Thanks to my fabulous betas, GrayMatters and PixieKat7 for all their hard work.
Any and all mistakes you find will be mine. Honest.
Fuck count: a VERY reasonable 12
Thanks to Katinki and Nikita2009 for being my pre-readers, I appreciate it so much.
This is dedicated to Bobby Dupea and Nehnah14.
Thanks to you both!
Stephenie Meyers owns all Twilight related characters you see below.
The words are mine.
Future Take~ Three Years Later
EPOV
My God. I was never going to be able to feel the fingers of my left hand again. I was fairly certain there was no blood left in them whatsoever.
My fingers were pulsing, desperate for release from the hellish prison they were currently in. Unsure how to handle the prospect of getting them undone, I looked up at Alice for support.
She stared at me, eyes wide, as I gave my head a slight twitch and motioned with my eyes to my bloodless fingers currently being held in a death grip by my laboring wife. With a faint shake of Alice's head, I knew I'd need to ride the current labor pain out, hands be damned.
Taking a deep breath I leaned over Bella and whispered in her ear how well she was doing and how much I loved her. As the current labor pain ended, she smiled at me and let go of my poor hand.
"Oh, man, that one hurt," she said shakily on an exhale.
There was sweat along her hairline and her face was covered in a light sheen of it as well. Frankly, to me, she'd never been more beautiful than at this moment. The fact that she was bringing our first child together into this world made her a saint in my eyes. Men could never deal with this shit. I resolved right then that if I lost any fingers, it was a small price to pay. At least I didn't have to squeeze a baby out of my body.
"Bella, do you want some ice chips?" Alice asked sweetly.
"Yes, please, Alice," my gorgeous wife answered.
My wife, my love, my life. The fact that she was mine in the first place, was a true miracle. Thanks to Ben and Ang and their meddling, even after they passed away. I'd love them forever.
Our lives together for the last three years had been eventful. Full of ups and downs, Robbie being a blessing through it all.
After getting married the summer after Robbie turned one, we'd become even closer than we thought possible. Our unique little family unit meant more to me than I ever expected.
As Robbie grew and met more milestones, Bella and I knew we wanted to add to our family. We started trying when Robbie turned two and managed to get pregnant right away, much to the delight of my parents. Bella had a normal pregnancy, other than the fact that she'd grown rather large the last month, making it hard for her to get around and keep up with Robbie, who was a handful and a half. That boy was into everything. He was such fun and so excited for a new brother or sister.
We'd decided not to find out the sex of the baby, wanting everything to be as exciting as possible. The only dilemma was a name. If the baby was a girl, she was going to be called Claire Angela and if it was a boy...well let's just say, we didn't agree on a boy name.
I wanted Liam Benjamin. Bella, yeah, she wanted William Benjamin. Of course, she wanted to call him Billy. Damn that Billy Idol. We'd better not have a boy.
The swoosh of the door opening and a nurse coming in to check Bella brought me out of my daydream.
"How're you feeling, Bella," the nurse asked as she looked at the monitor readings.
"Okay... a little crampy and the last contraction was a lot worse than the earlier ones," Bella said softly.
"Well, honey, it's just beginning so batten down the hatches," the nurse said with a laugh.
What? What the hell was so funny? She wasn't the one who was going to lose her fucking fingers. I was!
"Listen, hon, when you're ready for the epidural you let me know and I'll send the anesthesiologist down to get you set up," the nurse offered after checking to see how far Bella was dilated.
"You're dilated to four and a half, no epidural until you're at least at a five. But, since Dave has a couple of ladies before you, we can get you on the list now and by the time he gets here, you should be good to go," she explained.
Bella had wanted to go natural, I however, didn't want to watch her in that kind of pain. I'd told her it was all up to her.
"Cullen, do you mind? Would you be disappointed if I decided I wanted an epidural after all?" she asked, looking sadly into my eyes.
"Babe, I told you, I don't want you in pain. It's hard for me to watch. Do what you want, I don't mind at all," I said gently, rubbing her arm softly.
Looking back at the nurse she nodded and told her to add her to the list.
Things progressed rather quickly after that. Damn.
Less than an hour later, Bella was laboring quite hard, her contractions three minutes apart and that damn anesthesiologist had yet to come into the room.
"Breathe, Bella, breathe," I told her, as another contraction hit.
"FUCK YOU, CULLEN! YOU BREATHE! I wanna go hoooooooooooome!" she ground out spitefully.
"Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave," she chanted, her voice raspy, her head thrashing.
