Piper grinned up at her through a pained expression. “Oh, you know, just knocked up and everything.”
“This is so exciting. I never thought we'd have a baby in the house,” Gretchen gleamed overjoyed by the prospect.
“Yup, it's gonna be one full house,” Piper retorted, squeezing her hand as another contraction came on.
“Alright, alright. I need a little bit of room in here,” the doctor came back into the room with the nurse close next to him. “If you're gonna stay, get out of the way. Who's gonna be with you to help coach you?”
“I will,” Marcus nodded his head.
Gretchen glanced at me, shooting a thought my way. I nodded and got out of the way moving to the couch where the others waited.
“I helped my grandbabies be born,” she offered Piper in way of an explanation.
“Alright, great, everybody else stay out of the way, so I can check and see if we're ready to go.”
Piper seemed to hold her breath while the doctor put his hand underneath her gown once more. A few moments later, he withdrew it and looked up from between her legs. “It looks like it's time. Are you ready to start pushing?”
Piper gasped as a rush of pain took over. “Fuck, yes, get it over with. Get it out of me.”
“The things mothers say during labor,” the doctor chuckled.
“Oh, this is nothing,” Gretchen laughed, “my daughter-in-law had a mouth like a sailor on her when she was giving birth to every single one of her children.”
“That's great,” Piper grunted out, “but let's focus on me right now.”
“Alright, Piper, breathe, one, two, three, push,” the doctor instructed while Marcus and Gretchen helped her go through the movements.
Piper’s face turned red as she followed the doctor’s instructions, veins popping out from under her skin at the strain.
“Alright let's do it again.”
“Again? That wasn't it?” Piper blew out with a groan.
“No, not quite. The head's coming but we need to get the rest of them out.” The doctor muttered from between her legs.
Piper repeated the procedure with a doctor several more times and then cried out, “Just fucking stake me already. Stake me and get this fucking thing out of me.”
I chuckled, coming up next to the doctor. “She’s just kidding.”
The doctor ignored me and turned back to Piper. “Alright, here we go. One final push and then we're home free.”
Piper stared into my eyes while she took a few breaths and then pushed and pushed and then I saw something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.
It was our baby. It was perfect. It was a girl.
“Would you look at that,” Drake glanced over my shoulder at the baby girl the doctor was handing off to the nurse to clean off. “It's a little girl.”
“She's beautiful,” Allister pointed out, following me and Drake over to where they were cleaning the baby off. Once they were done, they brought the baby over to Piper and offered the baby to her.
Piper, tired and worn out from the experience, took the baby and laid her across her chest and looked down at her. “She's so tiny.”
“She looks like you,” Drake said with a grin.
“You can't tell that yet,” Piper retorted, touching the baby gently as if she would break. “What should we call her?”
The doctor continued to work on Piper quietly, not saying anything while we discussed it amongst ourselves. Of course, no one could agree.
“I don't care. I'm just happy that we have a baby,” I told them with a smile on my face. I couldn't stop smiling, it was just so great.