Thank you all so much for your wonderful feedback, and for being so patient. Afterall, I did keep you hanging out a while for this chapter :P.
Knowing that Vaughn was outside, Sydney got up and started to make her way down the hallway, but had to stop, resting her hand against the wall as another contraction hit.
"Sydney!" Weiss came bounding down the hallway. "There you are. What's going on?"
"I'm having a baby," she replied.
Weiss cracked up. "Yeah. That fact is kind of obvious, Syd. Either that or you're swallowed a giant beach ball…now there's an image." Weiss paused, a faraway look in his eyes.
"No, Houdini." Sydney shook her head. "I'm having a baby. Now."
Weiss's face was priceless. "What?" he gasped, withhis eyes as wide as dinner plates and his jaw practically reaching the floor.
"I'm having the baby." For some reason, Sydney started laughing.
"But…but…" Weiss stammered. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure." Sydney replied. "Could you go and get Vaughn?"
"Right, Vaughn." Weiss stood, rooted on the spot, glancing from side to side.
"Outside Weiss." Sydney reminded.
"Outside." Weiss repeated and then turned on his heel, running outside. "Vaughn! Vaughn! VAUGHN!"
About ten seconds later Vaughn came bursting in. "Syd?" He looked at her and she nodded. A look of sheer terror and elation crossed his face. "We gotta go. But we need to go home first. Do we have time to go home? We need to pack a bag. Maybe we—"
"Vaughn." Sydney placed a hand on his arm. "You're babbling. And we've still got plenty of time. Stop stressing."
Vaughn drew in a deep breath as Weiss, Ainsley, Will, Craig, Amy and Nat all came inside. "Eric, you had better not be playing with us." Ainsley was saying.
"He's not." Sydney said. "Sorry Will, sorry Craig, but we've got to go."
The entire groups faces broke into expressions that mirrored Weiss's from before, as they followed Sydney and Vaughn out the front.
"Well," Ainsley said, watching their car back out of the driveway. "I think this is what you would call an eventful New Years Eve."
"Just a bit." Will said.
They were about to walk back inside when another car pulled up. "Hey guys." Francie called out, slamming her door shut. "So, what did I miss?"
"Are you comfortable? Do you want anything? I can go get you something, if your want."
"Vaughn." Sydney stopped him as she shifted her position on the bed. "You're babbling again."
Vaughn blinked. "Was I?"
Sydney nodded, a smile on her face. "And for the time being, I am fine."
Vaughn looked at her. "How can you be so calm?" he demanded
Sydney laughed. "Give me a few hours and then see how calm I am."
Vaughn just shook his head in wonder as he bent down and pressed his lips into her forehead. "I'm going to say this again. I love you so much."
"Ditto." Sydney smiled. "Oh, actually, there is something you need to do."
"What"
"Call our parents. They'll kill us if we don't let them know what's going on ASAP."
Vaughn nodded and went to leave the room, but stopped when Dr Carter appeared in the doorway.
"Well, Sydney, Michael," she smiled. "Quite a way you've chosen to spend New Years. Bit of an early surprise, hey?"
"Not to early?" Sydney asked anxiously.
"No," Dr Carter's voice was reassuring. "Your baby is healthy and strong. Everything should be fine."
Sydney sunk back into the pillows behind her, relief written all over her face.
"I've got to go, but I'll be in and out to see how you're doing, Sydney," Dr Carter. "But for now, just try and relax as much as you can. It could be a very long night for the two of you."
"The waiting lounge is just down the hall," the nurse said as she walked along, with Jack and Juliette following close behind. "Now, at this point in time we only have two other women expected to deliver, so it should be pretty quiet…" she trailed off as they turned the corner to discover the waiting room already considerably full.
"Eric?" Juliette asked.
"Oh, hey Jules." Weiss waved. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," Juliette replied, gazing around where he, Ainsley, Will, Francie, Craig, Amy and Nat had settled down in the couches. "What are you doing here?"
"We thought we'd ring in the New Year here." Weiss said with a grin.
Ainsley gave him a nudge. "We couldn't stand hanging around the phone for news, so we thought we'd come here."
The nurse frowned slightly. "So you are all here for Sydney Vaughn?" They all nodded. "So, are you all family?"
They glanced at each other. "Yup." Weiss replied brazenly.
The nurse looked at Juliette, her eyebrows raised. "They're all family?"
"Yes," Juliette said firmly and Jack nodded in agreement. Both of them knew how important Sydney and Vaughn's friends were to them.
A knowing smile crossed the nurse's face. "Ok then. Just do me a favour and keep it down." With that, she turned on her heel and walked away.
"You two certainly are popular."
Sydney and Vaughn looked up as a nurse entered the room. "Pardon?"
"I said that you two are popular, and I must say you also have quite a large family."
"We do?" Sydney asked as she hoisted herself off the bed. She was sick of sitting down and felt the need to walk.
"There is an eclectic group of people currently sitting in one of our waiting rooms claiming that they are your family."
Both Sydney and Vaughn broke into grins. "Why does that not surprise me?" he asked.
"Maybe because—" Sydney cut off abruptly as another contraction hit. As she leaned over, with both hands pressed in the bed, Vaughn stepped to her side, his hand rubbing up and down her back. In doing this, he caught sight of the clock that was on the wall. It read 12.01.
"Hey Syd," he whispered into her ear. "Happy New Year."
