A/N: So this is the next-to-last chapter for this story...thank you to everyone who's been reviewing and following it! I was so excited to hear the responses that I got, especially you guys who were saying how you cried...I'm glad I was able to give y'all a story that you became emotionally invested in like that!...Also have to get in there that I don't have any rights to the lyrics of 'Me and Bobby McGee' by Janis Joplin, it's just a fave song of mine, as is 'Could You Be Loved?' which Hyde starts up with in this chapter as well...so now we get to see Hyde as a daddy! Oh and once this story gets 2 reviews, it's passed the review count for 'Rock of Ages!'...you know the drill now!
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"Can I see her?"
"In a minute, Jackie, we have to clean her up and weigh her," the nurse responded.
"Okay." Jackie nodded. The full effect of the drugs was taking over; she felt light headed and sleepy. "Steven?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we still give her Kelso's name?"
Hyde grinned. "Of course."
The nurse came back over with their baby, and passed her to Hyde. "Here she is."
Hyde stared down at the little wriggly person wrapped in soft white blankets, her face scrunched up and mouth opened in a Bob Marley wail. One tiny pink-caramel hand was clenching and unclenching in a fist. Hyde couldn't see the colour of her eyes, but he saw they had Jackie's long black lashes.
"Hi Michael," Hyde whispered to her. Immediately her fretful whimpers soften and he could see her eyes, that were now open wide and staring at him, were so deep blue they were almost black. "She knows her name."
"Yeah, she does."
"Jackie, we want to get you stitched up and cleaned up, too, and then take you up to post-op. We're going to give you a second dose of sedative once you're up there so you can get some sleep, okay?"
"Uh-huh."
"Hyde can I speak to you a moment?"
The nurse took Michael from Hyde's arms and placed her in a bassinet before taking Hyde out of the operating room. "I just want them to have a bit of privacy while they fix Jackie up."
"Okay, so what's the deal?"
"The baby is a good size; she's seven pounds, six ounces, which means we probably won't need to give her any kind of assistance for nutrition. But because she's a month premature, the doctor still wants to put her in the NICU just to keep an eye on her immune system, make sure she doesn't develop any infections, and to make sure that when Jackie starts breast feeding, she'll be absorbing the proper amount of nutrients."
"Okay, um, how long will they keep her there?"
"Most likely just overnight to start with and then play it day-to-day from then." The nurse smiled and patted his shoulder. "You did well, Hyde, most guys panic on how to keep their women calm."
"Jackie's tough. We've been through a lot together. I figure if she can handle all that, this would be like Wonderland."
"I'm going to go with Jackie up to the post-op room, so I better head back in."
"Okay." Hyde stripped off the gown, tossed it into the same bin that he'd seen the nurse toss hers in, and walked back out to the waiting room to his group of people. His family. Brooke and Donna had fallen asleep propped up against each other, and Eric was idly flipping through a magazine. Kitty had also fallen asleep against Red and he'd put his arm around her; Red was still juiced up from the espresso and hadn't shut his eyes once. When he saw Hyde come into the waiting room, Red nudged Kitty awake, as Eric stood up and prodded the other women into alertness.
"So, ah what's the verdict? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. I have a little girl."
The room erupted into zealous cheering and Kitty bounced over and threw her arms around Hyde's neck.
"They took Jackie into recovery, since they did a c-section but she's going to be fine, and the baby's in the NICU just as a precaution since she's a preemie, but…everyone's doing awesome so far."
"What about your little girl? What's her name?"
"Her name is Michael, we named her after Kelso."
Red looked at him with an astounded look on his face. "You named your brand spanking new baby girl after that oafish kettlehead who cheated on your wife with my trampy daughter?"
"No, Dad," Eric interjected, a defensive tone in his voice, "Hyde named his baby girl after his best friend who was a great father himself and set a damn fine example for all of us to live up to."
"Alright, well, I think we're all going to go back to Brooke's house, and we'll be here first thing in the morning. We'll bring food," Brooke added before a fight could breakout, "and the kids will be by, too."
Hyde gave them all a round of hugs; once they left he went to the nurses' station on the floor and asked for directions to the NICU. When he arrived there, he stopped hesitantly at the door, then caught Jackie's nurse's eye when she glanced up and saw him.
"Hey Hyde. You here to check on your little girl?"
"Yeah. I want to see her before I go see Jackie."
"Sure." She led him over to the bassinet where Michael was bawling away again.
"So did you pick out a name?"
"Yeah, we decided on Michael."
"But it's a girl."
Hyde stroked a finger tip over the skin of her cheek. "I know. My best friend was named Michael and he's the reason we ended up together at all. So I think we should name her Michael."
"I'm surprised you wouldn't pick something more music related. Jackie mentioned something about you owning a record store when I took her into post-op."
They stopped at Michael's bassinet and Jaime clucked her tongue as she picked up the crying infant and passed her to her father.
"She has a big ol' set of lungs in her, that's for certain."
"Yeah." Hyde agreed, holding his baby girl in a way that he hoped would calm her down. "She's always got something to say, just like her mother."
"Oh listen to you, Miss Mouth, just wailing away."
Hyde could almost feel the light bulb go off over his head. "Marley," he said, dreamily as he stroked a fingertip gently over his daughter's cheek. He smirked as he began to hum Could You Be Loved. Almost instantly, the baby's whimpers subsided and the eyes which were scrunched up, just like the moment he'd first seen her, slowly unclenched and stayed open, fixed on his face. When she giggled, Hyde felt himself fall in love all over again.
"That's right; you're my little wailer Marley Michael Hyde."