![Click to change the View Sierra: Time Will Tell [Part 2] COMMISSION](http://d.furaffinity.net/art/rahheemme/stories/1537918795/1537918795.thumbnail.rahheemme_sierra_birth_commission.odt.gif)
Candace shrugged, shifted her car into drive, then peeled out of the parking lot with a loud rumble of her engine. I had no idea where we were or what roads we took, but I knew we were getting there fast . I hardly remembered her stopping more than once, but I was busy trying to breathe through my labor and ease the tension in my belly. Even through the pain, I could feel the twin pups moving gently inside me and distracted myself with the thought that I’d be able to hold them soon, to finally meet the boys Larry and I had made together and see them eye-to-eye for the first time. I was scared and suffering through labor pains, but deep in the back of my mind, I was happy despite it all.
“We’ve really got to think of some names for you two…” I whispered to the babies as I felt them move between contractions. The labor probably wasn’t going to be any fun for them, either.
“You doing okay back there, Sierra?” Candace said over her shoulder as she slowed the car slightly over what might’ve been a speed bump.
“As I can be,” I answered with a wince. “You’re lucky you didn’t have to go through this.”
“Well sure,” the wallaby answered, “but you don’t gotta nurse ‘em for a whole extra year, do ya?”
“Well…alright, good point.” As I contemplated whether it would’ve been easier to have a pouch like a marsupial, I felt the car screech to a stop and would’ve fallen off the back seat if it weren’t for the seatbelts. Candace disappeared from the front seat and I felt the rush of air against my paws as the door opened somewhere below my belly.
“Alright, let’s get you up and moving.” Candace unclipped the seatbelt around my hips as I did the same to the one around my chest. Slowly, I slid across the seat and stumbled out of the car with Candace holding me upright by the shoulders. The sight of the hospital was as beautiful as a sunrise as the cramps in my belly got stronger by the minute. Instinctively, I scanned my eyes across the parking lot for Larry’s car, but couldn’t spot it.
With all the grace and poise of a semi-truck with a flat tire, I waddled through the emergency room entrance with Candace at my back. Unlike other patients at the hospital, one look at me told everyone in sight what I was there for. I passed by a wall-mirror near the entrance and cast a glance at my reflection, noting how Larry’s shirt looked practically painted on over my ready-to-pop belly.
I turned around and locked eyes with the closest nurse and motioned her closer by gesturing to my belly.
“ Ngh , Labor,” I said through my teeth as another contraction hit. “T-twins. Babies. P-Please.”
“Got it,” the nurse nodded before she spun on her paw and hurried off behind the main desk. Candace came to my side and took my arm, trying to lead me to an open seat.
“Here, rest while you can get it,” she said, calmly. “I’ll give them your info while you go and get settled in a room.”
“No,” I shook my head, planting my feet and resisting her pull. It was easy with so much extra weight on me. “Larry. Not without Larry. We need to wait on him.”
“I don’t think you have that kind of time, Sierra,” she responded, glancing nervously at my protruding stomach.
“My water didn’t break, I’ve got time,” I snapped back at her. “I’m waiting for my husband.”
“We don’t even know where he-”
“ Sierra! ” boomed a deep voice from the sliding doors. The entire waiting room jumped at the shout but, I sighed in deep relief at the instantly-recognizable sound of my husband. I barely had time to turn toward him before the muscular canine had his arms wrapped around me, his face buried next to my neck.
“You have good timing,” I muttered, scratching behind his ear as I rubbed my sore stomach. I didn’t care if I had to hold them in with a cork, I wasn’t going to give birth to the twins without their father there with me.
“There was traffic,” he said into my neck. “I’m sorry, I wanted to beat you here.”
“Tell that to Candace,” I said, gesturing to the wallaby standing politely to the side. As the two introduced themselves to one another, the nurse returned with three others behind her, one of them pushing a wheelchair.
“What the hell were you doing at the office?” Larry asked. He paused and glanced down at the fabric pulled tightly around my belly. “…Is that my shirt?”
“Sorry, I borrowed it,” I said, answering the easier of the two questions as I lowered myself into the wheelchair. “I’ll give it back after we-” With a sudden pop , one of the buttons straining to hold the shirt closed over my full-term belly gave up the fight and snapped off Larry’s shirt, clattering to the tile floor between his paws.
“Keep it,” he sighed.
The wheelchair ride to the hospital room was much smoother than the bumpy roller-coaster of being wheeled out of the office in a computer chair. The nurses knew how to keep up speed while still moving smoothly, so I could focus on keeping my breathing calm, even as my heart was pounding so hard I could practically feel it in my ears. Larry had to keep with the nurses at a sprint and even when I couldn’t see him, I could hear him huffing and puffing not far behind as his paws clicked heavily on the tile floor. He was a weightlifter, not a runner, and I almost felt bad about glancing over my shoulder and giggling at the look on his face. Almost.
The nurses skidded to a halt in front of a room and hurried inside to get it ready, which also gave Larry enough time to catch up with me. His tongue lolled out of his mouth while he panted, planting his hands on his hips as he stretched his back. Between contractions, I could help but snicker at him.
“At least I’m not the only one getting a workout today,” I joked, stroking my belly affectionately. He smiled guiltily and squatted next to the wheelchair, slipping his fingers through the gap in his shirt to touch my fur underneath.
“How are the boys?”
“Okay, as far as I can tell,” I said, shrugging. “They’re still wiggling a little, but they’re packed in there like sardines.” Before I could say any more, I tensed as I felt another contraction building up, holding onto the armrests of the wheelchair. Larry must’ve felt it too, as he winced in sympathy and stroked my belly until the cramp passed. There wasn’t much more he could do.
“This is giving me deja-vu,” he said once he was sure the contraction had passed.
“Some first date, huh?” I said, smirking as I recalled the day I’d gone into labor with Hope. Reaching down, I lifted his palm from my belly and wound my fingers around his. “You stuck around the whole time, and you hardly even knew me. That’s how I knew you were the one.”
“I was just doing what was right,” Larry said, glancing away bashfully even as his tail wagged behind him. “What kind of man would I be if I didn’t?”
“I don’t know,” I said, moving my hand to his face, “but you wouldn’t be you .”
“I try,” he mumbled, blushing so hard I could see it beneath his fur.
