OKAY! THE BLESSED EVENT HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS IT A BOY OR A GIRL??? READ TO FIND OUT:O) thanks for the reviews!!
CHAPTER TWENTY - THREE
"Debra Lynne!! Will you SLOW the hell down!" House screamed at Debra because she was driving them to PPTH, while House and Cameron were in the back seat. It's not that she was driving hazardously, but she was driving fast.
"Hey! Do you want the baby in the back seat of my car or do you want it at the hospital?" Debra shot back.
"Ohhhh, here comes another one!!" Cameron cried out, holding her stomach and straightening her legs, panting heavily.
"Debra, hurry up!" House screamed in total contradiction to what he'd said just a few seconds earlier.
TIME: 8:45 p.m.
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12:07 p.m. the next day…
"Okay, Allison, push!" Dr. Crooks ordered, amongst her cries of refusals.
"I can't…I can't…I'm too tired…can't do this…I'm scared…" she cried, closing her eyes to stop the flood of tears, but it didn't work. All the pain and stress and fatigue from the last two hours in heavy labor settled within her and she couldn't get rid of the tears. She just wanted everything to be over with.
Dr. Allison Cameron had been in labor for 16 hours, and she was ready to have House yank out the baby with his bare hands. Ok, she didn't, but he offered. House had been by her side most of the time but took hour breaks here or there for naps in his office. When he was gone, Debra stayed with her. Wilson brought in Gregory and put him in the daycare while he made himself available for Foreman and Chase while they did clinic hours to keep them busy.
"Allie…you don't have any other choice." House tried his best to comfort her, but as usual, it didn't quite work. "Push…push…push…"
"Oh, shut UP! You're not helping!" she hollered, with the same words coming from Dr. Crooks. She didn't mind it if Dr. Crooks told her to push, but every five minutes for the past two hours House would just have to ask, "Is it time to push yet?" Cameron hit him after the third time he asked, what seemed like eons ago.
House rested his left hand over Cameron's forehead and held her right hand with his own, lovingly brushing away the sweat-and-tears soaked hair that dangled down over her eyes.
"Allison, you can do this! We haven't come this far just to have you cop out. Just a couple more pushes and it'll be over…"
"Shut UP and give me one of your vicodin!" she screamed at him, lifting her head and giving him the glare of death, as if she were a banshee she-devil ordering her servants around.
House couldn't help but smile. "Hun, after this is over you can have as many of my vicodin as you want." That didn't comfort Cameron; she burst out in more tears.
Cameron had asked Debra to stay in the room while she delivered, not so much to support her but to be there to calm House down if he got too annoying. They hadn't needed her; House was there for Cameron the whole time, except for when he caught some sleep. The sweeter House got, though, the crumpier Cameron got. Debra would always smile and shake her head. She knew Cameron would get through the delivery, and she knew House would be there for her, too, no matter how exhausted he was.
She slowly approached Cameron and House, keeping her eye on her cousin the whole time; she felt he needed a little more comforting than Cameron did – for some strange reason. When she got to the side of the bed she took and held Cameron's left hand.
With her voice as reassuring and soft as she could make it she said, "Allison, trust me – just a few more pushes and you'll have your baby. I know it sucks and I know it hurts and I know it feels like you're passing a 14-pound bowling ball and you just want to sleep but you're so close now, girl. Just take deep breaths…"
"Allie, I need you to push NOW!"
House had grown desperate; he knew if the baby didn't start to crown that there might be added complications. He took Cameron's head, lifted her by the shoulders in a semi-seated position and said, "All right! Enough of this crap! We've been nice, Allison! Suck it up, get your ass in gear and GIVE ME MY BABY!"
At the tone of his voice, she immediately stopped crying, like a one-year child that was shocked at his father for speaking to him in such a gruff manner. She nodded her head repeatedly, held her breath and pushed down.
After several moments of Cameron's screams, the doctor said the head was just beginning to show and for her to keep on pushing. Then he changed his tune quickly the more the head came. "Whoah! Hold it!" the doctor cried out. "Relax."
