A/N: Short chapter now means longer chapter next time. And the possibility of nookie. Bwah ahahah.
"Jasper," Alice tried to get his attention and failed.
Jasper didn't register the voice. He was pacing back and forth in front of Charlotte's bed. Also pacing, but in reverse of his own course, Peter had run his hands through his hair so much that he looked rather like Edward.
"Peter," Charlotte said, amused.
Neither men paid attention, both checking things off their fingers. "I should get ice chips. Yeah," Peter muttered, but he neglected to realize he had to leave to get them.
"Did you install the car seat? You know they won't let us leave here without a car seat installed," Jasper said as they crossed paths.
"I installed the car seat," Peter said, sounding more distracted than insulted.
"But did you install it right?" Jasper countered, coming to a sudden halt as he faced Peter.
Peter furrowed his eyebrows, looking slightly guilty. "Okay, I asked Rosalie to install it..."
"Peter!" Jasper cried. "You couldn't do it by yourself? It's a car seat. It's a basic. She's going to be in car seats for years and if you can't-"
"Jasper Austin Whitlock!" Alice yelled at the same time Charlotte growled, "Peter William Damon!"
Both men stopped arguing and looked at the women. Charlotte was rolling her eyes so hard, Jasper was surprised they didn't reach the pillow she was resting on. Alice, on the other hand, was glaring at them. "For goodness sakes," she muttered, shaking her head. "Would you two calm the hell down?"
"We're having a baby!" Peter protested.
"No, Charlotte's having a baby. Do you see her freaking out like a banshee with its raggedy cloak on fire?" she demanded, tapping her foot like a schoolmarm.
"No," Peter and Jasper muttered contritely.
"That's right," Alice said. "Now you two are either going to take a breath and become useful or you're going to be banished to the waiting room like this is the g'damn 1800s all over again."
Charlotte's chortling cut off suddenly with a gasp and she groaned. Peter and Jasper rushed to her bedside, fluffing pillows and patting her shoulder soothingly. As soon as she was over the worst of the contraction, she looked around her and gave a breathy laugh. "You guys look so serious. I'm not dying. I'm having a baby."
"What can we do?" Jasper asked, anxious.
"Not much you can do, honey," Charlotte said, relaxing again. "This is a process as old as time. Let it happen." As she spoke, she rubbed Jasper's arm and he had to admit he felt a little better.
"The nurse said you could get up and walk a little," Alice encouraged. "What do you say?"
"Walking around with my ass hanging out the back of this lovely gown they have going on?" Charlotte asked. "Sure, sounds like fun."
"Here, let me do that," Peter said quickly, taking Alice's place, supporting Charlotte as she got out of bed.
"Are you sure you can handle that?" Alice sassed. "Maybe I should send you to boil some water. That you might be able to accomplish."
"Alice," Jasper growled lightly. "Enough, we get it. Forgive us for being a little nervous."
"Go easy on the guys, Al," Charlotte said, leaning on Peter. "They've just figured out this is all real. This is the easy part. This will be over relatively quick, then they get to take this girl home and she's theirs forever," she said, resting a hand on her swollen belly.
The boys' eyes met across the room. Jasper reflected that he probably had the exact same expression on his face - complete and utter terror.
~0~
Tired of Jasper's incessant questioning, the nurse had sent him to take a walk. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets, a little disgruntled.
It took him a minute to realize there was more noise coming from the waiting room than was typical given that it was almost midnight. Familiar noise. He hurried around the corner.
Low and behold, most everyone in the waiting room belonged to him. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked, a little taken aback.
The waiting room was crawling with Cullens.
"How are you all here?" he asked, a little perplexed. If there was anything that the last two years had taught him, it was that babies complicated everything. As Charlotte had groused months before, Edward and Bella and Alice and Rosalie couldn't go anywhere without first making arrangements for their kids. Despite that, Edward, Bella, and Rosalie were present along with Carlisle and Esme.
"I'm trusting my one and only child, my precious baby girl in Jacob Black's hands," Edward said. He was lying across three chairs with his head cradled on Bella's lap. He grinned lazily at Jasper. "Except for my utter terror that he's going to... I don't know, use her as a g'damn football, this part is pretty zen when it's not me going out of my mind."
"Ha," Bella said, ruffling his hair. "Going so out of your mind your nearly missed your daughter's birth because you were sleeping."
Edward grimaced. "That wasn't... Are you ever going to let that go?"
