Thanks for the reviews. The response to last chapter wasn't what I hoped, but I still felt like it needed an epilogue since the baby has been such an important part of this story and we haven't even seen him yet! It's taken me almost two weeks to finish, so it's now extremely AU. I'm going to try to write something more in line with the events of 316, I just need to find the right idea... ;)
Epilogue
"Push, Kate! You're almost there!" the doctor cried when she stiffened with another contraction.
She wasn't sure how, after almost eighteen full hours of labour, but she managed to find the strength, pressing her back into Jack's chest.
He relaxed his grip on her as she caught her breath, sliding off the bed, leaning past her to check what was happening. "I see him, Kate," he announced, breaking into a grin as he caught his first glimpse of their son. "He's beautiful. He's already got a full head of curls – just like his mom."
She smiled at how close this description was to her dreams. She couldn't wait to find out if the rest of him looked the way she'd imagined.
"Now I just need one more big one," the doctor told her. "On the count of three…"
"You can do this," Jack murmured, returning to his post at her side. He chuckled, his lips grazing her ear as he added, a private joke that only the two of them would understand: "You can do anything."
"One… Two…"
She had the strangest sense of deja vu, like she'd done this before, as she gritted her teeth, bearing down as hard as she could.
In a way, she had.
She collapsed against the pillows with relief when she felt her baby slip into the world, angry but alive.
Safe, at last.
Even though her nightmares had stopped, there was a part of her that still hadn't believed this moment would come.
"Congratulations. It's…"
"…a boy," she finished with a breathless laugh, beaming at Jack.
He squeezed her hand between both of his, still focused on her as he added, "We know."
They'd never asked at any of her appointments, or even agreed that they wanted to find out. They didn't need to; the thought that he might be anything else had never entered their minds as they painted the bedroom next to Aaron's blue, and filled the dresser with blue and green onesies, along with some of his old clothes.
"You did so great," Jack told her, moving his hands up to cradle her head and crushing his mouth to hers in an ecstatic kiss.
She flashed him a small smile when he released her, weak but happy; closing her eyes, succumbing to her exhaustion until she heard the doctor say, "Are you ready to meet your son?"
She was too overwhelmed to string together a coherent sentence, so she just nodded, half laughing, half crying as she placed the newborn, still fussing and squirming, on her chest, against her heart.
"You okay?" Jack asked, rubbing her biceps, his chin coming to rest in the crook of her shoulder, where he could admire him too.
"After all the waiting, and the worrying… I can't believe he's finally here," she whispered.
Her love for Aaron grew with each day that passed, but somehow, this was different: special.
Her blood. Their blood.
With Aaron, it had taken time, but this baby was already a part of her, of both of them.
She watched their son unfurl his delicate fingers, latching onto the collar of her hospital gown. "Have you ever seen anything so perfect?" she cooed, stroking the backs of them with her thumb.
She knew that Jack felt it too, his pride radiating off him in waves as he kissed her again. "Never."
"I was so sure we were gonna lose him," she confessed in a soft voice, licking away the tears that pooled on her bottom lip as the baby began to settle, almost as it he recognised the sound. "I can't believe I almost gave up on him."
From the moment that she knew, she'd tried so hard not to get attached – convinced that it would hurt more if someone took him away from her – that for a long time afterwards, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to bond with him.
It was only now that she was holding him that she realised how unfounded those fears had been.
"I guess this means we're gonna have to come up with a name for you little guy," Jack told the baby when the doctors left them alone in Kate's room so that she could rest, skimming his large palm over his fuzzy scalp with an affectionate grin.
She looked down at their son. "I think we should call him Christian," she announced once she decided that it suited him. She'd had the idea for a while, but she wasn't sure until now.
Jack tore his eyes from the baby, blinking at her in surprise. "After my dad?" he checked, his expression neutral, making it difficult for her to determine what he thought of the idea.
She smiled as she glanced back at him. "Yeah." It was the best way she could think of to honour his father, who'd given them both back their lives.