"Wha…why?! You just told me to…"
House looked down to see what the problem was and had to use every bit of control he could muster not to show any type of reaction at what he saw. The doctor nodded at House, who leaned back up and was met with pleas from Cameron asking what was wrong.
"Nothing…the cord is wrapped around the baby's neck…he's work…"
"No…no…oh, god…"
"Allison, it's fine…it happens all the time," Debra tried to reassure her.
"Okay, okay. That was easy. Now, one last push from you, Allison, and you're a Mommy!"
"Come on, Allie…just one more…we're almost there!" House said lovingly as he kissed her on the cheek before he pushed her up.
She held her breath and gave one long, hard push until the doctor told her to relax a second. She grew concerned again until she felt a tug then heard suction.
"Is it…out?" she asked anxiously.
"Yep…I've got the head…just clearing out the nose and mouth!" After a moment he said, "Okay, give me one more push and we'll find out if it's a girl or a boy."
Debra stepped back and let the soon-to-be-parents alone for their moment together and left to find Wilson.
"It's a boy!" House said proudly even before Cameron pushed.
"What? He's out?"
"Dr. House, that was mean! No, Allison, just give me that push."
She held her breath again, her face flushed and damp with sweat, and pushed down hard; she buried her face in House's neck and held on to him as she pushed. Suddenly she felt a harder tug that emanated from her back to her stomach then heard a gush of water hit the linoleum floor and she threw her head hard on the pillow.
And then the sound she'd waited eight months and two weeks for…the cry of her baby.
The nurses attended to the baby at Cameron's stirupped feet and House watched the entire time as they roughly dried the baby off and presented it to her, setting the still crying baby on her stomach.
"Oh, there you are! I was tired of you kicking me!" Cameron said, touching the baby's fingers and toes and looked at it with amazement.
"Where is it?" House asked.
Cameron looked up at him funny, tears still rolling down her face from happiness. "What do mean, 'where is it?' Ten fingers, ten toes! That's enough…"
"No…no, where is his penis?"
"House! God! She doesn't have one!"
"Okay, Dr. House, are you ready to cut the umbilical cord?" Dr. Crooks asked; a smile behind his mask as he watched the two. Dr. Crooks didn't have a problem with House, he and Cameron were his patients, not his colleague. Crooks could live with that.
"Oh, well, it's okay," House said playfully as he looked at Cameron and without hesitation kissed her long and hard, then buried his face in her neck, whispering, "Good job, baby." Cameron swore she heard his voice crack, and she was dying to see his face.
"Ok, now cut the cord so I can get some sleep, Greg," she said with a laugh.
House leaned back up and looked at the doctor then at the scissors he held in his hand then the baby. There was a clamp holding the cord about five inches from its stomach. Cameron looked over his face thoroughly, and noticed he looked quite pale, but she blamed in on the excitement of the baby.
"House…are you okay?" Cameron asked.
House was standing beside Cameron, scissors in hand, looking at his baby daughter on her Mommy's stomach and his ears started ringing, loudly; he could hear the blood course through his veins in his ears and it caused all other sound in the room to be completely silenced. He looked at Cameron and she said something, but he couldn't hear what it was. He looked back at the baby and brought the scissors closer to the cord; his heart pounding, his throat and mouth suddenly incredibly dry, having difficulty focusing on the exact location of the cord to cut.
"Dr. House, are you…"
That was all Dr. Crooks could ask before House hazily looked up at the doctor, he eyes rolled in the back of his head and he keeled over on his back, passed out.
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Debra and Wilson had been laying spoon-position on the couch in his office waiting for news of the baby. She hadn't fallen asleep, though. She was waiting for him to say something, anything, as to why he'd been reacting the way he was.
She twisted herself around a little to get a look into his face. "Jim, you okay?"
He hesitated a moment before he said, "I will be."
"That isn't very reassuring." She sat up and looked at him. "Are you in that much pain?" She swallowed hard before she asked the next question. "Has the cancer come back?"
"Uh? No, no. It's just…"
A tear came to her eye but she didn't care. She wanted to know what was going on.
"I heard from my brother."
"Oh – is something wrong with him?"
"Actually, yes."
