Jamie's pov
After long weeks of waiting, we had finally reached the last months of Maria's second pregnancy; with our baby girl, Josephine, Josie for short; named after the one and only Joseph Connor Reagan. Now it was just a waiting game. We had said goodnight to Reese, who was already asleep in his room; the snoring giving him away. It was just as the clock stroke midnight and Mari was returning from yet another trip to the restroom when she looked at me, panicked
"Call Henry or your dad to watch Reese and get the car ready. Josie's coming."
Needless to say, that woke me up REAL fast. We quickly let the family know, so that they would be able to stop by later, and dropped off a now excited, eager and awake Reese at Dad and Pops' house. I was feeling the same excitement coursing through my veins as when Reese was getting ready to meet the world. I was about to meet my second child, my first baby girl. I could not wait. Poor Maria wanted all this to be over too, for more than one reason, my poor sweetheart. She did feel a whole lot better after the epidural. She sighed in relief
"Thank goodness it worked this time. I could NOT handle having another baby with a messed up epidural."
We both shuddered at the memory, especially since he was a breech. We had now been placed in the maternity ward at St. Victor's Hospital, a place I was very familiar with; since Linda worked there, and both Reese and I had a tendency to be clumsy during our early childhood years. Well, THAT and my habit of swallowing everything as a kid. I was no stranger to this place while on the job either, nor was Maria; let it be us who had gotten hurt, or another civilian we had to either bring or talk to.
Back to the present moment, the contractions had become faster and stronger; bringing both tears and sweat to my Maria's reddened face. The clocks had started ticking; soon we would meet our baby girl face to face. I watched on, feeling helpless and unuseful as she writhed around in pain and arched her back, tears pricking her eyes and rolling down her cheeks; hand white from griping mine so hard.
"You can do this, Mar; you're strong. Focus on how and what you'll feel when this is all said and done; when Josie gets here." to my surprise and relief, that worked, allowing my wife to calm down and rest for a few hours. It was 8 AM, and she had been in labor for each and every one of them. By 11, our families had all gathered in the waiting area, and Maria spoke when the doctor was in the room
"I need to push"
And push she did, for about an hour, and our princess was born exactly at noon. I grinned, holding her
"Right on time for your lunch, huh; Josie? I bet you had this all planned out."
After she ate and was burped, our families came inside and each held her after making sure they had washed their hands so our baby girl would not get sick. My baby girl. My Josie. My precious bundle of joy who would not settle for anything or anyone else than me when it came to sleeping. And she was LOUD. She had me wrapped around her tiny little fingers from the very beginning.