Oneshot: The Birth of Their Second Child
From Chapter 10: 2017
A/N: I just have one thing to say in my authors note: I use italics to show what people are thinking, but I also use them for sounds. For example, I say silence pretty close to the beginning but that doesn't mean that Ricky (or anyone else for that matter) is thinking the word silence, it's just happening. Sorry if that causes any confusion. Also, I have one reference to 1x21 ["Whoomp! (There It Is)"], that is in bold italics because I use regular bold to show stress on various words. I also don't own Secret Life, I only own the characters you don't recognize (or you do recognize from The Graduation Present)
The day had been relatively normal. After making breakfast for Amy and John; asking Amy a million questions about whether she was feeling ok and reminding her to call the office if she had any problems ("Seriously, I'm always more thanhappy to talk to you"); giving a goodbye kiss to Amy; and dropping John off at school, Ricky had headed to work. He went to marketing, production, and executive meetings—he managed to zone out during all three—face-chatted with people in California, and tried to remain awake while sitting with nothing to do in his fairly large office.
"Mr. Underwood, you have a call on line three," Miss Haydn, Ricky's wonderful assistant, said with her usual, yet more than usual, cheery tone of voice.
"Thank you Kaitlyn—wait, what is on the other two lines? Is it something I should know about?" Ricky asked, slightly concerned about what kind of calls Kaitlyn was making on his (well, Mr. Boykewich's) phone line.
"Oh, no it's nothing. Just a call for Brian and then a call that Brian wanted me to make," Kaitlyn smile had seemed to grow even larger, and Ricky was still slightly concerned about what was making her so happy.
"Ok I guess—why do you look so happy? Is there something I should know?" Ricky asked.
"Well…just talk to the person on line three. Oh, and by the way, I've already called everyone so you don't have to. And I've already scheduled that you can leave right after this and then you get the rest of the week off! It must be nice to be the head of a branch of one of the biggest food producers in the country…" Kaitlyn trailed off and left his office cheerily. Well that made no sense. Why would I need to leave the office? Did something happen? I guess I better check on that call then…wait, what line was it?
"Kaitlyn, what line is my call on?"
"Line three!" A number of people responded. It must be something big if all the other assistants know about it too.
"Hello?" Ricky asked into the phone. Silence. "Hello?"
"OH! Hi Ricky," Ricky smiled almost immediately at the sound of her voice. Amy. "Sorry to bother you at work," Amy began, but was quickly cut off by Ricky.
"Ames, it's absolutely fine. I wasn't doing anything anyway. So, what's up? Are you ok? You sound a little…out of breath."
"Yea, I'm—Ow Missy, don't kick right there," Ricky's smile grew, "I'm fine, it's just that—Ow, I forgot how much this hurts—"
"What hurts?" Ricky's smile began to fade as he realized that Amy was in pain.
"It's just that—I'm at the hospital."
"Why are you at the hospital? Is everything—wait, you're at the hospital meaning you're at the hospital? Like the baby is coming?" Ricky said in a panic as he began to pack his briefcase with all the things he would need from his office for the next couple of days.
"Yea, I thought maybe you'd want to be here?" Amy said, laughing a little.
"Ames, it's not funny! What if something happens and I can't get there in time and then I will have not been there for two of our children's births and—"
"Ricky, calm down," Amy laughed again.
"What's so funny now?" Ricky asked in a semi-serious tone: he was still nervous, but her laughing calmed him down significantly.
"It's just that in a normal situation you would usually be telling me to calm down. But as I was saying before, I haven't even been fully checked in yet. Emily just brought me here a little less than ten minutes ago—she's going to pick John up from school for us and he's going to spend the night at their house—and I'm probably no more than two centimeters. You have a while. But, it would be nice for you to be here for as long as possible, so don't feel the need to stay at your office forever. Also, could you get me a burger or something? I'm super hungry and you know I hate hospital food."
"I'm already three-quarters out the door. And tell Emily thanks from me—I wouldn't think that John would want to spend all of tonight at the hospital. I'll pick some food up on my way as well. And I'll be there in about twenty minutes, by the way." Ricky then turned away from the phone for a minute, "Goodbye Kaitlyn and everyone else!"
"Bye! Congratulations! And good luck!" Everyone said in a harmonizing unison.
