Chapter Six
It was 12:05 am on Christmas Day, Wolf braced Hannah from behind while she gave a huge grunt and strained, holding her breath, pushing for all she was worth. When she collapsed against the bed he asked, "Is the baby out?"
"No. I told you it's going to take a while." Rachel said with an amused smile as it wasn't the first time Wolf had asked. She knew she should be serious but couldn't help but be 'd been at this for hours and Wolf knew he shouldn't complain but he really wanted it to be over so Hannah would be out of pain.
"But in the movies-" Wolf started but Hannah cut him off.
"Don't finish that sentence." Hannah warned him in a dark manner, as she tried to keep breathing as normally as she could as she felt like she was going to pass out. She was reaching the end of her rope and ready to throw in the towel.
"First babies sometimes take more time." Rachel said carefully choosing her words as she could see Hannah was transitioning into the second stage of labour quickly and she needed to keep Hannah's spirits up.
"How much time?" Hannah asked her incredulously.
"However much they want." Rachel told her, she put her fetoscope scope in her ears, flipped the side of Hannah's t-shirt up over her belly and listened. She pulled the shirt back down and said, "This one's a strong one. Probably going to keep you up nights." Rachel said.
"It's half Taylor, we're all night owls. So that's a given." Larrin scoffed as she came back with more supplies for the room. Kara had left, returning to her own family next door as Hannah was in Rachel's capable hands and had Larrin to assist her.
Wolf did his job—brow mopping, hand-holding, encouraging, supporting. It went on for almost an hour and he watched as Hannah got more and more tired and Rachel stayed busy getting ready to catch that baby. While Wolf supported Hannah; he heard Rachel say, "Hold it a little longer…right where you feel the pressure…. Okay, take a breath and push again…. Way to go!" Rachel said in an encouraging manner to Hannah as she spread out the baby towel on the bed, brought her clamps, suction, scissors to the bed.
"Damn." Larrin said her eyes wide.
"What's wrong?" Wolf asked scared as his sister looked half scared and fascinated.
"Nothing, Hannah. On this next one, I want you to give it all you got." Rachel told Hannah. Hannah swallowed nodded as she knew in her bones that once the baby was out then the pain would ease which motivated her more than anything else in the moment. She felt the tightening of her contraction, the pain radiating through her body.
"You can do this. Make it a good one, push. Push." Wolf said.
"How about you shut up." Hannah growled at him as she was sick of him telling her what to do.
"Ok, Hannah. Here we go. n your own time." Rachel said bringing Hannah back to focus on her. "Larrin, get the blanket and spread it over Hannah as we discussed." she said to Larrin.
"On it." Larrin said as she did as Rachel had talked her through. Hannah reared up again, pushing.
"All right!" Rachel said with a smile. "We're almost there! I think the next push is going to do it, Hannah. Here we go now." she added.
"You said that last time." Hannah complained, she was tired and completely out of her mind now wanting the baby put and feeling as if it was just stuck down there torturing both of them.
"Okay honey, here we go," Wolf said encouraging her. In spite of himself, he was leaning forward, watching, wanting to see this baby being born, wanting to be in on this all the way now. He heard the baby cry, heard Rachel exclaim happily.
Larrin grabbed the blanket, did her job and out of the womb came this mucky, squalling infant. Oh, man, the baby looked unhappy.
"Whoa, he's pissed!" Wolf said as he saw it was a boy, Hannah gave a laugh and teared up as she was never so happy to another person as she was at seeing her baby. Larrin held the baby and gently dried the baby, she wore a soft smile on her face as she helped Rachel.
Rachel clamp and cut the umbilical cord, then Larrin wrapped the baby in a new, dry blanket and carefully lifted him. Wolf helped Hannah sit up in the bed, putting pillows behind her back. He moved off the bed and out of the way, Larrin smiled as she gently passed the baby to Hannah.
Then he knelt beside the bed and watched as Hannah snuggled the baby close, gently kissed his head. And, Wolf, not completely conscious, rested his lips against Hannah's shoulder.
She turned her head and looked into his eyes. Hannah reached up a hand to his face and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Tears he had absolutely no idea were there.
"Well done." Rachel said, Wolf and Hannah barely noticed her and Larrin as they were still working.
Wolf was exhausted. He lowered his head to Hannah's shoulder and just lay there for a moment, trying to imagine what she'd just been through. He felt her fingers in his hair. "Hannah" he whispered. He lifted his head. "What you did." he said in awe.
She gave a smile, tears running down her face but they were of a joy. "He's perfect, isn't he?" she asked talking about their son. He was still squalling his head off but had calmed down somewhat now Hannah was holding him. He couldn't believe what they had made together, the amount of pain and effort Hannah went through to bring him into their world. It made his world light up in a way that it hadn't been before.