“I’m just happy that, this time, it’ll be your babies we’ll get to meet,” I said, leaning to the side a little and pulling him closer so I could nuzzle his face with my own. “You’re a good man, Larry. I’m happy it’s your pups I’m having.”
During the moment, a nurse shuffled poked her head out of the doorway and I only caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye.
“The room’s ready for- Oh, I’m…I’m sorry,” she said bashfully as she began to withdraw her head back into the room.
“No no, it’s alright. I’m coming.” After shifting forward in the wheelchair, I braced my arm against Larry’s shoulder and used him to push myself to my paws. Even with his help, I felt the breath get pushed out of my lungs as the my overfull womb pushed up against me. I hoped it would be the last time I’d ever need to struggle moving around with a baby (or two) stuffed inside me. Larry held my arm as I waddled into the hospital room and began to remove the barely-fitting shirt before another button flew off. I remembered well enough from Hope’s birth how the procedure went, but I was thankful to not be in such a rush. Of course, with each and every contraction getting harder and stronger, I knew it was a matter of time until my water finally broke.
The hospital gown the nurses gave me looked all the more ridiculous as my bump tented it out, making me look like a single canine head attached to a very ugly sack of potatoes. I glanced in the mirror from the door and frowned while pulling the gown back over my belly.
“Wasn’t really looking forward to this thing again…”
“Sorry, I know it’s not exactly the height of fashion ,” Larry said, hiding a giggle behind his hand.
“Better than giving birth in a ball gown, I guess. I just wish this pattern was a little more-” I stopped complaining and held myself upright on the door frame while another contraction seized through my body. I could feel my tail quivering behind me and I had to fight to stay on my paws. Thankfully, Larry was beside me faster than I could even see him move and gently guided me to the bed. It took his help, along with the extra hands of another nurse, to roll me into the hospital bed, but the moment I flopped onto the thin mattress, the muscle cramp finally eased away.
“You okay?” Larry asked, my hand in his. He was trembling like he had frostbite and his ears were pinned flat against his head. It was my turn to be brave, so I wrapped my fingers around his hand and squeezed.
“I’m fine, big guy,” I said, smiling. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve done this before, remember?”
“Yeah…” Larry bit his lip and hesitated while gently rubbing his hand against my bump. “But that was only one baby…”
Before I could answer, the door swung open and a middle-aged badger wearing scrubs and a surgical mask pulled down around his neck walked backwards into the room, making sure not to touch anything with his hands. One of the nurses pushed a rolling stool across the room toward him and he stopped it with his foot before sitting down on it.
“Good Morning, Sierra!” he said in a good-natured tone as he rolled to the other end of the bed. It was only because of the sloped back that I could even see him over my bump. “Twins makin’ a run for it, are they?”
“Hi Dr. Matheson,” I said, wincing uncomfortably as I tried to get comfortable. “That’s what it feels like.”
“Well, twinners usually don’t make it all the way to term, but they at least lasted long enough in there to hit the safe period.” Dr. Matheson pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them loudly against his wrists. “Now, let’s take a look up in there and see what we can find, yeah?”
I turned away and blushed at what might have been the worst way to phrase what he was about to do, then shuddered uncomfortably as I felt the foreign objects of his gloved hands spread my sex open. One of the nurses turned on a bright light mounted on an arm on the ceiling and angled it down between my knees. As I shuddered from the doctor’s touch, Larry glanced at me anxiously.
“I’m fine,” I whispered while biting my lower lip and feeling a chill up my spine. “It just feels weird.”
“…So Sierra,” the doctor said, glancing over my belly to look my in the eye, “how long have you been having contractions?”
“Since this morning, I think, but they only got really strong a few hours ago.”
“This morning, eh?” Dr. Matheson frowned slightly before glancing back down between my legs. “Well…you’re certainly in labor, that’s for sure.”
“I think I guessed that,” I said, feeling another cramp in my belly. “Just tell me when I can start pushing, okay?”
“That’s the thing, Sierra,” the doctor said. “You’re barely even four inches dilated.”
“Did you say four ?” I repeated, my ears standing straight up atop my head.
“How…how much is it supposed to be?” Larry asked, quietly.
“Ten. At minimum,” answered Dr. Matheson. “Those pups are definitely on their way out, but…I don’t think there’s any way to tell when. ”
“B-but…but Hope was born in less than an hour! ” I exclaimed, fighting through my contraction to shout. “We were home by the end of the day! ”
“Every pregnancy is different, Sierra. I can understand you being impatient.”
“I’m not impatient , I’m…” I hesitated once I realized that’s exactly what I was being, and took a breath to lower my voice. “I’m just wondering how long I’m going to be here, Dr. Matheson.”
“I hate to say it, but it’s a marathon, not a race,” the badger said with an apologetic smile. “We’ll keep an eye on you, but…I don’t think there’s any way to say for sure.”
“Oh my God…” I groaned, flopping back on the bed and folding my arms over my chest. “So it might not even be today. ”
“That’s up to your twins, I’m afraid,” Dr. Matheson said as he stood from the stool and moved to the side of the bed. He reached out to pat my belly, but hesitated and instead put his hand on my knee. “Look at it this way. We want those two to stay in there as long as possible and even a few hours can do some good. They’re coming, just be patient.”
“Easy for you to say when you’re not the one in fucking labor,” I growled at him.
“Sierra, c’mon,” Larry interjected. “He’s just trying to help.”
“Mate, let me tell ya something,” the doctor said to Larry with a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Go ahead and let her say whatever she wants to, okay? Trust me.”
Larry blinked at him as the badger flashed a friendly smile and left the room with two of the three nurses. He glanced down at me, but I was too irritable to offer any kind of response and simply folded my arms and pouted.
Ever since Larry and I first realized I was pregnant again, I’d been constantly worried about another ‘panic-birth’ like the one I’d gone through with Hope. I did everything I could to prepare ahead of time, to make sure Larry and I were ready in case of another sudden labor, as the fear of it was something I never wanted to experience a second time. However, if I’d have known the kind of slow-burning agony the birth of the twins would be, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time preparing and might have even tried to break my water sooner.
