The bed shook, and my eyes fluttered open, awakening me in a panic. Instinctively, I sat up to see if Alan was okay. He sat up right in the bed, gasping for air. Immediate fear for Alan and the baby came over me and I wrapped my arms around his delicate shoulders.

“Is everything okay?” I gently placed my hand on his oversized belly.

He nodded his head yes, but the sweat on his brow and worried look in his eye said something different.

“What’s wrong?” My concern for Alan and the baby started to grow as I searched his frightened eyes.

“I just had a nightmare,” he said.

His skin felt cold a clammy like he had just seen a ghost, but I was relieved it was nothing serious. “A nightmare?”

“It was Mark.” Alan’s voice shook. “We were at the hospital. Our baby—Laura—was here, and you were holding her. Then you passed her to me, but suddenly it wasn’t you anymore… it was Mark.”

I shuddered at the image and held him tighter.

The legal battle between Mark and Alan was almost over, but I could tell the stress was starting to show. He was due any day now, and I was feeling more protective than ever. I wanted him to feel safe. Mark was never going to hurt him again. Not Alan, not Simon, and definitely not my baby girl.

“I just want it to be over.” Alan leaned his head on my shoulder, sounding a little more relaxed.

“I know, I know.” I rubbed his tummy, “But Laura’s almost here, and that’s all that matters.”

“You’re right. You know, it felt like the baby was really coming in my dream. I had contraction pains and everything. It was exciting… until…” Though he still looked nervous, he managed to smile at me.

“It was just a dream.” I kissed him on the top on the head and lay back down, this time snuggling in close to him.

Just as his head hit the pillow and I began to drift back off into a peaceful sleep, Alan cried out, jarring me awake again.

“What is it? Another nightmare?”

He clutched his stomach and slowly shifted, propping his back against the headboard. “No—not a nightmare.” He panted, grimacing.

I heard a knock on our bedroom door. “Is everything okay?” It was Edith. When Alan had moved to my house, I had invited her to stay with us. There was technically more room at Grover’s, but I could see how much Alan had missed her, and I would deny him nothing.

“I think the baby is coming,” Alan whispered.

“The baby is coming?” I shouted, and without missing a beat our bedroom door flew up and Edith came running to Alan’s side, shaking with excitement. Alan couldn’t help but laugh at our reactions.

“I’ll get the bag,” I scrambled out of bed to get the hospital bag we had packed weeks ago.

“Let’s get to the hospital!” Edith reached for his arm to assist him, which was ridiculous. All it would take is one little slip and I’d be taking both of them to the hospital. But Alan was more aware of his mom’s frailty than anyone else, and I didn’t have to caution him.

I threw the duffel bag over my shoulder and hovered as Edith tried to help Alan to his feet, but he resisted, looking frozen with fear.

“I can’t go to the hospital,” he said, looking between his mother and me with big doe eyes.

“Why?”

He clutched his stomach again with another contraction, “Ah!” he cried.

“Come on, Alan,” I urged.

“No!” He slapped my hand away. “I can’t. Not after that dream, Jeremy. What if he finds me and the new baby?”

“Honey, they have security at the hospital. We’ve already registered him on the do not enter list.” My heart throbbed. Why was Alan so focused on Mark now? The past nine months we had only been looking forward. Of course Mark had yet to be legally out of our lives forever, but there had been a change of atmosphere with all of our family together, and Mark was beginning to seem like a different lifetime entirely.

“Alan.” I reached for his hand. “It was just a dream. We have to get to the hospital to deliver our baby girl.”

His lips twisted and he stayed silent, searching the room for answers.

“Dad? Papa?” I turned to see Simon waddling into our room sleepily. “What’s wrong?” Another contraction came—was that normal? I didn’t think they were supposed to be so close together so quickly. Simon ran to his dad’s side.

I ruffled his hair. “It’s okay, Simon. The baby is coming. We have to get the hospital so your dad can have a safe delivery.”

Alan shook his head slowly and stubbornly. I gave Edith a look, hinting for her to take Simon in the other room so I could talk Alan back to his senses. She got the message, and hurried Simon out to “prepare the baby’s room.”

“Alan...”

He cut me off immediately. “I can’t, Jeremy. The whole time we’re there, I’m going to be thinking of Mark, lurking outside the door. Wondering if he’s going to come in and try to steal Laura. To steal Simon. I don’t want to be afraid this time.”

It was the “this time” that broke my heart. But more than anything, I wanted Alan and our baby to be safe. Before I could start to argue with him, Edith came back in the room.

