Complicated Childbirth

Disclaimer and warnings from previous chapters applied.

Thanks for everyone who had answered my marginal questions. Other than aff.net, is there another online community such as this where I can post my x-rating anime fic? Well, just in case... you know... aff.net is down again...

djl: Don't worry, I'm not offended. If only I can get pay for writing fic, I can then devote every minute of my time writing them so there will always be a new chapter every few days... kekeke...

Anon: I'm impressed with your analytical skill. How about if both of them died & the pup was picked up by some human or other creature or perhaps, Kagure...

Ichi-go-san: You are one step ahead of me. Answer to your question can be found in this chapter.

No More Tenseiga
Sesshoumaru had lost his Tenseiga to Naraku during the battle. More details can be found in chapter 3.

'...' = thoughts
"..." = speech

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 7 - The Missing Placenta

Inuyasha did not know when he had passed out, or how long he had been unconscious when he finally awoke. The haze in his mind prevented him from realizing exactly what had happened and where he was.

A sudden sharp pain shot through his entire being and a painfully moan escaped his throat. Dread splintered through Inuyasha as well as vivid memories of being pursued by youkai, getting injured and giving birth.

Birth?

Crying niggled at the edges of his consciousness but soon, the sound of voice lulled and the crying faded out.

Birth?!

Crying...

The pup!!!

Inuyasha's eyes fluttered open but slammed shut immediately as pain and light exploded in his head, making the surrounding swam in and out of focus. He could only whined in pain, trying desperately not to black out from the excruciating pain at his lower region. It felt like the flesh at his groin could barely hold his legs together.

Sesshoumaru had rushed to his mate's side as the first sound escaped from Inuyasha. Brushing his mate's cheek lovingly, smoothing stray strands of silver hair from the heartbreakingly beautiful but pale face.

"Love, wake up," Sesshoumaru urged, "Open up your eyes..."

Inuyasha's head was aching and his throat was sore. Gulped slowly, he cracked open an eye to peer at his surrounding. Sesshoumaru's face slowly materialized before his eyes and Inuyasha found himself graced with the splendor golden orbs of his mate. His gaze slowly shifted down to the seemingly fragile thing wriggly in his mate's arms.

"Is this..." Inuyasha croaked out but trailed off as his voice cracked horribly, bringing new pain to his already parched throat.

"Yes, this is our son," Sesshoumaru supplied as he scooted closer.

Inuyasha struggled painfully to sit up but shrieked when the hot burning sensation assailed his nether region.

"Slowly," Sesshoumaru soothed as he helped his mate to lie against his chest, careful not to aggravate his more pronounced wounds any further.

The pup was then gently placed in Inuyasha's arms. With his limbs felt like lead, Inuyasha nearly dropped the bundle in his weak condition. Sesshoumaru's arms came around his mate, helping him to hold their pup.

"Look," Sesshoumaru whispered in awe at the tiny creature nestled in his mate's loving embrace and his protective ones, "Our son."

Inuyasha stared at the extremely tiny pup fidgeting against his chest as bright golden eyes blinked back at him. He felt innate joy filling him when the pup cooed at him with little fists opening and closing, waving around excitedly.

Sesshoumaru gathered his family closer, kissing his mate's silken hair as he watched his son trying to reach a stray strand of hair on Inuyasha's collarbone.

"How long was I out?" Inuyasha hissed in pain when he felt a tug in his abdomen.

"Almost a day."

"A day?" Inuyasha furrowed his brows.

Before Inuyasha was able to ask further, he felt a yank on his hair. The pup had stuffed a handful of hair into his mouth and giggling about it. He reached up and tried to grasped more strands into his hands and pulled them down into his tiny mouth. Frowning, Inuyasha pulled his hair out of his son's mouth and the pup squealed and squirmed within his grasp.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha instantly felt a surge of parental interest at this helpless creature that came out from him and feared that there might be something wrong with his son.

Sesshoumaru gave him a lopsided smile, "I think he's hungry."