As the minutes stretched into hours, Larry and I sat with a nurse in the hospital room so long that the nurse’s shift ended and she had to be replaced with a second one. After panicking about getting Hope from school, making sure the door was locked at home and that the lights were shut off, picking up the car from the office, and the forgotten hospital bag in the bedroom, Larry and I eventually ran out of things to be worried about and resounded ourselves to a long period of mind-numbing boredom punctuated by quick moments of pain when my contractions hit. The nurses checked my dilation every so often to confirm that, yes, I was still in labor, but it only advanced by an inch every hour or so and left me more bored than anxious.
When coming back from home, Larry refused to bring my laptop as he knew I’d try to do work on it. He was right, but I wasn’t happy about it. Instead, he brought a dozen books and magazines for the two of us, though we spent a lot of time simply watching YouTube videos on his cell phone that was propped up against my belly. He nearly fell asleep twice, but when I asked if he wanted to leave and go home for a while, I realized it would’ve been easier to try and push our house across the street than to get Larry to leave my side for even an instant.
“My water didn’t break, did it?” I asked the nurse as she checked between my legs for what felt like the 50th time.
“No, not yet,” she said, cocking her head to the side. I didn’t know exactly what she was looking at up my birth canal, but I was happy to let her tell me than to try and see for myself.
“Can’t you…well…” I held up a finger and made a jabbing motion in the air. “Y’know…like a water balloon?”
“I…don’t think that’s necessary,” the nurse said, raising an eyebrow. “I could go ask Dr. Matheson if he thinks induction would be necessary, but I doubt he’ll say so.”
“Could you ask anyway?” I pleaded, wriggling my paws in the stirrups. “I’ve been here for hours . I just wanna get the babies out .”
“I’ll…I’ll ask,” the nurse said before standing from the stool and leaving the room. She stretched her back and I could hear it popping slightly as she left. She was probably just as happy to get out of that room as I would’ve been.
Larry had gone to the bathroom, but had been missing for more than a few minutes, leaving me alone in the hospital room. Well, I hadn’t been really alone for nine months, but the twins weren’t really up for holding much conversation. I could still feel them wiggling and squirming inside me, which at least assuaged my fears that there was something wrong. I tapped my fingers on my belly and stared at the ceiling, bored enough to want to fall asleep but unable to because of the increasingly frequent labor pains.
“Oh screw it,” I sighed to myself. Throwing off the blanket, I grunted as I rolled over onto my side and sat up on the edge of the hospital bed. “I’m the one having the damn babies…I’m not gonna be the only one that can’t stretch her stupid legs.” With a huff, I slipped the few inches onto the cold, tile floor and wiggled my paws as I put the full weight of myself and two nearly-born pups on them. My back hurt as I waddled to the door, but it was a good kind of pain, far more preferable than just lying in bed for another four hours.
With nowhere to exactly go , I wandered down the hall in the direction Larry took, catching a few concerned glances from nurses as I struggled to walk faster than the average Roomba. I could feel my back straining with every step as my belly shifted from one side to the other, but at least I was up and moving instead of lying helpless in the hospital bed.
After a while of walking down the hallway (even though I didn’t get very far), I stopped to catch my breath nearby a large window a little further down. I assumed it looked outside, but when I approached I was surprised to find I’d somehow ended up at the nursery. Rows and rows of plastic cribs filled the room beyond the glass, almost every single one holding a little newborn, wrapped in either pink or blue. Most of them were sleeping, but a few of the babies were awake and wiggling aimlessly under their blankets.
A warm feeling spread inside my chest, the same one I felt when I held Hope for the first time and felt the twins’ first movements. I leaned against the reinforced glass and rested my forehead against it, scanning over the room of strangers’ babies while I affectionate stoked the belly still carrying my own. I hoped that the nurses would put the two of them in cribs next to one another. The boys had been together for every moment of their lives; it seemed cruel to separate them, even for just a moment.
“Sierra?”
I jumped and bumped my head against the thick glass before turning around and finding Larry in the hallway with a water bottle in hand.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“What about you? ” I countered. “You were in the bathroom for like fifteen minutes.”
“I got lost…” Larry said, glancing away bashfully and rubbing the back of his neck. “You should be in bed, though.”
“I just needed a walk,” I huffed impatiently as I turned and leaned my back against the window, looking down at my swollen stomach. “Thought maybe moving around could get things going.”
“It’ll happen when it happens,” Larry said. He set the water bottle on the ground and gently pulled me back from the glass. “Don’t lean on that, it looks thin.”
“C’mon, I’m not that big,” I grumbled before stumbling slightly. I regained my balance easily, but Larry still grabbed me by the shoulders. When I looked up at him, I saw the look of fear in his eyes and softened. This wasn’t my first birth, the twins weren’t my first children, but they were his . I was feeling impatient, irritable, sore, and cranky at the prospect of a long labor, but Larry was practically a nervous wreck. I took his hands off my shoulders and found them clammy and trembling. Despite being four hours into labor with twins, he was the one I was worried about.
“Baby…Larry, it’s okay,” I said, squeezing his hands. I moved them down to my belly and spread them apart. “We’re okay, all three of us. The doctor says everything is going fine, just slow. The boys are still moving around, they’re just taking their time.”
“I know,” Larry said, his ears folded back and his tail tucked between his legs. “I…I just…I don’t know. It’s twins and they’re… big and…”
“And I’m not so big,” I said, smirking. “Hope wasn’t exactly itty-bitty, either. I can handle it, I’m not worried.” I shuffled forward and pressed my face to his chest, leaning slightly so my stomach wouldn’t get in the way. Larry slid his hands from my belly to my shoulders, then wrapped his arms around me and squeezed gently. At the same time, without any prompting, we began to rock side-to-side, from paw-to-paw, in a slight dance without music. We moved back and forth at a gentle rhythm, as if rocking one another to sleep. I could hear Larry’s heartbeat pounding in his chest gradually slow and soften, the tension in his shoulders easy away as he stroked my hair between his fingers.
“It’s okay, big guy,” I whispered as I reached up to scratch behind his ear. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re all doing fine.” I turned and leaned the other side of my head on his chest before pointing toward the window. “Look. Look at all those little babies born healthy and strong and safe. Our boys are gonna be just like them, you’ll see.” I felt Larry turn to look and closed my eyes as we rocked in a silent waltz. I couldn’t help but hum a little tune, the same one that came to mind when I needed to lull Hope to sleep. The vibration seemed to be more soothing than the music itself and Larry’s breath came slow and peaceful against my face.