"Bella, sweetie, who is Dave?" Alice asked cautiously, her brow raised in question, looking back and forth between Bella and I. I had no clue who Dave was, so I gave Alice a quick shrug of my shoulders.
"Dave is my savior, Alice. He is going to fucking walk into this room and save my sorry ass from feeling any more pain," Bella said, sighing as the contraction ended.
Ahhh, that's right - Dave the anesthesiologist, the one who would help my girl with the pain, I thought gratefully.
"Sorry for saying fuck you, Cullen, I didn't mean it, you know that right?" Bella said, looking at me guiltily.
"It's okay, I know, I know. Say what you need to say, I'll survive," I offered, smiling while kissing her forehead gently.
Her face suddenly clenched up again as yet another labor pain bore down on her.
"Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave," she started chanting again.
I wasn't feeling so grateful now. As a matter of fact,I was feeling kind of left out, I mean why couldn't she chant my name?
My hand, in another death grip, was aching like crazy, I was thinking I may not be able to type again. How would I write my stories for the paper? Fucking hell, she was killlllling me!
The nurse came back in as the contraction ended and had Bella get into position for checking her progress.
"Dave is on his way Bella, he can hear you calling him," the nurse giggled.
"You're dilated to a six now, he'll come in and get you comfortable and then we can get things started," the nurse offered.
Right then, a man about my height came strolling into the room, smiling like the Cheshire cat. HIs wide smile and mirth-filled eyes made him look like your long lost buddy. Too bad he was bald. Hmphf!
"Did I hear you calling my name?" he said gleefully. This guy liked his job far too fucking much.
"Oh, thank God you're here," Alice said.
What? Alice was rubbing Bella on the back, not losing her fingers. Why did she get to be that happy about the guy coming in the room?
"Oh Dave, you are going to be my new best friend and you don't even know it! I might even name my baby after you if it's a boy," Bella said, smiling and frankly, kind of flirting.
The hell she'll name the baby Dave. Not if I have anything to say about it!
"Whoa now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here," I said, raising my eyebrow and giving her the what-the-fuck look.
She started to smile at me, then another pain came on. She was grimacing faster than I could blink.
"Ooooooh, it's here again... oh hurry, Dave, hurry!" she ground out.
She reached to me and grabbed my hand in that death grip while I looked up at Dave.
"Yes! Let's hurry Dave," I said sarcastically, my eyes narrowing in on him as he got to work readying her for the epidural.
He explained how it worked, put her into position and then began his job.
All this during a contraction that my fingers swore would never end.
"There ya go! You should be right as rain soon enough," he said joyfully.
He gave her a pat on the hip as he started to clean things up.
"I don't know that anyone has ever chanted my name before, Bella, I'm so honored," he joked.
"Well, Dave, it's official. You're my new best friend." she said succinctly.
Alice giggled and Bella winked up at me while I continued to stare daggers at this Dave guy.
He finally left, promising to come and see his possible namesake after the baby was born.
Yeah, over my dead body, dude.
Less than thirty minutes later, Bella was really having close contractions and the nurse had gone to get Dr. Denali so she could start pushing.
As the doctor entered the room, Bella started having yet another contraction. It was so intense, I could tell by her face. I wanted that fucker, Dave, to get his ass back in here and make my wife feel better. Hell even I might let her name the baby after him if he could make it happen.
"Bella, you're doing great, I promise, it's going fast. The baby will be here before we know it," I said, smoothing her hair away from her face and kissing her softly on her cheek.
"Cullen! Get the fuck away from my face! You have such bad breath! Oh my God, did you have a fucking cheeseburger?" she screamed, her eyes wide with indignation.
Groaning, suddenly she looked at me apologetically and then started crying.
"I don't know why I'm being so bitchy!" she sniffled, tears rolling out from the corners of her eyes.
"It's okay, babe, I know you don't mean it," I said, rubbing her arm gently.
"Okay Bella, let's see if you're able to push this baby out now," the doctor said excitedly, as she looked at Bella for a moment.
"Okay, I'm ready," Bella said firmly, grabbing my hand as another pain gripped her.
"Okay Bella, I want you to push when I say push," the doctor ordered as Alice and I lined up on either side of Bella to pull her legs back toward her chest and help her along.
"Here we go, Bella, push!"
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Alice and I counted.
"Good, good, now again," Dr. Denali ordered. We repeated this three times during this contraction.
"You're doing great, I can see the baby's head crowning, lots of hair," Dr. Denali offered as she motioned for me to come and look.
Leaning over, I saw what appeared to be hair and head resting against Bella's vagina.
