Forbidden Access

Hal continued to look at him. "what?"



"I wonder what we do now." He said, hoping he wasn't expected to simply wait in here and like this while Hal suffered through this.



"W-Wait I guess.." Hal sat up slightly and winced. "O-Ow…" he whimpered, gripping the blankets tightly. He closed his eyes and breathed unsteadily as tears streamed down his face.



Dr. Forrester came in with a Hal's chart. "Well you're in here a week early…And on Christmas Eve no doubt. But no worries. How far apart are the contractions?" He asked as he went over to check the machinery Hal was hooked up to.Hal swallowed a little through the pain. "I-I don't know..T-Twelve minutes..M-Maybe.."



'A week early.' Snake thought 'How bad was that again?' he wondered, what if something came up again? Maybe it could have slipped past him when he wasn't paying attention.



Dr. Forrester nodded. "Everything seems all right so far and I apologize about the pain you're feeling but we can't give you anything stronger before surgery. I'm thinking about a 5 or 6 hour wait at the most till another room is available. You should be fine unless the amniotic fluid breaks before

then, in which you will just feel a sharper pain in your abdomen. If that happens I'll see if I can free up a room as quickly as I can. Kay?" he said giving them a smile. "I'll be back in an hour to check on you. Call switch is to your right, David, if something changes." He added prior to leaving the room.



"..." There was something about the way he was holding up. However he nodded and kept a close eye on Hal. It wasn't easy to watch either and he leaned to comb the man's hair back.



Hal lay back and panted as it subsided. "I-I don't know if I can t-take 5 or 6 more hours of this...Snake…" he said softly.



And neither could he but he wasn't about to say that anytime soon. "What will you have me do?" He asked, honestly, waiting for Hal to give him an instruction that wasn't sitting here and waiting for anything to, like the doctor said, go wrong or change or for something to happen to Hal; it was driving him up a wall.



"I-I don't know.." Hal answered taking his glasses off. He nuzzled Snake's hand as it ran through his hair. "I think you're doing fine.." he said with a soft smile.



"Fine?" Snake asked.



Hal nodded slowly and touched Snake's cheek. He gave him a soft smile. "Hang in there with me ok..?"



"I'll do what I can." Snake said, leaning to kiss his forehead, then his lips at this, he had a hand on Hal's shoulder, somewhat dreading the next wave of pain and hopping the doctor hurried up with this.



Hal laid back down against the pillows and took Snake's hand. "I love you.." he said tiredly.





Snake kept hold of Hal's hand and leaned to kiss his neck a few times.





Hal smiled softly and looked at him. "I-I never got to give you your Christmas present.."





"Don't worry about that now, Hal, it can wait." He said, calmer under the effects of Hal's smile.





Hal nodded slowly. About 6 more hours passed before Dr. Forrester came in to get Hal. "David I'm going to need you to wait in the waiting room." he said as his nurses helped Hal lay on his side so they could give him the numbing agent. "Someone will be out as soon as everything's finished. Kay?" Dr. Forrester said.





"No you won't." He said quickly and in alarm.





"When have I lied to you?" Dr. Forrester replied.





"I'm not saying you're lying to me, doc, I'm just saying that I'm not about to move from here."





"We're taking him to a different room but I guess you can wait in here.." Dr. Forrester said trying to remember if anyone else was going to be in the room. "But you know if another patient comes in here you'll have to go out to the waiting room. Ok?"





"Why this?" He asked, not wanting anyone to separate him from Hal at a time like this.





"We have small ORs here. We need to have as much room as possible to move around." Forrester replied. "I have to get him in and out before the pain meds wear off but just hang in there and it should be 45 minutes to an hour." he added leaving with Hal and the nurses





Snake stared after them before quietly walking to the waiting room. He waited... for about five minutes before he couldn't take it anymore and stood next to the room they were keeping Hal in, pacing in front of the door like a caged animal.





