Who wants to see the Lukessie baby? We do! We do!

Timeline: About 8 months after "Hallowe'en Bash." No Season 2 AU.

Jesse Used: Portal Party Jessie.

"I'm glad you came up with this idea, Petra." Olivia poured some fresh popcorn into a bowl. "You're never too old to have a sleepover party, are you?"

"Nope," Petra said, reaching for a handful. "Girls have to have their night out every once in a while. What I wanted to do was invite us all to a baby shower for Jessie, but no, she didn't want that."

Jessie stood at the other end of the kitchen, reading a parenting book. "I can hear you."

"It would have been fun! We could have played little baby shower games and practiced pinning nappies. I still think you should give us all lessons on how to put a nappy on a baby. In case one of us has to babysit or something."

"Sure, it would've been pretty fun. Maybe I can show you how to do it later."

"How's Lukas been doing? Is he nervous?"

"Um, a little bit. We're both nervous. It's our first time as parents, after all. I have confidence in him, though. He's going to be a great dad."

"Oh, definitely." Olivia nodded. "He's such a sweetheart."

"Can I teach the kiddo how to sword fight?" Petra asked. "Uh-When they're a little older, I mean. Sorry. Thinking ahead too much."

"Nah, it's okay. Lukas is excited for when they're old enough that he can teach them how to shoot a bow and arrow. But for now, we'll enjoy the baby days while they last."

"I want a baby," Olivia said, looking down at the floor in disappointment (over what?)

Petra looked at her funny. "What? You're not even dating anyone, much less married; how could you have a baby?"

"Adoption," Olivia said, hands on her hips. "I could visit the orphanage and adopt a cute baby. Preferably a girl."

"Jessie, she totally has baby fever." Petra tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Do you think it will be worse or better when you let her babysit your kid?"

"I know, I know." Jessie was a little tired of being the center of attention, so she tried to change the subject. "Do you guys want to see if there's anything good on the radio?"

"I don't know. It'll be nice to listen to something without having Axel hogging the radio for his afternoon soap operas."

"He calls them his 'stories,'" Petra said. "I think they're a guilty pleasure for him."

"He cried for two days when John broke up with Marsha on his favorite soap. He kept blubbering to me about how his ship sank."

Petra held back a burst of laughter. "And they pick on us girls for having ships!"

"Let's go see. I think they had an audiobook of The Wither of Oz scheduled for tonight."

"Isn't that book for little kids?"

"No!" Olivia protested as she switched on the radio. "It's actually a high-brow and profound work of political and economic satire. Geez, Petra!"

Petra made an incredulous face, but sat down on the couch by the radio. She balanced the bowl of popcorn in her lap.

"How the heck can something be economic satire? What even is economic satire?"

Olivia's explanation on whatever the heck "economic satire" is, was interrupted by a sudden pained yelp from Jessie.

"Guys!" she yelled from the kitchen. "Call Lukas. NOW!"

It took a split second, but Olivia and Petra realized what was happening. Petra sprang from her seat so quickly that she dumped the popcorn bowl on the floor. Olivia frantically tried to switch to the CB radio so she could call Lukas. Jessie was doubled over in pain, hands on her abdomen. She was having contractions.

"Don't panic," Jessie groaned through the pain. "Panicking is just going to make things worse-Augh!"

"This is why I don't want biological children," Petra said.

"Not helping," Jessie seethed. She didn't know whether she was supposed to lie down or stay standing. All she knew was that she was in a lot of pain right now, and it was only going to get worse before it got better.

Olivia ran into the kitchen, frantic. "I can't get the CB to work!"

"What do you mean, you can't?" Petra demanded.

"I can't reach Lukas's CB. I can't call him."

"We have to call him."

"I just said I can't!"

Another contraction twisted up Jessie's insides. She leaned against a wall and moaned. Meanwhile, Olivia and Petra continued to bicker. Not exactly a good time for doing so.

"Stop freaking me out!"

"You're the one yelling."

"I can't help that I can't get the stupid radio to work."

"Oh, forget it!" Petra threw up her hands. "I'll get him myself. I'll run to the Lukessie house if I have to."

The redhead dashed towards the kitchen door, which led directly outside. To be truthful, she wasn't super keen on running through dark woodlands late at night to get to the Lukessie house from Olivia's place, but she had to do it.

Well, she didn't actually get to do it, because when she opened the door, there was Lukas. He stood right in the doorway. Petra's feet slipped, and she almost fell on her back.

Jessie looked at her husband, dumbfounded. "How did you get here so fast? Nobody called you."

"Uh...fatherly instinct, I guess." Lukas was trying to stay calm, but his hands were shaking. "I sensed that something had happened, so I ran here."

"That's dedication." Jessie hobbled to him. "You sensed right. Lukas, the baby wants out. We have to get to the hospital now."

He had her scooped up in his arms before she could finish her sentence. "Right. I'm so sorry I couldn't get here sooner."

"No, no, it's fine. That was quite fast enough." Jessie winced as she got another contraction. "Just hurry, or I'll be having the baby on Olivia's front porch."

