December 12th, 1987 5:03 P.M George Washington General Hospital

"Ok, Liz, keep breathing. Just keep breathing, sweetheart. That's a good girl."

Abbey stood at Liz's bedside, holding a damp cloth to her forehead. She had long since relieved Mallory from her post, and she had gone to get some rest, planning to return later that evening, with her parents. Catherine had arrived at the hospital an hour earlier, with Ellie and Zoey in tow. After greeting a very cranky Liz, they retreated to the waiting room.
"You're doing great!"

"So how come I feel like crap?"

"Sometimes achieving greatness is painful. Painful, but worth it," Abbey said, optimistically.

"Yeah, ok. Where the hell is Dad? He left for more ice like, an hour ago"
"He left five minutes ago, Elizabeth. That's hardly an hour."

"Five minutes? Time is going by so slow!"

"What?" Abbey asked.

"The nurse said 10 hours! And that was only five hours ago."

"Oh, honey, you can go by that. There's no time limit for labor."

"Good. So can we end this now?"

"How much longer till we can see Lizzie's baby?" Zoey asked her grandmother.

"I don't know, dear. Soon, I hope," Catherine replied.

"It's taking forever," Ellie complained.

"I was in labor for twenty-four hours with your father."

Ellie's jaw dropped.

"No way!"

"Oh, yes way. He was a little pain in the…you know what."

Ellie and Zoey giggled.

"Was it worth it?" Ellie asked.

"Of course it was, Eleanor!"

"Would you take it back? I won't tell Dad."

"Absolutely not." "K, good, cuz I was gonna tell Dad."

Catherine rolled her eyes.

"I never had you pegged as the devious one, Ellie."

Ellie shrugged.

"Yeah, most people give that one to Liz and Zoey. Poor suckers."

"Your sense of humor reveals itself at the most inopportune times, you know," Catherine commented.

"It's one of my many charms."

"I see that."

"Where's Daddy?" Zoey asked, a whine in her voice.
"Probably with Liz"
"I wanna talk to Daddy"
"You'll talk to him later, Zo," Ellie said. "Fine." Zoey paused for a beat. "Where's Mommy"
Ellie sighed, exhasperatedly.
"She's with Dad and Liz"
"I wanna talk to Mommy"
"God, Zoey, you're so annoying," Ellie said.
"Hey! Grandma! Did you hear what Ellie said"
"Yes, dear. Brush it off"

"How are we doing in here?" Dr. Tom Sussin asked, walking into the room. "We're doing great, Tom." Abbey flashed her collegue a smile.
"Speak for yourself, Mom," Liz said, miserably.
"Looks like you've doing very well, Elizabeth"
"Yeah, yeah. When are you gonna pull this kid out of me?" "In due time"
"Yeah, when is that"
"Oooh," Abbey said, with surprise, as her hand drifted down to her stomach.
"Abbey?" Jed said, concerned.
"No, it's nothing," she said, uncertainly.
"Abbey, what is it?" Dr. Sussin questioned. "It's just…nothing. Small pain"
"When's your due date"
"Uh…tomorrow"
"Ok, why don't you come with me"
"No, Tom, really, I'm fine. Ouch!" "Abbey, I'd really like to take a look," Dr. Sussin insisted.
"Honey, why don't go? Just to make sure everything's ok," Jed suggested. "No…I have to stay with Liz"
"I'll stay"
"Well…all right. Think you'll be ok, sweetheart?" Abbey asked Liz.
"Oh…yeah, sure. I'll be fine"
She wasn't quite so sure, but she put a brave face for her mother's sake.
"Ok. I'll be back soon. I hope"

5:45 P.M.

"How much do you know about Greek mythology?" Jed asked.
Liz groaned.
"Not much, Dad"
"Well, it's never too late to learn. We'll start with Mount Olympus"
"Dad. I know about Mount Olympus. I'm not retarded. If you're going to bore me with random facts and statistics, at least tell me something I don't know." Jed was about to start on the legends of the Greek gods and goddesses when Dr. Sussin returned to the room.
"Hey, Tom. What's going on? How's Abbey?" Jed asked.
"She's fine. She gave us a bit of a scare, but looks like you'll only see one baby tonight"
Both Jed and Liz breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank God"
"But it won't be long now. I would say in the next couple of days we'll be seeing some action from Abbey," Dr. Sussin said. "When is she coming back?" Liz asked, urgently.
"She's just changing back into her clothes. I'm sure you'll see her in a few minutes. Meanwhile, I'm told you're almost there, Miss Elizabeth"
"God, I hope so." "Stick around, Jed. I have a feeling you'll be welcoming your first grandchild into the world very soon"
Grandchild. His wife was about to give birth, and at the same time…he would be welcoming a grandchild into the world. Though he had had nine months to get used to this, it still hadn't registered completely.
"How's it going in here?" Abbey entered the room with a bright, utterly disarming smile. Jed reached for her hand without a word, just grateful that she was with him. She looked at him with an expression of concern, but he smiled reassuringly in return and eased her worries.
"Liz, we'll be back in a second, ok?" Jed said, leading his wife out of the room.
"Bring me some ice when you come back"
"Ok"
On that note, Jed and Abbey left Elizabeth in Dr. Sussin's care and left the room.
"Where are we going?" Abbey asked, squeezing his hand lightly.
"You haven't eaten in twelve hours. We're going down to the cafeteria"
Abbey wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Yuck"
He laughed at her. "Thank you for that, Zoey. Food's food, and you have to eat"
"Abbey! Jed"
They whipped around to find Leo and Jenny McGarry running down the hallways towards them.
"Hi, guys"
"We thought we'd be too late!" Jenny said.
"Nope. Liz is still in there, waiting it out," Jed replied.
"Mallory said they'd taken you in too," Jenny said to Abbey.
Abbey waved it off.
"Just a false alarm"
"Another one"
"Yeah," Abbey laughed.
"How's Liz?" Leo asked.
"She's doing very, very well"
"We're gonna run down to the cafeteria and grab some food, you wanna come?" Jed questioned.
"We're right behind you"
Jed, Abbey, Leo, and Jenny sat in the cafeteria for nearly an hour. Besides eating, they had been talking. Talking about how times flies and the irony surrounding Elizabeth's pregnancy.
"You know, I hear Mal's getting pretty serious with Patrick O'Brien. You might want to watch out for her…" Abbey said.
"Abbey!" Jenny exclaimed, appalled.
Abbey laughed mischievously.
"I'm just saying"
"I don't want to think about that," Leo said, firmly.
"Excuse me. Abbey!" Abbey turned around to see one of the women who worked in the cafeteria calling her name.
"Anna! What is it?" Abbey asked.
"Tom just told Marianne call down and tell me to tell you, they're taking Liz into the delivery room"
Immediately, Jed, Abbey, Leo, and Jenny jumped up and began powerwalking out of the cafeteria.
"Thank you, Anna!" Abbey called behind her. "Anytime! Good luck"
"See," Abbey whispered to Jed. "Comes in handy to have connections."