Keefe knew something was up the moment when he felt stabbing pain near his abdomen and heard a female suck in a sharp breath from the baby's room.

He dropped what he was doing—quite literally, because his papers fluttered to the floor and his Imparter crashed without a second thought—and he was sprinting down the hallway.

He nearly tripped a couple to times as he shouted her name twice, arriving upon the doorway and bolting inside.

His eyes followed the pained cries echoing through the room to where Sophie was squatted down to the ground, gripping a chair still covered in plastic. Her eyes were squeezed shut in pain and her jaw was clenched tight. A little whimper escaped her lips and Keefe strode up to her, getting down next to her.

"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked frantically, worry seeping into his voice. He placed a hand on his pregnant wife's back, and the contact gave him a heavier rush of the pain she was feeling, drop-kicking him in the stomach like a bone-crushing punch to the gut. He winced, knowing this was only a light fraction of what she experiencing.

"Mhm," she whimpered, answering his question, keeping her eyes closed. The answer definitely wasn't convincing, but he didn't know what else to do for her, so he sat close and rubbed her back in silence.

After two full minutes of watching her writhe, he asked, "Do you need a doctor or something? It's way too early for you to be going into labor, so it's not that—thank god. But, this doesn't look too good."

"They're called Braxton Hicks contractions," she explained. "You can even call them 'practice contractions.' It's just my body moving around the baby. You can start experiencing them when you're six weeks pregnant, but you won't feel them, even if they're there. Most women don't even feel them, but a few do. The mom will start feeling them once they start show—if they're one of the few who can feel them, like me."

She chuckled, but it sounded weak and strained. "Yay for me, right? I'm so lucky."

Keefe wanted to point out that elves weren't supposed to feel anything bad during labor, and Sophie must have known he was going to, because she added, "Elwin said that I—obviously —won't feel the contractions while I'm actually having the baby. And as I said before, these are just early ones that adjust the baby and even my own body."

She shuddered and grit her teeth as another wave of pain overcame her. "I'm f-fine," she grunted.

"You don't look fine," Keefe pointed out sadly, brushing a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, bending over and peppering her jawline with kisses.

"Mm," she mumbled, a little smile twitching in her lips when he pulled away. She was still clearly in pain as her eyebrows were pressed together and her eyes stayed clenched shut, but her smile indicated she appreciated the affectionate gestures from her husband.

"Distract me," she pled after another moan of pain. "Please. . . just t-talk about something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. B-baby names," she offered shakily, shifting around a little.

Keefe blinked, coming to realize he hasn't yet discussed any with her yet. Part of him was tempted to make a few joke-names to see if it would make her smile or something, but he doubted that would happen. It would probably only make her annoyed, so he stuck with giving actual name ideas.

"Uhh, okay, let's think about this. Well, for boys names, uhhh. . ." He cringed, trying his best to think of something. It was surprisingly difficult to just spout off decent names, on-the-spot. "Davy, Luca, Salvatore—or, for short, Sal—, Alaric, Hans, Atlas, Julian, Damon, Poe, Caspian—"

Sophie let out a little giggle and Keefe rose an eyebrow. "What's funny?" he asked, perplexed and curious.

She cleared her throat, sombering when stabbing needles pain hit a sensitive spot. "Human movie. Prince Caspian was the guys' name. Anyway, please keep going."

He nodded. "I guess I'll switch to girls. Um, there's Amethyst, Arwen, Elowen, Clio, Fable, Eden, Lyra, Fawn, Twila, Coraline, Reverie, Venus, Novalee. . ."

He paused when he felt the tight coil in her stomach start to loosen, and the muscles in her back untensed. She blew out a grateful, shaking breath as the pain subsided. "There we go," she cooed, rubbing her tummy.

"It's been happening every 20-30 minutes today," Sophie admitted. "But Elwin told me it was normal. And, it shouldn't happen everyday, so it's not like from-now-on this will keep happening."

"I'm guessing that means he made you a house call today?"

"Yeah," she agreed.

For once, Keefe didn't feel like teasing her for a doctor coming to the house for one of her medical emergencies. That had hurt and he couldn't blame her for calling a medical professional. In fact, it had been very smart.

"This has been happening all day while I've been gone?" he questioned, standing up and outstretched both his hands. Her hands reached up and clasped with his, and he helped pull her to her feet.

"Ehm, no, not really. It only started a few hours before you came back, just a little bit ago." She hummed in thought. "When did you get back home?"

"Half an hour ago," he reminded.

"Ah, yeah. They only started an hour or two before that." She was still tenderly rubbing her belly, peering around at the still-unfinished room. Keefe had gotten to help her with a few things, but she had gotten most of everything done.

She knew she was very capable of doing everything in her own, but he still felt bad that most of the work has been done by her. Especially when she was feeling so sickly.

"Well, I've got some stuff to do," she sighed, walking up to him. She placed her hands on his chest, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him sweetly. Keefe cupped her face in his hands, kissing her back and making sure his lips were pressed firmly to hers.

She giggled against his mouth, twisting her lips away and leaning back a little, her eyes twinkling. "You kiss me like it's the last time you ever will," she teased.

"Hey, knowing you, I want to be prepared," he joked. She rolled her brown eyes and he chuckled, stroking her cheek. He bent over and kissed her one more time and when he pulled back, she said, "You also have work to do, you know."

"Ugh, don't remind me. How about we just fall asleep on the couch?"

She laughed. "I'll do that if I get to eat. I'm hungry."

He rose a brow. "Want me to order a pizza?"

"Adda boy!"

a/n: vote for the gender! simply comment/review with what you want to vote for!

-→ boy ! ←-

-→ girl ! ←-

also vote for the names!

vote for both a boy and a girl name, regardless of what gender you're voting for!

girls !

-→ novalee (nickname: nova) ←-

-→ venus (nickname: vennie) ←-

-→ clio ←-

-→ fawn ←-

-→ amethyst ←-

• • • • • • •

boys !

-→ julian (nickname: jules) ←-

-→ damon ←-

-→ flynn ←-

-→sawyer ←-

-→ xavier (nickname: xavi) ←-