Chapter 30: Baby Boom, Gentle Heart and Bright Heart
Gentle Heart’s delivery was rough. Her labour lasted forty hours and during the whole process Take Care couldn’t stop worrying or even take a break to sleep, especially since the Gentle Heart refused to use the pain relieving brew or any other painkillers out of concern for her child’s safety. Once the delivery was done Get Well took over so Take Care could get some much needed sleep, but not before she sent a text to Independent Bear, who was out on a Caring Mission escort.
Take Care felt like her head had barely hit the pillow when she was being shaken awake. She groaned and looked up into her husband’s eyes, “Indy?”
“You asked me to wake you up as soon as I got home,” Indy stood back to allow Take Care out of bed.
“Right, right,” Take Care yawned and slid out of bed, “Gotta check on Gentle Heart.”
“How long did her labour last?” Indy followed Take Care as she wobbled forwards a few paces then stood up straighter as she grabbed a fresh doctor’s coat out of the supply closet.
“40 hours,” Take Care shook her head to dispel the clouds from it, “I need to make sure she’s alright.”
Indy moved to help her stand up, “You only got about five hours of sleep, maybe finish that and let Get Well look after her.”
Take Care shook her head, “I need to be sure she’s alright then I’ll sleep.” She carefully shrugged to tell Indy to let go of her then marched into the maternity room.
Gentle Heart lay asleep on her medical bed, her new son Eager Heart Ram sleeping quietly in his crib; he was an orange ram with a jumping heart for a tummy symbol. Bright Heart had gone home at Gentle Heart’s insistence to get a full night’s sleep, reassured that she was in good hands in Take Care’s hospital.
Gentle Heart woke up when she heard the door open and saw Take Care enter in and stumble slightly before she grabbed a clipboard to take notes. “Alright, Gentle Heart, how are you feeling?”
Gentle Heart tried to raise her head, then her arms. “I… I can’t move…”
“What?” Take Care’s voice immediately become concerned as she all but ran to Gentle Heart’s side, “Try to life your arms.”
Gentle Heart nodded and tried again, barely getting her arm up off the bed, “It feels like my body doesn’t want to work.”
Take Care gave Gentle Heart a check over, even taking a blood sample for good measure, “It’s nothing too serious,” she was relieved, “Your body is just dumping a lot of calcium into milk production. You just need to eat food with a lot calcium for the next little while. I think we have some yogurt in the fridge.”
“I’m on it,” Indy had been lingering at the door and bolted once Take Care had suggested her treatment. Once they had gotten married, Indy had taken responsibility for the grocery shopping so he knew better than Take Care what they had most of the time. He returned a few minutes later with one of the hospital’s trays on it. “Yogurt, cottage cheese, almonds and a glass of milk,” he set the tray on the pull out table Take Care had installed on all the hospital’s beds. “If you need more I can go get some less common stuff from earth.”
“That’s all, thank you Indy,” Take Care sat down next to Gentle Heart. “Can you lift your arms?”
Gentle Heart made another effort, but to no avail, looking apologetic.
Take Care couldn’t help but smile slightly as she spooned some of the yogurt up for her, “Don’t worry, it’s just like when you were a cub.” Gentle Heart accepted the spoonful as Take Care fed her.
It took quite some time for Gentle Heart to finish all the food in front of her and for the first time in weeks she felt full. She lay back on her bed and sighed sadly.
Take Care picked up the empty tray only to have it levitate out of her hands and over to Indy, who had stood by the door while she fed Gentle Heart. “I’ll take care of this,” Indy smirked then left with the tray.
Take Care sighed, she was still getting used to Indy doing that. “Gentle Heart you just need to rest and you should feel better in a couple hours… What’s wrong?” She had turned to see that Gentle Heart was crying softly as tears streaked down her face.
“I hate this…”
The words were a bit of a shock. Gentle Heart didn’t even hate No-Heart (though she still didn’t like him) and it seemed like she was too kind too even feel that emotion.
“I’m sorry Gentle Heart, you just need to rest until your body recovers.” Take Care took her hand.
Gentle Heart managed to shake her head just once, “Not just this, I hate being so weak that you… that everyone feels they need to look out for me.” She looked up at Take Care, “And how much you put yourself through for me.”
