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"Life is what happens when we're busy making other plans."
~John Lennon "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"
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It took longer for Amy to be brought back to her room than Maxine would've liked, even longer before the doctors "permitted" people back. Sean told her it had only been ten minutes, but Maxine wasn't inclined to believe him as she shoved her way out of the waiting room, both her granddaughters leading the charge with her back down the hallway to the maternity room suite that had been abandoned in the chaotic commotion of Amy's delivery.
The nurses were only letting a handful of people back at a time, so Maxine and the girls were the first wave, and the others were going to wait ten minutes before screwing the rules and bombarding the room en mass.
Maxine stopped short when she got in the doorway and saw Amy sitting up in the bed holding onto a baby swathed in a pink blanket.
"Mom!"
Lauren tore into the room, pushing past Maxine.
Amy looked up from the baby and at Lauren. "Hey noodle."
Lauren raced over to the bed and threw her arms around Amy.
Amy shifted the baby in the crook of her elbow and wrapped an arm around Lauren. "It's all okay baby." She turned kissed Lauren's brown hair twice in succession.
Lauren squeezed her tighter, tears streamed down fast and into her mother's hospital gown.
Amy pulled back, and set a hand to Lauren's hair, glancing backwards at Rebecca who was standing in the doorway with Maxine. "You guys wanna meet your sister?"
At the word 'sister' Rebecca gravitated into the room, walking over to the bed, staring down at the baby with an amazed expression. "Can I hold her?"
"Yeah," Amy sat up more shifting the baby to rest in the bend of her arm. "Just keep one hand under her head-" she tucked the baby into Rebecca's arms.
The baby flailed her arms, brushing against one of Rebecca's braids making her smile. "She's so cute."
"She's got such little fingers." Lauren moved closer and reached a hand down and closed a thumb and forefinger on the baby's fist.
"She's beautiful," Maxine said from the doorway, just watching the scene of her oldest grandchild holding her newborn sister. "She's absolutely beautiful," she came into the room and leaned over the bed, framing Amy's face with her hands and kissed her forehead twice in succession. She turned around and did the same to Bruce, pulling him down to her height to do so before reaching her arms up to hug him.
"Becca, I'm sorry, but may I?" Maxine said after she released Bruce.
Rebecca reached her arms out slowly over Amy's bed and Maxine settled the baby against her, staring down at her newest grandchild, she rocked the baby slowly up and down in her arms. "What's her name you two?"
"Cassidy," Bruce answered his mother-in-law. "Cassidy Evangeline Van Exel."
Rebecca turned to Lauren, "Isn't that your last name?"
"Yes it is," Amy reached over and took Lauren's hand. Evangeline was Bruce's grandmother's name; and even though Amy was not very, or not often at all, close to her ex-husband Michael, it was also Lauren's last name. "This way, Lauren won't be the only Cassidy left in their family."
Rebecca turned to Bruce next. "Great Grandma Evie's full name is Evangeline, isn't it dad?"
"Yes it is baby," Bruce returned. "Your named after your mom and her mother, and I sort of promised Grandma Evie that if I had another baby before she died, she'd get placement somewhere in the name - so what do you think?"
"Cassidy's perfect dad," Rebecca said. "Evangeline would be a really hard name for a toddler to say."
Bruce laughed at this and walked over and wrapped his arms around his oldest daughter. "Thanks for the input," he leant down and kissed her on top of her braids.
"Cassidy Evangeline Van Exel," Maxine rocked the baby from side to side. "I'm your grandmother, one of them at least, Maxine Gray-Mecina, and I'm so glad you finally made it out because I have been waiting to meet you." She pulled the blanket down more from the baby's head exposing more thick curls "I must say right now, you're already far too pretty for your own good, I blame your parents- they're far too pretty for their own goods too." She laughed the laughter like the foam of a drink had gotten up her nose, looking up to her daughter and son-in-law as her laughter caught to them. She leant over and kissed Cassidy on her small nose and was rewarded by her granddaughter with a cooing gurgle.
