Chapter 25 – Welcome to the world
"Push!"
"Don't listen to the doc honey, he's an ass." Kelly grunted as Jill clenched her jawbone and growled loudly as she pushed through another contraction. Kris was on the opposite side of Jill with a wet cloth, a hand behind Jill's back and wiping her face, shoulders, neck and chest off as Jill was crying through the pain.
"You're doing great Jill, keep pushing, you're doing great!" Kris encouraged her, knowing what Jill was going through and she was happy that she was there with her.
Kelly was mumbling and complaining over the doctor who had said it was okay for her to be inside, she would rather be outside the room with the others, she had been stunned when Jill wanted her inside. Now she and Kris were dressed in green scrubs and masks over their mouths and coaching Jill through her labors. The doctor was looking up at Kelly as she was complaining at him, and he was rolling his eyes when she was telling him how to do his job.
"Please. I know how to do my job." The doctor said with a smile and Kelly turned towards him.
"I've done this before you know." Kelly said proudly. "Twice!"
"I've done this for over 30 years. 2-5 deliveries a day, you do the math."
"Show off." Kelly said, rolling her eyes, in the same time as Jill jerked up again and pushed, having been lying down for about a second to catch her breath.
"How come you've done it before?"
"Well for some reason my friends just happens to be kidnapped or locked in while being in labor and for some reason I've been the only one there to help out, so, I have." Kelly smiled proudly.
"She helped me with my twins." Kris smiled at the doctor, no one seemed to be focusing on Jill until she let out a loud roar to get everyone's attention.
"You wanna take over then?" The doctor said with a smile, and Kelly's face lit up into a smile too. She managed to untangle her bruised fingers from Jill's hand, and Jill's hand immediately got a grip around the bed instead. Kelly moved over to where the doctor was sitting and he moved aside, letting Kelly take his chair as he stood behind and watched.
"Whaaat?" Jill panted as she got a second to catch her breath again, falling down into the bed. "What are you doing?"
"This is fun!" Kelly smiled, in the same time as the monitor was warning them that another contraction was coming up.
"Push!" Kelly giggled as Jill jerked up again.
"No, not yet!" The doctor said, making Jill's eyes pop up to twice their size as she held her breath.
"Don't push!" Kelly laughed, as the doctor shoved her shoulder a little.
"Now, push!"
"You are confusing me and I don't care who's right and who's wrong but I'm gonna push weather I'm allowed or not!" Jill roared at them, once again pushing for all she was worth.
"Oh, Jill! I see a head!" Kelly laughed excited, then her face turned serious for a second as she met Jill's face with a smile. "He's black."
"I'm going to kill you." Jill said as she fell back onto the pillow.
"I'm kidding. He's only Asian."
"Kelly' shut up." Jill panted, gasping for air as the nurse told Kris to give her some oxygen, whereupon Kris placed the oxygen mask over Jill's face for a little while, to help her breath a little.
"Here comes another contraction." The doctor warned in the same time as he had cleaned out the little one's nose as the head popped out.
"What do you mean? I am done!" Jill panted under the mask.
"You only have a head Jill."
"No I'm done! I can feel it, I'm done! You promised me a steak after this, now I want my steak!" Jill said, shoving the oxygen mask away as Kris looked at her with big confused eyes.
"Jill you kinda have to keep going."
"No, I'm done! Steak!"
"I promise you a steak after you had the baby. Right now you just have a head!"
"That's enough!"
"Alright, but it's going to suck walking around like that." Kelly laughed out loud, the laughter causing Jill's arms to flail and her face turning red. "I am dooo-daaaamn!"
Without having any say at all about it Jill jerked up again and kept pushing, not having much choice really. This little boy was determined to come out.
"Yay for those pesky contractions." Kelly laughed, patting Jill's leg with one hand as she held the baby's head with the other, in the same time as Jill let out a smothered scream through her clenched teeth. "There is a reason to why I adopted."
"Are you going to say that every time someone has a baby?" Kris asked, looking down towards Kelly, who nodded with a smile.
Suddenly, Kelly felt weight into her arms as the little baby came out into her hands, screaming for all its might, in the same time as Jill finally was able to relax for real. Kris one again gave her some oxygen and wiped her off as Kelly cut the cord and then walked up to Jill and placed the baby on top of her chest.
"Congratulations Jill, you are now the proud mother of a black Asian British girl."
Jill's face registered pure shock as she looked down towards the bundle on her chest, the little one had stopped screaming and was now snuggling as close as possible as she tried to get as much scent and warmth as possible.
"It's a girl?" Jill whispered, still staring down at the little bundle, in the same time as the doctor came and lifted it off, cleaning her, weighing and measuring, and put her down in the same time as Damien and Peggy roared inside.
