A/N: This story is dedicated to dizprincess77 and her amazing idea. I hope this was what you were thinking of, Wendy! I own nothing, not even the storyline this time! ;)
Also, this story is dedicated to my father, who (I've been told) was the spitting image of Nate's character when I was born. I love you so much daddy! Cómo se dice hottie? ;) XXOO
"Just breathe, darling!" Nate Grey said, walking alongside his wife, Caitlyn. "Breathe, breathe. You're doing just fine. You're doing great!"
Caitlyn's forehead was slick with sweat and her chest was rising and falling at a rate that was close to hyperventilation. "Naaattteee," she groaned out, her head falling to the side.
"Just keep breathing, Caity," he told her, feeling pathetic and helpless. He wiped some of the sweat from her face, but there was little else that he could do for her, and it scared him. He'd single-handedly organized three world tours when Shane was going through his bad boy days, he'd sat through plenty of interviews, some harsher than others, he could handle almost all of the production finances on his own, and he could rock harder than anyone he knew, even Jason, but he couldn't even help his wife deliver a baby.
"Nate, Nate, it hurts!" she groaned.
"I know," he said.
"No you don't!" she gasped out, managing to glare at him for a moment before she squeezed her eyes closed again. "If you did, you'd never allow this to happen!"
A passing nurse heard her comment and shook her head. "As soon as she has that baby in her arms, she'll forget all about the pain," she assured Nate.
He wasn't comforted.
"Just hang on, Caity," he whispered in her ear as he pushed her sweaty hair away from her face. "The doctor's almost here."
Another contraction rippled through Caitlyn's body and she gasped, her back arching off the bed. Automatically, her hand found Nate's and hung on. He tightened his grip so that her hot hand wouldn't slip out of his. Another contraction, less than a minute later, and Caitlyn's squeezed his hand.
He winced.
Three more contractions went by before nurses wheeled Caitlyn's bed into the delivery room and started bustling around, grabbing all necessary articles that would be needed or would aid in the delivery. Caitlyn groaned, her legs shifting restlessly to find a comfortable spot, which did not exist this late in the pregnancy. "Nate," she gasped out with a groan.
"I'm right here," he promised her. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."
The doctor bustled in, pulling on his white surgical gloves as a nurse tied the ties on his apron for him. "Hello, Mrs. Grey," he said cheerily. "How are you doing?"
Nate wanted to punch him.
Apparently, so did Caitlyn. "H-how do you think I'm d-doing," she groaned out, inserting as much ice into her voice as she possibly could.
"That's my girl," Nate thought smugly. This doctor had been nothing but oblivious from the very beginning, but he was one of the best in his field, as long as he refrained from idle chit chat, and so they stuck with him. After this baby, Nate was going to find a different obstetrician.
That is, if Caitlyn ever let him touch her again.
Another sharp squeeze pulled a gasp from his lips, and he nearly doubled over. He never realized that Caitlyn was as strong as she obviously was. "Honey-" he began, but then closed his mouth. If she was in pain, then he might as well have a little pain of his own.
"Alright, Mrs. Grey," the doctor said. "We're ready for you to begin to push. Ready?"
"Ye-es," Caitlyn gritted out, obviously in too much pain to remind the obtuse doctor that she and Nate had sat in the waiting room for twenty minutes before they had even been given a gurney in the halway.
"Alright, push!" he commanded.
Caitlyn's lips turned white and her face turned red as she pushed, her fingers tightening around Nate's hand as though the added pressure would give her an advantage. A small sound escaped from her lips, somewhere between a scream and a groan, and the pressure on his hand tightened even more. Nate almost groaned along with her. "Nnnaatttttee!" she cried.
He winced. "I'm right here, darlin'."
"It hurts!"
Nate nodded. "But you're doing great," he told her, remembering not to say, "I know."
"Push again, Mrs. Grey," the doctor ordered.
Another push.
Another scream.
Another squeeze.
Over and over, for three hours. Push, scream, squeeze. Push, scream squeeze. Nate thought he was going to die.
Just when he thought that he couldn't bear another scream, and especially not another squeeze, Caitlyn's body relaxed and slumped back into the pillows. A slap sounded, and then Nate heard the loud wail of a baby. Their baby. He looked up at the doctor, who smiled back and said the first intelligent thing he had ever said to them. "You have a healthy girl."
Nate forgot the pain in his hand immediately as he moved back towards Caitlyn's head. "It's a girl," he whispered excitedly, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.
The doctor raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?" he asked.
Nate shrugged. "We wanted to be surprised," he explained.
From that moment on, Nate didn't let his daughter out of his sight. He followed the nurse that held her as she was bathed, weighed, measured, dressed, and her picture was taken. He watched each step, silently making sure that nothing happened to his beautiful baby girl. The nurse then returned with her, and he followed her to Caitlyn's room where their daughter was handed over to them to feed.
"What should we call her?" Caitlyn asked as she carefully stroked her daughter's fuzzy little head.
"Something as beautiful as she is," Nate told her seriously.
"Carissa," Caitlyn said softly. "Carissa Adelle."
Nate smiled. "Perfect," he whispered, leaning in to kiss his wife.
"…And we are back!" the host on the show exclaimed cheerily. "We are here with the three musicians from the award-winning band, Connect 3!" She paused while waiting for the applause to die down. "Welcome, guys."
"Thank you," all three of them said almost simultaneously.
"It's good to be here," Nate assured her.
Instantly, she turned her attention on him exclusively. "We hear that you just had a beautiful baby," she said, her tone just begging for any and all information so that she could tell it to the world.
"Actually, my wife did," Nate corrected, grinning as the fans laughed. The host looked confused for a moment, so he plowed ahead. "You're right, though. Caitlyn just had our first baby, and Carissa Adelle is the most beautiful baby on this planet." He grinned over at Shane. "Sorry, bro. She's prettier than yours too."
The crowd and Shane laughed. "I'm sure she is," Shane told him, and then added, "in your eyes."
"So tell us about her," the host said excitedly, hoping to gain back control of the questions and comments.
"There's not much to say," Nate said honestly. "She eats, sleeps, and that's about it." He purposefully left out the one glorious job that he normally performed after every feeding.
The host regarded him for a moment, and then her eyes fell on the hand that he had desperately been trying to hide from the audience's view. "So what happened to your hand?" she asked.
The camera closest to Nate zoomed in to focus on the hard cast on his right hand and the swelling that was just barely visable. The audience hummed with sympathetic little girls, but Nate only smiled, his eyes twinkling as he struggled not to laugh.
"What can I say? My wife's got a killer grip."
A/N: Hope you liked this. IMPORTANT: If you haven't read my Criminal Minds story, then I will let you know that my flash drive was finally recovered, only to be stolen, so I need some time to work out the chapters that I lost and rewrite them. Please bear with me, and in the meantime...REVIEW! lol! ;)
