Author's Note: Okay, we have a short skip ahead to process. This chapter starts roughly four months after our previous one. It's now early June, the fifth of June to be exact, two weeks after Miley and Lilly graduated from college. Why no coverage of their college graduation? Well, several reasons, but mainly because this story isn't about that. I might one day go back and do a story focusing on them in college (which sounds sort of fun), but for right now I'm staying on track. As for this chapter's music, yes, I've used it before, but I think it captured the theme of this chapter better than any of the other songs that I considered. And it's still one of my favorite songs.
Here are my standard disclaimers: I make no claims on any of Disney's, Miley Cyrus', Emily Osment's or Hannah Montana's trademarks or copyrights, and no infringement is intended on them or those of any other artist or publication mentioned. Be forewarned that this story most certainly will contain femslash. If love and affection between two consenting young adults of the same sex bothers you, I suggest you turn right around and find something else to read. Keep any flames to yourself and remember that what our world needs now is more love and acceptance, not more hate. Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated!
We Got Nerve
by Jo P.
Chapter 19: A Star Is Born
Only love can set us free
Only love can bear the truth
Only love can bring us peace
Only love can save me and you
Only love can purify
Only love can conquer fear
Only love can justify
Only love can make a miracle of life
Sophie B. Hawkins, "Only Love"
The bright California sun beat down upon the light brown dirt of the infield, mercilessly pounding the ten players on the softball field. Miley Truscott, seated comfortably in a folding chair with a soft blue cloth seat, clapped and whistled as her wife Lilly stepped up to the plate, ready to bat. "C'mon Lilly!" she yelled, making her friends Oliver and Ashley Oken reflexively shy away from her powerful voice. "Drill that ball!"
"Or maybe she could let you shout the ball into the outfield," said Oliver as he stuck a finger in his ear and vigorously shook it around.
"Ollie baby?" asked Ashley sweetly.
"Yes, beautiful wife?" he replied, just as sweetly.
"Please don't stick your finger in your ear and wiggle it around like that again. That is so gross!" Ashley turned to watch Lilly bat, but she made the mistake of turning back to say something else to Oliver just in time to catch him sniffing the earwax on his fingertip. "Ewww!" She not-so-softly pushed him away from her. "What did I ever see in you?" she said, unable to hide her smile.
"You just couldn't resist the Oken charm," Oliver said smugly, stretching his arms above his head.
"Hey! Oliver!" called out Miley. "Put them arms down; you'll kill the birds flyin' over!" Ashley laughed at her friend's joke, with Miley fighting to keep from laughing herself.
"Oh, ha ha," said Oliver sarcastically. "Well, let me say—"
"WHOOO!" yelled Miley, not even a second after the solid thwack of impact from Lilly hitting the ball reached the spectators. "Great hit, sweetheart!" she yelled, drawing a few curious glances from the other team and their fans. By now all of Lilly's softball team had become used to Miley's enthusiastic support for her wife, and while some of them had been a bit apprehensive at first, they had slowly realized that Lilly and Miley loved each other the same way any other married couple did—only even more strongly and honestly.
As Lilly rounded first base and sprinted to second, she slowed her stride as she watched the left fielder throw the ball back in to the shortstop. She stopped on second base, standing lightly on her feet as she watched the ball come back to the pitcher.
Miley shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her stomach had been upset all morning, and having these Braxton-Hicks contractions for the last three weeks had kept her nerves on edge. The first time she had felt those cramping pains had resulted in a near-fiasco.
"Lillian Jessica Truscott, if you drive any faster we are going to TRAVEL THROUGH TIME!!" Miley screamed as Lilly swerved to miss a car threatening to pull out in front of them. The fact that it was one o'clock in the morning meant that traffic was light—Miley thanked God once again for that simple fact—but Lilly was going WAY too fast. "Slow down! She's not fallin' out of my uterus just yet!"
"Sorry sorry sorry!" said Lilly nervously. "I just—shoot, was that a cop we just passed?"
Miley glanced into the rear-view mirror in time to see red and blue lights dance to life behind them. "That would be a solid yes, I think," she said dryly.
"Well, I'm not stopping."
Miley whirled to look at her wife, but before she could say anything a particularly painful contraction hit her. She focused on breathing through the waves of pain, and after several uncomfortable seconds she had regained her breath. "Lilly, that's a police officer behind us. If you don't stop, he'll take you to jail, honey."
The determined look on her wife's face and the way her chin was firmly set indicated clearly to Miley that Lilly really wasn't stopping. "We've got our hazard lights on, and he can just follow us to the hospital," Lilly said calmly. "Miley, you're my number one priority right now, you and our baby. Getting a speeding ticket or even getting arrested are WAY behind the two of you on my priority list."
Miley smiled as she gazed lovingly at her wife's profile. "Thank you," she said softly before adding, "Jailbird."
Lilly turned into the hospital's Emergency Department, quickly reaching the unloading area. She put the car into Park and jumped out of the car, making sure to run around the front of the pearl-colored sedan, glowing a bright white beneath the powerful lights above them. Miley managed to open her door as Lilly reached her, concentrating so intently on her wife that she didn't notice the officer approach them. As soon as he saw that Miley was pregnant and in pain—another contraction hit her as Lilly got her to her feet—he put away his small notebook and hurried to help steady Miley.
"Thanks, but I've got her," Lilly said hurriedly, shifting Miley to make sure that most of her weight would be carried across Lilly's shoulders.
"You sure?" asked the officer, disbelief evident in his voice.
Two nurses came racing out of the emergency department with a wheelchair, which Lilly carefully guided Miley into. "She's stronger than she looks," gasped Miley, sparing a pained smile for the officer.
As soon as Miley was safely seated in the wheelchair, Lilly looked at the officer and said, "I'm SO sorry about speeding coming in here, but this is our first baby and my wife started having contractions that were five minutes apart and all I could think about was getting her here before the baby was born and have I mentioned that I'm really really sorry and that you can follow me in and write me a ticket if you need to?"
"Honey," said Miley, grabbing Lilly's hand and tugging her along as the nurses began to wheel her into the hospital, "shut up and come on."
Ten seconds later the automatic doors to the emergency department patiently slid shut, leaving the police officer still standing there, silent and unmoving. Finally he said to himself with a puzzled voice, "Wife?" as he scratched his head beneath his hat.
"You okay, Miley?" asked Ashley. She had been watching Miley surreptitiously the last few minutes as she only halfheartedly read her latest gossip magazine.
Miley nodded, shielding her eyes from the sun despite the sunglasses she had on. "Yeah, stomach's just hurtin' this mornin'."
"Not contractions, is it?"
"Nah, just some of those Braxton-Hicks ones. Not sure how I'm supposed to tell 'em apart from the real ones," she grumbled.
"Here," said Ashley, extending her arm and waving the glossy magazine in front of Miley's face. "Catch up on the latest scoop."
"Ugh, don't support them, Ash," Miley said, a disgusting look on her face as she pushed the gossip magazine away.
Ashley looked over, staring at Miley. She smiled a sly grin as she said, "You know you want to."
Miley looked at Ashley for long seconds before she finally snatched the magazine away. "Oh, alright," she said with an exasperated voice. Before she could take a good look at the magazine, however, she heard the sound of a crisply hit softball. She quickly looked up to see Lilly take off for third as the ball skipped out of the infield. As the left center fielder bobbled the ball when she bent to pick it up, the third base coach waved for Lilly to turn for home. Miley sat up in her seat as Lilly raced around third, her eyes locked onto home plate as she sprinted for home. She easily beat the throw home, stepping on the plate at full speed as she finally slowed down, leaping against the backstop's fence to finally stop her forward momentum. As she did so, she grinned a huge grin for Miley, only a few feet away from where Lilly was.
