Chapter 32- Emmett – A Baby and a Promise

The baby didn't nurse for long, falling asleep and then peeing all over Rosalie. Ma and Mrs Miller made me get up and go then, while they cleaned off Rosalie and the baby and remade the bed.

I boiled the kettle and made some tea and toast on a tray, which I took in to Rosalie as soon as I was allowed to. I saw my Ma's brief quirk of a smile, but I just shook my head at her. "It's not every day your girl has a baby."

"You're a good man Emmett," Ma said, placing her hands on either side of my face and bringing me down to kiss my forehead. "Now, you go in there and make Rosalie eat something."

I felt almost shy went I went back into the bedroom. Silly really, after I'd had Rosalie almost naked, sweating and swearing in my arms as she gave birth less than an hour ago. But now she had her hair brushed and lying in a neat braid over her shoulder, and was wearing a demure nightgown as she sat up against the pillows, primly tucked into bed with the baby cradled in her arms.

"Hey," I said bashfully. "How are you now?"

Rosalie didn't seem to be sharing my shyness, as she looked up and gave me a beautiful, beaming smile. "Good. Relieved that it's over! But…good." She looked down at the baby and then back up at me, and this time she was uncertain. "Would you like to hold him?"

"Sure. You eat and I'll hold him." I laid the tray across her lap and sat beside her, scooping up the feather-light little bundle and tucking him into the crook of my elbow. "Hey little fellow," I said softly.

The baby looked nothing like Rosalie. In fact it was almost uncomfortable at first, looking at him and seeing his resemblance to Royce King, from the thick dark hair down to the little cleft in his baby chin.

"What do you think?" Rosalie asked, and I could tell from the slight tremble in her voice that my answer was important to her. That she had seen the way this baby looked like his real father, she knew that I would have seen, and she wanted to know how I was going to respond to that.

"What do I think?" I brushed a hand across the baby's hair and kissed his downy little forehead. "I think my baby is as beautiful as his mama, and I'm so proud of both of you."

Rosalie's relief was visible, and for a moment she leaned against my arm and kissed the baby's dark hair. "He is beautiful," she said, adding fiercely, "And he is yours."

"I know." The baby was dressed and wrapped up in one of the knitted baby blankets, one of his little hands held up against his cheek and the other hidden in the wrapping. "He's my little man."

"Not so little," Rosalie said through a mouthful. "Mrs Miller says he was nine pounds…that's pretty big." She swallowed some more toast. "Can I have some more? Is there any pie? I'm starving."

I laughed in amusement and put the baby in his cradle so I could take the tray back to the kitchen for more food.

"She's hungry?" Ma said. "That's good. Do some more toast and tell her I'll make her an apple pie for dinner. She certainly didn't waste any time having that baby, that's for sure. I've still got time to make dinner."

"I felt like it was forever, sitting over at the Allison's and waiting for word," I admitted sheepishly. "That's why I came back…I had to be with her."

"Well, no one would describe you and Rosalie as being orthodox in any way," Ma said with a sigh. "And you did well for your first time at a birth!"

I laughed. "And isn't he perfect? How do you like becoming a granny again?"

"Oh, Emmett…" Ma frowned helplessly. "He's not…"

"He's mine," I said flatly. "He's my baby, and everyone needs to get used to that idea. I'm going to marry Rosalie and she and the baby will have my name and that's all that's going to matter."

"I wasn't aware you were engaged," Ma said lightly.

"Well, I haven't exactly asked her yet," I said, a little foolishly. "But I'm going to! And Ma, I mean it…he's my son. People will say what they'll say and I can't stop them, but I'm going to raise him like he's my own. And that makes him your grandbaby too."

"And a big, healthy grandbaby at that," Ma said with a sigh, and I laughed and hugged her tightly.

By the time I made it back into the bedroom Rosalie was asleep. The baby was whimpering, so I picked him up and patted him to soothe him, and then walked back to the kitchen.

