A/N: Final chapter (of this story, not the series) tomorrow!
"Steps 44-53, Breathe & Push"
9. Step Fifty-Two, Hold Safe
When Brittany had finally been returned to her room, along with Harry, Burt and the Pierces had accompanied Kurt as he went to see all those who had been waiting around through the hours. This had left mother and son alone along with Santana. Both girls looked to the baby resting there with a sort of amazement and amusement.
"Still can't believe that came out of you," Santana shook her head to herself.
"You were there, you saw it," Brittany pointed out.
"I know, I meant… You've got a kid now, it's all happened, he's here… so fast…" she looked back to Brittany, found her in the middle of what Santana easily recognized as her trying not to show she was falling asleep. "You should get some sleep."
"I can't, what if he…" she pointed to the baby. Santana came around to sit on the edge of the bed, taking the blonde's hand.
"You won't be any good to him this tired. Really, it's okay, I'll keep an eye on him, he'll be fine." Brittany still looked hesitant to do this, but Santana's careful running of her thumb along the side of her hand had pulled her deeper into the grips of sleep, and soon she was starting to doze off.
"Not… not long, okay?" she yawned.
"Sure, you got it. Now close your eyes." Brittany obeyed the command, and within seconds she had drifted off. Santana had stayed there for a moment, making sure she was good and asleep before she would move away from her.
She'd walked back quietly around the bed, taking a seat on the small couch. She was a bit tired herself, but more than anything she was hungry, so she pulled up the bag her mother had given her. The first thing her eyes had fallen on was a sandwich, and she made quick work of unwrapping it and biting into the first half. She usually wasn't a fan of hospital food, but at the moment it was doing its job, and that was good enough for her. Before she knew it she was working her way through the second half, and that was when Harry had started to fuss.
Santana had quickly put her quarter of a sandwich down, dusting her fingers off as she approached the boy. "Hey, shh, it's okay…" she hushed, laying a careful hand on his stomach. He was very close to full blown crying, and that would have meant waking Brittany. "Shorty, hey, you're alright, please? Don't want to wake up your mom after she just got you here, do you?" she asked in the same soft voice.
Harry wasn't having it, and Santana had to make up her mind. She'd never once held him yet since he was born, and not unlike the first time Brittany had gotten her to feel for his movements, she was kind of gun shy about it. He wasn't giving her much of a choice right now.
"Alright, Shorty, come here," she had reached down, so very carefully picking him up into her arms. Once he was there, cradled against her, it was no more than three or four seconds before he had calmed. "There, that's better, isn't it?" she smiled, looking at him… He really was perfect… "You try and get some rest, too, now, you…" she tried to put him down, which only got him going again. "Are you serious? You figured that one out already?" she picked him up again, and he calmed again. "Well aren't you a clever boy?" Santana smiled, then sighed, moving to sit on the couch with him.
This was as close as she'd ever been to him, and to look at him now, she wasn't sure she could ever let him go.
"Hey, now. You might not remember this because you were not born yet… and also you're a baby… but you and I have spoken before. Or… I talked, and I assumed you listened, but anyway… That one there in the bed, sleeping, that's your mom. And the one who was holding you before, the first one, that was your dad, he'll be back in a little bit, don't worry. And me, I'm…" She paused, thinking about how she was sitting there, trying to explain something to someone who was still firing off his first thoughts, when she herself was still trying to situate her place in this picture. "Well, I'm the other one… No title yet, but let's just say I'm working on it."
She wasn't going to be getting any sort of reply from him, just like she wasn't going to get one when she'd talk to him through Brittany's belly. It was an easy escape. It felt like she was actually talking to someone, but they couldn't reply, argue, or disagree with her.
"You know, I'm starting to think you came late on purpose," she nodded. "You heard me, I see what you're up to," she played. Harry just laid there in her arms, oblivious. "Alright, maybe not," she smirked. "Just figures you'd be this adorable, with who you came from," she told him, taking his hand in hers. "You lucked out, as parents go. People might tell you otherwise, but I'm telling you this, and you do your best to hold it in that new brain of yours, okay? You have a mom and dad who've done everything in their power to give you what you need, love most of all… I can tell you first-hand what that feels like… Your dad, he's looked out for me in ways I never would have expected. And your mom…"
She looked to the bed, to the sleeping blonde, smiling to herself.
"Your mom is beyond words. There's no one better out there if you ask me, and maybe I'm biased, loving her so much…" she breathed, smiling to herself. "Second time I've said it today… Makes me wonder why I've never done it before… Maybe one day soon, I'll actually get around to saying it to her. She should be the one hearing it, shouldn't she?" she thought to herself, then blinking back to reality, she refocused herself on the baby boy. "Something else about your mom, she's a kicka… Kick butt dancer," she corrected herself. Kurt just might have smacked her on that one. "Let's see those feet, Shorty," she uncovered his legs, inspecting one little pink foot.
Just looking at something like a foot, she could imagine… Brittany dancing with him, before and after he could walk. And she could see herself in that picture, too.
"Yep, just as I thought," she breathed, smiling to Harry. "That is one fine foot, well done." Looking at him, she couldn't understand why she'd been so scared. She knew that, just as for his mother, for Harry Hummel Pierce she would do just about anything.
TO BE CONCLUDED (TOMORROW)