"Way to go, Lilly! Yeah!" shouted Miley happily. "Love you, baby!"
"Love you too, Miley Pie!" Lilly shouted back, making Miley blush slightly at her wife's pet name for her.
As Lilly hurried back to her team's dugout, stopping to retrieve the bat cast aside by the previous batter, Miley allowed herself to flip through the pages of Ashley's book full of the latest celebrity gossip as well as several pictures to go along with that gossip. "I can't believe you're reading this stuff, Ashley," Miley said. "In fact, I can't believe I'm reading this stuff."
"Page 26," Ashley said cryptically, taking a sip from her thermos full of water.
Miley flipped through the magazine to that particular page, whistling as she sucked in a sudden breath. "Whoa," she said as she took in the incredibly sexy picture of Lola Montana clad in a bright blue bikini, nicely complimenting her pink hair and healthy skin. Her daring outfit and pose readily showed off her sleek figure and strong muscles, particularly her arms, legs and abdomen. In the top corner of the page was a headline reading "The Hottest Young Actress in Hollywood?," something Miley certainly agreed with. She remembered when Lilly had gone to that particular photo shoot last month; Miley had to miss it due to a meeting at DreamWorld to outline her plans for Hannah over the next few months. Hannah was obviously going to be out on maternity leave for a while, and Miley wanted to make sure she had everything covered before she went into labor. While no one had explicitly said that she couldn't work while on maternity leave for a few weeks, Miley wanted to spend all of that precious time that she could with Lilly and their new baby. They had planned to take six weeks off to spend bonding with their new baby girl, and while they were considering making a few public appearances with their daughter once she and Miley were ready, nothing had been set in stone.
"I take it that you like the picture?" asked Ashley, a smug grin on her face.
"Uhh, yeah," said Miley slowly. "I like it. A lot." She finished reading the brief article then flipped through a few more pages before stopping at another picture. "They do really good airbrush work nowadays," Miley said, handing the magazine back to Ashley, holding her place with her fingers.
Ashley took the magazine and looked at the page Miley was holding it open at, laughing as she saw whose picture Miley was talking about. "Mikayla?" she asked, still laughing. "What all did they airbrush? Does she have freakish wrinkles or some kind of skin condition or something?"
Miley turned to watch the game some more. "Nah," she said, "I was talkin' about how they managed to take her little devil horns out of the picture."
"You are a mean woman, Miley Truscott," Ashley said, shaking her head in amusement.
"What's Miley mean about?" asked Oliver, finally tuning into the conversation.
"She said Mikayla had little devil horns that they had to airbrush out," said Ashley, handing Oliver the magazine.
"Actually, she's not accused me of anything lately," said Miley. "Surprising, to say the least."
"What do you think of her new single? Is it called 'Heartbroken'?"
"No, 'Broken-Hearted'," Miley replied. "Lilly and I were talkin' about that song the other day, actually. I think it's probably the best song she's ever put out."
"It's different than what she normally does, I thought."
Miley gave Ashley a sideways look. "You're not supportin' the competition, are you, Ash?" she teased.
Ashley waved a hand dismissively. "Please. The day that tramp becomes true competition for Hannah, I'll move to Tibet."
Miley grinned. "Well, I hope that she's decided to grow up a bit and focus on puttin' out better music rather than tryin' to sell records by stirrin' up trouble."
Ashley stared at Miley for a few seconds, mouth hanging open slightly. "Seriously?"
"Seriously what?"
"You seriously hope that she starts making better music?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"Miley!" Ashley said, leaning in. With a lower voice she said, "That little bitch has tried to get under your skin for years now. She tried to push you down at the Oscars, and you were already pregnant then! I know that I personally wish she'd just die or something."
Miley shuddered a bit at hearing Ashley's brutally honest words. "I'm not gonna say that I haven't wished that she'd just go away, because I have. And I don't like her personally, not at all. But I think it's because I grew up in the business that makes me hope she can rise above bein' such a bitch and become successful. I mean, I know what this business can do to people, and most of the time it grinds girls up and spits out what's left of 'em. I just hope she can become more what she has been."
Ashley kept looking into Miley's eyes as she asked, "And does your wife share your sentiments?"
Miley returned Ashley's gaze and sighed as she flatly said, "She wishes Mikayla'd get hit by a falling blimp," carefully enunciating the last two words.
Ashley sputtered with laughter, covering her mouth after just a second. "Oh God, did she really say that?" she asked. "A blimp?"
Miley nodded. "Yeah. It was a meteor before that." She looked back at Ashley, whose eyes were full of further questions regarding more details. "It's a Lilly thing," Miley said simply. "I just roll with it." She winced as another contraction began to build.
"I'm trying to talk Oliver into letting me get pregnant," Ashley said abruptly. When Miley didn't answer, she added, "What, no reaction from you?" as she turned to look at Miley.
"Kinda... breathing... here..." said Miley through clenched teeth. After what felt like minutes but was really only twenty seconds, the pain began to fade away as the contraction passed. "Sorry, was having another one of those contractions. They've been a lot worse today."
Ashley drummed her fingernails on the metal bar running through the armrest of her folding chair. "Are these still those Baxter-Hick contractions?" she asked.
"Braxton-Hicks," Miley said, correcting her friend politely, "and yeah."
"How do you know?"
Miley thought about that for a minute. "I don't think they feel like a regular contraction is supposed to," she finally said in a rather unconvincing manner.
"What, based on your years of experience birthing children?" asked Ashley facetiously.
Miley thought for a few seconds, then she said, "You got a point there. And they have been worse today."
"Miley, you've had a half dozen that I noticed since this game started, and it's just in the fourth inning. Maybe we should get Lilly and tell her."
Miley shook her head. "Uh uh. She's havin' a great time out there, and I like watchin' her play. If I'm still havin' contractions this much when the game's over, then I might have her take me. Hey, do you mind to keep track of how many minutes are between contractions?"
"Sure," said Ashley, a worried look on her face. That worry only intensified as she saw Miley wince and close her eyes. She watched her friend squeeze the arms of her folding chair, gripping them so tightly that her knuckles turned a shade of alabaster. "Miley?" Ashley asked quietly, leaning in closer. She could see sweat forming on Miley's forehead, much more than would be expected from her after living in California over eleven years now. "Miley?" Ashley said, reaching out to gently touch Miley's left forearm.
"Get... Lilly..." Miley managed to get out through clenched teeth, unable to so much as open her eyes.
"Shit," swore Ashley softly. She turned to her husband and said, "Oliver! I need you to go get—"
"What's going on?" said a familiar voice, approaching at a trot. Ashley turned to see Lilly stop beside Miley and kneel beside her wife; she had forgotten that Lilly probably knew something was wrong as soon as Miley did. Lilly had added a few stripes of blue and pink to her hair today, and the colors together with her hair being put up in a ponytail made her look even younger than her twenty-three years. "Miley, honey, what's wrong? Are the contractions getting worse?" she asked, reaching out with her right hand to tenderly caress her wife's red face while she used her left to hold Miley's clenched right fist. When no answer was immediately forthcoming, Lilly kissed the back of Miley's right hand and leaned her head down, resting it on Miley's forearm. "Breathe through it, sweetheart, just breathe. Just like we practiced, okay, Miles?"
