Chapter Two - Tell Me A Story

Attacking another box with the pair of scissors in her hands, Sara sighed, as it was just another box full of kitchen pots and pans. She really wished that her husband could have labelled the boxes correctly when they were moving out of their little apartment. He seemed to have packed all the boxes up, taped them up, then attempted to label them. She had found 'Sara's stuff' box three times, either containing his insect collections or kitchen things.

"Mommy, what's this?" Rosa climbed to her feet, holding a snow globe in her hands as she made her way towards her mother.

"Ooh, careful." Sara sat her down beside her on the kitchen floor, giving the snow globe a gentle shake. "Your Daddy bought this for me on our second honeymoon, a long time after we got married. It's the Eifel tower in France. This was about... three years before you were born." She handed it back to her daughter, smiling as she curiously studied it.

"How long were you married, before I was born?" She curiously asked her mother.

"Before you were born?" Sara thought about it a moment, trying to remember how long she had even been married to her husband, Grissom. "Well, we've been married around about eleven years now. So, we were married for about six years when you came along. We had been waiting for you for a long time though."

"Tell me the story again, Mommy."

"You hear the story practically every day." Sara giggled softly, brushing her daughter's hair back behind her ears. She received her daughter's familiar pout in response, making her motherly side give into her again. "Okay. Well, it was Christmas Eve. At five in the morning, your father was shaking me awake, telling me I had wet the bed."

"But it was your waters breaking." Her daughter announced.

"Are you going to let me tell the story?" She playfully tickled the little girl's sides, eliciting a giggle from her throat. "I swept back the covers to make sure, realising that it was my waters breaking..."

Grissom immediately leapt out of bed, after the confirmation, beginning to panic. "You're in labour? The baby's going to come now?" He was usually a calm person that didn't get worked up over anything, but they weren't expecting this baby for another week. They were in the process of moving to a new house, and he had work in less than three hours.

"Ow... ow... ow..." Sara experienced her first contraction, feeling as though her sides were rupturing. "Don't just stand there, Gil. Go and wake your mother up." She counted herself lucky that they were in Betty Grissom's guest bedroom right now. She had a feeling her husband wouldn't be much help during labour, and so far, she was right.

Grissom dashed downstairs, almost stumbling over his own foot as he was in such a hurry. He hurried straight for his mother's bedroom door, bursting inside without even knocking. "Mom, Mom, Mom." He gently shook her awake, quickly signing, 'Baby Coming, Help!' once her eyes were open.

Betty instantaneously swept back her bed covers, reaching for her glasses off the nightstand. She slid them in place, making a quick adjustment to the curlers in her hair, before she followed her son up the stairs.

Upstairs, they found Sara leaning over the bed, with her hands firmly planted on the mattress. Her knuckles were almost white as she clenched the bed sheets tightly, bearing down for the contraction.

"What's wrong?" Her husband rushed to her side, assuming the worst. He had never actually seen child labour before. He had seen just about everything else during his time in Las Vegas, but this was completely new to him. "Should I phone for an ambulance?"

Sara just managed to crack into a smile, shaking her head at the man. "It's like a ten minute drive from here. There wouldn't be any point." She grabbed his hand as the contraction started to ripple through her sides, causing her to scream out in pain this time. "Somebody better do something soon, before I pop this baby right here."

Betty appeared a second later with a towel, motioning for Sara to climb back onto the bed. Her own sister had helped her give birth to her son, and she in turn helped the woman to bring her own three children into this world, so this wasn't exactly foreign territory for her.

"Gil, the bag." Sara gave him an instruction, hoping he knew what she was talking about. Most of their things were piled into Betty's garage at the moment, so he'd have to search through all of it to find where they left the pre-packed hospital bag.

Even from the garage, he could hear his wife's groans of pain, only making him more anxious about the situation. He rifled through the boxes marked 'Kitchen Stuff' and 'Gil's Office', finding a couple of suitcases containing the majority of their clothes. He lifted his duffel out of the chaos, spotting the bag they had packed their hospital essentials in just behind it.

The bag itself was a gift from the birthing class they attended. Grissom hadn't actually packed it himself, but he had helped his wife go over the check list several times, during her twenty seventh week of pregnancy, when it really started to sink in that this baby would be in the world very soon.

"Here." He set it down on the bedroom floor. "Should we go? Should we be going to the hospital now? We have to get there before it's out, right?"

His mother shook her head, signing to him that her contractions were nearly seven minutes apart at the moment, and she was barely a centimetre dilated.

"Are you sure?" He furrowed his brows in her direction. Seven minutes didn't seem like something to be calm about to him. It seemed more like an emergency situation, where they should get to the hospital fast. He had been reading up on the stages of labour over the past few weeks, his wife practically insisted on it actually, but it didn't put his mind at ease knowing the facts.

