He hadn't done this before. With Sadie, it was more like a "your wife might die and so might your kid" moment. He hadn't been there for the labour. Now that he was, he was happy he had missed it. It was horrible.

It must have been even worse for Jules. It was her first time with the whole labour thing too. And she was the one having the baby. When they came in, she was already five centimeters dilated. That was halfway. Halfway done, right? Not quite.

He had managed to call Natalie on the way over and she picked Sadie up from the hospital while Jules was getting the baby monitoring stuff done. For once, he was happy Natalie went to bed so late. It was almost 1 o'clock now.

"I need to push." Jules said suddenly. Her breathing quickened.

"Right now?"

"Right now." She let go of his hand and he ran to the reception desk. "My wife said she needs to push." he told the lady there. She looked less than happy to see him. "Name?"

"Julianna Braddock, but she needs to push right now. I need the doctor now." She peered over her glasses at him and typed something into the computer. "Paging Dr. McCarthy, paging Dr. McCarthy, room 816." she spoke into the microphone. "She'll be there soon."

"I need her now."

She looked like she was going to shout at him, but then took a deep breath. "Alexi?" A young girl turned around "Could you go with this man and check his wife? She says she needs to push."

"Of course. Lead the way." Once they were away from the desk, she spoke again. "Sorry about her. She doesn't exactly love her job as much as some of us do."

Sam opened the door to Jules' room and she stepped inside. "Hello Mrs. Braddock, my name's Alexi, I'm a third year resident here at the hospital. It's a stupid question but can you tell me how it feels?" she asked with a smile.

"I need to push really bad." she groaned.

Alexi smiled. "I'm going to check you, okay? How long ago was a nurse or a doctor in here?"

He sighed. "Like two hours."

"Well you shouldn't be - okay, you need to push."

"No shit." she grumbled. The doctor or nurse or whatever she was stepped into the hall for a moment. "I need an OB right now!" she shouted. Another doctor came down the hall almost immediately. "She's crowning, are you her doctor?"

"I'm a doctor."

"That'll work."

They both stepped back in and the doctor grabbed a clipboard from the desk in the corner of the room. "You're a week and a half early, that's not too bad."

"I need to push." she said for what felt like the millionth time that night.

"I know, we're going to do that now. How far apart are your contractions?"

"About thirty seconds."

"Alright, on the next one, I need you to -" Jules groaned as she felt another one.

"Push. Good job Julianna, you can do it. Give me a big push." Alexi ran into the hall again. "Hanna, grab a leg."

"There we go, you got the head. That's the hard part. Now you just need to get the - Push. Okay, you can do it. Come on Julianna, push."

He was pretty sure his hand was broken.

"It's a boy." he said happily. He had called Ed and Natalie while Jules was resting once the baby had been born and they had called pretty much everyone. "He's a little small but he's perfect."

"Can we see him?" Spike asked immediately. Ed had called him and he had promised Winnie he would call her when he knew something.

"Yeah in a while, he was born a bit early so they want to make sure that his lungs and everything are working okay." He sat down next to Ed and put his head in his hands.

"Baby number two. Trust me, it doesn't get any better from here." Ed joked.

Spike laughed. "Yeah, Winnie told me what Jules said a while ago. At least now you've got another kid to keep you in shape." Sam laughed too. "I should probably get back in there. Jules was asleep before but I have a feeling they'll be bringing the kid back soon." He stood up. "You guys should go home, you've been here a while. I'm gonna have Nat bring Sadie by around 8 so you should get some rest and then you can see the kid then. I know Jules won't mind if you go home for a bit." He left them to decide on their own and returned back to the room.

Just as he had guessed, a nurse brought their baby by after a few minutes. "Baby Braddock?" she asked.

"Umm, yeah I -"

She held the baby out for him to take. "Here." her delicate one armed hold was making him uncomfortable, so he reached out and settled the baby in the crook of his arm. He looked over at Jules. "She's not awake though."

"He doesn't need her, he just needs someone to hold him. He's been crying for ages over in the nursery." Sam held the baby closer. "Anyway, tell the receptionist when you need the registration form. There's nurses all over if you need anything." She turned and walked back down the hall and he focused his attention on the little boy in his arms. For a kid who had presumably been crying, he sure didn't look it. He was happier than Sadie when she dumped out all her candy from her first Halloween.

He realized that he had only ever thought of him as 'the kid' or 'the baby'. "What are we going to call you?" he whispered, resting the baby on his forearms so he could look right at him. "David? Mommy told me you've been kicking her just like David Beckham. David Braddock. No, that doesn't sound right."

He thought. Was there anyone who had helped them that they could name their kid after? It wasn't like they could call him Steve. But wait, what was Steve's paramedic friend's name? They could call him that. He had pretty much saved Jules and Sadie, after all.

"What about Daniel? Baby Daniel? Daniel Braddock, I like it. We'll have to tell Mommy when she wakes up."

"I like it too." He almost jumped when she spoke. "I thought you were asleep." he admitted.

"Well I was, but someone's baby voice woke me up." she stared pointedly at him. "Can I hold him?" she asked. He stood up right away and passed the baby to her. "Daniel Braddock. He looks like a Daniel. It's better than David, anyway." She kissed his forehead and pressed their noses together. "My little baby Daniel. I love it. Did Dr. McCarthy ever show up?"

"Yeah," he laughed, "A couple minutes after you fell asleep. I told her she was late and she said Daniel was early."

"Well he was."

"Yeah. I told Nat to bring Sadie by later so we don't mess up her sleeping schedule. They should be over around 8." he told her.

She smiled and cradled Daniel against her chest. Her world couldn't be more perfect.