Prompt #21 - Fragile

John found himself studying a full color poster of the human muscular system. Evie and baby Aiden had both fallen asleep, so he'd decided to take a break and stretch his legs. Besides, if he stayed in there any longer, just watching Evie sleep, Emma and the other nurses were going to start getting ideas…

"Good evening, sir."

'Speak of the devil,' John thought, turning around to see Nurse Emma. "Evening."

"It's certainly been an exciting day, hasn't it, sir?" She was grinning. "I'm glad Dr. Beckett let me help him with the delivery."

"It was pretty exciting," John agreed. "Was it your first…delivery?"

"Oh, no, sir," Emma answered. "But delivering babies is always wonderful. I was actually just on my way to check on him."

"Mind if I tag along?"

Emma shrugged. "Lieutenant Brooks is probably still asleep, but you can hold the baby if you want."

"Really?"

Emma nodded. "She was very specific about who was allowed to hold him." She giggled. "She said that if Dr. McKay wants to hold him, he has to be supervised."

John laughed and the two of them entered the private room. Evie was still asleep, curled up on the hospital bed. When they reached the bassinet, they saw that Aiden was fussing very quietly.

Emma leaned down and picked him up. "Wassamatter?" she cooed, cuddling him gently. "Let's change you, little man." She laid a changing mat in the bassinet and gently changed his tiny diaper.

"What the hell is that black thing?" John asked, pointing at Aiden's stomach.

"That's his umbilical stump," Emma explained, snapping up the buttons on the baby's onesie. "It'll fall off in a few days and he'll just have a belly button." She threw the used diaper and the disposable mat in the trashcan and gently picked up the baby, who was nearly asleep again. Emma smiled at John. "Would you like to hold him, sir?"

"Are you sure?" John asked, staring at the baby.

She nodded. "All I needed to do was change him. I've actually got some paperwork and filing that I needed to catch up on."

"Okay…"

Emma carefully placed the baby in John's arms. "Watch his head," she reminded. "If Lieutenant Brooks needs anything when she wakes up, I'm in the on-call room."

"I'll let her know."

Emma nodded with a smile, then turned to leave.

When John heard the door quietly close behind her, he looked down in awe at the infant in his arms. Aiden was so small, so fragile, so innocent. John thought he was the most beautiful thing in the world. And with the genes he'd gotten, he'd be a handsome young man someday, John thought with a smirk.

Aiden made a quiet grunt and his head fell to the side, resting against John's chest.

"Hey, little guy," he said softly. "Guess what? I'm your daddy. But don't tell anyone, okay?" Just saying that out loud felt weird to John. He couldn't believe he had a child now. Sure, he'd always wanted children. A kid or two had always been in his long-term, American Dream-type plan. But he'd never thought he'd actually get there, especially not after marrying Evie. He knew she'd always wanted a baby, too, but procreating within their difficult situation was a discussion that they'd always put off and never actually ended up having until she was already pregnant.

Damn condoms.

As soon as he had that thought, he dismissed it. John didn't care if it made things hard -- he didn't even care if it got them busted -- the little boy in his arms was now the most precious thing in the universe to him.

He carried the baby over to the rocking chair that had been placed next to Evie's bed. He sat down carefully, trying not to disturb the sleeping newborn. Apparently he wasn't at smooth as he thought, because Aiden's eyes cracked open and he yawned. "Hi, buddy," John smiled. "I didn't mean to wake you up." Aiden opened his eyes wider, apparently interested in the sound of John talking. "Evie says I'm supposed to talk to you so you'll learn, but I feel kind of silly having a one-sided conversation with you. I mean, you're only a few hours old; for all you know I could be speaking Japanese."

He noticed that Aiden's fuzzy blue cap was about to fall off and reached up to gently tug it back into place. "Where'd this come from?" he wondered aloud. "Did Rodney give you this one? Where's the one I got you? The one with the ducky…" He brushed his fingertip softly against Aiden's cheek. "Why are all babies so soft, huh?" he asked the child.

