By the Zander and Quinn got to the hospital, Jaden Jasper Jacks had made his entry into the world.
Eventually his grandparents, his uncle Jasper, his aunt-by-marriage, Oksana, her son Peter, and Rosa were all out in the waiting room. So was Joe Quinn, who had been at the house checking on his ex-wife when the big news came, and Anna and Nikolai, who were only distantly related to Jaden in some unspecified step-sort of way, but were bound to be part of his life, too.
Soon his Cassidine side was represented. His uncles Stavros and Stefan and his cousin Nikolas and his wife Gia came in to see him.
His parents looked down on him with unaffected joy.
"He's the handsomest man on this earth," Alexis said. "Right up there with his father."
Jerry just beamed. He was so amazed by the little bundle, he could not imagine how the world had existed without him before. He gave Alexis a kiss, which must have been the thousandth since they first held their son.
His grandparents held him next, and then the godparents were called in.
"So, the Jacks empire continues," Jax teased, as he and Oksana came into the room. He looked down at the little boy that his father John now held.
"He looks ready to be the Jacks heir," John said.
Jaden gave a small cry.
"See?" John said, and everyone laughed.
Gia held him "for practice" Alexis joked, and when Quinn held him, she got teased about how this was going to inspire her to want to get in on the heir-producing.
"Someday," she glanced at Zander and smiled.
"Yeah," Zander smiled into her eyes. He turned to Jerry and Alexis. "This guy is for practice. You know you always have a babysitter, don't you?"
"They have their pick of dozens," Jacks said. "Never were parents so well supported."
"But the support is from a crazy bunch," Jerry teased.
"Not to mention the Russians," Alexis said, but smiling fondly on those of said descent.
"We're going to teach him to speak Russian," Oksana said, looking down at Jaden, "Aren't we, smart boy? Skazheesh roosky z'kom?" She repeated that a couple of times.
"Why do babies turn adults into mush, in any language?" John Jacks asked.
"Because they're so cute," said Jane. "Like Jerry and Jasper were, once."
"That was a long time ago," Zander teased. "A very long time ago."
"Longer than for you," Jax said. He patted Zander on the head. "You're still cute."
"His kids are going to be adorable," Alexis declared.
"That's for sure," Quinn said.
People were in and out of Alexis' room all day. Sarah Webber came to see her.
"Hey, how's it going?" Alexis asked her.
"He's beautiful," Sarah said, looking at the baby.
"I agree," Alexis laughed.
"Sure you do," Sarah said. "Now you can get in the Jacuzzi at the gym."
"I can do all sorts of things now," Alexis said. "Well, I have heard that a lot of those things involve not sleeping for quite a while. But how are you? Is Duane still in the picture?"
"That's going very well," Sarah said. "He even has asked me – get this, now – to go to the nurse's ball. Imagine that."
"Yeah, wow, this is true love!"
"From him it's such a vote of confidence. You know, I wouldn't have that with ordinary guys."
"Other guys are just ordinary."
"Yeah. I'm cautiously hopeful. The girls know."
"The girls, now listen to you, the motherly one."
"I'll leave that to you for now, anyway. So how does it feel? To have that little guy belong all to you and Jerry?"
"Being responsible for him, too," Alexis said. "I'm so happy. I was getting to that age where I never thought I'd have this. Now he's this mystery boy. It's going to be fun to get to know him."
"Are you going to have a christening or something?"
"Yes. You know, I'll invite you to that. Maybe you can get another public outing."
"Well, thank you, Alexis."
"What are friends for?"