"Sara!" Grissom called anxiously as soon as he walked in the door of their house.
"Gil," Sara moaned, her voice tinged with fear.
Grissom rushed toward the source of Sara's voice. He found her on the floor in the hallway just outside of the bathroom. Her face was contorted in pain, and her hands clutched at her stomach. Grissom knelt down beside her and scanned her for injury. "What happened?" he asked, trying to assess the situation as quickly as possible.
"I fell, and I couldn't get to the phone, and I've been having contractions, and it's too soon," Sara rambled frantically.
Sara felt another contraction start, and Grissom instinctively looked down at his watch. The contraction lasted about a minute, then Grissom started to speak once again. "How did you fall?" Grissom questioned, trying to determine if she had sustained any injuries.
"I left the bathroom, realized that I had forgotten my watch, turned around too quickly, twisted my ankle, and fell. I can't put any weight on it."
"Does anything else hurt?" Grissom queried, exuding a calmness he didn't feel.
"Contractions," Sara replied, feeling the tightness return to her abdomen.
Grissom looked back at his watch and noticed that only three minutes had passed. How is she in active labor already? After waiting for the contraction to finish, Grissom lifted Sara off of the floor and carried her toward the front door. "I'm bringing you to the hospital," Grissom explained, "everything is going to be okay. Keep taking nice slow deep breaths."
Grissom laid Sara across the back seat of the car, got in the driver's seat, and started for the hospital.
After a lot of coaxing on Sara's part, Grissom stepped out of her room and into the waiting room to call Catherine. "Willows," she answered, her voice tinged with sleep.
"Catherine, it's Grissom. Sara just delivered the baby. We're at Desert Palm now," Grissom stated.
"Is everything alright?" Catherine questioned, knowing that Sara's due date was over a month away.
"Both Sara and the baby are doing fine. Sara fell at the house, and I didn't know anything was wrong until the attorney from the case she was supposed to testify in called to say that she hadn't arrived at the courthouse. When I found her, her contractions were only a few minutes apart. I brought her straight here. Her doctor assures me that everything is fine right now, and she thinks that the discomfort that Sara was experiencing last night was the beginnings of labor."
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"A girl, a very small, beautiful girl. Sydney Melanie Grissom: she weighs six pounds, eight ounces, and she's nineteen inches long."
"Congratulations! I'll be sure to get the rest of the details from you later. Did Sara have a bag packed for the hospital?"
"No, she hadn't gotten to that yet."
"Alright, I'm going to stop by your house and grab some things to bring for her before I meet you there. I'll give the guys a call too."
"Catherine, Sara doesn't want everyone down here right now. She's exhausted; she's not going to want to talk to everyone."
"I'm still going to call them. When she's ready for visitors, I can call them again."
"Okay, thanks Cath."
"Sure. Get back to your wife."
Grissom smiled, hung up the phone, and walked back toward Sara's room.
"Catherine says congratulations," Grissom stated, standing by the head of the bed and taking Sara's hand.
"The nurse is going to bring Sydney back in in a few minutes. They need to finish doing a test first," Sara informed him.
"Baby's first test, the APGAR."
"Yeah. I can't believe she's here already, we don't have anything ready."
"We have some things ready. You had picked out clothes, and we have the crib and changing table."
"But they aren't assembled," Sara pointed out, "you said you were going to do that, but you never got to it. You got called in that weekend, remember?"
"Yeah, and I never got back to it. I'll make sure it gets put together before the two of you come home."
"The car seat needs to be installed too."
"Going through labor sure cleared your mind," Grissom joked, knowing that he had put things off for too long.
Sara attempted a death glare, but found herself smiling. A nurse knocked at the door, and started pushing a bassinet into the room. Both Grissom and Sara looked toward the nurse, but their gazes were then lost on their newborn daughter. "Would you like to try feeding her?" the nurse asked Sara.
"Yes," Sara replied, not taking her eyes off of her daughter.
"Go ahead and open your gown, and I'll show you how you can get her latched on."
Sara's eyes widened with the nurse's bluntness, but she covered her apprehension. "If you don't mind, I'd like to try on my own. If I have any questions afterward, I'll make sure I ask."
"There's no need to be modest," the nurse reassured, "breastfeeding is one of the most natural things on this Earth. It is also one of the best things you can do for your baby. However, if you wish, I can leave and let you attempt it on your own. If you have any problems, use the call button to buzz the nurses' station. I'll come back in about half an hour."
"Thank you," Sara stated, relieved that the nurse was leaving.
Grissom inwardly smiled at the irony of Sara's request. As soon as the nurse left the room, Grissom spoke. "Sara, you just gave birth to this little cherub," Grissom recalled while eagerly walking around the bed to get to the bassinet, "the doctor and those nurses saw everything. Now you're skittish about letting her help you?"
I would like some of my dignity intact. If I had a choice, I wouldn't have been spreading my legs for them. However, Mother Nature didn't come up with another way. "I've done a lot of reading about breastfeeding, and I'd like to try it on my own first," Sara replied, "I don't need an audience."
"In that case, I better be leaving," Grissom teased.
"Gil, you're not going anywhere," Sara warned.
"I wasn't planning on it," Grissom affirmed.
Grissom reached into the bassinet and picked up his newborn daughter. She stirred slightly when Grissom readjusted her in his arms, and Grissom looked down at her. "You are so beautiful, Sydney," Grissom spoke, brushing his finger across her small cheek.
Sara smiled warmly and waited for Grissom to set Sydney in her arms. She opened the left side of her gown, and Grissom lowered Sydney to her chest. Sara supported the baby's head and guided Sydney toward her breast. Open wide, lips out, tongue extended, mouth full, pulled close, tummy to tummy. There, okay, she's swallowing, I obviously did something right. "She's so small," Sara noted, watching Sydney while she suckled.
"But she's perfect," Grissom amended, running a finger down the baby's arm.
"She is. Sydney Melanie Grissom," Sara stated, testing out her daughter's name once again.
Seeing my child before me, in my beautiful wife's arms, is absolutely amazing. Fresh, innocent, my little girl is here. There is one thing I can say with confidence: I will always be there for her. "Honey, you look lost," Sara observed, looking up at Grissom.
Grissom smiled and leaned forward to kiss Sara's forehead. "I was just admiring my wonderful family," Grissom whispered, "there is nowhere else I'd rather be."
I don't know how we're going to adjust, but I have to agree with him. Our baby girl is beautiful. For this brief moment, the world consists of the three of us, and there isn't anywhere else I'd rather be.
The End
Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews!
A continuing story will be posted soon.