There are moments in life when you know that what you are doing isn’t what you should be doing. For example, when you are a kid, and someone puts on a movie that is inappropriate, everyone knows it’s supposed to be bad. But you don’t get up no matter how uncomfortable it makes you.

Or when you are batshit crazy exhausted and you know you should wash your face, but the bed looks so soft and inviting that you throw caution to the wind. Only to wake up the next morning with your eyes matted together in leftover mascara and your pillowcase looking like a crime scene.

Mandy knew that something was different about the pains when she and Elliot made their way up the Court House steps. It seemed to be more in her back and she had bands of pain wrapping all the way around her middle.

However, this was her wedding day. And the last thing that she wanted to do was ruin it by racing off to the hospital. Especially when the last time she was so positive it was labor, and the hospital staff patted her on the head and sent her home.

Perhaps she was a bit irrational in her logic, but Mandy wanted to get married. So, she bargained with herself that if she was still having the pains after the ceremony she would say something.

Elliot had asked her no less than eleven times if she was feeling alright, “Mandy you are awfully pale.”

Mandy gave him a wan smile, “Just what every woman wants to hear on her wedding day.”

Elliot’s brows furrowed, “Are you sure that you are alright?”

She nodded while pasting a glowing smile on her face, “Perfect! Now where are Kim and Nate?”

Elliot looked around the room, “It’s not like Nate to be late. Let’s go sit down for a few moments.”

He ushered her over to the soft couch and Mandy sank into it. But instead of that feeling better she only felt worse. Scrambling to get up she caught Elliot’s arm and he helped her to stand.

“Mandy, we are going to the hospital,” he said firmly, “I can see the strain in your eyes, you can’t hide it from me.”

Another particularly tight pain shot through her back and she cried out. That was enough to convince Elliot to get his girl out of there. With hurried steps he ushered her out the door and thankfully Nate and Kim were parked at the curb.

Nate hopped out of the car and held the door open for Elliot so that he could see Mandy safely inside.

“How far apart are the contractions?” Kim’s worried tone cut through Mandy’s haze.

“I am not sure, pretty close I think,” Mandy replied. She was holding onto the car door with a white-knuckle grip.

Nate tore out of there and rushed through the streets towards the hospital. Another pain gripped her, and Elliot barked instructions for Nate to take them straight to the emergency room doors. Elliot called and left a message at the hospital that they were coming and to alert Dr. Robert’s.

The moment that they pulled up, Elliot got out and helped Mandy out of the car. Another pain gripped her, and she felt liquid running down her legs. With a cry she looked at Elliot in horror. An orderly had come out of the hospital with a wheelchair. Seeing that her water had broken the hospital staff quickly got Mandy into the chair and wheeled her into the closest examining room.

“I have to use the bathroom,” Mandy cried out, “Right now! Let me use the bathroom!”

The staff lifted her onto the exam table and flipped up her dress. It was seconds before they had removed her panties and the nurse cried out, “The baby has crowned!”

Dr. Robert’s came rushing into the room and got there just in time to help with the baby’s shoulders and with a final push, the baby had arrived. The most beautiful sound of a newborn’s cry filled the air.

Mandy was covered in amniotic fluid, blood, sweat, and tears. She had one shoe on and wasn’t sure where the other one had gone to. Dr. Robert’s wrapped the baby and handed it to Elliot. They were rushed into another room with some nurses to check the baby out.

Nate and Kim rushed in through the emergency room doors only to be told that Mandy had just delivered the baby.

“I just dropped her off?” Nate asked in confusion. “I thought deliveries took hours?”

The hospital staff just smiled at them, “Every birth is unique and this one was a doozy.”

Meanwhile back in the room, Mandy pushed again, expelling the after birth and then flopped back onto the table tears running down her face.

“The first baby in my career that I delivered without gloves,” Dr. Robert’s chuckled, “That was a near miss, Mandy. But I am so grateful that we were able to get your daughter here safely.”

Daughter.

They had a little girl.

Mandy was a mother.

The tears were clouding her vision, “Is she going to be alright?”

Dr. Robert’s smiled, “They will be back in a few moments. We don’t usually deliver in here, so the nurses just needed to make sure that everything was alright. From what I could see, the baby has a good set of lungs on her and that’s what we worry about with early babies.”

By the time that Dr. Robert’s had sewn Mandy’s tear, Elliot came back into the room holding their little girl. There were tears in his eyes as he handed her to Mandy.

“She is perfect,” he kissed Mandy’s forehead, “You did amazing, Mandy. I love you so much!”

Mandy unwrapped the blankets and the looked at their daughter. She was red and wrinkly with dark eyes and the tiniest of hands. There was fine white hair on some of her body and a shock of black hair that she had gotten from her daddy.

Mandy’s nurse helped her to remove the soiled dress and then Mandy placed her baby at her breast.

It was a moment so surreal and beautiful that Elliot knew he would never forget this day. Later when Mandy had a chance to shower and Kim and Nate were able to greet them they talked about what a crazy day it had been.

Charlotte Grace Brand was born at 1:48 pm weighing in at six pounds and twelve ounces, and was eighteen inches long.

Mrs. H declared her to be the most beautiful baby that she had ever seen. Some of the other parents took affront to her statement, seeing as how Mrs. H told that to nearly everyone in the maternity ward.

Later when Mandy had been given something for the pain, she drifted off to sleep. Elliot held his daughter firmly against his chest while he watched the two women he loved more than anything else in this world.

Who would have thought that one night all those months ago could bring him everything that he had today? Elliot had never been much of a crier, but he found emotion clogging his throat time and time again. Who knows what would have happened if Dr. Robert’s hadn’t sent Mandy his way?

Call it fate, divine intervention, good karma, Elliot didn’t care just as long as Mandy and Charlotte were his to keep forever. It was a trifle unorthodox, but Elliot called in some favors and that night in the hospital chapel Mandy consented to be his wife.

Kim and Mandy cried but not nearly as loud as Charlotte who thought it was time for another meal. It was indeed a special wedding on a very special delivery day.

As Kim and Nate were driving home she turned to him in the car, “Do you want a large wedding?”

Nate smiled at her, “All I need is you to be there.”

Kim touched the necklace at the throat, “What would happen if I proposed to you? Would that ruin the extended proposal?”

Nate pulled over on the side of the road, “Kim, I just want to be with you. I don’t care how or what we do to make that happen. I love you and want to marry you.”

Kim’s cheeks pinked, “I thought I was proposing to you?”

Nate’s wolfish smile had her panties melting clear away, “Technically I proposed first, it was just a three-step process.”

Kim laughed, “Well, I am proposing last. Nate, will you marry me?”