Take Care was a bit taken aback but wasn’t able to say anything before Gentle Heart continued, “You barely got any sleep after you stayed up for almost two days to help me give birth and you almost died of hypothermia because you had to check on me during the flu outbreak and I wasn’t even sick!” Gentle Heart did her best to sit up but fell back against the bed and stared up at the ceiling, softly crying to herself. “I know it’s because you care, but I don’t want to be so weak that everyone expects me to collapse at the least little thing… I don’t want to collapse at the least little thing anymore…” she turned her tearstained face to Take Care, “Why *sniff* why am I so weak…”
Take Care just stared at Gentle Heart for a moment. Ever since Noble Heart adopted her she’d always been close to Gentle Heart and noticed the lamb’s frailty. She never expected to see her break down over this, and it hurt to see that it was because she was so concerned about how everyone else was looking out for her. She took Gentle Heart’s hand, “I don’t know, Gentle Heart, but…”
“Then please, help me!” Gentle Heart managed to force her other hand over to clasp Take Care’s, “Help me fix this, please… tell me what wrong with me!”
Take Care stroked Gentle Heart’s wooly hair with her free hand, “Ok, I will in a week when your body has stabilized. Just get some sleep now.”
“Only if you do too. Let Get Well look after me, please…” Gentle Heart pleaded.
Take Care couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, I will.” She carefully pulled her hand free of Gentle Heart’s and stood up. At the door she paused and turned back to the lamb, “Gentle Heart, you’re stronger than you think you are.” The green lamb didn’t reply, just lay back and fell asleep.
Indy was waiting at the door for Take Care when she emerged; as soon as she exited he saw her stumble and he moved to catch her. “Careful, you do need sleep.”
Take Care yawned, her ‘doctor’s reserve’ of energy having been depleted from going to check up on Gentle Heart. “I know. Thank you, Indy.”
Indy carefully guided her to their room, “I had a bit of a day too,” he carefully guided her to bed after he helped her shed her doctor’s coat. “Let’s both get some sleep.”
Take Care nodded and slid into bed, a moment later she felt Indy’s arms embrace her from behind. She smiled, rolled over and snuggled up with him. She was still worried about Gentle Heart but for now she was going to get some much needed sleep.
OoOoO
Thankfully, Gentle Heart was able to get up and leave once she had some sleep and took the week to get used to looking after her son. A week later, Gentle Heart and Bright Heart brought Eager Heart in for his first check-up, and one for herself as well.
Take Care finished looking over Eager Heart, who giggled when she used her stethoscope to check his breathing. “Eager Heart is healthy, typical baby boy.” Take Care picked up the still giggling baby ram and handed him to Bright Heart. “I just need to give Gentle Heart a quick check-up before you go.”
“Alright, come on Eager,” Bright Heart took his son in his hands carefully and exited the exam room.
Once Bright Heart was out, Take Care ran Gentle Heart through the usual check-up tests, as well as a blood test and several other more in depth exams. Gentle Heart was uncomfortable during a few points but every time Take Care asked if she should stop, Gentle Heart insisted that she continue.
Take Care finally finished the last test and helped Gentle Heart off the exam table, “I’ll call you when I’m finished my analysis.”
“Thank you, Take Care,” Gentle Heart gave her big hug before she left and Take Care settled in to her analysis.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for her to finish and three days later she called Gentle Heart back to her hospital.
“I have good news for you, Gentle Heart: there’s nothing medically wrong with you,” Take Care watched the relief spread across Gentle Heart’s face as she let out a breath of nerves she had been holding.
“So why am I so weak?” Gentle Heart asked.
“It’s your lifestyle and diet.” Take Care looked up from her notes at Gentle Heart, “You need to eat more and get exercise.” Gentle Heart had always been a nibbler, even as a cub she only ever ate the bare minimum, not helped when she had been exposed to human pop culture and learned of the stigma against the overweight, something she had never really been able to shake; she preferred to read instead of running around like the other cousins to play. Even now she preferred low energy pastimes like sewing and knitting (she had sewn Eager Heart’s onesie herself).
“Oh… so what do I have to do to get better?” Gentle Heart twiddled her fingers together, knowing the answer but needing Take Care to say it.
