Chapter 12

A/N: I'm back with another one. Super nervous about this one but enjoy!

Steffy's POV

"You ready to lose, husband?" I squinted at him.

"Not a chance." He said, shaking his head.

"You're really not going to let me win?" I ask, doing my best to look sad.

"Nope. Bring it on, Steffy."

"I guess they're not going to have a first dance, huh?" My grandad muttered to Quinn.

"I heard they'll be cake." She whispered back.

"You ready?" R.J. asked. "On my mark. One, two, three, Go!"

The water guns blasted, mine directly on target, but Liam was still winning. What the heck? Was my gun faulty? Well, guess I was going to have to even the odds.

"Hey!" Liam yelled. "No cheating!"

"What?" I smiled. "I'm not doing anything." I laughed, as I held his gun off the target.

Ding!

"And the winner is… a Mrs. Steffy Spencer." Ridge announced.

"I'll take the big tiger, please." I told the operator. "And a kiss for the loser." I dropped a kiss to Liam's lips.

"Enjoy your tiger, but I'm done playing clean. Watch your back, baby." He said, holding the giant tiger for me.

"Hey, don't be a sore loser." I said.

"Only if you promise not to be such a cheater."

"I didn't—"

A ripple of pain gripped me, and fudging hell, it really hurt. I reached behind me, rubbing my back.

"Hey, are you okay?" Liam asked, dropping the tiger and holding my waist.

But the pain only lasted a few seconds and then it went away.

"Yeah." I said, when the pain ceased. "I'm okay."

"You sure?" He asked, concerned.

I smiled. "Of course, you goof. I'm fine. It was just Braxton Hicks. What's next?" I said, moving on.

He stared after me.

"Oh, you know what I was always good at. That ring toss game." I smiled, turning back to run my hand over his cheek. "I promise I won't even cheat." I rolled my eyes at the look on his face.

"I will tell you if it happens again. I promise. But right now, I really want to kick your butt at all these games at our reception."

"Fine." He grumbled. "But as soon as it happens again."

"I promise."

I won at Ring Toss, but he beat me in the bottle tower game. I won at basketball, but he won at Whack-A-Mole.

"Want to make this interesting?" I said, when we took a break to eat some cake.

Grandad and Quinn had gone for a walk on the beach, and Ridge had gone off to play their own games. It was just us and the stars in the sky. Well, and the game operators, who at this point were either beyond amused or annoyed with us.

"What did you have in mind? "He asked.

"Well, how about if I win the next game, you owe me one favour, whatever I want?" I said.

He crinkled his nose in confusion. "I do that for you anyway."

"Yeah, but I can cash it in whenever I feel like it, for whatever I want." I smiled.

"This is started to sound more like extortion to me." He glanced at me sideways. "And if I win?"

"Same thing." I said.

"Okay, you're on." He said. "But it has to be something we're equally bad at, deal?" He put out his hand.

"Deal." I kissed him. "Let's go."

We chose the fishing hole game, which was torture. We were horrible at it. I was about to give up, when I knocked into the booth, drenching myself in the water.

"Okay, time out." I said. "I spilled, and I'm pretty sure my fish is going to die."

"No, ma'am." The operator said awkwardly. "It's coming from you."

"What?" Liam asked. "Are you in any pain? Should I call for an ambulance?"

Liam gripped my waist walking me over to sit at one of the tables.

"Actually, I'm fine." I said. "I heard it could take a few hours. Maybe we could go to the hospital though. You can drive."

"Okay. Okay. I parked a little way back when I got here, so maybe you stay here and I'll go get the car, unless you think you can walk, but it's pretty far so you should probably stay here. Um, don't move, or try to make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in like 5 minutes. Everything is fine okay." He kissed me, quickly. Once, Twice. "I love you and it's going to be okay, I prom—"

"Liam stop talking. I'm fine. I haven't had another contraction since the first one. I can walk to the car. I just need you to calm down, okay?"

"Okay."

So, this little girl was in a rush, a big one. I had my first contraction in the car, and by the time we got to the hospital, they were twenty minutes apart, and to be completely honest, I was terrified.

Dr. Phillips was my new favourite person, she had the drugs. I didn't take them. I just liked knowing that they were there if I decided I wanted them.

"How are my two well-dressed patients doing? Steffy, how's your pain right now?"

Liam squeezed my hand.

"It's like a 4." I said. Liam glanced at me, raising his eyebrow. "Maybe a 7."

"Have you changed your mind about an epidural?" She asked.

I shook my head. "No, I'm okay."

"Is she ok?" Liam asked. "The baby, it's not too early."

"This close to the due date, it's not usually a cause for any concern. We are going to monitor her closely, but for right now, I am optimistic."

"You hear that, everything is going to be alright. I promise." He pressed a kiss to the back of my hand."

But everything was not alright. Whatever rush our baby had been in earlier had stalled. The pain felt like it was splitting me in half, and she still wasn't here, almost four hours later.

"Why isn't she here, yet?" I cried, as Liam pressed a cool towel to my face.

"I don't know." He murmured. "But you're doing great."

"How are we doing?" Dr. Phillips entered.

"We've been better." Liam said.

We've been better! This was torture, actual physical torture, and I was ready to move this along. Last time she'd checked, I'd only been dilated five centimetres. Five!

It couldn't possibly go on any longer. I couldn't take anymore.