Just as I thought we could’ve stayed there forever, I felt another contraction coming and held onto Larry to brace myself. My belly clenched itself against him until it felt as hard as iron and I had to fight to stay upright. Then, with feeling that felt like something between a tear and a pop, I felt something give inside me and heard the sudden splash of liquid on the floor between our paws.
“ Yes! ” I shouted, pumping my fists triumphantly in the air. “ Finally! ”
“Oh my God,” Larry gasped, backing up as he spotted the clear liquid pooling on the tile. “Oh my God, was that your water?”
“Yes, thank God, ” I groaned, feeling a massive release of pressure. “The room is that way, help me- OH! ”
Before I could say anything else, Larry bent and scooped me up in his arms like I weighed nothing at all. Even holding me at chest level, my belly was swollen out big enough to nearly brush against his chin. Without a word, he ran down the hall with his teeth clenched and his eyes staring dead ahead. I pointed him down the right hallways until we ended up at the same hospital room, where the nurse was there with Dr. Matheson scratching their heads in confusion about their missing patient.
“Her water broke in the hall,” Larry said as he rushed to the bed and gently laid me down. I was about to thank him before another contraction hit me, only a few minutes after the last. I held onto his hand and squeezed it as tight as I could as I groaned through the pain. As soon as my water broke, all the muscles in my belly tensed up at once and refused to relax all the way.
“Alright, let’s get everyone ready,” Dr. Matheson said to the nurse, who nodded and hurried out of the room. The badger pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and pinned the face mask over his mouth before rolling the stool to the end of the bed. I braced my paws in the stirrups at the end of the bed and didn’t complain as he peered into me.
“Yep, you’re about ready alright,” he nodded. “Just a little over eight centimeters dilated down here.”
“ About time, ” I sighed, flopping back onto the bed. “Tell me when to push, I’m ready to push, just tell me when I can get them out of me. ”
“Hold on, Sierra, you’re not out of the woods yet,” the badger said. “Your water’s broken, but the pups haven’t started to descend yet. We’ll need to wait a little longer.”
“Come on! ” I snarled, beating my fists on the bed. “I’ve been here all day. ”
“You can’t rush this, Sierra,” the doctor said. “I’m sure the babies are just as impatient as-” The doctor’s eyes went wide as he swiftly dodged the kick I aimed right at his head.
“ Sierra! ” Larry shouted.
“Sorry! Sorry, Dr. Matheson!” I gasped, immediately feeling guilty. “I didn’t mean it! I was- I just-”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” the badger said, shaking his head to regain his composure. “Just don’t kill the messenger, alright?”
In the time it took the four extra nurses to file in the room, all dressed in scrubs and gloves, I felt the contractions getting harder and harder, growing all the closer together. I wondered to myself if the twins were going to put me in labor for well over five hours, why were they suddenly in such a hurry? The nurses practically had to drag Larry away to make him put on his own set of scrubs and face mask. When he returned, I could hardly recognize him in his suit of sky-blue aside from his familiar eyes.
“I think we’re nearly there,” Dr. Matheson said somewhere below my belly. “The next time you feel a big one, you can start pushing.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that all day ,” I gasped. Gripping the side of the bed with one hand and Larry’s hand with the other, I clenched my jaw and wiggled my butt in place, bracing my feet against the stirrups in preparation. As another contraction started, a strong one that I felt in my lower back first, I nodded to the doctor. “Okay, I’m gonna push.”
“Ready when you are.”
When the pressure was too much to handle, I took a deep breath, clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would shatter, and pushed as hard as I’d wanted to for the hours I’d been in labor. I heard growling from off in the distance and realized it was coming from my own throat, but I was too focused on the act to think about it. I could feel one of the twins moving down inside me, pushed into my birth canal and moving fast . When the contraction finally ended, the doctor and nurses all raised their eyebrows at the same time.
“Well…looks like the first one’s already crowning,” Dr. Matheson said in amazement. “He’s coming outta there like a water slide. ”
“Is that okay?” Larry asked, anxiously. The doctor snorted under his mask.
“If she keeps this up, we’ll be done in the next fifteen minutes or so.”
He was wrong. It took three more pushes and ten minutes for the first twin to slip free of my birth canal and into the hands of the waiting doctor. He lifted the wiggling pup, his eyes still shut as he kicked and punched at the air, whining with a high-pitched little voice. He had a curved snout like Larry, but pointed ears like me, and his fur was like someone had tried to copy my fur color in a printer that was running out of ink. A nurse snipped the umbilical cord and wrapped him in a blanket before gently handing him over to Larry, who I thought was going to pass out.
“Fantastic job, Sierra,” Dr. Matheson said, “but don’t forget about the other one. He’s coming fast, too.”
“I didn’t.” I clenched my fists on the bed and spat on the hospital floor. “I’m ready.”
I pushed the second pup out of me with two pushes and he was born so fast the nurse had to scramble to find another clean towel to catch him in. Only when I saw the little pup in the arms of the doctor and heard his whimpering cries did I let myself relax. Unlike his brother, he had shaggier fur and a more wolf-like muzzle similar to my own. Instead of being a mixed color of both parents, he was mostly white but with spots of red fur along his back and sides. I had silently worried that the two would be hard to tell apart, but was relieved that they looked distinct enough from one another.
As the nurse carried them to a nearby station to wash and clean them, Dr. Matheson pulled off his gloves and pulled down his mask.
“That might’ve been the fastest twin birth I’ve ever seen,” he sighed. “I thought I was gonna have to find a catcher’s mitt. They practically fell out of you.”
“Are you okay?” Larry asked. I blinked up at him dimly and smiled, the hormones rushing through my brain like hard drugs.
“I wanna see them,” I mumbled, clawing at the air in the direction I thought they were. “Where are the babies… Lemme see the boys…”
As if on cue, the nurse returned with to wrapped bundles in each arm and a smile on her face. She gently rested a pup on each shoulder and I instinctively held them in the crooks of my arms, watching as they wiggled and breathed and made tiny noises as they got used to breathing real air.
“Took your time, didn’t you?” I whispered, touching my nose to their tiny heads and feeling their hands grabbing at the fur on my chest. I glanced over at Larry, who was sitting on his knees beside the bed and gazing at his two newborn sons with tears in his eyes. “See how much they look like you?”