“You need to start eating more, you eat healthily, more than most of the family these days, but you don’t eat enough, especially protein. And if you want to make a good positive impact you need to start working out. Talk to Champ Bear to get a workout routine going but if he and Cheer don’t have time then Confidence Heart can help you instead.”
“Protein… you mean meat right?” Gentle Heart grimaced slightly.
Take Care smiled, “You’re not a ruminant like normal sheep, Gentle, unless you’ve been chewing cud for years and kept it a secret.” That got a small smile out of Gentle Heart, “Your digestive system is identical to that of a human, you even have small canine teeth for that. But if you don’t want to eat meat there are other proteins you can eat, like beans.” She handed a page to Gentle Heart, “This is the list of foods and the amounts you need if you want to do this, but only if you’re exercising as well.”
Gentle Heart scanned the list, “Why is garlic mentioned so much?”
“Helps your immune system, garlic powder or chunks mixed in to whatever you’re eating is a good way to get that.”
“OK…Do I have to do this all at once?” Gentle Heart sounded nervous.
Take Care took Gentle Heart’s free hand, “You don’t have to do any of this if you don’t want to. This is just the guidelines you’ll have to follow if you want to better your constitution. If you don’t want to that’s fine.”
“No!” Gentle Heart sudden shout made Take Care jump, “I don’t want everyone always worried about me. I’ll do this,” she stood up off the exam table, “No matter what it takes.”
“Don’t overdo it,” Take Care stood up and patted her back, “Just remember that you’re stronger than you think, alright?”
Gentle Heart nodded, “Alright. Thank you,” she gave Take Care another hug then left her office.
Gentle Heart read the nutrition chart over and over on the walk home. Thankfully it wasn’t windy in the forest but she was still reading it right up until she entered hers and Bright Heart’s house. Almost immediately she heard Eager crying and set the list on the kitchen counter so she could tend to him.
While Gentle Heart was feeding their son, Bright Heart found the nutrition sheet in the kitchen. He read it over as he sat next to Gentle Heart on their couch as she nursed Eager Heart.
“Oof, he’s hungry today,” Gentle Heart looked down at him, “I’m going to need more calcium.”
“And a lot more by the looks of it,” Bright Heart looked up from the sheet, “So you’re going through with this?”
“Yes. I need to do this so I can feel better about myself. Take Care says I’m strong so I’m going to be by seeing this through.”
Bright Heart gave her a look of concern but saw the determined look in Gentle Heart’s eyes. He wasn’t going talk her out of this so he just gave her a kiss, “Then I’m behind you. I can cut back on my projects with Star Fox to help look after this little guy,” he stroked their son’s woolly head. “Don’t protest, you’ve given a lot of leeway to me about my inventions and projects so I’m going to give the same back to you.”
Gentle Heart smiled, “Thank you.”
The next day, after feeding Eager Heart and eating a larger than she was used to breakfast at the Hall of Hearts, Gentle Heart made her way to the Care-a-Lot gym and found Champ Bear waiting for her with a gym bag in hand.
He smiled, “Are you ready to get started?”
Gentle Heart gave a sheepish smile, “Yes.”
“Alright, then put these on,” Champ pulled a tank top and shorts made of a smooth black material. “It breathes better and helps keep you cool. Trust me you’ll want this to help.”
“O-ok,” Gentle Heart took the clothes and headed for the change room.
It was an odd quirk for some members of the Care Bear Family that even though they spent most of their time not wearing any clothes some, like Gentle Heart, didn’t like to change in front of each other; when Gentle Heart got a look at herself in the change room mirror she blushed slightly at how revealing the tank top should have been.
Gentle Heart shook off the paradoxical feelings and returned to the gym floor, “This feels strange,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry, Gentle Heart, you’ll get used it. Now let’s get started,” he led her over to an elliptical exercise machine. “We’ll start with some cardio, hop up,” he gave Gentle Heart a boost.
“Is this like a treadmill?” Gentle Heart stood in the large pedals and grabbed the two bars attached to them.
“Sort of, it’s easier on the legs and doesn’t force you to keep up with it. It simulates leg movement when running or walking. Just start walking and I’ll set things up.” Champ said.
Gentle Heart nodded then started to push. The giant pedals moved easily which forced her arms to move in tandem. A beep indicated that the screen was starting up and Champ reached over to set the program, which made the pedals harder to turn.