"She's asleep," I told Ma.

"That's good. She did well, he's not a small baby and that was a fast and intense labour," Ma said. "Now Em, you should probably go over to the Allison's and bring everyone else home for dinner."

"But what about…" I held out the baby helplessly, and Ma laughed as she took him from me.

"I'll put him back in his cradle and he'll be fine. You don't need to worry Em, newborns are tougher than they look!"

I ran on the way to the Allison's, filled up with a brilliant, unnameable joy. The baby had been born, Rosalie was fine, and I had a son.

I knew that Ma was only the first person who would question it. Heck, I'd question it if it were someone else too. But in my heart I felt as certain about it as I'd ever felt about anything; blood or no, that little boy was mine. I'd been there with Rosalie while he grew inside her, I had watched him take his first breath, and I already loved him as my own.

Pa was up on the porch with Mr Allison and Jeb, all of them sipping at glasses of the famous Allison moonshine. They looked up and grinned at me as I approached.

"I told you they wouldn't want you around," Pa said. "Having babies is a job for the women…sit down and keep yourself calm."

"Rosalie had it," I said with a grin. "It's a boy. He's nine pounds and they're both doing fine."

"Well," Pa said as the grin split his face. "Good on the girl! A boy, eh?"

"All the more reason for a drink," Jeb said cheerfully, getting up and pouring another glass for me. "To Miss Rosalie's baby!"

"To my son," I said, and after only an infinitesimal pause the three men raised their glasses and we drank to my baby.

"The baby came?" Elizabeth came and crawled up on my lap, her face glowing. "A boy baby? What's it called? Can I hold him?"

"He doesn't have a name yet," I said with a laugh. "And you'll be able to hold him when we all go home for dinner."

"Let's go home now!" Elizabeth bounced. "What does he look like?"

"He looks like a baby." I glanced across at Pa. "He's got lots of dark hair, and dark eyes. He doesn't look like Rosalie."

"Babies change a lot," Pa said carefully. "All that hair can fall out and grow back in a different colour…you never know what he'll look like as he grows up. And it doesn't matter really."

I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes contentedly. "It doesn't matter at all."

It was good to see the amount of happiness over the little baby when all the family trooped back to the house in the dusk. No one else seemed to have any reservations about him being part of the family as he was passed from one set of arms to the next, cuddled and kissed by everyone. Ma and Pa spoke quietly to each other out in the yard, but after that they joined in with the celebrations, and it did my heart good when Pa held out his arms and told Maggie to hand the baby over, because it was his grandaddy's turn to hold him.

Eventually Ma pushed everyone out of Rosalie's room and told us it was time to let her rest. I took the baby and sat out on the porch rocker in the dark, watching the fireflies and listening to the quick, light breathing of the little one as he slept on my chest.

"He's probably getting a little hungry," Ma said softly at my shoulder some time later, as the baby made some little mewing noises and shifted restlessly. "Do you want me to take him in to Rosalie?"

"I'll do it," I yawned.

"I'm going in to bed then," Ma told me. "Tell Rosalie that if she needs me in the night, for any reason, then she just needs to call, okay?"

"Okay." I said good night to Ma and Pa, and then went quietly into Rosalie's room. She was asleep, but almost instantly woke when the baby began crying.

"He's hungry," I whispered. "I'll change his diaper and then you can feed him?"

Rosalie unbuttoned her nightgown and hesitated for a moment.

"I can go if you want," I offered, not wanting to do anything that might make her uncomfortable.

"No," she said slowly, reaching for the baby and letting the nightgown fall open. "I want you to stay with me."

The baby's cries stopped abruptly, and Rosalie grimaced. "I hope this gets easier."

"It will." I unlaced my boots and kicked them off, dropping my pants after them. Rosalie's eyes were big as she looked at me, and I stopped and smiled at her gently.