"Honey! Peggy!" Jill hollered, then immediately lowered her voice, not wanting to disturb the little one on her chest. Turning around to her man as she carefully eased up a little, the little baby resting happily on her chest. "Honey, Andrew is a girl."
"Andrew is a gal!" Peggy Lou called out as she danced around the bed, bouncing up and down and knocking things over with her flailing arms before Kelly grabbed onto her upper arms, moved her around and forced her down into the bed. Peggy looked up at Kelly with confused eyes for a second, before turning her attention to Jill and the little bundle on the top of her chest that was resting on her mother's chest after the traumatizing episode she just went through.
"It's obviously not an Andrew." Damien smiled, placing his hand on top of the little girl's back, eyeing her with proud eyes, as Jill just seemed confused.
"My son is my daughter." Jill said, looking down at the little girl and pouted. "You ate my son?"
Kelly laughed out loud before putting both hands over her mouth, looking from one side to the other as everyone else in the room just stared at her. Kelly cleared her throat as she relaxed, sitting down in the bed too next to Kris, placing her chin against Kris' shoulder.
"It's a true Munroe." Kelly smiled, then jumped aside as Kris' hand tried to swat her in the face.
Jill just glared at Kelly for a few seconds before looking back towards the girl, her hand resting on top of the girls' back, Damien's hand had moved to lie on top of Jill's hand.
"There must have been two of you and you ate him. Didn't you? Don't like to your mother, I'll know! I know there was a boy in there and-"
Jill's face suddenly registered pure shock and horror and she looked up at the doctor with big wide eyes, her breathing stopping for a second and her face getting even more pale.
"Doc… There's not… two… right?"
The doctor laughed a little bit before shaking his head.
"Don't worry, she was alone in there."
Jill relaxed and looked back at her girl.
"Oh thank god. If there had been two of you, I might would've had to kill one of you. You look like you're gonna be trouble enough, right?"
The girl moved around a little, moving her arms up and down a little, and Jill nodded as she took that as a yes.
"Figures."
Everyone giggled slightly at Jill, before Damien leaned over and kissed Jill's sweaty forehead, with the sound of Peggy Lou "aaaaaawwww"-ing in the background.
"Great job honey, you've done so well and I am so proud of you. You're absolutely amazing."
"Ya arrre!" Peggy said, bouncing as she did, before touching the girl's hand. "Iiiih, it's so small!"
"Jill, she needs a name." Kris said, still sitting next to Kelly and both of them admiring the little baby that was just fresh out of the oven.
"Can't we call her Andrew?" Jill asked, looking up at her sister, before turning her head towards Damien who was smiling, but in the same time shaking his head.
"No way. What about Annie?"
"Annie Kelly?" Jill asked, putting her head to its side as she still didn't tear her eyes away from the little girl.
Kelly on the other hand, who too had been looking at the girl, now looked up at Jill with a question mark splashed all over her face. The others looked up at Jill too, who still was staring at the little girl.
"Kelly?" Kris, Peggy, Damien and Kelly herself asked in confusion, and as Jill heard all four talk to her, she looked up and smiled towards Kelly, then looked at Damien.
"She delivered my baby safely. I think she needs a namesake."
"Aaaaw!" Both Kris and Peggy Lou called out loudly, as Kelly just rolled her eyes.
"Just perfect. Annie Kelly. Orphan Annie Kelly. I've heard that before. Oh right. The Dunlaps in Oklahoma. Perfect."
Everyone looked oblivious except Kris who put her and on Kelly's knee, patting it gently without the other's even realizing. Kris had heard all the stories, while Jill just had heard some of it. The Dunlaps was one of the families she had heard about, and especially the story about how they left her alone for Christmas, telling the neighbor to look over her as if she were a pet was really a story that tugged at Kris' heart.*
Kelly felt the gentle pat on her knee, and she looked over and smiled at Kris before turning to Jill.
"Jill, truly, I am very happy that you would want to name your daughter after me, it do means a lot, really.
Jill smiled, just simply nodding slightly to Kelly, actions speaking so much more than words at the moment.
"Annie Kelly… Imma call yah Kellie Anne!" Peggy laughed as she moved even closer to the baby girl who now had a name to, and Jill smiled as she gently moved Annie over to Peggy's arms, and Peggy immediately went into 'cutie-mood', holding Annie close to her own, huge chest, cuddling with the newborn who didn't seem to understand a thing. "Imma name mah child Kelly too."
Kelly rolled her eyes as she looked over Peggy, but no matter how annoying Kelly would ever find the blonde bombshell, she could not help but to confess how absolutely adorable Peggy and Annie were together.
"When I'm dead and gone, all of you will be glad you have your children named after me." Kelly smiled, leaning her head back towards Kris who patted her cheek in return.