"Just like his mother." Wolf said softly, they locked eyes for a moment; a silent truce was made and Wolf knew they wouldn't be shouting at one another or trying to figure anything out for a while as they would just enjoy this moment.
"We'll work everything out." Hannah said, Wolf nodded appreciating that she was letting him in when she was well within her rights to shut him out completely.
"Let's get that baby on the breast, Hannah. Redheads are such bleeders." Rachel said interrupting the moment between Wolf and Hannah. Both completely in their own world completely oblivious to the fact that Rachel and Larrin were still working.
"Yeah," she said, tremulously. "Yeah, got it." She was pulling at her the loose collar, but it seemed a little stuck and her hands were shaking. Wolf gave the T-shirt a tug and up it came, exposing one breast, but he wasn't noticing it as if it was a breast. It was as if it was just another part of delivering the baby. He helped her position the baby, who was screaming madly. And then suddenly he stopped and started rooting. And bang—he found it. "Ohhh," Hannah said. "That's weird." Then she looked up at Wolf and smiled. And the baby suckled, making precious little noises.
He hadn't noticed what Larrin and Rachel were doing. His eyes only for Hannah and their son. Rachel examined Hannah quickly, covered her up again.
"Okay, let's get this little boy cleaned up for a viewing. How you doing, Hannah?" Rachel asked as she rose to her feet an came round the side of the bed.
"Okay," she said, wiping at her eyes. "I'm okay." she added completely grateful for Rachel being here.
Wolf kissed her forehead. "You're amazing, Hannah." he told her.
"You, too, thank you." she whispered, and closed her eyes.
He stayed on his knees beside her bed while Rachel took the baby, and for the entire time she washed him, Wolf watched Hannah's face as she slowly drifted into exhausted sleep. He gently kissed the tears from her cheeks. A few minutes later Larrin touched his shoulder. She was holding a bundled baby.
"Here you go. Take him outside for some show and tell with the others while Rachel and I get Hannah and the room squared away." Larrin told him softly.
"You sure?" He asked her.
"Absolutely, Rachel said he passed all the tests and is in good shape." she said, handing him over. "You earned this, enjoy it because you still got a lot of hard yards ahead of you" Larrin said as she settled his son into his arms. He felt so incredibly small and fragile in his arms.
"Thank you." he told her, she gave a closed lip smile and nodded.
"You sure it's yours?" Burk asked in a low voice as he, Sasha, Kat, Andrea, Miller and Tex crowded around Wolf and the baby. The women were all melting at the baby boy and his full head of ark brown hair that was sticking out at wild angles. Burk looked at the kid like it were a foreign and dangerous object, Miller looked happy but not giving away anything that Wolf decided not to read too much into.
"Yes, he's mine." Wolf assured Burk much to the amusement of the others.
"Yeah, didn't you hear him crying sounded just like his father about two hours ago." Tex teased as Hannah had nearly broken his hand when a contraction hit. Yeah, it freaking hurt to the point he did yelp and Hannah told him to toughen up. Something that was now an amusing memory than absurdly painful one. He also knew he'd have bruises for the next week as she had a death grip but it was a small price to pay.
"More like they have the same hair." Kat quipped in a fashion much like her father. The others chuckled and then aww-ed as the baby twitched and made the tiniest of noises and well just basically breathing. The door to Tex's room opened and Larrin came out of the room followed by Rachel. They had been going in out of the room to the laundry room.
"I'm going to call the hospital and give them an update." Rachel told Larrin, she gave a nod and joined the group; standing next to Miller.
"Hey, how's it going?" Larrin asked them all, she wrapped an arm around Miller's and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Shh, the baby is sleeping." Tex chastised with a grin.
"Trust me, he's only going to wake when he'd loaded the nappies or wants food." Larrin said with a smile.
"Thought you haven't done your OB/GYN rotation." Wolf said with a frown as his sister should know nothing about babies.
"I didn't but I volunteer in the nursery to cuddle babies who aren't so lucky to have parents. I also babysit Frankie." Larrin informed him. Something that reminded Wolf of how out of touch he was and how he needed to work harder on reconnecting with his sister and friends.
"How's Hannah?" Wolf asked Larrin, he could tell Larrin was dead on her feet and was incredibly grateful to her and Rachel for all that they had done.
"She's good and still sleeping, something I recommend we all do given it's been a long night. Sorry Tex but your room is occupied for the time being." Larrin told him.
"It's fine, I'll sleep on the couch." Tex said.
"I don't think I can sleep." Wolf said.
"Well, then you can look after Hannah and the bub. Congratulations and Merry Christmas Everyone" Larrin told him.
"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Tex said with a smile as it was Christmas day. The others followed suit wishing one another 'Merry Christmas'.
