A/N: If this leaves you utterly dissatisfied... I have done my job.

"Adam?"

The wavering in her voice should have made him more alert, but he was too asleep to respond to anything beyond the fact that there had just been a noise. He grunted and rolled over, burying his face in the pillow. Lindsay grabbed his shoulder and shook it gently, saying his name a little louder this time.

"Adam, wake up."

"What time is it?"

"It's… three a.m."

"Babe, have some tea and go back to sleep."

"I'm having contractions."

He sat up then, turning the lamp on to read her expression.

"Are you sure?"

"No, I'm just imagining this horrible pain."

"Sorry, that's not what I meant. It's just that we're weeks away from this. Are you sure it's not false labor?"

"I don't know."

"How long has it been going on?" he asked, grabbing a book off the inn table and flipping through it to the pages on labor and delivery.

"Half an hour, a little more. Less than five minutes apart."

"Okay," he said, standing up from the bed. "Shoes and coat. We need to get to the hospital."

"What if it's not… I mean what if we go in for nothing?"

"Then we'll sleep better knowing that. I'll call the doctor on the way."

"You're very calm," she noted, glad for his composure because her whole body seemed to be shaking.

"There's no reason to worry yet. Let's just go to the hospital and see what happens, okay?"

She nodded and took his hand as he helped her up, then nearly doubled over as another contraction hit. He held her up and she breathed deeply, clutching to him as if he was the only thing holding her together. It didn't last long, and soon she was standing upright again, though she was still shaking.

"This isn't supposed to happen now," she whispered, shaking her head. "It's too early. I'm not ready yet. The baby isn't ready yet. I can't do this."

"Stop freaking out and listen to me," he said, taking her face in his hands and staring deep into her eyes. "Everything is going to be okay. Maybe we'll be home in two hours, and maybe we'll be parents by noon. And while the former would be better, the latter is okay, and having a preemie is just a bump in the road. It's going to be okay."

"I'm scared. I know I've been saying that a lot, but right now, I really, really am."

"I'm going to be right here, holding your hand no matter what happens. But right now, me and the baby need you to relax, okay?"

She nodded and rested against him, sighing deeply and trying to keep her mind from going where it was so rapidly headed. He held her close, feeling the baby moving between them.

"We'd better get going, sweetheart. It's going to be fine."

They made it to the car quickly, only stopping once to wait out a contraction. They were quiet on the drive to the hospital, the city lights flashing over them as they held hands and stared out the windows. She whimpered with another contraction and he gave the car a little more gas, hating to see her in pain.

"Almost there honey. We're almost there."

"Okay," the doctor started, sitting down on the side of Lindsay's hospital bed. "We've got some decisions to make here. You are in labor, though not as far along as the increased contractions would indicate. I would like to do a few tests and check the baby's lung development, but if those turn out okay, I would be comfortable letting labor progress. However, the baby is measuring on the small side, so we're going to keep a close watch on the monitors for the time being. I know it's a lot at once, but we might need to make some fast decisions, so I want to put some things out there for you. Ready?"

Lindsay and Adam looked at each other and nodded.

"Alright. If the tests show that the baby's lungs aren't developed enough, we can administer steroids to help. We can also try and stop labor if we need to, though you're 34 weeks along, so stopping labor is only going to put a lot of drugs into your system and keep you on bedrest for a while. I also need to do an ultrasound, because the last time we peeked, the baby was head up. If it hasn't moved we might have to consider a c-section. Any questions so far?"

"No," Adam replied, speaking for both of them as he brushed Lindsay's hair back from her face.

"Okay. I'm going to go ahead and have the nurse start those tests, but page me if you need anything."

She gave them a reassuring smile before slipping quietly out of the room.

"You okay, honey?"

"I think so."

"You're going inside your head."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean too. I just can't seem to catch up."

"It's okay. I'll keep up for both of us. You've got more to think about."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as his fingers continued to weave through her hair. It was taking everything she had in her not to break down and sob. She wasn't as worried as she had been, but there was still that nagging fear that something was going to go wrong. The monitors beeped steadily around her, just as they should, as if everything was normal. Adam crawled up next to her and closed his arms around her, nuzzling her cheek and earning a small smile. They didn't say anything, but she felt more at ease with every moment, even when a contraction stole her breath away.

"Almost over," Adam said, rubbing the small of her back, which seemed to help slightly.

"I am getting an epidural. I don't care who wants to call me a lightweight."

"And there's my girl."

She rolled her eyes and struggled to sit up a little, knowing she needed to think about this point by point if she was going to keep from panicking. A tiny hand pressed against her and she smiled, covering it with her own.

"Adam?"

"Yeah?"

"Did I do something wrong?"

She knew that this wasn't her fault, but she had to hear him say it.

"You didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes this happens."

"Okay."

"Wanna riff some Telemundo while we wait?"

"Our child is going to grow up with such class."

It was moving too fast and spinning out of control and Lindsay could feel her chest tightening with anxiety. The baby's heart rate had started to drop with every contraction, and the doctor said something about a prolapsed cord and a breech delivery. Before she knew it, she was being whisked into an operating room in a blur of bright lights and blue scrubs. It actually smelled depressed in there and she didn't even notice them prepping her for surgery while she frantically looked for Adam. She knew her heart rate was going up but should couldn't stop the fear the gripped her. She wanted to curl into a ball and make the world go away, snap out of it all just as she had so many years ago.

"Honey, you need to breathe," one of the nurses coached.

"Where's Adam?"

"He'll be here in a minute. This is going to take a while, so he won't miss anything."

Lindsay nodded and closed her eyes, feeling absolutely helpless as she lay on the operating table, not even sure what was going on. She wanted to pretend it was all a dream. She wanted to wrap her hands around her stomach, yell at the doctors to leave her alone, to let her take care of her baby herself. Tears flowed freely as she laid there, quite possibly more scared than she had ever been in her life.

"Hey babe."

She opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of Adam in scrubs and a mask, his eyes clouded with worry for her.

"Tell me again," she whispered horsely.

"Everything is going to be fine," he said, sitting down on the stool the nurse offered him. He dropped his head down next to hers, holding her the best way he could.

"We're ready, right?"

"We're ready. I think you were always ready."

She smiled a little and he traced her face with his finger, a fool-proof action of calm. Her shaking had returned but she wasn't so scared anymore, despite the fact that she knew she was literally about to be sliced open.

Adam was talking to her, but she wasn't hearing him. Everything had started to buzz and she could feel lots of pressure and tugging and it felt as if she was floating. She was aware of the commotion around her, but couldn't process it. It was if reality was hovering just out of her grasp. She was waiting for a cry or something and she struggled to hold on just a little longer, until everything was okay.

She could barely recognize the words It's a boy before everything became silent and the world closed into a blissful white.