All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine. I'm calling this part 1 of the birth since my plan is to pick up close to where this chapter leaves off in the next one. Olive's shirt can be found online.

"Olive's asleep, so you don't have to worry. I'll watch her," Julie told us.

"Thank you," I said to her. "But you know as soon as we leave the apartment and appear on camera, one or ten of your Uncles will be knocking on the door, followed seconds later by Ella. I'll let you be in charge of calling your grandparents, though, to tell them I'm taking Stephanie to get checked out. They can decide if they want to make the trip to Trenton a second time today or wait in Newark until we know more."

"You'll call me when you know something?" She asked.

"The minute the doctor has any information."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Steph repeated. "Your brother is probably just being extra active in preparation of his due date. I bet we'll be back to bother you within the hour."

"I'll be fine. Just be okay. Okay?"

"We will be. I know I'm not about to miss out on any of the time we get to have with you."

We each gave Julie a reassuring hug and scratched Mo and Gunny's heads on our way out the door.

"Where are you off to at this hour?" Frank asked us, coming into the lobby as we were about to exit it.

"Stephanie's been feeling additional discomfort throughout the evening. No clear signs of labor yet, but I'd prefer to be in a hospital if/when they do start."

"We're only being overly cautious, Dad. Everything will be fine. I just told Julie that we'll probably be sent straight home and told to come back when something's actually happening."

He wasn't willing to listen to Steph's assurances. He has a lot to prove, but I don't think that's his only motivation for what he said next. "I'm coming with you."

"It'll be easier if you stay here until we know something," I said, trying to curb my impatience.

I appreciate him wanting to have an active role in his daughter's life, but this is using up time I don't want wasted here.

"She needs her family with her," he continued, which sent my anger into the danger zone.

If it wasn't Frank saying that he'd be choking on a mouthful of my fist right now.

"I'm Stephanie's family. And I have been and will continue to take care of her."

"Hello, remember me?" Steph said. "Do I get a say in who does and doesn't invade the hospital with us?"

"Of course, Babe. But you know my first priority is always going to be to protect you and our kids. I don't want you spending an hour apologizing to people for disturbing their night or keeping them awake, when you should be directing your energy and care solely on yourself and our son."

I know she's feeling something she doesn't want to voice right now by not fighting me on this. Instead, she looked at Frank as her fingernails created underground bunkers in the skin of my forearm.

"I appreciate you wanting to come with us, Dad. If we get admitted into the hospital tonight, I do want you there for our son's birth. But for the moment, I really need you here. I didn't say anything to Grandma yet. If this is really it, I'd like you to be the one to tell her and then bring her to the hospital for us so she can meet her great-grandson."

I applauded how she decided to handle this. She gave her father a way to feel useful without him having to camp out in a waiting room for hours on end, so I didn't point out that any one of my men would be available to escort Edna to the hospital when the time came.

I could be wrong, but my gut is saying 'the time' will be soon.

"I can do that," Frank finally said.

"Thank you. That'll be one less thing I have to worry about."

"I'll call you as soon as we know more," I promised him. For Stephanie's sake, I don't want there to be any tension between me and her father if he means well. "Olivia is asleep and Julie is watching her until reinforcements arrive. My parents will likely be here soon, but if you'd like to keep the girls company until then or would prefer to inform Ella and Tank that we're heading to the hospital, we would appreciate either one as well."

I've raised Ella and Louis' salaries, and the amount of their bonuses, every year in hopes she'll say she/they will be taking time off. But I'm betting Frank will bump into Ella long before he turns around to go looking for her.

He scanned Stephanie's face for a beat and then nodded, understanding that he'd been acting on pure emotion after he had a moment to think it through. "I'll start on five and work my way up the floors."

"Thanks, Dad. I knew I could count on you."

He turned away and I knew the reason why without having to see his face. All the hard work he's done on himself was just validated with his daughter's words. His expression and eyes would have given him away. He still tries to conceal his emotions, but that gets harder once they've been revealed and are immediately accepted.

"Contractions have started, haven't they?" I asked when Frank was in the elevator.

"Ahhh," was her response as her teeth clenched together in pain.

I scooped her up in my arms and nodded to Vince who was manning the lobby desk this evening. The entire building will be on high alert in a matter of moments. She tried to hold herself together as I got her into my Cayenne and to the hospital, but it was clear to both of us that we were not going home tonight. If our son doesn't arrive naturally, I knew he'd have a medical assist. Either way, all signs are pointing to us leaving the hospital with another child. But I'm praying my ass off that it's by his choice, not a doctor's.

I parked, got us both inside, and then I had to face a total loss of control. My power doesn't extend to nature. I had to pray, wait, and stop myself from hitting something just like every other expectant father has to endure when you're watching the woman you love in pain ... and not being able to do a fucking thing about it. I didn't like it. I wanted to ensure that my wife and son were going to be okay no matter the outcome. Thankfully, hours later I was able to see for myself that they both are.

