once more, with feeling *angie*

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Why. Why did Callistos first week of healer training have to be the OBGYN and gynecology circuit? She was learning about babies for heavens sakes. Babies. Babies were so... small. And fragile and... well, fascinating in all honesty. They were tiny humans, learning how to survive in air after living in water for so long, and then they could never live in water again? That was bloody amazing crap. She loved medicine. She loved the science and all the insane ways things could go. She saw her patients more as test subjects than people, which was something she was told she'd need to grow out of.

Today, they had a young girl come in to deliver a baby and Callisto was supposed to go in and check on the mother after the baby was all out and about. She took the chart from her trainer, and read the name. Her eyes widened, "oh my gods..." she muttered. It wasn't that Angela, was it? Well, she wouldn't be surprised if that girl had gotten herself knocked up.

She went into the hospital room, looking up to make eye contact with -- yup -- that Angela. "Hello, I'm coming to check on you," she said firmly, trying to sound professional.She was so good at bedside manner.

@angie

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Angie hadn’t exactly been prepared to go into labor today. She wasn’t due for nearly another month, but she had heard that women who were particularly young sometimes gave birth sooner than expected. Plus, it wasn’t as though she was taking it easy during the last few months of her pregnancy. She had been working nearly everyday and saving as much money as she could. Her goal was to be moved out of her parents house before the baby came, however, it didn’t look like that would happen.

She had started to experience the pains while on a shift at work. However, the kind witch who owned the tea shop had insisted that she go to the hospital and get checked out. They checked her in and told her she’d likely be leaving with a baby. Angie felt flustered, and even more so as the contractions came and went. It was all so sudden. She wasn’t sure who to call, so she hadn’t called anyone. She knew her family would come if she called, in fact, they’d want to be here. But she wasn’t sure if she wanted them here. She kind of wanted Aerick here… but she hadn’t decided how she felt about him and the baby yet, so she decided not to send word. Maybe she would after the baby was born.

Angie was snapped out of her thoughts by a woman entering her room. A healer, she figured, but once the woman came into sight, Angie felt a vague recognition fall over her. Someone she had gone to school with, she was pretty sure. Angie definitely knew her, however, the woman's name wasn’t coming to mind, perhaps because she was a little distracted. “Okay.” Angie nodded when she was told that the woman was here to check on her. Check on what, she didn’t know. She barely knew anything about any of this. “Am I going to be able to get a potion for the pain soon?” Angie asked, hopefully.

@callisto

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Angela asked if she was going to be able to get a potion for the pain soon and Callisto looked down at the chart again, before looking back up at Angela. She nodded, "we need to wait a little longer, for safety reasons, but it will be here soon... I'm Healer Oliveira. Or, Callisto," she said, taking a step forward again. She thought about offering a hand to shake but she didn't. She wasn't sure if Healers really did that, and she wasn't really the type to touch if she didn't have to... though, she was usually professional enough to at least offer a handshake. "Is anyone coming?" she asked, honestly meaning to know just so she could write down any potential guests, not necessarily to try and be asking her personal questions... though, Cal was kind of curious if the father was someone she knew. A brief thought of the boys she knew at school crossed her mind, but they were few and far between. Especially the types that would... well, have sex. Especially with someone so pretty.

@angie

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The woman who walked in told Angie that they had to wait a bit longer and the blonde let out an audible sigh. She knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy experience, but she also knew that she really had no one to blame but herself. Well, maybe slightly Aerick, since it did take two people to get Angie into this situation. But she hadn’t spoken to him since he asked her not to tell anyone that the baby was his. Angie felt herself coming in and out out of stages of being highly distracted and then being highly aware of every single pain and feeling that her body was experiencing. The healer introduced herself, first by her last name and then by her first name, Angie suddenly became aware that she knew the woman, they had gone to school together. Angie hadn’t noticed when she first entered, since she was a little busy. “Are you going to be here for the delivery then?” Angie asked. This was the first time that a healer had come into her room so she was hopeful that she’d get to meet the person before they were pulling a baby out of her. The woman asked if anyone was coming and Angie paused before shaking her head. “No - I don’t think so.” she admitted, feeling very pathetic, especially since the healer was someone she knew, and someone she didn’t necessarily want to see while having a baby alone as the product of a drunken mistake.

