Then the phone rang. Boone hoped it was Jack with a booty call. Well, it had been - he glanced at the clock - a whole four hours since they'd spoken. He reached over and picked up the phone. "Hello?" he muttered sleepily.
"Boone?"
It took him a second to place the voice. And when he did he was a little confused. "Tayla?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong," she assured him. "But I've been having contractions for a while now and I think it's getting to the time we should be heading to the hospital."
Boone sat up and nearly flung the phone out of his hand. "What?"
"Baby's coming," Tayla explained.
"No," Boone said, shaking his head. "No, no, no, no, no. Baby can't come now, Jack's in Austin."
"Sorry, I don't think the baby knows that, Boone," Tayla replied.
"Oh God," Boone moaned. "But you're not even due 'til next week, can't you just hold on?"
"I really don't think so," Tayla said, sounding a little bemused. "Are you gonna come pick me up?"
"I don't know how to deliver a baby," Boone stated, almost to himself.
"I meant to take me to the hospital," Tayla told him.
"No, yeah, I know, I didn't mean that," Boone explained. "Jack's supposed to deliver the baby."
"Yeah, I know, sorry," Tayla said. "We'll just have to page Dr. Hamilton."
Oh great, Boone thought, perfect. This was so not the way this was meant to be happening.
"Boone?"
"Yeah, sorry, I'll come pick you up," he said, shaking his head a little to clear it. "I have to phone Jack then I'll come pick you up. I'll be there soon."
"Okay, I'll see you in a bit then," Tayla said.
When they got to the hospital Tayla told the nurse at the desk how far apart her contractions were and they sat her in a wheelchair and thrust a clipboard at Boone.
"You need to fill this out, sir," the nurse told him.
Boone looked down at the forms. "What is this?"
"You need to fill in your wife's details and medical history," the nurse explained.
"She's not my wife, I barely know her, how am I supposed to know all this stuff?" he asked, looking at the nurse as if she was crazy. And the nurse looked back at him in much the same way which made him realise how that probably sounded.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were the father," she said.
"I am," Boone replied. "Kind of. I guess."
"Boone," Tayla called to get his attention. "I'll help you with the forms."
"Okay," he said blindly.
So they went to a room and Tayla helped Boone fill out the paperwork. But once that was done Boone started to feel ever so slightly useless and out of place. Tayla's contractions were getting worse and closer together and she seemed to be having more trouble with them.
"You know what, we should have brought your husband," Boone said, pacing slightly.
"He's watching the kids, Boone, it's fine," Tayla explained.
"I could watch the kids," Boone suggested. "He could come here and I can look after your kids." Tayla just looked at him. "I can call him. I'll go call him." He made a move to leave the room.
"Boone," Tayla called. He stopped and looked at her. "Come here." He walked back over to stand by the bed. "I'll tell you what you can do," she said as she held out her hand out to him. "You can hold my hand."
Boone looked at her hand and then back to her face. "Okay," he said. "I can do that."
So he held her hand and helped her through the next contraction. But the irony wasn't lost on him that she was actually helping him by making him feel useful, which was actually really sweet and far more than Boone would be doing if he was the one in labour right now.
Dr. Hamilton came into the room and pulled on a pair of latex gloves. "Okay, how are we doing?" he asked.
Boone just looked at him. Actually he was probably glaring but he didn't really care, he just hoped Jack would make it in time.
"I'm fine," Tayla said.
"Right, I'm just going to take a look, see how far along we are," Dr. Hamilton declared, lifting the sheet up.
Boone quickly turned to face the wall. Above the waist stuff only, that was his deal. Tayla smiled at him, obviously amused. He gave her a half smile back before going back to staring at the wall behind her.
"Okay, Tayla, you are seven centimetres dilated right now," Dr. Hamilton told her. Tayla nodded.
"Is Jack gonna make it?" Boone asked.
"I don't know, where is he?" Dr. Hamilton asked.
"Austin," Boone replied.
"Austin, Texas?" Dr. Hamilton asked.
"Uh-huh," Boone mumbled, trying to resist the urge to punch him in the face.
"Well, is he on a plane yet? Because if he's not I don't fancy his chances much. This is Tayla's fourth child so things are gonna move pretty fast here," Dr. Hamilton informed him.
Boone sighed. "I don't know where he is," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
But then Tayla had another contraction which distracted him from worrying too much about Jack. And, true to Dr. Hamilton's cocky word, things moved along quickly. Rather more quickly than Boone would have liked under the circumstances. Sure, he wanted a baby, but he wanted Jack to deliver said baby, not stupid Dr. Hamilton.
"Okay, Tayla, when you get your next contraction I want you to push for me, okay"
Dr. Hamilton instructed.
Tayla nodded and held onto Boone's hand a little tighter as the contraction started. She moaned as she pushed down and Boone had the feeling that things were getting rather bloody if he looked the other way, but he so wasn't going to do that. So he concentrated on holding Tayla's hand and looking at the blank wall behind her head. Why did they paint hospital walls white, anyway? Surely that's the easiest way to show up dirty marks. But there weren't any marks on the wall, it was spotless, like it had been freshly painted. How could that be?
"All right, I can see the head," Dr. Hamilton declared.
"Head?" Boone asked, spinning around and wishing he hadn't. He quickly turned back to Tayla. He really needed to pay more attention here though, he totally zoned out for a minute there.
"Okay, you should be able to clear the head with another push," Dr. Hamilton told Tayla.
And sure enough, a couple of contractions later the room with filled with the sound of a screaming baby.
"It's a boy," Dr. Hamilton declared.
"Boy? It's a boy?" Boone asked.
"It's a boy," Dr. Hamilton repeated.
"Wow," was all Boone could manage.
"Congratulations," Tayla smiled at him. And Boone smiled back at her like an idiot because he wasn't sure what else to do.
"You want to cut the cord?" Dr. Hamilton asked him.
"Oh, no, I'm strictly above the waist only, that was Jack's job," Boone explained.
Tayla gave him a look. "Boone, go do it," she told him.
So Boone let go of Tayla's hand, which he wasn't really aware he was still holding until that point, and moved to where Dr. Hamilton was. There was a lot of blood and gunk and the umbilical cord which made Boone think of intestines but there was also a tiny little baby. His baby. His son. He cut the cord and the nurse wrapped his baby in a blanket and placed it in his arms. Boone felt his eyes well up as his looked into his baby's face.
"Hey," he said, smiling irresistibly. "I'm your daddy. Well, actually, I'm one of your daddies. Which is gonna confuse the hell out of you when you get older but..." he trailed off and just rocked the baby a little. He was so tiny and perfect. So absolutely fantastic.
And Shannon was right, when you actually hold your baby in your arms you see how ridiculous it is to be scared of them. Boone could do this. In fact, Boone kind of wished he'd been doing this a long time ago.