Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.
A/N: The chapter is also pretty long, sorry, but given the content, I didn't think that you all would mind too much. There is a lot of push and pull dynamics between Zack and Cloud in this chapter, please enjoy.
As I said in the previous chapter, my daughter pulled the name of the contest winner and this is the chapter where, not only we have a baby, but the name of the baby too!
This chapter is dedicated to the winner of the baby name contest ShinShin-Zidane! Congratulations goes to you, this is your chapter! Please enjoy your lifetime supply of imaginary cookies and in addition to that, I am also sending you a week's supply of imaginary fudge brownies! Thanks for reading and being such an awesome fan of this story!
-Of course I can't forget everyone else that participated in the contest, thank you to everyone! If you reviewed and didn't get a response from me, I apologize, everything kind of runs together sometimes and I think I responded when I may not have. For those guest reviews, thank you for your time, you're all awesome!
To the guest reviewers: E and matchbox girl: Thanks for your time and taking time to review! It makes me so happy to know how the readers are liking the story. I have been working really hard on all my stories, but this one has become a little more special to me thanks to all my readers/fans/reviewers/peeps. Thanks!
Thanks to my awesomely cool and hilariously funny beta SubZeroChimera!
(I wanted to say something a little off subject. Today, (4-5-14) I was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. I am so happy that I could just burst!)
"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which is: Try to please everybody." –Herbert Bayard Swope
To You I Give My Heart
Chapter 27
~Congratulations~
Heading out of the bedroom, as he quickly secured the towel around his waist, Zack heard Red address Cloud, "Please be calm, this is to be expected."
Excitement bounded from Zack in a boisterous voice, "What?" Skidding around the corner into the living room, Cloud screamed out as she rolled over, away from him. Again Zack asked in a panicked tone, "What?!" Before he could get an answer, he slid across the wood panel floor, fell in an ungraceful windmill of arms and legs and landed with a hard thud on his side.
Breathing out, Cloud whined to both males, "Leave me alone!"
"Zackary, her water broke just a few moments ago."
Shaking the shock of his fall from his head, Zack looked down at his fingers in the watery mess that now almost covered him and soaked his towel. With extra willpower, he was holding down a lurch of illness as he groaned, "Yeah, I figured." He had no time to think, when the sudden weight of the situation washed over him, his child was coming and he had to keep control so that he could keep his family safe. Feeling a wave of panic, he took a deep breath and calmed his overactive heart.
Leaping over her, he got down on a knee, scooped an arm under her knees and another around her back, "Let me get you to the bed." Beginning to flail, she pushed at him while she blushed brightly, Zack demanded, "Damn it. Do you want to walk? Why won't you let me help you?"
"It's not that, I-I've never seen… -You don't have any clothes on."
Stopping for a moment, Zack's eyes grew wide in astonishment, "Are you freakin kidding me?! I've got a towel on for cryin-out-loud!"
Covering her face with her hands, she again rolled away from him, "I'm fine, just leave me alone."
Suddenly, her hands shot down, cradling her large stomach. Her eyes squeezed shut and she inhaled harshly, holding her breath. A soft, low and long-lived grunt rolled out of her. Zack didn't know what to say at first, so he just said the first thing that came to mind, a maddened sarcastic comment, "Yeah, your fine. Look at you!"
Red scolded, "Zackary, I hardly think that is helpful."
Standing up, Zack waved his arms, "Well dammit Red, she is just fine, she said so herself!"
Groaning loudly, she then yelled at Zack, "Shut up!"
The angry brunette argued with the woman, "No, you shut up!"
"Zackary!"
"What?!" Zack flailed his arms, "Do you know how to deliver a baby?"
"No, not a human child."
Leaning over to the writhing blond on the floor, Zack yelled, "Do you know how to deliver a baby?!"
Furrowing her eyebrows, she scowled and bit back, "No! Do you?!"
Standing up straight, Zack put his hands on his hips, "Yes, in fact, I do." Then under his breath he mumbled, "In theory."
Finally letting out a breath, she asked, "What was that last part?"
Raising his eyebrows, he tried smiling a deft smile, "What last part?"
Searching his face, her eyes wandered in pain and uncertainty, she sighed, "Never mind."
