Gibbs had always imagined that when and if the time came that he became a father, he would be in the hospital waiting room pacing back and forth the way fathers did in movies and television shows. He saw himself nervously walk about, a box of cigars in his hand, ready to be handed out when the nurse ran out and announced that it was a…well, a whatever it was.
Yet, when Shannon had finally gone into labor, she'd grabbed his hand, her eyes pleading with him to stay with her. "I need you there," she said as she was being wheeled into her room. Her contractions were coming every five minutes and she'd cringe, emitting a grunt of pain, with each one. "I need someone to hold on to."
So Gibbs now found himself clad in a pair of green scrubs as he held the hand of his grunting, perspiring wife. Her grip on his hand had tightened with each passing moment and he was beginning to fear that he'd walk out of there with a broken bone or two. He knew, though, that whatever pain he was feeling was far worse for her at the moment.
Shannon let out a low, guttural groan as she closed her eyes and fell back against the bed. "How much longer?" she asked the doctor, panting as she did so.
"Shouldn't be much longer, Mrs. Gibbs," he assured her. "The baby is crowning, so I'll need you to give another push."
"I don't think I can."
"Yes, you can, Shannon," Gibbs whispered to her. "Just squeeze my hand and push." He held back a grunt as she did so. He'd never known any woman's grip to be quite so strong. "That's it," he told her. "You've got this, baby."
"Okay, another push!" the doctor ordered.
Once again, the grip tightened, but Gibbs kept the pain of her grip off his face. Instead, he used his free hand to wipe the sheen of sweat from her forehead. He pushed back her hair and pressed forehead against hers. "You're doing great."
"One more," the doctor called up. "We need one more push!" Shannon let out a harsh grunt and her face turned red as she pushed with all of her might. "That's it!"
The doctor stood, a tiny figure squirming around in his arms. A cord ran from the tiny body down to Shannon. "It's a girl!" the doctor announced to them both.
Gibbs smiled. A daughter. He had a daughter! He looked down at Shannon. "A girl," he repeated to her. She looked up at him and gave a weary smile. Her entire body was wet with perspiration, a few beads still running down her face. Her hair was unkempt, sticking in every direction. She hadn't had time to do much of anything before they'd come to the hospital and wore no make-up. Still, she looked absolutely beautiful to him, even as she lay there red-faced and panting. This woman – his wife – had carried around a baby girl within her body and had pushed her out before his very eyes. For this woman, he had nothing but the utmost love and respect.
"You may want to come over here, dad!" one of the nurses called to him. They'd cut the umbilical cord and the newborn girl had been cleaned and weighed. She now lay in the arms of the nurse, a pink little body that squirmed and screamed.
Gibbs gave Shannon's hand a squeeze before making his way to the nurse. "Here," the woman said as she offered the small baby to him, "you can hold her before we take her down to the nursery."
He hesitated, not really sure how to hold her. He'd never held a baby before and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. Still, he couldn't bear the thought of not holding this beautiful little girl. He gently took her, his right hand supporting her head and his left arm cradling her body against him. The moment she was in his arms, she stopped squirming and crying and her eyes opened, looking up at him. Gibbs knew that newborn babies couldn't see anything, but he felt in that moment that she saw him and that she knew instinctively that he was there to protect her and care for her.
As it had been with Shannon, this was love at first sight for Gibbs.
"She's beautiful," Shannon said as Gibbs sat beside her bed, their newborn daughter in his arms. The baby lay in his arms, head tilted back as she stared up at the man and woman looking down, cooing over her. Shannon gingerly took the girl's hand, encasing it completely within her own hand. "She definitely has your mouth."
"I'm sorry, I feel like I'm hogging her," he said. "I'm sure you want to hold her." He placed the baby in his wife's arms. She immediately cradled the baby to her chest, looking completely natural with the newborn. Gibbs smiled as he looked at his two girls laying there. "She looks so much like you," he told his wife, kissing her head softly.
The picture was like something out of a movie. Shannon sat up in her bed, looking down at her new daughter who lay resting in her arms. Gibbs rested his head against Shannon's as he looked down at their newborn daughter, one arm around his wife and the other tenderly holding the baby's hand. The portrait of a happy family.