Chapter Text
August 7th.
Julieta hummed a tune to herself as she flipped the current batch of arepas over on the stove.
She may have been nearing the end of her pregnancy, but the town still needed healing, and she was trying to get ahead so she wouldn’t have to cook so much once her baby was born.
She wanted as much quality time with her new baby as possible, before she was swamped by work again.
Her back hurt and she was breathless, and as much as she loved feeling her hija or hijo move inside of her, she was ready for the pregnancy to end and to hold her baby in her arms.
She wiped her hands, smiling and shaking her head to herself when she heard not so subtle footsteps behind her.
“I know you’re there, Pepi.”
Pepa stopped dead, hand hovering over the basket of arepas that lay on the kitchen table.
Her hermana wouldn’t have made as much noise with her footsteps if she wasn’t also heavily pregnant.
She was due about four weeks after Julieta.
“Not even one?” The redhead pouted. “I’m hungry.”
Unlike Julieta, who had lost her appetite during pregnancy, and had to force herself to eat three meals a day, Pepa was like a bottomless pit and her hunger was never satisfied.
And annoyingly she was craving Julieta’s arepas, that were supposed to be for the town.
Still, it was lovely to be going through this experience with her sister (and best friend).
“Ay. Only one. I heard you in here three other times today, but I’d decided to turn a blind eye.”
Pepa smirked as she bit into the arepa.
“Well I suppose I’m lucky you love me.”
The sisters kept eachother company in the kitchen, chatting here and there while Pepa watched Julieta remove the last batch of arepas from the stove.
She felt a twinge that made her gasp and placed her hand over her stomach.
She had been having them on and off for two days, but this one felt off.
“Are you okay?” Pepa frowned, instinctively waving away the concerned cloud that had formed over her head.
“I think it might be a contraction.”
She should have expected the thunder, yet she didn’t and the sound made her flinch.
Pepa had a tendency to panic in an instant.
Julieta was calm.
She had been preparing for weeks. She’d read books and mamà had told her what to expect.
The baby had to come out sometime, right?
Always the one comforting her hermanita, Julieta smiled softly and stroked Pepa’s face until her cloud dissipated.
“It’s fine, okay? There’s still a couple of hours before dinner. Félix said he’ll cook. I’m going to try and nap before the real fun begins. Just get Agustín for me, okay?”
It took some time to convince Pepa that she was fine on her own, and she finally made it to her door and got into bed.
Moments later she was joined by her sweet husband, who looked even more worried than Pepa had been.
“Amor? Are you okay? Is the baby coming? Do you need your mamà?”
Julieta rolled her eyes, wincing as another mild contraction hit her.
“Yes. Not right now. No.” She answered all three of his questions and beckoned for him to lay down beside her.
She took his hand and rested it on her belly once the contraction had passed.
Agustín calmed and gently ran his thumb against her swollen stomach.
“Tonight or tomorrow, we’re going to be parents.”
Julieta sighed contentedly, and brought his hand to her lips.
“I think it’ll be tomorrow.”
-x-
Well actually, it would be tonight.
Four hours had passed and labour was progressing with surprising speed.
Being the town healer, Julieta wasn’t used to experiencing heavy pain, for her food often dealt with pain before the body and mind had time to register it.
And now here she was, in excruciating agony.
She had never felt anything like it.
She tried to make as little noise as possible, mostly for Pepa’s sake.
Although Pepa had laboured before and knew a lot of noise could be involved, Julieta didn’t want to upset her unnecessarily.
Both she and her mamà had thought it wouldn’t be such a good idea to have Pepa in the room, for she had a tendency to get distressed when she saw others in pain.
Mainly her familia.
It turned out that Pepa’s insistence on staying had been for the better.
She was being amazing and Julieta couldn’t ask for anyone better.
Especially since Agustín, the poor man, looked petrified at the height of each contraction.
It must have been hard, but Pepa was keeping her clouds at bay and was producing a light, comforting breeze as Julieta had another, horrible contraction.
“There might be time for you to have a bath, mija.” Alma suggested, dabbing at her daughters sweaty forehead. “The warm water will ease the pain some.”
Once the contraction passed and she could think clearly, Julieta agreed that a bath would be good.
Agustín held her hand and spoke to her encouragingly as they, Pepa and Alma made their way to Casita’s only bathroom and filled the tub.
Pepa smiled warmly as she watched her sister get in, her hands on her own pregnant belly.
“Pepi.” Alma said, cautiously, clearly worried about any clouds. “Why don’t you go and see what Félix is doing?”
“No!” Julieta whimpered, quickly as she felt another contraction begin to hit. “I want her here! I don’t care about the clouds! I can’t do this without her!”
“Shhhh.” Agustín ran a hand through his wife’s sweaty waves, but she wasn’t having any of it.
“Don’t shush me, Agustín! She isn’t going to take my hermana away from me!”
The pain must have been getting to her, for Julieta was never this needy.
Or rude about her mamà.
Pepa looked touched as she sat by the bathtub and took her hermanas hand.
“I won’t leave you, I promise.”
Alma had to leave it at that.