With an enthusiastic clap of his hands, Zack asked, "Well how about we do this then?" It shocked Zack with his abrupt change in tone, now sounding less like a challenger to her, to more like his usual upbeat self. His emotions were awash in polar opposite feelings, anger one moment, elation the next.
With a sigh, she moved her hands from her belly back to her face, "Fine."
Swallowing a lump in his throat, he tried to sound calm, "Okay, just relax, I'm taking you to the bed to lay down." Helping her to her feet, Zack remained cool in his demeanor, trying to keep her, and himself, from flipping out. Just as they got to the hallway, another contraction hit her. In a rapid movement, she reached out with one hand and grabbed the wall and the other hand grabbed Zack's forearm. A shallow breathless squeal left her lips as she began to slowly sink to the floor.
"Ahh! You gotta let go of my arm," Zack winced at the pain that shot through his arm as her fingers gripped tight enough for her nails began to dig in, taking deep purchase in his tanned skin and drawing little droplets of blood that speckled the floor.
With a glare, she pursed her lips and failed to let out the breath that she held just as tightly as her hold on Zack's arm. When the contraction began getting harder, tears welled up in her eyes as her body sank deeper into Zack's other arm.
"Breathe Cloud!"
Vigorously shaking her head no, she allowed Zack to hold her up, but she still refused to let out the breath.
Trying again in a more calm tone, Zack tried again as he looked directly in her face, "Cloud, you have to breathe." Again she shook her head, but he urged with a slow deliberate nod and a small smile as he spoke slower, "Yes, you need to breathe, just like you're blowing out a candle."
"Zackary, would you like for me to do something?"
Keeping eye contact with her and blowing out as an example to her and urging for her to do the same, he smiled to her as he said to Red, "Yes, can you lay out some towels on the bed and get all the medical shit out, please?"
As the contraction began to let up, she stood and pushed him back, "Stop touching me!"
"Geez, what the hell Cloud?"
"This fucking hurts!"
Raising his hands in surrender, he relented, "You're right, I'm sorry, I'm only trying to help you."
Waddling down the hall, closer to the bedroom another contraction started and she tried trotting to the bed, but didn't make it, she sank to the floor, and again Zack caught her from behind with his forearms under her arms. Trying to pull her back up to standing, he yanked on her shoulders, "Come on, you're almost there."
She refused to move and stayed firmly in her spot, on her knees next to the bed, shaking her head.
With an impatient grunt, Zack remarked, "Come on, you're almost there; just suck it up."
Reaching up, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled his face down to hers. He was now leaning over her shoulder, looking at her upside down, he had to put his other hand on the side of the bed to keep from falling over on top of her. With regret at what he had said to her filling his senses, she gritted her teeth and growled, "Suck this up asshole!"
Never having heard that tone from her, it scared him, mainly because it sounded like another voice, deeper but still feminine. The sound was unnerving, it undulated with contempt, but he let it slide thinking it was just from the pain she was in. Her deeply luminescent blue eyes leveled out in a deadly glare. He'd been instructed during his field medic training that childbirth was the most painful thing known, so he had to remember to keep that in mind, "Okay, I'm sorry. I'll help you when you're ready, okay?"
Starting to breathe deeply, she released the back of his neck when the contraction began to lessen in intensity. Once he was able to get her on to the bed, he started to shift things around and bark orders to Red, "Can you go and get me some hot water in that bucket that Sharna had the medical supplies in?"
Without a word, Red padded off to the kitchen to get the water heated. Before another contraction hit her, he thought he better change clothes, put on pants at least; he didn't mind hanging loose and fancy-free, but for Cloud's sake, he thought to make her more comfortable. Turning his back to her, and without a thought, he dropped the soaked towel to the floor while digging for boxers in his dresser drawer.
Hearing a strangled gasp, he turned and asked in alarm, "What?! Are you alright?" Her eyes wide, she said nothing as she stared, that was when he got scared again, "Cloud? What's the matter?!" Still nothing, she was frozen, not breathing, "Gaia-dammit! Talk to me!"
Stuttering, her eyes traveled up his legs, bare torso, and finally to his face, "I-I uh, I-um have… Y-You're naked…"
With a blush, Zack realized and he covered himself, "Oh, uh, sorry. I'll get some clothes on," Making his way back to the dresser, he lied, "I uh, just got used to changing in front of you while you were comatose." Pulling some boxers on he tried not to let the hurt sound in his voice, "It won't happen again."
