A/N: So we're about done! I'm thinking one or two more chapters as an epilogue to see how our family's doing and all that. Anyway, thank you guys so much for everythinf, and I hope you enjoy, it's a cheesy chspter lol.

Safe Travels

Hinata woke from a sound sleep with a pained gasp, her body instinctively curling in on itself as pain overwhelmed her unsuspecting senses. Her hands instantly went to her taut stomach. At nine months pregnant, the skin was stretched tight, and her daughter's every movement now caused discomfort. But this pain was different than the discomfort she had become accustomed to, sharper, somehow more real than anything she previously felt, and she knew that the time had come. Her daughter was ready to be born.

"S-Sasuke!" She gasped, and he was awake instantly, vaulting over her to crouch by the bedside. He touched her cheek with the backs of his fingers, taking in her pained expression.

"She's coming?" He asked and helped her sit up when she nodded.

"I'll call Neji," he said, snatching up the phone and quickly dialing her cousin's number. Hinata didn't register his quick conversation with her cousin, her mind focused on riding the wave of the contraction as it crested. She could hardly believe how painful it was and how deeply the pain radiated from within her, making her knees weak and her heart pound.

Sasuke was next to her again, pressing her face into the crook of his neck and stroking her back with his hand. She clutched at him desperately even as the pain faded, feeling his pulse as it throbbed against the thin skin of his neck and was oddly relieved to note its unusually high pace and know that he was just as nervous as she was. She moved to stand, wanting to make use of this lapse in pain to gather what they needed, and he helped her. He braced her with his arm, looping it around her waist, and helped her walk around the room, snagging the bag she'd insisted on making for the baby as well as anything she thought she might need while they were in the hospital. They were just finishing up when they heard Neji unlock the front door, and another contraction hit just as they were making their way out of the bedroom to meet him.

Neji deftly scooped her up into his arms, and the three of them raced out of the apartment towards the hospital. Hinata barely felt the cool night breeze as it rushed across her face, nor did she hear any of Neji's questions to Sasuke though she did note his strained, almost panicked expression as her husband told him that they thought this was the real deal. The next few hours of her labor were a blur for Hinata; the only things that seemed real were Sasuke's hand held tightly in her's, Neji's hand on her shoulder as she bore through the pain, and the instinctual need to push that consumed her every thought.

Uchiha Himeko was born just as the sun was cresting the horizon the day after her father's birthday. She was a healthy child and greatly took after her uncle Neji in looks though she had her father's night black eyes and hair. Hinata was instantly in love with the infant and had not once let her go from the moment she was placed in her arms. Sasuke and Neji sat in chairs on either side of her. Her cousin was lightly dozing, a rare smile still lingering on his face, for once totally unguarded. Sasuke was watching his wife and daughter from his chair, a hesitant expression flitting across his face. Hinata beckoned him closer, and he leaned forward, breath catching in his throat as he got a closer look at the infant nestled in his wife's arms.

"Don't you want to hold her?" She asked softly, stroking her fingers through the soft as silk hair that lay atop Himeko's head. Sasuke's hand gently, so, so gently, reached down to the child, fingers brushing across the girl's cheek, stilling when the baby shifted under the touch.

"I...I only have one arm. I'd drop her," he said quietly, eyes fixed on Himeko's sleeping face. She was so wrinkly, like a little old man, but somehow still undeniably beautiful, utterly precious. Hinata shifted, leaning over so that she could settle the child against what remained of his left arm, quickly shoving a pillow beneath the child so that she would be fully supported.

"H-Hey!" Sasuke said, startled and tense, but Hinata simply smiled at him, the exhaustion lining her face doing nothing to diminish her beauty.

"W-What am I supposed to do with her?" He asked. Hinata smiled again, this time at least attempting to hide just how amusing she found the situation by turning her head to the side, and settled further into the blankets, eyes growing heavy with sleep.

"You're already doing it," Hinata said sleepily, surrendering to unconsciousness with a soft sigh. Sasuke looked down at the child in his arms. She was on the edge of wakefulness, her dark eyes blinking owlishly at him. He stared back with wide eyes, heart thudding painfully against his rib cage. This was his daughter, he realized with a sudden jolt. He'd always been intellectually aware of the fact, but holding her in his arms drove the point home. He had a child; he was a father; he'd helped make the little person wiggling in his hold, and she...she was going to depend on him, look up to him, watch everything he did so that she could learn how to make her way in the world. The realization had him reeling with the weight of responsibility, and he wondered if he could do it, if he could be the father his daughter deserved.

Himeko made a small, distressed sound, and Sasuke's attention was immediately focused on her. She was wiggling, shifting her arms, a frown wrinkling her tiny face, and Sasuke couldn't help the amused smirk that flitted across his mouth. She was adorable, old man face and all.

"Let me help you, little hime," he said, adjusting the baby blanket that encased her so that her arms were free of it. The frown instantly left her face, and her eyes struggled to open more as she waved her arms around, slowly opening and closing her hands. Entranced, Sasuke couldn't stop himself from touching the palm of one of her hands with his index finger, astounded by how soft her skin was, how fragile it felt in comparison to his.

"Ahhh," the noise came out of him in a rush as her hand gripped his finger and squeezed. A queer feeling filled his chest, made him feel warm and full and terrified all at once, and he knew he would die for this child, kill anyone who even thought of hurting her. He wondered faintly if this was how Itachi had felt about him, even just a little bit. If what his big brother felt for him was even a fraction of what he was feeling in that moment, he no longer wondered how he could have done any of what he did.

Gazing at the sleeping forms of his wife and cousin-in-law as the sun kissed their Hyuuga fair skin and his daughter rested securely in his arms, Sasuke felt for the first time in a long while that he finally had a home to return to.

His travels were at an end, and he had arrived home safe in the end.