Lynn and Cruella got settled in the back of the Rolls before any conversation took place. Lynn slumped back and placed a hand on her swollen belly, rubbing circles in hopes of calming her child. She hadn't been able to get comfortable all day, as her lower back had been killing her. She was way past her due date, and was almost to the point of inducing labor, the only reason she hadn't being Cruella's insistence to go completely natural. She felt off, more so than usual, and had the feeling deep down that they wouldn't have to wait much longer to meet the little bundle of joy.

"Are you all right, darling?"

She turned her head to face Cruella before smiling and answering. "Fine, my back just hurts."

"Turn around."

Lynn had learned not to question the older woman and thus did as she was told, knowing whatever was going to happen was supposed to help her. She found herself pulled back with the older woman's legs on either side of her body. Cruella began to massage her lower back, and she barely held in a groan at how good it felt. They continued on for a bit, and Lynn was almost asleep when she felt the car roll to a stop.

"Alonzo!" Cruella snapped, "Why have we stopped?!"

"T-traffic jam, M-madam."

"Well, do something about it! I don't want to sit here all day!"

"B-but Madam, I h-have no c-control o-over the t-traffic."

Swearing under her breath, the older woman settled back against the seat and resumed rubbing her friend's back. They seemed to inch forward every few minutes, and the longer they idled the more pain the expectant mother was in. Cruella's massage had long since stopped helping, and the pain was beginning to escalate and wrap around her belly. Suddenly, Lynn felt what she thought was a contraction. She brushed it off because she had been having braxton hicks contractions since before her due date, and had already been to the hospital twice.

She didn't want to alarm her friend and tried to keep calm by breathing slowly. She felt another contraction. This one was stronger, and it was all she could do not to whimper. Her muscles tensed, and she exhaled slowly after it passed. Luckily, Cruella was still so upset about being stuck in traffic that she didn't question it.

As time passed, the contractions became more frequent and the pain increased. They hadn't gone very far, about a kilometer, and they had been there an hour. Lynn was concentrating on not screaming and was rubbing her belly when she felt pressure down there. At first, she thought she had to go to the bathroom. That was why she lurched forward when she felt fluid gushing down her legs.

She reached down shakily, and her fingers met with a damp seat.

"Please be urine, please be urine," she muttered as she tentatively sniffed her fingertips. Her eyes grew wide. "Shit! That's not pee!"

"Lynn, what's the matter?"

She was about to answer, but screamed instead as another contraction nearly ripped her in half. Her fingers gripped the edge of the seat as she screamed. Cruella suspected what was happening, but had to ask anyway because she fervently hoped otherwise.

"Please darling, please tell me you're not in labor." Lynn didn't answer, so she ventured to ask again. "Are you in labor?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm in labor! What do you think?!" Lynn ground out through clenched teeth.

"Well you don't have to be so snippy!"

"Cruella, I'm in excruciating pain carrying my child and your heir. I think I've been having contractions for the past hour, and it feels like she's trying to claw her way out. I can't help but be a little snippy."

The older woman instantly apologized and began fawning over the young woman. She helped her turn and lie on the seat before helping her out of her leggings. Her dress was long enough, and Lynn wanted to be sure she could push if the time came.

"Alonzo!" the woman screeched. "Get us to the hospital now! The baby is coming!"

"I c-can't move, M-madam!"

He was every bit as frightened as she was, and it showed in the way his hands trembled on the wheel. With a growl, Cruella whipped out her cell and dialed 9-1-1.

"Yes? This is Cruella De Vil, and my Lynn darling is having a baby. How far along is she? It doesn't bloody matter! Her water has broken and we're stuck in traffic!

"Send a bloody ambulance!" She winced as Lynn screamed. "Do you hear that? That's her. Either get an ambulance here or you're going to need one yourself!"

She stabbed at the phone, cracking the screen with her clawed glove. It sparked, then died. Lynn couldn't help but smile. Leave it Cruella to break a cell phone when they needed it most.

"Imbeciles!" the older woman spat in disgust. "They said they couldn't send an ambulance unless you were dilated past three centimeters."

"So there won't be an ambulance?"

"Oh no, there will be. Your screams convinced them."

It was another forty-five minutes before the ambulance arrived. Lynn's contractions continued, growing closer together and more painful the longer they waited. Just before the ambulance workers reached them, the young woman felt the baby shift. She had just begun to truly panic when a young woman opened the door and poked her head in.

"Hello, hello. How are we doing?"

"How do you think I'm fucking doing?!" Lynn spat as a contraction ripped through her body, so strong that her stomach rippled.

