Cameron was willing to admit that for the past three months he was a pain in the ass to Marge, but for good reason. Ever since she got out of surgery she was ordered to be on bed rest. So he constantly made sure that Marge didn't exert herself one little bit, no matter how much of a nuisance she said he was being. Unfortunately in the process he sort of ended up neglecting Becky, so one night Marge "encouraged" him to go spend some quality time with his fiancé. Despite it not being his idea, though, Cameron still sort of felt like an asshole as he enjoyed lying on the couch with Becky as they watched Pearl Harbor, while the mother of his child was off somewhere else.
At least the movie had some of the mindless romantic drivel that Becky was into, and it had the action and violence Cameron liked…plus Kate Beckinsale. So neither of them could complain it was three hours long.
"Well good night," Aunt Alice yawned. She had made a futile attempt at not leaving them alone, but it was getting late for her.
"Sleep tight," Sarah said, leaving too and grinning mischievously at them.
He and Becky spent the next few minutes watching the movie, when Cameron automatically began running his hand up and down her hip while kissing her neck.
Becky chuckled, moving her head to give him better access. "Is the woman of your dreams turning you on?"
In response to that Cameron reached for the remote and turned off the TV. He then flipped Becky on top of him, saying with a cheesy smile, "Damn right you are." Grinning at him, she dove down and the two of them proceeded to make out right there on the couch.
It didn't take long for the kiss to become more and more passionate as they began ravaging each other. Only then did Cameron realize that it had been a while since the two of them were intimate with one another, so he got even more revved up. He figured that they would have a nice romp on the couch, then hopefully move to bed for some more comfortable lovemaking. His hands went to the hem of her shirt while she began undoing his belt, when there was a knock on the front door.
They ignored it and kept on going. Becky's shirt came off and she was about to reach around to unsnap her bra when the knocking got more incessant. Once again they were prepared to ignore it, but Alice yelled from her bedroom, "Answer the door already!"
"I got it," Cameron sighed, standing and repositioning his pants, trying to do it in a way that hid that fact that he and Becky were in the middle of something.
Upon opening the door, Mrs. Harrison cried, "Marge is going into labor!"
It took maybe a second or two for Cameron's mind to process that before he grabbed his jacket off the coat hanger, and bolted outside. On his way to the clinic he slipped on some sleet and fell on his ass. Some people walking by laughed at Cameron's foolishness, but he simply picked himself up and sprinted onward.
"Where is she?" Cameron demanded as soon as he burst into the clinic.
"Where's who?" Greg asked, taken back by his urgency.
"Marge, of course!"
"She's not here," he replied.
"Fuck!" Cameron shouted, running back out into the cold again. Of course the weight of her belly would hinder her progress!
Making his way to the house, Cameron ran into them half way there. Mr. Harrison and Dennis were holding up Marge on both sides with Jack in tow.
"Where the hell were you?" Dennis asked.
"I ran all the way to the clinic," he explained, taking Mr. Harrison's place.
"Oh, you idiot!" Marge groaned.
"Hey, you told me to go see Becky!" Cameron shot back as they went.
"That's because you were waiting outside the bathroom while I was doing my business."
"I was just making sure you didn't slip and fall or anything," he defended. It didn't cross his mind that maybe arguing was a futile effort.
Marge let out a cry of agony, and Cameron felt as her fingernails dug into the shoulder she was holding on to. A cringe from Dennis told Cameron that he had just experienced the same thing.
Five brutal minutes later they finally made it to the clinic. "This is why I asked where Marge was," Cameron announced as they walked through the front doors.
"Holy shit!" Greg exclaimed. He took over from there. Marge was somehow coaxed into changing and going into the delivery room, as Cameron, Greg, and some assistants all changed into scrubs.
It was one of the most horrible experiences of Cameron's life.
For god knows how long Cameron was by her side holding her hand, trying and failing to put up an aura of reassurance. His hand was being crushed each and every time Marge had a contraction, screaming as if she was being tortured by a medieval device. It took every single ounce of willpower for Cameron not to faint, vomit, or run out of the room screaming like a little girl. For some reason he had it in his mind that having Jack would've prepared her for the current kid, but obviously that time she had been drugged up.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, CAMERON!" Marge bellowed just as another contraction hit. Cameron's knees almost buckled when she squeezed so hard that he thought she might have broken a few fingers.
"You're doing great, Marge. Just keep at it!" Greg told her, sitting in front of her spread legs.
"Are you sure?" Cameron asked in desperation. For the love of god, Cameron was only nineteen. Less than a year ago if someone had told him that he was going to be a father so soon (or at least in his book it was too soon) he would have laughed. "Maybe we should get Henry in here."
"Henry's a surgeon."
"You're a medic!"
"Hey!" Greg shouted, looking up at him. "I delivered two babies prior to this—that's two more than Henry."
"True but—" He stopped talking and cringed once more.
"GAH!" Marge yelled, crushing Cameron's hand again.
"Keep pushing!"
