Chapter summary: The title says it all. Takes place roughly three months after the previous tangent. Rated G.

Now We Are Four

Deep inside the military base, Vinnie sat numbly on a bench out in a hallway in the medical wing, fidgeting nervously as he stared blindly at the opposite wall. His fingers were like ice as he drummed them on his knees, and his feet felt like lead as he shifted them from time to time. Faceless figures crossed in front of him every once in a while, but he didn't pay any attention to them. Not until someone came and stood so the black of her shirt filled his vision, her bare arms extra white in the industrial lighting as she folded them. "What are you doing out here?" asked Tamerin.

Feeling like he was being pulled out of a daze, Vinnie blinked up at her. "Well, there isn't a real waiting room, so..."

There had been an actual hospital once, but it had been blown up years ago, so civilian injuries and illnesses were treated here at the base. Plans were in the works to build a new hospital, but they were still in the early stages and it would probably be a while before the grand opening.

Tamerin tapped her foot, like she was growing impatient about something. "I'm well aware of that," she said, her tone dry. "What are you waiting out here for? Or to be more specific...why aren't you in there with her?"

Vinnie gave her a funny look. "Wouldn't I just be in the way right now?"

This was a whole new experience for him, but he'd heard all about it, and he was pretty sure he understood his role. There wasn't a whole lot an expectant father could do except sit outside and wait anxiously while his wife labored in the next room, until he was told that it was all over and he could go see her and their new baby. That's what he'd been led to understand, anyway.

Tamerin's expression was calm, but there was a distinct look of disapproval in her eyes. "Did Charley ever tell you about the night Vector was born?" she asked.

Vinnie looked at her strangely again. "More or less. Did she tell you?"

"Not in detail. She vaguely alluded to it once, when I took her to Malteria so Deichan could give her a checkup."

Charley hadn't told him much more than that when he asked her what had happened when their son was born. Deep down, he had known that it probably wasn't the cheeriest of stories, but part of him had still hoped that it was such a happy moment it had overshadowed everything else. Instead, Charley briefly described to him how alone and afraid she had felt that night, and how it made her realize just how much she loved and missed him, even if she didn't want to admit it to herself.

Sitting here now, he tried to picture that for a minute. Pictured her lying there all alone, wishing he had been there at her side as she brought their son into the world, wishing that he had been there to hold him with her as he took his first breath, let out his first cry, and opened his eyes for the first time...

Swallowing back the hard lump that was rising in his throat, Vinnie pulled himself to his feet, marched straight down the hall and stopped outside a room on the right. There was movement on the other side of the closed door, but everything sounded quiet otherwise. Swallowing again, he tentatively pushed the old-fashioned swinging door open a few inches and poked his head in.

A mouse nurse was standing off to one side and writing on a chart, while Ashlin was sitting vigilantly by the lone bed in the room. The young Martian had worked as petite Deichan's assistant for years and knew a lot about medicine, plus he and Charley loved and trusted her, so even though Ashlin had never seen a live birth before, they had both agreed they wanted her to be present today. And speaking of Charley...

She was lying back in the bed on a mound of pillows, with a soft-looking blanket draped over her. She had her hands folded on her round middle and was breathing heavily, her cheeks deeply flushed. It looked like she was in discomfort, but when Ashlin leaned closer and whispered something, Charley flashed a brave smile.

Clearing his throat, Vinnie said softly, "Anyone mind if I come in?"

All eyes turned to him. With one of her gentle smiles, Ashlin discreetly got up and went to join the nurse on the other side of the room, while Charley sat up straighter with a look of surprise. Any doubt he had over whether he should be here or not faded into oblivion when he saw the burst of happiness that spread over his wife's face. Her smile was almost dazzling, even as her eyes grew moist, and she sat up a little more and stretched forward as her arms opened wide.

Vinnie rushed into them and held her tight, stroking her hair and kissing her face. "It's okay," he whispered as she clung to him, sniffling. "I'm here now. And I'm not going anywhere."

Charley's eyes grew moister, but the smile never left her face as she gazed up at him. She didn't say anything, and she didn't need to; the love in her eyes said it all as she cupped his face in her hands, running her thumbs over his cheeks. She stretched to kiss his nose before settling back against her pillow mound again.

After grabbing an extra stool, Vinnie made himself comfortable at his wife's side and took her hand, while Ashlin returned to her other side and gently felt her large belly for a moment. "We gave her a little local anesthesia," she commented as she stepped back again. "It should dull most of the pain - though not all of it," she added, her tone apologetic.

"I'm fine," Charley told her, even though her eyebrows suddenly drew together, her forehead lining in a wince while her grip on Vinnie's hand tightened. "Believe me, this is a million-and-one times nicer than when I had Vector. Even if I was in worse pain than I was back then, it would still be worth it."