Once Ricky returned to listening to the phone, Amy began to talk quickly again, "Although Emily is planning on taking John, she said he may want to be there when Emily is born. She said that even though Kyle wasn't excited that Mina was being born, he still wanted to see her when she was first born. She also said that it helped their connection and Kyle seemed more willing to help out after he saw how cute she was. So I'm hoping that John will feel the same way."
"I'm sure he will Ames. I'm going to go now, but I will see you in about twenty minutes. I love you!" Ricky said absent mindedly. After taking about forty-five minutes to drive through New York traffic—I only work like twenty minutes away…I really hate New York traffic—Ricky arrived at the hospital.
As soon as Ricky walked through a door into the hospital—he hadn't really seen which one—he knew he was in the right place. Are there really this many pregnant women in New York? And this many people with babies? Besides the pregnant women and the small children, he also saw a busy looking receptionist desk: "Hi, I'm looking for her. I mean Amy. Amy Jeurgens. Or Underwood, I don't know it doesn't really matter," he told the nurse working at the desk almost as if he wanted her to not understand what he was saying.
"Name of the patient?" the nurse asked calmly and un-interestedly.
"Amy Underwood." Ricky replied quickly.
"Relation to patient?"
"I'm here husband—father of the baby." Ricky answered in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Oh. What did you say her name was? And what's her condition? Is she here with you or are you by yourself?" The nurse asked in a more interested tone.
"Amy Underwood. U-N-D-E…never mind, it's not that hard of a name to spell. And I'm by myself, she already is here somewhere, I just need to know where. Think you could do that?" Ricky tried to control his voice as best he could.
"Ok, Amy Underwood is in room…212. That is on the second floor on the…" the nurse began.
"Second floor, room 12, got it. Thanks!" Ricky responded quickly. He began to walk off, when he realized he didn't know where the elevator or the stairs were.
Ricky walked towards the desk again and began to ask where they were when the nurse responded without looking up: "go through the first door on the right and the elevators will be on your right. Room 12 is going to be on your left from the elevator."
"Oh, well, thanks!" Ricky answered, slightly confused. Through the doors on the right, check. Elevators on the right, check! Up to the second floor, check. Wait, to the right or to the left? As Ricky pondered whether to ask the doctor in the elevator, the doors opened to a surprising face. "Emily! It's so great to see you? Why were you going downstairs?"
"Hey Ricky! I was just coming to look for you!" Emily Kennish said, moving close to hug Ricky. "Amy was worried that something has happened to you because it's been almost an hour and although traffic can be pretty bad, we didn't think it was that bad. Also, I have to get Adam from school: he threw up. But don't worry, Dave said that he could pick the kiddos up and Ames said that they could hang out at your house or they could just hang out at…" Emily began before Ricky cut her off.
"Tell Adam I hope he feels better! And thank you so much for being able to watch John; it really will help a lot," Ricky finished while waving to Emily. "Emily wait!" he called after her, "what room is Amy in again?"
Emily gave a small smile: "if you go past that nurse's station, he room is the first on the left. And by the way, where's the lunch?"
"Shit…I knew I forgot something," Emily looked a bit scared for Ricky that he had no food, but said nothing. "Anyway, thanks! See you later possibly/hopefully?"
"Yea, I should be able to come by once Dave is home with the kiddos. Hey, if John wants to come, would it be all right if I brought him? Also, I told George that the baby was coming and Anne was already at your house for the weekend so I think they went to go get some food or something, so maybe you aren't in too much trouble. Sound good?" Emily asked.
"Yea, sounds great. And by all means, if he wants to come, please bring him. My guess will be that he won't want to come, but you never know." Ricky answered before heading to the left.
After passing the nurse's station, Ricky arrived to the slightly ajar door of 212. Here goes round two. I wonder if she will be as "nice" as last time…but to Ricky's surprise when he opened the door, Amy didn't not begin yelling at him for being an hour late and not bringing food. She's asleep. Of course. Noticing the chair beside her bed, Ricky moved towards it, stopping just before it to kiss Amy lightly on the forehead. With this gesture, Amy slowly began to open her eyes. Shit, she's waking up. Smooth move Ricky.
