A/N: Here's the next chapter! So I think what I'm going to do is do 3 more chapters, so there's a total of 50. THEN, if I get enough reviews and enough people want it, I want to do a sequel of Mellie and Fitz's life when they leave the White House. So, review and tell me what you think.
It's a girl. After 19 hours of labor, Mellie gave birth to a baby girl. After hours of screaming and crying and Fitz rubbing her back and calling her champ, their daughter came into the world. Danika Paige Grant was welcomed into the world late in the night, at 33 weeks. Luckily, she was a bit bigger for her gestational age, but still not the weight that Mellie had hoped she would be when she gave birth to her. Immediately, the doctors rushed their daughter away, without letting Mellie or Fitz hold her. Mellie was upset, but she tried to hide it.
She laid back, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes. If she wasn't exhausted before, she definitely was now. And she couldn't take it. She had been dying of sleep deprivation and she honestly didn't think that she could keep her eyes open for one more minute. Even though she was beyond worried about her daughter, even though she wanted almost nothing more than to hold her and obsess over her with Fitz, she couldn't help but choose sleep over worrying. The second that she allowed her eyes to close, she was out.
When Mellie woke up, a doctor was telling her about the respiratory problems that Danika had, and that she would have to remain in the NICU for a while. She tried to keep a strong face as she nodded and thanked the doctor, who did a quick exam on her and checked her vitals. Fitz could tell that she wasn't okay, but he just let her be.
Danika stayed in the NICU for a few weeks, and as much as Fitz hated to, he had to leave Mellie and go back to DC. He didn't have a choice but to run the country, even if he child was fighting for her life at a hospital in North Carolina. He visited his wife and children every weekend, sometimes a few days during the week as well, and when their daughter was a little over three months old, they were finally allowed to take her home.
Fitz walked into Danika's room when he got done working for the day, smiling when he saw his wife standing in front of her crib, watching their little girl sleep. Mellie had a smile on her face, and Fitz knew that that smile had been on her face since she laid eyes on their daughter. He let her stare and silently obsess for a few minutes before he informed his wife of his presence. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" Fitz asked, and Mellie turned around, her smile still not faltering.
"She is...God, Fitz, she's so beautiful.." Mellie whispered, smiling as she glanced back at her child. Every time that she looked at her was like when she saw her for the first time, when she had first laid eyes on her youngest child. It had been over three months since their beautiful baby was born and she couldn't stop talking and thinking about how perfect she was and how much she absolutely loved her. She just couldn't get over it.
Fitz couldn't help but mirror the smile that was on his wife's face. He walked toward her, hovering over Danika and looking down at her sleeping body. "She is, isn't she? Just like her mother. Only I think her mother has her beat." He wrapped his arms around Mellie, kissing her cheek. "You did good, you know? I know I haven't had a chance to tell you. But you did great. Really great. Throughout the entire pregnancy, throughout the birth, throughout the three months that you had to sit there, for the most part, by yourself, and worry about whether your baby was going to make it another day. Mel, I am so proud of you. You did great."
Mellie hadn't really thought about it. She had been so focused on keeping her daughter alive and healthy while taking care of three other children, that she hadn't really had time to think of how tough and how strong she had been over the past year. To her, it didn't seem like much. It seemed like normal Mellie. But apparently it seemed like a lot to Fitz. "Thank you." She whispered, looking down at Danika as she made a small noise and made a fist with her right hand. The baby stirred a bit, but stayed asleep, allowing Mellie and Fitz to continue their conversation.
"Can you believe we have less than a year in this house?" He asked, glancing at his child and then back at his wife. "Because I can't...I really can't. It doesn't feel like we've been living here for over seven years. But then again, it doesn't feel like we've had Teddy for four..."
Mellie's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Oh God. Do not remind me of how old Teddy is or I might cry...I don't want my baby boy growing up any time soon...He's not four. He's still one and he's still breastfeeding and he still can't form coherent words, and he still sleeps on my chest. That's how I see him."
"Well, if it helps, he does still sleep on your chest...He didn't only do that when he was one." Fitz told her, trying to lighten the mood. It was hard to believe that Teddy was four. It was hard to believe that four years ago, he was still screwing Olivia Pope, promising her a relationship and a family, and hating Mellie with all of his heart. He couldn't believe that so much could change in four years. Well, technically three years, but he still couldn't believe that so much could change so quickly. It was just hard to wrap his head around.
"This is true." Mellie laughed. "And speaking of the devil..." She looked over at the door, smiling when Teddy ran in, holding his arms up toward Mellie. Mellie picked him up, and Teddy waved at Danika, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hi sissy!" Teddy whispered. He had learned that he needed to be quiet around the baby, especially when she was sleeping. With having dealt with three new younger siblings in the last two years, he knew that he needed to be quiet. He learned a lot from having been around three babies so early on in his life.
Mellie smiled and kissed her son's head, rubbing his back as they watched Danika sleep. She carried the toddler out of the nursery and Fitz shut the door behind them. They took Teddy and went to play with him and the twins, neither of them able to stop thinking about not only how much their lives have changed in the past few years, but also how much they were going to change within the next year, when they had to leave the White House and try to go back to being "normal" people.