AN: I thought this would be three chapters, and I've been struggling because it just wasn't working out that way. This is going to be a four-chapter story, I believe. (Maybe five…I'm struggling to cut things out…LOL)

I am not as happy with this chapter as I wanted to be, but I think that I've done all that I can do on it for now. I hope to have another (and final?) chapter for you soon!

I hope you enjoy this! If you do, please do let me know!

111

Seth focused his attention as much as he could on simply making sure that Jessica was OK.

She was fine and, if she'd been worried about him at all, she would have told him that he was fussing over her too much. Still, she wasn't at all worried about him, it seemed. In fact, she was so far from worried about him, that he could hardly get her to focus on him at all, but she had no complaints about anything that he needed to do to her.

Following delivery, Seth had experienced all kinds of reactions in women. After all, the experience of being a brand-new mother, who had just delivered a baby, was as different for all of his patients as labor and delivery.

Jessica was, hands-down, one of the easiest patients Seth had ever dealt with immediately following delivery. She didn't complain about a thing, though he still offered her the customary apologies and warnings for anything that might be uncomfortable to her.

She was far too infatuated with the newest member of their household to do anything beyond admire her and carefully examine her. Seth was certain, by the time he got the chance to actually examine the baby, Jessica would be able to tell him every single detail of her tiny body.

And it made Seth's heart ache with happiness.

He was thrilled, of course, that their daughter was there, and that she appeared healthy, but that fact still seemed a bit surreal to him, and a bit beyond his ability to fully comprehend without the opportunity to relax a little and truly process everything.

What made him happiest, at the moment, though he wouldn't have said it out loud, was the absolute joy that was practically radiating out from Jessica. The love that Jessica clearly had for the baby girl was absolutely palpable. She was overwhelmed in the best possible way, and Seth found a certain peace in that knowledge that he hadn't even expected.

She had been crying—a stream of steady tears flowing down her face—and Seth had stopped his chain of work cleaning her up, coaxing her to deliver the afterbirth, helping her uterus to contract as it should, and making sure that he was comfortable with every aspect of things, long enough to hand her a box of tissue. He didn't try to comfort her, because her tears weren't the kind that required comfort. They weren't coming from a place of distress. They were coming from a place of unparalleled joy.

Jessica's words, too, had squeezed Seth's heart until he'd had to force himself to cough a few times to be sure that the tightness he felt was only emotional.

"Hello! Oh, hello!" She had repeated over and over.

The words, themselves, hadn't been that remarkable, but the tone of Jessica's voice had choked Seth up. She mostly kept repeating "Oh," but the awe in her voice was clear and sincere.

She was still, at least somewhat, in shock, no doubt, from the labor and delivery. She'd begun to shake—something not uncommon in her current condition—and Seth had wrapped her and the baby in a blanket, promising her that the shaking would pass and that it was entirely normal. She had accepted that without any actual complaint, and she'd given him a soft and sincere smile for the quick kiss that he'd placed on her face.

She hadn't said much else, really, Seth was sure, because there was, probably, something a touch surreal about the whole experience for her, just as there was for him.

Their daughter was here, and they both had to adjust to the fact that all their dreams about her arrival into the world had just become reality.

When Seth was satisfied that he'd done most of what he could do to care for Jessica and the baby, he'd piled everything that he needed to take downstairs into the laundry basket or, in the case of his equipment, onto the baking sheet that he placed on top of the laundry basket. In the bathroom, he washed his hands thoroughly. Then, he took everything downstairs, stopped in the kitchen to prepare a snack and a glass of water for Jessica, and took it back upstairs. There was still plenty to do, but there was time and, sometimes, there were things that needed to be prioritized.

As Seth approached her, Jessica looked at him and offered a tired smile. She was exhausted. He could see it in her eyes. It didn't scare him. It didn't look like anything beyond the normal exhaustion that he would expect from a woman who had just done what she'd done.

Instead of filling with fear, he felt his heart absolutely swell with more love than he truly imagined that the human heart could handle.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

She shook her head. He accepted that. She would be hungry, but she was too busy, at the moment, counting tiny fingers and toes for what might possibly be the thousandth time.

"Here," he said, offering her the water. "I need you to drink a little of this, Jess."