Even through the stabbing waves of pain in her pelvis, Miley could dimly hear her wife's voice say, I'm here Miley. I'm always going to be here with you. Miley focused on those words, on that voice that was the sweetest music that she would ever hear, and she felt the pain begin to slowly ebb, withdrawing like the ocean's tide escaping from the beach. When she was able to open her eyes, her vision was blurry for a few seconds, but she still smiled when she gazed at the bright blob that was her Lilly. "Thank you," she said with a gasping voice, "for being here when I needed you."
Lilly smiled, her special smile that only came out for Miley. "Always," she said softly as Miley leaned her face against Lilly's left hand. "That must have been a bad one, huh, baby?"
Miley nodded. "The worst one yet. And they're coming faster, too."
The two young women stared into each other's eyes for several seconds before Lilly said with a firm voice, "Okay. We're going." She turned to look up at Oliver, who was now standing beside them. "Will you get my stuff for me, Oliver?" Lilly asked with misty eyes. She looked back down at her Miley and said, "Because I think we're about to become mommies."
"Okay, help me up," said Miley, shifting around in the folding chair.
"Nope," said Lilly, shaking her head but still smiling. Before Miley could protest, she added, "Not until I bring the car over here, so you don't have to walk so far." She kissed Miley on the lips quickly, then she jumped backward, skipping once as she turned and took off at a run, heading toward the parking lot.
"Doesn't she need her keys?" asked Oliver, watching as Lilly hurdled a fence easily.
"Electric locks," Miley said, likewise watching Lilly run, blonde ponytail bobbing furiously from side to side as her wife's strong legs carried her to their car at a full sprint. "Just need the keypad codes to open the doors and start the car."
"Ahhh," said Oliver, nodding slowly. "You know, if two of my friends ever let me drive their car, I might know these things!"
Ashley took Oliver's hand and purred, "I let you drive my car, baby." With a sultry stare, she added, "Any... way... you... like..."
Miley turned to look at Ashley and Oliver, drawing closer to each other. "Ya'll just don't get embarrassed much anymore, do you?" she asked, smiling as she shaded her eyes due to the sun's glare.
"Just trying to return the favor," replied Ashley smoothly. "For all the times you and Lilly embarrassed the shit out of us."
The squeal of tires coming to an abrupt halt drew everyone's attention away. By the time Miley had turned her head, Lilly was already out of the pearl Tesla Sedan and running toward the three of them. Miley stood awkwardly with Oliver's help, only to stop as another contraction hit. She winced as she tried to concentrate on Lilly's face, managing to ignore part of the pain as she reached out and took Lilly's hand. "Not too fast," she hissed out before Lilly could take off at a run, most likely towing Miley along behind her.
"Do I need to carry you?" Lilly asked, her face entirely serious as she assessed Miley's condition.
"No," said Miley quickly, shaking her head. She knew Lilly could pick her up and carry her, but that was before pregnancy and an extra twenty-one pounds. "I can make it to the car, Lil. No need for you to hurt yourself trying to carry me." Even though you just might be able to do it, and that's hot. But hurting yourself isn't.
Lilly's face clearly showed her concern for her best friend, but she smiled and said, "Okay, Miles." She put her arm around Miley and helped support her as they hurried to the pearl sedan. Lilly opened the passenger door for Miley and helped her wife carefully down into her seat, then she closed the door and jumped onto the hood, sliding across it like a kid playing in the park to get to her side of the car. She opened the door and dropped down into the seat, studiously avoiding Miley's chastising glare. "Oh, come on," she said before she put the car into gear, "You thought it was cute, and you know it." Without waiting for a reply, she pressed down on the gas pedal, sending the car forward at a brisk pace.
Miley held her gaze on Lilly's face for several moments. Even with her hair pulled back, sweat on her head and a smidgen of dirt on her cheek, there was no hiding her wife's beauty. "I think you're cute," Miley finally said, mirroring Lilly's smile as it spread across the blonde girl's face. She reached over and lovingly laid her hand on Lilly's bare thigh. "You ready to have a baby today, sweetheart?" she asked softly.
Lilly felt her heart skip a beat or two, and a giddy laugh escaped her pink lips. She glanced at Miley and said, "More than anything on earth, girlfriend."
Before she could reply, Miley froze as she felt another contraction building from deep inside. This one was incredibly painful, much more so than the others. She gasped in pain, and immediately she felt Lilly's fingers close around her own. She gripped Lilly's hand tightly, squeezing so hard that she knew it was hurting Lilly, but Lilly never made a sound or attempted to pull away. After long, agonizing seconds Miley finally eased her crushing grip on her wife. "That was the worst one yet, Lilly," she said. The insides of her thighs were tingling from the crushing pain that was still receding, leaving a residual feeling like warm water running between her legs. Panicked, Miley pulled up her skirt and stuck her hand between her legs, shivering when she felt warm liquid on her fingertips.
She slowly withdrew her fingers, horrified at the possibility of seeing blood but knowing that she had to see. When she saw only clear fluid, she released her pent-up breath with obvious relief. "I think my water just broke," Miley said, her voice shaky. "How far away are we?"
Lilly cut the car sharply right, nearly sideswiping a parked car as she pulled beneath the overhang outside the emergency department. "We're here," said Lilly proudly. She hopped out of the car and opened Miley's door, kneeling down as she said, "Let me get a wheelchair for you, Miles. I don't want you trying to walk."
Miley's face was downcast as she looked into Lilly's eyes and softly said, "What if I ruined the seat? I mean, we just got this car a few months ago."
"Miley!" said Lilly quickly as she reached out and took Miley's hand. "It's just a car. A thing. It doesn't matter compared to you or our baby. We can probably clean it or cover it up, and if we can't, they I'll buy you a new car just like this one, okay?"
Miley smiled, sweat visible on her forehead as an errant strand of curly hair dangled down in front of her eyes. "I love you, you know that?"
"I love—"
"Even though you put this Mini-Lilly inside me that feels like she's tryin' to tear her way out!"
Lilly didn't whether to laugh, cry or apologize at her best friend's attempt to quell the anxiety building inside both of them. It was just like Miley to try and calm Lilly down when a situation was threatening to overwhelm her, and Lilly couldn't have appreciated that concern any more than she did at this very moment. "You get to do the same to me one day, Miles," she said as her eyes filled with tears, but a smile spread across her face.
As a trio of emergency room staff reached them with a wheelchair, Miley quietly asked Lilly, "Help me up?"
Lilly's smile, which Miley didn't think could have gotten any brighter, managed to do so. "Always," she said, taking both of Miley's hands in her own and pulling her wife to her feet. The two of them walked the few steps to the wheelchair, with Lilly ready to grab Miley if she were to have another powerful contraction, but they reached the wheelchair easily. "Go ahead and park the car, honey," Miley said. "I'll wait on you."
"You sure?" asked Lilly, worried that something might happen between them taking Miley inside and her coming back from parking the car.
"Promise," Miley whispered.
"Okay," Lilly softly replied. "I'll hurry." She turned and closed Miley's door, then she ran around the car and hopped back into the driver's seat, taking off silently as the electric car moved through the circular turnaround and went back into the parking lot.
"Quiet car," said one of the hospital workers, a man who didn't appear to be much older than Miley or Lilly.
"Electric," said Miley, still watching Lilly as she moved through the parking lot, searching for a parking place. Knowing Lilly, she'd come back at a full run. Suddenly Miley felt herself being turned around. "Hey!" she said, loudly. "What's the big idea?" she asked, staring up at the man and two women with her.
"We need to get you inside," said the nurse. Or at least that was what Miley had decided she was.