@callisto

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Angie asked if she was going to be there for the delivery, "no," Callisto said quickly and sharply, too cold. She wasn't so good at the bedside manner thing yet... she wasn't sure if she ever would be. Angie shook her head after a pause, saying that no one was coming for the delivery of the baby. Callisto felt a little sick to her stomach and her brow furrowed. "Do you... want someone here? I mean, I can stay..." woah, woah, what!? Offering to stay with her for the delivery of the child!? Callisto didn't even like kids, and she didn't really even know Angie... or like her reputation during school for that matter. They were basically strangers. But... thinking of Angie in here all alone without a single familiar face... "Angela - Angie," she paused, shaking her head and looking down at her shoes for a brief second to catch her breath. Then she looked back up at Angie, "I'm not great with people."

@angie

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The healer admitted that she wasn’t the one that was going to be with Angie during her delivery and Angie wasn’t sure, then, why she was in the room. Perhaps her healer wasn’t here yet, or was busy helping someone else and they had asked this woman, who, was the same age as Angie and so Angie knew she couldn’t be a full healer yet, to just come and check on the situation in here."Okay." Angie sighed, feeling somewhat like she was just up for display for any healer or nurse to walk in on. The way that the woman answered the question proved that she was still new to all of this, and while Angie didn’t really feel like this was the best way to treat a patient in pain and about to give birth, she didn’t hold the answer against the healer. They hadn’t exactly got along before and Angie could tell that it was awkward not just for herself, but for both of them to be in this position. When Angie admitted that no one else was coming, she hadn’t expected Callisto to offer to stay. Not at all and hearing the offer shocked her and caused her to turn her head to look at the woman. “Why would you offer that? You have to have better things to do than sit in here with a woman you hardly know.” she shook her head, not wanting to admit, even silently to herself, that she did kind of want Callisto to stay. They weren't even friends. None of her friends would want to come. It was a Friday night. They were at the club.

@callisto

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Angie sighed when Callisto said she was just sent in to check on her. That was her job! Still, Callisto supposed the girl could be a bit lonely... but she didn't think she was the best person to assist with loneliness. But then Angie asked why she would offer to stay, saying that Callisto had better things to do. Callisto shook her head and shrugged, "I... I don't think anyone should be alone at a time like this," especially since the father wasn't anywhere to be found. That probably made it way worse. Callisto recalled Angie having a lot of friends in school, though, so why was she all alone now? What happened to them? Where were they? Callisto moved to sit down, but didn't actually take the seat. "I'm allowed to stay," she said firmly.

@angie

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Angie wasn’t expecting this behavior from a near stranger, no person whom she had ever met would have been so selfless, especially not with someone whom just a year ago she didn’t get along with. Not that she and the woman in the room had been enemies in school, but they certainly hadn’t been friends. And Angie didn’t think that she would offer the same services that the woman was offering now. But that was the difference between them and why they had ended up in the paths that they were on. There was a reason that Angie didn’t try to go after some big job in the hospital or the ministry, she didn’t really care about people. Or, she hadn’t really cared about people. She found herself growing soft recently. She had been noticing a lot of little changes in herself. For example, the fact that she was oddly alright with the stranger staying in the room. She wasn’t sure if it was normal to feel this way, but she was thankful for the companionship. “Okay.” Angie nodded, acknowledging the feelings and allowing the woman to sit if she wanted to. Not that she really could do much about it either way. She was fairly sure there was no way she’d be able to get out of the bed no matter how hard she tried. Her body felt so exhausted. “Have you experienced a lot of childbirths?” Angie asked, trying to calm her mind and distract herself a bit.

@callisto

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She said 'okay' and Callisto slowly took the seat, but she was sitting on the edge. A lot of things made Callisto uncomfortable, but talking to old classmates and babies were at the top of that list. Angie asked if she had experienced a lot of childbirths and Callisto shook her head, "no, no," she didn't even hold either of her younger sisters when they were born. Even though she was only a toddler herself when Mina was born, her parents told her that she had been severely not interested in holding the baby. And with Adena... well, Callisto had gotten close with her but still chickened out. "Have... have you?" she asked. Maybe that would make this easier for Angie if she had been there when someone else went through it.

@angie

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The healer in training hadn’t been through a childbirth before… Angie felt a little hopeless. Why did the hospital even send her in to check on Angie if she didn’t know what she was checking on? She supposed that the young healer could have the experience of what to do before the actual birth, but still. Angie had every faith in this hospital, but right now, literally everything felt hopeless. It all felt like a bad sign. Just being here felt like a bad sign. What had she gotten herself into? “No. Never.” Angie admitted. Giving a little, breathy laugh at the fact before another contraction came. Angie closed her eyes tightly and managed to get through the pain without too much of a fuss, they were still short, at least. “Tell me a story or something? Distract me?” Angie asked, turning her head towards the woman.

