Author's Note: A bit of research went into the contractions/labor/delivery section, but, as previously stated, I'm not a doctor, so please excuse any inaccuracies. The name of the baby is revealed in this one-shot. If you want a bit of an explanation into why I chose it, it'll be in the second AN, which will be at the end of the story.
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It was three minutes after midnight when intense back pain pulled Special Agent Alexandra Booth from an otherwise peaceful slumber. Sudden aches weren't something she was unused to. She was thirty-six weeks into her pregnancy, after all. But this was something different than that. This was something more.
She reached across the bed, lightly shaking her husband's shoulder and quietly murmuring his name. The former Marine was awake within seconds, sitting ramrod straight in the bed and searching the room for any threats. When he realized there were none, he glanced in her direction, his eyes wide and full of concern.
"I'm sorry," she apologized needlessly. Ryan never woke peacefully; it was something they'd both come to expect. "But I think…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "This doesn't feel like Braxton Hicks, Ryan. I think it's for real this time."
"Okay," Ryan said immediately, completely alert despite being pulled from a deep sleep not sixty seconds before. "All right. I'll go get the bags. Do you want to head into the hospital now, or do you want to wait?" He was doing what he did best in situations such as this: giving her the opportunity to feel in control, even though they both knew she in no way was.
"Let's go ahead and head in," Alex said, reaching for the phone on the nightstand as he pushed aside the covers and headed towards the nursery to grab their bags. "Hey, Ryan?" she called uncertainly after him, causing him to turn around immediately. "I can do this, right?"
Ryan crossed the room to press a lingering kiss against her forehead. "Of course you can," he said confidently. "You're Alexandra Parrish. You can do anything you put your mind to." He ran his left hand through her sleep-tangled curls. "I'll be right back, okay? You going to stay there?"
"Yeah," Alex breathed, leaning back against the pile of pillows behind her. "I'll be here."
"Okay," Ryan returned, pressing another quick kiss to her forehead. He then stood from the bed and headed down the hallway to the nursery. He was true to his word. It took him less than a minute to return to her side.
The second contraction hit exactly twelve minutes after the first. It just so happened to arrive as she was getting dressed for the drive to the hospital. If not for Ryan's stabling arms, she likely would've ended up face-planting on the cool tile flooring of their master bathroom.
"You know," she began, breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly as she tried to make it through the contraction without screaming out in pain, "they leave this part of it out in their speeches about the beauty of childbirth. They leave out the part where it feels like you're being torn apart."
Ryan pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "I'm sorry, babe."
"It's okay," Alex assured him, breathing in deeply. "There's going to be a beautiful boy here when this is all said and done, and that makes this completely worth it." She exhaled in relief when the pain finally passed. "Please remember that if I, you know, start cursing your name in the delivery room."
Ryan chuckled quietly. "I'll remember it." He smiled at her when she glanced up at him. "So, Special Agent Booth, you ready to become a mom?"
"Yeah," Alex whispered assuredly, reaching for his other hand and allowing him to carefully guide her from their apartment, ever mindful of each step they both took. "Yeah, I am."
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Dr. Lauren Russo was one of the most brilliant obstetricians in existence. Alex was sure of it. The woman was well-educated and well-trained. She was also kind and caring in a way most doctors weren't. So, when news came through that Alex was being admitted in the early stages of labor, the fact that she was the first one to be in the room after Ryan wasn't surprising to anyone.
"Hello, Booths," she greeted cheerfully as she made her way towards Alex's bed, completely awake despite the early hour. "Alex, I hear that you're ready to have a baby." She pulled on a sterile pair of gloves to perform the necessary examinations. "Well, you're three centimeters dilated and almost fully effaced, so you made the right call by coming in. I'm not saying we'll see your boy by the end of the hour, but I'd be extremely surprised if he didn't make an appearance before the end of the day."
"Thank you, Dr. Russo," Alex murmured with a tired smile, still holding tight to Ryan's hand. "I'm sorry you had to come in this early."
The doctor shook her head with a melodic laugh. "This is hardly the earliest I've come in. Babies have no sense of what time it is, my friend. You'll learn that rather quickly once this little one is out in the world." She signed off on something in Alex's chart, bid them both farewell, and then ducked from the room.
"So," Alex sighed, twisting slightly to face her husband, "I guess this begins the waiting game."
Ryan smiled fondly down at her. "I guess so."
Alex's phone began to ring in her purse. Ryan reached for the device, handing it over without a word after glancing at the Caller ID. Alex couldn't help but smile widely as she accepted the call. "Hi, Shelby."
"Alexandra Booth!" Her friend sounded both frantic and ecstatic on the other end of the line. "You cannot have Ryan tell me via text that my godson is about to be born! It's just not fair. The man does not know how to text. He didn't even answer me back after dropping that bomb."
"Sorry," Alex apologized amusedly. "In our defense, it's, what, three o'clock in the morning there? We didn't figure you'd be awake to read the message, let alone respond to it."
"Yeah, well, Caleb's working a case involving some major crime family here in Florida, so I haven't exactly been able to sleep. He's not supposed to get out of his strategy meetings until the morning. Guy's operating on four hours' worth of sleep, if that." Shelby sighed wearily. "But that is not why I called. You're about to have a baby, Alex! How does it feel?"
Alex smirked. "Right now? It feels good. Call back in a few hours, once the pain's set in, and you might get a different response."
Shelby's own laughter echoed over the line. "I'll be sure to do that."
