The issue about Eugene's parents was dropped abruptly, but Rapunzel didn't quit thinking about it. At least, not until she was given a good distraction.
Rapunzel meandered to Mr. Barnes' office. "Um..sir?" she asked, clasping her hands tightly in front of her bulging belly to conceal their trembling.
"Yes, dear?" he asked, glancing up from his paperwork and gesturing to an empty seat. "Sit. Take a break. Is Mr. Fitzherbert still out with Levi?"
"Yes," she nodded, lowering herself onto the chair. She wasn't sure how to bring it up, and she felt funny talking to Mr. Barnes. "Is Mrs. Barnes here?"
He shook his head, giving her a curious gaze. "No she isn't. She's babysitting so our oldest daughter can go to her doctor's appointment in peace. She's been having headaches a lot. What can I do for you?"
Rapunzel bit her lip. "Um..oh... I think I'm going into labor and I need to get to the hospital. Can I leave now?"
His thick gray eyebrows shot up. Only Rapunzel would ask if she could leave work in order to give birth. "Goodness gracious, yes! You didn't need to tippy-toe around the matter. I'll get Gunther to drive you. Or maybe Morgan, if you'd prefer a lady?"
"I could probably make it home to the car-"
Mr. Barnes was already hustling out of the room as fast as his plump, elderly frame could shuffle. "You stay right there and hang on."
Rapunzel was piled into Morgan's clunky car, praying for safety as the bubbly woman tried to start the car, which coughed and groaned a few times until the engine finally caught.
"I can't believe this, Rapunzel! Oh my goodness, you're having a baby and you worked today! How on earth, you must have the constitution of an ox! When Joanne had her baby, she was in the hospital almost two days before she had him. This is so exciting! Does Eugene know yet?" Morgan, a stout girl older than Rapunzel with thick blond hair and bright blue eyes, babbled at about sixteen words a second.
Rapunzel bit her lip, shaking her head. Maybe if she would have paid closer attention to herself, she would've caught the symptoms before she felt the first twinge of a contraction an hour before this. "No he doesn't. I don't want to alarm him if he's driving."
Morgan giggled. "He might beat us to the hospital if you told him! But really, you should tell him. Or someone. You know, you could tell Levi so Eugene's not, you know, talking on the phone and driving. That's illegal, I heard. You can use my cell phone if you want to call Levi. His number's in there. Of course, I suppose you have his number, too, right?"
"I don't, actually," Rapunzel shook her head, immediately regretting that. Morgan fished in her purse until she grabbed her phone, which was clad in a bright yellow plastic case, and she handed it to Rapunzel. She swerved haphazardly over the road as she did so, and Rapunzel squeezed her eyes shut until the car straightened. She thanked Morgan both for driving her to the hospital and for her cell phone, and found Levi's number.
"Y'ello?" Levi asked. "What'd you break now, Morgan?"
"It's me, Levi," Rapunzel said.
"Oh, hey. Funny thing, your number-"
"I'm using Morgan's phone. Um, where are you two?"
Levi repeated the question to Eugene, and Rapunzel faintly heard his answer before Levi overlapped, repeating it. "About two hours out. What's happening?"
Rapunzel got a sudden burst of the giggles. This kind of thing would only happen to her - she worked up until the moment she realized she was in labor, was now in a potentially dangerous car with a bubbly girl who seemed more interested in the scenery than the road itself, and her husband was at least two hours away picking up books. "You'd never even believe it, buddy, but I'm in labor and Morgan's taking me to the hospital. Do not - and I repeat do not, Levi, or I'll crawl through this phone and wring your neck - tell Eugene until you're back at the bookshop. I don't want him freaking out 'til he's out of the car. Or tell him...oh, wow, I don't know! Something. Maybe tell him you have to pick Joanne up from the hospital and just tell him there. I don't know, just don't tell him now, okay?"
Levi had to bite back a series of snarky comments ranging from I'd like to see you try to crawl through a phone in your condition to And you're putting the fate of my existence in the hands of a new father who's been kept outta the loop? before he answered in a manner that Eugene wouldn't catch drift of what was going on. "I will. Or...I won't. Whatever. I'll take care of it."
"What?!" Eugene roared. His eyes seemed to bulge out of the sockets like in those old cartoons.
"Well, don't freak out on me about it, you need to get in there!" Levi exclaimed. They'd taken a detour to the hospital - Levi had used the Joanne excuse - and now he was wondering if the taller man would wring his skinny neck before getting out of the cab of the rusty truck.
