It took them at least twenty five minutes to get the Doctor Prince's office. It took ten more to get Gumball into the delivery room and set up and it took five minutes to get the baby out. In total everything seemed surreal and flipped around for a short forty-five minutes for Marshall that, when he found himself in Gumball's recovery room, the prince out cold his large stomach now smaller. It was curious at how it had been so large just forty-five minutes ago and was now just sticking out in a way that made him look like he was three months pregnant, pudgy and small. His phone call to the Flame Kingdom didn't seem real, the King and Queen being out at the moment with the twins on a family outing.
He didn't know where Fionna was, to tell her, and he wasn't sure he could pull himself out of his mental daze long enough. This went by to too fast. He was sitting beside Gumball now staring at his fiancee's sleeping face, searching for some sign of...what he wasn't sure, but he'd been reassured that Gumball would be just fine when he woke up, if not sore for the next couple of weeks due to the C section but Gumball would be in perfect health. As for his daughter he had no clue about her and it just added to his anxiety but he felt a strangely weird, small glow in his chest when he thought about her, his daughter.
He looked up when the door creaked open, Gumball twitching gently in response, and he noticed a bundle in the nurses arms. It brought him deja vu from when Fionna had her twins, when the nurse brought both bundles in at that time, only this time she was walking forward and he let go of Gumball's hand. The first time since he'd entered the recovery room and he held his hand, refusing to let go for so long that when he finally slid away it felt strangely wrong. He walked forward taking the bundle from the nurse, who smiled at him encouraging type of way then walked over to Gumball to check on him.
He'd speak to her about the prince but he was caught up in the baby in his arms and his eyes widened just a touch. He held her securely while the nurse bustled about Gumball, making sure he was okay, checking his IV and his vitals. The baby was completely and utterly perfect, as the nurse assured him, her lungs and her internal organs, along with her body were fully developed and perfect. She said this then left, leaving Marshall alone with the baby and the sleeping prince behind him but it felt like any moment the prince would be waking up asking for the baby.
It felt like, to Marshall, there was a Before and After the baby. A world where he'd still been the boyfriend then the fiancee, the expectant father htat joked with his pregnant lover and then there was the world after, when the baby made such an impatient appearance and was placed in his arms. And she was perfect, beautiful and perfect and healthy, his Princess. There was a low groan from behind pulling him from marveling at the baby in his arms to look up and over his shoulder at his fiancee only to beam when those violet eyes started to open groggily, slowly.
"Marshall?" He murmured groggily, thickly, when he shifted only to whimper. "Marsh?" He lifted a hand up carefully to rub his eyes which were strangely heavy. He tried sitting up to look and squint for the vampire when he felt a hand on his hair urging him to lay back.
"I'm right here, Bubs." Marshall assured him, holding the infant one armed for just a second before pulling his hand from the prince's hair and chuckling gently. "Such a rude, impatient child she is to suddenly demand birthing."
Gumball almost forgot who he was talking about, the vampire smiling so fondly it was shocking. "She's okay?" He asked sitting up and failing, only for Marshall to play with the bed until it sat the Prince up. "She's healthy?"
"Ten toes and ten fingers~" Marshall replied smiling then when his phone chirped. "Ah, I guess that's Fionna asking why I was spam calling her a little while ago." Why it was suddenly so easy joke and smile now, he had no idea. But he then shifted the baby and Gumball's eyes latched onto her. "Want to hold her?"
"I don't know if my arms are strong enough," Gumball replied tiredly but gratefully he was sitting up. Yet it was true, with the pain killers flowing in his blood stream his arms felt heavy and there was the fact that there was an IV attached to him that was pinching lightly when he moved his arm. "Bring her close though, I want to see what she looks like."
"Well she looks like a potato." Marshall replied in a playful deadpan voice then smiled gestured with his head. "Scoot just a bit." Gumball did so rather happily just a bit and Marshall sat with one leg on the bed, the other off and shifted the baby to rest carefully on his thigh and Gumball's, his hand cupping the back of her head gently keeping it steady.
Gumball took one look at the baby and gasped with delight, tears gushing down his cheeks. "Oh! Oh she's perfect!" Gumball got out in a thick voice, the reaction Marshall was sure he would've had himself had the prince not woken and the mood shifted to a slight lighter one. "She's lovely! Beautiful! Utterly perfect!"