I'd managed to make all the appropriate calls I'd promised to, but that had been the extent of the Boss role I was able to play after I learned that Stephanie was in active labor. What felt like a lifetime later, I had to admit that if I didn't keep my body in peak physical condition, my heart would have given out at seeing our son born healthy and now sleeping soundly against Stephanie's chest after their ordeal to bring him into the world. Our baby was only out of our hands long enough to be cleaned up, foot-and fingerprinted, and bundled up to ward off the hospital chill. And the wait to have him back felt like an eternity.

"Well, Batman, are you proud of me tonight? I mean ... today? It's after midnight, isn't it?"

Stephanie's voice jolted me out of my own head, and I leaned down to kiss both of them. "It's well into the morning. And I'm proud of you in a way words can't accurately convey, Steph. We're holding our son."

I still have a hard time believing it. It's been over three years of life with Olivia, and I still wake up questioning my good fortune in being married to my Babe and having not one child, but two with her. I'm now the father of two girls and a boy and am even more in love with the family I never thought I could have.

"I honestly didn't think I would go into labor this soon. I thought ..."

"You don't need to explain anything, Babe. You did what you needed to. You knew that all you had to do is say that you were in pain, and I'd handle the logistics."

"Yeah, except I didn't really say anything. Your super senses picked up on what I didn't know myself."

"That's why I've always said we make a great team."

"We do. And we make pretty cute kids too. Are you sure you're okay with his name?"

Although I know how much Stephanie wanted to keep him with her, I couldn't stop myself from holding my son again. He's a pound bigger than Olivia had been at birth, but he still feels impossibly small in my arms. His little body is radiating heat like a furnace just as Steph claims mine does. And he's smiling slightly in his sleep like he knows Stephanie is his mother and is savoring his good fortune.

"It fits him," I assured her. "And your thought process involved Julie, Olivia, my grandmother, and my family's heritage. What could I possibly find fault with?"

"My reasoning regarding Olive is if she's gonna have to explain her middle name to people, she should have a buddy who understands her pain. That wouldn't be a selling point to most people."

"I'm not most people. And it's perfect for him and our family. Isn't that right, Jace Sandino Manoso?"

Stephanie wanted a 'J' name as a nod to Julie and a unique middle name to keep Olivia's 'Adora' company. Sandino being the place where my Abuela grew up in Cuba and now Jace's chosen middle name, solidified Stephanie as the woman for me and my family. My Babe's going to have actual lip imprints left on her cheeks from the kisses my mother leaves on her face when my parents hear their grandson's name for the first time.

"He looks just like you," my wife said in an exhausted but extremely content voice.

"If I look like a seven-plus pound newborn, I have more problems than I'd originally thought."

Her eyes crinkled before they closed momentarily. "I mean Jace has a perfect nose, dark chocolately eyes, and his hair is almost black like yours and is actually straight. Now Olive and I get to be jealous of both of you whenever we have a brush in our hands."

I placed Jace back in her arms and sat on the bed beside the two of them. "Your curls are what drew me to you, I wouldn't change any of them if I could."

"Yeah, because you don't have to take care of them. But if they're what snagged your attention, I guess I can't complain too much."

I could barely take my eyes off my wife and son as they both recovered from the delivery, so I didn't register my parents' arrival until my mother was gripping my face in her hands and placing smacking kisses all over my face like she'd done to me as a child when I had done something she was proud of.

"Stop," I told completely deaf ears.

"I have a grandson! I have another grandchild!" She was saying to everyone on the Eastern Seaboard it sounded like. I snapped to attention when she subjected my wife to the same aggressive kiss treatment. "Oh, Stephanie! I have a new grandbaby!"

"It's okay," my wife told me when I would've stepped in so my mother would give her some breathing room. "We're all happy. I'm enjoying the love."

"Oh, look at that child," Mama Manoso continued. "He's beautiful, absolutely ... beautiful."

My wife smiled at that statement, obviously agreeing with it, and then addressed Julie and Olivia who were staying with my father well out of harm's way. Her grin got wider when she saw that my mother had helped Olivia put on the purple 'Leveling Up To Big Sister' T-shirt, complete with a game controller image between the words, that Steph had bought for Olivia not long after we found out that we're having another child.

"We did it, Girls!" Steph told our daughters. "We got your baby brother here. I couldn't have done it without you. He's smaller than I think he should be, but he's super healthy."

"You're such a dork, Steph," Julie told her, but you couldn't miss the fact that her big brown eyes are suspiciously shiny. "You're the one who was pregnant."

"You're right, Jules," my wife told her. "But when it comes to our family, we do just about everything together. I would've completely freaked out and refused to leave Olive and the apartment if I didn't know she and you were going to be alright while we were gone. You'd take excellent care of Olive. And Ella, the RangeUncles, and your grandparents would be watching over you."

Olivia ran to the bed, beating Julie and my parents to her baby brother. But once I lifted her up she could crawl up close to her Mama, she seemed to hesitate.

Steph kissed our daughter's head and slipped the arm that's not holding our newborn around our daughter. "It's okay, Olive. We have to be really careful when we hold and play with your baby brother, but you can still kiss him and touch him. This Rangebaby is ours to keep. We'll be taking him home with us when Mama and Daddy leave here."

I had to smile, taking in the moment. Knowing our daughter, she's not being cautious ... she's just taking her time scanning her little brother to see if he has fins and a tail.