“D-D-do they?” he asked, his voice so soft I could barely hear it. “Lo-Look like m-m-me?”
“They look just like you,” I smiled. I moved my hand and guided his finger to gently stroke the cheek of one of his pups, who shifted slightly beneath his father’s touch. “Congratulations. You’re a daddy.”
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Commission for
pregfur
“We’ve really got to think of some names for you two…” I whispered to the babies as I felt them move between contractions. The labor probably wasn’t going to be any fun for them, either.
“You doing okay back there, Sierra?” Candace said over her shoulder as she slowed the car slightly over what might’ve been a speed bump.
“As I can be,” I answered with a wince. “You’re lucky you didn’t have to go through this.”
“Well sure,” the wallaby answered, “but you don’t gotta nurse ‘em for a whole extra year, do ya?”
“Well…alright, good point.” As I contemplated whether it would’ve been easier to have a pouch like a marsupial, I felt the car screech to a stop and would’ve fallen off the back seat if it weren’t for the seatbelts. Candace disappeared from the front seat and I felt the rush of air against my paws as the door opened somewhere below my belly.
“Alright, let’s get you up and moving.” Candace unclipped the seatbelt around my hips as I did the same to the one around my chest. Slowly, I slid across the seat and stumbled out of the car with Candace holding me upright by the shoulders. The sight of the hospital was as beautiful as a sunrise as the cramps in my belly got stronger by the minute. Instinctively, I scanned my eyes across the parking lot for Larry’s car, but couldn’t spot it.
With all the grace and poise of a semi-truck with a flat tire, I waddled through the emergency room entrance with Candace at my back. Unlike other patients at the hospital, one look at me told everyone in sight what I was there for. I passed by a wall-mirror near the entrance and cast a glance at my reflection, noting how Larry’s shirt looked practically painted on over my ready-to-pop belly.
I turned around and locked eyes with the closest nurse and motioned her closer by gesturing to my belly.
“ Ngh , Labor,” I said through my teeth as another contraction hit. “T-twins. Babies. P-Please.”
“Got it,” the nurse nodded before she spun on her paw and hurried off behind the main desk. Candace came to my side and took my arm, trying to lead me to an open seat.
“Here, rest while you can get it,” she said, calmly. “I’ll give them your info while you go and get settled in a room.”
“No,” I shook my head, planting my feet and resisting her pull. It was easy with so much extra weight on me. “Larry. Not without Larry. We need to wait on him.”
“I don’t think you have that kind of time, Sierra,” she responded, glancing nervously at my protruding stomach.
“My water didn’t break, I’ve got time,” I snapped back at her. “I’m waiting for my husband.”
“We don’t even know where he-”
“ Sierra! ” boomed a deep voice from the sliding doors. The entire waiting room jumped at the shout but, I sighed in deep relief at the instantly-recognizable sound of my husband. I barely had time to turn toward him before the muscular canine had his arms wrapped around me, his face buried next to my neck.
“You have good timing,” I muttered, scratching behind his ear as I rubbed my sore stomach. I didn’t care if I had to hold them in with a cork, I wasn’t going to give birth to the twins without their father there with me.
“There was traffic,” he said into my neck. “I’m sorry, I wanted to beat you here.”
“Tell that to Candace,” I said, gesturing to the wallaby standing politely to the side. As the two introduced themselves to one another, the nurse returned with three others behind her, one of them pushing a wheelchair.
“What the hell were you doing at the office?” Larry asked. He paused and glanced down at the fabric pulled tightly around my belly. “…Is that my shirt?”
“Sorry, I borrowed it,” I said, answering the easier of the two questions as I lowered myself into the wheelchair. “I’ll give it back after we-” With a sudden pop , one of the buttons straining to hold the shirt closed over my full-term belly gave up the fight and snapped off Larry’s shirt, clattering to the tile floor between his paws.
“Keep it,” he sighed.
The wheelchair ride to the hospital room was much smoother than the bumpy roller-coaster of being wheeled out of the office in a computer chair. The nurses knew how to keep up speed while still moving smoothly, so I could focus on keeping my breathing calm, even as my heart was pounding so hard I could practically feel it in my ears. Larry had to keep with the nurses at a sprint and even when I couldn’t see him, I could hear him huffing and puffing not far behind as his paws clicked heavily on the tile floor. He was a weightlifter, not a runner, and I almost felt bad about glancing over my shoulder and giggling at the look on his face. Almost.
The nurses skidded to a halt in front of a room and hurried inside to get it ready, which also gave Larry enough time to catch up with me. His tongue lolled out of his mouth while he panted, planting his hands on his hips as he stretched his back. Between contractions, I could help but snicker at him.
“At least I’m not the only one getting a workout today,” I joked, stroking my belly affectionately. He smiled guiltily and squatted next to the wheelchair, slipping his fingers through the gap in his shirt to touch my fur underneath.
“How are the boys?”
“Okay, as far as I can tell,” I said, shrugging. “They’re still wiggling a little, but they’re packed in there like sardines.” Before I could say any more, I tensed as I felt another contraction building up, holding onto the armrests of the wheelchair. Larry must’ve felt it too, as he winced in sympathy and stroked my belly until the cramp passed. There wasn’t much more he could do.
“This is giving me deja-vu,” he said once he was sure the contraction had passed.
“Some first date, huh?” I said, smirking as I recalled the day I’d gone into labor with Hope. Reaching down, I lifted his palm from my belly and wound my fingers around his. “You stuck around the whole time, and you hardly even knew me. That’s how I knew you were the one.”
“I was just doing what was right,” Larry said, glancing away bashfully even as his tail wagged behind him. “What kind of man would I be if I didn’t?”
“I don’t know,” I said, moving my hand to his face, “but you wouldn’t be you .”
“I try,” he mumbled, blushing so hard I could see it beneath his fur.
“I’m just happy that, this time, it’ll be your babies we’ll get to meet,” I said, leaning to the side a little and pulling him closer so I could nuzzle his face with my own. “You’re a good man, Larry. I’m happy it’s your pups I’m having.”
During the moment, a nurse shuffled poked her head out of the doorway and I only caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye.
“The room’s ready for- Oh, I’m…I’m sorry,” she said bashfully as she began to withdraw her head back into the room.
