A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.
Chapter 2: Answered Prayers
It was one o'clock in the morning of the twentieth of March, and rain was pouring down outside as Sylvia lay in bed with agonized tears streaming down her face, clinging to her husband for dear life. A flash flood had begun the day before, and because of all the water, it was basically impossible for Leo to drive Sylvia to the hospital. Her labor had begun eighteen long hours before, and as it progressed, the flooding began in earnest. Leo had tried to get an ambulance out to their apartment to take Sylvia to the hospital, but they hadn't been able to reach their residence due to the flooding. Leo called Captain Block as a last resort to see if he had any ideas, and while he hadn't been able to come up with a way to get Sylvia to the hospital, he did send Toody and Muldoon to the Schnausers' apartment building due to the fact that they both had delivered a number of babies in the backseat of their patrol car. Toody and Muldoon hadn't been able to drive their car to the Schnausers' place because of all the water in the streets, but they walked there on foot (and got completely drenched in the process.) After they arrived, Leo lent them some of his clothes to wear, and the three gentlemen did what they could to help Sylvia through her long and arduous labor. Sylvia had now been pushing for five hours straight, and there was no sign of the baby. No matter how hard Sylvia pushed, the baby simply would not come. The longer her labor progressed, the more the gentlemen worried that something might seriously go wrong, even deadly wrong, for both mother and child.
Leo was now sitting behind Sylvia, holding her up in his arms. Like Francis and Gunther, his sleeves were also rolled up, and he looked just as disheveled – and terrified – as his friends did.
"I'm dying, Leo," Sylvia said with a sob as she looked up into her husband's eyes. "This is going to kill me."
Tears filled Leo's eyes in that moment as he held Sylvia close and tenderly kissed the top of her head over and over again. "No it's not, Angel Face," he whispered. "I know it feels that way, but this is not going to kill you. I promise. It's going to be alright. We're going to get through this."
"Are you praying, Leo? Are you praying for the baby and me?"
"Of course I am, sweetheart," Leo whispered, and then he planted yet another kiss on the top of her head. "I'm praying for you with all my heart and soul now."
"Tell me you love me, Leo. I really need to hear that right now."
"I love you, Angel Face. I love you so much," Leo told her seriously. "I love you more than anything in this world."
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Gunther, who was usually very childish, actually became sober-minded in those moments and behaved like a true adult. He looked Sylvia straight in the eyes then and told her, "I know it's terrible right now, Sylvia. I can't even imagine what the pain must be like. But don't quit. Don't give up."
Francis, who was sitting at the foot of the bed watching for the baby, looked up into Sylvia's eyes a second later and said, "Gunther's right, Sylvia. Don't give up. Not now. Your baby needs you."
Sylvia nodded, and after Leo looked into her eyes and gave her a firm, loving kiss on the lips, she took a deep breath and pushed with the next contraction.
Three hours later, the baby's feet, legs, and body had emerged, but not the head. Sylvia was still crying from the pain, and Leo was still sitting behind her supporting her, and he was tenderly massaging her lower back, which did give her some relief from the agony.
"I know it's hard, Sylvia," Francis told her sympathetically. Beads of anxious perspiration were pouring down his face. He and Gunther had delivered many babies in the back of their patrol car before, but he'd honestly never seen a birth that was this difficult and frightening. "I know the pain is really bad," he continued. "But you can't quit now. Your baby's almost here."
"Just one more push, sweetheart," Leo whispered in her ear as he continued rubbing her back. "Just one more. Give it one more try. You're almost there, baby. You're almost there. You're doing such a great job."
"A wonderful job," Gunther said seriously.
"That's right, sweetheart. A wonderful job," Leo agreed. "I don't think I've ever told you this before, Sylvia, but you're a remarkable human being. I know that if it were me, I never could have come this far. You're so amazing."
"Really?" she said as more silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Yes, sweetheart. Really. I'm blown away by you, Sylvia. I really am."
"Just try one more time to push the baby out, Sylvia. Just one more time," said Francis.
In the next moment, Sylvia started having another contraction and somehow, after so many hours of long, hard work and brutal pain, she found the strength to push one last time.
Several seconds later, Francis announced, "The baby's out."
"You did it, Angel Face," Leo told Sylvia, and then he gave her a big kiss. "You did it. I am so proud of you."
After a few painful moments of deafening silence, Sylvia asked, "What's wrong? Why isn't our baby crying?"
"Francis, what's going on?" asked a very panicked Leo.
"Just give me a minute, Leo," Francis said solemnly, and for the next couple of minutes, no one made a sound as he frantically performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the limp, lifeless little baby in his arms. In those moments, Sylvia, Leo, and Gunther all prayed harder than they'd ever prayed before in their entire lives.
At long last, the baby let out a loud wail, and as soon as she started crying, everybody else in the room began crying with her.
Francis then wrapped the baby up in a towel, placed her in her mother's arms, and said, "Here she is, Sylvia. Here's your beautiful baby girl."
Sylvia looked up then and said through her tears, "Thank You, Jesus. Thank You so much."
"Amen," Leo whispered, and then he gave Sylvia the most passionate kiss he'd ever given her in all their years of marriage.
Fortunately, the flood waters quickly receded over the next couple of days, and about eight hours after Sylvia Schnauser gave birth to her daughter, Leo, Francis, and Gunther were able to get them to the hospital. Despite the baby's difficult birth, the doctor quickly pronounced her healthy. Sylvia, too, was given a clean bill of health, and the doctor wasted no time in giving her some medication to ease all her pain and help her sleep after her harrowing ordeal.
