So here we are! Crumbsian baby number 3! I am dedicating this chapter to my awesome number one fan Ariel119 for without her willingness to share mommy-stories I probably wouldn't be able to give this scene such a convincing, if not realistic feel. Here we go!

Lanie thought for a moment her heart stopped. She swallowed tightly as Honey-Milk looked on excitedly.

'Ready to push?'

Harvey nodded as they began to ready the fetal-monitoring equipment for transportation with the patient. 'Yeah. It won't happen in forty-five seconds like in the movies so when we tell you to rest in between, rest, okay? You'll be just fine.'

Lanie looked over at Dave, whose expression she was certain mirrored her own panic. This was it. She was about to be a mom.

Honey-Milk instructed the other nurses who'd come in to wheel Lanie into the delivery room, as the room Lanie was in wasn't large enough to accommodate everyone who would be needed. She looked down at Lanie's face, her bright blue eyes dancing happily. The next one of their little rag-tag family was about to be a mom.

'You're going to be just fine, Lanie, we'll take good care of you. You can do this.'

Lanie nodded, or at least she had the thought to nod. All she wanted to do was push; she hadn't realized that she'd feel the instinct so strongly when she'd been hearing her instructors in baby classes talking about it. Now that she was actually going through it, she got it. She watched the profile of Honey-Milk as they moved out of the room, and had new-found respect for her, as she'd done this completely naturally. No drugs whatsoever. No wonder Ryan had been a mess in the first weeks when they'd started their birthing classes.

They wheeled her over the sky-walk into the obstetric operating and procedure rooms, through a set of doors, where they somewhere moved her over from one bed to the other. It had been set-up for her birth-plan - on her back with her legs free to move as necessary - and as she looked around, she felt a small zip of panic when her fiance was nowhere to be found. Her mind spun wildly; she needed him here. Even though she knew she was going to yell at him, probably call him every foul name in the book, she knew she wouldn't get through it without him standing by her.

'Dave?'

'Right here, Elenia.' He appeared at her right side, now wearing a protective surgical gown and sterilized cap over his long wavy hair. He picked up her hand, gripped it tightly. 'I'm right here, my love.'

'Don't touch!' She said it with a barking bite, then squeezed his hand tightly as she felt another contraction hit. 'No touching!'

Dave smiled gently at her as she clenched his fingers with a grip of iron. 'Of course not. Whatever you need, sweetheart.'

Harvey appeared from the scrub room gowned and masked, as did Honey-Milk and another nurse, a man who had to give Schwarzanegger in his body-building prime a run for his money. 'Lanie, this is Nurse Brick, he's a surgical nurse on stand-by in case we need him. A precaution only,' he added reassuringly as Honey-Milk placed his gloves on his hands and he sat on the low backless chair in front of Lanie's feet He removed the light sheet covering the lower portion of her body so he had the field visually cleared to deliver the baby. 'Okay, Lanie, it's time to try pushing.'

'Okay, okay.'

Lanie felt Honey-Milk's gentle but firm grip on her leg to help her move into position so her knee was bent ninety degrees while Dave did the same on the other side; briefly she had a vision of a Barbie doll with its plastic legs popping off.

'Lanie you're going to push for twenty seconds, then stop when I tell you to, okay? Go.'

With her eyes squeezed shut Lanie focused all her energy on the lower half of her body. A thin scream escaped her lips as she flexed and braced her foot, felt them both give her resistance. Somewhere in the background she heard Dave murmuring at her.

'Good, and rest Lanie.' Harvey's voice was clear and neutral with a small amount of encouragement.

Lanie let her breath out, her chest heaving. 'Is the head out yet?'

'Not yet,' Honey-Milk said after a quick check. 'But you're doing great, honey.'

'Dave?'

'Right here, Elenia.'

'My eyes are stinging.'

Dave looked around, saw some towels lying nearby on an instrument table not in use. 'May I?' he asked Honey-Milk; when she nodded, he patted at his beautiful Lanie's face shining brightly with sweat, her soft black hair sticking to her damp face. 'There we are, sweetheart.'

'Shut up!' Lanie bellowed as the next contraction hit.

He silently resumed his position bracing her leg, watched her squeeze her eyes shut, let out a snarling yell as she pushed harder. He'd never seen anything so heroic in his life as the way she looked as she fought like a soldier through the contraction. When small tears began to trickle out of her eyes from the effort, Dave knew right then and there he'd never again use the phrase that a man was 'crying like a girl'. No man would ever know what Lanie was going through right now.

From his position at her feet, observing the baby's descent and expulsion, Harvey nodded encouragingly, noting that Lanie was one-hundred percent unaware with her last push, not only had she helped move the baby down the birth canal but she'd also completely voided her intestines.