Sara was now over by the window, enjoying the cooling breeze from outside as she swayed her hips from side to side like her mother in law suggested. "Gil, did you get the car seat out of the box?"

"What?" He looked at her confused. "I eh... do we really need that now? The baby isn't even here yet."

"No, but we'll need to drive them back home afterwards." She couldn't help but giggle. "You'll have to figure out how to set it up. They won't let us take the baby home without it."

"Okay, I'll be right back." Grissom pulled his bath robe on this time, hurrying back out to the freezing cold garage. He frantically searched through all their boxes, finding the flat packed crib, the stroller and the change table that they had yet to set up, until he finally spotted the box with the car seat. He ripped open the box with his hands, digging through the polystyrene peanuts for the seat.

Once he retrieved the buried item, he returned to the house for his car keys, struggling to get it set up in the back of his car. There were instructions printed on the base of the seat, but he was too nervous about the baby coming right now to even look for them.

"How are we doing? Are we good?" He eventually returned to the bedroom, where his wife was on all fours on the bed. Her face was bright red, bathed with sweat as she tried to breathe through her contraction. His mother remained completely calm beside the bed, rubbing her palm in soothing circles across the woman's back. "Do we need to go? I really think we should make a move before you pop here."

"Okay." Sara released her grip on the brass bed posts in front of her, taking a moment to breath, before she climbed off the bed. "The car seats in there, right?"

"Just put it in, yeah." Grissom helped to support her weight, wishing they could get a move on to the hospital. He thought it was much more fast paced than this, but nothing appeared to be moving anywhere at the moment.

By six thirty, Sara finally made her way out to the car, easing herself onto the towel on the passenger seat. She felt as though her contractions were moving the baby along inside her, but they were still only seven minutes apart, according to her mother in law.

While they were waiting, Grissom quickly got himself dressed, grabbing the baby bag and a bath robe for his wife, before he hurried out to join them. They remained put on the driveway, in the car, for what seemed like hours, but was actually only twenty minutes, while Betty coached Sara through another painful contraction.

Sara dropped back against the seat as soon as it was over, lifting her arm as her mother in law pulled her seatbelt into place across her over sized stomach. The drive to the hospital seemed really quick, but Sara didn't want to get out as soon as they arrived, feeling another contraction tearing through her body this time.

"Excuse me," Grissom hurried into the hospital entrance, flagging down one of the midwives. "My wife is in labour, but she won't get out of the car."

"Oh. Would she like a wheelchair?" The young brunette suggested, grabbing a chair for him. "Let her do it in her own time. We're pretty backed up here anyway." She motioned towards the full waiting room that they had. "We don't have any free beds at the moment, but she'll probably be delivering in the parking lot at this rate anyway." She giggled, realising she had frightened the poor man. "I'll come out and check on you in a bit. Is this her first?"

"Yeah, it's our first." He corrected her.

The woman retrieved a clipboard from behind the front desk, handing it over to him. "While you're waiting, you can fill this out for us. Is your wife experiencing any pain, contractions or waters breaking?"

"Yep, all of that. Can you come and see her now?" He urged, not taking no for an answer. He gave out a sigh of relief as the woman followed him outside. He led her to the car, where Sara and his mother were signing to each other, as if everything was completely normal.

"Hello there, I'm Megan." The chirpy brunette greeted them. "So, your husband tells me that your waters have broken and you're experiencing contractions. Do you know exactly how far apart they are?" She turned as the woman with curlers in her hair tapped her on the shoulder, holding up six fingers to her. "Oh, okay. We don't actually have any free beds at the moment, but we are working on discharging some people. It seems that everyone wants a Christmas Eve baby at the moment." She giggled, ushering the husband closer. "Just hold her hand and help her to breathe through it at the moment. I'll check on the bed situation, then I'll be right back. What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Sara." The woman gasped for breath, waving the young woman off as she made her way back inside. "I can't believe this is really happening." She smiled at her husband, feeling excited, even though the pain was becoming a little intense for her.

By eight o' clock, they finally had their own private room. They spent the majority of their waiting walking up and down the halls like the midwife suggested, in order to move things along in her labour. Even in their own private room, Sara still didn't want to lay down on the bed.

"Hello, Sara." Megan returned, placing a hospital gown on the bed. "Would you mind if I examined you now? Would that be okay?"

Sara managed to nod, swaying her hips as she paced the room. She made her way back to the bed, easing herself on with the help of husband. She didn't like being flat on her back during this stage, it felt unnatural and extremely uncomfortable, but she remained put for a moment, so the woman could check her dilation.

