Ronnie screamed as another contraction tore through her, her wails painting the walls of the delivery room. "I can't do this," she cried out between each gasp of breath.
Jack tenderly pushed back her hair from her damp face, cupping her chin in his strong hands. "Yes, you can," he insisted. "You can do this, Ronnie. You can." His voice was adamant and sure, everything that she wasn't.
"I want to, but I can't Jack, I can't. It hurts too much," she whimpered with the agony, too tired to try and express it in any other form.
The delivery was coming close to nineteen hours now and whilst Jack had been running to and from the waiting room to update Roxy and Glenda, he had seen doctors hovering outside Ronnie's room. The words 'emergency c-section' had been bandied about and although they told him it was the safest option if the baby started to become distressed, Jack knew the safest option was for Ronnie to deliver as quickly as possible.
"But just think, Ron – think about our baby. Soon, you'll be able to hold them and give them a name. We can name them, Ron."
"A name?" Ronnie whispered, her thoughts instantly drifted back to Christmas Day last year. Jack had lain beside her on a hospital bed, his body curled protectively around hers, his hands on her stomach.
"I named her," Ronnie had whispered into the darkness, her fingers wrapping around Jack's, holding onto something solid and real. "I shouldn't have done."
"What was it?" Jack had asked, his heart breaking with each word Ronnie had spoken.
"Isabelle. She was going to be named 'Isabelle'."
Jack nodded his head, knowing what his words had meant to his wife. "Yes, we can name them. We can hold them and name them and take them home. Yeah?"
Ronnie blinked back the tears that had formed in her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Oh, GOD!" Ronnie clamped down on Jack's hand, squeezing his fingers as tightly as possible. She screamed again, her body feeling as though someone was ripping through it.
"Ron, push down, okay? Push down with each contraction," Jack told her. "Okay, just push down Ron."
Ronnie felt her chin digging into her chest, but that was nothing compared to what her lower body was experiencing. She wanted to stop, to take a breath and just stop, but her child was battling to get out of her and she so desperately wanted to see them.
"That's it, Ronnie – just keep pushing down. The head's nearly out."
"Come on, Ron – you can do this. Just one more push, just one more, darling," Jack urged, holding onto her hand tightly and placing a kiss on her clammy forehead.
Without a word, Ronnie bore down into herself, feeling every slight movement and fibre of pain run through her entire body. "Come on, Ronnie, one more push to get the shoulders out and then that's it, okay? One big push, Ronnie, a BIG one," the midwife instructed, her voice energising and encouraging her patient.
"I'm so tired," Ronnie whispered, her chest heaving with the exertion of labour, but Jack wouldn't allow her to stop. Not now, when she was so close to meeting her child.
"Ronnie, come on darling. You can do this, just one more push. That's all you need."
"You said that before-"
"I know, darling, I know – but you're so close now. We're so close to having our baby."
Ronnie could feel the tears of pain and frustration running down her cheeks before she could even begin to stop them. "Oh sweetheart," Jack murmured, cupping her face in his hands. "You can do this, I know you can. I know because I have seen you do so many extraordinary things, things other people don't have the capacity to do. But I've seen you do those things Ron, I've seen how much love is in your heart and this baby, our baby, has spent the last nine months feeling that love from inside of you and all they want is to see you, to finally meet you-"
Ronnie cried out once again, her fingers crushing Jack's hand. Jack's eyes glazed over with tears, but not because of the pressure to his hand, it was because of her. Ronnie, his wife. She was in pain and there was nothing he could do to lessen it.
Ronnie pushed down, feeling as though her body was being torn in two and a few moments later a high pitched cry was heard. "It's a boy," the midwife told them all as the umbilical cord was cut and the newborn was swaddled in blankets.
"A boy?" Ronnie asked, crying and laughing at the same time.
"A boy," Jack murmured, bending down to kiss his wife. "Thank you, thank you," he whispered, the words vibrating between their parted lips.
Ronnie lifted a tired hand and stroked Jack's cheek. "I love you," she told him as the midwife walked to the side of the bed and placed their newborn son in Ronnie's arms.
She let out a small gasp, the tips of her fingers tracing the edge of her son's, now clean, face. "Look at what we made, Jack," Ronnie murmured, completely entranced with their baby.
Jack nodded his head, blinking back the tears. "Look at what you did. Our son. Our baby boy."
The baby opened his eyes at the same time his mouth opened in an 'o', a wail ready to fall out of it. But as he looked up into his parents' faces, the cry didn't come, as though he completely forgot about it.
Jack placed a secure arm around Ronnie and looked down at his little family before tenderly stroking his son's soft cheek and watching as Ronnie stared at their son in awe.
"Hi, baby. We've been waiting for you."
THE END