So Kacymyth on tumblr prompted me for my Morning with the Golds verse, wanting to see Elizabeth's birth. It really took me much too long to write this but that's because it turned out longer than I thought. This was the last of the prompts from my 200 follower promptathon so now I will go back to working on the next Dine With Me chapter, which is about half done. For the medical stuff that gets talked about in this, I got all my knowledge from Google and my mother so it may/may not be correct. As I have not been through labor I kind of just went with what they told me.
As always I hope you enjoy this and please tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT or it's characters. I only own Elizabeth Gold.
"Daddy look!" Rumplestiltskin looked up from the punch bowl where he had been getting drinks for Belle and himself to where his little girl was sitting astride her pony while David walked it around the pasture. It was Elizabeth's fifth birthday and it seemed like half of the town had come out to celebrate with her. Henry was of course there, coming back from college in Boston just to spend time with his young aunt. The Savior, her beau, the crazy portal jumper Jefferson, and his girl came along too. And the royal family wouldn't have been complete without Snow, Charming and young Prince Neal showing up too. The wolf girl invited herself and her grandmother, he was more accepting of them however since Widow Lucas had graciously offered to make the cake for birthday girl. The thief, his boy, and, to his dismay, Her Majesty herself Regina came at Belle's insistence. Even the bloody pirate had made a brief appearance, bestowing an, admittedly, nice looking-glass upon the birthday girl.
Everyone came out to the stables he now owned where Elizabeth had decided she had to have her party. The little girl was going through her "horse stage," something Belle insisted all girls went through, and was totally enraptured with the things. Every waking moment she was begging him and Belle to take her down to ride her two beasts, and since he had been the one to get them for her he was the one usually stuck with the job of taking her. However, seeing Elizabeth riding the little highland pony he had bough her "Her name is Trixxi Daddy!" and Henry galloping around on her palomino "Daddddddy his name is Phillipe!" both seemingly having a great time, Rumple couldn't find it in him to complain.
Smile still in place he took both cups back to where belle sat at a picnic table with the mermaid-turned-lifeguard, Miss Swan, Mrs. Lucas-Hopper, and Mrs. Nolan/Charming. Belle thanked him by pressing a kiss to his cheek as he sat down before turning her attention back to the conversation at hand, the upcoming birth of the wolf girl and cricket's hybrid cub. He half listened to the mothers share their labors stories while watching Elizabeth. Even from the distance he could hear her trying to convince Charming to let her ride by herself. "I'm five now David! I'm a big girl and big girls don't need help from ickle princlings!" David shot a glare his way and Rumple smirked right back. His little girl may look like and act like her mother most of the time, but she was still very much his daughter.
His attention was drawn away from his Elizabeth, who had finally wrestled the reins away from Charming and was racing around the pasture while the prince chased after her, back to his wife and her gossiping friends when he heard his name. "Rumple did as well as can be expected, which means to say that Whale and the nurses made it out alive and relatively unscathed." Frowning slightly he realized that Belle must be talking about when she had given birth to Elizabeth, and apparently they had different views on how the event went. "I did perfectly fine, the picture of calm." Belle shot him an amused look, one perfect brow raised as she regarded him. "You threatened to turn Whale and the nurse into snails."
"Well you were in pain."
"I was in labor, of course I was in pain."
"They refused to help."
"They did not."
"Did too. They were making you suffer!"
"Once again I was in labor! Suffering is part of the job description."
Before Rumple could rebuff her claim once more Emma interrupted their debate. "Woah, woah woah. I think we need the full story here." Ruby nodded in agreement, and soon all the women were turning into bobble heads, "Yeah I've never actually heard the story. I think today would be an appropriate day to share it!" Belle glanced at him and he shrugged, if she wanted to tell the tale it was fine with him. Looking back to where Elizabeth was, Charming finally having conceded to letting her ride by herself though Henry and seven year old Neal rode alongside her, Rumple could vividly remember every moment of the day his baby girl had been born.
Rumplestiltskin hated that Belle had insisted that he open the pawnshop today. He should be at home with her, his wife. His pregnant wife. His pregnant wife who was due any day. Instead, he was cleaning an old chess set trying to guess how upset Belle would be if he closed the shop early but brought her home some mint chocolate chip ice cream and salted cashews he knew she had been craving lately. After all she had said that he had to open the store, she never said he had to keep it open.