"Are they still coming along?" Megan asked her, waiting a moment for the woman's body to relax from the contractions. "Five minutes now." She smiled with surprise, as the woman with the curlers signed it to her again. "You're not waiting around are you? Are you wanting any form of pain relief at this stage?"

"No." Sara shook her head, adamant on her decision not to drug her baby. "She keeps telling me I'm going to regret it." She motioned towards her mother in law beside her. "But no matter how bad it gets, don't give me anything."

"Okay." Megan giggled softly, taking her chance to examine, Sara, now that she was a little more relaxed. "Oh, I can feel the top of your baby's head already. And... it feels like you're nearly nine centimetres dilated, congratulations." She applauded her. "This baby should be along in no time. Do you know what you're having?"

"No, we wanted it to be a surprise." As soon as the examination was over, Sara climbed back of the bed, leaning against it, so she could continue to sway her hips. She continued this process for another half hour, before Megan returned with another woman.

"Can you do something now? She's still in pain." Grissom urged the woman, but they didn't seem all that bothered.

"Sara's doing it beautifully herself." Megan assured him, placing a towel on the floor beneath, Sara. She was now squatted down on her knees beside the bed, leaning over the inflatable maternity ball in front of her. "Sara, I'm just going to examine you again, alright?" She knelt down behind her. "How are you feeling now, Sara?"

"Horrible." Sara swept her fingers through her sweaty hair, breathing softly as the burning wave of pressure and pain started to subside. When the next contraction started to rip its way through her lower body, she immediately felt the urge to start pushing. She had been so worried that she wouldn't know how to do it when the time came, but it just came to her naturally.

Betty held her hands, while her husband anxiously bit his lip across the room. The young midwives remained behind her, coaching her through each push, ready to guide the baby out onto the blankets, as soon as it arrived.

For what seemed like an endless amount of time, Sara writhed and swayed on the floor, making her husband feel completely helpless during her self contained struggle.

"There's the head." Megan announced. "Breathe gently, Sara, that's it. Go again when you're ready."

Sara didn't have to wait long, she started pushing again, feeling a sudden sense of relief. The slippery little body of her baby slid right into Megan's arms, not even making a sound in the process.

"Here we are, I'm going to pass your little one through your legs, so you can see what you've got."

Sara reached down, amazed at the sight of the tiny baby being passed to her. She counted ten fingers, ten toes, two hands, two feet, nose, eyes, ears and a gorgeous little mouth that was taking in its first breath.

"Then Daddy shouted, it's a girl!" Rosa finished the familiar story, giggling again as her mother tickled her little sides.

"That's right. First he shouted, it's a baby. We have a baby." Her mother reminded her, giggling herself at the memory. "Then he finally got close enough to see that you were a little girl. He was so happy. He had been hoping for a girl."

"Mommy, did Daddy hold me right away?"

"No, he was too scared to at first. He was worried that he might drop you." Sara gently brushed her fingertip across her daughter's forehead, remembering the day she was born like it was yesterday. "Your father cut your cord, and went with you when you were weighed and checked over by the doctor. You held his finger with your little hand the first time you nursed. Your Nana Bets couldn't stop crying, she was so happy. Your Daddy was bursting with pride the whole day too. He couldn't believe it when they said we could take you home that afternoon. He said that you were the best Christmas present anyone had ever given him."

"Can I go see him now?" Rosa carefully replaced the snow globe she was still holding to its bubble wrap in the box, before she made her way through to the front room. Her father had been asleep for hours on the sofa. She thought that maybe he needed a little help to wake up, just like she usually did after she hadn't had much sleep.

Sara remained in the kitchen, crawling across the floor towards another box. The label on the outside read 'Gil's office', but he had already emptied most of his belongings. She slid the blade of the scissors through the tape, before she stripped it open to see what was inside. "Books." She chuckled to herself, moving it out into the hall to be unpacked later.

"Daddy." Prying the man's eyes open with her fingertips, Rosa looked into his pale blue eyes, before the man snapped them closed again. "Daddy, wake up." She poked him in the chest, causing him to groan this time.

Brushing the sleep from his eyes, he turned the watch on his wrist, giving out another groan as it was still really early. "It's only eight thirty. Where do you get your energy?" He fluffed up the pillow beneath his head, trying to fall back to sleep for just a few more minutes. "Ow," He flinched as his daughter poked him in the eye this time. "Okay, I'm up." He wiped his hands across his face, before he attempted to sit up. His aching limps creaked and clicked as he struggled to sit, reminding him of just how old he was. "Ooh, ow." He rubbed his spine, giving his daughter in front of him a smile.

"Daddy," Rosa climbed onto his lap, hugging him tightly. "Tell me the story of how I was born."

Thank you for your reviews on the first chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed it and you really boosted my confidence to add more :D Hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

~ Holly