Disclaimer: see my profile
Warnings: see the first chapter and my profile
A/n alright everyone. You've waited so patiently. Here's the one you've all been waiting for. Please enjoy.
Fourteen hours after Emily's first contraction, Reid entered the delivery room. He was hot on Mai's heels after she'd got the word that it was nearly time.
The first thing he heard was Emily screaming. It was so loud he jumped and almost knocked over a tray of sterile instruments.
"There you are!" She was looking at him like she wanted to kill him where he stood. He thought she might just do it if she could get her hands on her gun. "Where have you been?"
"Um… I was -"
"Don't mind her," Mai interrupted him. "All women get abusive in transition."
Right! He remembered reading about it. Emily didn't mean what she was saying. If he smiled it would be okay.
He smiled, but it wasn't okay.
"Why are you grinning like an idiot?" Emily shouted. "Oh my God…" She screamed again, writhing on the hospital bed.
"Hasn't she had any drugs?" Reid said anxiously to Mai.
"She said she didn't want them."
She didn't want them!
"Okay…" He went closer to the bed even though every cell in his body wanted to run. "Um Emily… remember your breathing." He decided to pretend he couldn't see the look of death that had seemed to take up residence in her eyes.
"You think this is easy?" She shouted at him. "Why don't you try it?"
Reid looked toward the door of the delivery room. Maybe he could make a run for it. At least until Mai said it was okay to come back.
Someone patted him on the back. Mai was standing there looking at him with dancing eyes. "I wouldn't try to leave now if I were you. Don't worry, it won't be long now."
"Easy for you to say. " Emily growled at her.
"C-come on Emily. Watch your breathing. You gotta relax." Something from the Lamaze classes he'd attended with her stirred in his brain. He reached out and began massaging her abdomen in little circles.
"Keep it up Dr. Reid." Mai said as Dr. Kelly talked to Emily.
"You're fully dilated and one hundred percent effaced. I want you to push on the next contraction."
Reid took her hand. This proved to be a mistake as she nearly squeezed it into oblivion with the first push. Her scream scared the hell out of him. Why hadn't she agreed to drugs?
"Breathe," He said to her.
"This is your fault." She spat out at him.
"But -"
"Push…" The doctor ordered before Reid dug himself in even deeper with the angry mother-to-be.
"I am pushing." She yelled, turning her wrath on the doctor.
"Give her some help Dr. Reid."
He held her up and provided some much needed resistance for her pushing. "You're doing great," He dared to say.
She responded with a growl and three words that would have made hardened sailors blush. He decided to just keep repeating to himself that it wasn't personal.
She pushed for what seemed like hours. He held onto her and tried his best to be positive for her. The good thing was that she was beginning to get too tired to abuse him. The bad thing was that she was getting too tired to abuse him. His heart started thumping in his chest. She was past the average time it should have taken for the doctor to say he could see the head of the baby. Maybe something was wrong!
"I see the head!" Dr. Kelly called out. "Push Emily."
Relief flooded his body and made it difficult for him to hold her as his arms were trying to relax. They began to shake with effort as she screamed around the push.
"Good girl, now breathe and relax." The doctor said.
Reid breathed with her till the doctor said "The head's out, push!"
She pushed, and cried, and screamed till tears formed in Reid's eyes. He knew labor was hard, had read up on all the things that could go wrong, but was it supposed to be this hard?
"Good Emily, breathe…" Kelly repeated.
Emily collapsed against him breathing hard. Reid wished he could take away the pain. It just wasn't right that she had to go through all of this. It was so much different than what he'd seen on television or read about in books. This was the real thing and it was ripping his heart out.
"We've got shoulders," Kelly said. "One more push!"
"I can't!"
"You listen to me Emily Prentiss. You can do anything you want. I believe in you." Reid said.
She pushed. The scream that accompanied the last push was long and so loud, Reid was afraid she might rupture something.
A small wailing cry took the place of that scream when the doctor said. "It's okay Emily. The baby's here."
A strange sensation possessed Reid as everything seemed to speed up and slow down at the same time. Emily was crying. The baby was wailing indignantly as though someone had pinched it. The doctor was saying something to them. It was strange. Reid had suddenly lost the ability to think straight or understand the spoken word.
"Dr Reid! Did you hear me?"
The doctor was looking at him expectantly. All the air seemed to rush back into the room as though a vacuum had been breached around him.
The baby was still crying. Mai was looking at him with the same expectant look as the doctor. "Do you want to cut the cord?" Dr Kelly repeated.