"Uh uh," she said defiantly. "I promised my wife that I'd wait on her, and that's what I'm doin'. So this wheelchair isn't goin' anywhere until she's with me." However, Miley's resolve suffered a serious blow when another painful contraction hit. She nearly doubled over with the force of her body's contractions, and she tried to send Lilly a mental message to hurry. She fumbled along the side of the wheelchair, finding a brake and throwing it right before they tried to push the wheelchair forward.
"Dammit, is the brake on?" the man said angrily.
"Yes, she's got her hand on it!"
Miley felt fingers try to pry her hand away from the brake lever, but she was gripping it so tightly that only something as powerful as either a bomb or Lilly's tender touch could have relaxed her hold. Not letting go until you're here, Lilly. Not letting go...
"I'm here, Miley!" called out Lilly, her voice ululating in a way that told Miley immediately that she was running as fast as she could. Miley released her grip on the brake lever, letting the wheelchair surge forward now that she and Lilly were together. She felt warm, sweaty fingers take her own in their grasp, and she felt the contraction start to recede. It was time.
"Our doctor is Dr. Jensen," said Lilly as they rushed into the back hall of the emergency department. "I left her a message while we driving in."
"Yes ma'am, she's waiting for you two up in OB," said one of the nurses as she draped a blanket across Miley's waist and legs. "And she said for us to get your butts up there yesterday."
Lilly found herself having to essentially jog to keep pace with the nurse pushing Miley's wheelchair, but she wasn't leaving Miley's side. As Miley had another contraction hit, Lilly braced herself for the astonishingly powerful grip that her wife applied to her hand, much more powerful than Miley could typically manage; still, she gladly accepted the pain, hoping that in some way her hurting could alleviate some of Miley's agony from the contractions.
As the wide double doors to the Obstetrics department swung open at their approach, Lilly saw Dr. Jensen standing at the nurses' station. She stood as soon as she saw the convoy approaching, pointing to a door and then following them into an usually wide birthing room. When they had taken their tour several months ago, Lilly had been impressed by the attention paid to details in the birthing rooms as well as by the surprising elegance in its furnishings. Of course, the generous two-million-dollar donation made to the Birthing Center by Hannah and Lola Montana last year had gone a long way to making the upgrades of the birthing rooms happen.
Lilly snapped her attention back to Miley, now with her shirt spotted with sweat in several places. She helped Miley stand as the nurses cleared the bed, leaving just a clean white and green sheet on it. Miley sat back on the bed, leaning her head back and clutching Lilly's hand forcefully as another contraction ripped through her. "AH!" Miley yelped, jerking so suddenly that it startled Lilly.
"We've got blood!" called out one nurse looking down at the wheelchair. As Dr. Jensen leaned over to look, she said something to another nurse that Lilly didn't catch; that nurse went running out of the room instantly.
"What does that mean?" yelled Lilly, her anxiety rising steadily. "The blood, what's that mean?"
"It means we've got to get this little girl out of here," said Dr. Jensen as she took a package of sterile gloves that one of the nurses handed her. "Thankfully, it looks like all of us are in agreement with that, including little Baby Truscott."
The nurse who had run out of the room returned, pushing a large cart covered with a blue sterile cover. She carefully removed the cover, revealing an intimidating array of metal and plastic instruments that made Lilly instantly queasy. She quickly looked down, seeing genuine fear, not just pain, in her wife's bright blue eyes as Miley stared up at Lilly like a frightened animal caught in a spotlight. "It's going to be okay, Miles," she said. "I'm right here, we're at the hospital, they can handle anything that comes up."
"Don't leave me, Lilly," gasped Miley fearfully. She reached over with her left arm and gripped Lilly's shoulder. "No matter what happens, please don't leave me!" she begged, almost crying in the grip of emotions too numerous to count.
Lilly shook her head as she forced herself to smile despite the legion of possibilities flashing through her mind, some wonderful but many terrifying. "I'll never leave you, Miles," she said as she leaned down and kissed Miley on her sweaty forehead. "No matter what. I promise."
Lilly was still looking into Miley's frantic eyes when she heard Dr. Jensen practically snarl, "They've been married for seven years and are more in love with each other than you and whatever piece of ass you're sleeping with this week! If you've got a problem with my patients or helping with this birth, then get the fuck out of here right this second; otherwise, wipe that expression off your face and do your damn job!"
Lilly chose to stay focused on Miley and not look up to see whom their doctor had just castigated in front of the entire room. Despite her pain, Miley managed to smile and giggle softly, prompting Lilly to do the same. The humor was a blessed relief from the accelerating contractions and the excruciating pain they brought with them.
"Okay Miley, I need to check you and see how dilated you are," Dr. Jensen said. Miley slid down the bed, stopping when she simultaneously felt someone's hands on her legs and heard Dr. Jensen say, "That's good." She closed her eyes as she felt the doctor's fingers gently enter her, telling herself that this was necessary, that it had to be done for their baby.
"She's at least ten centimeters and fully effaced," said the doctor smartly. "Get the cart over here."
Lilly glanced down in time to see Dr. Jensen snap off a glove covered with blood and quickly toss it into a waste receptacle on the side of the cart. She immediately looked back down at Miley, but as she looked at Miley's face, she knew that Miley could tell something wasn't exactly right. "What is it?" Miley asked, her voice nearly a whisper, and the painful uncertainty in that voice made Lilly want to break down in tears right there.
"There's..." she started, then she stopped to swipe at a tear running down her cheek with her left hand. "There's some blood, Miley."
"How much blood?" Miley asked as the color seemed to drain out of her face.
Lilly gave up on wiping at the tears, because now they were flowing more freely. "I don't know, honey, I couldn't really tell, I just saw for a second—"
"Miley!" said Dr. Jensen, her voice steady and calm, and both Lilly and Miley drew strength from her confidence. "I need you to put your feet here, where the nurses are moving them—okay, good, good—now I need you to sit up, because you can push better that way."
Miley did just that, with Lilly staying true to her word and standing at Miley's side, still holding her right hand with both of her own. Both of them knew that there would be no time for any anesthesia at this point.
"Okay, now the next contraction you have, I'm going to tell you to push, okay?"
Miley nodded, locking eyes with the doctor she and Lilly trusted with the life of their baby.
"And when you push, you need to keep pushing while we count to ten. You think you can do that?"
"Do I have a choice?" Miley gasped, trying to sound humorous, but no one laughed. Lilly risked another glance at the foot of the bed, and she saw a stain of blood on Dr. Jensen's blue surgical gown. "Shit, I feel one coming, Lilly," Miley gasped. "It's com—"
"Alright, now PUSH, Miley! Count for her Lilly, one, two..."
"Three... four... five..." Lilly helpfully counted, grateful for the chance to concentrate on anything other than how much pain Miley was in, and she hadn't even had a chance to get an epidural or anything—
"Good, keep pushing, keep pushing..."
"Six... seven... eight..." —Not to mention how there was more blood that she could see on the doctor's gown now, so much that it was threatening to turn the blue into more of a morbid purple at the center of her chest—
"I'm going to start stretching you now, Miley, to try and keep you from tearing—"
"Nine... ten!"
"—So if you feel my fingers moving around, that's what I'm trying to do. Hopefully we can keep from having to do an episiotomy on you."
Miley tipped her head back and gasped in a deep breath of cool air. Before she could lift her head back up, though, she feel something even more wonderful that the fresh air—the tender lips of her Lilly. "You're doing it, Miley," Lilly said softly against her wife's lips. "You're doing great, honey."
"It hurts, Lilly," Miley said in a voice that was as much a whimper as anything else. "It feels like everything's turnin' inside out, and it hurts more than anything I've ever felt!"