@callisto

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Angie said she hadn't experienced childbirth either and Callisto sighed. "Well, I'm in training and scientifically speaking I know what to look for, so that's a star-" she paused as Angie closed her eyes, clearly having another contraction. Callisto made a quick note on her chart, mostly for her own sake since she would time the seconds between the contractions. But then Angie asked Callisto to distract her, tell her a story or something. That made Callistos shoulders tense up even more, but then she remembered what her trainers were always saying. That she had terrible bedside manner and needed to be much, much better. So, she should welcome any practice she could get with it...

"Sure, yes," Callisto finally answered, moving to stand a little closer, still not comfortable enough to sit down. "I was a Ravenclaw in school, and we used to play this game in the common rooms where you spun a bottle on the floor and whoever it pointed at had to come up with a riddle on the spot, then they spun the bottle and the next person had to try and solve it. If the solver got it right then the two of them had to kiss," she rolled her eyes, "I always thought it was a bit strange, but I did play one time..." she paused.

@angie

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Angie couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her while the healer-in-training tending to her told her story. That was probably the most Ravenclaw thing that she had ever heard and to the young Slytherin girl, it wasn’t as surprising as it was stereotypical. Angie never cared much for Ravenclaws when she had been in school, but now that she was graduated and everyone she worked with was an adult also, the lines of what house one belonged to were all so blurry that it didn’t matter at all anymore. But that didn’t mean that old thoughts and judgments hadn’t stuck around a little. “Sorry - I just… I’m not surprised I guess.” she smiled. It seemed to tame compared to some of the things that she had gotten up to, but she supposed that was one of the reasons why she was in this situation and the ex-Ravenclaw girl was starting a real career. “How long does this take?” Angie asked with a sigh.

@callisto

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Angie said that she wasn't surprised, which in itself was not surprising. House behaviors were actually pretty predictable, at least as a group. Obviously all individuals weren't as easy to read, but the houses as a group were... well, not too shocking in their behavior. Angie asked how long it took, referring to labor and delivery Callisto guessed. "it's actually different for every person, but the average labor is fourteen hours with hopefully only two or three hours of pushing. Have you been in labor long?" she wasn't sure what time Angie checked in, and she wanted to reach for the chart - because that's what Healers did - but she thought that would be rude after just asking the girl... Either way, she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to tell her that the longest labor she'd heard of lasted almost three days... that seemed like it would be a little traumatizing.

@angie

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The idea of being this uncomfortable for 14 hours really took a toll on Angie's mind. She wasn't sure why she had been under the impression that it would be excruciating but very quick, but she apparently had been. "A while, I think. I came in around 3..." she admittedly had lost track of time, plus the labor pains had started sometime during her shift at work and she tried to ignore them for probably a few hours on top of her time in the hospital. "It seems to be getting a bit more intense now, though." she added a little quite, feeling another contraction coming on. Man, these were coming quickly now, it seemed like she had just come out of the last one. Why did people do this willingly? When would they be able to give her the pain potion? There was no way that she was getting through this experience without a potion.

@callisto
((Do we want to start time jumping and working this towards an end?))

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Callisto nodded as Angie explained how long she had been here for, and glanced at her watch to grab the exact time. "It's been about three hours already, hopefully it doesn't go for much longer," she said. Then Angie said it was getting more intense and Callisto nodded, "let me grab the healer, it's probably a good time to check One... just one second, okay?" she tried to sound comforting again, but she really just wasn't that good at this.

Eventually, though, it was time for her to deliver the baby. Callisto wasn't planning on sticking around for that part, but the healers wanted her to stay in the room, if only for the experience. Callisto found herself standing back by Angie's head, and at the hardest moments Cal actually found herself offering a hand to the girl. She was all alone doing this, and Cal didn't think anyone should be alone when doing something hard... well, aside from herself. She liked doing things on her own. But this wasn't about her.

The doctors took the baby to the side to clean it up and Callisto squeezed Angie's hand, "hey, hey, it's over," she assured her.

@angie
(yeah! I went ahead and jumped ahead, then we can wrap up with new baby being brought in. boom, bonding moment)