Disclaimer: The characters of Supernatural do not belong to me.

There were moments of Sam's life that stood out to him and always would.

Moments where things seemed to freeze, where his emotions were pitted into a painful knot inside of him. Most of those moments up until then had to do with his family. The first time Dean had told him about hunting. The first major fight he and his father had ever had. The first time he'd been seriously injured. Then there were the good moments. The emotions there were just as strong, but they were moments that Sam wished to hold onto, ones that would sustain him throughout his life when the bad times hit again. These moments were fewer in number, but getting to be much more common. Getting accepted to Stanford. Meeting Jess. Getting engaged and then married. Finally, the most recent moment, Jess telling him she was pregnant.

The nine months afterwards had seemed to pass in a blur of ultrasounds, baby shopping, gifts, nursery building, and planning. So much planning. Jess's father's sudden death had put a dent in the planning, but in the end things had worked out. They'd moved in with Jess's mother until they could find a place of their own that wasn't the size of a shoebox, and the arrangement seemed to be good for all of them.

Another moment had now come.

Jess had gone into labor the day before. At first, things had seemed to be progressing just fine. Her contractions were fifteen minutes apart, then twelve, then ten, and finally five. Though Jess was exhausted, through the night she'd had a smile on her face in between the contractions. She talked with Sam and her mother about whatever she could think of, trying to hide her own nervousness and fear about being a mother.

Then the scary part of their long night came.

After twelve hours of labor, Jess had only progressed ten percent of the way to delivering their daughter. The doctor was concerned, and brought up the idea of a cesarean section. Jess, at first, was unwilling, but after two more hours with very little progress, and the baby's heart rate dropping to a dangerous level, Jess gave her consent and the operation began.

Forty-five minutes later, the doctor came out. Jess was being moved to recovery, and the baby was being taken to the nursery. It would be a little while before Sam would be able to see Jess, so the doctor was prepared to lead Sam to meet his daughter for the first time. Sam had turned to Leslie, who'd waited in the waiting room with him and was the closest thing to a mother that Sam had ever had, and shared a hug with her.

"Come on. Let's go meet the baby." Sam said.

"No, Sam. You go."

"What?"

Leslie smiled and affectionately patted Sam's arm, a gesture that had comforted Sam more times than he could count in the six years since he'd left his father. "Sam, this is a special moment. You and Jess should be the first to meet the baby. I'll be back tonight, I promise."

Sam nodded. "Okay."

"Hey. I love you, Sam. You know that, right?"

"I love you too, Mom."

Another hug and two minutes walking down the hallway later, Sam was there. He was at the nursery along with what seemed like a sea of other babies. Before he could ask, the doctor pointed to a bassinet in the corner, where a tiny, wriggling pink bundle was wailing.

"That's her?"

"That's her." The doctor said. "I don't know what you and your wife have decided about a name…"

"Kayla." Sam said, a smile forming slowly on his face. "Kayla Ellen Winchester."

"I'll have the nurse put that on her name card. In the meantime, let's go meet your daughter."

Sam had never been so terrified before. He'd faced things that other people could barely imagine, but walking into that nursery and cradling Kayla in his arms for the first time ever made his heart thump hard in his chest. The nurse sat him down in a rocking chair, assuring him that he'd be fine as long as he calmed down, and the moment Sam had waited for was there.

"Hey, you."

Kayla stopped squirming the second she heard Sam start talking. Her eyes were unfocused, but they moved towards Sam's voice as if looking for something to hold onto. Sam took her tiny hand in his, and had a hard time keeping himself from weeping in joy.

"You're so beautiful, Kayla. I knew you would be, but I had no idea how beautiful you'd be."

Kayla gurgled and Sam laughed.

"I guess I should introduce myself, huh? I'm Daddy."

A whine started to escape, and Sam shushed her gently.

"It's okay, baby girl. It's okay. I know you're ready to see Mommy. She's sleeping right now. You both had a really big day. But we'll see her soon. How about a song till we get over there, huh?"

Sam didn't know how long he sat there with Kayla, but she eventually fell asleep again. Sam wondered briefly if it was normal to feel like a hero getting a baby to sleep, before his thoughts drifted to Jess. He checked the clock, wondering if she was awake yet. He felt slightly guilty being able to be with Kayla before her mother, but he knew that Jess would be angrier if he'd waited and left Kayla by herself. Sam was about to stand when the nurse came over towards him.

"Mr. Winchester? Your wife is waking up."

"Okay. Thank you. Um…"

"We'll wheel Kayla in her bassinet to your wife's room. Don't worry." The nurse said, offering a comforting smile. "We usually only keep babies in the regular nursery until Mommy is awake and ready to see them."

"Can I hold her while we walk towards the room?"

The nurse's smile expanded a bit. She had been a maternity ward nurse for years, and felt she had a good sense of which fathers would turn out to be great dads. Sam Winchester, she decided, would be one of the best.

"Of course you can. Just walk slowly until you get the hang of it, okay?"

"Sure."

The nurse noticed Kayla making a familiar face and her smile changed into a bit of a mischievous one. "There's one thing we need to do before we go see Mommy, Daddy. Are you ready to learn how to change a diaper?"

Sam took direction carefully, soaking in everything the nurse told him to do. He picked Kayla back up after she'd been freshly changed, noting again that she stopped squirming the second he did so. Sam wondered if there would ever be a moment in his life when the fact that he'd made it would be more obvious than watching Jess hold Kayla on the hospital bed that day. After receiving a few visitors over the course of the next few hours, Jess was asleep again and Sam sat next to the window holding Kayla. Kayla let out a yawn and Sam whispered, for what would be the first time of many,

"Daddy loves you, Kay. Go to sleep, baby girl."