Little Miracle
A/N: Written for prompt 29 0n my Nate/Serena fanfic 100 table at my livejournal.
He's doing his chemistry homework when she calls. A smile spreads across his face as he puts down his pencil and reaches for his phone, flipping it open and placing it to his ear.
"Hello?" he says, even though he knows its her.
"Um...hey, Nate." Her voice is shaky and small and he wonders if she's been crying.
"Serena, are you okay?" His heart clenches in his chest as she lets out a dry sob which turns into a hiccup.
There's a pause on her side of the line and Nate holds his breath, waiting. "Serena?" he says after a few seconds. "Are you there?"
Another sob and then, "I'm pregnant."
Click.
The dial tone buzzes angrily in his ear for a moment, but then the phone slips from his hand. He stares in shock at nothing in particular.
Pregnant.
The word runs through his mind, slowly at first, than faster and faster until it all runs together and he feels like his brain is going to explode. He takes a deep breath to calm himself, but it doesn't help. He can still hear the dial tone, buzzing in the distance, and as he listens to it, he starts hearing the word pregnant in the annoying beeps.
Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant.
In the back of his mind he thinks, I need to call her back. But he can't move. He can only sit and stare. And think. He couldn't stop thinking.
If Serena was pregnant-which of course she had to be, she wouldn't lie to him-then who was the father?
Dan? Carter Basen? Chuck?
And then it hits him.
What if I'm the father?
She looks at herself in the mirror. Slowly, cautiously, she touches her stomach, feeling a tiny bit of relieve from feeling the still flat skin. It's still my stomach, she thinks. It just has a baby inside it.
After a few more seconds, she turns from the mirror and exits the bathroom. She's halfway through her bedroom, on her way to her bed, when her cellphone starts ringing.
She'd know the ringtone anywhere. It was her favorite song, always had been, but it grew in importance the night they made love.
She's scared to answer it, but she does anyway.
"Nate?"
"Serena, I-"
"It's yours, Nate."
There's silence on the other end of the line. And then a strangled noise. "I'll be right there," he tells her.
He arrives in ten minutes. When she sees him, she breaks down crying and throws herself into his arms. "Nate, I'm so scared," she whimpers. She clings to him desperately, her head buried in his shoulder and he wraps his arms around her, mummuring words of comfort.
He stays with her and they stay awake most of the night, trying to figure out what to do. She wants to keep the baby, she tells him. It's theirs and she doesn't want anyway else to raise it.
He agrees, he wants to raise his baby.
They think about names and trying to make her laugh, he suggests that they name it Hashbrown. It works, she laughs and her whole face lights up in relieve and he laughs with her.
6 months later, he gets the call when he's in the middle of class. He hurries out of the room to take the call.
"Nate, I'm in labor."
"I'm on my way."
He runs through the hospital's delivery floor, heart pounding, until he bumps into Blair. Hello, awkward moment.
"Where's Serena?" he pants, running a hand through his hair.
Blair nods in the direction of the room she just came from. Then, without a word, she walks off.
Nate storms the room, but as soon as he's inside, he wishes he had stayed in class. Serena is screaming and clutching her mother's hand like there's no tommorow. Her body arches off of the bed desperately and he feels like throwing up.
Her eyes meet his and she smiles weakly. "Hey, Nate," she says and then bites her lip as another contraction hits her.
"Hi. Are you okay? Is there......can I do anything?"
"Hold my hand."
He walks over to her and slips his hand in hers, then brings it to his mouth and kisses it.
He's never seen anything more beautiful. As he stares at his daughter, tears well in his eyes. She's so tiny and pink and she has his nose.
"What are you going to name her?" he asks.
"I like Brittly." Serena smiles at him and then at their daughter.
"Me too."
Nate kisses the mother of his child and then gently lays a kiss on Brittly's forehead.
Birth truly is a wonderful thing he thinks as Serena gently puts Brittly in his arms.