As she spoke, she turned her head and smiled at her husband again. Her cheeks were red and her forehead was beaded with sweat, and it was a few minutes before her grip on his hand relaxed and she let out a slow breath. Vinnie smoothed back her hair and kissed her forehead, then rested his head against hers. "Love you," he whispered.

Smiling faintly, Charley reached up to brush her fingers over his cheek. "Me, too."

Vinnie stayed glued at his wife's side for the next few hours, and both Ashlin and the nurse looked her over from time to time - and occasionally peeked under the blanket - while he held her hand and spoke softly to her whenever she had a contraction. He couldn't help worrying, but Charley kept smiling at him and insisting that she was nowhere near the level of discomfort she was in the last time she gave birth.

After a while Vinnie lost all track of time. Nothing else mattered right now except for what was happening here in this room. He knew how long this could potentially take and was ready to spend the rest of the night here, if he had to - so he wasn't expecting it when Ashlin took another peek under the blanket and announced that it was about time for Charley to start pushing.

"Already?" he asked.

His wife let out a weak laugh and poked him. "What do you mean, 'already?' I've been lying here for hours."

Vinnie didn't respond. His hands shook a little as he blotted sweat off Charley's face, and as Ashlin helped her get situated while the nurse pushed back the blanket and propped her feet up, his heart sped until it was thumping wildly. He felt nervous, excited, anxious, a little scared. This was it. The big moment itself.

He hoped they didn't expect him to watch.

A doctor was called in, and he sat on a low stool at the foot of the bed while the nurse stood close by, both of them wearing gloves and masks. Ashlin hovered but stayed out of the way, a small, cheerfully-colored blanket in her hands and an expression on her face that about matched how Vinnie felt right now. Her eyes were glued to what the doctor and nurse were doing, while Vinnie kept close to his wife and continued to hold her hand.

"You can do it, Charley-girl," he murmured. "Just keep breathing in and out - deep breaths."

In spite of the pain that was lining her face, she still managed to flash him a quick, wry smile. "I know. I've done this before, remember?"

Vinnie fell quiet, and not just because the doctor told her to start pushing. Honestly, he did find himself forgetting that sometimes. For him, all of this was happening for the very first time, because he wasn't there the night their son was born. He'd missed the sounds his wife had made as she labored - how she gasped for breath, grunted from the effort of pushing, let out the occasional sharp cry as the pain spiked through the anesthesia.

"You're doing great," the doctor told her.

And he'd missed all those precious little things he'd thought about earlier, right before he came in here. Things that would have seemed unimportant once but were now priceless to him.

"That's it," the doctor urged. "Just one more."

He'd missed his chance to hold his son as a newborn, too. Along with his first steps, his first word, his first laugh. And countless other moments - moments he'd spent the last fifteen months trying to make up for but would never actually get back.

Charley's grip on his hand tightened until it hurt as she braced herself to push again. Keeping his fingers firmly around hers, Vinnie eased off the stool and drifted to the foot of the bed - as far as he could move without letting go. When he couldn't step any closer, he leaned forward and craned his neck, trying to look around his wife's upturned knees.

There really wasn't anything he could see at this angle. Just the doctor's hands as they reached up - reached up to catch something that seemed to slip out from his wife's body and into the world all at once. Tiny feet kicked. Impossibly small fingers clenched into doll-sized fists. A single short, shrill cry cut through the air.

Charley's hand suddenly left his as she sank back against the pillows with a tired exhale of breath, but Vinnie barely noticed. It was like everything on Mars - in the entire universe - had faded off into the background, unimportant and invisible to his eyes. All he could see was that tiny being cupped in the doctor's hands, while Ashlin helped cut and tie off the cord. Then she helped the nurse gently clean the bitty, fidgeting creature off and made short use of a miniature scale on a nearby counter before turning to the mouse who was watching it all, awestruck.

Ashlin's face was aglow as she lifted her cradled arms out to him, displaying their contents which were wrapped oh so carefully in the blanket. "It's a girl," she said softly.

Vinnie's heart was reaching breakneck speeds again, and it turned over a couple of times as Ashlin passed his newborn daughter to him. She looked so very tiny and delicate, her little pink fists clenching tightly as she made quiet mewling sounds. She was just perfect, from the tips of her stubby antennae to the...well, he couldn't see the bottoms of her toes right now, but he was sure that they were perfect, too. And she had the sweetest little ears, very round and smaller than what a mouse usually had, but still very much a mouse's ears.

Her soft skin was pink from head to toe, lightly mottled with a brighter peach color, and her precious little nose was a pale brown, like cinnamon. And the eyes that slowly blinked open and gazed up at him, dewy with tears, were the deepest of greens. Deep and bright and glittering like faceted jewels.

Just like her mother's eyes.

