"Well Ms. Fabray, it looks like you're about five centimeters along. Everything looks good so far with you and the baby. Did you want me to get the anesthesiologist for an epidural?"
Finn answered, "Oh, no she doesn't want—"
"Yes—give it to me," interrupted Quinn. Her green orbs snapped in Finn's direction to catch his confused expression.
As the doctor left to get the anesthesiologist, Finn quietly said to her, "I thought you were going to do this all natural? No drugs."
Her face looked tired from the multiple contractions but she still managed to narrow her gaze into a lethal stare. "It's either that or I keep holding your hand through all my contractions. And trust me—they're only going to come more frequently."
She eyed the Ziploc bag of ice Finn had over his right set of knuckles and then looked back to him, waiting for his answer.
"Epidural, it is!" He replied, cradling his hand just a little closer to his body.
They had been at the hospital for two hours so far. Quinn's parents and Finn's mom and stepdad were already making the six hour drive from Lima. Finn had called his stepbrother and sent a text message to their closest friends about the news.
Quinn lay back against the provided pillow, closing her eyes to help her focus on just breathing as another contraction hit her. She gripped the bed rails with both hands while scrunching up her face. She felt Finn's large hand begin to rub soothing circles along her back while she endured the labor pain. When the contraction finally lessened enough for her to speak, she softly told him, "Thank you."
Another three hours passed and day turned to dusk since the OB-GYN returned with the anesthesiologist to administer the medicine. Quinn had been encouraged to rest and relax as much as possible. Her contractions would still come but the medicines had her handling them as a more tolerable pain than before, while she waited to dilate further. She tried to take a nap but found it impossible to get comfortable—between the IV stuck in the back of her left hand and the confines of the hospital bed itself, she ended up lying back, watching Finn flip through network after network on the T.V. mounted high in front of her.
"Hey, can I ask you something? I know it's random but…I've kinda been wanting to know…" Finn trailed off.
Quinn took her gaze away from the television easily—he had stopped on ESPN—and patiently told him, "Yes. What's on your mind?"
She watched Finn's brows form a look of hard sternness that he got whenever he genuinely wanted to think something through. As he got around to asking his question however, the creases on his forehead smoothed out and he spoke up to her. "How come you never give me any pet names or nicknames?"
Right away, her hand stopped rubbing slow circles on her stomach and her brows show up. "Excuse me?
"Well," Finn shrugged, "I call you 'Babe' or 'Baby' sometimes. But I never hear you call me anything. It's either 'Finn' or nothing."
Unable to help herself, Quinn smiled though it was out of empathy. Finn had looked so defeated yet genuinely curious when she spoke those things to her. She thought about his question for a moment and then matter-of-factly told him, "I didn't know you liked them or ever wanted one." He didn't answer but she'd looked down at her stomach and withdrew to her own thoughts for a moment. After some quiet, passing seconds, Quinn looked up again and told him, "I'll call you one if want me to. But just this one."
She saw Finn perk up a bit with interest, "Which one's that?"
Quinn pursed her lips to try and keep her smile from turning into a grin, but it happened anyway as she murmured, "Drizzle."
Right away, Finn's intrigue morphed to cluelessness. "'Drizzle'?"
"You don't remember?" Quinn asked, letter herself grin freely but it quickly vanished as another contraction hit. She winced, drawing in deep breaths until it passed and she'd allow herself to speak again. "Sophomore year, you wanted to name Beth, 'Drizzle'. I thought it was stupid and I still wouldn't name any of our children that, but—"
"Ohhh I remember now." He shook his head at himself, "Sounds more like a dog's name though. Can we save that for a dog's name?"
Quinn's brows rose, "We're getting a dog?"
"Well, I dunno. I want to one day and Drizzle would be a cool dog's name. Sorta sentimental too."
She shook her head at him, still smiling a bit though. "We can talk about the dog another day. But I wasn't gonna call you Drizzle, Finn. If I wouldn't name a baby Drizzle, I'm not going to nickname you it either. But I could go with something a little more old-fashioned like 'Darling', 'Sweetie' or 'Sweetheart'."
As she thought some more on a possible name of endearment for her fiancé, her doctor returned to the room with a midwife to check on the progress of her labor. Quinn shifted her upper body as much as she could; as a nickname hit her, she turned a small smile to Finn and opened her mouth to tell him but her obstetrician spoke up.
"Alright Quinn, you're 10 centimeters. Time for you to be having this baby."
Quinn's face filled with anticipation, joy and slight anguish as another contraction was coming on. The midwife instructed Finn to stand and help hold Quinn's leg back while the obstetrician coached the blonde through her contraction.
Though the epidural had numbed her from the waist, down, no amount of medicine could keep her from feeling all the laboring pain. "Oh my God," she moaned through clenched teeth as her head lolled skyward. For twenty minutes, the delivery room was a mangled mix of firm commands, audible groans, syncopated counts and awed comments.
"Holy shit," she heard Finn say, to which she narrowed her gaze to narrow slits.
"Are you kidding me right now, Finn!"
"Push, Quinn!" commanded the doctor.
"2, 3, 4, 5…" counted the midwife.
"Why did I think I could do this again—oh my God!" she cried out above the other three voices.
But after twenty minutes of pushing, Sophia Cary Hudson entered the world and was placed onto Quinn, exercising her tiny lungs for all the room to hear. The midwife was quick to clean her off and drape
Quinn panted, and smiled, and stared down at her little girl. "Oh my God," She breathed again with a dramatically changed tone. All of the blissful emotions Quinn possessed came out in her uneven voice as she greeted her daughter. "Hello my beautiful, Sophia." After nine months of waiting, her daughter was here. She sounded healthy and from what Quinn could tell, she had all her fingers and toes. She teared up, looking at everything about her newborn babe—from matted mess of dark blonde hair to her trembling, crying pink lips and her pudgy cheeks. In Quinn's eyes, she was perfect.
"Do you wanna cut the cord, Dad?" the midwife asked.
Quinn looked up to Finn and noticed his head was bowed. He looked incredibly stern but she knew that fixed gaze all too well. Underneath his hard exterior—which was soon dissolving—he was a ball of emotions. She'd seen him look this way after she had accepted his proposal. And again a short time after she told him she was pregnant.
Placing one delicate but secure hand over Sophia's chest, Quinn watched the nurses clamp the umbilical cord in the right places for Finn to cut it. After he did, Quinn reached her free hand up to him, "Hey, Charming."
Her voice was soft; tired, a little bit raspy but entirely full of love. Seeing Finn smirk at his new nickname made her own smile grow. She held onto his accepting hand and told him, "We did it."
Sustaining her smile, she saw Finn shake his head at her, "No." He lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. "You did it. You're amazing, Babe and look. We have our little girl now."
"I know." Quinn's tired but blissful smile remained as she looked back down at Sophia. It was so strange for her to try to think of something to say because in that moment, her mind was swirling. An old quote popped into her head though as she held her daughter and held her husband's hand. "Continue to love me. Never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever mine, ever thine, ever ours."
Please leave reviews! More is coming soon!
***And to the anon-reviewer who wanted Quinn's labor to be a false alarm, I am sorry but I couldn't do that. When a woman's water breaks, it cannot be a false alarm—the baby has to be delivered. Her water broke, therefore the baby needed to arrive soon. Plus I have more in store for Fuinn beyond Quinn being preggo throughout the drabble chapters, so hang in there with me! :)