When another contraction hit her, she doubled up as she wrapped her arms around her midsection, "I am going to KILL whoever did this to me!" Letting a few breaths out she added, "Slowly AND painfully!"
Swallowing the thick lump of guilt, he stated quietly, "Yeah, I'm sure you will."
Zack waited until the contraction was over and he sat on the side of the bed. Reaching over, he started to lift the skirt of her dress so he could check the progress of her dilation.
Her mouth went agape as she snapped both of her hands down, cradling herself below her belly, "Just what do you think you're doing?!"
"I've got to check to see how far along in labor you are."
A feral type growl emanated from between her lips, "Like hell you are! You stay away from my - AHH!"
"What?!" He seemed as though asking that a lot, but he was new to this too. He'd read the books, he'd practiced what to do in his mind, and he felt ready; that was until he heard a scream similar to those he heard from her in the labs.
With difficulty, she relayed between deep panting grunts, "This is…different…than before – AHH!"
"Cloud, I really need to check you – you know, down there," He indicated with his eyes, the area that she still cradled with one hand.
"No! Get…away from – ME!" A long groan rumbled in her throat as she doubled over, rolling to her side.
A streak of anger made his heart pound harder and he felt the mako begin to flow, making his eyes glow brightly, he yelled, "Where the hell do you think the baby is going to come out of?!"
Red spoke from behind the brunette, "Cloud, please allow him to check. I know that you're embarrassed, but the child will be born, but allowing him to help you means the difference in life and death for your baby and you."
The deep, toothy grimace that covered her young face broke by the groaning breaths, "But this isn't my baby, it can't be."
Red moved closer to her and questioned, "What makes you say that?"
Shifting her brightly glowing eyes from Red to Zack and back to Red, she whispered, "I'm a… virgin, so it's like Genesis said, it was put in me, so it can't be mine, right?"
Turning away from her, Zack swiped the jeans from the floor in a huff, "Whatever." Standing to pull the pants up over his hips, he finished, "Regardless of the way you feel, the baby is coming."
Nudging her with his nose, Red added a calm question, "Are you going to let him help you?"
Seeing that Red and Cloud had bonded sent a chill of anger and jealousy shivering down to his gut, it only got worse when she breathlessly asked Red, "Would you do it then?"
Looking to Zack's reddened face, Red responded to her, "I would, but I am anatomically incompatible to help you physically; without hurting you of course."
Another hard pain hit her and she screamed out while holding her tightened belly still with one hand. Through her teeth, in a pain-filled growl, she reluctantly moved her shaking hand that had held her dress down, "Fine, just get it out!"
Suddenly he felt light-headed. He nervously raked his hands through his hair and listened to his heart rate speed up, but it didn't feel like it was actually pumping any blood; it felt like heavy, toxic air was flowing in his veins, making his vision start to blacken. He was going to have to deliver the baby, his baby that came from the only woman that he wanted to have his child. On this day, he was going to become a father…
"Zackary!" Snapping back to reality, he focused and noticed that Red had moved from the other side of the bed so that he was right in front of the former Soldier, "Zackary! Get a hold of yourself."
Stuttering, he removed his unsteady fingers from his hair, "-Right, I can do this."
Another load groan got Zack's attention and when Cloud's head snapped back, she gritted her teeth and yelled, "Get It Out!" Her chest heaved in deepening breaths and she grunted, "Now!"
"Okay! Stop rushing me."
"Zackary, here is the hot water you requested," Red nodded to the bucket that he had set on the side table, Red padded back over to the other side of the bed and gingerly placed his front paws on the side of the bed and spoke to Cloud, "I am going right outside, I've got to make sure that we are safe. I will return momentarily."
"Don't go!"
"I need to Cloud, the smell of birth attracts all kinds of animals and creatures," Indicating Zack, he finished, "He will take very good care of you, I promise." Red trotted out of the room, leaving Zack alone with the woman who seemed to hate him.
Being faced with impending fatherhood, he had taken the complacent feeling for granted, now that it was actually happening, he started to regret so many things that he had done, and hadn't done. Quickly washing his hands, he took a frenzied inventory of all the medical instruments that lay strewn on the other side of the bed. Most of the stuff, he wasn't sure what it did, he would just have to wing it.