"I just want to be with you," I said softly. "I want to be with you and our baby tonight…that's all."

I waited until she nodded and then slipped out of my shirt and, just wearing my shorts, got into bed beside Rosalie, careful not to jostle her arm holding the baby. I slid an arm around behind her, and she shifted so that her head was resting on my shoulder. I kissed the blonde hair and looked down at the little dark-haired baby on her breast, his eyes closed and his jaws making periodic movements as he suckled. Feeling the heat of Rosalie all down my side, the perfect shape of her in my arms, the beautiful sight of the little one tucked in the circle of our arms…I didn't think I had ever had a moment of such perfect peace.

"I love you," I whispered into her hair. "You are the whole world to me, you know that?"

"Thank you for being there today," Rosalie said in a low voice. "I was so scared without you." She turned her head and pressed her lips against my throat. "Thank you for always being there."

"You did amazing today," I told her sincerely. "I didn't know that it was like that…you were so strong! And look at him, look at how perfect he is."

Rosalie stroked the dark hair that was beginning to stick up in spikes on the baby's head. "I was scared I wouldn't love him," she said, so low that I almost didn't hear. "I thought if it was a boy…if it looked like Royce…I thought maybe I wouldn't love him."

"I don't think you needed to worry," I said gently.

"No," Rosalie agreed, her voice full of wonder. "Not once I saw him…as if I couldn't love him! As if he wasn't so perfectly mine, and meant to be just who is he all along."

"He needs a name," I said. "Have you thought of something?"

Rosalie hesitated. "I didn't. Not for a boy. It was hard…"

Her voice trailed off, and I suddenly realised what she wasn't saying. That this baby did have a name, but it was Royce King the third, and Rosalie had run away and rejected it long ago.

"You can call him whatever you want," I said firmly.

"I can't think of any boy's names," Rosalie said blankly.

"Family names?"

"What about your family names?" Rosalie asked tentatively. "It might be nice if you gave him a name…"

I thought for a minute. I hadn't given the baby my blood, but I could give him a name. "We could name him for my grandad," I suggested at last. "He's the one who taught me about horses. He was a real good man…he would have liked you. His name was James."

"James Emmett," Rosalie said slowly. "That's nice."

"James Emmett McCarty," I said stroking a finger across his round little cheek. "That's a good name. We can call him Jem, for his initials."

Rosalie was very still. "McCarty?"

I curved my hand around her face and kissed her. "Yes," I said, softly and firmly. "McCarty…after all, he's going to be my son and I'm going to marry his mama, so it makes sense that he has my name right from the start."

"You're going to marry his mother?" Rosalie's voice was very quiet.

"Well, you know…if she'll have me."

I squirmed a little, feeling my cheeks redden. I didn't know a lot about romance, but I knew that this was not the way a proposal was supposed to happen! But then again, most people weren't proposing to their girl when she'd just given birth to someone else's baby, so I supposed that allowances could be made.

"Do you doubt that she'll say yes?" Rosalie said incredulously.

I laughed, and squeezed the arm I had around her shoulders. "Well, considering I'm proposing without a ring and hardly even wearing any clothes, let alone being down on my knees with flowers, I think she'd be well within her rights to turn me down!"

Rosalie's face, pale and tired as it was, was beautiful as she looked up at me and smiled. "I think she had the ring and the flowers, and the proposal with him down on his knees before…and it didn't mean anything, in the end. She wasn't happy. So maybe she's ready to make a change and try something new…if you were to ask her."

I laughed a little as the baby burped and yawned in Rosalie's arm, full and asleep. Rosalie blushed and put him down on the bed to button herself back up into her nightgown. I waited until she had finished and then I took both her hands and held them in between mine.

"Rosalie Lillian, I love you. I don't have much, but what's mine is yours and I promise to care for you and work for you and love you for the rest of my life. Please will you marry me?"

"Yes," she whispered, and I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her, and the whole world was perfect.