She sat beside her son. “Simon’s picking out which toy to give Laura first. Now, Alan, I understand your fear, and I don’t blame you. Mark was a piece of clown crap, and I’ll never forgive myself for not getting you out of his clutches earlier.”

“Mom—” Alan tried to protest, but his face scrunched in pain again.

“First things first,” Edith said, all business. “Jeremy, you start timing Alan’s contractions. Has your water broken?”

Alan shook his head while I set a stopwatch on my phone.

“We should have plenty of time to get to the hospital. Just focus on your breathing, and once we see how far apart the contractions are, we’ll make a decision.”

Edith disappeared and I held Alan’s hand, trying to coach him through the breathing exercises he’d made me watch on YouTube.

When Edith returned with a heating pad, she asked, “How long between contractions?”

I checked my marks on the stopwatch. “Uh, about two and a half minutes.”

Edith frowned.

“Is that bad?” My heart rate was spiking, and I had already felt about ready to have a heart attack.

“That’s a little close,” she said, but I could tell from the look on her face it was more than a little close. She tugged me to the side and whispered, “Call 9-1-1. It’s not dangerous,” she quickly assured me, “but our little girl may be taking the hospital decision out of our hands.”

I took a deep breath. All that mattered was Alan and the baby’s safety. “Okay, I’ll be right back,” I told Alan, stepping out of the room to call 9-1-1.

Dispatch asked me how far apart Alan’s contractions were. Then they asked me how dilated he was.

“Uh… how do I check that?”

I gulped at the answer.

“Jeremy!” Alan shrieked from our bedroom.

“What? What!” I hurried back into the room, feeling completely unprepared for this. I didn’t know how to assist in birth. What if something went wrong? What if something happened to Alan? I felt light headed.

“Call Grover and Darius,” Alan demanded. “I need them to be here!”

The dispatch lady was ordering me to not hang up, and I gave Edith a desperate look. She pulled out her phone and started tapping at the screen. With her bad vision, I could only hope she was typing something semi-understandable.

“Ow,” Alan moaned.

“Sir, paramedics are on their way, but we need to know how dilated your husband is.”

“He’s not my husband yet,” I said, dazed.

“Sir, does your partner still have his pants on?” Her voice was strained, but professionally patient.

“Yes.”

“Please remove them.”

I couldn’t believe some woman on the phone was telling me to strip my fiance’s pants off, but I did it, gently, telling Alan what I was doing every step of the way until he growled at me to just stop talking and get it over with. I tried to ignore the awkwardness of kneeling between Alan’s naked legs while his mother stood just feet away, talking to someone in my family.

“Uh… he’s three, no, four fingers dilated.”

“I need you to estimate how many centimeters that is, sir.”

“Six? Seven, maybe?”

“There’s a chance you may have to deliver this baby, sir. Do you have any assistance?”

“This baby is coming now!” Alan roared.

Edith dropped her phone and took Alan’s hand. “Breathe, sweetie. Try to hold it in.”

“Dad?” Simon’s voice came from the door.

Alan pushed forward, grunting. “I am NOT holding this baby in!”

I shared a desperate glance with Edith. I did not want to miss this birth, but between the two of us, she was more prepared to deal with this than I was having at least been through labor once. I handed her the phone with the dispatcher and scooted out to comfort Simon.

We had just entered the living room when there was a knock on the door. I sprang to answer it, praying it was the paramedics already. I flung open the door to find Dad and Darius on the other side. I handed Simon over to them and was back at Alan’s side in an instant. He was half-standing now, squatting over the floor.

“GAAARR,” Alan screamed, pushing as hard as he could.

“It’s coming!” Edith shouted, her head dipping to check the baby’s position. She grabbed my hands and thrust them under Alan’s bottom. “One last push!”

I could feel her head. It was sticky, and soft, and then suddenly her whole body slipped into my hands. I couldn’t help the flood of tears fall from my eyes. “You did it,” I whispered to Alan.

He smiled up at me. “I couldn’t have done it without my family.”

Edith took the baby from me and went to work, smacking her back with a force that made me jump, but when Laura started crying, I breathed a sigh of relief. Edith cleaned her and helped me cut the umbilical cord. Alan had several minutes to cuddle her before the paramedics arrived. They told us we had done a marvelous job. I was relieved to hear them say that.

Everyone took turns welcoming the baby into the world. She was perfect and everything I could have hoped for.

Once the paramedics finished checking her weight and vitals, Dad and Darius entered the room, and Simon got to meet his little sister for the first time. Alan held her in his arms with the family around him. He didn’t need to say it, because I felt the same: it was everything we could have ever wanted.