"Knowing you, we'll all be dead and you'll be 110 and outliving the kids." Kris laughed. "You seem to survive anything."
"Please. If I make it to 35 I'll be lucky." Kelly said, rolling her eyes. "In this line of work? Geez. Jill, keep Annie out of this business."
"We will all see to that." Kris said, and everyone in the bed agreed, well, except Peggy who was all up into cuddling and baby-talking to the newest member of the big family.
Everyone looked over at the doctor who had been moving around them and taking care of machines and other things while they all got acquainted with the baby girl, and now the doctor came up next to Jill, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, looking down at Jill who smiled tiredly up against him.
"Just plain exhausted. And I feel like I need to use the bathroom."
"Yeah, I expect the placenta to be coming out in a bit. Let me check." The doctor smiled, as Jill frowned.
"Placenta? Did I sign up for that?"
The doctor laughed as he walked past the gang on the bed, people moving around a little to make sure Jill had her space. Upon meeting Kelly's eyes he raised an eyebrow.
"You performed the delivery well, have you ever dealt with this part too?"
Kelly shook her head while rolling her eyes, letting out a little snort. "No thanks, you can do it, I washed off already, but I guess it's nothing compared to what I see during work hours."
"Good." The doctor smiled before lifted Jill's cover, then looking up at her. "Little push, Jill."
The other's in the room, not being able to keep their curiosity away, just had to look at the grey-bluish goo mixed with various slime and blood coming out of Jill, and all of them suddenly wished they hadn't.
"... oh my GOD. Jill! There's some kind of alien coming out of you." Kelly let out, staring at the disgusting yuck that the doctor moved over to a bowl and for some reason kept poking in.
Jill had managed to catch a glimpse of it as he moved over it to the bowl, and since then she had just been staring towards it, eyes wide open in shock, and her mouth hanging open just like Kris' and Damien's were too. Peggy on the other hand hadn't noticed a thing since she was busy playing with the baby girl in her arms.
"I… I don't mind people being shot to death or killed by a car and having their insides on the outside, but that… THAT… is gross." Kelly whispered, as she kept staring at the placenta, until she was finally able to tear her eyes away, shaking her head and then her arms, moving on until she was shaking the disgust out of her body.
"Welcome home!"
Jill smiled brightly at her friends as they greeted her as she walked inside her house, Damien holding a tight grip around her waist as she held onto her baby girl towards her chest. Sandra, Janet, Kamili and Aurore had left the hospital to go and clean up at Jill's place and now as the others came home, there was cake on the table and several small gifts around an enormous package. Jill walked into the house and put the sleeping Annie down into a crib and everyone quickly gathered up around her, just staring at the sleeping beauty who looked so at peace.
"She's so beautiful Jill." Kris whispered, looking up to where she thought her sister would be, but failing to see her she turned around. Not all too surprising, she found her sister in the couch close to all the packaged, putting cake over onto a plate and grabbing a spoon as she leaned back towards the soft backrest of the couch.
The others all noticed her and smiled as they went over there to join her, all of them getting some cake and happily talking and laughing, the good mood spreading among them quickly. This was a day for joy and nothing was going to spoil it.
"Open presents Jill!" Peggy Lou laughed and Jill yawned as she stretched for the big gift, of course. Jill was not famous for going on the small gifts first, she always started on the biggest one, and today was no exception.
"That's from me!" Peggy laughed happily, even bouncing in the couch as she was so excited about Jill opening her package first. Everyone in the room was chitchatting, talking and enjoying the cake, but when Jill pulled the gift wrapper off, the entire room got quiet for several seconds, no one dared to speak. Everyone was just staring at the content of the big gift, the gift was about 3 feet long, had a green-turquoise blue surface with darker banding and black feet. It was moving.
Of course Peggy Lou Sparks had gotten them a moving present for the newborn baby.
"Peggy… That is…"
"He is a Grand Cayman Iguana, I got him from the zoo where I work at because they needed someone to take care of him for a few months or so as he grows up, before they can let him out into the park, and I thought well, it's not good to have a furry animal near a baby and he has no fur at all so it should be fine!"
"Peggy, it's 3 feet long!" Damien let out, his eyes wide open as he stared at the giant lizard.
"He's expected to be around 5 feet, but that's okay, he'll grown into his feet!" Peggy added with a smile.
"But Peggy… It's..."
"His name is Fluffy." Peggy said proudly, releasing the iguana out into the house from the cage he had been inside, as the others groaned loudly, with an exception of Kelly of course who was hiding her giggles behind her hand, trying not to die from laughter. She was enjoying this to its fullo, just like the dear Peggy Lou Sparks.
*Angel's Beginnings: Deleted Scenes, written by kp1185