"You doin' okay?" Mark asked, glancing at Mary who had her eyes tightly shut as she bit her lower lip so hard she tasted copper, her head resting on the window and her left knuckle turning white with how hard she gripped on the seat.

"Fantastic." She managed to groan out and Mark couldn't help but let out an amused huff before he caught himself and stopped.

"You uh… you have someone picking you up… you know, after?" He asked her and she only shook her head no.

"You need me to call someone for ya?"

"I-It's fine. I can drive myself." Mark glanced at her again, this time in disbelief.

"Not even, Steph or any of your friends?" She shook her head again and before she knew it, they were pulling into the hospital entrance. Mark handed the keys to the valet and grabbed Mary's hospital bag in the backseat as she asked him.

"Okay, mama." He said as he helped her out. "You ready?"

"Since last week." She managed to joke as they walked towards the front desk and had her checked in.

Mark looked at Mary as she was answering the nurse's questions on the front desk.

He never stopped loving her and he wished right at that moment, more than ever, as she tried her best to breathe through another contraction while still talking to the nurse, that he wasn't so traumatized by his past that she had pushed her out of his life while carrying his child.

He wished he had gotten help after what happened to Ellie… if he did, this would be a happy moment. Mary wouldn't be driving herself home with a baby in the back seat, and they certainly wouldn't be coming home to her house outside the city.

She turned to look at him briefly and saw he was already looking at her with a look she has never seen on him before and it's making her feel even more uncomfortable than she already is. Mary gave him a tight lipped smile before looking back at the nurse who just told her that someone is on their way to come get her with a wheelchair in just a while.

When the nurse with the wheelchair came to take her up to her suite, she turned to Mark and said, "Thank you for driving me out here, Mark. I really appreciate it. B-but you can go now…" She couldn't help her voice cracking slightly towards the end of her sentence. She willed her tears back, she didn't want him to see her as weak, as she already is physically.

"A-are you sure? I got nothin' to do today, I-I… uh, I can stay with you if you like." Mark's tone was so much calmer than it was when they first interacted that day, almost pleading, she thought. It was almost soothing for Mary and made her wish that they were having their baby as happily married parents-to-be.

But Mary knows better than to keep people waiting on her, she doesn't really like that. Add to that the fact that it's her (almost) ex-husband who told her very clearly that he didn't want her baby, that she and the child could never replace the ones he lost. She shook her head and reached out to lightly squeeze his arm.

"Thanks, Mark. But you don't have to do that. Just–Just sign the papers and mail them to my lawyer first thing tomorrow."

And with that, she was wheeled away and Mark stood on his spot next to the reception desk. Watching the love of his life fade into the sea of people to have his kid on her own.

It took a while before Mark was taken out of his haze. The nurse on the front desk had been calling for his attention. "Sir?"

Mark looked to his left and managed to utter, "Yeah?"

"I asked if you will be accompanying Mrs. Calaway in her suite?"

It's a split second decision, and before he could think about it, Mark was nodding in agreement. "Yes. Yes, I will be accompanying my wife. Let me just–I'm just going to get something from the car."

The nurse on the front desk nodded in acknowledgement, as she confirmed the room number to Mark who wasted no time going back outside and asking for the valet to bring the car back to the front.

Mark found himself in the department store not too far away from the hospital, browsing newborn clothings. He never even asked Mary about the baby's gender. "Fuck." He muttered to himself, doing his best to choose the most neutral colors he could find that aren't white or green. He settled on yellows. On his way out back to the parking lot, he passed by a jewelry shop and stood outside for a few seconds before going inside with a determined look on his face.

A few moments later, Mark was driving back to the hospital. As soon as he got in the lobby, panic set in. It's a lot busier than it was not more than an hour ago, and everyone in scrubs seems to be running towards one direction while someone is shouting orders. Mark approached the front desk and found the nurse from earlier talking on the phone, she briefly glanced up at him with an apologetic smile before she put the receiver to her chest to tell him Mary's room number again, thinking he forgot it.

"Sorry, sir. There's been an accident on the freeway and we're all hands on deck." She explained and he thanked her before making his way up to his laboring wife. When he got to her room he found her pacing with a hand on her back and the other gripping the wheeled steel bar where her IV bag was hanging. He knocked three times, startling her.

"Jesus Christ, Mark!" she exclaimed with a hand on her chest.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare ya." He smiled sheepishly.

"Wha-what are you doing here? I thought you went home. D-did you forget something?"

"No… I–I can't let you go through this part alone, Mary." He said, finally fully entering the room and closing the door behind him.

She looked at him in utter confusion, and for a second forgot the burning pressure that was getting stronger between her legs before it brought her down to a squat. She groaned in pain as she held onto the steel bar and Mark, without a beat, was on her side, rubbing her lower back with his thumb.

