Chapter 29

Author's Note: Only one more chapter of this to go... Again, I just to apologize for how long I left you guys hanging (if I did LOL.)--I mostly posted this on the group and neglected this account!

"Are you okay?" John asked worriedly as Natalie screamed into the pillow again. They were trying desperately not to wake Shane, but with her increasing volume Natalie knew that he'd be woken up soon—not to mention that it had been five long hours and it was now almost seven in the morning, his usual time to wake up.

"I'm fine," she gasped, trying to catch her breath and recover from the numbing pain.

"All right." John swallowed as he reluctantly returned to his position at the foot of the bed. "The contractions are coming closer together now, right?"

She answered him with a scream as another contraction hit. "Yeah that's about right" she groaned when it had finally passed.

"Okay, I need you to start pushing. Can you do that for me?"

Natalie nodded, impressed but not all that surprised with how quickly John's cop side had taken over—he'd been calm and collected for the last few hours. "I think so. Could you—" She gasped in pain as another contraction rolled over her.

"Daddy?" Shane's voice, scared and tearful, came from the doorway, where he stood in his pajamas rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong with Mommy? Why she crying?"

"Hey buddy." John quickly walked to the doorway and picked him up as Natalie smiled weakly and somewhat reassuringly at him. "Your mommy is fine, just feeling a little bit sick."

Shane studied him for a moment, and then looked at Natalie just as another contraction came and she couldn't hold back her scream. "Daddy, make it stop," he said, burying his face in John's neck at the sound.

"Don't worry baby, I'm going to. But I need your help, okay?" he asked in a soothing tone, rubbing small circles on Shane's back as his shoulders shook.

"Help with what?" He pulled back to look at John, tears forgotten.

"I need you to do something very important for me. The baby's room isn't decorated enough, and the stork is bringing her tonight."

Shane gasped, his eyes lighting up. "My baby sister's coming tonight?"

"Yeah, she is buddy. So what I need you to do is to go downstairs and color a lot more pictures for her room so that she'll have a lot of bright and pretty things to greet her when she gets here, okay?"

John set him down as he began to wriggle. "Okay, Daddy!" He took off down the hallway and Natalie smiled.

"You're so great with him. You're a wonderful father, John."

"I learned from the best," he said quietly.

Two hours later Shane was sitting at the kitchen table, coloring books spread across it with his crayons in front of him. He had gone upstairs a few times only to be sent back downstairs by John, so he knew the stork must be close and didn't want to be seen.

Selecting a pink, he began to sing as he colored. His song was interrupted a few moments later when he heard a baby's shrill cries, followed a few minutes later by John calling his name from upstairs. He dropped his crayon and raced to the stairs, climbing them as quickly as possible to reach the top.

His pace slowed considerably when he reached the room and saw the small figure swaddled in blankets Natalie held in her arms, carefully placed pillows propping her up. Then she smiled at him and his fear was forgotten as he walked to the bed.

"Shane sweetie, it looks like the stork listened to you," Natalie said, carefully shifting the baby so that her son could see his baby sister's wrinkled face. She had calmed down after John had cleaned her and wrapped her up.

"What do you think of your baby sister?" Natalie asked quietly after a moment, smiling at the awed expression on Shane's face.

"She's little," he whispered. "Is she sleeping?"

"No, she's just too tired to open her eyes right now, but she's awake." As if to prove her right the baby yawned, her entire face scrunching up.

"What's her name?"

"We haven't talked about that yet. Hey, would you like to name her?"

John smiled as he watched the scene unfold from his place on the opposite side of the bed as Shane. "I think that'd be a great idea."

"Okay," Shane said uncertainly.

"Just think hard about it—I know you'll come up with a good name for her."

"Can I go color while I think?"

"Of course you can." Natalie smiled as she watched Shane run from the room.

"That was beautiful."

"Not a drop of sibling rivalry to be seen—not yet, anyway," she replied with a laugh.

"No, I have a feeling Shane is going to love having a little sister. When he comes back think we ought to let him hold her?"

She nodded. "Hey, speaking of holding her—you want to?"

John smiled and nodded, reaching out to lift his daughter from Natalie's arms. As he stared down at her, he was overcome with emotion—not the fear he had expected for the last few months, just love, joy, peace and the sense of finally having found what he'd been searching for.

Natalie smiled, quietly watching from the bed as John fell in love.

"Your daughter's test results are in, and she is a perfectly healthy baby girl. Congratulations," the smiling doctor announced.

Natalie smiled brilliantly from her position in the hospital bed, and John squeezed her hand. They had dropped Shane off with Viki on their way to the hospital to get Natalie and the baby—for whom Shane had chosen the name Sarah—checked out.

"You did a good job with the delivery, Mr. McBain. You should be proud," Nancy said with a smile. "Had you not have been there, it is doubtful things would have turned out this well."

John shrugged self-consciously. "I just did what I had to do," he replied honestly.

"And did it very well at that." Her eyes twinkled and she quickly changed the subject before John became too embarrassed. "The nurse will bring Sarah by in a moment, you can take her and Natalie home tomorrow evening if everything continues to improve," she finished, turning towards the door.

No sooner had she left than the door opened and a nurse walked in, smiling as she wheeled Sarah's tiny bed in. Natalie thanked her and she waved it off. "It's a pleasure to take care of such a beautiful little one. You and your husband are very lucky."

John opened his mouth to reply but Natalie beat him to it. "Yeah, we are," she said softly, smiling at him.

TO BE CONTINUED