Ducchi was tired. He suppressed a yawn, gazing out the window of his and Sabé's room to see the sun starting to peek out amidst a mass of orange and yellow illuminated clouds. With such a beautiful start to the day, Ducchi didn't dare doubt the rest of the day's capabilities. Something of equal or greater value was destined to come out of the day and Ducchi was sure he already knew what.

Pressing his face to the refresher door, he called out, "Sab, darling, are you doing alright?"

"Honey, I need help!"

"Alright. I'm coming in." Ducchi entered the refresher. Sabé was standing in front of the sink, still dressed, leaning heavily against the counter. There was a small bench and Ducchi first helped her sit down. He found her shirt on the floor and set it in his lap, sitting with her. She leaned into him, moaning. Gently, Ducchi pushed her back, leaving a kiss on her temple. He pulled her brown nightgown over her head and tossed it aside.

Sabé's moans returned and she leaned into him again, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt and clenching her fists. Her mouth opened and she finally cried out in pain. Ducchi dropped his hands to her hips and muttered into her ear, "Easy, Sab, easy. Breathe. Just breathe. Take a nice, long breath, honey, and blow it out."

"Kriff that!" she sputtered, clenching her fists tighter.

"Sabé, calm down. I'm right here. I've got you."

As the contraction started to ease its grip on Sabé, Ducchi took the big shirt and put it on her. Then, he took her hands and, steadily, rose with her. With much of Ducchi's help, she waddled out of the refresher and back to bed.

Memily and Tia Organa sat on the floor of the Evillardes' room by a birthing pool they had set up for Sabé. Memily handed Ducchi a hair tie and he quickly pulled her hair together in a sloppy bun at the back of her head. "Ready?" he asked her and she nodded, her teeth ground.

Ducchi and Memily helped her into the inflatable pool one leg at a time. Forcing her legs apart, Memily checked her dilation progress. "Well, I think you're almost there, Sabé."

Sabé cried out in what they all figured to be an equal mix of pain and frustration.

"Eight centimeters," Memily elaborated to Ducchi. "Nearly there."

"Ha!" Sabé shook her head. "Nearly there. I've been in labor since yesterday. Right?"

Tia glanced at her own chrono, raising her brows. "About 38 hours." To reassure Sabé, the Organa woman squeezed her knee, telling her, "But you've made a lot of progress in these last few hours. Any time now, I'm sure."

After another hour, Sabé noticed it when Ducchi's verbal assurances ceased. He sat just behind her, his hand encompassing hers, stroking affectionately whenever she squeezed in sympathy with her intensifying contractions. He still kept an arm wrapped comfortingly around her shoulder and she would often recover from the pain to find her husband's chin resting on her shoulder and his cheek pressed up against hers. But she longed for his honey sweet words to roll over her like a hypnosis session. She wanted him to mesmerize her with his beautiful words and handsome voice, to distract her from the grinding pain that was currently overwhelming her body.

Just as she was thinking this, the pain returned and she gritted her teeth at the agony of the baby's head crunching against her spine. "Ducchi!" she growled through her teeth, her muscles nearly too tight to allow her to speak. At once, she felt him stroke his thumb over her shoulder and she vigorously shook her head, the pain slowly subsiding. "Talk to me!" she begged, gripping his hand with all the strength she had. "Please! Tell me . . . something! I need to . . . hear your . . . voice."

A small current hurried through the pool and Sabé looked up to see her husband standing over her, stepping over the pool's rim to join her. First, he sat beside her, but then slipped a leg behind her and pulled her into his lap. "How about this?" he asked her, readjusting his hold on her. Except, it wasn't a hold. It felt like an embrace. He took both of her hands and held them out to their sides. He sighed shortly. "I was going to ask how you're feeling, but I don't think you need that right now."

Sabé actually laughed. "You'd be right."

"Well, then, what do you want me to talk about?"

She considered for a moment, running a long and varying list of discussion topics through her head. Hurry, a voice seemed to whisper to her and Sabé somehow knew another contraction was on the way. "The future," she quickly decided.

"The future?" Ducchi sounded intrigued.

"Uh-huh," she nodded, brushing her sweaty, messy hair against his chest. The next tidal wave of pain was starting. She waited impatiently for Ducchi to start.