Did he want to cut the cord? What did that mean? Oh yeah… Umbilical cord, baby, the two must part now that Emily had given birth. His baby had been born. He didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl. He hadn't heard what the doctor had said.
"Yes!' He decided firmly.
So far he hadn't fainted. He could go up there and cut the cord. It was no problem. He went to the doctor and took the scissors from him. Wait! Him. He'd looked down and saw that the red, squalling infant was a boy. He had a son. A beautiful little boy with dark hair all over his head.
As he cut the cord where the doctor showed him, his world began to go hazy with tears as though he were underwater. His heart seemed to beat in slow motion. He was unable to speak as Mai placed the baby on Emily's chest.
He found that his feet wouldn't move in their direction. They seemed to be cemented to the floor. "Spencer!" Emily's tear filled voice pulled his eyes back to her face. "Come see your son."
His feet suddenly came free from being stuck to the floor. He went to the bed and looked down at the wailing baby. More tears spilled over his eyelashes to run down to his chin.
"I need to take him for a minute." Mai said, lifting the little boy from his mother.
Reid looked down at the woman he loved more than he thought he could love anyone. "Hey…" Was the only thing he could think to say.
"Hey yourself!"
There was something like rapture in her eyes that was taking the place of all the pain he'd seen. Her face was red, and her hair was plastered to her head with sweat. She was the most beautiful woman in the world.
"How are you?" He asked hesitantly.
She laughed. "Sorry if I scared you."
"It's okay."
"I feel wonderful, the best I've felt in forever. Thank you Spencer." She took his hand and squeezed it tight.
"W-what did I do?"
"You made our son possible." She reminded him. "I can't imagine how I lived before I had him or you in my life. I'm more blessed than I deserve."
"Hey mama and daddy… Here's your son." Mai had materialized next to Reid with the baby. "Seven pounds, eight ounces, twenty inches long. He's perfect."
"He looks like Spencer." Emily said.
Mai began to hand the baby to Emily. "Wait… Do you want to hold him?" She asked Reid.
"Um…" He looked at his son nestled in Mai's arms.
The little guy seemed to be happier now that he was cleaned up and wrapped tightly in a light blue blanket. He remembered that babies liked to be wrapped up. It made them feel secure. They also liked the heartbeat of their mother. Therefore, he should let Emily take the baby so he was happy.
Still, he longed to hold this tiny human who had hair the precise shade of Emily's. Reid noticed it was sprouting into curls the way his did when he got out of the shower and it was beginning to dry.
"Dr Reid?"
Mai held out the baby to him. He took the tiny creature, cradling his son's head in one hand. Something he'd never felt before washed over him like the waves of a warm ocean. All his life, he'd wished for something, or someone, to fill a gaping hole in his heart. That hole had begun to fill when Emily told him she loved him. The hole filled completely and closed when his son opened his eyes and fixed them for a brief second on Reid's face. In that split second, the feeling of someone else depending on him, exhilarated and terrified him at the same time.
"Spencer?"
He looked up at Emily, who had fresh tears in her eyes. He couldn't speak. He tried to open his mouth, but it seemed to be stuck shut.
"Happy Birthday Spencer." She said.
Was it his birthday. Didn't she mean the baby?
"It's not my birthday," He managed to say as he cuddled the baby close.
"Yes it is. It's October 21 2009. I was hoping our baby would be born tomorrow so you wouldn't have to share."
Tears leaked out of his eyes and fell onto the blanket. He adjusted the light blue cap on the baby's head so he didn't have to look at Emily.
"Thank you." He said. "This is the best birthday gift anyone has ever given me."
"Come on Dad." Mai said. "We need to take care of Emily. Why don't you go call the rest of your friends and family? Tell Garcia what's going on before she kicks your butt for forgetting her."
"Congratulations to you both." Dr. Kelly said.
"Thanks."
He gave the baby to Emily. She looked at their little man with joyful eyes. He kissed her and turned for the big double doors at one end of the room.
"Hey… What about a name?"
Reid looked at her for a minute. He'd forgotten about names. Then the perfect name occurred to him. "I think we should call him Aaron."
"Okay, but remember that I get to pick the middle name."
Trepidation crept into his heart. He wasn't sure he liked what he could see in Emily's eyes.
"I want to name him for his father. Since you won't let me give him Spencer as a first name, I want it to be his middle name."
"Emily."
"Don't "Emily" me… I won fair and square." She reminded him.
"Alright…"
She looked down at the baby, who'd turned into her chest. "Welcome to the world, Aaron Spencer Reid."