Welcome To The World

"K-Ken—! … Ken, get up!" Katjaa gave her husband a shake.

"Nnnghh…huh..?" With a groan, and groggy expression, Kenny's tired eyes peeled open, peering over at his wife.

"The baby!" she went on to say. "The baby's coming..! I— I think my water broke."

At hearing this, whatever sleepiness that overwhelmed him before, completely vanished, and he shot up in bed, hastily kicking the covers away. "Wh-what?!" He was up on his feet in an instant, and hurriedly rushed over to her side. "Shit, shit, shit, shit! C'mon we gotta—!"

"Kenny, calm down," Katjaa managed to mutter, though the pain of the contractions that were only beginning to get worse.

"Calm down?! How do you expect me to—C-C'mon Kat, we gotta get you to the hospital!" He didn't even give her time to respond before he took hold of her hand and began tugging her out of the room and to the front door.

Once out the door, he spent about two or three whole minutes helping Kat into the passenger's seat of his truck and futzing over her seat belt despite her protests that she was perfectly capable of buckling herself in.

"Kenny!" She'd finally snapped, actually getting through to him this time. "I'm fine! I can do this myself! Just get in!"

Without any protest, the Floridan did as he was told, and closed Katjaa's door before literally running around to the driver's side and getting in. Buckling in, and starting up the truck, he pulled out of their driveway and drive as fast as he dared to above the speed limit.

By the time they reached the hospital, Katjaa was wrecked in pain, groaning and moaning and all but yelling like a banshee. Pulling into a parking space, Kenny jumped out and once again ran around the truck to Katjaa's side, Swinging open the door and helping her out.

As soon as they were inside, nurses rushed to help, easing Katjaa into a wheelchair and wheeling her into the nearest delivery room with Kenny right on their heels.

Truthfully, neither knew how long it had taken, but before too long, Katjaa had Kenny's hand in a death grip. "Jesus Kat!" he'd cried out. "You're gonna squeeze my hand off!" He gave a small, feeble attempt to pull his hand away, but it was no use; it wasn't going to budge.

Weak-kneed from the pain, he found himself supporting his body against the bed that Katjaa laid on.

"C'mon Mrs. Martin, push!" the woman at the edge of the bed ordered, and Katjaa complied, pushing all that she could. "Good, good, just one more push!"

With the last and final push, Katjaa's cries and death grip on Kenny's hand lessened; her wails being replaced with the ones from their new-born baby.

Kenny watched as the baby was passed from nurse to doctor, and doctor to nurse, hardly even noticing that his wife had released his hand this point. "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Martin, it's a healthy baby boy!"

Finally, the baby was handed over to the new-parents, and placed into Katjaa's arms. She cradled the tiny pink human close against her chest, staring down at him awestruck, overjoyed tears beginning to pool in her eyes, a few already beginning to roll down her cheeks.

"Hey babe," she murmured, voice slightly hoarse from all of the screaming she'd done earlier. "You're so beautiful…"

"He gets that from you, ya know," Kenny chimed in, leaning forward to peer over Katjaa's shoulder at his new son. Katjaa's teary gaze flickered from their baby, to her husband, and back again.

"Don't be ridiculous, he looks just like you…" a soft smile formed on her lips, and she chuckled lightly, whispering to the infant, "that's right, you look just like your daddy, don't you?"

Slowly, the baby's eyes opened, before staring widely up at his parents. "Nah, he looks a lot like you too, Kat," Kenny murmured, his own voice cracking and eyes watering, just as overjoyed by their baby's arrival as his wife was.

Gently, Katjaa caressed the baby's cheek with her index finger. "Welcome to the world, little one…"

"I hope you like yer stay here," Kenny added, his own hand reaching out to lightly graze against his son's pink flesh. Then, suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. "What're we gonna name him?"

"I thought we'd already agreed on names," Katjaa looked over at him. "Kennedy if it was a girl, and Kenny Jr. if it was a boy…"

"Yeah, but… Are you sure you wanna name him after me? Why not you?"

Katjaa just smiled and shook her head, dismissing his question. "I don't want people to have to try and guess how to pronounce my baby's name; the same way you used to butcher mine…"

Kenny's cheeks flushed lightly at this reminder, but tried hard to hide his chagrin. "Right…"

"Besides," Katjaa continued. "I think he looks like a Kenny Jr….don't you..?"

"Yeah, I guess yer right…"

"Good, then it's settled…"

Kenny knew better than to argue with his wife; he'd never win. He never did most times, anyway. Besides, the more he looked at their son, the more the name grew on him. Kenny Jr… Kenny couldn't help but hope that their son would like that name. It'd be stuck with him forever.

Though that thought soon vanished, replaced by the thought of how lucky they both really were, and how drastically their lives were about to change. They had a baby now, and nothing would ever be the same again. It wasn't a bad change, if anything it was an amazing one. They were parents now… And the more the two of them thought about that, and the more that they gazed down at their son, the happier they became; the more their hearts swelled with an overwhelming love.