Thank you for the reviews. It's baby time people. WHOOOO-HOOOOO! I have been waiting for this for quite some time. Dang babies just take to long to cook! I hope you like this chapter. It is going to be more about Lou and a little Emily but we probably won't see a lot of our new favorite Stabler. Sorry! (Lou's POV)

Louise's Baby

It was a stormy night. I began feeling pains early in the evening but I didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't want to worry Emily and Miss Mary Anne or Miss Emma. I know that they have been worried about me lately because I have been so tired and withdrawn. I have know all along that I wanted this baby but I do hope that he takes after my side of the family and not that of the man that attacked me. I also hope that I don't one day come to regret my child. I know that his or her creation was not their fault. They were the just the result of a cruel act and I was left to care for them. I hope that they can be a good thing that resulted from something bad.

The pains are bad now. They have been increasingly worse all night long and now I am up walking around my room trying to get them to go away. I don't want to wake Emily or her aunt as they have both been working all day and they need their rest. I bump into the dresser with my knee and the next thing I know here comes Emily.

"Lou, are you ok?" she asks me.

"Fine." I reply though it is hard to keep the pain out of my face.

"You don't look fine. Now tell me what's wrong!" Emily demands. "Is it the baby?"

"I don't know. I keep having sharp pains in my back." I finally tell my friend.

"Well I think you should lie down." Emily says and begins to help me back into bed.

Just then an intense pain hits me and a cry out. "Oohh. Emily. I think my water just broke!"

"Oh goodness. I'm going to go get Auntie to send Howard to get the doctor." Emily says and dashes from the room.

I feel a warm wetness spreading down my legs and soaking into my night clothes. I lift the sheets and see blood and begin to get scared.

Emily returns a few minutes later and fills the wash basin. She begins to bath my face with cool water and tells me, "You have to stay calm Lou. It will only take Howard a few minutes to return with the doctor and then everything will be fine.

Emily talks to me about different things, as I prepare to become a mother, a mother that is in essence homeless and my child is fatherless. I think of Alfred and hope that he is looking out for me still as he said he would the day that I sat at his bedside and held his hand. We spent enough time together and I screwed it up by not wanting to marry him. I hope that Emily does not make the same mistake with her Ethan. I am slowly loosing track of time as the pain becomes more intense and closer together. I grip Emily's hand harder and harder and soon I am breathing hard.

The doctor shows up what feels like hours after Emily sent Howard to get him. He is here now and he is telling that everything will be fine. That I am a good brave girl and how sad it made him to learn that my husband died before he could see our child. He lifts the bed clothes and tells me that I am doing fine but that I shouldn't push no matter how badly I wanted to.

Finally the doctor motions Emily towards me, I can see him and he tells me it is time to push now. It is time for my baby to join the world. He tells me to push and Emily is also offering encouragement. I am blinded by pain, it is so intense. Until the pain is gone and my breathing returns to normal. I hear a cry that starts out weak at first and then becomes more intense. My baby, my baby is crying. I can hear him or her. What a beautiful sound. The doctor looks at me then.

"Mrs. White, you have a beautiful son." the doctor said.

I open my arms then and Emily places my son, my son, into my arms. I begin to cry as I look at him. He looks like my father. My worst fear has been aleviated. He is wrapped in a warm blanket and he continues to cry.

"I think he's hungry Mrs. White." the doctor says to me.

As he cleans up and leaves the room I lower my dressing gown and allow my son to nurse, for the first time. He does and excellent job of it too! Then the doctor comes in and weighs and measures him. He is eight pounds five ounces and is 22 inches long. A big strong, healthy boy.

Emily has me get up an hour later and move so that she can clean up my bed for me. While she is doing that she asks me, "What are you going to name him Lou?"

"I don't know." I say, I guess I had never really thought of it that much, except for early in my pregnancy. I know that I would like to use Alfred for a second name but I don't know what to use for a first. I think about it while Emily cleans up the room and I set in the rocker holding my son. Looking at him. He has reddish blonde hair much like my own. I wonder what color is eyes will be. I hope they will be brown, like my father and like Alfred.

As I rock it suddenly comes to me, I want to name my son Jesse. "I'm going to call him Jesse." I tell Emily.

"Jesse, what a strong wonderful name!" Emily says. She is tucking the sheets and blankets back in on the bed so I know that she is almost done and I can go back to bed. "What are you going to use as a second name?" she asks.

"Alfred. Jesse Alfred White."

"Good. That sounds like a good name Lou."

When Emily finishes I go back to bed after laying Jesse in his cradle that Mary Anne found somewhere. I touch his soft head and kiss his small round cheek. Jesse is here and now I can convince Emily that it is time to go home, time to go to Rock Springs to Ethan.

I know I know this is a short chapter but it is an important chapter because Emily has been using Lou's baby as an excuse to stay in Philadelphia. So R&R and I let you find out what happens next...does she stay or does she go?