AN: These are just a few gaps from "Love's Labor", starting right after the end of "A Beautiful Day". After that, the next chapter will involve Shaun and Lea as new parents along with Glassy and Shaun trying to repair their relationship.

Summary: Lea gives birth to Steven. Set at the end of "A Beautiful Day" and throughout "Love's Labor".

Lea spent the first day of her maternity leave getting a soothing mani-pedi and re-watching Schitt's Creek for the umpteenth time, snuggled up in her slanket as she munched on popcorn topped with sweet sriracha (not thinking about the potential heartburn and indigestion that might occur later).

Eventually, by 4:00 pm, she noticed her mucus plug had come loose when she went to use the bathroom. She called both her mom and Dr. Winkler (well, it was Nurse Esslinger, the receptionist at Dr. Winkler's office since she was not in because she had to fly to Tuscon for a family emergency) for answers, and they both agreed that she was probably in labor. By 6:00 pm, she recognized that her contractions were becoming regular, coming every 15 minutes.

Once she was confident that she was in labor, she called Shaun as she got the rest of their things for the hospital together. As soon as Shaun arrived home, he asked Lea a plethora of medical questions regarding her symptoms.

"How far apart are your contractions? Did your mucus plug come loose? Did your water break? If it did, what color is it? Did you have a show?"

Lea rolled her eyes playfully as she answered Shaun's questions...and she obliged when he insisted that he check her dilation (because according to him, some women don't realize they're in labor, and also to see if her dilation had progressed), which was still at one centimeter.

Instead of heading to the hospital right away, Shaun and Lea (well, Lea had to convince Shaun that a light meal in early labor wouldn't hurt) decided to have a light breakfast dinner of whole grain rice and scrambled eggs while Shaun talked about how he and Glassman worked on an interesting surgical case of a resentful jerk father whose deadly brain tumor turned him into a lovable lug.

"So, what did Glassy have to say about everything?" Lea felt like she had to ask since Shaun brought up that Dr. Glassman was involved in this case.

"We had a fight," sulked Shaun, twisting his fork into his scrambled eggs and staring down at his plate.

"Oh," breathed Lea.

"You were right," confirmed Shaun. "He is upset with me, and now he is even more mad at me than he was this morning."

"Why? What happened?"

"Dr. Lim offered cognitive tests to make a final decision, but he refused. I needed consults and some help on Kurt's case, and Dr. Glassman was best experienced with removing those kinds of tumors, so I didn't have a choice. He didn't like me observing him. I proved him right when he forgot the steps," explained Shaun without taking any breaks between talking.

"Well, I guess..."

Before Lea could finish her sentence, a contraction hit her, causing her to wince and clutch her belly; practicing her breathing patterns. Shaun immediately checked his watch to time the contractions.

As soon as her contraction ended, Shaun voiced the results. "13 minutes apart. 64 seconds long."

"Okay, we still have plenty of time," chuckled Lea. "Hopefully, Glassy will be happy by tomorrow when we tell him that his grandson is being born."

Once they finished dinner, Lea sent a text to her parents, telling them she was in labor. Meanwhile, Shaun sent emails informing Lim and Andrews that Lea was in labor, so someone else would need to take over as attending for Mr. Ermey's heart valve replacement that morning.

To pass the time, Shaun and Lea took a shower and then took a nap, planning to get to the hospital early in the morning or once Lea's contractions get more intense.

Shaun and Lea finally left for the hospital at 6:00 am, thankfully before the fog got too dense and too bad.

When Shaun and Lea arrived at the hospital and after they checked in and got Lea into her hospital gown, unpacked, and got settled in their delivery room (as well as after Shaun went back to get her lucky socks, Shaun ran into Dr. Glassman in the hallway and had no luck of making up, and then Lea went back to her office to retrieve her work laptop), Dr. Glenn, the OB on call, examined Lea and notified them that she was three centimeters dilated, meaning that she was getting close to active labor.

