Dr. Wright pulled Todd aside. "I don't really know you except by reputation," she said. "It isn't fair for me to treat you according to that reputation, but under the circumstances I feel like I have to."
"Go ahead," said Todd, who was more than used to people judging him before meeting him but not so used to people openly acknowledging that they were doing it.
"It is said that your relationship with Blair can be rather… fiery. I really haven't seen that side of you when you've come with her to her appointments. This is not the time for it come out."
"Any particular reason?"
"Her blood pressure is high."
"She's always had a history of that."
"She became upset when she was in the ambulance because the paramedics didn't feel that it was appropriate to use the sirens. They eventually turned them on because her blood pressure went far beyond the danger level. Do not do anything that might lead her to have a repeat performance. I don't like where it is right now, frankly. If you can do anything to reassure her…"
"Of course," he said. He hadn't needed to be told what he should do. What he did need to be told was how the hell he was supposed to do it. He'd missed Starr's birth entirely—and Hope's, for that matter. He had lots of experience telling Blair that her children were dead, but not so much experience in telling her that everything was all right. Even when he had delivered Jack, he had been blinded by jealousy and focused on the task before him. He'd never gotten to be the proud expectant father until now.
No wonder Blair was out of her mind with fear. She didn't know what she was doing, either.
Her put his arm around Blair's shoulders and kissed her cheek. "I guess not everything has changed," he told her.
"Hmm?"
"Remember when I made you take that pregnancy test? You had no idea that you were actually pregnant and you got so damn lucky?" He mimicked her voice. "What do you mean I'm pregnant? I mean, of course I'm pregnant! I told you I was pregnant! You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Blair looked more bemused by his impersonation of her (as well she should have, because his Blair impersonation happened to be terrific) than anything else, so he went on.
"I didn't know at the time why you were so freaked out after that. I thought you'd already gotten your head around the idea of us having a kid. But I told you then that we would be good parents and we would have great kids. Tell me I was wrong."
"You were right."
"Exactly. And I'm right, now, when I tell you that everything's going to be okay."
"It wasn't okay for that baby, Todd. It wasn't okay for Brendan. It wasn't okay for Jeff. I've been seeing them all day. Not seeing them, seeing them, but feeling them. They're everywhere and they're reminding me that—"
She broke off as a contraction hit. Todd grabbed her hand. He knew what it was like to feel the memory of something awful all around him, so much so that he got lost in it. He knew that very, very well. If he dwelled on the memory of being strapped into a chair and fearing he would never see Blair again, wanting so badly to hear her voice and know that she was with him, he could lose himself even now, with Blair right here.
"I'm right here," he told Blair. It was what he had wanted to hear her say. Maybe it was what she needed to hear him say. "Right here," he chanted, in time with her pained breathing. "Right here, right here, right here."
Dr. Wright reentered the room just as Blair came down from the contraction. She raised her eyebrows as she looked at the monitors.
"Well done," she told Blair. "Your blood pressure and heart rate are way down."
The she smiled at Todd. "Well done by you, too."
Starr didn't have her credit card, but she had the number memorized, and that was enough to purchase two first class tickets to Llanview. Crossing into the United States had been a non-event. She and Travis had tagged along with a group of college students returning from a drunken road trip, and border control had been satisfied with their student IDs. The student IDs were also enough to get them on a domestic flight.
She debated calling Langston to check on the status of things at home, but in the end she decided that she couldn't turn down the opportunity for this kind of surprise.
And so it was that she let herself into La Boulaie, Travis' hand held firmly in hers, and yelled for all to hear "I'm home!"
Hope's answering shriek was gratifying. "Mommy!" An instant later, Hope tore down the stairs, stark naked and dripping wet. She flung herself into Starr's waiting arms.
"I am never going to be away from you for this long again. Never," Starr swore.
"Good idea," said Jack, who had chased Hope down the stairs. "Then you can finish giving her a bath."
"My pleasure," said Starr. She gave Jack a friendly shove on the shoulder. "Did you jump out of your bath?" she asked Hope.
Hope nodded proudly.
"Why was your Uncle Jack giving you a bath? In the middle of the day?"
"We went swimming!" Starr had barely had a chance to remind herself that while it was winter in the world she had left behind, it was summer here, when Jack spoke.
"And then the B-A-B-Y started coming and Mom had to go—"
"WHAT? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you couldn't just come home and ask what was going on. You had to have your grand entrance and make sure getting Hope ready took twice as long." Jack rolled his eyes. "Whatever. She's all yours now. Sam and I are going to the hospital, and you and Hope can come whenever." He made a rude gagging noise. "You might want to get yourself cleaned up, too. I doubt they'll let you into the maternity ward smelling like that."