The contractions continued into the morning, only intensifying as the hours passed. The calm and relaxed state that Sydney had been in earlier was a distant memory. To her, it felt as if an eternity had passed since she felt that first contraction.
Vaughn had not left her side for the entire time. Somehow he knew when she needed him to talk and when she needed him to shut up, when she needed his touch and when she needed him to back off.
Then finally, when the first rays of the morning sun began to creep through the window, Dr Carter determined that it was time for Sydney to be moved into the delivery suite.
"Um…a boy." Ainsley declared.
"I'm with her." Craig piped up and Will nodded as well.
"Yup," he agreed. "Boy."
"No way. It's a girl." Francie shot back.
"I'm feeling girl, too." Weiss replied. He turned to his left. "Nat?"
She grinned. "I'm just gonna sit on the fence with this one."
"Ah, you're no fun." Weiss grumbled. "What about you, Jules?"
"I was thinking girl, but now something is telling me boy." She looked at Jack. "What do you think? Grandson or granddaughter?"
He paused before answering. "Granddaughter."
"You sound pretty sure there, Mr Bristow." Francie commented.
Jack shrugged. "I figured that I've got a fifty-fifty chance."
"Well," Amy starched out in her seat. "Hopefully, we'll be getting our answer soon."
"Come on, Sydney." Dr Carter urged. "Just one more push for me. You can do that."
Sydney shook her head, unable to muster the strength to talk. She was utterly exhausted.
"Sure you can, Sydney. One more and then you'll finally get to meet this baby of yours."
Vaughn bent down and pressed his lips into Sydney's sweaty brow, with one arm around her shoulder and his other hand being squeezed by one of hers. "You can do this, Syd," he murmured into her ear. "You know you can."
"No, I can't," she managed to say.
"Yes you can. You're Wonder Woman remember." He kissed her forehead once again. "I love you and I know that you can."
Vaughn's words gave her the fuel that she needed, and with her last ounces of strength, Sydney beared own with everything that she had.
"That's it," Dr Carter said. "You've done it Sydney."
Sydney collapsed limply against Vaughn as the unmistakable cry of a newborn was heard.
"Congratulations," Dr Carter said, as she placed the newborn upon Sydney's chest. "It's a girl."
"What's the time?" Francie asked, as she thumbed through a magazine.
"Uh," Craig glanced at his watch. "It would be exactly 7.47am."
"Ugh!" She omitted a frustrated sigh and tossed the magazine across the couch. "How much longer is this going to take?"
Ainsley let out a small laugh. "Fran, Syd is giving birth not baking a cake. There's not exactly a time limit. This could continue all day."
"Or for two days." Weiss added. "As my mum likes to remind me every time I do something to disappoint her."
"And so she should." Ainsley joked. "Two days? This is insane."
"She's perfect," Sydney whispered as she stared wondrously as the small bundle in her arms.
They had returned to her original hospital suite, and both Sydney and Vaughn were struggling to comprehend the enormity of the moment. It had finally happened. They were parents.
Vaughn smiled, wrapping one of his arms around Sydney as he settled next to her on the bed. "She looks like you, Syd."
"Now, how can you say that when she has your chin?" Sydney asked, gently grazing the tiny dimple in their daughter's chin.
"Because I know that she is going to grow up to be a stunner just like her mum. A regular little heart breaker."
Sydney laughed. "You know, her dad ain't that bad either."
Vaughn grinned as he pressed his lips into hers. "I kinda like hearing that."
"What? That you aren't bad looking?"
"No," Vaughn shook his head. "The dad thing."
"Hmm," Sydney's gaze fell back upon her tiny daughter, who was sound asleep. "So perfect," she murmured. "Ten fingers…ten toes." She paused, as something occurred to her. "Emily was right."
"Huh?" Vaughn cocked his head. "What was that?"
"Emily was right." Sydney repeated.
His brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"You know how I've been having those freaky dreams?"
"No, I'd forgotten about them," Vaughn deadpanned. "You might have to remind me."
"Vaughn!" If she hadn't been holding their baby she would have hit him. "I'm trying to be serious here."
"Ok. I'm sorry." Vaughn tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Now, about Emily?"
"Yesterday, when I fell asleep on the couch, I had another dream, but it wasn't crazy or freaky. I dreamt that Emily was over at our place. She was just sitting on our couch, chatting away and drinking tea as if she'd been there a hundred times before." Sydney paused, a faint smile on her face. "She told me that everything was going to be ok. That the dreams were nothing. Basically what you had been telling me all along, but it wasn't like she was trying to make me feel better. It was like she knew. She told me that this little one would be perfect and that we wouldn't screw her up too bad." She laughed softly, looking up at Vaughn. "It was Emily, on our couch and I could swear that it was almost real."
"Hey Syd."
"Yeah?"
"I think that this little one," Vaughn gently stroked the side of their daughter's cheek, "looks like an Emily. How about you?"
Sydney held his gaze for a few seconds before breaking into a grin. "I think she does. It's perfect." She was silent for a second, as a look of almost inspiration came across her face. "But how about we spell it with an 'ie' in stead of an 'y'? The French way- to make sure that she has some of where her dad came from in her."
Vaughn smiled. "I love it," he said, his eyes falling upon the sleeping baby. "Well then, Emilie Georgina Vaughn, I think it's time that we welcome you to the world."