"I-I can't believe this. Okay. Okay, she was right in not telling me yet. Okay. Ah, thanks Levi. Sorry I freaked. Oh, wow. Okay, I've-I've gotta get in there!" he exclaimed, practically falling out of the truck as his uncoordinated thoughts tangled up his equally as uncoordinated long legs. He bolted inside, his sneakers squeaking dreadfully on the floor. As he did so, he called Charles.
"Dad! Dad, oh my gosh, Rapunzel's in labor and I just got to the hospital, it's a mess, she's been for at least two or three hours I guess but I didn't get here 'til now and-no use explaining now, she's in labor-" He'd gotten in the habit of mentally calling Charles his father, since he was his father-in-law, but never to his face. It slipped out in his panic.
"Well, calm down!" Charles' voice came in over the phone. "I'll be there as soon as I can. You be there for her and don't pass out, you hear me? You're going to if you don't calm down!"
Eugene gulped. "Okay. Okay, I'll see you then." Practically by accident, he hung up before saying goodbye or waiting for a response.
The nurses gave Eugene a judgmental look when he made it to Rapunzel's room - he read it as Your wife's in labor and you don't show up until three hours later? Some guy! - and he was expecting her to be a mess. Instead, he was shocked by the fact that she was calmer than he was. Her hands clenched the skirt of her hospital gown, but her face held an expression of calm determination. Her eyes, though, showed her extreme discomfort and even a little bit of fear.
"Baby girl," he breathed, rushing to kiss her forehead and sweep a few strands of hair away from her face. "I'm so sorry. It took a little longer for us to get here. Are you okay? How long has it been?"
She shook her head and swallowed, grinning up at him. "I'm fine! It's only been three hours. We'll probably be here for awhile yet. I'm glad you're here, though. I was a little worried about why it took an hour longer than normal."
"Traffic," Eugene said. "I could've made it in an hour and a half if-"
"Exactly," Rapunzel said quietly. She wormed one of her hands underneath herself and pressed a few fingers into a particularly achy spot on her back.
Eugene chuckled quietly, realizing once more she'd told Levi and not him on purpose. "Well, I told your dad nonetheless. He said he'd be here as soon as he could."
"Oh," Rapunzel bit her lip. She felt awkward and a little sorry for disrupting so many peoples' work schedules.
"I know that look, sweets. C'mon, you're having our first baby! I think your dad would be upset if he didn't get to be here."
Seven hours later, Rapunzel was anxiously watching the swarm of scrubs-clad people surround the squalling baby. She knew about everything that they were doing, but she still watched with a guarded eye, still unconvinced that their baby was healthy and finally here. Then they swarmed her and all she wanted were four things: Her dad, her baby, her husband, and some quiet time surrounded by her little family. Finally, though, that all came.
"Missy Elaine Fitzherbert, born at eleven-twenty-two PM on February sixteenth. Seventeen inches and five pounds, twelve ounces." Eugene mumbled what the doctor had proclaimed as the last nurse left. He was still wondering how those nurses and doctors could be so...so...energetic at this time of the night. Maybe he was just extra exhausted because watching his wife give birth had been the most excruciating thing on earth. But now she held the pink-skinned, teensy child carefully in her arms, staring at her with delirious happiness. A thick shock of chocolate hair was concealed beneath a soft white cap, and she was wrapped up in a striped blanket that made Rapunzel feel a little nauseous. Her neat, tiny nose poked out from the blanket, and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
"She's perfect," Rapunzel sighed happily. She didn't remove her gaze from the baby until her father meandered into the room shyly. He'd just been told he could go see her. "Daddy, meet your granddaughter."
His face split into a wide smile, which only grew wider when he took the small, sleeping bundle into his arms. He was silent for a few minutes, but then broke down crying. "I'm so thankful I get to meet her," he managed shakily, tears dribbling down his cheeks.
Rapunzel grinned tiredly. "I'm really happy you're here." She paused and glanced towards Eugene. "And all you've said is what the doctor already did...?"
He glanced over at her and grinned sheepishly. "I'm just trying to process everything."
It all clicked neatly into place later - or extremely early in the morning - when Rapunzel was sleeping, and he was sitting in the chair beside her hospital bed with the newborn baby cradled in his arms. He glanced over towards his wife's sleeping, peaceful face - even in her sleep, she held a pleased little smile. Then, he looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms. His baby. Theirs. Tears streaked silently down his cheeks and he wondered at how he could so deeply love such a tiny little thing that he barely even knew yet. How he had ended up in this hospital room, watching over the love of his life and the beginning of their family, a chapter with just a few sentences written in it but many more to come.
