"All right Mom, this baby wants out. When I say push, you push..."
Dr. Althea Davis had enjoyed working with this couple. Every so often she would come across one couple who had something special besides the initial glow of impending first time parenthood. This couple had it. Occasionally she would catch the handsome naval officer looking at his wife with such loving adoration it would send shivers up her spine. Not many patients could do that. Listening to their conversation, she couldn't help but smile inwardly.
"I'm tired. Why don't I go join everyone outside and you take over here for a while?"
Dr. Davis loved how this woman teased her husband through all her months of discomforts and discoveries. Never once did she make this anything but an interesting adventure.
"Oh, I'm sure that would get me on the Tonight Show. Come on honey. We're almost there."
The soon to be father quickly patted away the sweat of his wife's labor before squeezing her hand as the next contraction hit. Althea recognized that look. He was wishing he could somehow take on the pain for his beautiful wife.
In the waiting area, Bud watched his wife pacing nervously.
"Boy, it really is different when you're the one waiting instead of the one inside giving birth. I'm not sure which is harder." Harriet chuckled facetiously, her eyes gazing down the hall to the birthing room.
"All right, I promise. One last push and then we're done," Althea encouraged the two exhausted people. Lots of moms-to-be gave their husbands nothing but trouble. This gal was a trooper through and through. The worst she'd done was threaten to take a break and have him take over. Dr. Davis could see the adoration she had often seen in his eyes was a two way street. This was going to be one happy family.
"Promises, promises."
The tired voice that still found the strength to crack a joke through clenched teeth made Althea laugh out loud. "Yeah, I should have been a politician," she responded.
"Here we go, Dad."
Glancing up for just an instant, Althea watched the woman's loving look as she addressed her husband, then with her hand squeezing his in what looked like a death-like grip, she drew her last bit of strength and gave one more push. A loud wail filled the room.
"Here you go, folks. One bouncing baby girl." Althea gladly handed the tiny bundle over for the father to cut the cord. This was always her favorite part. "Has she got a name?"
"Sarah Elizabeth," the two voices echoed proudly.
"Hey pretty lady. You've got a bunch of anxious people waiting to meet you."
Listening to the new dad talk to his daughter, Althea marveled at how such a tiny thing could reduce grown men to tears. Why not? It did her too.
"Well, they're going to have to wait a few more minutes. As soon as we get her and her mom cleaned up and back to their room, the entourage can come in." A nearby nurse allowed the family a moment longer before she took the baby away.
"I'm not sure Grandma and Grandpa are going to like that. I'm surprised they haven't marched in demanding to see for themselves that all is well."
Althea nodded knowingly at the couple. This wouldn't be the first or last delivery she was involved in with strongwilled grandparents.
"There are a few places in this world where you're mother isn't allowed to take over. Sometimes even marine generals don't get their way."
Yes, Althea had only faced one inquisition from the concerned general.
"What about retired Navy lieutenants?"
Now, that woman scared her. Every time she phoned, Althea had this overwhelming feeling she was being sold a sugar field in the proverbial Florida swamplands.
"Okay, we can discuss the family tree another time folks." The nurse interrupted, giggling at the banter she'd become so used to.
A few minutes later, AJ Roberts made his way to the waiting area and gave his mother a big hug. "It's a girl. Sarah Elizabeth."
"Congratulations, son." Bud reached around to hug his son.
"Chris is doing great. I can honestly say I've never seen her look more beautiful. Sarah looks just like her." AJ turned to his father-in-law.
Harmon Rabb shook AJ's hand and turned to hug his wife. "How bout that, Grandma?" he grinned, lightly kissing the top of her head.
"She's asking for you," AJ informed his mother-in-law. "They were just moving her into her own room, 207."
"On my way," Mac grinned, kissing her husband on the cheek.
"When do we get to meet the first of the next generation? I've got a lot of stories to tell her about her parents. I'll need to start early," Matthew Rabb teased his brother in law.
"Not before me." Kate Rabb winked at her big brother.
"Honey, please keep in mind discretion is the better part of valor." Jessica Rabb reminded her husband, gently patting her sixth month pregnant belly. "I'm not sure we want Chris and AJ to be left alone with junior here." Jessica Rabb had a smile that would melt ice. It had certainly melted Matt's heart the first time he saw her in his ninth grade math class. They were classic high school sweethearts. Even though Matt went to college at Columbia and Jess had gone to school at Georgetown, the relationship never faded. One year after graduation, they were married, and for their first anniversary Jess presented Matt with a pretty white stick, with a bright blue plus sign, tied in a large red bow.
"Yeah, well. Being young and single I don't have that problem," Kate grinned impishly.