"Hold tight!" Lukas carried her off into the night, making a break for Beacontown. Petra and Olivia watched him leave. Olivia sighed at how gallant Lukas was, and Petra felt a tiny bit jealous.

"Why can't Jesse ever be like that?" she complained. "Jessie gets a knight in silver armor. I have a dork in green suspenders!"

Olivia patted her friend on the back. "There, there. It'll be okay. Someday he'll propose to you. Do you want to listen to the audiobook now?"

"Sure, I guess that will be a way to kill time until we get news," Petra said, "Not my favorite book but-Hey, wait a second! Did you say something about Jesse proposing to me?"

"Uh...No…"

In a whirlwind of activity, Lukas got Jessie to the Beacontown hospital and put in a nice room to deliver the baby. He sat in a chair next to her hospital bed, held her hand, got that hand crushed to smithereens when the hard labor came on, and tried not to feel bad as she yelled all kinds of labor-pain-induced things at him.

"This is all your fault, Lukas!"

"Why did I agree to this?"

"I'm never getting pregnant again! AAUGH!"

"I have all the freaking rights to name this kid whatever I want! I earned it!"

"Lukas, this is your fault! You did this to me!"

Blondie shrunk down in his seat with each insult from his wife. A nurse came by and handed him a packet of new-parenting resources. Meanwhile, the doctors encouraged Jessie to keep pushing.

"Try not to take it personally," the nurse reassured. "She's in a lot of pain."

Lukas put away the new-parenting packet. "I'm going to have to visit my mother soon and apologize for every time I misbehaved as a kid."

15 hours later…

"We can't all go to the hospital at once," Ivor said. "We'll crowd the place, and that will stress out Jessie. Lukas will probably be upset, too."

"But that's not fair," Petra insisted. "She's our friend, too. How come you get to go?"

"Because I'm her father." Ivor realized what he said and stammered a bit before recovering. "Erm...yes. Father figure. Anyway, she looks up to me, so I want to be there for her. And Lukas, and the new baby."

"You're going to let Harper come," Axel pointed out. "Why does she get to go and not us? Jessie's known us for way longer than she's known Harper."

"That's because Harper is my wife, and we like to travel together," Ivor said testily. "The rest of you can visit later."

"Those are the unspoken rules, kids," Harper added. "Grandparents first, then the aunts and uncles. That's just how it is."

"Aw, man…" they moaned.

Once the initial disappointment was passed, though, the kids got all giddy thinking about how they were going to be aunts and uncles. Axel started scribbling a list of things he'd do to secure his spot as Cool Uncle. And most of them, as you can probably surmise, involved explosives, fire, or fiery explosives. Petra and Olivia joined hands like schoolgirls and bounced up and down in excitement.

"Dibs on being godmother!" Olivia declared.

Petra scowled. "What? No fair! You got to be maid of honor at their wedding. I want to be godmother."

"I'm more excited about the baby than you are."

"That's not how they pick who should be godmother!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, you don't get to choose anyway."

"Neither do you."

"Touché."

"The suspense is gonna kill me," Axel complained. "I want to meet my nephew. Or niece. Preferably nephew."

Olivia snorted. "I want a niece."

"Gender doesn't mean that much," Petra declared rather boldly. "I'm happy as long as Dave has a cousin."

Radar burst into the room suddenly. His hair was a mess, and his glasses sat askew on his nose. A trail of stray papers followed in his wake, having fallen off of his clipboard.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh golly gee I'm freaking out here!" he babbled. "Jessie went into labor last night! She's at the hospital with Lukas!"

"We know," Petra said. "We were just about go, but then-"

Radar rushed forward and grabbed the front of Petra's shirt, pulling her close. "Is Jessie okay? She's not having any-gulp!-complications, is she? What if-what if she gets sick, or...oh no! What if the baby's a stillborn?! Or-or-oh gosh, I can hardly say it-what if she dies giving birth?! I can't let it happen!"

"Radar?"

"I'd never forgive myself! It'd be all my fault."

"Radar."

"We're talking lifelong depression here. A black hole of despair-"

"RADAR!" everyone else yelled. Axel peeled Radar off of Petra.

"You're way overthinking it," Petra said. "Calm down. Jessie's fine. The baby's fine. Lukas is fine.. They're at the hospital, they have good doctors helping them, and everything's going to be okay."

Radar wilted. "Sorry."

"It's okay." The redhead patted him on the shoulder. "I can understand why you're anxious. It is something exciting."

Ivor checked his clock. "Harper and I had better get going. Kids, hold down the fort while we're gone, all right?"

Olivia elbowed Petra. "Did you hear that? Ivor says we're his kids. He really does think of us as a family!"

"Whup!" Ivor hastily turned aside from the group and grabbed his cloak off a hook on the wall. "Running late-should really get going-Harper, are you coming?"

"Yes, honey," Harper said, shooing him out the door. "Goodness gracious. That's becoming such a running gag with this family. Say, why aren't you wearing your Foxy Grandpa T-shirt? That would fit the circumstances."