Lilly carefully kissed each of Miley's cheeks, taking away as many of the salty tears as she could before she pressed her lips against Miley's forehead, now surprisingly cool but still slick with sweat. "Share it with me, Miley," she murmured against her best friend's skin. "Let me take some of the pain away, baby." When Lilly pulled back, she saw Miley looking up at her with eyes both apprehensive and hopeful.
"Can you—" Miley began, stopping as Lilly pressed her forehead against Miley's, letting the two pairs of steely blue eyes search deeply into each other. Miley's eyes snapped closed as another contraction began, with yet another wave of pain surging through her aching body.
"Look at me, Miley," Lilly whispered as somewhere behind her she could one of the nurses slowly counting through the contraction. "Look in my eyes," she continued, smiling when Miley's eyes opened but nearly crying at the pain she could see in those tender blue eyes. "Share it with me," she whispered, "let me help you, Miley."
It might have just been Miley's imagination, or maybe some fevered dream brought on by the wracking pain she was experiencing, but Miley could feel her pain lessening slightly. She still hurt terribly, but it became bearable, something that suddenly didn't seem as impossible to bear, not with Lilly right here beside her. She dimly registered someone saying something to her, someone who wasn't Lilly, and she had to force herself to hear their voice.
"—You have to push, Miley!"
Dr. Jensen. Saying something about pushing, and the baby's heart rate. And... something else?
"Miley, do you hear me? I said, this baby has to come out now! If you can't help push her out, then we're going to have to take you for an emergency C-section!"
Lilly's soothing voice came through as clear as the ringing of a bell, cutting through the fog of pain that her mind had created to protect itself. You can do this, Miley, it said. Just a few more pushes, and she's here. A pause, and then, WE can do this, honey, we can do it together. Miley smiled. Her best friend, her wife, was right. As long as Lilly was here with her, they could do anything.
As the next contraction began to build, she focused her will, pouring all the strength and passion held in her love for Lilly into determination. She was going to have this baby, and she was going to have her now.
"Okay, Miley, push!" said someone Not Lilly.
Miley braced herself and pushed, squeezing Lilly's hand with her right as hard as she could while she pushed, trying to help their baby escape to the new world awaiting her. Her left hand slipped off the railing, flailing for an interminable second before someone's hand took it carefully, squeezing with a strength that Miley used to brace herself. She smiled and offered silent thanks for the support, because words were beyond her at the moment. Even opening her eyes would have taken effort, and for now all her strength was focused on one task.
"She's crowning!" said an excited Not Lilly, sounding happy.
"You're doing it, Miley!" Lilly added, and the sound of her amazingly beautiful voice lent Miley even more strength, letting her increase her efforts beyond what she thought possible. She felt something pass through her, and suddenly most of the excruciating pain disappeared. She gasped as the agony that had been her other companion for the last hour was almost immediately gone, leaving a void that made her ache for the pain once more, just for a brief moment.
"How is she?" Miley weakly gasped, knowing Lilly would understand her even if the words were too soft to be audible. There was a pause, and during that pause Miley felt her heart break out of fear for their child. She could feel Lilly's terror just as she could feel her own, adding to each other and threatening to overwhelm them both, but then the sound of a soft mewling voice rang out. It was weak at first, but then it became louder, stronger as it cried out, angry and scared and needy all at once.
"She's got your voice," Lilly said in a near-whisper so as not to drown out their daughter's first cries, and Miley laughed at how right her partner was.
"Yeah, well, sounds like she's got your temper, too," Miley replied, making Lilly laugh as well. The two of them looked into each other's eyes as Miley moved her left hand to cup Lilly's cheek as they kissed.
"The cord clamp!" someone cried out, and Miley's head shot up as Lilly's whirled around, Miley's head just missing Lilly's chin. There was a sudden flurry of activity around the plastic tray where their baby lay, and Dr. Jensen's arms indicated she was instantly busy doing something. Deep inside Miley felt something ache, and she could tell Lilly felt it too.
"Get her to the NICU and start an umbilical line; tell the lab to get me some blood stat!" Dr. Jensen turned to face Miley and Lilly as everyone else except one nurse ran out of the room, wheeling the tray holding their newborn child with them. "Get me some Monsel's solution," Dr. Jensen said to the remaining nurse as she walked over to stand next to Miley and Lilly, both now terrified beyond words. "She lost some blood," the doctor said, and despite her best efforts to conceal her own concern, that worry came through in her wide eyes. "One of the cord clamps came off, but we were finally able to reclamp it and stop any further bleeding. She's going to need some blood, and the NICU's the best place to give it to her."
Lilly swallowed painfully, her throat dry as ashes as she slowly asked, "Will... will she make it?" Tears ran down her cheeks as the words left her lips. No! This isn't supposed to happen this way! Now it's supposed to be easy, with us smiling down at our daughter and congratulating each other on being new mothers while talking about whose nose she had and which one of us she most resembles. Inside she could feel Miley's turmoil burning a hole in her stomach, and Lilly knew that right now she needed to be a source of strength for the woman she loved.
As Lilly embraced Miley, Dr. Jensen said, "We got the bleeding stopped, and she's a fighter, that's obvious already. She's still awake and going strong, so she's got a good chance." Her voice was kind, if a bit clinical, but the two young women knew that their doctor wanted to be honest with them, not make false promises or condescending statements. "You're still bleeding, Miley, and we've got to get that stopped first," the doctor said, and now she had moved back to the foot of the bed. "Okay, the placenta's coming out now," she said, looking down between Miley's legs once more. The nurse handed her a metal basin, which she handed back just seconds later. The nurse took that basin and exchanged it with a cup which she handed to the doctor. "This goop I'm getting ready to put in you will help stop the bleeding, okay, Miley? As soon as the bleeding stops, then I'll have you two taken to the NICU so you can see your baby."
Miley didn't even feel the cold, pasty material going in, she was so numb from the last few minutes. She looked up into Lilly's eyes, wide with both worry and resolve, and suddenly Miley felt something inside her give way. She began sobbing as tears streamed forth; within a second Lilly was on the bed beside her, sitting next to her and holding her as she broke down, body shaking as she cried uncontrollably. "We didn't..." she started, only to be stopped by more wracking sobs. "We didn't even get to hold her," she finished painfully, hanging onto Lilly as tightly as possible.
"We will, Miley, we will," Lilly promised. "No matter what, we'll get to hold her together."
Miley looked into Lilly's red-rimmed eyes of blue, glistening with tears just as her own were. "What if—"
"Shhh," Lilly whispered. She rocked Miley back and forth, trying to offer some comfort to her wife. "If it happens, then we deal with it and go on. We deal with it together. Remember?"
Miley nodded, and Lilly could feel the motion against her shoulder. "Together," Miley repeated, as if it were a magic word brimming with the power to make everything right again.
"But she's going to make it, honey," said Lilly soothingly. "Because she's a fighter just like her moms, and she's wanting to see us as much as we want to see her." Lilly pulled her head back slightly, enough to look into Miley's teary eyes. "She wants to put faces to those voices she's listened to for all these months."
"I want to see her," Miley said. "I need to—" She swallowed, then she said, "I need to hold her, just... just in case. She needs both of her mommies to hold her."
Lilly felt tears form again. She hadn't thought there were any tears left, but Miley's honest statement reflected what she had been thinking in her heart. "You're right," she said to her wife. "When can we walk down there?" she asked Dr. Jensen.
The doctor stood. Thankfully the blood-stained gown was gone; Lilly didn't think she could have handled seeing it again. "Miley is in no shape to be walking anywhere. She's still bleeding, and if this doesn't stop it, I might have to take her to surgery."
"Then I won't walk!" Miley said, clutching onto Lilly's wrist. "Lilly can push me in a wheelchair!"
