[b]Sick Bay[/b] "So, tell me something about yourself, a big strong strapping young man like you. Where are you from?" Dera, the green-skinned nurse serving in Sick Bay with Carter, smiled a him and placed a hand on his wrist. Carter shifted in his seat and shrugged. They'd been working together for the better part of six months now. Dera liked to flirt with Carter, but he was usually dismissive. Mixing relations with work had proved to create a toxic atmosphere on his last ship. He wasn't involved in it, but he still suffered all the same. He didn't want any of the medical staff to suffer all because their chief couldn't keep it in his pants. "Well, I'm from Earth. I don't really want to talk about my family. That story is a whole mess I don't want to--" "Make way!" Carter and Dera turned to see a Klingon officer carrying an unconscious pregnant woman into Sick Bay. The woman was human and dainty compared to the large and mean looking Klingon. "What's going on here?" Carter asked, standing. "My wife," said the Klingon. "She's going into labor." Both Carter and Dera exchanged looks. The chances of Human-Kligon conception were impossibly high. If there was conception, most pregnancies didn't make it to full term. Carter stepped forward as Dera hurried towards a gurney. "How far along is she?" Carter asked as he pulled out his tricorder and scanned the pregnant woman. "Almost twenty-five weeks." The doctor ran through his medical knowledge on Klingons, humans, and the rare hybrids. The usual pregnancy time for a Klingon was thirty weeks, forty for a human. If the baby inside the officer was ready to come out, then Carter hoped the child was more Klingon than human. Dera stopped the hover gurney in front of the officer while he and Carter gently laid the woman down on to it. "Nurse Johnson," he called to the other nurse on shift with him. "Prep Room 3 for baby delivery. Nurse Dera, I want this lady scanned and ready for delivery." While he had never delivered one himself, Carter knew Klingon births were tricky. The babies thrashed and fought with usual Klingon aplomb. 25% of all births resulted in the death of the mother. That number was even higher with non-Klingon mothers. "Doctor," the Klingon said softly as his wife was pushed towards Room 3. "If something happens to her, I am holding you personally responsible." The Klingon looked down at Carter and refused to turn his gaze away as Carter slowly walked backward. "Don't, uuhh, don't worry, sir." --- "Doctor, she's fully dilated! Pulse is fading, she could be going into cardiac arrest!" Carter cursed and looked at the data on the monitor above the now conscious woman. She was panting and blowing and cursing her husband while he stood stoically by her side and held her hand. Her pelvic region a squirming mass of flesh was poking its way out. "Nurse Dera," Carter said as he reached down to feel the baby. "Prep the panels. If she starts to crash, I want to shock her back." "Wouldn't that kill the baby?" "It's half-Klingon," he grunted. "This little shock will be the easiest pain it'll have to endure." Carter looked up at the woman and gave her his best reassuring smile. "Okay now. Start breathing and....PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!" The woman screamed as the baby started to slip out of her. The lump of flesh and mucus screamed and trashed. Carter positioned himself to catch the baby as it came out. "Pulse is fifty and dropping," Nurse Johnson yelled. "Twenty-four... Doctor, she's going to crash." Carter sprung up and helped Dera with the panels. They placed the plastic rectangles on the on the woman's chest and pressed down on them. "Here we go....one, two, three, CLEAR!" [i]BBZZZZT!!![/i] The electricity coursed through her body and sent her shaking from the shock. The Klingon let out a yell of shock, pain, and despair that Carter tried his best to ignore. "Still nothing," Johnson said after a few moments. "Again," Carter told Dera. "One, two, three, CLEAR!" [i]BBZZZZT!!![/i] He looked down as the woman's body danced from the jolt. Her heart was still not beating. Worst of all, they couldn't hear the baby crying. "Alright," he said. "We're going to have to remove the baby out manually. Nurse Johnson, take my paddle and you and Dera use them when I say." Carter slapped on a pair of rubber gloves and reached down for the baby that was half-way out of the womb. The pregnant woman bucked and kicked as the nurses hit her with another jolt of electricity. "She's back!" From down below, Carter could hear the woman's deep breaths as squatted between her legs. Half of the baby's head was now sticking out. He could see Klingon ridge prominent on its forehead. "Alright, now," Carter said as he reached up and grabbed the baby's head. "PUSH!" The woman screamed and pushed. She pushed as he pulled. A minute later, Carter stood with the wailing newborn in his arms. The alien baby thrashed and screamed while Carter tried to hold on to it. Nurse Dera swooped in and wrapped it up in a towel. She held on tightly to it and managed to calm the enraged baby down. "Congratulations," Carter said, removing his gloves. "It's a girl." Both parents were beaming proudly at the sight of their new daughter. Dera gently handed the now calm child to her mother and stepped back while Carter wiped sweat from his forehead. He was hot, sweaty, and covered in bodily fluids that included afterbirth. Despite all that, the smile on his face couldn't have been any wider. The joy of success was fleeting, however. Alarms sounded through Sick Bay. Carter and his nurses looked up, along with the new parents, as the lights dimmed to a crimson red. Red alert. The klaxons erased the newborn's calm state and caused the baby girl to cry and wail. Nurse Johnson checked her tablet and looked at Carter. "Captain's orders, prepare for casualties, both friendly and enemy... they've spotted a Dominion ship." "I have to go," the Klingon said. "They'll need me in Ops." The sight of him being forced to leave his wife and newly born child tore Carter's heart apart. After tender goodbyes to both wife and daughter, the Klingon again looked at him. "I repeat what I said earlier. If they are not kept safe, I will hold you responsible." "I understand," said Carter. "Now, go. We both have work to do."