He sat patiently beside her hospital bed, holding her hand, waiting for her to give birth to their first child. She squeezed his hand tight as another contraction racked her body. He found himself slipping out of the moment and remembering how it all started. He met her at the roller rink where he was working at the time. The first time he laid eyes on her he thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Their eyes met and she flashed him a shy smile before turning back to her friends. By the end of the night he had finally mustered up the courage to ask her to go to the movies with him. He was flabbergasted when she actually accepted. Things seemed to fly from there. They had fallen for each other on that first date.
The year that followed was a whirlwind of passion and fun as they explored the world together. They were so caught up in having fun and just being teenagers. They went out every night to movies and clubs. He drove her around in his father's pick-up and they would lie in the bed, making out or having sex and just enjoying being young.
Things didn't stay that way though, and a week shy of his 19th birthday she gave him the shock of his life. He had picked her up, same as always, but he knew something was bothering her. She smiled, but her eyes were wide with fear. When he asked her what was wrong she broke down crying. Not able to get the words out she handed him a small thin box, the kind a bracelet would come in. He opened it and gasped, it was a pregnancy test, and it was positive. "You… You mean you're…" He couldn't even say it and she just nodded. He help her for the rest of that night as they both cried, unofficially mourning their childhood. A doctor's appointment the following week, on his birthday no less, confirmed it. They were going to have a baby together, at 19 and 17.
The thought terrified him, but he knew there was no way he could ask her to terminate it. Neither of them would have considered that an option. Still, he didn't want this. This wasn't in the plan, his grand scheme for life. He contemplated running, leaving it all behind and starting fresh somewhere else. He made it as far as packing all his belongings into the old beat up pick-up that his father had now passed on to him. He started the engine and broke down. What am I doing? He couldn't leave her, he loved her too much. They would make it work, somehow. He unpacked his belongings and drove back to her house.
Telling his parents had been the easy part. They accepted it as "a gift", meant to happen. They even invited her to move in with them to get ready for the baby's arrival. Telling her parents had been a completely different story. Her father had been so mad his face turned 3 different shades of red. He screamed and yelled and cursed and eventually kicked them out of the house, throwing all her things on the front lawn. All her mother had to say was, "You're such a disappointment."
The words cut deep, worse than all her father's ranting and raving. She let him pack her things in the bed of the pick-up and bring her home with him. She was silent the whole ride. When they got back to the house he brought her things to his, now their, room and she sat and cried on the couch. His mother sat with her all night, talking and crying and finally getting just a little bit excited about the baby.
The next few weeks were a blur for him. Doctor's appointments, ultra sounds, morning sickness. It was crazy. The morning sickness killed him, because really it wasn't morning sickness, it was sick all day and all night. It seemed like it would go on forever, but finally around the fourth month it got better. She was still occasionally sick, but not like she was.
She started showing around 6 months. She had always been tiny and the small baby bump looked adorable. He loved it and made sure he rubbed it for luck every morning. She liked it at first, but as her belly grew she felt like she was no longer attractive and had a hard time adjusting to her new shape, not to mention how uncomfortable she became. She told him she felt fat and disgusting and had convinced herself that he no longer thought she was beautiful. He told her she was crazy. Everything about her was beautiful to him. One night as she cried about it he placed his hands on her stomach and looked her in the eyes, "This right here under my hands, this is our child. It doesn't matter if it changed your body. You are the most beautiful person I've ever known. Having our child inside you has only made you more beautiful to me. I didn't think that was possible." She cried tears of happiness that night and never brought up feeling poorly about herself again.
By the eighth month the doctor had put her on bed rest. She was having problems with her back and it was becoming hard for her to move around. Being on bed rest stabilized her, but also drove her nuts. She hated not being able to do things for herself and sometimes took it out on him. She was moody more often than not and he had to walk on eggshells. He had trudged through it though, and she always apologized crying that she couldn't handle herself. He got her through this too.
The night prior she had gone into labor and her water broke on the way to the hospital. His nerves were on edge and it took every fiber of his being to concentrate on the road. He got her there just in time for her to have an epidural.
Her scream brought him back to the hospital room. She had begun pushing. He couldn't believe it was real. He was going to be someone's daddy. He held her hand and encouraged her as best as he could. He planted soft kisses on her forehead as he whispered to her. With one last push he watched as his child entered the world. A girl, he had a daughter. They had a daughter. He looked down and smiled at her, this time she smiled back. She looked exhausted, but he had never seen her look so alive.
"Zoey," they said together. He sat on the bed with her as the doctor placed his daughter in his arms for the first time. Her eyes were the same bright shade of green as her mothers. He moved closer so she could see their daughter as well and she laid her head on his shoulder as they both looked down at the life they had created together, as happy and proud as any new parents could be.
That was the night Peter Tork became a father at 19 years old.