Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, but I do own Sophie, baby Lily, and Echo the puppy :)
Willow, who had been upstairs carrying out the weekly baby-proof safety check on the house that she had been undertaking for the past two months, entered instant panic mode, having a good idea what her wife's sudden cry probably meant.
"Oh Goddess! Hang on Tara, I'm coming!" she called as she rushed down the stairs. Sophie smiled at her.
"I tolds you today was.."
"A very very special day, I know sweetie" Willow interrupted as she pulled Tara to her feet, ushering her towards the front door and grabbing the packed overnight bag that had been left beside it for this very occasion. "Now you go get Auntie Buffy and Auntie Faith and tell them to call everybody and then bring you and follow us to the hospital, okay?"
"Okay" Sophie replied, running off to obey her mother's instructions.
--
"You know, this is the part that I'm really going to hate" said Willow, driving to the hospital as fast as legally possible. Tara raised an eyebrow at her wife, puzzled.
"You mean the part where we see our baby for the first time?"
"No! If it feels anything like how I felt when I realised Sophie was our daughter, that part will be amazing beyond words. I meant.." At that moment, Tara was struck by another contraction. "That part" Willow finished. "The part where you're in pain and I can't do anything about it."
--
"I'm here, I'm here! Has she had the baby yet?" cried Xander as he ran into the waiting room where Buffy, Faith, Sophie, Dawn, and Connor already sat.
"Uh, it's only been half an hour Xand, so no" Buffy replied, smirking at her friend. "They're in one of the delivery rooms, but I'm guessing nothing much has happened yet."
"Oh" said Xander, sliding into a seat next to his friend. "I probably didn't really need to run out of work that quickly did I?"
"Probably not."
--
Meanwhile, in the delivery room, Willow was pacing nervously.
"Is the doctor supposed to leave you alone for this long? I don't think the doctor's supposed to leave you alone for this long!"
"Willow, calm down" Tara smiled, reaching out to take her wife's hand. "Breathe."
"That's what you're supposed to do!"
"I know, but you should do it to. Breathe with me Will, nice deep breaths, okay?"
"Okay" Willow watched Tara, mirroring her wife's actions. "Okay, I actually feel a little better now."
"Good."
--
A few hours passed, so Faith decided to take Sophie to the vending machine and get some snacks for the gang in the waiting room.
"So Little Red, you excited about meetin' your baby sister?"
"I already knows her" said Sophie, "I just haven't seed her yet". In some ways, this was true. Over the past months, the little girl had developed the ability to read the feelings of the child in her mother's womb, and already felt closer to her than anybody else she knew.
"Well, are you excited about seein' your baby sister then?" Faith asked.
"Very" Sophie replied, nodding.
--
Back in the delivery room, now that her contractions were becoming longer and more frequent, and with midwives bustling in and out of the room every few minutes, Tara was a lot less calm than she had been before.
"Um, Will..ahh!" she cried out, squeezing her wife's hand as another contraction hit. "M-maybe now you should get the doctor."
"Right" said Willow, speeding out of the room. "Hang on baby, I'll be right back." A few minutes later, Willow returned with the doctor in tow. She frowned at the sight of her wife gripping the edges of the bed as yet another contraction tore through her. "Oh Tara" she sighed rushing over to take her lover's hand. "I told you I wouldn't like this part."
"Yeah, not really a fan of it myself right now" Tara replied.
"It looks like you're fully dilated Mrs Rosenberg" said the doctor after examining Tara. "I think we might be ready to push." The doctor then called a couple of midwives into the room. "Okay Mrs Rosenberg, when the next contraction hits I want you to give a nice big push, okay?"
"Okay" After that, everything started to blur together for Tara. Contraction, push, relax. Contraction, push, relax. The only other thing she was really aware of was Willow's hand in hers, the redhead's other hand occasionally reaching up to wipe sweat from her forehead, or place an ice-chip on her lips.
"There's the head, one more push should do it!" Tara pushed, and then, after what seemed like an eternity, a baby's cry mingled with her final scream of pain. Her baby's cry. "It's a girl!" The doctor announced. The midwives cut and tied the umbilical cord, then laid the baby on Tara's chest, tears of joy and relief running down the blonde wiccan's face as she saw her daughter for the first time. She reached down to stroke Lily's head and her cries quieted slightly, responding to Tara's touch and looking at her mother as though she recognised her.
"She's got your eyes, Will" Tara whispered. "She's beautiful. Isn't she beautiful?" Willow managed to tear her eyes away from her daughter long enough to look up at her soulmate, and smiled. Although her face was red from exhaustion, and her hair stuck to it with sweat, Tara had never looked more beautiful.
"Yeah" Willow replied, her smile widening. "Beautiful."