While his mate was slumbering, getting his son fed was becoming a routine for Sesshoumaru since the pup decided to have his meal almost every two hours. From these feeding, Sesshoumaru had learnt to recognize the pup's hunger cues like sucking, smacking lips, putting things into the mouth and even crying.

With the pup rested against Inuyasha's protruding nipples pearling with milk, his son latched on with the ferocity of a starving monster. Inuyasha grunted when the pup was nursing at his breast. He stiffened and shut his eyes against the pain as he lapsed back into immobility.

Sesshoumaru was concerned when the figure cuddled in his arms suddenly laid still and slumped against his chest, "Are you all right?"

"Um... just... tired..." Inuyasha lied as bolts of unrelenting pain pierce through his body whenever his son suckled at his breast. He tried desperately to breathe shallowly, but sounded almost like panting.

Inuyasha forced his eyes to reopen and was greeted by the sight that his son was massaging his breast with small fists as he ate his meal. He would have enjoyed this moment if he was not in so much pain.

Inuyasha's small grunts of pain and hisses did not go unnoticed to Sesshomaru as he observed his mate's reaction. Once the pup had finished his meal, Sesshomaru took the small bundle from his mate’s reluctant arms and settled him next to them. By then, Inuyasha was puffing for air and his body was shimmering with sweat.

"Are you all right?" Sesshomaru asked again, clearly not convinced at his mate's reply.

As the pain subsided, Inuyasha managed a frail smile for his worried mate. "I'm fine... Just a bit discomfort... and a little sore..." he replied with shaky breath.

"We will stay here until you get stronger," Sesshomaru wiped the sweat on his mate's forehead. "You are still very weak and youkai are still patrolling around the area. No doubt they will attack us once we are out of here. Just bear with it for a while?"

Inuyasha managed a feeble nod as he rested in his mate's comforting embrace.

As time past, Sesshomaru studied his mate with a frown of worry. Instead of getting better, Inuyasha's body temperature was rising and he appeared to be still in some discomfort. He spooned tightly against Sesshomaru, trembling slightly and occasionally whimpering. Although Inuyasha had just gave birth and lost a lot of blood, but it should not had caused any severe pain now that the wounds were healing.

With a throaty growl of pain, Inuyasha clutched his stomach and rolled to his side.

"Love, what's wrong?" Sesshomaru was startled. He should have known something was wrong with his mate. The sign of the tense body resting against him should have been an indication.

Resting his hand on his mate's now flatten belly, alarm turned to terror as Sesshomaru felt the muscles beneath his hand tightened for a long moment before relaxing. "Contraction!? You are still having contraction?"

"Ah..." Inuyasha burbled squawked of pain as another wave of contraction hit.

Instantaneously, Sesshomaru moved his palm around his mate's abdomen to feel for something... anything. As ridiculous as it might have be, there was no way the level tummy could contain another pup. Or is it?

Sesshomaru recalled the event, hoping to pin point the source of the problem. When the pup was out, Sesshomaru remembered he bit the umbilical cord so that he could dried the pup and cleared his air pipe... the cord... Sesshomaru widened his eyes as he realized what had caused the contraction after birth.

The placenta!!!

The placenta had yet to emerge from Inuyasha's body. The contraction not only helped in pushing the pup out, but the placenta as well. The umbilical cord should still be hanging out of Inuyasha's anus after he bit it off. He should have seen it while licking his mate's wounds, unless it had retracted back into Inuyasha's body in the midst of the turmoil without him noticing.

'Kuso!' Sesshomaru cursed mentally.

Sesshomaru gently laid his mate back on the straws. A gurgled cry of pain came out from Inuyasha when one of his legs was lifted up as Sesshomaru examined him.

Inuyasha was still bleeding due to the fact that some blood vessels were ripped open when the placenta was detached from the uterus lining after the pup was born. With the placenta still inside Inuyasha, the contractions of the uterus would not be able to close those blood vessels and they would continue to bleed. It was too deeply inside his mate's body for Sesshomaru to do anything.

