Too much excitement in too short a time. It had been less than four hours since she’d mind controlled the TSA guards. For Emilia, most of her excitement had come by way of pain. In a way, this was a welcome change: people trying to detain her. In another way, this was just more of the same. She’d taken a short nap during liftoff, but after the near-darting and pretending to be a doctor, Emilia was too keyed up to sleep.

She passed as much time as she could watching old movies on the screen in front of her chair. Cary had given up her fake slumber, so she watched the shows too. And in a way, Cary was more interesting than the figures dancing over the monitor.

Cary studied the movies like one might study a documentary, or animals in the wild. She didn’t take notes, that would have been too weird even for Cary. But her eyes never left the film and she mouthed the words as if feeling their shape with her lips.

That image sent Emilia to an awkward mental place. She shook her head and tried to relax back into her chair. The wired energy never quite dissipated from her, so she stood up to use the restroom. Standing up to follow her, Emilia pushed Cary back into her seat. “Watch your movie like a good girl and let me pee in peace. I promise I will yell real loud if someone jumps me.”

A look of displeasure darkened Cary’s face, but she didn’t insist or even try to argue. She just nodded once and resumed watching her show. Only one earphone hung from Cary’s ear, as if she monitored the rest of the plane with her unburdened ear. It made sense to Emilia based, Cary probably was doing exactly that.

The trip to the restroom was a short one. This time Emilia watched the other passengers with interest. One of them had lain a powerful magic over the flight attendant. Emilia hadn’t mentioned it, but she’d surreptitiously laid a counter-enchant on the same attendant. The woman didn’t deserve to have her mind messed with again. Not that Emilia had much faith in such magics. They definitely were not her specialty.

As she made her way back to her seat, Emilia noticed a woman holding her belly and breathing through pursed lips. She looked strained and upset; Emilia assumed the woman was nervous about flying. With so few other passengers in First Class, Emilia surprised herself by failing to notice earlier. The seat next to the woman was empty at the time, but based on the blanket next to her, someone must have occupied that seat. Maybe he or she was in the restroom or walking around? Emilia put the thought out of mind and returned to sit down next to Cary.

As soon as Emilia returned, Cary surveyed her whole body, either checking out Emilia’s hot bod, which made Emilia laugh internally, or more likely, checking for signs of injury. Patting Cary on the hand, Emilia whispered. “No ninjas managed to jump me between the seat and the bathroom.”

“Why would you think ninjas are here?” Cary looked around with nervous apprehension. The scanning she’d been doing before grew almost desperate as she searched for their invisible attackers.

“Because we can’t see any, duh.” Emilia giggled at her own joke, and then giggled harder as Cary seemed to take Emilia completely seriously. Before she stood up, Emilia grabbed Cary’s hand. “I am just teasing, no one is after me. That I could see.”

“Someone is certainly after you. There is no question of this.”

“I mean I didn’t see anything suspicious, oh my paranoid paramour.”

Cary smiled at the sobriquet, which was a word Emilia had looked up just hat morning. They watched the rest of the current film and two more in silence while Emilia tried to find a way to slip “sobriquet” naturallyinto their conversation.

At the end of the third film of the flight, a different flight attendant walked up to their seats with a worried look on her face.

Emilia’s stomach flipped as the stewardess leaned down and lowered her voice. “Doctors, the pilot requests your assistance in the crew area.”

Shit. Emilia smiled and bit her lip. Cary had already started to shake her head, but Emilia knew that wouldn’t fly from the look on the attendant’s face. “We’ll be right there,” Emilia scanned the woman’s name tag, “Olivia.” She laid her hand on Cary’s to let her demoness know not to say anything right then.

“Oh thank you both very much!” Olivia sped away toward the front of the aircraft, the discomfort in her shoulders faded as she walked off.

A loud moaning sound greeted Emilia’s ears and she knew in a flash what this was about. “So what do you know about childbirth?”

Cary’s eyes popped open and she shrugged. “I’ve done a good deal of reading. Why?”