"I-I'm so sorry." She muttered when the contraction eased and Mark pulled his hand back.

"Next time, you squeeze my hand, darlin'." He replied but she only shook her head.

"Yo-you don't have to do this, Mark. I'm gonna be fine…"

"Stop with that now–"

"You don't want to be here and my goodness, you don't want to see what's about to happen." She managed to chuckle, but meaning every word.

Mary doesn't know why she feels like it's a hundred percent game over for them if he sees her passing a head through her vagina, as if they even stood a chance before; she reminded herself that he doesn't want her and her child, which makes the current situation all the more confusing for her.

"Why are you really here, Mark?" She blurted out as she walked towards the bed and gently sat down on the edge.

He looked down at her sadly and said, "I want to be here for you, Mary."

She chuckled at that and shook her head. "Don't do this, Mark." She said, as she reached for a water bottle on the side table.

"Don't do what?"

"This… whatever this is you're trying to pull." Gesturing a finger between them. "I don't even know what you want at this point." She muttered as she placed the bottle to her lips to take a sip.

"What do I gotta do or say to make you believe that I meant what I said?" Mary looked at the towering man incredulously.

"Are you fucking serious right now, Mark?" She hissed as she felt another contraction coming, getting to her feet and casually raised a finger telling her ex husband to give her a minute while she rides out her contraction.

When it ended, she let out a loud sigh and a little pained groan as she felt another one coming, "Oh no." She muttered and Mark began to slightly panic. "What's wrong? Should I go and call a nurse?"

Mary nodded with her eyes tightly shut as she tried her best to breathe through the pain while Mark rushed out to the nurse's station to get some help but no one was there.

"Goddamn it!" He exclaimed, taking huge strides back into Mary's room.

"Mary, no one's–"

"Mark, I'm sorry. I need your help—oh!" Mary grunted and groaned trying to keep the head in for as long as she can handle — but she can feel its head, and it's coming. Fast!

"Anythin' darlin. What do you need me–"

"Catch!" Mary squealed in sheer panic but did her best to stay as calm as she could.

"What?"

"She's here! I feel her hea–oh! Hurry!"

In a beat, Mark was grabbing the towel that was folded on the bed and getting down to his knees. "W-what do I do?" He looked up at her with wide frightened eyes as she began hiking up her hospital gown, and that's when he saw it.

Mary felt the head spreading her tight pussy, hisses of pain escaped her lips and she slowly pushed the crowning head that's dropping down.

"I'm so sorry," She tearily told Mark as he looked up at her.

"You don't gotta be sorry, darlin'." She shook her head and tried to take in a few breaths.

"I know this is too disgusting and I'm sorry to need to ask for you help–" She wasn't even able to finish her sentence.

"Ooooh!" She cried out and Mark was quick to cup the baby's head that's falling out from her folds.

"Mary, this is the most natural thing in the world. You don't have to worry about it. I wanted to be here." He reassured her but she shook her head again, trying to suppress her tears as she tried to focus on the task at hand.

"You didn't want this…" She panted and he looked up at her with his sad green eyes, gently rubbing her thigh with his hand.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't, darlin'. Now push, they're almost out."

"I'm so sorrrrrrryyyy—" the pain has become too much that she lets out a low feral groan that Mark has never heard come out of her before.

Mary spreads her legs wider and finally the head pops out making the both of them gasp in surprise.

"They're almost here, darlin'..." Mark said excitedly looking up at Mary as she tried to get the shoulders through. Fluids gushed out as Mary bore down one last time and the rest of the baby came sliding out, leaving Mark shocked as he stared at the child–a girl–in his hands.

He immediately wrapped her up with the towel, lightly rubbing her with it.

"She's here, Mary! We have a daughter!" He exclaimed tearily as Mary tried to regain her composure, leaning on the side table to drag herself to the bed when she felt her legs wobble in exhaustion. Mark immediately but gently, stood up to help Mary onto the bed, handing her the baby that was still attached to her.

"Why isn't she crying?" Mary began to cry loudly as Mark gently placed the infant on her arm. She turned the baby face down in between her fingers and patted & rubbed on the infant's back. Mark was frantically pressing the call button.

"Fuck!" He exclaimed as he stormed out of the room to look for a nurse.

Luckily someone was at the nurse's station and he almost ran.

"My wife– she just had the baby and it's not crying." He explained quickly and the nurse nodded, wasting no time to rush into Mary's room and cutting the cord. The nurse took the baby to the prepped table to suction off its nose and mouth.

Mark rushed to Mary's side, gently rubbing her back as she trembled with a mix of exhaustion and anxiety and he felt like his heart was going to burst out his chest when the baby finally began wailing and Mary sobbed loudly as the nurse gently placed the baby on her chest.