When Aiden felt the finger gently stroking his cheek, he turned toward John's hand, opening his mouth. "What are you…" Aiden started to suck on the end of John's finger. "Oh. No, this is a finger, not a… Look, buddy, mommy's asleep. Can we just rock? C'mon, you're not really hungry…" He started the rocking chair moving with his foot. A moment later, John smiled and said, "See, I knew you weren't really hungry. So I got you this book that I really want to show you. It's a plane book and it's got pictures of all the different kinds of airplanes and helicopters. I think you'll like it. I also got you this other one wi--"

"Mm, I thought you said you felt silly talking to him."

John looked up and saw Evie smiling at him.

"Hey, sweetheart." He smiled back.

"Hey." Her voice still sounded tired.

He carefully got up and moved to perch next to her on the bed. When she sat up and propped her pillow up behind her back, he leaned over and kissed her. "How do you feel?"

"My vagina hurts," she deadpanned.

John snickered. "I'm sorry."

"Tell Emma I need an ice pack."

"For what?"

"My vagina!"

He grimaced. "I think that's more than I needed to know."

She laughed. "Well, you asked!" She looked at their newborn in his arms and smiled. "We make pretty babies, John."

He grinned. "Yeah. Do you want to hold him?"

She shook her head. "I'll be holding him plenty. I want you to hold him as much as you can so that he'll attach to you."

"So we're bonding already? Just by me holding him?"

She nodded. "And by you talking to him."

He looked down at the boy, who seemed very content. "I think he likes me."

There was comfortable silence for about a minute, which was then interrupted by Aiden starting to fuss.

"What's wrong, Aiden?" Evie cooed.

"He was acting like he was hungry a few minutes ago, so maybe he needs to be fed," John said, gently handing her the infant.

"Wait a sec." She began fiddling with her gown. "Ugh, there's no easy way to do this in these stupid hospital gowns." She managed to get enough of the garment off and then reached for Aiden. "I still have no idea what I'm doing here," she mumbled, cradling the baby so that he could nurse. "C'mon… There ya go." She paused thoughtfully for a minute. "Does Nurse Emma know you're in here?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't she a little curious as to why you're sitting with me and the baby instead of Rodney being here?"

John shrugged. "Do we care?"

Evie shrugged back. "Not really."

"Well, if she suspects anything, she's not letting on. Just pray that no one ever demands a paternity test."

"John, don't even say things like that. If an--" She stopped suddenly and looked down at her son. "Dude, slow down. My breast isn't going anywhere, I promise." She let her head fall back against the pillow and there was a relaxed silence again. When she looked over at John a few minutes later, she caught him staring. "Yes," she said.

"What?" he asked, startled out of his thoughts.

"Yes, my breasts will eventually go back to the size they used to be."

"I wasn't--"

"Yes, you were," she smirked.

"Well, they'll stay like that if I knock you up again, right?"

Evie made a face. "I feel like I just gave birth to a bowling ball; you're not touching me for at least a month."

"A month?" John whined.

"And there will be no more 'knocking up', Colonel," she said with mock sternness. "This kid is a little bit of you and a little bit of me, so you know he's gonna be a handful."

"Yeah, but he's gonna be cute and smart and very, very talkative."

"And he'll be into everything," Evie added.

"And he'll probably annoy the crap out of Rodney."

Evie laughed. "Where is Rodney anyway?"

"He needed a drink."

"There's water over there," she pointed out, nodding toward the pitcher and cups on the counter.

"No, he needed a drink," John said, emphasizing the last word. "He said he was gonna be traumatized for life."

"He did not just shove an eight-pound, two-ounce human being out of his body." Evie looked down and then chuckled. "He totally just fell asleep while feeding." She positioned him so that he was lying comfortably on her arm, then readjusted her gown. "This is how I like 'em," she joked. "Angelic and quiet."

"He's so beautiful," John whispered, admiring his tiny son asleep in his mother's arms. "He's got your nose," he observed.

"And your elf ears," Evie teased.

He chuckled. "What are people going to think if this kid looks more like me than he does McKay?"

"At this point, I really couldn't care less," she said, pulling him in for a kiss.