“Can’t you hear that? They’re not torturing someone aboard the plane. I think that’s someone in labor.” Color drained from Cary’s face, which made Emilia pause in her movements. The demoness hadn’t risen from her seat. “Come on, we need to go help, or they’re going to question our medical credentials.”

Swallowing visibly, Cary nodded. Her face and neck were pale and her hand clammy where Emilia grabbed it. “Okay. Let’s… hurry.”

Back through the passenger cabin, Cary and Emilia knew their way toward the crew area already. The magically influenced flight attendant stood guard at a small door. She smiled when she spotted Cary and Emilia. “Oh thank God! You two are here to help, right?”

“Right!” Cary blurted the word out while her gaze fixed itself on the door the woman guarded like a fiend or monster out of legend waited behind. “We are doctors!” Flashing her black page with a stiff arm like her elbow had stopped working, Cary could not have made herself more awkward.

Emilia slid up beside her. “Right, is the mother to be in there?”

The flight attendant tilted her head and nodded. “These are the crew sleeping quarters. We wanted somewhere private.”

Emilia brushed past Cary and snatched her hand from her side. Jerking Cary along turned the rest of the day on its head. To Emilia’s complete surprise, Cary was reluctant to go into this room. Thankfully, she didn’t put up more than a token resistance, otherwise Emilia would have been stuck there waiting or would have had to proceed on her own.

Opening the door, Emilia found the woman from first class lying on her back with her knees up and panting. A man, her husband presumably, sat next to her, holding her hand. Cary paused again, and Emilia glanced back at her. Her eyes had gone huge and her cheeks looked ashen now. Swaying with the rhythm of the flight, Emilia realized that Cary was about to pass out.

Rather than allow that to happen, Emilia pulled her close and hissed into Cary’s ear. “Holy fuck, get your shit together now! You’re the one who’s supposed to know what’s going on here!”

Swallowing, Cary looked around the room as if seeing the beige walls for the first time. “I… I think I can.”

Emilia didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but then again, she wasn’t going to get more from Cary. “At least don’t pass out on me…” Emilia pressed herself closer to Cary than she was comfortable with. “I’ll let you touch my breasts again if you’re good.”

Those words got Cary’s attention, but she still hesitated, as if trying to decide if Emilia’s promise was worth the trauma. After this particular disaster was over, assuming they survived it without being tossed off the plane, Emilia intended to ask Cary about whatever had happened there.

The flight attendant and the husband both shot Emilia a questioning look, but Emilia brushed off their gazes. “How many weeks along is she?”

“Thirty-six,” the husband cleared his throat and shook his head. “Thirty-seven.”

“And her water broke?”

He nodded, the tension in his eyes eased at Emilia’s questions. If he found out that they’d just covered the entirety of her medical knowledge, he would be hyperventilating into a paper bag. Emilia nudged Cary with her elbow, who shook her head and said, “We need to examine her. Go ahead, Dr Smith. I will advise and observe.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It Emilia a second to realize that Cary meant her. She smiled at the others and waved the frantic husband away. “My name is Dr Sandra Smith. Call me Sandie.”

The woman nodded at her. “Freda. Awwooo!” her words devolved into a shout as Emilia retrieved her phone and set a timer. She didn’t know how to use it or what the time meant, but there was one more thing she knew about pregnancy from the shows, how far apart the contractions were mattered.

“Breathe for me, Freda. Dr…” Emilia couldn’t remember Cary’s pseudonym in the heat of the moment, so she just mumbled, “is going to consult with me while I examine you.”

Cary looked more than happy to stand near the woman’s head. “When was the last time you ate something, Freda?” With the promise of more petting between them, Cary apparently made her choice about what she wanted. In a way, Emilia was honored. In another way, she was annoyed with Cary. When Freda screamed again, Emilia noted the time and called it out. She couldn’t do anything with that information, but maybe Cary could.

The demoness nodded at Emilia’s number. “Good. We need to check to see how dilated you are too, Freda. Is it okay if Dr Smith does that now?”

Through puffing breaths, Freda shuddered out a “yes, that’s fine.”

Emilia cocked her head at Cary but couldn’t ask without alarming everyone in earshot.