“There, I Set the resistance at 5, Just do your best to run for 20 minutes but tell me if you start to feel faint,” Champ stepped back.
“Twen…ty…min…utes?” Gentle Heart was already breathing heavily.
“If you can, but stop if you feel faint, and don’t sprint just jog as best you can,” Champ repeated.
“I’ll…do…it!” Gentle Heart turned to face the control panel screen and pushed onwards.
Gentle Heart had never sweated this much in her life! Not only that but after five minutes her weak constitution meant she was already panting. Champ gave her a concerned look, “You don’t have to go the full twenty minutes if you can’t handle it.”
“No!” Gentle Heart panted, “I…will!”
Champ was taken aback by the fierceness that Gentle Heart managed as she pushed doggedly onwards. Champ was impressed that she held out the entire time and as the timer on the elliptical hit 19 minutes he spoke up, “Alright just slow down now for the last minute, you don’t want to stop suddenly.” Gentle Heart and slowed down until the finally stopped, slumping forwards once she stopped.
“Very good, let’s get you down,” Champ helped Gentle Heart off the machine then began cleaning it with a spray bottle and towel nearby, “How do you feel? Tired? Energized? Is your heart pounding?”
Gentle Heart nodded, still breathing hard.
“Good, as long as you don’t hear your heart in your ear you should be fine.” He helped her walk over to the weight machines, “You should start with cardio every day to get your blood flowing and loosen you up. You can turn up the resistance in a couple weeks but stick to what we did before. Now for the weights.” He stopped Gentle Heart in front of the bench press machine, “this is a classic, just lie down and grab these bars.” He tapped the weight bars which Gentle Heart grabbed. “Scoot back a bit, there you go. Now I just need to set the weight.
Gentle Heart didn’t look at what Champ was doing but held still until he set the weight. “Alright, try that, just push up on the bars, not too fast though.” Gentle Heart pushed, but found the bars unmoving no matter how hard she strained.
“Oops, too much, my bad,” Champ moved the weight pin to a much lower weight, “try that.”
Again, Gentle Heart pushed and this time she found the bar was able to move with some effort. “Ok, just push up until your arms are almost fully extended, stop there!” Gentle Heart froze, her arms quivering, “now lower down slowly, don’t just drop them or you’ll hurt yourself.” Gentle Heart let the arms drop slowly until she felt the weights clack together.
“How…was…that?” Gentle Heart almost let her arms hang down until Champ held them back up.
“Good, but you have to do that ten times in a row.” Champ said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here so you don’t get hurt. Count to two on the way up then count to four as you drop them, let’s go.”
Gentle Heart was still determined to see it through and pushed up again as Champ counted, “two, two. Two, two, three, four. Three, two. Three, two, three, four…”
It seemed like ages before Champ said, “ten, two, three, four! And stop.” Gentle Heart let her arms drop down, breathing heavily. “Am…I…done?”
“Not yet, you should try to do two of those sets at least and increasing more as you go on, but take a minute’s rest in between each set.” Champ said, “You’ll have to increase the weight in a couple weeks. Now are you sure you want to keep going?”
“Yes!” the response came fast as Gentle Heart put her hands back on the bars, “One, two. One, two, three, four…”
Over an hour, four more workout routines and a stretching session later, Gentle Heart wobbled and stumbled towards the change room to shower off all the sweat stuck to her fur. She was exhausted, sore, her arms and leg felt like jelly and she stank worse than she ever had in her life, but by the time she had scrubbed herself clean in the shower she felt exhilarated!
“So how do you feel?” Champ asked as he met Gentle Heart after cleaning himself off.
“Tired, but good and not tired?” she sounded confused.
Champ smirked and clapped her gently on the back, “That’s the adrenaline, you’ll be fine to get home but you’ll crash in about an hour. Try to eat some protein as soon as you get home, baked beans are a good choice especially if you’re not going to eat meat.”
“Oh well…I tried some breakfast sausage this morning. It wasn’t bad,” Gentle admitted.
“Just follow the nutrition guide Take Care gave you. Also don’t come back tomorrow, give your body a day off after each workout to heal itself or you won’t get any stronger,” Champ said, “I’ll meet you back here the day after tomorrow morning.”
“Ok, thank you.” Gentle Heart gave Champ a loose hug before they split up and she headed home.