“No no, it’s alright. I’m coming.” After shifting forward in the wheelchair, I braced my arm against Larry’s shoulder and used him to push myself to my paws. Even with his help, I felt the breath get pushed out of my lungs as the my overfull womb pushed up against me. I hoped it would be the last time I’d ever need to struggle moving around with a baby (or two) stuffed inside me. Larry held my arm as I waddled into the hospital room and began to remove the barely-fitting shirt before another button flew off. I remembered well enough from Hope’s birth how the procedure went, but I was thankful to not be in such a rush. Of course, with each and every contraction getting harder and stronger, I knew it was a matter of time until my water finally broke.
The hospital gown the nurses gave me looked all the more ridiculous as my bump tented it out, making me look like a single canine head attached to a very ugly sack of potatoes. I glanced in the mirror from the door and frowned while pulling the gown back over my belly.
“Wasn’t really looking forward to this thing again…”
“Sorry, I know it’s not exactly the height of fashion ,” Larry said, hiding a giggle behind his hand.
“Better than giving birth in a ball gown, I guess. I just wish this pattern was a little more-” I stopped complaining and held myself upright on the door frame while another contraction seized through my body. I could feel my tail quivering behind me and I had to fight to stay on my paws. Thankfully, Larry was beside me faster than I could even see him move and gently guided me to the bed. It took his help, along with the extra hands of another nurse, to roll me into the hospital bed, but the moment I flopped onto the thin mattress, the muscle cramp finally eased away.
“You okay?” Larry asked, my hand in his. He was trembling like he had frostbite and his ears were pinned flat against his head. It was my turn to be brave, so I wrapped my fingers around his hand and squeezed.
“I’m fine, big guy,” I said, smiling. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve done this before, remember?”
“Yeah…” Larry bit his lip and hesitated while gently rubbing his hand against my bump. “But that was only one baby…”
Before I could answer, the door swung open and a middle-aged badger wearing scrubs and a surgical mask pulled down around his neck walked backwards into the room, making sure not to touch anything with his hands. One of the nurses pushed a rolling stool across the room toward him and he stopped it with his foot before sitting down on it.
“Good Morning, Sierra!” he said in a good-natured tone as he rolled to the other end of the bed. It was only because of the sloped back that I could even see him over my bump. “Twins makin’ a run for it, are they?”
“Hi Dr. Matheson,” I said, wincing uncomfortably as I tried to get comfortable. “That’s what it feels like.”
“Well, twinners usually don’t make it all the way to term, but they at least lasted long enough in there to hit the safe period.” Dr. Matheson pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them loudly against his wrists. “Now, let’s take a look up in there and see what we can find, yeah?”
I turned away and blushed at what might have been the worst way to phrase what he was about to do, then shuddered uncomfortably as I felt the foreign objects of his gloved hands spread my sex open. One of the nurses turned on a bright light mounted on an arm on the ceiling and angled it down between my knees. As I shuddered from the doctor’s touch, Larry glanced at me anxiously.
“I’m fine,” I whispered while biting my lower lip and feeling a chill up my spine. “It just feels weird.”
“…So Sierra,” the doctor said, glancing over my belly to look my in the eye, “how long have you been having contractions?”
“Since this morning, I think, but they only got really strong a few hours ago.”
“This morning, eh?” Dr. Matheson frowned slightly before glancing back down between my legs. “Well…you’re certainly in labor, that’s for sure.”
“I think I guessed that,” I said, feeling another cramp in my belly. “Just tell me when I can start pushing, okay?”
“That’s the thing, Sierra,” the doctor said. “You’re barely even four inches dilated.”
“Did you say four ?” I repeated, my ears standing straight up atop my head.
“How…how much is it supposed to be?” Larry asked, quietly.
“Ten. At minimum,” answered Dr. Matheson. “Those pups are definitely on their way out, but…I don’t think there’s any way to tell when. ”
“B-but…but Hope was born in less than an hour! ” I exclaimed, fighting through my contraction to shout. “We were home by the end of the day! ”
“Every pregnancy is different, Sierra. I can understand you being impatient.”
“I’m not impatient , I’m…” I hesitated once I realized that’s exactly what I was being, and took a breath to lower my voice. “I’m just wondering how long I’m going to be here, Dr. Matheson.”
“I hate to say it, but it’s a marathon, not a race,” the badger said with an apologetic smile. “We’ll keep an eye on you, but…I don’t think there’s any way to say for sure.”
“Oh my God…” I groaned, flopping back on the bed and folding my arms over my chest. “So it might not even be today. ”
“That’s up to your twins, I’m afraid,” Dr. Matheson said as he stood from the stool and moved to the side of the bed. He reached out to pat my belly, but hesitated and instead put his hand on my knee. “Look at it this way. We want those two to stay in there as long as possible and even a few hours can do some good. They’re coming, just be patient.”
“Easy for you to say when you’re not the one in fucking labor,” I growled at him.
“Sierra, c’mon,” Larry interjected. “He’s just trying to help.”
“Mate, let me tell ya something,” the doctor said to Larry with a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Go ahead and let her say whatever she wants to, okay? Trust me.”
Larry blinked at him as the badger flashed a friendly smile and left the room with two of the three nurses. He glanced down at me, but I was too irritable to offer any kind of response and simply folded my arms and pouted.
Ever since Larry and I first realized I was pregnant again, I’d been constantly worried about another ‘panic-birth’ like the one I’d gone through with Hope. I did everything I could to prepare ahead of time, to make sure Larry and I were ready in case of another sudden labor, as the fear of it was something I never wanted to experience a second time. However, if I’d have known the kind of slow-burning agony the birth of the twins would be, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time preparing and might have even tried to break my water sooner.
As the minutes stretched into hours, Larry and I sat with a nurse in the hospital room so long that the nurse’s shift ended and she had to be replaced with a second one. After panicking about getting Hope from school, making sure the door was locked at home and that the lights were shut off, picking up the car from the office, and the forgotten hospital bag in the bedroom, Larry and I eventually ran out of things to be worried about and resounded ourselves to a long period of mind-numbing boredom punctuated by quick moments of pain when my contractions hit. The nurses checked my dilation every so often to confirm that, yes, I was still in labor, but it only advanced by an inch every hour or so and left me more bored than anxious.