"How much longer?" I asked when she did the examination.

"Sorry, a little bit more. You're at a seven right now."

I was crying by then. I wasn't sure if it was from the contractions or from frustration at the thought of having to wait even longer. I just wanted to be done with this part. I wanted to hold her already.

Why won't she come out?

"I don't know, sweetheart." Liam kissed my temple, I guess I'd said that out loud. "Can I do anything to help? Ice chips? Anything?"

I shook my head.

"Just be here."

"Are we still no on epidural?" She asked.

I nodded, groaning and squeezing Liam's hand through another one.

"You sure?" Liam asked.

"Yes! Stop asking me!" I yelled. "Sorry."

"It's okay." He smiled. "I'm here for you. Whatever you want."

"Tell me a story, any story just distract me." I said, voice hoarse.

"All I can think of right now is sleeping beauty for some reason. I don't know why Sleeping Beauty." He grimaced.

"Just make something up, then." I pleaded.

"Okay…um—Okay. Did I ever tell you the story of a little nerdy guy that met the most beautiful woman one day when she was having computer trouble?"

"No." I smiled breathing through another contraction. "I like that story. Tell me that story."

"Well, he thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, and despite many obstacles, they fell in love, and that love has never faded." He pressed his forehead against mine. "It remained strong through everything they ever faced, and they got married, and now they're going to have a baby." He smiled. "And you know what?"

"What?" I asked, exhausted.

"They're going to live happily ever after with their little girl, and maybe a puppy, and in a couple years, a little sibling for her to boss around."

I groaned, as another contraction hit.

"I can't believe you're thinking of having any more of kids right now." I said, when the pain subsided.

"When you hold her in your arms, all of this will disappear." He said. "You're going to be such a great mom, and we'll grow our family. We'll watch them grow up and have children of their own. We'll be the proud grandparents with lots of grandkids running around, and we'll spoil them, and give them everything they want until our kids get mad at us."

"Grandkids?" I laughed. "We have to get through this first."

"We'll get through it." He said. "And I promise in 40 years, that picture in my head is going to reality. And we'll be sitting beside each other all old and wrinkled, and you'll owe me five bucks because it would have come true. We'll get through everything together."

I nodded.

And that's the picture I held on to when the next contraction hit, and every one that followed after. I let those images dominated my thoughts and laughed at the irony that the positive thinking I had previously scoffed at in Lamaze class, was the one thing that was keeping me going.

I thought of the first time I got to hold her, and the first time she squeezed my finger. I thought of her first steps, and the first time she called me mama. In my head, she'd said mama first, which drove Liam crazy competitive into trying to get her to say dada. I thought of the little clothes I would put her in, and if she were anything like me, what a tomboy she'd be, who'd rip all those pretty clothes to shreds when she played too rough.

I looked forward to hearing her laugh and clap her hands, and even having her throw tantrums, because that would mean she was there with me and Liam, and was spirited and stubborn and giving us hell, and I couldn't wait.

I held on to those images as Dr. Phillips commanded me to bear down and push at his contraction, as I squeezed Liam's hand while he coached me through.

Over and over again, until finally a sweet sound broke through the fog, and I didn't have to imagine anymore, because finally she was here, and she was loud. At 4:53 AM on August 9th, our baby girl was born.

Dr. Phillips held her up, placing her in my arms, before busying herself with whatever.

It didn't matter, because she was here, and everything else faded into the background.

She was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen, so small and all wrinkled, tiny black hairs matted down. Her face red from all her screaming, but she was perfect.

I memorized her little features, her tiny button nose, and he pursed plump lips, my lips. I ran my finger over the shell of her ears and the arch of her tiny little brows.

"She's perfect." Liam said, kissing my forehead. "Thank you for her."

"We made her." I said, distractedly. "We made someone, a whole other person, so gorgeous and amazing." I said quietly as she calmed. "I can't believe we did this."

We stared at her for what felt like a minute, but had actually been almost fifteen, before Dr. Phillips took her.

"Go with her." I demanded of Liam, and he followed to the other side of the room, watching intently as they cleaned her, weighed her, checked her Apgar score, and Liam carried her back to me in a fresh diaper, and the softest white blanket, her little hat on her head that red 'the favourite'.

"Congratulations Mom and Dad. You have a healthy baby girl, at 8 pounds 3 ounces. Her Apgar score is excellent." Dr. Phillips said.

"Fat baby." Liam smiled.

"Fat baby." We fist bumped, careful not to jostle. "Boom."

Dr. Phillips laughed, and I glanced down at a pair of eyes that matched mine. Liam ran his finger over her little palm and she latched on.

We gasped. Nothing had ever been as special or precious than that moment.

"Does she have a name?" Dr. Phillips asked.

We smiled.

"Meet our daughter." Liam said. "River Cayden Spencer."

A/N: I hope you like it. For you OTH fans out there, I hope you saw my little reference. For any Grey's anatomy people out there, I put a little something in there for you, too. And what do you think of the name?

I was nervous because I had to do a lot of research for this, having never had a baby myself or even seen my mother go through it being the last, it was super hard for me to write this scene in a way that felt true and real.

When writing the wedding reception, I wanted it to be unorthodox and untraditional because they've done it so many times before. It's funny thinking about how many different wedding anniversaries they must have. It would be funny if they remembered and celebrated all of them, LOL! Anyway, went a little of track there, I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! Until next time :-)