That would explained as to why Inuyasha experienced pain while breastfeeding. Suckling from the pup stimulated uterus contraction which would have sped up the process. However, with the placenta still inside the uterus, it was unable to shrinks back to its original size.

"The placenta is still inside your body, that's why you are still having contraction." Sesshomaru clasped his hand into a tight fist. He could have killed himself for his ignorance, "I'm sorry."

Glassy and disoriented eyes settled on Sesshomaru's face. Inuyasha did not understand why his mate was apologizing. He knew Sesshomaru had never done any delivery before, much less from a male hanyou who the healer had foretold he would not survive the childbirth. In Inuyasha's opinion, Sesshomaru had done a wonderful job in keeping both himself and the pup alive, and fighting off those predatory youkai.

"Why apologized..." Inuyasha struggled with ragged breath before he continued, "... you have given me a son... a healthy, strong baby boy."

The look on his mate's face was so filled with trust and devotion that it made Sesshomaru looked away, "That's not what I meant, I..."

"I know..." Inuyasha interrupted. He knew exactly what Sesshomaru was trying to say. He also knew Sesshomaru felt responsible for the omission.

If the past eight months of pregnancy was a pain to Inuyasha, it was not any easier for his mate either as Sesshomaru had gave in to every whine and demand from him. Inuyasha used to gave in to others but never did he dare to dream to be at the receiving end to be loved and cared unconditionally, especially for an abomination like him.

After falling in and out of consciousness and getting his bleary mind to process all this thoughts and feelings had left Inuyasha with little energy. Still, he needed to convey them to his guilt-stricken mate in short simple words that Sesshomaru would understand.

Mustering the little energy left, Inuyasha covered his hand over his mate's clutched fist, "Aishiteru, Sesshy."

They were just two words but could mean a lot of things. But whatever they meant, the words told Sesshomaru that Inuyasha did not blamed him and just how much Inuyasha loved and trusted him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A barely audible moan escaped Inuyasha's lips as he tried to expel the placenta on the next contraction. His cavity twitched and was immediately presented with the angry, sharp pain from the half-healed wounds. Inuyasha slumped nauseously on the straws, waiting for the throb to subside.

Sesshomaru applied firm downward pressure on his mate's abdomen which would force the uterus to expel the placenta and came out. After many attempts and distressing cries from his mate, the placenta had not been delivered. Sesshomaru worried it might still be partially attached to the uterus lining.

"Love," Sesshomaru called out. When Inuyasha failed to respond, Sesshomaru nudged him at the shoulder, trying to get a reaction from his mate. "Inuyasha?!"

Seemed like Inuyasha had passed out from exhaustion and his body had shut down itself. Perhaps it was good that Inuyasha was out cold since he was in so much pain. Sesshomaru took this opportunity to extract the placenta, manually.

Inuyasha might be unconscious but Sesshomaru still wanted this to be done with as minimal pain as possible. With a hand coated in his mate's blood, Sesshomaru ran his middle finger over the inflamed trail running from his mate's scrotum to the arsehole before pressing his long finger into the tender but tight entrance. Right away, heat exploded around his finger.

During lovemaking sessions, Sesshomaru loved to savor the feeling of having a wet and warm passage. But for now, Inuyasha's vagina was extremely wet and hot which was not a good sign. Blood had been oozing out profusely and the temperature inside his mate's body was sizzling. It was clear to Sesshomaru that Inuyasha was having a high fever.

On the other hand, the tightness around his finger told Sesshomaru that his mate was healing well. Once the placenta had delivered, Inuyasha should recover in no time.

Without further ado, Sesshomaru pushed in another digit and this enabled him to penetrate both of his fingers even deeper, doing scissoring motion and stretching his mate slowly. He slid his now moistened digits to the thin wall shared between the vagina and the rectum. A swollen flesh was felt throbbing against his fingers. Slowly, Sesshomaru rubbed it in a circular motion, massaging the healing tissues.