Lilly started to try and talk some sense into Miley, but when she saw the tears still running from her wife's sad eyes, she knew that she had to do this for Miley. "But what if you start bleeding again?" Lilly asked, already knowing that she was going to do it for her best friend but still afraid at what might happen.
Miley put her hand atop Lilly's. "You're not gonna lose me, Lilly Bear. I promise."
Lilly nodded. Miley understood what she was afraid of, the one thing that Lilly feared more than losing their baby. "Okay."
Minutes later Lilly was pushing a wheelchair down a long hallway connecting the Obstetrics wing and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "How are you feeling?" she asked Miley, who was shifting uncomfortably in the chair.
"Like someone stuffed a dozen pads into a diaper and then put it on me," she grumbled. "Hey, there's the door."
Lilly stopped the wheelchair and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, a nurse opened the door slowly. "Are you the Truscotts?" she asked, looking them over.
"Yes," said Lilly. "Can... can we see our baby?"
"We need to hold her," added Miley sadly. "You know, in case... in case she doesn't make it."
"Come on in," said the nurse, holding the door open for them. She showed them where a scrub sink was and helped them wash their hands. "I'm sorry, but we don't allow wheelchairs in the NICU."
Miley and Lilly looked at each other. Without any debate or discussion, Lilly took Miley's hands and helped her wife to her unsteady feet, supporting Miley with her arm as they took turns washing their hands thoroughly. They then slowly followed the nurse through a row of tiny infants in warmers and incubators, Miley leaning on Lilly as they shuffled their way down the path. They stopped at the far end of the row, and the nurse stepped away as Miley and Lilly moved closer, peering down over a baby warmer holding a sleeping newborn girl. Compared to the other infants they had glanced at here in the NICU, their daughter was quite large, and while it might have been the heat lamps, her skin looked healthy. As they watched her tiny chest rise and fall with each breath, the two of them moved even closer, hugging each other tightly.
"She looks healthy," said Miley, her voice hopeful but worried.
"She looks like you," replied Lilly. She turned to the nurse. "How's she doing?" she asked quickly, hoping she didn't sound too much like a babbling idiot. "I mean, is she..."
The nurse smiled, and for the second time in the last ten seconds Lilly felt her heart lift. "She's doing much better," the nurse said. "We only had to give her a little blood. You two have got a real fighter on your hands. She's a tough one."
"Good thing, the way her momma falls all the time," Lilly teased, and right now it felt indescribably good to tease Miley, just like how things had always been. It was as if a crushing weight had been taken off their chests, and now they could breathe normally again.
"I wonder if she's going to be as good an athlete as you are," Miley asked absently, not really expecting an answer. "She's got the same little chubby arms you did when you were a baby."
Lilly's mouth opened in shock, her lips pursed into an O-shape. "Where did you see my baby pictures at?" she asked.
Miley grinned at her best friend as she replied, "Your mom showed me some the other day. And you were just adorable, Lil, you and your little fat arms and fat legs!"
A soft cry drew their attention back to the warmer. Plump little legs began to kick the air as their daughter's mouth opened, and another tiny cry came out. At the sound of that cry, Miley instinctively reached for the baby, pausing long enough to look at the nurse standing behind them. "Can I—?"
"It's your baby," the nurse replied with a smile. "Let me get you a chair and a blanket."
As Miley reached into the warmer, she felt Lilly's hands on her back, lightly pressing against her as she leaned forward to get a better look, no doubt. She also felt a swelling in her breasts, different than any other feeling she had ever experienced, but she knew what it signified. It's amazing how our bodies do some things without us ever knowing how or why. Like knowing how to feed a baby... or falling in love with your best friend. As Miley's fingers gently brushed against their daughter, she felt as much as heard Lilly whisper against her ear, "I love you, Miley Truscott, and nothing could ever match everything that you've given to me."
Miley turned and gave Lilly a kiss, lingering for a few seconds as she felt Lilly's arms wrap around her back. "I think she's hungry," Miley whispered, scooping her fingers and hands beneath the infant and carefully lifting her and her soft pink blanket up.
"Here's a rocker," said the nurse as she locked the wheels on the large chair. She handed Lilly a large white blanket. "And you might want to cover her up so she stays warm. I got you two one of the big rockers, too, so you can both sit down and hold her." She smiled and stepped away, giving them their privacy.
Lilly covered their daughter up with the blanket as Miley held her and carefully sat down in the rocking chair. Sure enough, there seemed to be enough room for Lilly to sit beside them. "Lilly Bear?" she said as she looked up at Lilly, watching mother and baby with undisguised joy.
"Yeah, Miles?" Lilly seemed focused on Miley holding their baby, a smile of countless dreams realized reflected on her face.
"Come sit with us," said Miley, patting the seat beside her. "There's room."
Lilly gingerly sat down, being very careful not to bump either Miley or their daughter as she did so. The nurse returned with a bigger blanket, one large enough to cover all three of them as they sat and slowly rocked. Lilly handed over the white blanket, then she draped the larger blanket over them as their daughter began to fuss and cry.
"Oh, she's hungry just like her mommy too!" said Miley in a gentle, soothing voice, giving Lilly a sly glance out of the corner of her eye. Since Lilly had covered them with the blanket, Miley simply lifted up her shirt, letting Lilly carefully remove it while she shifted the baby around from arm to arm to allow Lilly to remove her shirt and bra. Once that was done, she lifted their child to her left breast, grinning as the baby opened her mouth when her mother's nipple brushed against it, then latching on and greedily sucking away as soon as she was set.
Lilly leaned against her family, holding Miley's bare back with her left arm and her baby's bare back with her right hand while keeping the blanket raised with both her left hand, which gripped one corner of the blanket, and her right arm. She stared at her wife feeding their child with a mixture of pride, joy and reverence, enthralled at how beautiful they looked together despite it being the first time for either of them. "That's just amazing," she said, more to herself than to Miley. Miley looked her way, and Lilly clarified, "Just how she knows to do that, and how your body knows what to do too."
"You tend to have a slightly different use for these," Miley said, flashing one of her more seductive smiles at Lilly.
"Yeah," Lilly admitted, unable to keep from smiling or blushing slightly. "But this little girl comes first from now on."
"No," Miley said quietly. She reached down with her right hand and gently gripped Lilly's bare left thigh, sending chills of excitement up Lilly's leg. "It's not a competition, honey. You both can have me, because you both get me in different ways."
Lilly felt a hammering in her heart quicken. How was it that Miley could be here, holding their baby not an hour after she was born, and still she could turn Lilly on with the simplest touch and smile? Because I love her, and because she loves me. "How long do we, um, have to, you know, wait?" Lilly finally asked in a very, very soft voice.
Miley laughed, her deep, rich, sexy laugh that sent even more tingles down Lilly's spine. "We'll ask Dr. Jensen, but I bet it'll be a few weeks before you can touch me down there," she said as she nuzzled her lips against Lilly's neck. "But I can still touch you," she added, punctuating her statement with a lingering kiss beneath Lilly's left ear. "And you can touch me other places, too."
"What other places?" asked Lilly, breathing a bit more heavily as she likewise leaned in and began running her lips over Miley's bare right shoulder. She had to lean carefully to not push against their daughter, but she managed. As she kissed Miley's collarbone, she giggled and rested her head against Miley's burning skin. "I think I'm a freak," she whispered.
"Why?" Miley whispered back.
"Because you just had a baby, and I'm not only thinking about making love to you but getting incredibly turned on by watching you feed her."