"Dad? Is that you? You better have brought me food…" Amy began. However, as Amy opened her eyes slowly, her cheerfulness seemed to light up immensely by the fact that it was Ricky kissing her forehead and not her dad. "You're here! I thought that maybe you wouldn't be able to leave work or something! I'm so glad you're here," Amy began before she quickly pulled herself up from her previous position to get closer to Ricky and kiss him on the lips whole-heartedly. Ricky, being Ricky, happily returned the gesture. The two continued to kiss for quite some time before George loudly—and somewhat obnoxiously, being Amy's father—cleared his throat. Ricky pulled away quickly, slightly embarrassed—even after almost three years of being married to Amy—that he had kissed Amy in front of her dad.
"I went to the burger place that the two of you always go to: Milo's* or something? Anyway, here is a burger for you. Hope your happy and I hope he," George said, nodding towards Ricky, "didn't already get you food because I paid a good five dollars on this burger, fries, and a shake," George said, laughing a little. "But anyway, I'm going to go get some coffee downstairs and try to find your mother—she wanted to know how you were doing and I'm not sure where she went. Has the nurse come back yet?" George asked.
"No, she hasn't. I just woke up actually. Thanks for the burger. Bye dad!" Amy said in a slightly obnoxious tone which made Ricky laugh slightly. "Is something funny?" Amy said in an even more sarcastic tone.
"Oh no, I'm gonna go get my coffee now. Have fun with this one!" And with that, a contraction began.
Amy began to make various groaning noise, which was followed by a string of curse words and a fair few "I hate yous."
On the contrary, Ricky responded with a string of loving and supportive phrases: "Ames, just breathe. You'll be ok, just breathe. I'm right here. I'm sure you hate me. I love you though. Just remember to breathe." Ricky continued to say these things over and over until the contraction ended. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked, smiling.
"No, it wasn't too bad, but they get worse—a lot worse. I'm glad that this time you're here. I mean, not that I wanted you in there the first time—I absolutely hated you actually," Ricky laughed outright at this, "but I'm glad that you're here now. I love you."
"The fact that you hated me when John was born doesn't surprise me too much. I mean, all I could think about that night was how awful I was for getting you pregnant and now, all I can think about is holding her for the first time. Have we decided on the name yet? I mean, I love the name Miss Fuzzlebug," now Amy began to laugh, "or whatever name Adam gave her, but I don't think that really should be her name. You know, I was thinking that maybe we could name her Emily."
Amy was taken aback by the suggestion. Would Ricky really do that? I love Emily, and I know Ricky loves Emily, but how would Emily take it? I guess she would be honored to say the least, and I love the name…
"Ames? Hello? Anyone in there?" Ricky asked.
"Sorry, it's just—I love that idea. And Emily Kennish could be like her…I don't want to say Godparent, but…Godparent type thing. Oh, Emily will love this!" Amy replied happily. The two continued to talk and work through contractions until Amy's doctor stopped by for a visit about two hours later. George had stopped by every once in a while, but mostly sat in the waiting room, letting them spend some time alone together.
"Knock, knock!" Dr. Patterson spoke as he walked through the open doorway, "well, well, well, if it isn't Ms. Amy and her wonderful husband! How have you been?" Dr. Daniel Patterson began to go through various questions about the contractions, pain, and pain relief before he checked Amy to see how far along she was. "Well, it looks like you are about 6 or 7 centimeters, and by the look on the two of your faces, this is a bit of a surprise! But, don't worry, the second one is always faster—unless, it's way slower, but that's not usual—than the first. You may be having a baby in…two or three hours! How exciting! I'll be back to check on you in about—let's say half an hour to an hour from now. I will see you then. Also, one of the nurses will be coming back with the anesthesiologist in just a couple minutes to talk some more about pain relief. And remember, any feelings of anger or excitement can be used to speed up the process!" Dr. Robinson finished before saying his goodbyes to the parents.
On the over side of Manhattan, John was just getting home from school with Mina and Dave Kennish. "Now Daddy, tell me again why Mam or Pop aren't able to pick John up from school? And why were you able to pick us up from school?" Mina asked curiously.
"I told you, your mam and pop are at the hospital because John's little sister is going to be born tonight! Isn't that exciting John?" Dave Kennish said in an overly happy tone, hoping to cheer John out of his funk.
"Sort of. But not really." John answered sadly.