He had just decided to close up, willing to risk his wife's fury, when his phone rang. When he saw it was Belle who was calling him he quickly answered, fear pounding through him. "Sweetheart are you alright? Is the baby coming? I'll be home in 5 seconds." He had thrown the cleaning to rag to the side as he spoke and had just made it to the front of the store when Belle's melodic chuckle sounded through the phone. "Rum I'm fine!" He paused with his hand on the doorknob trying to detect whether or not she was telling the truth but Belle had never lied to him before, he doubted she'd start now. Relaxing slightly he took a shaky breath. "Don't scare me like that Sweetheart."
"I'm sorry Rumple I just wanted to know if you wanted pastrami or ham salad sandwiches for lunch. It's too warm for hamburgers but Granny made some cookies that I thought I'd bring for desert. Oh and ice tea of course, and yes before you ask I made sure to ask for caffeine free. Now pastrami or ham salad?"
"Wait where are you?" Belle let out an exasperated sigh and he could practically see her rolling her eyes. "I'm at Granny's getting us lunch. Did you not hear a single thing I just said?" Rumple froze, his earlier fear making a reappearance. He had taken the Cadillac when he had come to work this morning, never expecting Belle would think to walk the mile and a half from their house to Granny's while nine months pregnant. "Belle, darling, please tell me you didn't walk all the way to Granny's." Even if she had gotten to the diner safely it couldn't have been good for her to walk that far in her condition. "Oh no! No sweetheart, I called Dove and he brought me. I'm sorry I should have said that to start with. I didn't mean to worry you. I'll only be walking from Granny's to the shop, that's it. Now you never answered my question. Pastrami or ham salad?"
Relief coursed through him, in over three hundred years of existence nothing scared him more, or as often, as his Belle did. After thanking whatever deity or higher power that existed for his wife's safety he requested a pastrami sandwich, and then proceeded to wait outside until Belle came into sight. Even nine months pregnant, wearing a pair of faded yoga pants and one of his dress shirts, her hair haphazardly piled on top of her head, and without a trace of make up, she was still the most beautiful sight in all the worlds. When she finally reached the door he took the bag with the food from her hand as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. He returned the affection while herding inside, "What made you decide to bring lunch, not that I mind."
"I figured you were probably going out of your mind here alone, I know I was. I also guessed you were probably about 10 minutes from showing up back at home anyway." With a knowing smile on her lips Belle led the way back into his office. He saw her eye his worktable wistfully, most likely remembering the many times she had hopped on to the smooth surface to help with, or usually distract him from, his work. With a small sigh, and a hand placed on her round stomach, she took a seat in the large overstuffed chair he had moved into the room just for her. He set the food down on the table and pushed a small footstool towards her. Only after she had humored him and put her feet up, and he had tucked a random afghan over her lap, did he open up the bag contain their lunch, making sure she had hers first.
The day seemed to go much faster now that he wasn't constantly fretting that Belle was going to go into labor while he was gone. He spent most of the time in the back room trying to keep his wife from getting up if at all possible. After lunch he brought out the chess set he had been cleaning before and worked on that while Belle read aloud to him. Every once in a while he was forced to go out and deal with the few customers who had decided to come peruse the items on display, but he was quick to get them back out the door. Every time he had successfully chased a customer away and rejoined Belle she would shake her had and make a comment about them losing business, but she always had a small smile twisting up the corners of her mouth.
Before he knew it was five o'clock and was time to close the shop. Rumple pressed a kiss to her forehead and another one to her stomach before going out to start closing down the store. He had flipped the sign and had just started counting down the cash drawer when he heard something fall and Belle groan. Pausing with the money he had been counting still between his fingers and glanced back towards the curtain. "Everything okay Sweetheart?" He could hear her huffing but she didn't seem in pain. "I dropped my book." She sounded so dejected and he could just see her trying to reach the fallen piece of fiction without getting up from her spot. "I'll get it in just a moment Love." He heard her murmur something and then the sound of her settling back into her chair. With a small smile he continued counting down the drawer.
A minute, maybe two, passed and Rumple had just finished counting when a gasp and then Belle yelling his name sounded from behind the curtain. He moved as fast as he could without resorting to magic, shoving the curtain aside to find Belle standing up, but hunched over. She had one hand placed on the arm of her chair, the other wrapped around her belly. The detail that really caught his attention though was the puddle on the floor at her feet. Her water had broken.
Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One, the most powerful magical being in all the known worlds froze in shock at the realization that his wife was going into labor. Part of his mind screamed for him to take action, to sweep Belle into his arms and get her to the hospital as fast as magic would carry them. But another part of his mind, the part that belonged to the cowardly spinner he had once been, was rendering him motionless. It was Belle looking over at him, panic clearly evident on her features, and then his name escaping her lips on a pained cry that finally snapped him into action.
He was at her side a second later and he didn't know to this day if he traveled by magic or if he had actually managed to put one foot in front of the other to get there. He wrapped one arm around her back and the other around her stomach. "I've got you Sweetheart. We'll be at the hospital in just a second." Magic curled around their feet, slowly twisting its way up, but before it completely engulfed them Belle wrenched herself out of the swirl of magic. "No!" Their magical transport dissipated as quickly as it had started. Belle stood only a mere foot away from him, her arms crossed protectively over her swollen stomach, but it seemed much further. He couldn't understand why she had pulled away, she had to realize they needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. There were many good memories associated with the back room of his shop but he didn't want the birth of their child to join them. "Belle, what's wrong?"
"The price!" Another wave of pain seemed to rip through her and he was surprised at how close together her contractions were coming already. It was hard to focus on what she was saying when she was in such obvious pain. Rumple wanted nothing more than to make it stop but when he opened his arm for her she stepped back once again gasping out the same two words she said before and he still didn't understand. "Sweetheart what price?" He didn't have the slightest clue what she was talking about or why it was being brought up now, all he knew is she had to let him make it better for her. Talking wasn't going to help her but anytime he took a step forward she took one back so he was stuck with using words. "Belle, Sweetheart, what are you talking about. What price?"
"Magic! All magic comes with a price!"
Realization dawned on him and he finally grasped her reluctance to use magic to transport them to the hospital. He wanted to argue and promise that he would happily pay any price for her and their child but magic was unpredictable in Storybrooke, even for him and he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't backfire on them. With a few choice words being muttered under his breath he shoved his hand into his pocket to fish out the keys to their car. "Come on Love, the car's in the alley."
Belle let him help her out to the car and buckle her in. After getting in himself he managed to make the seven minute drive to the hospital in a record three minutes by breaking practically every traffic law known to man. Sheriff Swan was going to fine his arse until his wallet bled but he didn't give a damn. He parked in the fire lane right in front of the emergency room, shooting a glare at the intern who stupid enough to tell him he couldn't park there. It was a work of a moment to get Belle into a wheel chair and after threatening the entire nurse's station with a dramatic raise in rent if they didn't help his wife immediately they were quickly led to a private room to wait for the Whale.
Once they were settled into the room everything seemed to slow down. It felt like hours before damn Doctor, and he used that term lightly, Whale decided to make his appearance, though Belle assured him it was only a few minutes. "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Gold how are we doing to day?" Rumple stared at the imbecile, the urge to beat the idiot with his cane rising in him. It was only Belle's grip on his hand tightening to a bruising degree as another contraction hit her that saved the doctor from his wrath. Thankfully the contraction seemed to draw Whale and his receiving nurse's attention and they quickly went to work.
Belle was apparently already dilated nine centimeters and her contractions were now just over a minute apart. Each time one ripped through her body and she cried out in pain it tore at his heart. "Isn't there something you can do for her you blithering idiot?" Whale didn't even flinch in the face of Rumple's snarl, which under normal circumstances might have impressed him, but at this point simply annoyed him more. "Her contractions are too close together for us to administer an epidural and even if they weren't, she's progressing too fast for it to have much an effect. She's going to have to do this naturally."
Snails. The idiot doctor and his cowering little slip of a nurse were going to make nice little slimy slithering snails when this was all done. "So you are just going to let her suffer? Are you insane? This is my wife and she is in pain! Help her unless the two of you would like to spend the rest of your miserable lives as snails!" He was shout, he was aware of that fact but he also didn't care. Whale again didn't even blink in the face of his anger. "Women gave birth without epidurals for thousands of years, if she were still in the Enchanted Forrest she wouldn't have had it. Women's bodies are made for this. She'll be fine."
Magic crackled at his fingertips, ready to turn the idiot who wanted his Belle to suffer into something worse than a snail, possibly beetle or cockroach, something that was easily crushed underneath his cane. It was only Belle having yet another contraction that saved the idiot. She held his hand in hers and with each contraction she squeezed it tightly, her face scrunched up, crying out as it tore through her. He wanted to make it better, he begged her to let him make the pain go away, he'd take it on himself if it would make her happy, anything so that she wasn't hurting. But like before she rebuffed his pleas. "No! Whale's right. I can do this."