"I'm not a grandpa!"

"Sure, Ivor."

Lukas held Jessie's hand with his own bandage-wrapped one. Her forehead was slick with sweat, and her hair was a mess. They'd spent 15 hours in the delivery room so far. While Jessie was between bouts of labor, Lukas had called his mother on the hospital CB and apologized for misbehaving as a child. He started to understand what a mother goes through. And oh, he had so much more to learn. Both he and Jessie did.

"Big push!" the doctor encouraged her. "You can do it. One more push. You're almost there!"

"Come on, Jessie, you can do it," Lukas said. "You're Jessie, remember?"

Jessie cried out in pain. It was quieter than before, since her voice was quite hoarse by now. Just when she thought that she would need a C-section…

"Ah-ha! Congratulations!"

Jessie looked up as best as she could.

"They're a boy. A healthy little baby boy."

Jessie sighed in relief.

"You did it, Jessie. You actually did it!" Lukas kissed her hand. "I'm so proud of you."

The doctor handed Jessie their newborn son, cleaned off and wrapped in a fluffy pink blanket. He wasn't exactly cute, because newborn babies rarely are, but Jessie stared at the boy like he was the most precious thing in the world. Which he was to her.

"I'm a mom!" she declared happily.

"I'm a dad!" Lukas couldn't stop smiling.

"We're parents!" they said in unison. "I love you."

"I'm sorry for yelling at you when I was in labor."

"No, I get it. You were in pain. I had the easy part. All I had to do was hold your hand."

They sat there in silence for some time, just appreciating the moment. They didn't feel like anything needed to be said. The newborn baby's cries quieted down as he adjusted to being out of the womb. His skin was tan, a blend of Jessie's dark skin and Lukas's paleness. He had the beginnings of dark brown hair. His eyes remained shut, however, so his eye color couldn't be determined yet. He looked like just the right blend of his parents' genes.

"Do you remember what names we wanted for a boy?" Jessie asked Lukas after a while.

"Hmm…" Lukas thought back to the baby-name discussion from a few months ago. "Trying to remember. I know you mentioned maybe naming them in honor of Reuben."

"Possibly," Jessie replied. "Didn't you say you liked Harvey?"

"I do like Harvey. What about you?"

"It's cute. Um...which other ones did we mention?"

"Henry, Zion, Daniel, Creed, Timothy...We had a lot, actually."

"Hmm." Jessie cuddled her son close. "I want him to have a unique name."

"Right. Something that will make him confident. Make him feel like his own man. That's why I don't want to name him after one of our friends."

"I was thinking…"

"Yes?"

"Do you like the name Ezekiel?"

Lukas nodded slowly. "Yeah...yeah, I do like it. It sounds strong."

"Noble, too."

"It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"So yes on the name, then?"

"Yep. Ezekiel it is! We'll call him Zeke for short."

"Zeke. I like that."

Jessie handed the newly-named Ezekiel to Lukas. Lukas huddled the blankets and the baby in his arms. He couldn't stop staring at his son in wonderment.

"Precious peanut," he murmured. "I love you."

Zeke squirmed in the blankets, then reached out a tiny hand at Lukas. He bopped his father right on the nose. Lukas blinked in surprise, then giggled. It hadn't hurt. It was just cute.

"I think he has your sass, honey," he said to Jessie.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, he isn't even an hour old yet and he's already socked his dad on the nose. That's something, isn't it?"

"Wow. Okay. Here, do you want me to take him back?"

"No, I'm fine. Don't hold the baby too close to your face, I guess."

"You're going to be a great dad, you know that? I can tell already." Jessie settled into the bed. She was exhausted from the ordeal of bringing Zeke into the world, and now she wanted to rest.

"Aww, thanks." He blushed a little. "You're going to be, like, the coolest mom ever. Not every kid gets to have a Witherstorm-slaying, portal-hopping, sword-swinging, evil-defeating hero for a mother."

"Lukas, stop flattering me."

"It's not flattery if it's true!"

"Okay, but aren't you going to say anything about his universally friendly, novel-writing, marksman father?"

"Nah, I'd leave that to you." He winked. "Wouldn't want to get too puffy."

"Just imagine what it's going to be like raising Zeke with the New Order. They'll love him so much! I can't wait to introduce him to everyone."

"I can't wait, either. Ivor, Harper, Axel, Olivia, Petra, Jesse, Dave, and Radar. The craziest, coolest family a kid could ask for."

"They'll look after him, teach him…"

"Just like we will." He held her hand. "I know I said it earlier, but I'm so proud of you. Thanks, Jessie."

"Thank you, too."

"For what?"

"For being there. Loyal as always."

"How could I not be? I made a promise to you that I would stay by your side no matter what. And I don't intend on going back on that promise."

"Neither do I. Just like I said: I will protect, I will forgive, I will persevere."

Jessie wished she could take a picture of this moment, and she had a feeling that Lukas shared the sentiment. They had a new son and renewed promises to each other. Ezekiel had a family who loved him. And everyone involved had a bright future. Just as they should.