Helping Cloud to her back, he lifted her knees, bending her legs so that her feet were flat on the bed. Looking at her face, with her eyes closed, she loudly breathed out as she tried to focus on anything but the pain. His trembling hands reached for her skirt, lifting it above her knees, revealing what she had fought so desperately to keep hidden from him.
To him, he was unsure what he was looking at, at first. A quarter sized patch of dark, wet hair protruded from where he knew damn well there hadn't ever been before, he quickly surmised that it was the top of his child's head. Again, he felt light-headed…
Feeling a hard poking sensation on his side, he heard a far off voice screaming his name, "Zackary!" The inky blackness moved away from his vision, revealing the ceiling and an irate roommate, "Cloud needs your help."
In the background he could hear the frantic grunting from Cloud and he realized that he wasn't dreaming, "Oh, shit! I uh…" Getting up from his resting spot on the floor, he made his way back up to her and pushed the sweaty blond hair from her temples, he spoke quietly in a gentle voice, "I'm sorry. I won't pass out again, I promise." Their eyes met, and time froze, he saw his Cloud again, the one that had loved him, the one that had given herself to him willingly. With a soft smile, he gazed in her bright eyes, "It's time to push, okay?"
Breaking the spell, she nodded with a grimace, "Just get this thing out of me!"
Placing himself down by her feet, he spread her knees, and there was even more of the top of the baby's head showing than before. Taking a deep breath, he instructed, "Okay, Cloud, grab the backs of your knees and pull them up toward your chest, put your chin on your chest and bare down while I count, don't stop pushing until I get to ten and I tell you to stop. You got to push like you're trying to go to the bathroom, okay?"
When she did as instructed, he began to count, and slowly the baby's head emerged, "Stop pushing for a second." Taking a suction bulb, he began sucking out the stuff from the baby's mouth and nose, then he said, "Okay, as I count, you push again, but push as hard as you can."
Breathlessly, she nodded and squeezed her eyes closed and pushed the baby out into Zack's arms. Wet, and slippery, the baby let out a cry as it shivered in the cool room. Quickly taking a warm washcloth, he wiped the blood and other fluids off and wrapped the child in one of the many baby blankets that the people from the village made for them.
Looking down at the baby, he marveled at the soft black hair all over the head and the clearest, almost transparent, blue eyes he had ever seen. With a small twinge of sadness, he noticed that there was a mako glow to those beautiful eyes. His heart soared though, he was a father now and the baby was apparently healthy with an unusual muscle tone that was not common in newborns, but seen in new Soldiers after receiving their first injections. Holding the baby closer to his chest, the baby's cries slowly quieted.
Cloud's exhausted voice broke him from his trance, "Is it over?"
Knowing that she was too tired to fight him, he leaned over and kissed her forehead and asked, "Do you want to hold your daughter?"
Curling up as much as she could, her response was curt, "No."
Hoping that maybe she would try to show feelings for their daughter, Zack suggested, "Well you still need to name her."
"I don't want to. I'm tired."
Sadly his eyes went to the eyes of his little girl, and he said to Cloud, "If you don't want to name her, I'll name her if you don't mind. I have one that I thought of. It was my grandmother's."
Again Cloud responded with a bit of anger mixed with the fatigue in her tone, "That's fine, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fine."
Pausing, he stared at Cloud's back when she turned over on the bed and sounded as though she fell asleep, he pulled a blanket over her. Zack knew that she didn't know that he was the father of the newborn, but it didn't lessen his anxiety about her unwillingness to even try to bond or hold the newborn. Turning his attention back to the bundle that quietly stared up at him from his arms, he rocked with a smile as he said, "Hello Charlotte. It's nice to finally meet you."
A/N 2: My ex-husband was not near as helpful as Zack was here, but he did say "suck it up" to me on the way to the car and I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him over, upside down and said what Cloud said. I know that the birth of the baby went quickly, but sometimes it just happens that way, it did for me when I had my second child.
Again, I want to congratulate ShinShin-Zidane for winning the baby naming contest! (On a side note, the winner changed their pen name and I had to do a little detective work and searching to find out what happened! No biggie though!)