"Belle please! Let me help you."
"Can you absolutely, 100% guarantee that this wont come back to haunt us?" His silence was answer enough for her and Rumple had never felt so powerless. What was the point of magic if he couldn't do anything to help the most important person in his life?
For the next hour and a half he sat through Belle crushing his hand, and cursing him till she nearly went blue, trying to sooth her as much as possible. He wiped sweat from her head, fed her cup and cup after ice chips, glared at the nurse and Whale every time they said things were going 'great.' Things were not going great. His wife was in pain, it was all his fault, and there was nothing he could do to help.
Belle looked exhausted by the time Whale told her it was time for her to push. The nurse helped Belle sit up and Rumple let her brace herself him every time she was told to push. He continued to keep her hair from her face, whispering in her ear how she was doing such a great job, and how beautiful she was, and how much he loved her and...
"Rumplestiltskin shut up! Next time you are wearing a god damn condom! No, you are never touching me again. You are spending the rest of your immortal life celibate!"
He could hear Whale snickering at Belle's words and he was blessed with the thought of him sliding around the floor as a snail when this was all over. "I'm sorry Belle. I love you. It's almost over. You're doing so well Love."
"I said shut uppppppppp!"
Belle's words mixed with the cries of their child as she finally graced the world with her presence. She. It was a girl. He had a daughter now. For nine months he had waited to find out the gender of his child after he and Belle agreed they wanted to wait, and now he had a little girl.
Whale handed his daughter off to the nurse while he helped Belle with the after birth. Belle still had a death grip on his hand and so he remained by her side, but his eyes never left as the nurse carried his baby girl over to get cleaned, weighed and measured. Once Belle was finally cleaned up and relaxing, propped up against his chest, the nurse brought over their bundle of joy. "She's eight pounds, eleven ounces, twenty-one inches long, and perfectly healthy. Congratulations." She laid the bundle of pink into his Belle's arms and Rumplestiltskin got the first look at his daughter.
She was perfect.
Looking up at Belle he could see there were tears in her eyes, and he knew his own were the same way. "She's beautiful." Belle whispered, pressing a kiss to their little girl's tuft of dark downy hair. Smiling, he pressed a matching kiss to Belle's temple. "Aye, she looks just like her mother." Belle returned his smile and passed him their daughter. The second he held her for the first time, his tears slipped down his cheeks and he didn't even care that the nurse and Whale were still in the room. With Belle pressed to his side and his daughter in his arms he couldn't help it.
"Does she have a name?"
Rumple looked up at the nurse who seemed to have lost some of her fear of him after seeing him melt over his baby girl. They had never truly decided on a name, figuring that when they finally saw their child the name would come to them. Looking down at his baby girl's crystal blue eye, and he really hoped they stayed that color, he knew they were right. He glanced at Belle and she smiled and nodded. "Elizabeth. Her name is Elizabeth Gold."
"Elizabeth Bailey Gold."
He whipped his head around, careful not to jostle the precious bundle in his arms, to stare in shock at Belle. She wore the same smile she had before this time with a hint of nostalgia mixed in. When they had found out Belle was pregnant his Baelfire had been gone for two years. Even though several years had passed Rumple had been plagued with worries of if Bae would think, because he didn't believe for one second his boy wasn't watching him someplace, that he was being replaced.
He had tried to hide these worries from Belle but like always she saw through him. She assured him then that Bae wouldn't worry about being replaced, because nothing could replace the love he held for his son, but instead he just had to make room in his heart to love their child too. Now she was making sure that Bae would never be forgotten by anyone. Forever his memory would live on through the little sister he never got the chance to meet.
He had to choke back another flow of tears as he was still aware of the face Whale and the nurse was watching them. Taking a deep breath and giving Belle a watery smile of his own he nodded. "Yes. Elizabeth Bailey Gold." The nurse nodded and after a moment she and Whale finally left them. He clutched his daughter, his Elizabeth, in one arm and pulled Belle closer with the other. With his family in his arms he had never been happier.
There it is! I hope you enjoyed it. As always please feel free to tell me what you think. If you don't like it please tell me what I would like to know how I can improve. If you did like it please tell me what about it you liked. I always love hearing from people who read my stuff.