The third finger gently plied the ring of muscle to gain entrance. Once inside, Sesshomaru instantly felt the walls around his fingers squeezing and releasing him, over and over again in the narrow passage. Inuyasha was exceptionally tight considered the fact that he had just given birth.

Inuyasha stirred briefly when the fourth finger was pressed into his clutching ring of muscles which was dripping wet. Sesshomaru had his other hand pressed on his mate's perineum to prevent it from reopening the wound as he probed deeper while stretching Inuyasha with all his four fingers to the limit.

Inuyasha's panting was coming in shorter and faster breathes now that the last finger was finally pushed into his jam-packed passage. Sesshomaru was not sure how much more his mate could be stretched without causing anymore tearing thus he was proceeding it very slowly.

Contraction came and Inuyasha's body was clenching painfully around Sesshomaru's fingers. Sesshomaru stopped his movement and waited for the contraction to subside. If possible, he wanted to complete separating the placenta from the uterus and removed it before his mate awake. Sesshomaru knew it was horrendous painful to have a coarse fist and a thick forearm being shoved into the tender and sore birth canal so shortly after childbirth. It was worst than rubbing salt on open wounds.

Once the inner muscles had relaxed, Sesshomaru began to push his entire fist into his mate's sphincter muscles. It would be easier if Inuyasha had not chosen this moment to regain conscious.

"GRRRAHHHHAAAA!!!"

It was an inhuman, unearthly shriek so filled with pain and agony that pierced down into the very marrow of Sesshomaru's bones. With both of his hands occupied, Sesshomaru leaned forward from in-between Inuyasha's spread thighs and pressed his forehead against his mate to prevent him from trashing about.

"It's all right... It's all right," Sesshoumaru whispered again and again into his mate's ear, trying desperately to calm him down with soft soothing words. "It'll be over soon."

Inuyasha was helpless to do anything to stop it as he was paralyzed by the appalling pain. All he could do was screamed. It did not take long to reduce Inuyasha's scream to whimper as he was too weak to carry on and soon ran out of breathe.

"I need to remove the placenta from your body," Sesshoumaru explained. "I'm going in."

All five fingers were spread, stretching Inuyasha's hole open for a few moments then released. This was repeated many times and each time the fingers stretched wider. Blood and juices from his vagina were leaking abundantly, running down his inner thighs from his abused hole as if he was bleeding excessively.

Inuyasha went through a series of shakes and quivers as he tried desperately to pull his knees together.

"No!" Sesshoumaru barked as he stopped the movement and pinned down his mate's right thighs with his left kneecap and Inuyasha's left thighs with his right foot, forcing Inuyasha to spread his legs even wider than before. As the result, it had reopened the tear on his perineum.

"Nnyaaaaa...!" Inuyasha yelped as pain unlike any he could have dreamt of experiencing hit him with all it had, leaving a burning trail of fire on his raw and inflamed perineum.

Sesshoumaru pried his fist past the tight sphincter muscles which had been stretched wide for a while as it clamped firmly around his thick wrist. The fist pressed inward, deeper and deeper. Inuyasha shut his eyes and coerced his body to take it all. Sesshoumaru did not stop until most of his forearm was embedded into his mate's body.

"It's all right now." Sesshoumaru comforted. "The fist is in."

Unknown to Sesshoumaru, the incapacitating pain had caused Inuyasha to interweave his senses. He could see nothing but bright colorful light and heard only his drumming heartbeats. All he could sense was the unyielding pain that was tearing him apart, in a slow agonizing way.

Suddenly, the back of Sesshoumaru's hand brushed with the umbilical cord. Intuitively, he twisted his hand around to seize it.

"Ahhaaa..." Inuyasha screeched gutturally in both shock and pain as the sudden movement had caused Sesshoumaru's five jagged knuckles to rub against Inuyasha's sore and ultra sensitive vaginal wall.

Tracking the umbilical cord had brought Sesshoumaru's hand to the highest point of his mate's vagina. He accidentally brushed a fingertip on the distended cervix and Inuyasha's body jumped and shivered at the brief contact.