"You know what; I think that we should give Kyle a call. Maybe he could give you some insight on being a great big brother," Dave said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, not pleased that he had to resort to his rule-breaking eldest child. 'Em and I really did not know what to do with a child before Mina,' was a thought that frequently crossed his mind.
"Really? We could talk to Kyle! That would be so much fun! And when can we go see the baby? I really want to go see her!" Mina said as cheerful as always.
"That makes one of you," Dave said under his breath.
After about two and half hours of breathing through contractions, walking, pain medication, and a lot of kissing (Dr. Patterson said it would help speed along the process and I'm all for making sure this as painless as possible), it seemed that Amy was ready to push. The Kennish family—which consisted of Emily (who was on the phone with Dave to make sure that Adam, Mina's younger brother, got the right type of medicine); Ella, Mina's littlest sibling; Mina; and John, who was on the phone with Kyle (Mina's older brother)—had arrived about an hour ago and were waiting in the waiting room with George. Emily had been invited in, but declined because she wanted to be with John and the other children.
After only about thirty minutes, Ricky came down to the waiting room, practically beside himself with excitement; happiness; and pure love. "It's a girl! Well obviously…but she has ten fingers and ten toes and she's perfect and she has the slightest—a very small amount—of curly brown hair. God, she's gorgeous. Almost as cute as he was when I first saw him," Ricky spoke quickly with tears rimming his eyes and made a gesture towards John, "and Ames wants to have John come first, but she says that Mina should come too because John would probably want Mina there. And George, you can come too and actually, why don't all of you, well—woah, there are a lot of people here—well not all of you," Ricky said in a slightly amazed tone as he realized a very large number of their respective work friends, college friends, and neighbors had come to see the baby, "but some of you can come with me. John?" Ricky asked.
"Why don't you and Mina go see her first hun?" Emily spoke softly, nodding towards John's father. "And your Grandpa and Ella and I will come in just a minute, ok?" John just nodded but did little else: mostly because of shock, but obviously also because he was upset. Mina took his hand, smiled brightly—yet in a very reassuring and supportive way—and half walked/half pulled him towards his dad. The two followed the joyous father up the elevator and down the hall: Mina rubbed John's hand the entire time (this was not the first time (nor the last) Mina did this, but this was the first time John noticed how nice it was).
Ricky opened the door slowly, and John—no matter how upset—could not help but smile. There, sitting on the bed, was his mom and his new baby sister. Wow, Dad was right: she is really pretty. John went to hug his mother quickly and then turned to stare at his baby sister. "Do you want to hold him buddy?" Ricky asked cautiously.
"Could I?" John's voice was small.
"Of course baby. She is your baby sister." Amy answered sleepily. John sat neatly in the chair near the window and waited for his grandpa and dad to have their camera ready. He held her carefully, not wanting to drop her, as he could see that she meant a lot to his parents. I guess maybe a baby sister couldn't be too bad.
As Ricky and Amy watched their son hold their daughter for the first time, Ricky spoke softly to Amy: "I really think he likes her. Even if he doesn't want to admit it."
"I think so too. Thank you for being here. Even if I said I didn't like you very much," Ricky gave her a look, "ok, I said I hated you about fifty, "another look, "two-hundred times, but I don't. I love you, in fact."
"I love you too. More than you know."
While this interaction took place, George and Anne shared a look that said something along the lines of 'Did you ever imagine the last time we were in this situation that we would be back again and that the two of them would be so happy?' And, even though it seems like the obvious answer would be no, they both seemed to understand that, somewhere (deep down—at least for George) that the answer was yes.
A/N: And that is that folks! Thanks for reading! I actually included John more than I thought I would, so I could have put it into The Graduation Present, but I'm glad I didn't. Ames and Ricky's third child's birth will be in The Graduation Present though (for those of you that read that). :D Also, I said I was going to do the wedding first, but I wanted to ask you (the readers, which you can respond to by a review! [For those of you that have read The Graduation Present, you know how much I love reviews!]) a question: I was thinking of making it a songfic, but then it might have some extra parts (such as Ricky's speech, George's speech, John's speech, and Ben's speech) so it might not make sense. What do you think? I may make it two parts…one part: songfic/one part: regular story. Sound good? Please review me your thoughts!
*Milo's Café is what I have named the café that they go to in 3x10 ("My Girlfriend's Back") and it featured in Chapter 7 of The Graduation Present.
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