Miley smiled and looked into Lilly's eyes, a deep cobalt in the dim lighting of the NICU. "You're not a freak, Lilly. You're a woman in love, and it's okay to be turned on by your wife regardless of the circumstances." Seeing a lingering doubt, Miley added, "Being a mother to our daughter is the second-most natural thing I could ever do, second only to fallin' in love with you, Lilly."
They kissed softly, then Lilly said, "I can't wait until I can feed your daughter like you're feeding mine. I know that sounds like I'm jealous, but I can't help what I feel."
"Hey," Miley said, lifting Lilly's face up from where she had lowered her gaze. "There's nothing to be jealous about, Lilly. I'm going to pump so you get as much time feeding her as I do. I want Brooke to get used to both her mommies feeding her."
Lilly beamed at Miley's last sentence. "You called her Brooke," she said. "Does that mean you're over being superstitious, since you're using her name? Not afraid of jinxing anything now?"
"Nope," Miley said, slowly shaking her head. "I think this little girl is gonna be with us for the long haul now." Soft cries from beneath the cover drew both women's attention to their daughter, who had let go and was fussing about something. "What's the matter, baby?" Miley tickled their daughter under her baby chin, but that didn't halt her cries.
"I know what she wants," Lilly said proudly. "She's like me, remember?"
"And? What's she want, hon?"
Lilly smiled. "Seconds." She helped Miley rotate Brooke, giggling when their daughter opened her blue-gray eyes at Lilly's touch on her head.
"She knows you," Miley said confidently as Lilly held Brooke's head up just enough to brush Miley's left nipple across their baby's lips. As Brooke sucked once before finally getting a good grip, Miley and Lilly both giggled at how irritated she got briefly before finding her target. "My gosh, she really does eat like you," said Miley with a grin.
Lilly didn't say anything; instead she just leaned against Miley, holding her wife and their new daughter and considering just how blessed her life had been. She closed her eyes momentarily, more to rest than to sleep, but she almost immediately began drifting off.
"Anywhere you want."
"What?" Lilly said sleepily. "What'd you say, Miles?"
Miley kissed Lilly on top of her head. "You asked me what other places you could touch me, and I said, 'Anywhere you want,' other than where I need to heal."
"Mmmm, I'm liking my options," said Lilly. "But I think I can wait until we get home."
Miley's hot breath tickled Lilly's ear, making her shiver before Miley whispered, "But who says I can?" She kissed Lilly on her earlobe, sucking it lightly, then she whispered, "I'm on such a natural high right now, honey, that I want to make you feel as amazing as I do at this very moment."
"Excuse me," said the nurse that had helped them previously. Miley and Lilly looked up but didn't move out of their close embrace. "I think there are some people at the observation window of the regular nursery who want to see your new daughter."
"Okay," said Miley with a grin. Brooke had stopped sucking, and when she looked down Miley saw that their daughter was fast asleep. "Here," she said, handing her carefully to Lilly along with the smaller blanket wrapped around the baby. As Lilly took Brooke and cradled her to her chest, whispering sweet words of love into her tiny ears, Miley slipped her bra and shirt back on beneath the cover of the larger blanket. Once she was dressed, she moved the big blanket, tossing it on the large seat where she had been sitting. "Where's the regular nursery?" Miley asked the nurse as she helped Lilly stand up.
Miley felt her heart soar at seeing the look of joy on Lilly's face as she held their first child. I made her that happy. I gave her that child. And even though I was scared out of my mind earlier, I'd do it again and again for her, as many as she wanted. She could feel the love warming her heart, both her own love for Lilly and their baby and the love coming from her wife, matching and magnifying the emotions inside her heart.
Lilly looked up as they followed the nurse through the NICU. "I want to do this as soon as we can, Miley,"
"Do what, hon?" Miley found herself feeling surprisingly good, if very sore in her pelvis and thighs. Since she had gotten used to carrying around the extra weight of her pregnancy, having much of that gone at once made her feel like she was walking on air.
As they passed through a sliding door, Lilly said, "Have your baby, like you had mine. That's what I want to do."
Miley put her arm around Lilly, smiling down at their child, wrapped snugly in the soft blanket as Lilly carried her. "We need to wait, Lilly, remember? We decided that two years was a good time between our first two. That'll give us time to bond with Brookie and sort of figure out how to do this whole parenting thing."
"Hah! You think we can figure it out in two years?"
"I was being optimistic."
"More like delusional."
Miley grinned. How did she ever get so lucky as to marry her best friend? "Want to guess what I'm thinkin'?"
"Ummm... That we're missing the half price sale on shoes at Buckle Down today?"
Miley whirled her head around. "Mother of my child say what?" she spit out. "Half price?"
"Oh, did I say half price?" stammered Lilly, suddenly looking guilty. "Oh, I meant, uh..." Darn it. She couldn't lie to Miley, not even a little white one to get out of trouble. "Well, there's always next week!" she said cheerily.
"Next week ain't half price," said Miley seriously.
Lilly lit up as an idea hit her. "No, but we can buy Brooke her first pair of shoes!" she said quickly.
Miley smiled broadly. "I like the sound of that plan, Lilly Bear. Nice save."
"Thank you," Lilly said proudly as they walked into the brightly lit sitting room, where newborn babies could be shown off to visitors who watched them through a massive window making up an entire wall of the room. She started to say something else, but then she noticed the crowd of people standing on the other side of the window, all focused on the newborn baby in her arms. Oliver and Ashley were in the center, with Cassie Hughes and Sarah Sweet beside them. Jen Kittrell and her husband Lee were there as well, standing next to Jamie Escante and her girlfriend Gina Giles, both waving to the baby. On the other side of Oliver and Ashley were Lilly's parents Phil and Meredith Truscott with Ashley's mother Kimiyo. Mr. Corelli's head could be seen in the crowd, looking over the shoulders of Cassie and Sarah; as Lilly looked at him, he gave a thumbs-up to the new mothers.
"Wow," said Miley, waving to their crowd of observers as she and Lilly brought Brooke closer to the window. "Lots a' people, huh?"
"Yeah," said Lilly. She could detect the note of sadness in Miley's voice, although probably no one else could have noticed it. "I had Oliver call them first, Miley. It's just going to take a few hours to fly out here from Tennessee." She knew that Miley wished that her father and the rest of her family could have been here, but it just couldn't have been helped. "Come here," she said as she saw Miley's bottom lip quiver. She led Miley away from the window, taking a seat on a large love seat across the viewing room. This way everyone could still see them, but maybe they wouldn't be able to see Miley's tears when she started to cry. "What is it, honey? Because I know it's more than just your dad and all our sibs not being here."
Miley sighed, looking up and away as she rested her hands in Lilly's lap. "I guess... I guess it's just hit me that for so long I didn't have a mom in my family, and now I'm the mom." She looked at Lilly and gave her a guilty grin. "Well, we're the moms. It's a big step, I guess. I mean, no more just running off and doing whatever we want, whenever we want."
"No, now it's running off and doing whatever we want, whenever we want, with our baby," Lilly said, giving Miley a stern look before softening her expression. "Come on, Miley, when have we ever been able to do that? I mean, our lives keep us busy! Between college and our other jobs we're pretty much on the run all the time. But you know what?"
Miley looked up, her visage glum. "What?"
"I love every second of it, because it's all worth it to spend my life with you," she finished, staring into those blue eyes she had dreamed about for as long as she could remember. "We're both taking some time off to get to know this little angel girl, remember?"
Miley grinned sheepishly. She had forgotten, among all the turmoil of this day. "Maybe we can take her out with us in a couple of weeks," she said, knowing Lilly would understand the meaning behind her words.