When coming back from home, Larry refused to bring my laptop as he knew I’d try to do work on it. He was right, but I wasn’t happy about it. Instead, he brought a dozen books and magazines for the two of us, though we spent a lot of time simply watching YouTube videos on his cell phone that was propped up against my belly. He nearly fell asleep twice, but when I asked if he wanted to leave and go home for a while, I realized it would’ve been easier to try and push our house across the street than to get Larry to leave my side for even an instant.
“My water didn’t break, did it?” I asked the nurse as she checked between my legs for what felt like the 50th time.
“No, not yet,” she said, cocking her head to the side. I didn’t know exactly what she was looking at up my birth canal, but I was happy to let her tell me than to try and see for myself.
“Can’t you…well…” I held up a finger and made a jabbing motion in the air. “Y’know…like a water balloon?”
“I…don’t think that’s necessary,” the nurse said, raising an eyebrow. “I could go ask Dr. Matheson if he thinks induction would be necessary, but I doubt he’ll say so.”
“Could you ask anyway?” I pleaded, wriggling my paws in the stirrups. “I’ve been here for hours . I just wanna get the babies out .”
“I’ll…I’ll ask,” the nurse said before standing from the stool and leaving the room. She stretched her back and I could hear it popping slightly as she left. She was probably just as happy to get out of that room as I would’ve been.
Larry had gone to the bathroom, but had been missing for more than a few minutes, leaving me alone in the hospital room. Well, I hadn’t been really alone for nine months, but the twins weren’t really up for holding much conversation. I could still feel them wiggling and squirming inside me, which at least assuaged my fears that there was something wrong. I tapped my fingers on my belly and stared at the ceiling, bored enough to want to fall asleep but unable to because of the increasingly frequent labor pains.
“Oh screw it,” I sighed to myself. Throwing off the blanket, I grunted as I rolled over onto my side and sat up on the edge of the hospital bed. “I’m the one having the damn babies…I’m not gonna be the only one that can’t stretch her stupid legs.” With a huff, I slipped the few inches onto the cold, tile floor and wiggled my paws as I put the full weight of myself and two nearly-born pups on them. My back hurt as I waddled to the door, but it was a good kind of pain, far more preferable than just lying in bed for another four hours.
With nowhere to exactly go , I wandered down the hall in the direction Larry took, catching a few concerned glances from nurses as I struggled to walk faster than the average Roomba. I could feel my back straining with every step as my belly shifted from one side to the other, but at least I was up and moving instead of lying helpless in the hospital bed.
After a while of walking down the hallway (even though I didn’t get very far), I stopped to catch my breath nearby a large window a little further down. I assumed it looked outside, but when I approached I was surprised to find I’d somehow ended up at the nursery. Rows and rows of plastic cribs filled the room beyond the glass, almost every single one holding a little newborn, wrapped in either pink or blue. Most of them were sleeping, but a few of the babies were awake and wiggling aimlessly under their blankets.
A warm feeling spread inside my chest, the same one I felt when I held Hope for the first time and felt the twins’ first movements. I leaned against the reinforced glass and rested my forehead against it, scanning over the room of strangers’ babies while I affectionate stoked the belly still carrying my own. I hoped that the nurses would put the two of them in cribs next to one another. The boys had been together for every moment of their lives; it seemed cruel to separate them, even for just a moment.
“Sierra?”
I jumped and bumped my head against the thick glass before turning around and finding Larry in the hallway with a water bottle in hand.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“What about you? ” I countered. “You were in the bathroom for like fifteen minutes.”
“I got lost…” Larry said, glancing away bashfully and rubbing the back of his neck. “You should be in bed, though.”
“I just needed a walk,” I huffed impatiently as I turned and leaned my back against the window, looking down at my swollen stomach. “Thought maybe moving around could get things going.”
“It’ll happen when it happens,” Larry said. He set the water bottle on the ground and gently pulled me back from the glass. “Don’t lean on that, it looks thin.”
“C’mon, I’m not that big,” I grumbled before stumbling slightly. I regained my balance easily, but Larry still grabbed me by the shoulders. When I looked up at him, I saw the look of fear in his eyes and softened. This wasn’t my first birth, the twins weren’t my first children, but they were his . I was feeling impatient, irritable, sore, and cranky at the prospect of a long labor, but Larry was practically a nervous wreck. I took his hands off my shoulders and found them clammy and trembling. Despite being four hours into labor with twins, he was the one I was worried about.
“Baby…Larry, it’s okay,” I said, squeezing his hands. I moved them down to my belly and spread them apart. “We’re okay, all three of us. The doctor says everything is going fine, just slow. The boys are still moving around, they’re just taking their time.”
“I know,” Larry said, his ears folded back and his tail tucked between his legs. “I…I just…I don’t know. It’s twins and they’re… big and…”
“And I’m not so big,” I said, smirking. “Hope wasn’t exactly itty-bitty, either. I can handle it, I’m not worried.” I shuffled forward and pressed my face to his chest, leaning slightly so my stomach wouldn’t get in the way. Larry slid his hands from my belly to my shoulders, then wrapped his arms around me and squeezed gently. At the same time, without any prompting, we began to rock side-to-side, from paw-to-paw, in a slight dance without music. We moved back and forth at a gentle rhythm, as if rocking one another to sleep. I could hear Larry’s heartbeat pounding in his chest gradually slow and soften, the tension in his shoulders easy away as he stroked my hair between his fingers.
“It’s okay, big guy,” I whispered as I reached up to scratch behind his ear. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re all doing fine.” I turned and leaned the other side of my head on his chest before pointing toward the window. “Look. Look at all those little babies born healthy and strong and safe. Our boys are gonna be just like them, you’ll see.” I felt Larry turn to look and closed my eyes as we rocked in a silent waltz. I couldn’t help but hum a little tune, the same one that came to mind when I needed to lull Hope to sleep. The vibration seemed to be more soothing than the music itself and Larry’s breath came slow and peaceful against my face.
Just as I thought we could’ve stayed there forever, I felt another contraction coming and held onto Larry to brace myself. My belly clenched itself against him until it felt as hard as iron and I had to fight to stay upright. Then, with feeling that felt like something between a tear and a pop, I felt something give inside me and heard the sudden splash of liquid on the floor between our paws.