Champ was right: after she got home and ate lunch (baked beans like Champ suggested) Gentle Heart felt exhaustion overwhelm her and she slumped on the couch, just in time for Bright Heart to bring Eager Heart in for his own meal.
Gentle Heart smiled as she held on to him so he could nurse but could barely do that as Bright Heart sat beside them. “How do you feel?”
“Exhausted, but good,” Gentle Heart managed a weak smile, “How did you hold up?”
“We did just fine, right buddy?” He stroked his son’s cheek while Gentle Heart shifted him to continue nursing. “I changed his diaper and kept him company until you got home to feed him.”
Gentle Heart smiled and gave Bright Heart a kiss, “You did just fine, Bright.”
OoOoO
Normally Gentle Heart and Bright Heart ate all their meals at the Hall of Hearts, it was just simpler for them and gave Bright Heart time to work on his latest projects instead of spending time to prepare meals. With Gentle Heart’s new diet, and her looking after Eager Heart, Bright Heart had decided to cook their suppers. Bright Heart wasn’t a bad cook but a very methodical one. He always measured ingredients exactly and cooked for the exact right time, treating it like any other project where he followed the recipes like instruction manuals.
Gentle Heart didn’t mind, and by the time supper was ready she managed to put Eager Heart down for a nap. Bright Heart had made lasagna and a large loaf of garlic bread. Gentle Heart could smell the ground beef and gulped as she looked at the much larger square on her plate.
“Sorry, I just picked the first thing I saw. I should have made something else,” Bright Heart had a smaller portion in front of him but he was staring at Gentle Heart.
“It’s fine, just the smell.” Gentle Heart took a deep breath then took a bite out of the garlic bread, almost gagging at the strong taste. Bright Heart had definitely followed the ‘don’t spare the garlic’ part of her meal instructions but she chewed and swallowed nonetheless. “I can do this. I will do this!” She cut the first bite out the square and ate it. It took almost a full minute of chewing and suppressing her gag reflex to swallow the first bite but she did it. It only took half as long to eat the second.
Bright Heart watched her eat then turned to his own plate. He was perfectly fine with eating meat, neither of them debated about the other’s eating habits, but watching her struggle was hard to do. He had to sit for almost ten minutes before she finished her serving and sat back, eating the rest of her garlic bread.
“Are you alright, full yet?” Bright Heart asked.
Gentle Heart swallowed her bread, “Not quite, not sure I want to eat another serving that big.”
Bright Heart looked at the dish still more than half full, “We can always have leftovers, then you don’t have to think about supper tomorrow.”
Gentle Heart smiled and got her feet to clear the table. The exhaustion from her first session at the gym having finally gone away. “Thanks for helping me with this, Bright.”
“Anything for you, Gentle,” Bright Heart gave her a kiss on the cheek, but Gentle Heart turned and gave him a kiss on the mouth. It didn’t last long, the heavy garlic scent on both their breaths compelling them to step away and do the dishes first.
OoOoO
Gentle Heart held to her word and schedule. Every other day she went to the gym, followed Champ’s personal training instructions, showered then went home to eat some protein, alternating between getting used to and getting sick of baked beans. After the second week Champ brought some workout drinks for her to use, sports drinks for use during the workout, pre-workout drinks to give her the energy she needed and post workout to speed up the process of building muscle, with guidance and check-ups from Take Care of course.
After a month, Champ had to stop as he couldn’t leave his pregnant again wife home alone with their twin children anymore, but Gentle Heart soldiered on. Once she had gotten used to going she realized she didn’t need someone to show her what to do, she even figured out when to increase the weight on her machines, though she wasn’t sure if the numbers on the weights were pounds or kilograms she knew when she had doubled the weight total. Eventually she began to look forwards to her workouts as her energy went up, but she never neglected her son. Nursing, burping, changing diapers and watching him play with the toys in his playpen and crib.
After one session, almost four months to the day after she had started, Gentle Heart was running on the gym’s treadmill, having switched over after getting some advice from Confidence Heart (Champ and Cheer were busy with their newborn). Gentle Heart was just going through her regular warmup when she checked the machine’s timer and realized she had been jogging for over and hour and didn’t feel tired.
