Title: Going to the Chapel
Author: virkatjol
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Vala goes into labor, but Daniel seems to have forgotten something important. Written for fandomaid for needtakehave.
Disclaimer: Not mine, except Vala. Wait… she's not mine either. But I'd like to keep her.
The foot connecting with his knee shook him out of sleep. His automated response was to reach for the source of the sharp, throbbing pain. Unfortunately, that brought his nose into contact with a very pointy elbow that was on it's way upwards.
"Holy, damn it, my nose!" Daniel shouted in pain and his hands detoured from going to hold his knee to cup around his nose.
"What…" Her voice was full of sleep still but the loud shouting by her ear was enough to pull her from her dreams.
"Yow hif meh on ta nose." Daniel's voice was muffled by his hands and the swelling that was starting to show up around his face.
Vala struggled to sit up and tugged the dangling string on the lamp by the bed so she could see what damage she'd done. Her round belly made everything as if she was in slow motion.
For a few minutes she tried to angle herself across the bed but nothing was working so she got up and walked around to sit on the edge by his side. She turned on his lamp and reached for his hands to pull them out of her way. He held fast to his protective block.
"Come on, Daniel, let me look." He shook his head.
"Youf done enough damagth."
"I didn't do it on purpose. Now let me look." He sighed and lowered his hands, relinquishing his injured nose to his attacker.
He watched her face as she gently probed around the most tender parts of his cheeks. She was frowning and her brow was wrinkled with concentration. She was still beautiful, despite her rumpled appearance and mussed hair. She was pink with the healthy glow of pregnancy and sleepiness.
"What time is it?" He sounded more normal now that his hands had been removed. His voice still sounded off to his ears though.
"Mmm, about three am." Vala leaned over and gently kissed the tip of his nose. "I don't think it's broken, love, but you might want to go see doctor Lam in the morning. Well… at a decent time in the morning since it is morning right now…"
"I think I'll just take some Advil." He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, letting his hands caress her belly. The sleep shirt she had on had slipped up over the giant baby bump and his hands touched her smooth, warm skin. The kick made him smile as their child protested being disturbed from it's peaceful night.
"She needs her beauty sleep."
"He wants his mom to quit beating up dad at night." His nose was already feeling less painful as he let his head rest on her shoulder, looking down as his palms explored her taut skin.
"You should stop moving in the way of my appendages then." She tipped her head toward his and kissed his temple. He smelled good. Vala inhaled, deeply and rubbed her nose along his hairline. "It's hard to get comfortable for long. She's taking up so much room now and everything aches…"
"I know, It's not your fault." He brought one hand up and cupped her cheek, angling his head towards her. Their lips met in a sweet kiss. Slow, gentle, and soft pressure meeting in a perfect embrace of their mouths. Vala moaned against him and opened her lips, sucking in his bottom one. The angle wasn't assisting her ability to deepen the kiss but she did what she could.
The pain was unexpected and it made her jump back.
"Oh." The cramping in her abdomen made her bend over, as much as she could, and clutch at her belly. "That's new."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure… I don't think anything is wrong." The sharp pain hit again, her breath stopped with the cramp. "Maybe a little bit not right though…" It was then that she felt the warm liquid between her thighs.
"Your water broke… You aren't due for…" He looked over at the calendar and saw the big red circle there. "A day. Dammit, Vala, why didn't you remind me?"
"Why should I have to remind you when our child is due?"
"You know I'm busy-"
Her nails dug into his thigh as her stomach cramped up again. It felt like things were twisting and turning inside of her and she really didn't care for the feeling. She preferred her insides the way they were originally settled, they were that way for a reason.
"Too busy to remember the date our baby is due? Daniel!" She yelled his name with the next twisting of her belly muscles. Her back was tight and she was pretty sure that she needed to get to the medical bay as soon as possible. "It seems to be going so fast… Why is everything hurting now?"
"I-"
Daniel didn't have a chance to respond as her wail cut through the air. Her grip on him made him want to scream as well but he knew he'd never hear the end of that. He bit his cheek to stifle the sound and rubbed her belly to try to calm the cramping.
"Is it supposed to be like this, Daniel? I'm scared."