'Good, and rest, Lanie, you need to rest.' Harvey flicked his gaze up at Honey-Milk. 'Nurse Ryan, can you get some sterile antibacterial drops for Lanie?'

'Yes sir.'

'Lanie, everything's looking good, I've got Jenny on a little errand so Nurse Brick is going to take her spot and he's a solid guy so if you need to give him a kick, feel free to do so. He's a big boy, he can take it.'

'Dave?' Lanie opened her eyes, focused on him. 'Pictures?'

'The video camera's going, it's on the table over there.'

'Good.'

Honey-Milk came back just as the next contraction hit, and Harvey held her back with a single raised finger; Lanie could see it was bloody and blocked it out as her doctor spoke in his clear, comforting voice.

'Lanie, the baby's crowning now so I need you to push again, a bigger one this time, thirty seconds.'

'I'll try.'

'You can do it, Elenia,' Dave reassured her, the feeling in his hand completely gone. She'd probably fracture something or at least popped it out of place but that was pennies compared to the excruciating anguish she was feeling. 'Good girl, that's it, good girl.'

'I'm not a fucking poodle, you ass-hat!' Lanie roared at him; behind Harvey, she heard Honey-Milk's squeaky laugh.

'Ass-hat? That's the best you got right now?'

'Goddamn cock-sucking Italian!' she shouted as the pain reached a critical mass point. It was worse than the described 'sucking a bowling ball through a straw', it was like trying to crap a telephone pole.

'That's more like it.' Honey-Milk's tone was bouncy and cheerful, making everyone in the room laugh; all were glad for the levity.

Dave hadn't noticed he'd started weeping until he was chuckling, and the salty tears dripped into the corners of his mouth. 'Every man is, Elenia,' he said, rubbing her calf soothingly.

'Nurse Ryan, the drops please.'

Honey-Milk hustled over to Harvey, passed him the sterile sheets to place strategically on the birthing bed, and because Lanie was at the heavy-lifting stage now, snapped off her soiled gloves for fresh and took her place by Lanie's left arm. 'Breathe, honey, it's important to breathe right now.'

'I know, all that stupid shitty Lamaze you made me learn.' But Lanie puffed out the little breaths, all the while focusing on Dave's face; she'd always found calm and focus in looking in his eyes, and she needed that focus more than anything right now.

'Okay, Lanie, this is the big one, this one should get the head out,' Harvey told her.

Lanie rounded out her back as she pushed again, staring at the ceiling this time as she tried to keep her patience. She'd been pushing for what felt like forever now, and had nothing to show for it yet.

At her feet, Dave watched as between her thighs, where he'd enjoyed many a night, the rounded fuzz-covered dome squirming its way out. 'It's coming,' he told her excitedly.

'You think I don't fucking know that?' she laughed, surprised she was able to do so. 'You wanna trade places?'

'Another push, Elenia, you're doing great,' Harvey said, reaching for a wipe to help cleanse away fluid from the nose that had just emerged. 'The next one should get the shoulders out.'

'I can't, I can't.' Exhausted, drained, impatient, Lanie shook her hand free of Honey-Milk's grip, pressed her palm to her brow as she started to sob a little. 'I can't do this anymore!'

Without a single hesitation, Dave moved from her leg up to her side, unwound her grip from the bed-rail and took her hand in his, leaning his head close to hers. 'Elenia, you are a superhero, you can do this.' He pressed a kiss to her temple, knew she was really in it if she wasn't telling him to fuck off. 'I love you so much, my sweetheart, just a little more.'

Harvey let her rest on the downtime, spoke quietly when the next contraction began while Honey-Milk moved to brace the leg that Dave had left resting on the bed. 'Lanie, you've got just a few more pushes and the baby will be here. Don't lose heart.'

Lanie looked at Dave, his eyes so purely green and focused on her face. 'I can do this.'

'Yes you can.'

'Okay.'

Clenching her eyes shut yet again Lanie bore down, giving Nurse Brick a hefty boot in the solar plexus as she did; because he was so big, he didn't even flinch. At her feet, Harvey grinned behind his mask as the rest of the head slid out along with the right shoulder. The baby was, thankfully, not sunny-side up, which allowed positioning for the next shoulder to come out without Lanie putting in any effort at all. 'One more, Lanie, that should do it.'

'Come on, Lanie, come on,' Dave murmured as he held her hand, watched as she clenched her eyes shut and let out one last growling scream.

Lanie felt like she was going to split in half if she pushed any harder, that all major organs would shoot out like baseballs in a batting cage. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pressure was gone, the relief monumental. For a second or two, Lanie felt a quick panic, wondered if something went wrong in the final moments.

Then she heard it. The irritated cry of new life.

Her baby.

R&R&Enjoy.