Vinnie's own eyes suddenly grew moist, but he barely noticed as he cuddled his baby girl closer, kissing and nuzzling her downy cheek as love flared in his heart until it burned. It was the same feeling he got the first time he held Vector. There wasn't another feeling like it anywhere in the world.

With his eyes still glued to the little face that watched him in return, green eyes teary but full of trust, Vinnie slowly backed up and sat down on his stool again. As he was carefully adjusting his hold - with no plans of letting go any time soon - there was a small tug on his ear.

"Hey," he heard his wife say, voice tired but amused. "It's my turn."

Vinnie felt a pang of reluctance, but he turned and gently placed their tiny daughter in her arms. Charley's face and hair was still damp with sweat, and her eyes glistened with tears - but he knew her more than well enough to know that they were tears of joy. Her face shone as she drifted her fingertips over their baby's hairless, satiny ears, her delicate muzzle and nose, softly gripped one of her tiny fists.

Glowing with love, Charley let out a soft laugh. "She's beautiful," she said, sounding awed.

Her husband couldn't help smiling wryly. "Of course she is. She's got her mother's looks."

Laughing again, Charley kissed their daughter's face and hugged her close. "What are we going to call her?"

They'd discussed - and in some cases argued about - a long list of possible names; some for boys, some for girls, some that could work either way depending on how you spelled it. As he looked at his new baby girl's face, and saw the feeling in his heart reflected in his wife's eyes, he mentally tossed those choices out the nearest window and picked a different one - the only one that fit, as far as he was concerned.

"Joy," he said, with decisiveness.

His wife smirked at him. "Don't remember discussing that one," she noted.

"We didn't," he admitted, "but it's the only name I can think of. It's the only word that can really describe how I feel right now."

Charley's eyes moistened again. "Same here."

She kissed their baby girl tenderly. "And I agree. Joy is the perfect name for her."

Vinnie sat quietly for the next few minutes, just watching the two of them together as his heart filled with emotion until it hurt. Sniffling, he leaned closer and pressed a kiss to his wife's cheek before laying his head on her shoulder. Charley had Joy cradled carefully in the crook of her arm, her hand laid gently on the front of the blanket, just over her little heart; Vinnie placed his hand over hers. "I love you so much, Charley-girl."

Charley leaned to kiss his tear-dampened face. "I know. I love you every bit as much."

Vinnie might have sat there watching them forever, if someone leaning over him and tapping his shoulder hadn't gotten his attention. Grudgingly tearing his eyes away, he looked up to see Ashlin smiling warmly at him. "I hate to disturb you three," she said softly, "but you have visitors."

It was against labor room policy to allow more than one trusted person into the room during delivery (Ashlin didn't count since she'd been assisting the nurse) but the doctor didn't object as the petite Martian scurried to the door and waved to someone out in the hall.

A trio of heads poked into the room a second later, one gray, one tan, and one white with long hair; they peeked around the door with matching grins. Laughing, Charley held Joy so they could see her, which prompted a chorus of 'awwwww' and exclamations of 'congratulations!' and wisecracks like 'nice work, bro.'

Laughing along with everyone, Ashlin left the room for a moment and came scurrying back, carrying a very eager-looking, squirmy white mouse in her arms.

Grinning, Vinnie hopped up and took his son from her, then turned to lean close to the bed. "See?" he said softly, as Vector looked, wide-eyed, at his baby sister for the first time. "This is your new sister, Joy. Whaddya think?"

Vector blinked his dark eyes, then let out a giggle and clapped his little hands. "Cute!"

Charley laughed and pinched his nose, while Vinnie gave him a tight hug and asked, "You're going to help us spoil her, right?"

"Wotten," Vector agreed.

"Not too rotten," Charley said wryly.

"She looks pretty sweet to me," Ashlin noted, a look of admiration - and a touch of envy - in her eyes.

Vinnie smirked, then leaned to kiss both his girls before sitting down again with Vector on his lap. The energetic two-year-old eventually grew sleepy and nodded off, his bros and Tam tiptoed away, and the doctor whispered his own congratulations before heading off to other obligations. Vinnie continued to linger, while Ashlin quietly took Vector home, and the nurse briefly carried Joy away to be examined more thoroughly and make sure she was completely healthy.

The happy father fidgeted while he waited for the nurse to come back; Charley ended up falling asleep. When the nurse returned and saw that Joy's mommy was dozing, she told Vinnie with a smile that Joy was in perfect health, then offered to take her to the makeshift nursery for the time being.

Vinnie, who had grabbed a more comfortable chair while he was waiting, shook his head. "I'll hold her until Charley wakes up," he said firmly.

"Are you sure?" the nurse asked, as Vinnie reached over and took his sleeping daughter from her.

As he kissed Joy's soft forehead, he thought about how she would probably only be in the nursery for a couple of hours at the most - and thought about how even those few short hours were more time than he was willing to miss. With a smile, he settled back in his seat. "I'm sure."