Starr was halfway to telling Jack that he could comment when he'd traveled through south and central America without a passport. Then she decided not to waste her breath because he was one hundred percent right. She hated it when that happened.
"Just, please, let Travis borrow something clean to wear and then go. It's my fault he left without clean clothes."
Jack smirked in Travis' direction. "I knew it. I should have made a bet with Dad that you'd bring a guy home." He held out his hand to Travis, who shook it. "I'll get you something."
Starr made quick work of cleaning up herself and Hope. She then turned her shower over to Travis and told him to take a nap in her bed and to feel free to raid the kitchen.
She and Hope didn't arrive at the hospital long after Jack and Sam. Todd greeted her with a hug. "You're supposed to be stuck in Paraguay for another week. I don't want to know how you got here," he said.
"You don't even want to know the part about the guy she brought home with her?" Jack asked helpfully. "Guy who's probably asleep in her bed right now?"
Starr stuck her tongue out at Jack, who shrugged innocently while Sam and Hope, the little traitor, laughed.
"This isn't the drug addict teacher you used to stalk, is it?" asked Todd.
"No, it's the guy she met on the internet when she was, like, thirteen. She ran away with him and got kidnapped in Central Park."
"You weren't there! You don't even remember that!"
"That's not true. I write it in my diary every time you get kidnapped so I never forget."
"Thank you, Jack. We'll discuss it later," said Todd.
When Todd left Blair's room to check on the boys and Hope, Addie came in to see Blair.
"Mama," Blair breathed, but she didn't even get to start to tell Addie how special it was to have her own mother here before the next contraction hit.
Addie stroked Blair's hair and held her hand. "I wish I could have been here when you had the other children."
"Me too," Blair said when she'd managed to catch her breath. "I'm so glad you're here now."
"So am I." Addie looked around the room interestedly. "It's so very different from when you were born."
Blair's heart jumped; to her embarrassment, the monitor beside her loudly registered the change. "You remember that?" she asked. This was a conversation she had always wanted to have but had been afraid to start.
"For most of my life, I couldn't remember what I did in the morning by the afternoon," said Addie. "I don't know for sure what I remember."
"But what you think you remember…" Blair changed her mind about wanting to know. "It must have been awful. You must have been so frightened."
"No more frightened than every other mother. I promise you, Blair, whatever else was broken in me, that wasn't. I knew I loved you. They wanted me to be unconscious for the delivery, but you came too fast. Just like this little girl." She rested her hand fondly on Blair's stomach. "Somehow, even through all that confusion, I knew it was right. I knew that of course you would come storming into the world on your own terms. I knew that you would be strong. I think I even knew that you would find me again when they took you. I loved you so much. I love you so much."
"Even after how you got pregnant?"
"I didn't make the connection. Even now, when I think about it, I don't entirely know what happened. The way they medicated me at the time—I was frightened, but I was curious. That man, your father, I don't think I disliked him. I certainly couldn't dislike him now. He gave me you. Could you ever dislike the man who gave you your children?"
Blair bit her tongue to keep from saying "frequently," and instead said that she wished Starr weren't stuck in Paraguay.
Addie smiled. "About that." She opened the door, and in came Starr, with Hope in her arms.
Blair's whole body flooded with well-being. "Hi, Beautiful!"
"Oh, Mom!" Starr hugged Blair as best as she could. "I tried so hard to get here, and I almost missed it anyway. But I didn't!"
"No, you're right on time. But I thought you were supposed to be in Paraguay."
"They cleared up the problem and we got to leave almost on time," said Starr innocently.
An obvious lie, coming as it did on the heels of I tried so hard to get here.
Blair decided that she could learn the truth about this at a later date. Perhaps Sage's fifth birthday would do. "How did you get permission to bring Hope in here?" she said instead.
"I didn't," Starr admitted. "I just didn't want to let her go." She squeezed Hope. Hope laughed. "And I just wanted to be here with you, and her, for a minute. What you did when I was the one in that bed was amazing and I'm never going to forget it."
"There's something about being here with your mother and your daughter, isn't it?" Blair beamed at Starr, Hope, and Addie. Four generations of Cramer women awaiting the newest arrival. Todd was outside with the boys.
Everything was incredibly right.
The next contraction started.
"Take Hope out, please," Blair said, and Addie grabbed Hope and hurried from the room so that Starr could stay a few minutes longer and distract Blair with tales of the two headed snake she had brought home. ("We took the poison out, I swear.")
At least it hadn't been the monkey.
It wasn't long before Dr. Wright called Todd back in and banished Starr to a far corner of the room.
There was a familiar terrified hot liquid rush, and then Sage was screaming.
"Everything looks perfect," Dr. Wright assured. She held Sage up to them, but looked puzzled when Todd and Blair turned to each other and began to laugh.
Sage was born with a head of bright red hair.