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Six hours later, Alex was five centimeters dilated. The epidural was administered – if not for Ryan's steadying hands, she likely would've paralyzed herself during the insertion of that needle – and kicking in, obliterating a majority of the pain she was feeling. Her contractions, while still not constant, were growing closer together, coming every eight minutes instead of every twelve. Dr. Russo remained extremely confident that the littlest member of the Booth family would make an appearance before midnight.
Shelby was at work in Orlando, but she still called to make sure all was well over in Los Angeles. Ryan was fielding calls from every family member he had, accepting only those made by his mother and sisters. It was absolute insanity in the delivery room, even before the baby was born. Alex loved it.
Everyone in their former class that knew about her condition sent their well wishes. Special Agent Shaw went even further, sending flowers to the room, and while both Alex and Ryan had encountered their problems with the former instructor in the past – albeit most of them professional – the former teared up when they arrived, something she immediately blamed on the hormones.
Alex had been at the hospital for seven hours when the contractions became closer and more intense, though the only reason she really knew that was because of the machine Ryan was keeping a constant eye on. The epidural was certainly doing its job.
Dr. Russo returned soon after, practically sprinting into the room to check on Alex's status. "Well," the obstetrician said as she threw away her used gloves, "It seems your boy is about ready to come into the world. You went from a five to a nine in less than an hour. That's not something I see all that frequently in these walls."
"Is everything okay?" Alex asked worriedly, her hand clutching onto Ryan's as another contraction hit. Well, the epidural had been doing its job.
"It's fine, Alex. I've had moms stay at one centimeter for twelve hours, then end up at ten in less than two. It's not the strangest thing to happen." Dr. Russo smiled slightly. "We're going to go ahead and move you to a delivery room, all right? See you in there."
"Ryan," Alex breathed once the doctor walked away, causing her husband to glance at her concernedly. "It's going to be okay, right?" She hated this, hated feeling so unsure about something meant to be so natural, but she couldn't help it. There was more than a small part of her that was absolutely terrified.
"Yeah," Ryan replied confidently, leaning down to press a kiss to her sweat-dampened forehead. "Yeah, it's going to be okay. It's going to be more than okay, Al. It's going to be great. All right?"
"All right," she returned softly, her hand still in his. Those words were exactly the ones she'd needed to hear.
If she'd thought labor hurt, she'd been in no way prepared for the actual act of delivering the child. It took nearly an hour of pushing and cursing her husband's name as she did so before the doctors saw any real movement.
"All right, Alex, one more push," Dr. Russo assured her. "He's almost here, all right? Just one more."
Alex laid her head back against the bedsheet. "I can't," she moaned exhaustedly. "I can't keep doing this."
"Yes, you can," Ryan murmured, his hand still in hers. "You can, all right? Come on, babe. You're the strongest person I know. You can do this."
Alex nodded tiredly, drew in a deep breath, and did as she was told. Fifteen seconds later, the miraculous sound of a baby's first cries echoed throughout the small space, and Bodhi Sebastian Booth drew in his first breaths of fresh air in his new world.
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Alex stared wondrously at the tiny human being cradled in her arms. "He's here," she murmured incredulously, falling entirely in love with a person she'd not known just forty-five minutes before. "He's here, Ryan. He's here, and he's perfect."
Her husband smiled at her words. "Yes, he is," he agreed, pressing a kiss to the top of the baby's head and then to the top of hers. "You're both perfect."
"Now is not the time to get sappy," Alex scolded, although the words sounded much less serious when accompanied by the blissful smile on her face. "He's the star of the show here, not me. All I did was bring him into the world. He's the one who made it a better place."
"You went through a lot to bring him into the world, though," Ryan reminded her. "You're the strongest person I know, Al."
"Considering how many Special Forces guys you've befriended over the years, I'm going to take that as the highest compliment you could pay me." Bodhi began fussing quietly in Alex's arms. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly, smoothing a single finger down the boy's tiny, chubby cheek. "I didn't mean to interrupt your snooze."
Ryan's phone began ringing loudly, and he sighed as he accepted the call, automatically putting it on speakerphone. "Hi, Wyatt," he greeted dryly.
"Hi, Ryan," Shelby returned quickly. "Alex! He's absolutely beautiful! How does it feel now that he's here?"
"Great," Alex replied honestly. "It feels great." She smiled as she glanced down at the baby in her arms. "He's very eager for you to come and meet him, you know. You should get on that immediately."
"Oh, Caleb and I have both called out for the weekend. We're on the first flight over," Shelby assured her. "Tell the boy we love him, all right? And that we can't wait to meet him."
"I will," Alex assured her friend.
"All right. I've got to go track down a possible witness, but I will call again as soon as I can. Love to all three of you. Bye!" With that, Shelby ended the call.
Alex glanced down at her son with an amused smile. "That's your Aunt Shelby," she informed him. "She's a bit crazy, but we love her. And she loves you. Everyone loves you, your daddy and me included." As she stared at her son, as she watched him drift off to sleep, she felt at peace for one of the first times in her life.
She supposed it was true what they said. Sometimes, the things that most reminded you of the good in the world were the smallest things in existence. She was holding proof of that right there in her arms.
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Bodhi is a Sanskrit name meaning 'awakened.' Sebastian is in honor of St. Sebastian, a Roman Catholic saint.* It means 'respected.'
*Side note: While they never outwardly state that Ryan is religious, there are lines in season two that imply he is, which is the reason I chose this name, coupled with the fact that I just enjoy the way it sounds. The name Bodhi honors his mother's maternal bloodline, where it has been used frequently.