"You're serious?"
She nodded. "If it wasn't for him, you'd still be in that cabin," she reminded him, lowering her head to his shoulder, studying his reaction out of the corners of her eyes. "He stayed behind so you wouldn't have to, so you could be a better father than he was – I think that deserves a namesake, don't you?"
He grinned, pulling her tighter against him. "Yeah," he agreed. "I do. Thank you."
She laid her free hand against his cheek, tilting her face up to kiss him; they were forced to break it a second later when there was a soft tap at the door and Claire poked her head inside.
"How's everybody doing? Are you up for visitors yet?" she checked in a hushed tone, but before Kate could answer, Aaron pushed past her, into the room.
"Mommy!" he cried.
"Hey," she greeted him with a broad grin. "Come over here and meet your brother."
He flew towards her like a juggernaut; Jack caught him around the waist, trapping him in a backwards hug. "Whoa! Slow down, buddy," he warned him, struggling to hold back his laughter.
Aaron flashed him his best innocent smile as he craned his neck to look at him. "Sorry, Daddy," he sang, wriggling free.
"He's gorgeous," Claire breathed as she moved over to Kate's side to get a better view of her nephew.
"He looks just like you, Jack," she added with a grin. "Congratulations."
"Thanks," he told her for both of them, neither sure what else to say to her; she'd signed the adoption papers after they called a press conference, exposing the lie, but she was still adjusting to the idea of being Aaron's aunt.
She cleared her throat, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I should go. Dave's waiting for me," she explained.
While she still wasn't ready for anything serious, she'd begun dating again after enrolling in the community college a few blocks from the apartment they'd bought her with what they'd agreed was her share of the settlement.
"We're going to dinner, but then we'll come back and get him," she assured them.
She gave Aaron a quick hug. "I'll be back soon, and then we'll go get ice cream, okay?" she told him.
"Okay," he agreed with an enthusiastic nod. "Bye, Claire."
"Have fun," Jack called after her as she slipped out into the hall.
"He's so little," Aaron said, creeping closer, peering at the tiny bundle in Kate's arms when she beckoned him over.
"That's why he's gonna need you to help look after him," she agreed.
"You said I could play with him," he reminded her, a hint of whining in his voice.
She laughed as she wondered if he'd expected a boy closer to his age. "Not today, sweetie. You have to wait 'till he gets a little bigger for that."
"What's his name?" he asked, forgetting his petulance, curious despite himself.
"His name is Christian," she told him, glancing over at Jack with a smile. "But you can call him Chris."
He touched the tip of his index finger to the baby's cheek and he opened his eyes, gazing up at him with a sleepy expression. "Hi, Chris," he whispered.
"You wanna hold him?" Kate asked.
He eyed him with a hesitant look before nodding. "Okay," he agreed.
She shifted over to create a space for him on the bed next to her. "Then come on up here."
Jack scooped him up by his armpits, making him giggle as he swung him over the rail. "There ya go, buddy," he said, ruffling Aaron's hair as he scrambled onto his hands and knees, crawling over to Kate.
She waited until he was sitting beside her to hold Christian out to him. "Watch his head," she warned him as she helped him find a position that was comfortable for both of them. "His neck's very floppy."
He stayed very still once she let go, as though afraid of doing something to hurt the fragile creature that he now found himself responsible for.
She smiled as she settled back to watch the two of them together: her little boys. It was a sight that she'd never believed she would see.
In her dreams, it was always one or the other…
"What d'you think?" she asked Aaron, loosening the baby's coverings.
He scrutinised his brother with an intense frown, taking everything in: his feet, his hands, his face. "He's nice," he decided, looking back up at her with a shy smile when he was done.
"He is, isn't he?" she agreed.
So that's it. Please review, because I would love to hear what you thought of this story as a whole. Thanks again for all your words of encouragement. An update for my other (still unnamed) fic should be coming along in the next few days... ;)