"Well, let's get you onto the gurney and we'll be on our way."

With the help of three other EMTs, Lynn was strapped onto the gurney and rolled to the ambulance, Cruella following suit. When she tried to climb in behind the gurney, a man blocked her way.

"Sorry lady, you can't ride with 'er."

"Out of my way, you oaf!"

"I said you can't go in there!"

"Stop!" Lynn shouted, and everyone became still. "She either comes with me or I have the baby right here on the side of the highway."

The workers looked at each other and the man blocking Cruella's path stepped out of the way. With a glare, she climbed into the back with the young soon-to-be mother. The female attendant immediately checked her vitals and the baby's vitals. They were both coming along nicely, and they sped off to the hospital. Once there, the two women were immediately ushered into a private birthing suite and Lynn's gynecologist checked her over.

"You're doing great, Miss Smith. You're already at six centimeters. It won't be long now."

The young woman lay, writhing in pain, on the bed. She was gripping the bed rails desperately as contraction after contraction ran through her body.

"Drugs! Drugs! I want drugs! Give me the damn epidural!"

"Well," Cruella snarled when the woman didn't move, "what are you waiting for? Give her the epidural!"

The poor doctor, who had only met Cruella a handful of times, almost dropped her clipboard in her haste to examine Lynn for the epidural.

"I'm sorry, but you're too far along for the procedure. If we were to do it now it could harm both you and your child."

"So, you mean...oh God!" She looked at Cruella desperately. "Cruella, I can't do this without those pain killers."

The older woman bit her lip, an unusual action for her, before turning back to the doctor.

"Is there anything you can give her?"

"Sorry Ms. De Vil, she's too far into the process."

The older woman sighed before nodding her head. "Very well, thank you."

Not waiting to find out how the expectant mother was going to react, she dashed as quickly out of the room as decorum would allow. Pulling a hideous plastic chair to the side of the bed, Cruella curled her legs underneath her and settled in for the duration of her friend's labor. She reached out to take Lynn's hand, but the young woman pulled it away.

"Don't," she managed to say through a contraction. "I'm afraid I'll break your hand."

"Well, we are in a hospital, darling."

Lynn smiled at her and laid back against her pillows, exhausted already. Throughout the next few hours, it was all she could do to remain sane. The pain had long since passed the point where she could tolerate it, and yet continued to grow worse. Cruella was almost asleep, worry and the day in general taking its toll on her. During a break between contractions, which were becoming shorter and more infrequent, Lynn felt the baby shift and drop downward.

She sucked in a breath, fear consuming her as she realized what was about to happen. The last time the doctor had been in she had said she was fully dilated, and that all they had to do was wait for the baby to drop into the birth canal. The next contraction was the worst, and it took her breath away so that she couldn't even scream.

"Cruella," she gasped after it had passed, "buzz for the doctor. It's time."

Her last syllable turned into a scream as another contraction ripped through her. The doctor came in looking flustered, and Lynn realized Cruella hadn't stopped pressing the button that summoned her. The older woman's eyes were wide with fear, and Lynn came to understand something. One person in Cruella's life had been a miracle. Two was just plain impossible. The fact that one of those people was a tiny infant wasn't helping.

She was brought back to herself with the next contraction and the doctor's words.

"All right Miss Smith, you're ready to go. Let me get into some scrubs and we'll have a baby."

Cruella looked shell-shocked for a split second before taking Lynn's hand. In what seemed like seconds, the hospital room was full of people. Cruella released her friend's hand and took what was normally the father's position on Lynn's right side. She reached out her hand, and through her haze of pain, Lynn registered that it was trembling ever so slightly. She reached over and took it, giving the older woman a reassuring smile.

"Okay Lynn, on the next contraction I need you to push."

She released her friend's hand in favor of the bed rails. Taking a deep breath as the next wave of pain began, she gripped the rails fiercely and screamed. After the usual count of ten, she collapsed, gasping, onto the pillows.

"Cruella, I don't think I can do this," she panted. "What if I'm not a good mother?"

"Shhh, shhh, darling." She smoothed a hand over Lynn's face and cupped her cheek. "You wanted this baby, and you tried so hard to get her. Well, now you've got her," she smiled and put her hand on her stomach, "don't give up just yet."

Lynn looked at her with wonder and love, and something else she couldn't quite place.

"Thank you," she whispered, never breaking eye contact. "Do you remember those movies we watched on Hallmark a few weeks ago? Where the husband held the woman from behind while she was in labor?"