AJ shook his head. The Rabbs and the Roberts' had pretty much grown up together. Living within bike riding distance from each other's homes, and attending the same schools, he and Chris had been best friends for years. One day, not long after she graduated from the University of Virginia, they'd been hanging out at her parent's place, watching old movies and discussing the woes of dating. Before they knew how it happened, they found themselves going on a real date with each other. Six months later they had announced their engagement. Almost six years after the wedding, both their parents had given up on the idea that they would ever be grandparents. Chris and AJ had been busy getting their careers on line and just enjoying each other's company. They wanted AJ to get his overseas tours done before they considered having children. Then, right around Chris' 29th birthday, it suddenly dawned on her that she had a biological clock. Three months later they announced their impending parenthood.
Mac tapped lightly on the door as she walked into the room.
"How ya doin', Mama?" Mac couldn't help the huge grin that spread across her face.
"Tired, but fine," Chris grinned back.
At that moment the nurse came walking back into the room with a little pink bundle.
"There's our little princess," Mac cooed as the nurse walked past to place Sarah in her mother's arms.
"Hey, I thought I was the princess of the family?"
"Sorry, dear. You've been dethroned," Mac shot back without skipping a beat.
"Thanks, Mom," Chris said somewhat seriously.
"What did I do?" Sitting down on the bed beside Chris, Mac hadn't taken her eyes off the new baby.
"For not letting me hit the snooze button on my biological clock."
"Hey, I'm glad you could learn from my lessons." Mac reached over and ran her finger along the little stretch of Sarah's arm that was peeking out from under the blanket.
"Here. You take her." Chris passed the baby over to Mac. "I hope I can be as good a mother as you are."
"You'll be better." Mac kissed Chris on the temple, and then leaned back, slowly rocking in place with the baby.
"I hope so." Chris kept her eyes on the tiny person in her mother's arms. Somehow it all still seemed so unreal.
"You ready to face the rest of the clan?" Mac asked without looking up.
"I'd like to see Dad first." Her mom's words suddenly registering, "Clan? Exactly who is here?"
"Well, Bud and Harriet of course. Matt and Jess are here with Katie. Jimmy cut some meeting short in order to catch the first plane home. Nicole is going to pick him up at the airport, so they'll be here soon. Mike is probably already here. He called to say he was on his way just before AJ came out to get us. Oh, wait, I forgot. Mike was going to stop and pick up whoever his latest girlfriend is. I think that's one of his tests of whether or not they're a keeper. Since Nickie brought Steve to a family gathering on a first date and he married her anyway, I think Mike assumes the first girl we don't scare off will be 'the' one."
The two women giggled happily unaware of the tall form watching from the doorway. Softly, Harm made his way over to the bed. Standing slightly behind his wife, he dropped his hands on either shoulder, and bent over to look at the precious bundle. "She looks just like you," he whispered to Chris.
"You think so?" Chris beamed.
Harm had a hard time holding back the tears in his eyes. Squeezing his wife's shoulder he swallowed hard. "May I hold her?"
"Daaaaddd. You don't have to ask." Chris watched her father as her mom handed Sarah over.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't there when you were born." Harm was looking at the baby, but he was talking to Chris.
"You made up for it," she smiled. It had taken her a long time before she finally realized Harm really was her father, and it took a few more years to understand the dynamics between him and her real mom, but there was never a single day that she regretted anything about the way she grew up. Harm was the best dad a girl could ask for, even if he did interrogate every boy she ever dated, and remind them how accurate a 9millimeter Navy issue was. Mac was a great mom, too. Few people ever realized she was really Chris' step mom. Most of Chris' life, she even forgot Mac was only a step mom. And how many people get to have the added blessing of a grandpa for almost fifteen years of their lives, and living right downstairs too.
Ray had been an incredible blessing to the Rabb household. He had nurtured and cherished each of the Rabb children as though they were his grandchildren as well. It had never occurred to them to call him anything but Grandpa. In many ways, he'd become a surrogate dad for Mac, somehow balancing the scales whenever the Burnetts came to town, and they did, often.
After a few minutes, Sarah began squirming in her Grandfather's arms. "I remember this. I'm afraid, little one, only Mommy can help." Passing the baby over to his daughter to be fed. "I'll go tell AJ it will be just a few minutes before the party can begin."
"No, Dad. Stay. He'll be back in a second." No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than as if on cue, Lt. Commander AJ Roberts of the Judge Advocate General Corps came tip toeing quietly into the room.
"I told everyone I'd come check on you. I thought you might want some quiet time alone." Walking around to the other side of the bed, AJ couldn't help grinning madly at his beautiful wife and baby.
"Thanks, hon. This is absolutely perfect."
And she was absolutely right. The Rabb family had come a long way, and there wasn't a single moment of any of it that they wouldn't do over again, exactly the same way.
The end.