The baby in question, managed to get her eyes open and winced at the light much like the twins had when they'd been born. The baby had a rather thick cap of hair on her head, the color identical to Gumball's making it rather startling, like a bolt of pink on her; her skin was oyster pink shade wise, the pale mixing perfectly with the gray undertones she had that it looked impossibly mismatched. But her eyes were what got to Gumball over all of his daughter's appearance; she didn't have violet eyes, like what the vampire had honestly wished for, nor did she have the blue irises of newborns, but was a startling scarlet. On her father it was described as ghoulish but they never were, not to Gumball, and on his daughter they oddly fit. Better than any coloring she could have had if he had to say so.
"Being born a whole month early, and in such a bloody way, she's going to be nothing but trouble, Bubs~" Marshall sang reaching down stroking the baby's silken cheek, marveling at how all babies seemed to have such silky skin and downy soft hair like the twins did. "Also, should we change her name while she's here or should we keep it the same when they bring in the birth certificate for us to sign?"
"Hmmm..." He stared down at the baby, stroking her other cheek softly and thinking. She blinked slowly, tiredly almost, like SHE had done all the work since being born and it made Gumball want to laugh. "Okay. Let's take the Cece thing out."
"So, it'll be Lacey Akina Lee instead?" Marshall questioned tilting his head when the baby's eyes flicked around like she was trying to see something. She was adorable, perfect and sweet already but Marshall had a feeling that she'd take after him in the personality aspects. It made him smile when he let his fingers trail up to stroke the down soft cap of hair on her head.
"Yup." Gumball then grinned widely, tiredly, and sighed. "She truly is your daughter, impatient." Marshall laughed at this when Gumball then moved his hand over Marshall's to cup her head, the vampire getting the idea, moved his hand carefully away and watched Gumball pick the baby up.
"Let me go and call Fi, tell her that she's officially Auntie Fi~" Marshall pulled his phone out walking to the rooms door, pulling it open and letting it shut behind him as he left. Gumball was then left alone with his daughter, violet irises meeting wide scarlet's and it made him smile because even if his daughter couldn't very well see right yet or at least not good enough, it felt like she was meeting his gaze.
"Hello there, baby girl~" Gumball cooed at her making her eyes widen like she was struck with awe or surprise. It made him laugh softly when he lifted the baby up and tilted his head down to nuzzle her tiny head, carefully and inhaling the sweet scent that clung to her.
Almost like she'd been dipped in sugar but spray with something floral. He didn't need Marshall's vampire senses to smell it and yet she smelled good. She smelled like he imagined she would and she also had that strange, new baby smell of baby powder and soap. She fit into his arms, like they'd been made just to hold the small infant perfectly, like he was holding a small piece of his body against his chest and she stared in awe. He kissed her forehead softly, inhaling her sweet scent over and over, loving how warm she was in his arms like a precious, warm, sweet smelling token in his arms. He honestly didn't notice Marshall walking in or the door opening, then shutting, but he looked up when he felt lips on his head and he looked up to see Marshall smiling.
"How you feeling, Daddy?" He asked softly making the pink prince chuckle softly then kiss his cheek happily. "She smells sweet, right? Like sugar and floral." Gumball smiled, honestly loving how Marshall's gaze lingered intensely on the baby, his hand reaching out to stroke her down cap of hair.
"Yeah, she does. She's perfect though, I can't believe it honestly. It's like I'm in nothing but shock right now but she's real and she here, all be it a whole month sooner rather than later." Gumball replied then smiled at Marshall. "How are oyu feeling now?"
Marshall blinked, looking up from the baby to Gumball's rather smirking face. "What do you mean?" He asked tilting his head just a bit, staring at his fiancee who smirked wider, that smirk new and strange on the prince's face. He didn't understand, at first, why the prince was so smirk-y and so full of it it seemed.
"Well, you're a father now! How does it feel? How do you feel about that?" Gumball asked with that same wide smirk, his violet eyes dancing when the baby did the cutest thing. She sneezed. It was cute, but didn't distract Gumball too much but noted to pay closer attention when it happened again.
Marshall blinked, once, twice. Paused. Then he looked at the baby and gasped like he'd been underwater and just crashed through the surface getting a gulp of air for the first time. He then moved his hands through his hair and blinked then made a little wailing noise. Gumball started laughing so hard he snorted, holding the baby still while snorting with laughter when the door open to reveal Fionna, the eight month old twins, and Flame King when she blinked.
"Should we come back some other time?" She asked feeling her lips twitch into a grin with the innocent question. So innocent a question, but it made Gumball laugh harder snorting crazily until Marshall followed him down into laughter, the crazy laughter making the baby in his arms look up and her lips pulled into a tiny baby smile in response to her parents wild laughter.