"I didn't get any of you anything." Burk told them which made them all laugh before they got down to business of sorting out where people would sleep for the night in the house.
A few hours later, after some much needed rest. Everyone was up and seated in the lounge room having a very informal Christmas Brunch that was basically finger food. The Greens had decided to quarantine themselves as they didn't want to risk the baby catching cold germs off them. Hannah was laying on one of the couches taking up the most room with her legs over Wolf's lap. Her son who hadn't been named yet was currently being held by Larrin who was sitting on the arm of the one seater Miller was in.
"Look out Miller, your girlfriend might be getting clucky." Burk joked, it had been a fun and easy day so far.
They'd opened presents and shared presents with those who hadn't expected to here. Sasha wondered what she was going to do with a beard trimmer but luckily Tex said it was more about the fun of opening the gift than keeping it. Something she was glad of as Tex needed the trimmer more than she did. Burk of course ended up opening up a present for the baby which was a pack of pacifiers with moustaches on them. He claimed he was keeping them but everyone knew he was kidding or at least hoped so. Rachel and Andrea actually didn't have to lucky dip like Sasha and Burk as they had presents under the tree. They had to laugh as Tex accidentally mislabelled them, but then it was their favourite chocolates from a chocolate cafe in town.
"Fiancee." Larrin corrected with a grin as she smiled down at her nephew, she loved holding babies an her nephew was no different. He was peacefully sleeping in her arms but it helped he'd been changed and feed only minutes ago. She couldn't help but wonder what her and Miller's babies would look like. She hoped they had red hair like their father.
"What?!" Tex and Wolf exclaimed in surprise at the same time much to the amusement of the others.
"Congrats, though Larrin; Babe. When you get bored of the Ginger; you got my number." Burk joked with a wink.
"Yeah, not happening Carlton." Larrin replied mockingly as she use his full name just to take a dig at him as he preferred to be called 'Burk'.
"When did this happen?" Tex asked her. Larrin and Miller exchanged looks as they hadn't meant to keep it a secret but there hadn't really been a moment for them to announce they were engaged.
"More like how?" Kat said with a starry eyed expression as all women liked a good romance story no matter their age.
"Before we came over yesterday, Eric loved the apartment decorations and asked me to marry him. I said 'yes' quite emphatically and the rest is none of your business." Larrin said with a smile and blush that said it all. Miller smiled up at Larrin in a way that made Wolf jealous of their love and dedication to one another. How easy it seemed to just fall into place for them but then he remembered the two had suffered their share of pain and misery.
"That's lovely." Sasha said, warmed by seeing two people so in love with one another. She felt it was so healing to see that not everyone was burned in life and were able to find happiness. "Congratulations." she told them, it made her happy she had come to St Louis for Christmas as she had been reminded of everything that was good in life that made her work worthwhile.
The others in the room said their congratulations for their engagement. Larrin couldn't help but enjoy the warmth of everyone's support. That but also she and Miller were engaged which meant a whole future together of living together, having children and making memories.
"Thank you." Larrin said to her. "So you guys going to name this little guy?" Larrin asked Wolf and Hannah, changing the topic back to her nephew as she didn't want to start planning her and Miller's wedding on Christmas day.
"Noel" Burk suggested.
"No." Wolf said as he was not naming their kid something Christmas related and luckily Hannah was of the same mind as she made a face.
"I want to call him Callum after Wolf and Larrin's Granfather" Hannah said, Wolf turned and looked at her for a long moment wondering how she knew that. But then he mentally smacked himself as Hannah and Larrin were friends.
"Callum St Claire-Taylor." Wolf said with a smile feeling incredibly blessed and touched at Hannah's choice of name.
"Yeah." Hannah said softly with a smile as she looked at Larrin and Callum, she knew they didn't have much a relationship but they did share a child together so she was going to do her best to be as amicable with Wolf and hope in time they would be the parents Callum needed.
"Perfect." Wolf said, he couldn't help but fall in love with her in that moment as she'd given him everything he wanted. He spent the night in bed next to her; helping her with their son. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He just knew better than to ask her to marry him as she wouldn't accept his proposal. Frankly he wouldn't if he were her and after how he'd treated her, he had a lot to make up for. But he'd do it because she and their son were worth it.
"Well, Callum- Welcome to the family and Merry Christmas." Larrin said as she handed Callum to his father's arms so she could get some food.
"On that note, let's crack a bottle of Champers and really celebrate!" Tex announced, the suggestion was met with a good response. He jumped up from the floor, Kat following him. They came back with glasses and the bottle. Tex popped the cork and poured out the glasses. They all raised their glasses in the air.
"To fallen comrades, to new family members who have joined us and to the future may we all see each other through many dark days and make all the rest a little brighter." Tex said looking to them all.
"Cheers," They all said in unison.
The End...
Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!