When all was said and done, she was proud that her daughters were so close.
It made her feel like she had done something right, and if Julieta wanted Pepa, then Pepa she would get.
The water helped for a while, but as the contractions worsened, the water began to cool and it wasn’t having the desired effect anymore.
Pepa allowed Julieta to grip her hand and scream in her face as Agustín tried his best to be supportive.
He wasn’t doing as badly as before, but he hated seeing his wife in so much pain.
“I want to get out.” Julieta panted.
“Alright.” Alma nodded, “Pepa, can you get us a towel?”
Julieta gripped Pepa’s hand tighter, almost cutting off circulation, when she tried to move.
“No! Don’t leave me! You can’t leave me!”
Alma and her middle child exchanged an amused look as Alma headed for the door to get a towel as well as a clean nightgown from Julieta’s room.
“I’ll be right back “
Pepa looked smug at the idea of being chosen to stay over Alma, and even Agustín was trying to hide a smile as he rubbed his exhausted wife’s back.
“Okay, let’s get you out before you have another contraction.” Pepa decided and helped Julieta to her feet in the tub.
It was too late though, without warning, a huge pain, the worst one of all, and the most amount of pressure she ever felt intensified her body.
“Heads out! Baby’s out!” She gasped, sensing what was about to happen.
As quickly as the pain and pressure had come, it had gone as the gravity caused her baby to literally fall out of her.
Quickly, Pepa had held her hands out to catch the baby before it hit the water, leaving Agustín to make sure that his stunned wife wouldn’t fall over.
“What the hell just happened?” Pepa gasped as she held the bloody, crying infant in her hands.
The sensation of the gunk on her hands was revolting, but somehow this was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
For a moment, the infant's cries were all that could be heard.
The little infant opened a pair of brown eyes and looked directly into their tia’s.
And then Pepa just started laughing. The temperature in the room increased and a rainbow appeared above her head as she just started hysterically laughing.
To the point that it sounded like she was struggling to breathe.
“It’s not funny!” Julieta wailed, still stood there with her sister holding her baby like a cantaloupe, umbilical cord still attached. “Is it okay!? Is the baby okay!?”
Pepa was still laughing, causing Julieta to raise her voice.
“Please stop laughing and tell me!”
Eventually, Pepa composed herself and instructed Agustín to sit Julieta back into the water.
Pepa placed the now quiet baby on Julieta’s chest.
“I’m sorry, Juli. She’s fine though, see?”
“She?”
A girl. A beautiful baby girl.
Misty rain came down above them as Pepa finally freed her emotions.
“She.”
-x-x-
“And then!” Pepa animatedly told her husband and brother the story, “She stood up, and this disgusting little human fell out and I caught her!”
They were back in Julieta’s room an hour after the birth, the entire family there to welcome the newest Madrigal.
The baby happily nursed on Julieta, while Agustín held them both close, smiling and rolling his eyes as he watched his sister in law recount the delivery.
“Do you think she’ll ever get tired of telling this story?” He chuckled as Pepa started to laugh at the memory again.
“I doubt it.” Julieta smiled weakly, the exhaustion evident in her voice.
“Oh Pepa, do grow up.” Alma eventually scolded (although with a hint of a smile) after Pepa had been giggling for another solid five minutes.
Pepa calmed herself and went to take another look at her new sobrina.
She was a tiny little thing, with straight, jet black hair and brown eyes.
“She kind of looks like you, mamà.” Pepa announced, and Alma tried to bite back the emotion.
“She’s perfect.” Alma decided, turning to her hijo who was hiding shyly in the corner of the room, not wanting to interrupt. “Come and look, Brunito. I’m sure the baby wants to meet her Tio.”
At the invitation, Bruno came over to the side of the bed and peered at the little baby.
“I have a confession to make….” He said, finally, peaking Julieta’s interest. “The whole baby falling out of you thing, I uh…had a vision about it.”
Pepa started to snicker again, and Félix gently tried to shush her but he was having a hard time keeping the smile off his own face.
“What!? Why didn’t you warn me!?” Julieta looked horrified.
She could have been prepared for it!
“Well, it’s the best laugh Pepa’s had in a long time and I didn’t want to ruin the moment for her.”
And just like that, Pepa was in hysterics again, and Alma had had enough.
“That’s it! Please leave and come back only when you can behave like a twenty-nine year old.”
Félix had to lead a still giggling Pepa from Julieta’s room, while Alma shook her head and huffed, muttering something under her breath about “that child of hers.”
Still, she was smiling.
“What is my beautiful little nieta called, anyway? We can tell Pepa once she’s matured.”
“I don’t think we can go thirty years without- hey!” Bruno caught the stray pillow that Julieta had just thrown at him.
“This is Isabela Alma. Our little flower.” Agustín beamed, eyes full of pride.
Julieta brushed a kiss over her sleeping baby’s forehead, eyes welling with emotion.
“And I’m sure Pepa will stop laughing when she’s told the baby isn’t named after her.”
-x-x-x-
Isabela Alma Madrigal.
August 7th.
6lbs 11oz.