Marge let out another agonizing scream, so Cameron brought up his other hand to hold onto her tighter. He planted a light kiss on the top of her sweaty red hair. "You're doing great." In actuality, he obviously had no idea how Marge was doing. It just felt like the right thing to say.
Greg kept on telling Marge to continue what she was doing, when all of a sudden she let out an intense cry of relief. What followed was the sound of a baby crying. "It's a girl!"
It felt as if Cameron was paralyzed the moment Greg held up a bawling, bloody, and shriveled up person. He watched as the umbilical cord was cut, as one of the assistants washed the infant, and then as she was wrapped in a blanket. Numbly, he saw the baby being handed to an exhausted but delighted Marge. She began crying happily as she cuddled their daughter.
Their daughter, Cameron realized. And if that was their daughter, then that was his daughter. And if that was his daughter then that meant he was a father. I'm a father? Cameron asked himself in wonder.
For nine months he knew that he was going to be a father, but actually experiencing it, actually looking right at the baby was an entirely different feeling. Mystified, he sat on the edge of the bed and reached over the stroke the wisps of red hair on the top of his baby girl's head. She was still crying her brains out, and shortly that sound would become a pain in the ass, but at the moment it was music to his ears.
"She's taking my last name, Cam, so you can name her," Marge said, still smiling down at their daughter.
His mind instantly began to think of every possible name. Hope? Rose? Nah, way too cliché, he thought. Maybe after his mother…then again she was alive, and Cameron knew that for some reason she had a thing about naming kids after living relatives. His grandmother, perhaps? Agnes? Hell no. How about something with "J" to match her brother? He shot that down as well—too trendy.
"Chloe," Cameron blurted out, not exactly sure where that came from.
Marge's smile grew wider. "Chloe Prince. I like that."
"Mommy?" Looking towards the door, Cameron saw as Jack was escorted in by one of the assistants.
"Hey, buddy," Cameron said, going over to pick up Jack. He then carried the kid over to the bedside so that he could get a good look at his sibling. "This is your sister Chloe."
"Hi," Jack greeted. "Can I have a brother next?" he asked both Cameron and Marge.
"Not from me, kid," he answered, chuckling.
Marge snorted a bit with laughter, but said, "I don't know, sweetie."
"I'll be back soon," Cameron told Marge, who nodded. He walked outside the doors, and told everyone waiting outside it, "It's a girl. We named her Chloe."
There were cheers and congratulations offered all around. Cameron shook hands with Dennis and Mr. Harrison, and got hugs from Mrs. Harrison, Sarah, and even Aunt Alice. The people that volunteered to go to Madison with Cameron in the first place were also there, happy to know that the primary cause for the excursion turned out well. Harry was there too, almost back to a hundred percent.
"How in the hell are you actually a dad?" Jules asked him with a smile, giving him a tight hug nonetheless.
"Beats me," he said truthfully.
Becky then pulled him in for a kiss. "Congrats," she told him gladly.
"Thanks…. Still sure you wanna wait three years?" Cameron asked her, grabbing her by the waist. On the one hand, he knew it was smart to wait. On the other, why wait?
She curled her lips in thought then nodded. "But in the meantime I've been thinking," Becky said, taking something out of her pocket. It turned out to be two cheap metal rings. "I found them in the church's attic. If you want…"
Without hesitation Cameron took one of the rings and slipped it on her finger. Becky smiled as she did the same thing for him. "I love you," he said to her.
"Love you, too," she said, going in for another kiss.
Marge and the baby were to stay at the clinic overnight, so naturally Cameron was too. Still, he went back to the house to get something that he had picked up the previous week. Once again making a rash decision, Cameron actually risked going to an electronics store so that he could get himself the finest laptop there. So now he was setting it up in Marge's room, thanking the lord that the he was picking up a wireless signal.
Going into a web chat, he found his parents walking around their room getting ready for the day ahead. The two of them had been keeping their own laptop on twenty-four hours a day because they knew that the big day was close at hand. Then their heads snapped to the screen once they saw Cameron was on.
Without saying a word, Cameron went over to the crib, gently picked up his daughter, and sat back down in front of the screen. "This is Chloe," he said to them quietly so as to not wake up Marge.
His father instantly began tearing up and gave Cameron a firm and manly nod of the head. His mother started crying too as she reached out to touch the screen longingly. What had been a fuck up so many months before was now the miracle of life.
Then all of a sudden the screen froze. Curious, Cameron carefully hit the refresh button, but he only got a message that there was no Internet connection. At that point he started to cry too, as he lightly nuzzled the top of his baby's head. Sure, it could've been a faulty connection, but he instinctively knew that that the Internet, which had miraculously lasted for so long and was the only lifeline to his parents, was now gone.
That wasn't all that made it sad, either. The outside world was filled with dangers Chloe would some day face. She wasn't going to grow older watching Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob, or any other mundane cartoon like a normal child once would. Once big enough to pick up a gun, she would learn how to become a bona fide zombie and bandit killer just like dear old dad. And to top it all off, her parents weren't even together.
Still, that didn't mean his daughter wouldn't be surrounded by love. Cameron was going to make sure that Chloe would get all the love she'd ever need.