“ Yes! ” I shouted, pumping my fists triumphantly in the air. “ Finally! ”
“Oh my God,” Larry gasped, backing up as he spotted the clear liquid pooling on the tile. “Oh my God, was that your water?”
“Yes, thank God, ” I groaned, feeling a massive release of pressure. “The room is that way, help me- OH! ”
Before I could say anything else, Larry bent and scooped me up in his arms like I weighed nothing at all. Even holding me at chest level, my belly was swollen out big enough to nearly brush against his chin. Without a word, he ran down the hall with his teeth clenched and his eyes staring dead ahead. I pointed him down the right hallways until we ended up at the same hospital room, where the nurse was there with Dr. Matheson scratching their heads in confusion about their missing patient.
“Her water broke in the hall,” Larry said as he rushed to the bed and gently laid me down. I was about to thank him before another contraction hit me, only a few minutes after the last. I held onto his hand and squeezed it as tight as I could as I groaned through the pain. As soon as my water broke, all the muscles in my belly tensed up at once and refused to relax all the way.
“Alright, let’s get everyone ready,” Dr. Matheson said to the nurse, who nodded and hurried out of the room. The badger pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and pinned the face mask over his mouth before rolling the stool to the end of the bed. I braced my paws in the stirrups at the end of the bed and didn’t complain as he peered into me.
“Yep, you’re about ready alright,” he nodded. “Just a little over eight centimeters dilated down here.”
“ About time, ” I sighed, flopping back onto the bed. “Tell me when to push, I’m ready to push, just tell me when I can get them out of me. ”
“Hold on, Sierra, you’re not out of the woods yet,” the badger said. “Your water’s broken, but the pups haven’t started to descend yet. We’ll need to wait a little longer.”
“Come on! ” I snarled, beating my fists on the bed. “I’ve been here all day. ”
“You can’t rush this, Sierra,” the doctor said. “I’m sure the babies are just as impatient as-” The doctor’s eyes went wide as he swiftly dodged the kick I aimed right at his head.
“ Sierra! ” Larry shouted.
“Sorry! Sorry, Dr. Matheson!” I gasped, immediately feeling guilty. “I didn’t mean it! I was- I just-”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” the badger said, shaking his head to regain his composure. “Just don’t kill the messenger, alright?”
In the time it took the four extra nurses to file in the room, all dressed in scrubs and gloves, I felt the contractions getting harder and harder, growing all the closer together. I wondered to myself if the twins were going to put me in labor for well over five hours, why were they suddenly in such a hurry? The nurses practically had to drag Larry away to make him put on his own set of scrubs and face mask. When he returned, I could hardly recognize him in his suit of sky-blue aside from his familiar eyes.
“I think we’re nearly there,” Dr. Matheson said somewhere below my belly. “The next time you feel a big one, you can start pushing.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that all day ,” I gasped. Gripping the side of the bed with one hand and Larry’s hand with the other, I clenched my jaw and wiggled my butt in place, bracing my feet against the stirrups in preparation. As another contraction started, a strong one that I felt in my lower back first, I nodded to the doctor. “Okay, I’m gonna push.”
“Ready when you are.”
When the pressure was too much to handle, I took a deep breath, clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would shatter, and pushed as hard as I’d wanted to for the hours I’d been in labor. I heard growling from off in the distance and realized it was coming from my own throat, but I was too focused on the act to think about it. I could feel one of the twins moving down inside me, pushed into my birth canal and moving fast . When the contraction finally ended, the doctor and nurses all raised their eyebrows at the same time.
“Well…looks like the first one’s already crowning,” Dr. Matheson said in amazement. “He’s coming outta there like a water slide. ”
“Is that okay?” Larry asked, anxiously. The doctor snorted under his mask.
“If she keeps this up, we’ll be done in the next fifteen minutes or so.”
He was wrong. It took three more pushes and ten minutes for the first twin to slip free of my birth canal and into the hands of the waiting doctor. He lifted the wiggling pup, his eyes still shut as he kicked and punched at the air, whining with a high-pitched little voice. He had a curved snout like Larry, but pointed ears like me, and his fur was like someone had tried to copy my fur color in a printer that was running out of ink. A nurse snipped the umbilical cord and wrapped him in a blanket before gently handing him over to Larry, who I thought was going to pass out.
“Fantastic job, Sierra,” Dr. Matheson said, “but don’t forget about the other one. He’s coming fast, too.”
“I didn’t.” I clenched my fists on the bed and spat on the hospital floor. “I’m ready.”
I pushed the second pup out of me with two pushes and he was born so fast the nurse had to scramble to find another clean towel to catch him in. Only when I saw the little pup in the arms of the doctor and heard his whimpering cries did I let myself relax. Unlike his brother, he had shaggier fur and a more wolf-like muzzle similar to my own. Instead of being a mixed color of both parents, he was mostly white but with spots of red fur along his back and sides. I had silently worried that the two would be hard to tell apart, but was relieved that they looked distinct enough from one another.
As the nurse carried them to a nearby station to wash and clean them, Dr. Matheson pulled off his gloves and pulled down his mask.
“That might’ve been the fastest twin birth I’ve ever seen,” he sighed. “I thought I was gonna have to find a catcher’s mitt. They practically fell out of you.”
“Are you okay?” Larry asked. I blinked up at him dimly and smiled, the hormones rushing through my brain like hard drugs.
“I wanna see them,” I mumbled, clawing at the air in the direction I thought they were. “Where are the babies… Lemme see the boys…”
As if on cue, the nurse returned with to wrapped bundles in each arm and a smile on her face. She gently rested a pup on each shoulder and I instinctively held them in the crooks of my arms, watching as they wiggled and breathed and made tiny noises as they got used to breathing real air.
“Took your time, didn’t you?” I whispered, touching my nose to their tiny heads and feeling their hands grabbing at the fur on my chest. I glanced over at Larry, who was sitting on his knees beside the bed and gazing at his two newborn sons with tears in his eyes. “See how much they look like you?”
“D-D-do they?” he asked, his voice so soft I could barely hear it. “Lo-Look like m-m-me?”
“They look just like you,” I smiled. I moved my hand and guided his finger to gently stroke the cheek of one of his pups, who shifted slightly beneath his father’s touch. “Congratulations. You’re a daddy.”
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Category Story / Pregnancy
Species Canine (Other)
Size 120 x 116px
File Size 68.8 kB
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