Simon with her personality being a good mix of them both.
She found love much earlier than her parents. A woman her age with red hair, both Simon and John love her. She's a good fit for their little pup.
Even though her parents often embarrass her with their love, she wouldn’t change that for the world.