“Check her cervix, use your fingers.” Emilia squeaked as Cary’s voice sounded in her mind. She turned and found the demoness with her eyes closed, checking the woman’s pulse. “This is hard for me, please be quick.”

“How will I know?”

“If she is more than ten centimeters dilated, then she’s having the baby soon.”

“What’s ten centimeters?” Emilia covered up their pause by slowly lowering herself to the floor by Freda’s feet. She wore a billowy floral maternity dress made of swirling blues and reds.

“By all the dark fucking gods, about the length of both of your fingers stacked atop each other.”

“And I just… shove my fingers up there?” Cary didn’t respond to that question. She knew where the cervix was supposed to be. But she’d never seen one outside of a sex-ed class in middle school. This was about to get awkward.

As she slid checked Freda’s state, she found what she’d been looking for, shock filled her as her natural magic hopped to the two children in Freda’s womb. She hopped again when Cary contacted her. “Use your power to check the mother and children now. Sooner is better than later.”

Emilia withdrew her hand and laid them both on Freda’s belly, “we’re ten cents doctor.” With her attention directed to Freda, she said, “I am just going to check to make sure your babies are facing the right direction, okay?”

It made sense, and in the desperation, Emilia found another scrap of knowledge from Tv. She prayed to every god she knew that the kids would be head down, otherwise this could be bad. At the same time, Emilia delicately extended her awareness into Freda’s body. She couldn’t release her own talent, it would ravage both babies and Freda, but with focus, she could exclude the part of her that consumed and just use her senses.

Both children were head down, she could feel them with her hands and from the brilliant sparks of life that flared out from both children. They were twin girls, but they were not quite ready to be born. Freda’s blood pressure was high and her anxiety peeked, but other than that, she was as healthy as her two soon-to-be-borns.

Emilia flushed at the knowledge that all three were healthy. “Your twins are head down, good news Freda.” With her awareness extended into Freda, she felt the woman try to push in time with her contraction.

“The babies aren’t quite ready yet, should she be pushing?”

Cary didn’t respond mentally to Emilia’s question. She looked down at Freda instead and said, “Freda. The contractions are a little too far apart right now. If you push too early, you could exhaust yourself. Dr Smith or I will let you know when it’s time, okay?” Silently, Cary sent, “if you can, give her some of your energy. Just a trickle so she doesn’t panic. Can you do that?”

Emilia nodded at Cary and focused on sending a bit of her power into Freda. Once again, the struggle was not sending the power, but withholding the part of her that wished to drain the life of everything around. As she imagined cool waters flowing from her hands into Freda’s belly, the woman calmed right in time for another contraction. “I didn’t get the time on that one.”

Emilia mentally chided herself over forgetting to keep the time, but Cary gave a time down to the seconds and added, “we have still got a while before the main event.”

As crude as Cary’s metaphor was, Emilia couldn’t spare a moment to ponder it. The woman going birth to twins demanded the entirety of Emilia’s attention. Over the next few hours, several flight attendants made appearances in the room along with the pilot and co-pilot. Cary had to assure both men that the plan could continue on its scheduled flight for the time-being and that, at least so far, they didn’t anticipate any further problems.

Emilia focused on healing Freda, keeping her energy up and watching for the signs that would tell her she was ready. It happened without much preamble or warning. One minute Cary was shooing gawking flight attendants out of the room and the next, Freda screamed as her contractions grew more severe and closer together. Anything Cary could do to put distance between herself and the woman in labor, she did. Which meant Emilia was basically alone when she sensed it was time.

“Okay Freda.” Emilia positioned herself with a mess of towels and blankets nearby. “At the next contraction, I want you to push push push for me, okay?”

A second of deja-vu tried to steal Emilia’s focus away, as if she could remember doing this a lifetime ago. She pushed that feeling away as Freda screamed and bore down. By now, she imagined the other passengers could hear Freda and knew that something was going on in the fore of the plane. None of that mattered in the moment.