While Lea sitting on her knees in her bed and typing on her computer to get some last-minute emails sent (breathing through a contraction) and answering calls from her parents, Shaun was eyeing the fetal and contraction monitors, looking for signs of fetal bradycardia and a decline in contractions, which could be signs of a uterine rupture...something he still feared would happen during the delivery.

Suddenly, Shaun's phone started ringing, which revealed Claire on the caller ID.

"Sorry, Claire, I can't talk right now," Shaun immediately answered once he hit the green button and habitually put it on speaker. "Lea has been in labor all night, so we're probably having our baby today."

"Wow, congratulations!" Claire gasped avidly. "Maybe I can tell you my big announcement later."

"Wait," exhaled Lea, who heard everything, playfully rolled her eyes. "Go ahead and tell us your big announcement. We can so talk right now. It's not like I'm going to be pushing within the next five minutes."

"Okay, well," Claire paused for dramatic effect. "Ravi and I are engaged!"

"Oh, my god!" Lea, who had paused finishing her emails, chirped. "That's awesome! We're so happy for you!"

"Congratulations, Claire," bubbled Shaun, pacing around the room with the phone in his hand. "We'll let you tell everyone else later. They're all dealing with a mass casualty in the ER right now."

"Oh, no. You two must be very excited to be parents," said Claire. "Dr. Glassman must be excited about being a grandfather."

"No," Shaun lamented. "He said 'congratulations', and then he shut the door."

"Oh," swallowed Claire, shocked, followed by Lea and Shaun explaining everything that happened these last few days and why Dr. Glassman was mad at Shaun.

"I'm sure he'll forgive you eventually," reassured Claire. "It just probably sucks that this had to happen when the baby is born."

Shaun, Claire, and Lea continued to talk for 15 minutes until Claire had to disconnect to eat lunch with Ravi.

As Lea continued to contract and dilate, Shaun rubbed her back and held her.

A few minutes after Nurse Strickland checked Lea's progress, Jordan entered the room while the laboring mother was kneeling on all fours on the hospital bed.

"Oh," stammered Jordan awkwardly, seeing that Lea was on all fours on the bed, probably in the middle of a contraction and obviously not wearing any undergarments under the hospital gown. "Would you guys like some privacy?"

"Mm," Shaun just hummed, continuing to rub Lea's back, facing his wife to seek her opinion.

"Oh, um. It's fine," assured Lea, pulling her arms and elbows off the sheet and returning to sitting on her knees. "I'm only at four centimeters."

"But it's only a matter of time before contractions get worse," warned Shaun, who had his watch ready to start timing contractions once Lea had another one.

"Joy," Lea sang sarcastically. "But it is nice to have company for a little bit."

Jordan offered a soft smile before taking a seat on the couch by the window, where Shaun would be sleeping overnight.

"I needed something to do while Danny is in surgery," sighed Jordan, her smile fading to a worrisome expression. "And also while my patient is in recovery, so I thought 'why not visit my bestie, who I heard has gone into labor'."

Shaun and Lea heard about what happened to Dr. Perez. He was doing so well with getting his life on track after addiction battles and now he was thrown another bump in the road by getting seriously injured in a pile-up.

"I'm so sorry about Perez. How is he?" Lea asked; Shaun taking a seat on the couch next to Jordan.

"He said no opioids, so he will be in pain when he wakes up," fretted Jordan, folding her hands together. "But I checked in on him during surgery and Jared said everything is going fine so far."

"That's good," nodded Shaun. "Dr. Perez will be okay."

"So, have you and Glassman made up yet in time for this moment?" Jordan asked, smirking as she changed the subject to something else, but remembering what went down in the OR yesterday between Shaun and Glassman.

"No," replied Shaun straightforwardly.

"I'll try and talk to him if I run into him," proposed Jordan, who was just permitted by Lea to feel her belly one more time. "He should be so excited to meet the little guy. Maybe he'll put that grudge aside today."

"He knows the baby is coming," lilted Shaun. "We ran into each other in the hallway. He said 'congratulations' and then shut the door."

"He'll come around," reassured Jordan. "And maybe it will take some time since it happened yesterday. He probably just needs some space to vent."

The three of them were silent for a while as Lea felt another contraction and breathed through it.

