Cht 2

"RAYMOND REDDINGTON?!"

Her strangled cry shook him into bolting off the couch toward the bedroom and grabbing for a gun he no longer wore. His stockinged feet slid a bit across the bedroom floor as he ricocheted off the doorway and skated to the bathroom where Lizzie had been bathing. He flung the door open so hard it bounced off the wall and swung back at him. He stilled it with a hand and stood frozen in the opening. Lizzie looked at him, her face a mask of shock and pain, clutching the towel to her chest. At first he thought the puddle at her feet was from the bath, but there were small streaks of blood and it dawned on him.

"Lizzie," he choked out, reaching a hand out for her.

She clasped his hand and clamped down as she whooshed out a breath. "Oh God! That hurt." She clutched her belly and whimpered a bit as the contraction passed.

Raymond was suddenly glad he had taken a nap, because he had a feeling he was going to be up all night. "Sweetheart, come here." He gently pulled and she waddled closer. He kissed her damp head and hugged her close. "Let's start timing these things, shall we?"

"They're getting stronger," she said, still breathless. "I started walking around earlier, up and down stairs."

He checked his watch, another Phillips. 1:03 pm.

Hours later she had a firmer grip on him, bruising his forearm as he fed her ice chips in the hospital. Lizzie panted through another contraction growling and muttering at him under her breath. She kept trying to readjust her position, but there was no comfort to be had. She whimpered, fretted, and finally, FINALLY the doctor declared her dilated enough to start pushing.

"However bad this is," she gasped after a particularly nasty contraction, "it's nowhere near as bad as the first time."

"No," he said simply, lifting her punishing grip and kissing her hand while the nurse prepped her for delivery. She spared a glance at the mirror above her when the doctor said she was crowning.

"God it burns!" she groaned, trying frantically to get ahold of Reddington again. He wasn't having it. Instead he placed her hand around the metal frame of the bed.

"That's your vaginal lining stretching," the doctor informed her. "It will only last a few minutes. Give that a bit to pass and then we'll start pushing again. Your body will tell you when it's time."

She fussed again at this, truly miserable. "Shhh sweetheart," Raymond murmured, sweeping her hair back from her face. "Light, short breaths. That's my girl. You can do this. My girl's a fighter." He kept his lips close to her ear as she started to push again.

After more than an hour, she felt the relief of her last push, the pressure finally releasing as the baby slid the rest of the way out. She watched as her little miracle took place right then and there. Saw in her periphery as the nurse weighed, measured, cleared the airways and a frustrated cry broke the relative quiet of the room.

Reddington laughed. "There she goes," he chuckled, even as he choked up. "Her mother's temper from the beginning."

"It's a girl?"

"It's a girl." The nurse finally settled her on her mother's chest. Raymond reached down and tickled a finger over her tiny palm, and she closed a wee fist over him. Lizzie sniffled and choked out a sob. "Oh Raymond she's perfect," she sighed tiredly. So many emotions warred with exhaustion and she cried softly while Raymond brushed his fingertips over their daughter's head with a smattering of downy pale hair. The baby sighed deeply and settled, her little fingers still clasped around her daddy's bigger finger.

"Mr Reddington," the doctor urged as he placed the clamps over the umbilical cord, "would you like to cut it?"

Almost reluctantly, Raymond let go of the baby long enough to cut the cord and stood back while the nurse shifted the baby higher on Liz's chest. "Skin to skin contact is best to keep her temperature regulated now. She may be alert enough to feed if you'd like to try."

Lizzie scooted up with Red's help and shimmied one side of her hospital gown down to expose a breast. She nestled the baby against her and worried only momentarily if she would be able to latch on the first time. The worry was for nothing, as with very little fuss, the little girl suckled furiously, grunting a bit and taking a moment to rest here and there at the work of feeding. Raymond dropped the side of the bed and sat on the edge, watching his two girls. His new baby girl, mouth working greedily, and her tearful mommy watching enraptured.

"Sir? Do you all have a name picked out?"

"We do," Red smiled at the nurse. "Lucia Marie."

"Oh that's lovely," she smiled back. "Well, Miss Lucia Marie is seven and three-quarter pounds and nineteen and a inches long."

"She is a little chunky compared to Agnes."

"She's just fine," Red chided Lizzie.

"Is that her sister?"

"Yes," Lizzie smiled, playing with Lucia's hand, "Agnes Elizabeth and Lucia Marie. They're two years apart."

"That's lovely," the nurse said, taking the sleeping baby and wrapping her snugly before placing her in the bassinet. "Such lovely old names. Those seem to be coming back in again. Now you get some rest, Mama. Sleep when she sleeps!"

And with that, she clamped a tracker on Lucia's ankle and wheeled her down the hall to the nursery to take footprints and perform her exam. Red looked back to Lizzie to see her passed out on the pillow, snoring softly.

He leaned over and kissed her brow, "you did wonderfully, baby girl."

Another nurse came bustling in to transfer her to a postpartum room and shortly after, Lucia's bassinet was wheeled in as well. He placed a brief call to Kate, checking in with Agnes, before he lay down on the camp bed provided and fell asleep himself.