"I think that would be perfect," said Lilly agreeably. "And when it's time for your next tour, we're going to be right there with you now that we don't have to worry about school."
"We're going to have to have some changes made to the tour bus," said Miley. "We need a sleeper crib for her, and a changing table, and—" Lilly's lips on her own put a stop to her rush of words.
"We've got the rest of our lives to get that taken care of, Miley," Lilly said. "So don't freak out about it, okay?"
Miley smiled. "Okay," she said. She reached a hand up to gently touch their daughter's adorable little nose, exactly like her own. "Can we go back to the room and lay down? I'm really tired," she said, yawning as she finished. "I mean, I did kinda have a baby today, you know?"
Lilly laughed, taking in how lovely Miley looked as she stretched, her hair long, loose and wild, her face glowing with love, her eyes bright and dancing. Even after the stress of today, she looked so full of life that it took Lilly's breath away.
"What the heck are you lookin' at?" Miley said as she noticed Lilly staring at her with utter devotion in her gaze.
"Just the most beautiful woman on earth," Lilly said as she turned around, waving to everyone at the window as she walked back into the nursery. "And the mother of my children," she called out over her shoulder as she felt as much as heard Miley running up behind her. "And the woman I love with all I am."
Miley put her arms around Lilly from behind, being careful to not lean or push against Lilly. "Excuse us," she said to the two nurses on duty. "Can we take her to our room for a while? We, uh, appreciate everyone bein' here for us, but I think after everything that's happened today we'd like to have some time with just the three of us."
"We need to have the NICU doctor come see her, but she's done great ever since she got that blood," said the nurse who had led them in earlier. "I think there's a chance she might get to stay with her mothers tonight in their room," she said with a friendly smile.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Miley said in a friendly way as Lilly carefully handed their baby back to the nurse. "About how long, do you think?"
"Probably an hour or so. Maybe two. It all depends on how quick the doctor gets here. And I think that your doctor was wanting to check on you again too, Mrs. Truscott."
"Dang it," Miley said. "I thought we were gonna be able to sneak off."
"Stop being silly," said Lilly, lightly poking Miley's arm. "You just had a baby today, Miley, and you need to be watched tonight too. After—" Lilly stopped abruptly, nearly clamping her hands over her mouth in a very literal way.
"After what?" asked Miley, her curiosity now piqued.
Lilly considered the various likelihoods of denying everything—which never seemed to work, not with Miley—coming up with a cover story with no opportunity to prepare—also not good odds—or choosing the right place to tell her best friend what image had popped into her head. "I'll tell you when we get back to the room, Miles," Lilly said, and by the tone of her voice Miley could tell that Lilly didn't want to go into any details right then.
"Okay," she said. "How, uh, do we get out of here?"
"Tracy will take you," said the nurse as her partner stood. "I'll take this little beauty back in there and change her. That'll distract everybody for quite a while, I think."
Within minutes Miley and Lilly were back in their birth room, although it was nearly unrecognizable from earlier. The instruments table was nowhere to be seen, all the towels and gowns had been picked up, the bed had been freshly made and everything smelled fresh and clean. One of the obstetrical nurses came in and checked Miley's pad; she was pleased when she saw that the bleeding had slowed down considerably, and she replaced the pads with significantly fewer than before, which Miley appreciated greatly. Finally the nurse left the room, promising that she'd find Dr. Jensen and have her check Miley before it got too late.
"Okay," said Miley as soon as the door had closed behind their nurse, "now spill. What is it that you didn't want to tell me earlier?"
Lilly sat down on the bed and moved to lie down beside Miley, propping herself up on her elbow as Miley assumed a matching position. "Earlier when you were in labor, there was..." She trailed off as she felt her eyes start to burn. She waved her hand in front of her face, trying to fan the tears away.
"What was it, honey?" asked Miley, now frightened by what Lilly had seen earlier.
"When Brooke was being born, there was... a lot of blood," Lilly finally said in a soft voice. "And every time I looked back down there, it seemed like there was more of it that I could see. I was scared, Miley. I was scared I was going to lose one of you, or even both of you."
"I can remember how scared you looked," Miley said, trying to recall anything other than the agony of her labor pains. "And I remember thinking that I just couldn't get her out. The doctor was saying something about taking me to surgery, and that she had to come out right then because something was going on. Something bad."
Lilly nodded. "The nurses were saying something about the cord being wrapped around her neck. I think it was choking her and that why everyone was freaking out."
"I didn't think I could do it, Lilly," said Miley, closing her eyes. "I felt so weak, so tired of the pain—oh honey, it hurt so bad, more than I had imagined, but then I felt you holding my right hand, giving me all the strength you could, and then I could feel someone else holding my left hand, and with both of you giving me that support, I gave that last push everything I had, and I prayed that it was gonna be enough."
"Well, it was," Lilly said. "I think you almost shot her out right against Dr. Jensen's—" She looked carefully at Miley. "What did you say about me holding your hand?"
"I said that I could feel you holding my hand. My right hand first, and then you held my left. And I could feel you giving me all that love and support you could; that was what helped me do it, honey."
"Miley, I was holding your right hand, but I didn't hold your left," Lilly said slowly. "Nobody was holding your left hand. Everyone was either at the foot of the bed or on my side of it."
"Somebody was holding my left hand," Miley insisted, "and I knew it had to be you because of how it felt, all warm and tingly, although it wasn't as warm as you usually..." Her voice trailed off as she considered what Lilly was telling her versus what she clearly remembered occurring, and suddenly the answer came to her. She could see the same realization light up Lilly's eyes just a second later.
"Thank you, Momma," Miley whispered as Lilly held her wife tightly against her chest, rocking her tenderly as they both cried tears of gratitude.
It took Lilly a minute or two before she could speak. Her throat was thick as she softly said, "Thank you, Mrs. Stewart. Thank you for being here today, for Miley, and for me, and for our little Brooke."
"I know what I want for her middle name, Lilly," Miley said immediately after Lilly's words. "Destiny. Like it was our destiny to be together and our destiny to have this child."
"Brooke Destiny Truscott," Lilly said aloud, taking in how the name sounded as she spoke it. "I like it, Miles."
Miley smiled as she looked out the window, the evening sun still shining but dimming as it sank to the horizon. "I think Momma likes it too, Lilly," she said, knowing that wherever her mother was, she was happy for them.
As the crowd of onlookers watched little Brooke Destiny Truscott get her first bath and diaper change, no one seemed to notice the air shimmer faintly over the baby girl. The nurses working with her both felt a slight chill in the air, but they dismissed it as nothing more than the hospital's quirky air conditioning. The only person who really took notice of the presence around her was a newborn baby girl, who opened her steely blue-gray eyes and blinked as she felt her grandmother's lips softly press against her forehead before slumber once again claimed her.
Author's Afterword: Okay, that chapter just wouldn't wait to come out! It took itself into a different direction than I had imagined more than once, but I love how it turned out. I had originally planned to include a few other bits and pieces in this chapter, but I decided to have this chapter focus on the basics of Miley, Lilly and their baby. Everything else will fit just fine into the next chapter, which I'll have up as soon as I can.
Oh, and I do have quite a bit to say about Miley's performance at the Teen Choice Awards, but I'll save that for another chapter. Let me sum it up by saying that one little dip does not a pole dance make. In fact, have these people calling her performance a pole dance ever been to a strip club to see what a real one looks like? Give Miley a break! She used the pole to climb up onto the little cart, did one dip and then did nothing but hang onto the pole to keep from falling as the cart moved around. Big deal.
Okay, thanks again for being here for Miley and Lilly at this milestone in their lives, and I'll see you soon!
Jo