Curious, she slowed to a stop and went to look at herself in one of the mirrors in front of the stretching and yoga area. She looked herself up and down, then raised an arm. She had muscles! She looked herself over. Her previous waif-like body having gained tone and definition. She giggled slightly as she flexed her arms. She felt good, really good! Better than she had in years if ever!
For a test she went to each of her weight machines and turned the weight down to where Champ had started her and at each lift the weight felt as light as a feather. She remembered how much she had strained to do just one set and now she was lifting them like they weighed nothing! She decided she didn’t need to push today, she didn’t want to be exhausted and one day without pushing herself wouldn’t reverse what she’d worked for. She practically skipped to the showers and gave herself a good hard scrub until her skin under her fur tingled. She wanted to be completely clean tonight as she packed up her gym clothes and towel.
Bright Heart wasn’t expecting Gentle home so soon, he was watching Eager Heart toddle around his playpen (at four months he was about the age of a two-year-old human), just grateful that even with her new gym hobby Gentle Heart hadn’t missed his first steps or words a couple weeks ago.
The door all but burst open as Gentle Heart entered the room. “I’m hooome!” she sang as she dropped her gym bag by the door and went straight to Bright Heart.
“Welcome home Gentle,” Bright Heart caught her in a big hug and kiss, “you’re home early. Are you feeling alright?”
“Never better!” Gentle Heart giggled and stepped back, “Feel this,” She flexed her left arm, showing off the new definition,
Bright Heart couldn’t help but squeeze her bicep, “Whoa, that’s solid.” He just stared at his wife, looking her up and down, seeing her new athletic body and how happy she looked.
“And I haven’t felt sick or weak at all in a month,” she pulled Bright Heart into another hug and kiss.
Bright Heart hugged her back, then started as she reached under his legs and actually lifted him off the ground, holding him in a bridal carry position.
“Wow!” Bright Heart hugged her around her neck.
“I feel fantastic!” Gentle Heart set him down.
“Mama, stron!” the babble came from Eager Heart, who was holding the edges of his playpen and looked up at Gentle Heart.
She cooed and reached down to lift Eager up, he felt as light as a plush toy, “Yes, mama’s strong now. I promise I’m going to stay strong for you and everyone else.” She kissed her son’s wooly head, noting the two tiny stubs of ram horns that were starting to grown in (not a big surprise, Brave Heart had a mane even as a cub). “Want to come see aunty Take Care with me?” she asked.
“Ye!” Eager Heart said.
A few minutes later, Gentle Heart was pushing Eager Heart in a stroller through the Forest of Feelings with Bright Heart at her side until she arrived at the hospital. Take Care was only too willing to see her.
Once she had given Gentle Heart the once over, Take Care delivered her diagnosis, “I gotta say, I’m impressed. You’re healthier than I’ve ever seen you Gentle Heart.”
“I know!” Gentle Heart was still smiling, “Now you won’t have to check up on me when something starts going around.”
Take Care smiled and shook her head, “I probably still will, I still worry. But I’ll just call instead ok?”
“That’s fine,” Gentle Heart got off the table and gave Take Care a big hug, lifting her feet off the ground for an instant which took Take Care by surprise. “I’m gonna keep doing this, I don’t want to lose this.”
“That’s a good idea, just don’t overdo it. We already have a whole collection of hyper-fit care bears,” Take Care rolled her eyes, “And I’m married to one.”
Gentle Heart giggled, “I know. See you later.” She turned and left the clinic.
That night Gentle Heart pulled Bright Heart into a tight hug in bed, almost squeezing the air out of him. It was different but they were both happy with how it had worked out.
True, but Care Bears are probably pretty light with the square-cube law and all, they'd probably weigh about one-quarter as much as humans. plus I think it was dramatically appropriate for the situation, and she used workout supplements the entire time and probably went more dedicated than most people I see.
But mostly I want the ending to be kind of cute so there you go. See it wasn't that ominous this was it?
True, but Care Bears are probably pretty light with the square-cube law and all, they'd probably wei
not much just her taking care of the dozen or so babies that are there. Singing, playing, reading to them, changing diapers.. feeding them from bottles and her I cup breasts, snuggling with them..
and coming back from having her current litter (octuplets) a few days later then originally expected but having a belly that's actually slightly larger cause yay magic preg simulation.
not much just her taking care of the dozen or so babies that are there. Singing, playing, reading to
