My second Summer Santa, sequel to Pink and companion to Blue/Yellow/Red. Enjoy!
Jeremy paced the grey linoleum floors stiffly, arms tucked behind his back.
"You're going to wear yourself out like that," Ulrich said from where he was watching the boy pace. "Why don't you take a seat for a bit?"
"Is is supposed to be taking this long?" Jeremy asked in response. "I mean, it just feels like it's taking a long time, doesn't it?"
"Jeremy, this kind of thing does take a long time," Ulrich explained patiently, his head tilted back over the backrest on his chair as he examined the swirls in the ceiling.
"I don't know," Jeremy said slowly, uncertainty echoed in every worried crease of his brow.
Sighing, Ulrich reached out and grabbed the back of his friend's sweater, pulling him neatly down into a chair.
"Calm down, Einstein," Ulrich said. "You used to be able to handle world dooming evil virus attacks, remember? You've saved the world how many times now, and you never freaked out like this. And you were just a kid!"
"This is different," Jeremy snapped, trying to jump back to his feet. Ulrich's hand on his arm kept him seated. "Ulrich," he whined.
"Take a deep breath," Ulrich told him. Jeremy struggled to comply, the attempt looking more like he was being strangled. However he was eventually forced to relax somewhat, slumping into his chair once he'd realized Ulrich wasn't going to let him back up any time soon.
"I'm just worried about her," he admitted softly. He missed the small smile that ghosted Ulrich's lips before he responded.
"I know you are. But like I said, this is normal."
"But you remember what I told you, right?" Jeremy's expression was strained. "What the doctor said?"
"Jeremy, the doctor said the same thing about Yumi, but everything worked out."
"Not that I don't appreciate the reassurances," Jeremy said, "because I do, but I would really appreciate if it could be Yumi here telling me these things."
"I understand," Ulrich assured his friend. "I mean, she is the one with the experience. But you know she can't be here with us today."
"I know," Jeremy said, and something solemn and full of understanding flashed between the two boys. And then Jeremy sighed, using the slip in Ulrich's attention to leap back to his feet.
"Jeremy," Ulrich said, although his plea was halfhearted. He understood how the boy felt, having been in the very same place with Yumi only a few years previously.
"Are you sure it should take this long?" Jeremy asked, once again eyeing the double doors anxiously.
"Certain," Ulrich said. At Jeremy's still disbelieving look Ulrich added, "It's a routine procedure, Jer."
"That's…one way to put it, I guess," Jeremy said, and now instead of looking terrified he was rolling his eyes and Ulrich smiled, glad to see a more normal expression on his friend's tired face.
And then the hospital doors the boys had been patiently guarding opened up, revealing a doctor who motioned for Jeremy to follow him.
"Get going Einstein," Ulrich teased when Jeremy did nothing but stand there. Flashing his friend a final look, filled with all the excitement and fear and uncertainty Ulrich fully expected to see, Jeremy began moving stiffly towards the doctor.
Seemingly unfazed by Jeremy's awkward embodiment of so much emotion, the doctor turned and led them down a short hall, following the tacky pattern of grey linoleum floors all the way to a door through which a pair of giggling nurses was leaving. Jeremy frowned his confusion at the pair but the doctor, with a hand on the boy's shoulder, redirected his attention to the hospital room's door.
"You're free to go in, if you'd like," he said. "She's going to be pretty tired, but I know she wants to see you."
"Did everything go okay?" Jeremy asked softly.
"Like clockwork," the doctor assured him. The man smiled and he added, slowly opening the hospital room's door, "Congratulations, Mr. Belpois. You're the father of a healthy baby boy."
Jeremy thought his legs might just collapse out from under him at those words, but then his gaze landed on his wife, pink hair mussed and eyes heavy with exhaustion and yet also brimming with the kind of barely contained happiness that always seemed to fill her and Jeremy was suddenly at her side without ever remembering having walked there.
"Aelita," he whispered, not even a little but sure where to start. He poured everything he was feeling into that one word, and Aelita, smiling tiredly up at him, reached out with one hand to pull him close.
"Jeremy, he's beautiful."
And he was. Blue eyes opened at the sound of his mother's voice and the baby—good lord he's so small—loosed a tiny, happy sound when he spotted Jeremy.
"He already knows his daddy," Aelita whispered, smiling brightly. "He looks like you," she added. He did, with bright blue eyes gleaming from under a tiny patch of blonde hair.
"His eyes could still change color," Jeremy said softly, because he couldn't think of anything else. Aelita laughed, the sound like wind chimes, and the baby gurgled happily in response.
"You should hold him," she said.
"I would drop him," Jeremy said. Aelita laughed again, and Jeremy couldn't help but smile with her.
An hour later and Jeremy was cradling his newborn son in his arms and not, contrary to his belief, dropping him. While Aelita slept quietly Jeremy sat by her bedside, and in that moment his son was the center of his entire world.
"Hello little one," he whispered softly. The baby gurgled, trying to clutch at Jeremy's sweater with his tiny fingers. "Did your mother tell you your new name?" he asked, smiling at the little boy.
He knew it wasn't exactly a new name, per say, having been decided for the child well before he was born. But considering how he and Aelita had met the couple held a special kind if importance for the giving of names, particularly Aelita, and Jeremy felt it was important that the boy be allowed to know his new name and decide if he liked it for himself.
"Tell me what you think," Jeremy said, and he could have sworn the way the baby fell silent was full of the readiness to contemplate his new name. Doing his best to look solemn, Jeremy said, "We've picked the name Ellis for you. Ellis means 'my God is the lord.' Aelita says she feels like Xana made himself the lord of our lives when we were young, because he were always having to fight him. We wanted you to be able to choice your own lord, Ellis." His young son continued to sit silent, looking incredibly thoughtful for someone so very small. "So, what do you think?" Jeremy asked. "Do you like it?"
His son remained still for a long, thoughtful moment. And then, just as Jeremy was thinking they'd have to start the name search all over again, his son burst into a gurgling smile, tiny hands reaching for his father's face. Grinning, Jeremy took one of the so very tiny hands in his own. Little fingers curled around his one big one.
"I'll take that as a yes," he whispered. His son gurgled again, shifting to press against his father's warmth. Expression softening, Jeremy cradled him close.
"Welcome to the world," he whispered, "Ellis Franz Belpois."