After only a few minutes and a handful of further contractions, she gave birth to a shrieking baby girl who didn’t need any further assistance with shouting her displeasure and pain to the world. Emilia’s throat sealed and she choked up at the sight of the little girl wriggling and squawking. But they were not done yet. Tying off the umbilical chord and setting the baby in her father’s arms, swaddled in a blanket, Emlia braced for the next part.

Rather than a placenta, the second baby came out next. Unlike her sister, this little girl was blue and hardly moved, though she was twitching. Careful not to alarm either mom or dad, Emilia wrapped the little girl in a blanket and rubbed her toes. At the same time, she probed the infant’s body with her power. She wasn’t dead, but she was dying slowly.

Unwilling to let the child die in her arms, Emilia sent a surge of power into her, willing her to breath. Cary must have felt the disturbance in Emilia because she rested a hand on Emilia’s shoulder. The moment their skin touched, power leapt between them. Emilia dipped a toe, the barest bit of flesh into the ocean of Cary’s knowledge and wisdom. From that massive body of water, Emilia found the magic she sought.

It should have been impossible, the very act of dipping into Cary’s thoughts informed Emilia of this, but she found a spell that would not only preserve the baby’s life, but would ensure she grew up healthy and strong. Tearing magical power from Cary as she did so, Emilia whispered the words of the magic over the baby girl.

Nothing happened.

Emilia’s arms sagged and she prepared herself to admit her failure, her disgusting ruse to the new parents as the little girl’s eyes opened. They were bright blue and bigger than Emilia had imagined. Rather than scream the way her sister had, the little girl just stared at Emilia, as if silently thanking her for saving her life.

Before she knew it, Emilia had burst into tears, handed the baby off and found herself enclosed by a wall of flight attendants and concerned crew. To her complete surprise none of them had produced their cell phones to post the event online. She’d ask Cary about that later. For her part, Cary escaped the room as fast as she could, flashing Emilia a thumbs up as “Dr Smith” helped ensure the placenta arrived correctly and intact.

Based on the encyclopedic information she’d pulled from Cary, Freda was fine, the afterbirth was undamaged and nothing remained within Freda that would hurt her later. The new mother and father expressed their gratitude to Emilia over and over again, but she finally managed to escape herself.

Now that she’d escaped the flight attendants’ cabin, Emilia noticed that her clothes were utterly stained and ruined. The flight attendant who’s mind had been messed with, stopped Emilia before she returned to the back of the plane. For the first time Emilia noted her name: Jessie. “Hey, Dr Smith. Do you need some fresh clothes? Did you bring anything in your carry-on?”

“No. I was just thinking about that. Is there anyway into the luggage area?”

Jessie waved her off and motioned for Emilia to follow. Though she’d protected Jessie from further mental intrusion, Emilia had been serious with Cary when she’d said she didn’t trust her magic in that regard. On full alert, Emilia agreed to follow Jessie to an area where the crew apparently kept their own carry-on luggage.

“After everything you’ve done, the least I owe you are a pair of sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Is that okay?” Jessie held up a set of navy blue clothes with sports logos on the sides.

Emilia sniffed at Jessie’s offer. “Sure, this will help. Thank you. Is there somewhere for me to change?” Jessie led her to a small changing room for the crew where Emilia stripped off her soiled shirt and pants. They were most likely unsalvageable, covered with Freda’s blood and other fluids as they were. But for some reason, Emilia didn’t want to toss them out. As if she’d anticipated that, Jessie handed Emilia a plastic clothing bag.

“Those will get ripe if you don’t clean them in a day or two, but this should keep the skink at bay for now.”

Emilia snickered. During the delivery, she hadn’t give a second thought to the state of her clothes. Now they seemed to matter more than anything, except for plumbing the mysteries of Cary’s queasy stomach and refusal to share a room with a pair of newborns. “Thank you so much, Jessie. I really appreciate it.”

“No, thank you, Dr Smith. You’re a life-saver.” Jessie hugged her before Emilia couldn’t escape. Honor and concern warred in Emilia’s heart as she wondered if the flight attendant wasn’t setting Emilia up for a surprise betrayal. But the dagger or needle never arrived. Jessie wept while she ushered Emilia off.

They didn’t pay for drinks or snacks for the rest of the flight.