A/N: I don't know if Julie's birthday was ever mentioned in the show, and it seemed like some of those kids were in high school for 6 years. Anyway….if this birth time is not canonical, bear with it.

[Monday, July 9, 1990]

Tami was filing some admission applications when she wet herself. Mortified, she ran to the bathroom, but the water just kept coming. It was then she realized what had happened.

The Assistant Dean of Admissions drove her to the hospital, after calling the football office to relay the message to Eric. In four years, he would own a cell phone, but at the moment, that was the best they could do.

It must have taken awhile to track down Eric, because he didn't arrive at her bedside for almost an hour. When he did, he looked frantic, his hair all eschew and slightly damp from sweat. He was in his black running shorts and a short-sleeve Baylor's t-shirt. He seized her hand and looked at the monitor blipping out her contractions. "Does it hurt?" he asked.

"Not much yet. The contractions aren't coming like they hoped. They're talking about giving me pitocin."

"Pit - what?"

"It will speed up my labor. Which means it's going to hurt like hell. I've already asked for an epidural. Does that make me weak?"

"What? You're the strongest person I know, Tami." He squeezed her hand. Then a shadow of concern crossed his face. "Will our insurance cover it?"

"Yes. I checked. But it's nice to know money is more important to you than my comfort."

Eric ignored the irritated jibe. "I called your mom. She's driving down. Shelley's at cheerleading camp this week, so she can't make it. My dad will be on his way in a couple hours, as soon as he finishes installing some fan."

[*]

"Aaaaargh!" Tami screamed. Once they'd given her the pitocin, things had preceded relatively quickly. It seemed she was at the tail end of her labor now.

Eric shifted from foot to foot, his eyes shifting from Tami to the doctor to the monitor to the doctor to Tami.

"Oh no!" Tami's mom screamed. She'd recently arrived and been in the room for the last fifteen minutes. "No! My baby is in pain!"

"Get her out of here," Tami muttered to Eric.

Eric ushered Tami's mom out of the room and came back in.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to feel anything!" Tami hissed to the doctor.

"I turned down the epidural so you could feel to push," the doctor replied. "Now just give me three or four more good pushes, and we'll be there."

Eric stood at her bedside and took her hand. "Push, babe," he said.

"Tell me what to do again, Eric, and I'll rip your balls off."

The doctor glanced at Eric and smiled. "Don't worry. I've heard wives say a lot worse."

[*]

The baby wasn't crying. Why wasn't the baby crying? The doctor had spirited it away to a corner of the room, and two nurses had surrounded it. Eric followed them, a hand dug deep in his hair.

Tami felt her heart sink deep into her chest and then lift again like a rocket when a cry erupted through the room. The cry was followed by Eric's audible sigh of relief.

"Do you want to cut the cord?" the doctor asked him.

Soon, Eric lay the baby into Tami's arms. "It's a girl," he said.

"Are you disappointed?"

"What? No. I wanted a girl. She'll massacre the opposition in the Powder Puff games."

Tami laughed.

"Even better," Eric said, "she'll adore me. A son would never do that."

The baby rooted for Tami's breast.

"You can go ahead and feed her," the doctor said, "but we're going to have to transfer you to a non-delivery room soon. The hospital is crowded today."

Tami opened her gown. It was awhile before the baby latched on. Then she fell off and latched on again. Eric gently touched her head. "Hey, Julia, babe," he whispered, "welcome to the world, beautiful."

"You can let my mom back in now," Tami said. She felt sweaty and exhausted but full of relief and joy.

Eric opened the door. "Hey, Grandma," he said, "you can come in now."

Eric had always avoided addressing Tami's mom with any term. Mrs. Wilson was too new (he'd been so used to Mrs. Hayes), and Mom was too weird. Barbara was too familiar. Now, though, Tami supposed, he finally had something to call her.

Tami's mother fawned over the baby and declared her perfect.

[*]

Eric came back into the room to which Tami had been transferred after going to check if his father had arrived.

"My dad's here," he said. "I took him to the nursery, and he took one look in the window, and he picked out Julie right away."

"Really?"

"Probably because of the name tag," Eric admitted. "Anyway, he brought cigars. Would you mind if I…"

"You smoke?" She'd never seen him smoke.

"On special occasions. Like when my wife gives me a beautiful baby. Or when I make it to the NFL." He winked.

She smiled wearily.

"Do you think I will?" he asked. "Make it?"

She looked into his needy face and thought of her weeks ago conversation with Mr. Taylor, and she temporarily doubted her own judgment. She wondered what to say. Finally, she settled on, "I believe in you, Eric."

He smiled. "I love you, Tami. Thank you for my baby girl." He bent and kissed her. Then he whispered, "So…is it okay? If I go hang with my old man?"

"Go ahead. I want to sleep anyway, at least until they bring her to me to feed again." Or until they woke her up to poke and prod her and take her temperature or whatever those random nurses insisted on doing. "I don't know why they can't just do their checks at the same time I'm feeding her."

Tami wasn't going to get much sleep in this hospital. She couldn't wait to go home.