"No... hurt..." Inuyasha pleaded, "Really... hurt..."

The cervix was usually too sensitive to touch directly after birth. A certain amount of time is necessary to recover. However, Sesshoumaru needed to get past the cervix to reach inside the uterus in order to retrieve the placenta.

Sesshoumaru traced around the straining cervix using a finger. To his dismay, the cervix had closed since it had been almost a day after delivery. It would be incredibly painful to get his entire hand into the uterus at this time.

Inuyasha could feel his mate's hand slowly travel up his birth canal until it poked at his cervix in a certain peculiar way. His body tensed instinctively, trying to get away from Sesshoumaru's relentless hand as it penetrated into him much harder than before.

Inuyasha bawled with pain as Sesshoumaru's finger which felt like a boulder was forced past his closed cervix, deep into his womb where his son was not too long ago. Inuyasha was thrashing his head from side to side with ragged breathing. It hurt a lot more this time. Maybe it was because he known what was coming.

Sesshoumaru could tell his mate was really in a lot of pain. He would get this done soon to cut short Inuyasha suffering.

Sesshomaru pushed in another two fingers into his mate's cervix, stretching him in scissoring motion with all the three digits. Inuyasha's body jerked at the forced intrusion. Tears streaked his ashen face as he grunted loudly at the immense pain which had him near unconsciousness.

Fingers were spread, stretching his cervix further still with two more digits inserted. Inuyasha gasped as he was stretched vastly wide to accommodate the invading fist. His cervix was spread open for a few moments then released. This was repeated many times and each time the cervix was stretched wider.

Inuyasha's face was twisted in a grimace of pain as it felt like his cervix was being stretched wider than the pup's head, and the stretching still continued.

His body pulsated with fiery pain and the world spun. His body arched and another raspy and scratchy scream escaped his throat. The fist which was too huge and rough for him was forced into his bruised and very sore uterus.

"Please... take it out... it hurts," Inuyasha cried, biting down on his lips as his small body taking in his mate's huge, thick arm. "Please!!!"

"It won't be long," Sesshomaru leaned forward, licking away the blood that had appeared on his mate's lips from his bite.

Placenta was normally located at the top of the uterus so as not to obstruct the cervix for the pup to pass through. Nevertheless, Inuyasha's stretched uterus required Sesshomaru to shove his arm deeper into the uterine cavity until his elbow was prodding dangerously at his mate's entrance.

Inuyasha was acutely aware of Sesshomaru's hand feeling all around in his uterus. Fingers could be seen protruding under the flesh of his belly as his mate explored every single inch of him from inside. Sesshomaru had penetrated him so deeply that Inuyasha thought the hand would come out from his throat.

Sesshomaru's fingers soon locate the placenta and moved his hand around to determine the size of it. It was huge. In fact, it was bigger than his open palm.

Another concern strikes him. If he could not even gather the entire placenta within his palm, how could he get it out of the tight cervix? The last thing Sesshomaru wanted was a burst placenta causing many tiny fragments floating around the uterus which would only make his job more difficult.

"Agaah...!!" Inuyasha cried as another contraction stabbed him. All his inner muscles clenched rigidly around Sesshomaru's arm that was inside him.

No time was to be wasted. Kneeling from in-between his mate's open thighs, Sesshomaru raised Inuyasha's left legs over his right shoulder. With his right hand still inside his mate, Sesshomaru snaked his left hand around Inuyasha's waist and lifted him off the ground, drooping his mate's head over his left shoulder. Sesshoumaru hoped that the downward pressure would help to expel the placenta.

Using the edge of his hand, he gradually made a space between the placenta and the uterine wall. Like what he had expected, some tissues and blood vessels were still connected between the placenta and the uterine wall.

It was dangerous especially when Sesshomaru had to cut the tissues and blood vessels from the uterine wall, without seeing them. All Sesshomaru could depend on was his keen senses and a wrong move could cause massive internal bleeding. He would need all the concentration.