In reality, he was frightened as well. He'd never seen her show such a reaction to pain and he knew he'd seen her in some tight spots. He just kept massaging her stomach.
"Just breath, Vala, the special kind… Lamaze, yeah, that kind. We did the classes."
"You mean the one that you did once?"
He was hoping she'd let that go. Sam had accompanied her for most of the sessions with Dr. Lam.
"Let me call the infirmary and Sam."
He extracted himself from behind her and reached for the phone, dialing the medical bay first.
"Brilliant, yes do that." She grumped and tried to soothe her muscles as she watched him wait for an answer. Carolyn's voice could be heard on the other end telling Daniel that he'd reached the infirmary. That's the last thing she heard before another gut wrenching cramp ripped through her body.
"YES SHE SEEMS TO BE IN LABOR." Daniel's voice tried to carry over the cacophony of Vala's cussing. "THANKS DOCTOR LAM." She was sending a team with a gurney.
"Damn you Daniel, this is all your fault!" She was desperately trying to remember the breathing exercises but her brain was a fog as the pain burned through her.
"Yeah, I think it takes two-"
"ALL. YOUR. FAULT!" Her body fell back on the bed as the cramp eased a bit. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she let go of the wad of comforter, that she hadn't even known she was clutching, to wipe away the wetness.
As Daniel got up to sit by her again the door flew open and the EMT's burst through with the bed. He helped them pull her to her feet and transfer her onto the gurney. She was breathing heavily and he could feel her pulse racing under the pale skin of her wrist.
"I'm going to go get Sam and meet you in the infirmary." She nodded and teared up again. She didn't want him to leave her with the men that she barely knew. She wasn't being rational and even though she understood it, that didn't stop her from being upset.
"Daniel?"
"Yeah?"
"Hurry…" He beamed a happy, goofy smile at her and nodded before dashing from the room to collect her best friend.
The lead member of the medical team asked her if she was ready and she just mumbled yes before another spasm wracked her body. She clamped down on the metal side of the bed they'd placed her on and screamed her displeasure at her bodies insistence at pushing this child free of her. She'd just started to get used to the giant lump and now it wanted out.
One of the men's lips were by her ear trying to help her find a rhythm to her breathing. She concentrated on the sound and matched it.
"Thanks." She hissed out between breaths.
"No need to thank me, ma'am, just think about the breathing." She tried to grin but it turned into more of a grimace and she did as he asked.
Vala ignore the stiff shouts being yelled back and forth above her as they wheeled her quickly down the hallways. She tried to math her breaths to the passing of the beams cross the ceiling and the cramping eased again. Her grip on the metal bar loosened and she let her arm flop down beside her. Everything hurt. The swooshing of the doors startled her and she was face to face with a smiling Carolyn Lam.
"Get this thing out of me!"
"I'll help you, but you're going to have to do the hard part." She gave her a sympathetic smile. The airmen helped her transfer Vala into a stable bed in a private room then she thanked the EMT's and waved them away before helping Vala change into the maternity gown.
As the material was just settling into place Daniel and Sam burgh through the doors to her room.
"Samantha!" She was happy to see her friend and shot Daniel a glare which made him take a step back. "I see why you've never done this. It's been awful."
"I'm sure that you'll get through it." She rested her hip on the side of the bed and took her hand. "Have you been doing your breathing?"
"It's been hard."
"Daniel and I will help you." Sam waved for Daniel to take her other hand. He cautiously approached the bed watching for any signs of aggression from the dangerous space pirate.
"Yeah, I'm here, Vala." He picked up her hand and the next wave of contractions overtook her. The vice grip made him squeak in surprise which got him a fast look of anger in between her rhythmic breathing with Sam.
"Here?" She choked on the word. The word that should have made everything okay. But something was missing. She found her answer between the rhythmic movement of muscles that squeezed her belly. "You. Haven't. Even. Married. Me." Each syllable was pronounced through her haze of pain. Forced though gritted teeth.
"I didn't know that you wanted to get married… I never thought that was something that you needed, or even wanted, from me."
He saw her face slacken as the contraction passed and her brow was at ease for a millisecond before he saw the sadness take over. Sam gave him a look of sympathy before petting Vala's hair, telling her she'd be back soon and then slipping out of the room to give them some privacy.