"Well, why don't we start with the near future," he suggested. Bringing Sabé's hand with his, never breaking that embrace, Ducchi started to stroke her enlarged belly. "When we finally get to see our baby girl? I'd bet you anything she's going to be just as beautiful as you. She's going to have your gorgeous long, dark curls and your deep, brown, almond eyes . . . "

"I hope she has your smile," Sabé added in a moan, her head lolling back and forth against Ducchi's chest. "And your faith."

Ducchi smiled and brought her hand to his lips to gift with a sweet kiss. "I hope she has your strength and loyalty and excitement."

Sabé's breath hitched with the arrival of a new contraction. It tore through her body, but Ducchi didn't stop. He held her close, continuing. "She's going to grow up to be a beautiful woman and she'll be strong, fierce, loyal, and loving just like you. I reckon she'll be a heartbreaker, too."

A cry escaped from between Sabé's lips and she cried, "I wanna' push, Ducchi! I need to push!"

"Shhh, it's okay. Soon, Sabé. Soon, my darling."

Memily looked up from checking Sabé's progress and smiled at Ducchi. "Now."

Her long wails and screams echoed through the corridors, followed by an impressively vulgar string of curses, then more yelling. Her nails bit into the skin of his hand and he gave a small wince, using his other hand to pry her fingers open. "Easy, darling," Ducchi tried to calm his wife, planting soft, feathery kisses along her crown. "Calm down. I'm right here. I've got you, Sabé."

Sabé gasped as another wave of pain slammed down on her and her deathly grip on Ducchi's hand returned. Tia tossed him a hand towel and Ducchi used it to wipe back Sabé's hair which was glued to her forehead with beads of sweat. Sabé screamed another string of rich curses and Ducchi could have laughed, pretty sure she'd learned half of them from Han.

"Ducchi!" Sabé screeched and he responded to her cries of agony by squeezing her hand tighter.

Memily had Sabé squatting in the pool and if he looked over her shoulder, Ducchi could see their daughter's head crowning. It hardly seemed real. Suddenly, the untouchable, invisible joy he and Sabé had spent the last several months talking about was an actual living person. And they were this close to meeting her.

While Tia talked Sabé through another push, Ducchi had to get another look. Anxiously, he peered over his wife's shoulder to see Memily easing the head out.

"She's beautiful."

Sabé stopped her pushing and Tia and Memily smiled at Ducchi. It took him that long to realize he'd said it aloud.

"You can see her?" Sabé asked.

"Yes, darling. I can see her. But that's no reason for you to stop. She's almost here, honey. You're almost done. Keep going."

Tia nodded. "You heard the man," she smiled. "Get ready to go again."

She was the perfect size and shape with ten fingers and ten toes and a cry loud and sharp enough to drive a grown man to tears. The second the rest of her body slipped into Memily's waiting hands, the younger woman gathered her up and laid her on her mother's chest. Ducchi's eyes couldn't leave her. They were stuck on her scrunched up face and her tight fists and he immediately reached a hand out to touch her as soon as she was lying in Sabé's arms. She squirmed and screamed in her mother's arms, but both parents reached to put a finger near her fists and she seized them, latching on like nothing else mattered.

Sabé craned her neck to look at him and share his smile. He squeezed her shoulder and kissed her cheek, telling her, "You did it. Just like I knew you would."

Sabé turned her gaze back to their daughter and she held her close to her chest. Ducchi rested a hand on the baby's back. And tears fell like rain down his face.

"Hello, there, baby," Sabé cried, running a hand over her soft hair. "I'm Mommy and this is Daddy." Her shoulders started to shake and she sobbed, "We love you so much!"

Ducchi held his girls close, pulling Sabé closer into his lap. Looking at his precious daughter, an idea occurred to him; an idea that only made perfect sense. "Sabé."

"Hm?"

"I know we picked a name for her already- but I think she deserves a middle name."

"What are you thinking?"

Ducchi whispered his thought in her ear and, in response, Sabé's face lit up.

"Well?" Memily beamed at the new parents. "What's her name?"

Both parents could only stare in awe at their daughter as Sabé found the words to answer. "Romé Faith Evillarde."