"So, does he have a name yet?" Jordan pondered excitedly once Lea's contraction was over. "I'm guessing it starts with an S, and I predict that his name will be Samuel."

"Yes, he does," replied Lea, patting her belly. "It does start with an S, but it isn't Samuel."

"What is it? Is it Seth?" Jordan guessed.

"No," declined Shaun. "We're naming him Steven."

"Aw. After your brother. That's cute."

As Lea's labor progressed (now in active labor for real; contractions worsened to the worst after her water broke on Dr. Glassman's carpet), Shaun eventually had to leave quickly to assist Asher with surgery by the time her contractions reached six minutes apart and increased in intensity.

When Villanueva and Morgan plus Eden dropped by, Lea was six and a half centimeters dilated so far, but the surgery seemed to be taking longer than expected, and she was really starting to regret sending Shaun away.

"Someone is excited to meet their little playmate," Morgan, who was dropping by to visit Lea before she would go on to tell Andrews that she was resigning, cooed at Eden after Lea let her and Villanueva in. "Yes, you're going to be getting a new friend soon."

Lea couldn't help but smile at little Eden, who was only nine weeks old and was being carried in a baby carrier. She couldn't wait until Morgan was blessed with her own child due to the excitement of a possible buddy for Steven, and she didn't expect it to happen this soon. Either way, she was happy for Morgan.

"So, my water broke in Glassman's office," shared Lea, who couldn't wait to share the story with Jordan, who was sitting with Dr. Perez, who was in recovery.

"Oh, really? Wow!" Dalisay snorted; Morgan busting out into hysterical laughter.

"Yep, it did," chuckled Lea earnestly.

"Oh, that must have been embarrassing," laughed Morgan, playing with Eden's tiny hands.

"Not really," scoffed Lea, pacing around the hospital room. "I've already walked in on him naked...while I was also naked."

"Why would you enter his room naked in the first place, especially without knocking?" A weirded-out Dalisay asked.

"His robe matched Shaun's, and he hung it outside the bathroom just like Shaun does. I was feeling frisky and I thought it was Shaun who was..." explained Lea before getting cut off by a painful contraction, to which she leaned over on the bed to support herself as she focused on her breathing pattern.

Fortunately, Morgan and Dalisay were great temporary support people. However, Lea was starting to think that she couldn't power through labor without an epidural.

"I want an epidural," she groaned through the contraction, tearing up.

"Okay," reassured Morgan, holding her hand out for Lea to squeeze.

"I'll go get the anesthesiologist," Dalisay decided, leaving the room to look for an on-call anesthesiologist.

"I need Shaun! I need Shaun!" Lea cried desperately, hating that she made her husband scrub into a surgery, as the contraction subsided. "He should be done with the surgery now! What's taking so long!"

"Hey, hey," soothed Morgan, Eden giving her a quizzical look, as she grabbed her phone after helping Lea back into the bed. "I'll call Shaun or text him. Although, he might still be in surgery, so he might not answer. Alex said the little girl's father had an aortic dissection. It's not good."

"No," whimpered Lea regretfully, who was reclined in the hospital bed and looking at the ceiling, panting. "I shouldn't have sent him to do the surgery! I promised I wouldn't have this baby without him! Maybe we should have hired a doula."

Hell, maybe I should have had Glassy help me back to my room and have him sit with me, she thought. Wait, no. Then the pushing would be awkward for both of us. Also, he said he had to go to the OR for a consult.

"Hey, Dalisay and I will be here for you if he doesn't make it, okay?" Morgan reassured, taking a seat on the foot of Lea's bed with Eden.

"Okay," breathed Lea, happy that other people were willing to help her through her labor as a support person if Shaun didn't make it. "Thank you."

"I will just need to run to the car and get Eden's carseat first when I get the chance," chuckled Morgan, who started to unbuckle Eden from the carrier so she could put her down on her blanket and stretch.

Right on time, they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," Lea, exhausted and feeling the sweat forming, called out.

The door instantly opened, revealing Dalisay and JL.