"Why wouldn't I want to get married?"
"I don't know, Vala! I gave up trying to decipher all of your quirky beliefs."
"You gave up?" The emotional hurt on her face was so great she wasn't able to attempt to hide it, she was too tired, exhausted already with the promise of hours still to go.
"No, I said it wrong. I'm not-"
"I know."
"Let me say it. I'm not good with words. I'm good with translation and I'm good with reading, but you baffle me. You've always confused me and made me wonder what direction is up. But I haven't stopped trying to figure you out, not really. I've stopped caring if I do. I love you. I just meant that it doesn't matter if I get you as long as you're mine."
Daniel chanced a look at her face and saw that she was crying. He immediately worried that he'd said the wrong thing. He was always screwing up when it came to telling her how he felt. When he went to try again she just held up her hand and shook her head.
"That was perfect."
The pain of another contraction interrupted their moment all too soon. The beautiful miracle that would bring their child into the world. Sam came back in and was next to her and helped her with her lamaze. Daniel just let her grip his hand as firmly as she needed to. When the muscles let her rest again he brought her hand to his lips and brushed each knuckle with a tender kiss. Then he lowered his lips to her forehead and let their cooler temperature help ease the heat. She was warm from exertion already.
"Marry me?"
"Kinda inconvenient timing to do it right now. Maybe later." They both smiled. The next bought of contractions came more quickly startling them both. "I need to get this thing out. RIGHT NOW!"
"CAROLYN!" Daniel's voice was full of distress brought on by his fiancée's. She came into the room shaking her head at him.
"I'm right out there, the monitors let me know if I'm needed. I was on my way in." She had Vala let her examine her and nodded to herself. "It's time. Next time push."
It felt like it was taking hours. Daniel didn't know how long he'd be able to take it. Sam seemed unaffected by the screaming and the constant pain that Vala seemed to be experiencing. He tried to use his strength and helped her sit up to bear down as each contraction hit quickly and without mercy. There was sweat and blood and his hand was numb from her grip.
Carolyn just kept yelling encouragement as Vala used all her strength to bring their baby into the world. She'd remained calm through the whole process never even letting a flash of worry cross her face. It kept Daniel from crumbling. Right then he forgave her for anything that she had ever done to annoy him.
The unfamiliar wail cut through the air as Vala flopped backwards against his arm. Her weakness just reflected how strong she was. Her body was trembling against him from the effort of giving him a child.
"I did it." Her voice was shaky and weak. The pride in herself could be heard in her words however.
"You did." Daniel peaked over her raised knee and tried to catch a glimpse of the crying mass of human in Doctor Lam's arms. "We've got a little girl."
"Told you." She leaned heavily into him while they waited for the baby to be prepared for them to coddle and cuddle. She felt him kissing the top of her head and she smiled in contentment.
Sam leaned over and hugged her, whispered something in her ear that made her smile and then left the two of them alone with their new daughter.
"Mmhmm." He just murmured agreement against her hair. He could feel her finally gaining control of her breath and her body was cooling as her muscles we allowed to rest. "What are we going to name her?"
"I've always been fond of the name Vala." Daniel choked as she suggested it.
"You want to name her after you?" He tried to treed carefully not wanting to insult her. Then he felt her giggling and heard the tiny peeps of laughter that escaped her mouth. "You're just messing with me, aren't you?"
"What about Allison?"
They were interrupted as doctor Lam brought the tiny bundle of new pink baby over to meet her parents.
"Eight pounds, three ounces, twenty inches long. Healthy as a horse and ready to get some breakfast." She placed the child into Vala's arms and watched the smile spread quickly across her face. She lit up with the slight weight in the crook of her elbow.
"Hey, Alli, nice to meet you." Daniel's finger traced the swell of her red cheek. Her mouth was like a fish out of water rooting around trying to find something to latch on to.
"You know what to do?" Carolyn spoke to Vala. At the woman's nod she left the room.
She glanced back before closing the door behind her and smiled at the sight of the two very different people melded together perfectly in one little life. Carolyn knew that Daniel would have his hands full when she started talking.
With Vala as her mother there wasn't any way that that baby would be anything but a wonderful ball of mischievous, lovable, trouble. Really, she couldn't wait to see how he handled it all.
The End