She didn't argue with him. In fact, she accepted the glass with thanks, and even accepted the fact that he felt the need to hold onto it and at least pretend to help her. She drank nearly the entire glass of water before offering thanks again and nodding when he asked if she was done, at least for now. Seth put it out of the way, promising that he'd refill it whenever she wanted.

Then, he turned his attention back to her, once more.

"How are you feeling, Sweetheart?" He asked, easing down on the bed. He leaned to kiss her face, and she hummed at him in happy satisfaction. He touched her cheek, gently, and she leaned into his hand in a way that only made his heart feel as though it flooded more with love and affection for the woman who had become his entire world.

"I feel wonderful," she said, practically breathing the words out.

Seth laughed quietly.

"You can tell me the truth, Jess," he said, half-teasing her. "I can handle it, you know. If you feel every bit as…well…everything a body's got a right to feel when it's done what yours has, you can tell me."

She smiled at him again. This time, it was a touch softer and more sincere. She puckered her lips at him, and he didn't hesitate to give her the kiss that she requested. She sighed against his lips, contentedly, and his heart skipped a beat.

"I love you, Jessica," he said, the moment that their lips parted.

"I love you, Seth," she said. "I am tired and…"

"And?" Seth pressed, when she stopped.

She wrinkled her nose at him in the way that he always thought was her adorable way to say something wasn't to her liking.

"A little sore," she said.

He laughed at how much she clearly hadn't wanted to make that confession.

"If you're only a little sore, you're miles ahead of half the women that answer that question for me," Seth teased. "I can give you something for pain, Jess. It might make you sleep, though, because you're probably even more tired than you realize."

"Not yet," Jessica said. "Please…Seth. I'm fine, really. I just…"

"Shhh," he said, softly, touching her gently to soothe and still her. "I won't give you a thing that you don't want, Jess. We can stay right here, just like this, for as long as you want."

As if to demonstrate his resolve to do so, he leaned into his position a little more comfortably. She started to move to try to make more room for him, but he touched her and shook his head at her, gently, when she glanced at him.

"I'm fine, just as I am. We all are." He made himself relax as much as he could, and he put an arm around Jessica's shoulder. She leaned into him, clearly happy with his touch, and hummed out her satisfaction. The shaking, he noticed, had finally stopped—evidence that her body was working out a few of its reactions to what she had recently experienced.

Seth glanced at their baby—safe and warm in her mother's arms. For the moment, she had drifted off to sleep.

She, too, had been through a very trying ordeal. Then, after all the work of being born, she'd come into this world that was far colder than it had ever been in her warm little womb, and she'd been forced to breathe cool air for the first time. She had also been alone, for the first time. For at least a few moments, she hadn't been cocooned in the safety and warmth of her mother's body or, at least, her embrace. Her body, even, had been severed from her mother's when Seth had cut the umbilical cord after Jessica had delivered the placenta.

Now, the baby slept with her body directly against Jessica's body, and with the blankets, around them, covering both their naked bodies.

The baby was warm again and, though it must sound different from out here, she was once again in a position to hear the comforting sounds of her mother—her heartbeat, her breathing, the sounds that a body naturally made, and her voice. All must have sounded a little different from where she was resting now, but all were comforting. Wrapped in all of that comfort, she slept.

Jessica had wiped her, gently, with the warm cloths that Seth had brought her from the bathroom, earlier, while he'd done the other work required of him. Certainly not all the evidence of her birth was gone, but a good bit was. As with most newborns, Seth knew that her features would look different as the hours passed. Birth was traumatic, and baby's bodies, as well as the bodies of their mothers, demonstrated that.

Still, Seth thought that he could see some resemblances, here and there, that would make themselves better known as their daughter settled into being a part of this world.

Jessica jumped, slightly, at what Seth imagined was some passing thought. Then, she looked at Seth with big, sad eyes—sad enough that, immediately, his body responded to the change that came over her.

"Jessica—what's wrong?" He asked, feeling something akin to panic rise in him, and many of his muscles tighten with tension, as something inside of him—which he knew, very well, to be instinct—made him practically prepared to fight anyone or anything just to take away whatever sadness had seized her and to return his home back to the absolute state of peace in which it had been only seconds before.

"Oh—Seth—you haven't seen her," Jessica said. "I've been so selfish!"

Seth laughed. He couldn't help it. She furrowed her brow at him and he leaned and kissed her on the corner of her mouth, practically imagining that he could taste her surprise to his response.