The opened doorway of the labor room was over run a blur of figures as everyone else who had been waiting for Cassidy's arrival pushed their way in.
Maxine turned to the commotion "Everyone, may I present: Ms. Cassidy Evangeline Van Exel." The last part of her words were lost in the smile that almost threatened to swallow her face as she proudly held her newest grandchild up for the rest of her family to see.
Gillian and Peter were at the head of the group and Gillian covered her mouth with her hands and immediately ran over to Maxine and the baby, Walt tucked against her hip. "Oh Amy, she's beautiful!" Gillian came around to the side of Amy's bed and hugged her just as Peter reached out and slapped Bruce into a hug, followed by Vincent.
Maxine relinquished the baby back to her mother and both Vincent and Peter came around to their sister.
"Great job sis-"
Amy snorted a laugh at Peter's words. "Thanks coach, I did my very best for the team-" she laughed again another moment before Peter leant down and kissed the side of her head.
"She's gorgeous," Vincent leant over Cassidy and kissed her right in her spring of curly hair pressed flat against her head. "You and Bruce are really good at making these."
"That's such a sweet, creepy compliment," Amy returned and in another moment she and Vincent shared a laugh before he kissed her like Peter did.
"Hey, "Sean held his hand out to Bruce. "Congratulations man," When Bruce took his hand Sean pulled him into a hug.
"Thanks Sean," Bruce accepted the brief hug. He looked at Amy cradling the baby, and Lauren and Rebecca standing over them, playing with the infant's fingers.
"You've been officially overrun my friend," Sean said to him. "But there are worse ways to go, at least so I've heard." he gave Bruce a slap on the shoulder.
"There defiantly are," Bruce agreed "So I think I'm safe in taking my chances with this."
"At least until high school," Sean returned.
Bruce laughed at this, watching as Peter untangled himself from the mass of his family walking over to where Bruce and Sean were standing. "Great job bro, she's beautiful- you guys definitely have a future in this-"
"Your sister actually did all the work Peter," Bruce returned. "I just hung around and watched."
"Don't sell yourself short man, it takes two people to make a baby. It's hard, strenuous work, you defiantly had your part getting in there-"
"Peter-" Gillam's voice cut in before Peter could continue. She watched her husband turn to her.
"What?" Peter stared at his wife, not getting why she was shooting him looks for, his eyes widening in a silent signaling formation for her to tell ji,.
"I think it's time we told you in the most loving way possible –" Vincent said to his brother. "you overshare."
Peter's mouth closed slightly, glancing first at Bruce, then at Amy who was looking at him with the same look she gave him when she was 17 and caught him showing her then boyfriend, a page from his Anatomy book about female genitalia. "Sorry," He cleared his throat, and offered Bruce a punch on the shoulder.
"Alright," Maxine said "It's been a long day, It's time to let everyone get some rest." She started shepherding her family out of the room, to a few of their audible protests, mostly from her adult children. She gave one last kiss to Cassidy's face. "I'm going home and telling Grandpa all about out you." She kissed Amy the same way she kissed the baby. "The girls are staying with Peter and Gillian tonight, so no micromanaging for 24 hours, just get some rest." She leant back up and looked over to Bruce. "That means you too, Bruce."
Bruce blew out a laugh. "Yes ma'am."
Maxine walked over to him, looking up at him and rubbing his arm as Sean leant over Amy and gave her a quick kiss before joining the rest of the people leaving the room.
Maxine reached over and grabbed the stray in her family in the form of Walt who had escaped Gillian's grasp, with a squeal from the boy as she scooped him up with a growling noise and walked him out of the room.
The room echoed for a moment in the last dredges of noise from the crowd before it settled down to the quiet soft sounds of the baby in Amy's arms continuing to make her first soft noises of the day.