As Sesshomaru gathered all his senses and concentration onto his hand, he failed to notice the pulse coming from Inuyasha. Tighten his grip on his mate, Sesshomaru extend his claws as he slowly sliced the blood vessels and those connecting tissues from the uterine wall.

"Uaagggghh...!!! Stop!!!"

The pain erupted like a spark of flame, flaring up and exploding through Inuyasha. He began to struggle, his delicate hands trying to tear away from Sesshomaru but the steel grip was impossible to budge. His body seemed to seize up with pain as he cried out and dug his blunt fingernails into Sesshomaru's back.

Unknown to Sesshomaru, youkai blood flowing in his mate's body was rapidly replaced with human blood causing the level of pain tolerance to drop drastically for Inuyasha.

As soon as Inuyasha started struggling, he fell limp again and darkness enveloped him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Having the placenta completely detached from the uterine wall, Sesshomaru stretched open the cervix with all his fingers and allowed the placenta to slide out. He repeated the action for the sphincter muscles and soon, a nasty liver-looking glob twisted by a long cord slipped out and dropped onto the ground.

While he laying his mate back on the straws, Sesshomaru was shocked to see black hair flowed before his eyes instead of silver. A glance at the sky outside the cave confirmed Sesshomaru's fear. Nothing could get worse than this.

It was a moonless night!

Fear pounded in Sesshomaru's heart as his mate's body lay still before his eyes. There was not even slight rose and fell of his mate's chest. This could not be happening. Inuyasha could not leave him like this.

"Wake up, Inuyasha! Wake up!!!" Sesshomaru shouted, shaking his mate's shoulder vigorously not caring if he had reopened any wound. All he wanted was to stir up his mate for he knew no human could withstand these amounts of pain, and that included Inuyasha.

Inuyasha looked like a porcelain figure, so small, so petite, so human and so fragile. His still beautiful face was pale against his scruffy black hair. His skin was so pale that life seemed to have been drained from his small body...

Is it really fated that Inuyasha would die?

'No! I cannot allow this!' Sesshomaru's heart screamed in denial and he hated himself being so powerless. He had lost father's Tenseiga when he needed it the most. If only, he was as strong as father then he would be able to save his mate.

In desperation, Sesshomaru cried out to his father for help, "Father, what can I do? I can't lose him. Not after all we've been through."

As if in response to his cry, Sesshomaru suddenly recalled his father had performed blood transfusions to save both Inuyasha and Izayoi. If Inu No Taishou can do it, so can he. After all, he was his father's son.

Despite losing Tenseiga, Sesshomaru could still see the minions from the underworld cling onto his beloved and he immediately set to work. They will not take him. Nobody will take Inuyasha away from him. No one.

Sesshomaru straighten both of Inuyasha's leg and spread out his mate's arms on either side. He sliced an identical cut on each of his mate's palms and his palms before he mirrored the position and covered Inuyasha's form with his body.

Blood transfusions would not help in this case as Inuyasha had serious wounds and inner bleeding which must be stopped. No creature could heal faster than a pureblood youkai but human blood would diminish the youkai healing power if both type of blood came into contact. The only alternative was to transfer out all human blood in Inuyasha and instantaneously pumped in youkai blood.

Timing was everything. Too fast to draw out the human blood would desiccate the organs. Too slow would cause both blood to come into contact and weaken the healing power.

In the sinister silent, Sesshomaru began the suction in his left palm to draw out his mate's blood and ready to pump in his blood through his right palm. As soon as human blood entered his bloodstream, Sesshomaru could immediately felt the impact. Energy was draining out from him and Sesshomaru was feeling extremely somnolent.

Sesshomaru found himself fighting off wave nausea while trying to stay awake. At the same time, equivocal crying could be heard in the background as his son demanded some attention.

'Not now, little one. Not now,' was the last thought Sesshomaru had as his world spun itself into darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

To be continued

Next chapter will be the last, sadly speaking, it's also a death chapter. Finally, this fic is coming to an end. So, who will die? Inuyasha, Sesshomaru or both? Perhaps I should just let them sleep on... Forever... =p


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