The next day, Leo came to the hospital carrying a huge bouquet of long-stemmed red roses and a big box of Sylvia's favorite chocolates. As soon as Leo came in and sat down on Sylvia's bed, she gave him a ferocious hug and a long kiss.
"How are you feeling today, Angel Face?" Leo gently asked.
"I'm feeling many different things all at once," she told him truthfully. "Overjoyed. Exhausted. Excited. Thrilled. Petrified."
"I think I know what you mean. I think I'm going through the same thing myself."
"I feel like I've been going through my whole life blindfolded, and I never really began seeing things until the wee hours of yesterday morning when I was in the middle of an agonizing, terrifying childbirth. When I first heard our daughter cry yesterday, Leo…when I first held her in my arms and looked into her precious little face…that was the moment that I finally understood what life was really all about. Our priceless little baby girl…she's not an accident, Leo. God, Himself created her. She's a miracle."
"I couldn't agree more."
"All my life as I was growing up, my parents went to fortune tellers and had their palms read and messed around with tarot cards and all those things, and I've messed around with that kind of stuff in my life as well. I never took Jesus or the Bible seriously…until yesterday. Leo, I knew that if Jesus didn't give the baby and me a miracle, we weren't going to make it. My parents always put their faith in black magic and witchcraft, but as I was in the middle of giving birth, I knew that it was only the Lord God, Himself, who could save us. I'm sure you felt it too."
Leo nodded and said, "You're right, Sylvia. I could sense it that we were really in trouble. I knew we needed divine help if we were going to get through it. I never prayed so hard in all my life."
"Neither did I. When the hospital chaplain came to visit me earlier this morning, we talked about my experience, and he let me borrow his Bible. I opened it up and got to reading it. I got to reading the first chapter of Romans. It really, really made me do some hard thinking, Leo. The first chapter of Romans talks about how the evidence of God can clearly be seen throughout creation. I can take one look into our daughter's face and see that God, Himself created her. It also talks about the consequences of unbelief and rejecting the Lord. It says that those who remain in their unbelief are actually suppressing the truth about the Lord, which can be clearly seen throughout creation. It goes on to talk about how God actually gave people like that in Paul's time over to the lusts of their own hearts; over to sexual immorality and even homosexuality. What I read in the Bible today…it hit me hard. It made me think, Leo. I think it actually made me grow up."
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it, Leo. All our lives, we've both been so childish, and we've just been living for ourselves. We haven't trusted in Christ like we should have. We haven't paid Jesus the reverence and respect He's due just for creating this majestic world we live in, which clearly proves to all humanity who He really is. In my foolishness, I suppressed the truth about Jesus Christ because I didn't want to stop living for myself. I didn't want someone else's desires to come before my own, not even the desires of the Almighty God. But when I first held our baby in my arms, I couldn't deny the truth about the Lord any longer. And I don't want to deny the truth about Jesus any longer. Whether we like it or not, Leo, the time is going to come when we're going to have to stand before God and be judged for the way we've lived our lives. The evidence of creation itself proves that God is a perfect, just, and holy God, a God so remarkable that He would actually allow His only begotten Son to die on a cross to pay the eternal penalty for all our sins. After looking into our little girl's face, I see the truth. Leo, you and I have got to grow up, once and for all. We've got to stop suppressing the truth about Jesus. We've got to start acting like adults – Godly adults – for the sake of our precious daughter."
After a long silence, Leo soberly nodded and told Sylvia, "I think I understand what you're saying. This may sound crazy, but as terrifying as yesterday morning was, I really could sense that Jesus was in our bedroom with us, helping us to bring our little girl into the world. I think it's only because of Jesus that you and our baby came through it alive. I think it's because of our pride that we haven't wanted to admit the truth, that Jesus died on that cross about two thousand years ago to save humanity from eternal condemnation. But you're right. We can't do that anymore. We've got a little girl to think about now. It is high time that you and I started growing up and behaving like Godly adults.
"My father's best friend was a pastor, and I listened to him and my dad talk about the Bible for hours when I was a kid. He said that there was a difference between salvation and discipleship. He said that salvation is free and that all we have to do if we want Jesus to save us from our sins is to accept His free gift of eternal life. He said that discipleship, on the other hand, is costly; that being a disciple of Jesus Christ means carrying our crosses and following Him. He made a point of saying over and over again that even if a person doesn't choose to spend their life serving Jesus as a disciple, if he's trusted in Christ for salvation, he is saved because salvation isn't about our works. It's about the finished work on the cross that Jesus did. Especially after yesterday morning, I know now beyond a doubt how real Jesus is, and I believe in Him, Sylvia."
"So do I."
"So I guess now that we've said yes to the free gift of eternal life, the question is, do we want to spend the rest of our lives as disciples serving Him instead of our own selfish desires."
"I do, Leo. I don't want to go on living just for myself anymore. I want Jesus to turn me into the human being, the wife, the friend, and especially the mother, that He wants me to be."
"And I want Jesus to do the same for me. I want to be the best person, the best friend, the best cop, and most importantly, the best husband and father, that I can possibly be."
"I want to call her Jane. The name Jane comes from Hebrew origins and it means 'a gift from God.' And that's precisely what our daughter is, Leo. She's an utterly astounding gift from the Almighty God. She's such an incredible gift that her mere presence has helped us to say yes to Jesus."
"You're right, Pussycat. She is a gift, an astounding gift, from God to us. Jane it is."
"You've always talked about how close you and your grandmother were, so I'd like for her middle name to be Elizabeth, after her."
"I love it," Leo said with a big smile. "Jane Elizabeth Schnauser. It's perfect."
"I love you, Leo," Sylvia said in an emotional whisper.
"I love you too, Sylvia," Leo said warmly, and then he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a very long, loving kiss.