She watched as realization dawned on the older woman's face. Carefully, she sat forward so she could fit behind her. In seconds, one of Cruella's legs was on either side of her hips and she found her back resting against her front. Pale hands, minus gloves, appeared in her peripheral vision. She took them, and feeling the next contraction coming, squeezed hard.

It was all the hospital staff could do not to "aww" at the moving speech and scene before them. It seemed to have given the young mother confidence, and having the older woman behind her seemed to ease her pain, if only a fraction. On the next contraction she pushed with renewed strength.

"All right Lynn, you're doing wonderfully." The doctor pressed on her stomach, and seemed to come to decision. "Just breathe through this one. I'll tell you when to push again."

"Cruella," Lynn panted as her head fell back to rest on a couture clad shoulder. Instantly she felt cool fingers on her sweaty forehead. "Thank you," she sighed in relief as she closed her eyes for the minute or so before the next contraction.

The older woman smiled but inside she was panicking. She had no idea what she was doing. She had never been witness to a birth in her life. What if she wasn't helping? And she was scared, not that she'd admit it.

Her Lynn darling was in so much pain and there was nothing she could do to help. What if something happened to her? What if something happened to the baby? She had heard stories of hemorrhaging and stillbirths. What if that happened?

She was just beginning to panic when she felt a weak grip on her hand. She looked down into Lynn's pain-glazed eyes.

"I want you to know that I couldn't do this without you." Her forehead crinkled as she read the fear in the older woman's eyes. "Don't worry, I'm fine. We're fine."

"All right Lynn, push!"

Lifting herself off the older woman's shoulder she did just that, screaming profanities in several languages. Once finished, she once again collapsed backwards.

"My, darling, I never knew you had such an extensive vocabulary."

"Yes, well, you'd know several languages too if you dealt with pompous pricks from around the world on a daily basis." Her eyes darted to her doctor as she felt the next contraction coming on. "Get this thing out of me!"

As the labor progressed, the more the air thickened with tension and excitement. Cruella, for her part, encouraged the young woman and tried to find out where that little speech had come from. She was jolted from her thoughts by the doctor's cry of "She's crowning!"

All movement seemed to cease as everyone waited with baited breath for the baby to enter the world. With a final push and a scream, Lynn collapsed backwards. Cruella leaned around her as the doctor stood and handed off a squirming bundle. The nurses busied themselves with it, and just as both women were beginning to worry, a small mewling sound was heard. The two women looked at each other, and the world around them faded.

The sound escalated into a full-blown cry, and they found themselves with tears beginning to form.

"Ms. De Vil, would you like to cut the cord?"

She glanced at the new mother nervously, and when she gave a weak nod, she eased out from behind her and went over to the baby and the nurses. A young blonde handed her a pair of surgical scissors, while the other held the baby in place. Slowly and carefully, she cut through the umbilical cord. Once her job was complete, she was ushered away as the baby was checked over. In minutes, the baby was swaddled and handed over to a very nervous Cruella.

"Congratulations," the doctor said to the pair. "You have a beautiful, healthy little girl."

"L-Lynn darling, am I doing it right?"

She had never held a baby in her life, and it showed in her rigid posture. The exhausted woman glanced over as she pushed to get the afterbirth out.

"Just relax and support her head."

As soon as possible, Cruella handed the little girl off to her mother. Lynn was exhausted from her day of labor. But her daughter was beautiful. When Cruella laid her in her arms and she opened her eyes, she was lost. There was no one else on the planet that she loved as much as her baby.

She had bright blue eyes like all newborns, but there was a certain spark there that could have only been obtained by listening to Cruella for nine months. She had soft downy hair, red, just as Lynn had hoped it would be. Her skin was like porcelain, perfect with no freckles, and dimples when she smiled, which she was currently doing. She held out her finger, and her daughter latched on with an impressive grip.

"Hey, sweetheart. I'm your mommy. And this," she readjusted so that her daughter could see her friend, "is your Aunt Cruella. She's a bit crazy, but I love her anyway."

Mesmerized by the tiny new life, the older woman didn't have it in her to respond. She sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arm around the new mother. They sat in silence for a few moments, just staring down at the little miracle. They both jumped when she began to cry, and then Lynn just laughed and pulled down the top of her gown. She latched on and began to nurse.

"What are we going to call her?" Cruella asked.

"She's not a puppy, darling," Lynn responded with a chuckle. "But I was thinking Angelica Loretta De Vil."

"Angelica Loretta...It's perfect."

AN: So, I tweaked this chapter because I wasn't completely satisfied with it. but now it's fixed so enjoy, and don't forget to review!