Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 367: Solid Plan

Chapter 367: Solid Plan

The day progressed, and Li Dai Lu and I fell into an easy pace together.

It was one of those weird feelings like you could have sworn that you had known the other person for most of your life, and yet, this was the first time I had really spent any time together.

We left the house, and the biggest man, whom she finally introduced as Chen Zi Han, followed nervously behind us, almost waiting to catch her.

I will fully admit to not liking the guys when I first met them. They were abrasive assholes to me, and I couldn’t see how anyone would be interested in them. But then I watched them with Li Dai Lu, and I finally understood.

They didn’t care about anyone other than her. Their entire focus was on their woman, and everyone else could go to hell as far as they were concerned.

After that moment, I thoroughly approved of them. In an ideal world, that was how it should be. So, the relationship between me and her men improved. I would completely ignore them and pretend that they were invisible, and they would do the same to me.

They were respectful about it, they didn’t interrupt our conversation or anything like that. But they only addressed me when they had medical questions, and even then, they didn’t look at me.

A part of me wanted to see if my own guys would behave like that when the world went back to normal, but another part wanted to understand that it was probably not possible.

Don’t get me wrong, women shouldn’t be treated like they are invisible or disrespected in any way, but if the guy was taken, he shouldn’t be interested in interacting with any of them either.

"Ooh," groaned Li Dai Lu as she came to an abrupt halt. We were walking in tall grass, almost about knee height, the wind gently blowing around us. The mountains were just off to our right, and the sun was starting to set.

As soon as she stopped Chen Zi Han quickly came up to embrace her in his arms as he gently lifted her stomach to take some of the weight off of her tiny frame.

"Thank you," she sighed as she leaned against his chest, trying to control her breathing. "That one was a bitch."

I hummed in agreement as I turned around to look at her. The contractions were about 10 minutes apart now, but they still weren’t consistent. While I wasn’t an OBGYN, I knew enough to know that she was now in pre-labor.

It looked like we were going to have to keep walking.

Wrapping my hair up in a bun, I gave her a few minutes to catch her breath before I looked at her. "Might as well get Hulk here to hold your hand; it looks like he needs the emotional support," I chuckled, relieved when she laughed with me.

"That one was a bit worse," she said again, this time looking at me.

"It was, and it will continue to get worse until you are in active labor. That is why we are out here walking around; it will help with the pre-labor."

"Wait," growled the man, narrowing his eyes on me for a short time before turning his attention over my right shoulder. "Are you telling me that she is in labor? We need to get her back to the house; she should be lying down."

"By all means," I nodded, rolling my eyes. "We can bring her back and put her to bed, but that will slow down the contractions, prolong pre-labor, and potentially shift the baby inside of her. Shall we do that?"

There was a low growl behind me as Liu Yu Zeng seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Want to try that statement again?" he asked as he went around me to stand on Li Dai Lu’s other side.

"Fine," I sneered. "The reason why we are out here is because walking during this part of the labor has been shown to help shift the baby to a better position, helps to keep contractions going, and even bring them closer together, which could help bring on active labor sooner. It is also used as a pain management technique to help control the pain. But if you want to stop all that, then by all means, go put her in bed."

Liu Yu Zeng continued to glare at me. Out of all of the men, he seemed to be the most unstable, and I never knew what he was going to do next. But I didn’t feel threatened by him. I knew that until the babies were born, I was practically untouchable.

"So, if we aren’t going to do that, then let’s keep walking," I smiled as I looked at Li Dai Lu and rolled my eyes. "Unless, of course, you want a second opinion?"

"And just where are we going to find that?" asked Liu Wei as he appeared behind Li Dai Lu. Great, we almost had all of the guys out here. The fourth one, Wang Chao, had to be around somewhere. Just because I couldn’t see him didn’t mean anything.

"Well, I have one of the best doctors in the world back at my house; you can always grab him, too. Or, look up an OBGYN in the Yellow Pages?"

Okay, so the snark was back in full force. But it wasn’t like anyone had any offices anymore. I had no idea where to find an actual OBGYN. Hell, I didn’t even know if any of them were still alive. Technically, I only know two doctors right now, me and Bin An Sha.

"Leave her alone. Just because you don’t agree with what she is saying doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know more than you," snapped Li Dai Lu, quickly putting an end to the conversation. Rubbing her belly, she looked at me. "Ready?"

"I am," I assured her, turning back around so we could continue our walk away from their home. "If the pain becomes too much, let me know, and I’ll try to take some from you."

"You can do that?" she asked, pushing Liu Yu Zeng away so that she could grab my arm to walk beside me.

"Honestly?" I replied. "I have no idea. But there is always a first time for everything. For example, did you know that the chainsaw was invented in the 18th century by two Scottish doctors to help with c-sections and dissections?"

"Tell me you are joking," blinked Li Dai Lu as she stared at me.

"Nope," I replied, putting an extra emphasize on the ’p’. "I kid you not. The thing that we mostly think about in the hands of lumberjacks cutting down trees was first done to help cut into a woman and remove a baby."

"You really have to wonder how many women managed to survive something like that," muttered Li Dai Lu as we continued slowly. A part of me was freaking out about ticks in tall grass like this, but I was trying to push it out of my head. One thing at a time.

"Considering that the women wouldn’t be able to have any type of pain killers and the electric chainsaw wasn’t invented until almost 200 years later, I am going to assume not many."

Cocking her head to the side, she stared at me. "Let’s not do that, okay?"

I nodded my head. "It was a first option, but if not using a hand chainsaw is not part of your birthing plan, then I can just use a scalpel if it comes to it. Oh, wait... Liu Wei took me before I could get any of my medical equipment. Let’s hope that you are okay with a natural birth."

Li Dai Lu looked over her shoulder to glare at the man until he disappeared. "My birthing plan is to get the babies out of me as soon as possible. Anything on top of that is completely negotiable."

"Solid plan," I replied, nodding my head again. "A lot of women feel that they are not in control when it comes to birthing, and that scares them. Between you and I, I think that doctors just ask women for their birth plans because it gives expecting mothers something to do. Birthing plans rarely work out perfectly."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the idea of not having an epidural might be something that a woman wants when she is in full control and not in pain. However, the few births that I attended, the second the true contractions hit, they want the drug to take away the pain."

"Makes sense," nodded Li Dai Lu. "No one understands what type of pain they should expect until they are in the middle of it."

"And if they hold out for too long, then we can’t do an epidural anyways, which results in unneeded pain for the woman," I continued, resting my hand on hers. I let my magic flow through her, the twin flames no longer an issue, as they stepped aside and let my life force do what it needed to do.