Bruce walked slowly over to the bed, looking down at them both. "Okay, I think its dad's turn," he reached down as Amy lifted the baby up into his hold.
Amy watched as he stood back up with her in his arms, her hospital issued white onesie fitting completely against the bend of his arms, watching as he walked around to the one small window that overlooked the parking lot, but this high up, only allowed the sun and the tops of buildings to be visible. "She's you Bruce, she's going to be the first ever newborn that will require a maternity test."
"Not with those eyes she won't," Bruce's argument was soft as he rocked the baby, even though she wasn't crying, just doing it to let her know he was there. "There are every bit, unprecedentedly yours, baby-"
Amy laughed for a moment. "Don't do that. Don't call me baby and hold her like that, I can't argue with it-" she laughed again for a moment, but it shook like a wind blowing through a paper lantern.
Bruce looked at his wife in concern, walking back over to the bed. "Are you okay? Do you want me to call the nurse?"
She looked at him, eyes on the baby, whose eyes had closed with soft dark lashes. "She could've died today-"
"But she didn't," Bruce said.
"But she could have," Amy returned. "One," she bent her head down and wiped at her eyes with the heels of both her hands. "One minute, god, one more second out of this room, and no one would've known she was in trouble until it was too late."
"You would've known Amy, before anyone else-"
"Well not fast enough-"
"You were looking for me," Bruce insisted. "If I hadn't gone down to the chapel then you would've have had to leave the floor in the first place."
"You were praying to saints for the birth of our daughter," Amy argued. "I already knew where you were! I just didn't want to sit up here-"
"What happened wasn't your fault," Bruce said.
"I carried her inside me for nine months, Bruce!" Amy argued with Bruce across her the gap between her hospital bed and where he stood, like it had been when they had argued over precedence and procedure in cases they worked together on. "and when I went into labor, things felt different than when I delivered Lauren, but I let every damn nurse in this place talk me into believing that it was just my 'advanced maternal age' and let them suggest running laps around the labor floor, instead of just believing something was really wrong, God-" her face screwed up into disbelief, at herself, at how close everything could have turned out differently. "I'm her mother-"
"Which is why you have to trust yourself, Amy-" Bruce cut her off. He sat down on the corner of her bed, shifting Cassidy into one arm, and reached across the blankets to take one of her hands. "You are one of the best mothers I know, the fact that you can't forgive yourself for something you had no control over, doesn't change that, or effect the way she'll love you."
Amy folded her lips together, the sharp saltines of tears sliding down her face. She stared down at Cassidy who wiggled in a onesie with folded over covers for her hands. She leant down and kissed the baby full on the face, wiping at her eyes messily with the back of her hands.
She looked up to Bruce and drew forward until her forehead met the soft brush of a kiss from Bruce, leaning against his own, feeling of his arms moving to go up and down her back.
"You're exhausted," Bruce's voice was a warmth of breath by her ear. "Lie down, and get some sleep."
"I can't," Amy pulled away from him with a sniff, tucking a chunk of disheveled hair behind her ear. "She hasn't eaten yet. The nurse will want me to feed her soon-"
"I can do it," Bruce offered, his hand still warm on her back "Unless you are really opposed to formula for a first feeding."
"No-No it's okay," Amy realized that it was something they never actually discussed, she just assumed. "After Lauren was born, Michael never even offered. Not that I didn't want to, I just would have liked the idea of him-" she broke off and reached both hands up around Bruce's head and kissed him long and deep. "Thank you for being her father."
She stared at them both for another minute before carefully easing herself backwards onto the pillow, Bruce's hand on her arm to help her down onto a comfortable position on her side. Lying down seemed to press all the last of the adrenaline out of her like water being discarded from a sponge, all the muscles she had known she had been using now ached in a profound exhaustion. He stood up from the bed and with a one handed motion, lowering the discarded blue hospital blanket over her and she felt one last kiss pressed to her lips before her eyes closed.
