XXIV "Everything Waits"

"I'm going to go, sweetheart, or I'm going to be late for work," Roy whispered, kissed his wife's forehead, and left. She had been asleep since he'd gotten to the hospital this morning, and he was not surprised—whenever he managed to catch her awake, she was trying to sleep. She'd lost a lot of it recently, from worry and stress and other, more physical things. It was best that he let her get as much as she could.

A group of soldiers kidnapped him just as he was exiting the building. They'd been coming in. Colonel Maria Ross, silently elected majority speaker, said, "Roy, we heard Riza was here. Is she all right? What's happened?"

Even with all the commotion that had gone on, nobody had told them yet about the baby. He grinned. This he couldn't resist, even if it made him late.

"What's that look…?" Farman muttered, under his breath.

Roy happily interrupted. "Riza'll be out of here in a few days, I think. She's doing better than she was."

"What happened?" Hughey pressed. The others muttered their own request along those lines.

Roy turned back toward the building and waved for them to follow. He led them through the reception area and, instead of directly into the maternity ward, through the inpatient hallway and around to the back of the nursery.

"I don't like that expression on his face," Ross murmured to the others, who muttered back their assent.

"What, you think he's trying to trick us?" Denny said dismissively. He had figured it out and was playing along. Roy knew he'd been to this area of the hospital many more times than anyone else, what with his two sets of twins. He had another (single) one on the way, Gracia had told him, as he rolled his eyes.

"Five boys younger than five years old…I think I would have given up after the second pair," Riza had said, not managing to suppress a shudder. Roy had laughed at her, but silently agreed. He had never managed to see how some people liked that kind of torture

It had been hard enough to get one, in their case. Riza'd been taking military-issue birth control hormones since she'd first started maturing (it was required of all women in uniform, for undefined but easily-guessable reasons), and her doctor had been concerned about their effect on her fertility. It had taken almost a year of careful timing to conceive—a year that had begun to seem frantic when Roy'd realized that he was rounding off to forty. Before too long he'd be too old to feel comfortable with having to raise young kids, and in a few more Riza wouldn't be capable.

Taking it slow had its consequences, particularly in the birth bed. It had been an extremely difficult overnight labor. Mom hadn't gotten any rest and neither had he, and he'd missed his entire morning shift at work to be with her. Riza was exhausted and not healing as fast as the doctors had hoped, though thankfully she hadn't been in much danger.

"Once more," he told the nurse on duty, jerking a thumb behind him at the crowd. She laughed and ducked into the nursery.

Havoc, who'd noticed the sign over the door, said, "Boy or girl?"

"Boy," Roy answered. "We knew that, though. Riza had some special tests run…they like to do them on women that aren't fairly young, to make sure everything's all right."

"But everything turned out fine?" Ross asked. "Oh, what am I saying, of course it did. When was all this?"

"Just about forty-eight hours ago. He's about two weeks early, but they're telling me he's in perfect health. He wasn't due until the twentieth, but I think he was more prepared for it than we were." Roy shook his head. "Fourteen hours through the middle of the night and I was about ready to give up on the whole business."

"Fourteen hours? Damn," Denny interjected, sounding somewhat appalled. To each his own, Roy thought. "That must've been hard on the lady."

"She's not been terribly happy with the arrangement, but she's been more agreeable for the last day or so," Roy said, for a round of laughs.

"Man, I'd've hated to be you these last couple of days. When Riza got pissed off around me I ran," Breda said, and they all laughed again.

"Well lucky for you she's not in much shape for chasing at the moment," Roy told him.

"Look at that, it's a sweet little miracle come to visit!" It was the first time Armstrong had spoken today, and he still pulled off the sparkle effect just fine. "I remember my sister's little ones…got a chance to go see them a few months ago, proud additions to the family…"

The nurse, slightly taken aback (as people so often were by Armstrong), stopped and let the door swing back toward her. By some amazing, probably newly-developed-parental instinct, Roy grabbed it. She smiled, embarrassed, and handed the babe off to his father. She told him, "We had to finish up the birth certificate information, so we got a peek at his eyes this morning. They're black."

"Not much doubt who his father is, is there?" Ross contributed, moving in to get a closer look. "I've always been told you can't tell who someone's going to look like when they're a baby, but hell—"

"Maybe it's just that our dear old Colonel always ends up looking like an infant," Breda suggested, to another laugh at their former commander's scowl.

"I think I've heard that joke about fifteen times now. My wife loves it," he grumbled, but he'd learned to read it as a backhanded compliment nevertheless. The baby had been awakened by the noise and was squirming in his arms. He was so tiny that Roy still had trouble believing he was really human.

"How's the dog going to take this, do you think?" Fury asked.

"Well, he's getting pretty old now…but he's been incredibly protective of Riza these last few months. He'd growl when I'd get near her sometimes."

"Seems about right. Everyone seems to think it's the man's fault…" Denny rolled his eyes.

It had obviously been part of a larger argument, because Fury turned to him and said "It's a statistical fact that men in the military tend to have fewer daughters and a higher incidence of identical twins, while women in the same occupation see little or no difference from the norm—"

"That's enough, you two," Ross growled, and they both shut up. She turned back and said sweetly, "Can I hold him?"

Being that she a woman, Roy was slightly more inclined to trust her with his son…but he had been having trouble trusting his own parents, who'd come specifically to help out. He surrendered his armful with extreme reluctance.

Ross stared down in wonder at the child, probably feeling jealous, if he knew her. "You didn't tell us…have you named him yet?"

"We've been arguing about it for months, but we finally decided on Peter yesterday." It was probably why the dog had been so upset at him last night, because he'd won for once.

"'Scuse me, Mr. Mustang?" A rounds nurse who had passed by earlier came from down the hall. "Your wife's awake. She wants to see the baby…and she was very specific about you accompanying him."

Damn that stupid table clock. "Guess I'll go special delivery. Ladies, to my wife…"

"Who's a lady?" Breda demanded.

"Call me an infant and you inspire revenge." Roy sidestepped and took off down the hall. He managed to get through the door and close it before anyone caught up.

Riza was sitting up in bed with her hands in her lap. Her face looked as cross as she could possibly have managed.

"Uh, you have visitors?" he tried, feigning innocence.

"Why aren't you at work? How many times have I insisted that you stop coming to see me if it's going to make you late?"

"Actually, if it weren't for said visitors I would have made it," he said, leaning his weight against the door. "I was actually out the door before they confronted me. It's amazing how people worry when they hear someone's in the hospital."

"Who called in the cavalry?" she sighed, somehow knowing just by the look on his face.

"I don't know…probably Gracia. Can I let them in? Only I'm kind of afraid of Ross and Armstrong trying to make a break for it and I really don't feel like having to track down our son."

"You can let them in only because I think I look immaculate right now," she said dryly. She'd been self-conscious lately, enough so that Roy knew she'd be back to her pre-childbirth proportions in no time.

"You look beautiful."

"Yeah, right."

He twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door. As the others stopped arguing and tumbled in, he went to her bedside, smoothed down her hair, and kissed her goodbye. "I'll be back for lunch."

"I just bet you will," she said dryly. "Go to work."

"'S ma'am!"