Jasper flinched, Carlisle gave a little hiss, knowing his son was in trouble, and Esme just rolled her eyes.
"Let it go?" Bella asked. "I was pushing your daughter into the world, after twenty hours of labor, and you were taking a nap!" She got up, making Edward give a little 'oof' as his head clunked suddenly down on the couch.
Putting on a smile, Bella walked to Jasper and pulled him into a hug. "Like I was gonna miss this. You didn't leave me, why would I leave you?"
Jasper chuckled. "I'm not really doing the hard part. I pester the nurse for ice chips, among other things." He looked over at Rosalie. "Where's Dash?"
"He's with Emmett and Tanya, still fast asleep the last time I checked," Rosalie said with a smile. "How are you?"
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Jasper had to laugh. "Me? I... I don't know," he admitted.
Tugging on her husband's arm, Esme stood. "I think we're in need of a midnight snack. We'll bring something for you and Peter," she said decisively.
"You stay," Bella commanded when Edward made a move to get up.
He sighed, watching her walk away with his parents, and ran his hands through his hair.
"Just so you know, you're an idiot," Rosalie told her twin. Shaking her head, she wrapped an arm around Jasper and led him to a comfortable looking sofa. "Talk to me," she commanded.
"This is such a stupid thing to be thinking right now..." Jasper hedged, ashamed at his own thought process. "My little girl is about to be born and I'm thinking... Ah, hell," he muttered.
Edward snorted, coming to sit on Jasper's other side. "Come on, Jasper, look at who you're talking to here. Just tell us."
"I am... terrified," he finally admitted. "I'm scared she's going to come out looking like Charlotte and Peter, and she's not going to feel like she's mine. And I feel... God, I feel like such a little shit for even thinking this... But is it different somehow? Will it feel different? Our family not being like... like other families? I've thought about it so often since we've known she was coming, but is it really going to feel...normal coming home to my baby?"
Rosalie looked at Jasper cooly for a few moments before she smacked him upside the head. Hard.
"Crap, Rose," he hissed, rubbing the sore spot.
"You're being ridiculous," she said flatly. "Jasper, you've loved that little girl every moment of this pregnancy. How Charlotte put up with your ear or your hands or your lips constantly attached to her belly is beyond me. And did you look into her eyes, when you wanted to share those moments, knowing you were so close to being a daddy? No, of course not. You looked at Peter." She gave a bark of laughter. "If that little girl pops out and she's bright, alien green, you won't love her any less. She owns you now, only you won't realize it until the moment you lay eyes on her."
"That's true," Edward agreed softly. "Before she was born, I thought I loved my daughter. I told her, over and over, I did. But when I saw her..." He's voice trailed off. He looked at Jasper with a small, knowing smile. "You know Bella and I didn't plan her. Arianna was conceived the exact same way your baby was, and when she was being created, I had no idea who Bella was or what she could be to me. Fuck normal. My baby is more precious to me because I almost missed her."
"Every baby has a birth story," Rosalie continued. "This whole process is just part of Bethany's. And take it from me... if she looks exactly like Charlotte and Peter, you're only going to love her more. She'll look like the man you love, whose eyes and pretty, pretty features you adore, and the woman who gave you the greatest gift imaginable."
"I don't know what came over me," Jasper admitted about a half an hour later after the elder Cullens and Bella came back.
"It's Dad's job to be nervous. It just manifests in different ways," Esme said, patting his hand. "This one," she gestured at Carlisle. "When Emmett was being born, he was pacing furiously, muttering under his breath that he didn't know how to build a tree house."
"Thanks for that," Carlisle said, kissing his wife's forehead and rolling his eyes.
"You're a natural," Bella said easily. Having forgiven Edward upon her arrival back, she was tucked under his arm, her head lazing on his shoulder. "Only this time you can't rile her up and hand her to someone else to deal with."
Jasper groaned. "You're going to enjoy that part, aren't you?"
Her eyes twinkled with mischief. "Yep!"
Before he could come back from that, Alice came running into the waiting room. "Come on, Dad," she said, tugging Jasper to his feet. "You're up. Final stretch now."
"What do you mean final stretch?" Jasper asked, following her. "It's only been a couple of hours."
"Chyeah," Alice said, shaking her head. "Bella's going to be pissed. Anyway, the doctor is almost here."
"This is happening," Jasper said numbly.
Alice stopped. She stood in front of him, getting on her tiptoes and putting her hands on either side of his face. "You got this," she said firmly, her eyes betraying nothing but the complete faith she had in him. "Okay?"
