Tony was warming a bottle for Charlotte while Billy swirled his oatmeal around his plate when the phone rang on what had the makings to be the hottest day of summer. Angela was still getting dressed for work, not sure what to wear so as not to wilt in the sure-to-be ninety-degree heat. Making it to the phone a split second before the answering machine picked up, Tony let out a jovial hello just as Angela pushed open the kitchen door, nearly knocking him over.

Preparing to kiss him good morning, she paused when she saw the blood drain from his face and heard the panic in his voice when he said, "Are you sure? ... Okay, we'll be there .. 3450 ... got it."

"Tony what is it?"

Even Billy looked up, no more sure what to make of Tony's mixed expression of surprise, shock, glee, and fear than Angela was.

Tony met his wife's eyes, still a bit unsteady. "My baby's having a baby," he said.

Angela snapped to attention when his meaning sunk in. "Sam's in labor?"

Tony nodded, the phone still in his hand. "They're at the hospital, room 3450. They just got there." Then, without warning, he threw his arms around her and planted a kiss on her that nearly curled her hair. "Honey, we're gonna be grandparents."

It took another twenty minutes for them to get everything together. Billy grabbed a few Gameboy games and books and shoved them into his bookbag, while Tony took an inventory of Charlie's diaper bag, and Angela called her mother and then work to say they wouldn't be in.

Mona met them in the driveway, and the five of them piled into the Jeep. It was a short ride to Fairfield General, but it seemed to take an eternity. Finally, they stepped off the elevator on the maternity floor. Angela insisted Tony go in to see his daughter while she got the kids settled in the waiting room, where she suspected they'd be spending the better part of the day.

Tony identified himself at the nurses station, and a nurse directed him to Sam's room. Sam's eyes lit up when he walked in, but the excitement faded as a contraction seized her. Tony's instinct was to ask her what he could do to make the pain go away, but knowing he was virtually helpless, he just took her hand and waited with Hank for it to be over. Finally, the pain subsided, and Sam said simply, "Hi Dad."

"Hi sweetheart. How're you feeling?"

"Like an achy blimp being forced into a vice every three minutes. But I guess I'm pretty far along, and the doctor says everything looks fine. Where's Angela?"

"Right here, honey," Angela said from the doorway. "Mother is with Charlie and Billy, but he's excited to see you." Angela walked over to hug Sam as much as her encumbered state would allow.

"Thank you for being here."

"Oh, Sam, sweetie, I wouldn't be anywhere else."

Tony watched in amazement as the two women bonded, and the brave face Sam put on for his and Hank's benefit faded into the scared countenance of a little girl who was in over her head.

"I don't know if I can do this. It hurts so much," she managed to get out as the nearby fetal monitor revealed the rapid incline of another contraction.

"Honey, you're doing fine, and it's all right to be scared. We'll get through this, I promise," Angela said, brushing a few stray hairs from Sam's cheeks.

Giving the two most important women in his life some time, Tony stepped into the hall with Hank, knowing that although, as men, they were no longer banished to the waiting room, their presence was still somewhat awkward in this sacred environment shared by women.

Hank filled Tony in on everything the doctor said, and Tony got the distinct impression that talking was the only activity that was keeping Hank from bouncing off the walls with excitement and fear. The younger man's frayed nerves immediately pulled Tony back twenty-five years — had it really been that long — to the day he held Marie's hand with tears flowing down his face as his little girl made her entrance into the world.

The next few hours were spent rotating in and out of Sam's room as she steadily progressed. Jonathan and Melissa eventually arrived, followed by Hank's parents, who could be heard bickering their way down the hall. When the increasing pain was finally reduced by an epidural, Sam felt up to a quick visit by Billy, who was as much in awe by the environment as by knowing that the conclusion of the day's events would be a baby.

Finally, at nearly four in the afternoon, the doctor said it was time and asked Sam if there was anyone beside Hank she wanted present for the delivery. Her eyes darted back and forth between her father and Angela, and sensing her need for a woman's presence, Tony met his daughter's eyes and said to his wife, "Angela, I think you should stay."

Sam smiled gratefully, and gave her father one last hug, whispering, "Thanks Dad, I love you."

"I love you too, Sam. And I'll see you in a bit."

He quickly clasped Angela's hand and met her eyes, not needing to say anything as he slowly backed out of the room.

In the waiting room, he found Mona playing Billy's Gameboy, Melissa spooning pureed green beans into Charlie's skeptical mouth, and Jonathan and Billy paging through a bridal magazine. Joe and Fran had disappeared to the cafeteria. "Okay guys, get comfy. This is it, the next time we go back there, it will be to see a baby."

"Well, what are you doing out here?" Mona asked. "Shouldn't you be back there with her?"

"No, Hank and Angela are with her. She needs a woman ... her mother ... not her frantic father." And frantic he was as the minutes began to tick by. They had been forewarned that it could take minutes or hours, and that open-ended time element was nothing less than torture. When the door opened at a quarter after five, Jonathan and Billy had toured practically the entire hospital, and Charlie had treated everyone to a meltdown of apocalyptic proportions before falling into an equally intense sleep. Tony nearly charged Hank in his haste to know what had happened.

With tears on his face and a pile of pink buttons the nurse had shoved into his hands, telling him dads got the honor of informing the family, he managed to stammer, "It's a girl."

Tony nearly fell to the floor with relief, and only caught himself when he remembered to ask, "What about Sam? How's my baby?"

"You can see for yourself, Dad. She asked for you."

The room was flooded with light, and right in the middle of the bustle of nurses cleaning and rearranging the room was his little girl holding a small pink bundle in her arms. Hank hurried back to his spot on the side of the bed, with the unmistakable goofy grin of a new father, and Angela was standing behind Sam, a look of serene exhaustion on her face. Sam, for all the hours of pain and work, looked remarkably fresh and alert as she silently gestured for Tony.

"Dad, I'd like you to meet Katherine Marie, your granddaughter."

Tony accepted the tiny baby from Sam's outstretched arms, and Angela made her way to his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him close. "Congratulations Grandpa."

"She beautiful. She's perfect. Just like her mother and grandmother."

With Sam's consent, the rest of the brood was invited in to meet Baby Katherine, but the visit was kept short so that the new parents could spend time alone with their daughter. Tony and Angela were the last to leave. Pausing at the doorway to take one look back at the new family, Tony held his new daughter close, with his other arm around his wife and son, a virtual reflection of Sam and Hank as they marveled at the miracle that was their child.