It had begun seven months ago, when I finally connected missing my periods with something larger than a passing oddity. Now I was there, at last. I took a deep breath. "You okay?" Ian looked down at me, eyes full of concern. "We can still take you to a healer, if you like. Are you sure you want to do this here?" I smiled. I had insisted on staying in the caves for the birth. I wanted Ian to be there, and Mel, and I knew we could never risk that outside.

"I'm sure." I told him. "And relax. Everything is going to be fine." I reached up on tiptoe to kiss him. For a moment I was acutely aware of him, and the way I moved with him, his warm hand on my back, his warm lips on mine. Then I felt a contraction begin, and I broke away. I leaned into Ian as the strange pain in my abdomen grew, then slowly faded. After I recovered, I looked back at Ian. "Can we walk around a little?" He nodded. "Do you need to go see Doc?" I shook my head. "Not just yet. Let's just walk."

Within a few hours, though, I knew it was time. Ian and I made our way over slowly. He was tense and worried, but as for myself, though the contractions were becoming more frequent and painful, I felt a strong sense of excited elation, and a calm that seemed out of place.

The next while that I spent in our little hospital blurred a bit, but it was a fairly smooth ride the whole way. I only became focussed again when Doc leaned over with a smile and told me the baby was crowning. Then, so soon, it was over, and for a moment, I panicked. My baby was no where to be seen.

Then Melanie walked up next to me, holding a blanket-wrapped bundle. She had happy tears in her eyes as she whispered, "Oh Wanda, he's beautiful." Then she laid him in my arms.

No words can describe what I felt the first time I looked into my baby's lively blue eyes. The phrase "my heart soared" took on a new meaning. I took a deep breath. I had never in my entire existence felt such pure, simple joy.

Ian came and knelt next to me. He stared at our baby with a look of such adoration that it made my heart swell anew. "Lyell?" I breathed. "Is that what we'll call him, then?" Ian nodded. "Lyell." he agreed. The perfect name for our perfect son.

Lyell gazed up at us and gurgled. I had never heard a sweeter sound.