"I'm here to give you your epidural," asserted JL with a smile, who was wheeling in a cart full of equipment.

"Yes, thank you," breathed Lea, who was ready to be numb for a while.

After pushing for almost an hour and a half, Steven Aaron Murphy was born on July 13th at 4:57 pm via vacuum assist because he was positioned at an awkward angle in the birth canal.

When Stevie was placed on Lea's chest, she couldn't help but bawl at the shock that she was holding her and Shaun's own long-awaited child they had wanted for two years. Finally, after a stillbirth and two surgeries, Peanut was officially here.

Once Shaun clamped and cut the umbilical cord, Nurse Strickland scooped Stevie out of Lea's arms so she could assess his vitals and give him his vitamin K injection. He weighed six pounds and six ounces, and he was 20 inches long. He had an Apgar score of 9.

Nurse Strickland wrapped Stevie in a pink and blue striped receiving blanket and handed him to Shaun, who cradled him in his arms as Dr. Glenn and the nurse prepared Lea to deliver the afterbirth.

Stevie (who was wearing his "Peanut" hat over the thin patch of hair he had) wasn't latching on just yet when he was on Lea's bare chest, but Nurse Strickland told them to give him a while and reassured them they could try a little bit later.

As Shaun cradled his son, who made fussing noises for a little while, he stroked his thumb across Stevie's soft pink cheek. He still looked like a naked mole rat, but he was still beautiful. He definitely had Shaun's ears and eyes, but Lea's nose and mouth.

"Hi, sweetie," Lea whispered as she reached out to brush her finger down Stevie's nose and touch his wrinkly hand. The epidural was almost completely worn off.

Shaun then turned his head toward the foot of the bed, where Dr. Glenn was sitting. As she injected syntocinon into Lea's thigh, Shaun could see the remainder of the severed umbilical cord sticking out from under the sheet.

In between Lea's still propped-up and spread-out legs, Dr. Glenn massaged Lea's abdomen as she instructed her to push.

"Are there any signs of a retained placenta?" Shaun asked as he watched Dr. Glenn gently pull the cord and push on Lea's lower abdomen.

"Dr. Murphy, everything is fine," scoffed Dr. Glenn. "I promise. There are no signs of a retained placenta right now."

"Are you sure?"

"Shaun, she's been a doctor longer than you. She'll fix an issue if she finds one," Lea called out, playfully rolling her eyes as she continued to push the placenta out, and within five minutes, it came out in one piece.

"Lea, would you like to save it?" Dr. Glenn offered after checking over Lea and then getting ready to stitch her up. "I'm only asking because I actually had a patient flip out for putting it in a biohazard bag."

"Hell, no," Lea, a little exhausted, shook her head.

Lea's adrenaline from giving birth was still active, so once Dr. Glenn finished repairing and cleaning Lea up, she took a quick shower, put on mesh underwear and a pad before changing out of the hospital gown and into her silk pink pajamas before the lactation consultant walked in to help Lea with breastfeeding.

Everyone - Asher, Jerome, Morgan, Park, Eden, Lim, Jared, Jordan, and Danny in a wheelchair - came to meet the newest member of the Murphy family before the sunset; everyone except for Dr. Glassman, who did nothing but have Nurse Hawkes give them a blue personalized blanket.

By 10:00 pm, Lea's adrenaline had worn off and she was fast asleep.

Stevie had his first feed and had his first diaper change. Right next to the to the bed of his sleeping mother, the newborn was asleep in the bassinet, swaddled in the blanket from his grandfather and wearing his personalized grey hat. Nestled in his mouth was one of his pacifiers.

Unlike his wife and child, Shaun was still wide awake on the couch near the window. He eyed the tiny baby in the bassinet, looking peaceful and calm. He had the urge to pick him up and cradle him, but he knew he needed to let him sleep so both he and Lea could get some shut-eye.

He hoped that Dr. Glassman would forgive him eventually, and also meet his grandson.

AN: Just one more week before I have to go back to work, *sigh*. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. Please review :)

Next Chapter Prompt:
Shaun and Lea bring Stevie home.