Fuck me, I was having a baby! I started to feel light-headed.
Dr. Denali looked at me, rolled her eyes and told me to go up and give my wife a kiss.
Before I could do what she asked, Bella started contracting again.
We repeated the steps as before, only this time, when Dr. Denali told Bella she did good... well.
"Good? Fuck that! I swear to God, every time I push, the baby feels like it comes back inside and out my throat! Fuck, good!"
And again, apologies abounded after she calmed down. This was a wild damn ride! Shit, I loved my wife.
The contractions came steadily, and finally out popped the baby's head. I peeked down in time to see the doctor suction its nose and mouth, it was amazing. A full head of hair, it looked reddish brown.
"Babe, oh my God, the head is out!" I said to Bella excitedly as I kissed her lips.
"Get the fuck away from me, Cullen, that's how I got into this mess. I'm never having sex again, I'm never doing this again, don't ever ask me to, oh my God! I need to push!" she screamed at me.
"Okay, Bella, gently push, we need to get the shoulders out, we don't want this baby flying across the room, right?" Dr. Denali said calmly.
I don't have any freaking clue how she stayed so calm. I wanted to jump up and down and pass out at the same time.
Bella gave a push while groaning the most intense growl I'd ever heard.
"Okay, stop, stop pushing, the cord is wrapped around the baby, we don't want it to choke," the doctor said.
"Okay, we're clear. You ready for the final push so you can meet your baby?" she asked.
Bella looked at me, smiled and then her face screwed up into the fiercest face I'd ever seen. She pushed and then, BAM! The world exploded around us!
The baby was out, the doctor squealed excitedly that it was a boy and Bella burst into tears.
As they put him in her arms and we looked down at him, I was overcome with emotion.
I was kissing her, crying like a baby and Alice was clapping her hands and saying over and over that she just knew it was a boy.
Bella lay there, watching me cry and then reached up with her hand to wipe my tears.
"Why are you crying, Edward?" she asked softly, her own eyes alight with unshed tears.
"Bella, I love you so much, I think I'm the luckiest sap on the face of the earth. I'm so happy," I said gently, while I kissed her forehead.
"Would you like to cut the cord, Edward?" Dr. Denali asked me.
I looked at Bella and she nodded, so I went and grabbed the special scissors and started to cut the cord. It felt almost like a garden hose. Weird and slightly creepy.
A nurse came over and took the baby so they could weigh and measure him and Alice headed out to tell everyone the news.
Looking back toward Bella I said, "I'm gonna go over with them while they check him out, okay?"
She nodded and I walked over to where they were wiping him off.
"He weighs seven pounds and four ounces and he is twenty-one inches long," the nurse said.
He was crying, screaming really. It did something to my insides. I needed to hold him. Now.
The nurse wrapped him up in a blanket after she diapered him and handed him to me.
I looked down into that little wrinkled face and fell in a love on a whole other level. I loved Robbie, he was my son, I loved this baby too. There is just something about witnessing a birth, miracle doesn't quite cover it.
"Hello there," I cooed, as I walked toward Bella.
He suddenly stopped crying, looked right into my eyes and stole my heart and soul.
"Let's go see your Momma, okay, little one?" I said, my emotions getting the best of me as I choked back tears again.
When I got to the bed, Bella was sitting up and the doctor was finishing up.
"Oh, Edward, look at his hair!" Bella exclaimed, running her hand along the top of his head lightly.
"It looks like yours! I love it!"
I handed him off to her and he automatically nuzzled toward her breast. It was amazing how instinctual babies were. She pulled her gown down and brought him to her breast. He latched right on and she looked up at me in amazement.
"Look, look how smart he is," she said, tears flowing freely down her face.
Looking down in awe, I leaned over and kissed her passionately.
"So, what's it gonna be, what's his name? Please say you were joking about Dave," I said, bemusedly.
"Well, I know you really liked Liam... so …" she sputtered.
"Bella, you just labored to give birth for like nine hours. We can name him whatever you want, honestly I'm good with whatever," I offered. I was serious. She could call him whatever she wanted, as long as it wasn't Dave.
"Well, if you really don't mind, I did have my heart set on William Benjamin," she said, looking up through her long eyelashes at me with those beautiful doe eyes.
Smiling, I ran my hand along her face gently, then looked at the baby and said, "Welcome to the world, Billy."
~A/N~
ALL the stuff Bella said during labor, including chanting Dave, Dave, Dave, was said by me while I was laboring with my kids. Yes, I am nuts.