There wasn't a window to the door. It took a little while before there was any sort of noise from inside. The cries of an infant could be heard from outside the wooden door.



There was something about the crying that grounded him. He wanted IN, NOW, but by now he wasn't pacing as desperately as before and he was slowing to a stop to pay attention. He then knocked. "Alright, enough." he called, dangerous tone. He didn't want to be kept from this, it wasn't humane.



A few minutes passed and the crying didn't stop. A nurse came out slowly and carefully with a small bundle wrapped in a light blue blanket all snug and warm. "I'm guessing you're David." She laughed softly. "Here's your son." She smiled carefully handing the bundle to Snake. "Hal's doing well the doctor's just stitching him up and then you can meet him in the recovery room. He passed out halfway through so he didn't get a chance to see him yet but I think he'd like it if you brought him in when you come in to see him." She said nodding to the baby before going back inside.



"Ah." A lot of this went right past him as he observed the kid. "Why did he pass out?" He asked, wondering why they'd do something like that while keeping him awake if they knew that would happen. However he did little else than observe the kid.



The infant sniffled and instantly stopped crying once he was in Snake's arms. He yawned and soon fell asleep.



At this Snake smiled. There, he was pleased with himself. Now what to do with him. "You're very trusting." He observed, waiting till he could see Hal and leaning to look the kid closer before kissing his forehead really carefully.



The nurse came back out. "Follow me and I'll take you to his room." she said as she started walking down a hallway. She led Snake to the last room on the hall and opened the door. "Go ahead." She said softly.



It messed with him a little to see Hal like that but he did as he was told to do. "Hal?" He asked.



The nurse smiled and closed the door as she left.

Upon seeing Snake, Hal smiled with a sigh. "H-Hey..." he said hoarsely, as he laid in his bed.



"How are you holding up?" Snake asked, moving to sit close to him while holding their kid in his arms.



"Fine.." Hal replied. "I feel like I was hit by a truck but I think I'll live.." he said shakily lifting his hand to touch Snake's face. "I-I heard you banging on the door.."



Snake looked at Hal's hand instead and muttered something against it about being tortured by the doctors or some cruel thing like that.



Hal smiled softly and moved his hand down to stroke their son's face. "Is... Is h-he alright...?"



"Yeah." Snake said, watching Hal and stepping closer so he could hand him over. "Want to hold him?" He asked, although he knew Hal was very likely to say yes.



Hal nodded and smiled as Snake carefully handed him over. He looked down at him and ran his finger over his cheek. "He needs a name..." he said looking up at Snake.



"I still think Hal would do." He said, observing Hal to see if the man came up with something. "Is there a name that means 'sleeps a lot'?"



Hal laughed a little. "How about Yoru...?"



"Isn't that Japanese?" Snake asked then shrugged. "It sounds alright, We have to see how that's written though."



Hal nodded. "It's pronounced 'Yo-Ru' " He smiled playing with the infant's tiny hand.



"One um... 'kanji' or two?" he asked, wondering if he should have studied the damn language. Hal seemed to move easily enough thought it all the time and he would be left to struggle with it. Still Russian had been hard enough by itself.



"One I believe." Hal answered. "We're not going to make him write his name in Kanji though..That's too much to push on a little kid.."



"I guess not, then there's... ah..." he trailed off as he thought about schooling.



Hal looked at him. "What?" he asked. Yoru made little grunting noises as he stretched and yawned. Hal's eyes went to him just in case he had something wrong. He unwrapped him a little and laid him on his chest with his head laying in the crook of Hal's neck, looking at Snake with his matching blue eyes.



"Nevermind, we can work with that later."



Hal nodded and rubbed Yoru's back slowly. "He looks like you.."



"Hopefully that's all he got from me" Snake muttered, leaning to touch 'Yoru' here.



Hal nodded. "Dave... I'm sure he's fine...."



"I guess."



Hal sighed and looked at him. "Dave..You need to think positive..."



"Not easy. I'll see what I can do."