He breathed in and out slowly, wrapping his arms around Alice and sweeping her into a hug that lifted her right off the ground. "Thank you," he said, feeling not even remotely ready but knowing he had the strength of his surrogate family behind him.
Turning, Jasper went alone into the birthing room.
Peter looked up, relief flooding his features when he saw Jasper in the doorway. "There you are," he said.
Jasper took his place on Charlotte's other side. "Sorry, darl. I didn't think Charlotte was going to hit the fast forward on this whole thing."
Charlotte rolled her head, looking flushed and not as calm as she had before. Still, she grinned at him. "Sorry, Poppa. I told you. I give birth as easy as an ally cat."
"You're really okay?" Jasper asked, smoothing her hair back tenderly.
"I'm totally fine," she assured. Then she groaned as another contraction hit. It must have been strong because she whimpered, clasping Jasper and Peter's hands simultaneously.
"Baby's eager to meet you now," she said breathlessly, just as the doctor arrived.
Charlotte was right. Once the doctor told her to push, it was only minutes before the baby crowned. Another minute and she was there. The moment was utterly surreal because it happened so quickly and then there was a flurry of movement as the nurses and the doctor examined her - a precaution because she was a little early. Bethany didn't scream as Arianna had. Her cry was more startled, as if the whole situation took her by surprise.
Jasper was sure he had the same dumbstruck look as Peter did, both their eyes watching their daughter, so close and yet untouchable for the moment. "How is she?" Jasper asked, his voice a strangled squeak. "How's my girl?"
"Not to worry, Daddy," the doctor said, soothingly. "She's just fine. Come cut the chord and we'll get her cleaned up for you."
He looked over at Peter who just nodded, still unable to speak. His hands were wrapped tightly around one of Charlotte's. Jasper took the scissors the doctor handed him with shaking hands and cut his daughter loose from Charlotte.
Bethany was whisked away briefly, and Peter managed to stumble over to Jasper's side of the bed. Neither of their eyes had left the tiny, whimpering baby. The doctor brought Bethany to them, now wrapped up, and placed her carefully in Jasper's arms.
"She's so little," Peter said with a gasp, his eyes welling with tears.
"She's normal," the doctor assured.
"They kind of come this way," Charlotte said, laughing and crying at the same time.
But Jasper didn't hear any of that. All he heard were the tiny, baby sounds his daughter was making as she squirmed, her eyes open and, though he knew it wasn't possible, looking at him. Her weight was minuscule and yet heavy in his arms. In those moments, staring down at her hazy gray eyes, Jasper knew that everything Edward and Rosalie had told him was true. He'd said for months how much he loved his little girl, but he didn't realize the depth of that emotion until that very second. She'd instantaneously carved out a piece of his soul and he was, he abruptly knew, forever altered. And it didn't matter what she looked like. Right then, she looked like a bald Shar Pei puppy - a blotchy one at that. But to Jasper, Aphrodite herself would have looked like a hag compared to the creature in his arms.
"Peter," he whispered, ripping his eyes away from his daughter to look up at his lover, his partner, the love of his life. "She's ours. We're Daddies." His voice cracked, and he couldn't help the tears that spilled over onto his cheeks.
Wrapping his arm around Jasper's back, Peter leaned his head against the blond man's cheek. "Our daughter," he said in awe.
Just like that, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter that neither of them had carried their baby inside of them. It didn't matter that it had taken specialists and a lab to help them get here. It didn't matter that there would be people out there who looked on them as wrong. The only thing that mattered was the little bundle he held and the man at his side.
His family.
He looked at Peter again and kissed him soundly. It didn't matter whose blood ran through her veins. There was no one else who was going to be there every day. No one else was going to be whatever their daughter needed. They were her parents. No one else was going to love her the way they did.
Frightening as it was, it was also the most natural, normal thing in the world.
~0~
Bethany Charlotte Whitlock
B: 8/21/2013 at 12:47 A.M.
Weight: 5 pounds 4 ounces
Length: 18 inches
~0~
A/N: Welcome to the world, baby Bethany.
Thanks to my cheerleaders, jfka06 and barburella, this was done in an evening. Weee! And thanks to jadedandboring, it was beta'ed overnight. I love the people who love me.
And thanks to y'all for all your well wishes. Surgery went fine and I'm on the upswing now. :) I sincerely appreciate all your kind words.