"First off, Jessica—she's been right where she needs to be, Woman, the whole time. Second—well…I've got a lifetime to see her. And by see her, I assume you mean—do what you're doing right now. The truth is that, having her pick of the two of us, she would prefer you right now, and I'm perfectly OK with that. Everything about you is familiar to her, Jess."

"She knows your voice, Seth," Jessica said, relaxing a little and trying her best to be sympathetic when, really, Seth couldn't feel less like he needed sympathy.

"She does," he said. "And everything is fine, Woman. You've both been through a lot. You need her and, really, she needs you, too, more than anything else."

"And you?" Jessica asked.

"I'm right here, with both of you," he said. "I have everything I need. You're healthy Jessica. I can tell you now. I would have crawled on my knees on hot tar before I would have told you, before, but…I worried. Naturally, I did. I worried a great deal. You've been healthy, but…things do happen. I worried about her. She's been healthy but…"

"With my history," Jessica said. Her voice trembled slightly at the end.

Seth shook his head.

"Now—it wasn't about that, Jessica. Not really. Things are just unpredictable, that's all. That's true for every delivery, Woman," Seth said. "But she's here, and she's healthy. And you're here, and you're healthy. Jessica—I couldn't be happier than I am, right this very minute."

She smiled at him sincerely.

She looked at the baby girl when she started to whine. That whine very quickly turned into a much louder and more demanding cry.

Seth simply observed for a moment, as Jessica quickly reacted, doing her best to hush the baby's cries. She nuzzled and kissed her. She talked to her and tried to soothe her with gentle bouncing and patting.

"I'm not a professional at tending to newborns," Seth offered, "but—I do know a thing or two from experience. Something tells me that…she might be looking for her first meal."

Jessica looked at him and he saw her visibly tense a bit. The baby responded, and Jessica relaxed a little, only because she turned her attention back to their daughter.

"You did want to try to feed her, didn't you, Jess?" Seth asked. "If you don't," he added quickly, so that she wouldn't feel pressured, "that's fine, too. That formula we bought, just in case, ought to do the trick. It's all about what suits the two of you best."

She gave him a tentative smile and nod.

"I want to, Seth," she said. "However, I've never done this before and…well…what if I'm not able to give her what she needs?"

Seth offered her the best reassuring smile he could.

"I've had a little practice helping some mothers and their babies get adjusted," Seth said, moving to help the baby find what she was naturally inclined to search for, at any rate. "Mostly—you'll figure it out together, but I can help. Here, Jess—now, just relax. It doesn't help either one of you to be so uptight. There you go. See? Now—how does that feel?"

"It doesn't matter how it feels, Seth," Jessica said quickly, and a touch sharply. He forgave it, immediately. "What matters is if she's getting what she needs or not."

"She looks pretty happy to me, Woman," Seth said. "Chances are, she'll be even happier if you'd take a couple of good breaths for me. Relax. Tension will spoil her meal."

"You're not serious, Seth," Jessica said, but he noticed that she did relax a little.

Seth laughed quietly.

"I'm serious enough, Jessica," he said. "You're both doing just fine. Nobody would hardly ever know that you're both new at this."

She visibly relaxed a little more, and Seth allowed himself to relax, again, as he sensed the peace that they'd enjoyed, only moments before, returning to the space they shared.

"Now, you're just making fun," Jessica said.

Seth laughed quietly. He settled fully into his spot once again. He leaned, kissing Jessica on the side of her face. He reached a hand and very delicately brushed his fingertip over the baby's face as she nursed, careful not to disturb anyone.

"Maybe, just a little bit," Seth said. "Everything is right with the world, Jess. Relax and enjoy it."

"There are some women who can't successfully feed their babies, Seth," Jessica said. "It's a very real possibility that I might not be able to give her what she needs."

"For now, I don't hear any complaints," Seth said. "We'll worry about anything else when it comes, but it seems like you're both doing fine to me. We have the formula, if she needs it. Just relax, Woman."

Jessica drew in a deep breath, at that reassurance, and relaxed back into her pillows a bit. She closed her eyes, clearly enjoying some aspect of the moment.

Seth smiled to himself.

There was plenty to do, still, but there would always be plenty to do. For the moment, they were all busy enjoying each other, and Seth thought that was the most important thing that any of them could be doing for the time being.

Miracles, after all, were meant to be savored when they came to pass.