Chapter 40
“Alright, Madison, almost there.”
“You said that two hours ago!” Madison snapped, throwing a furious glare at the nurse while wondering if it was possible to sue the hospital for false promises.
“It was thirty minutes ago, Pumpkin.”
“What?!”
She had only been pushing for thirty minutes??
A cold, humid washcloth was pressed against her forehead. “You’re doing amazing, baby. Amazing,” Ben encouraged, rubbing the fabric down her jaw and neck.
“Ben, I’m tired,” she whined, searching for his eyes.
“I know.”
“I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“I know that too but, Pumpkin, it’s a little bit too late. Like… nine months too late.”
“This is entirely your fault.”
He nodded. “Yes, I heard you perfectly the first twenty times you told me today.”
“And stop with the attitude! Oh my God, you’re getting on my nerves again.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that a few times, too.”
Doctor Santiago gently patted her leg. “Alright, Madison, we’re pushing on the next one, OK?”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes,” Ben, the nurse, and her ob-gyn replied in unison.
She couldn’t do it. No matter what the three idiots around her seemed to expect, she just couldn’t do it. She was exhausted. She had had her first contractions the night before, and it had taken almost twenty hours before she was fully dilated. Twenty hours of no sleep, because these contractions hurt like hell, despite the drugs.
“Ben, I can’t. I really can’t,” she cried, feeling the tears well in her eyes. She was at a point where even the idea of holding her baby in her arms had stopped having a cheering effect on her. She just wanted to sleep and for her uterus to enter a long, very long coma.
“Pumpkin?”
She took a deep breath, her eyes closing as she mentally counted to ten to try to rein her emotions in. “Yes?”
“… You guys heard it, right? She said yes!”
“What?” she asked with a frown, her eyes snapping open. She looked for Ben, but he wasn’t by her side anymore and…
“What are you doing on… oh no, you didn’t!” she exclaimed, her mouth popping open.
“I did,” he replied smugly, nodding vigorously. “And you said yes.”
“You didn’t even ask the question!”
“Madison, I asked the question like thirty times in the past eight months, I think we’re a little past that. I was on one knee, you said yes, we’re engaged.”
“No, we’re not.”
Ben sighed, standing up. “You’re being difficult, now.”
“I am being… I…” she hissed suddenly, feeling the now familiar grip low in her abdomen.
“Alright, Madison, push, push, push! I am seeing the head! Keep pushing!”
The scream that tore through her throat probably woke up a few dead people within a ten mile radius.
Everleigh was so gonna hear about it. She was supposed to be her friend. How could she have let her walk into this blind?? She knew she shouldn’t have agreed to choose the future godparents of her baby with a game of rock-paper-scissors with Ben. They had come to a dead end when they had realized that Madison wanted Everleigh as godmother, and Ben obviously wanted Chris. They had both agreed that one couple being godparents together was a little weird. Plus, as Ben had pointed out, it meant the baby-sitting possibilities were divided in two.
They had therefore agreed that one of them would have to relent.
It had taken two months for them to move onto the next step, which was figuring out a way to make that decision. To be honest, Madison had hesitated between Evie and Harper, and she was confident Ben would have also gladly gone with Ian.
In the end, Ben had won, and so Christopher had been asked to be the godfather of their first-born, with Harper as the kick-ass godmother. Obviously, Everleigh was pissed she hadn’t been picked and had not warned her out of spite. That was the only logical reason.
It was all rather pointless in the end. The whole godparents issue was moot since she had just decided she wasn’t pushing anymore. Nope. Munchkin would have to stay where he was. She was done for the day.
After this contraction, mama was on strike.
Her baby probably sensed it because barely two seconds later, there was a victory cry coming from the nurse. “Here he comes!”
A loud cry, and she felt like a sudden liberation.
Instinct had her opening her arms, and her ob-gyn directly rested the squirmy, gooey, absolutely perfect tiny human on her stomach. “Oh my God,” she murmured as she took him in. He was small, much smaller than he had felt like coming out of her womb for sure. The hair was dark, the voice already powerful.
She looked up at Ben who was gazing at her, absolute wonder written over his face. “Oh my God, Pumpkin…”
“Looks like we have a surprise, too,” the doctor said and for one terrible, insanely scary second, Madison thought she meant a second baby had magically appeared and wanted out as well.
“It’s a girl!”
“He’s so perfect Pumpkin. So beautiful,” Ben was murmuring, leaning over the two of them, his hand hovering over the tiny skull as if he was afraid to touch it. “He… he…”
It took a few seconds for Madison to register the words her doctor had said. It took even longer for Ben.
He stared at her, eyes wide, mouth ajar, hand still frozen over the crying baby. She literally saw him process the news, in slow-mo because if she hadn’t slept much, he hadn’t either.
“Again?!”
***
There was no word to describe what it did to him to watch his child come into the world. Absolutely none. The naked, slimy little bundle in Madison’s arms was his. It was theirs. A little bit of him, a little bit of her.
“It’s a girl!”
“He’s so perfect, Pumpkin. So beautiful,” he whispered, afraid to touch him. He looked so small, so fragile in… He… He... A girl? What do you mean, it’s a girl? It can’t be a girl, I was told…
“Again?!” he exclaimed in shock when his eyes brought him the confirmation he needed. He watched as the nurse gently pried the baby from Madison’s arms to clean him. Or her.
“Pumpkin! How… Did you do this on purpose?!”
“Do what? Change the gender somewhere between contraction fifteen and contraction sixteen?”
“Can she do that?” Ben asked the ob-gyn.
“No, she can’t,” the doctor said with a smile. “It does happen, even with our technology. We never got a clear shot in the last ultrasounds for confirmation.”
He hid his face between his hands. He had been ready for a boy. Had prepared. This… this changed everything.
“Ben, it’s gonna be fine.”
“She is perfect,” the nurse said as she brought her back, now all wrapped up. “Maybe dad can hold her while we finish taking care of mom?”
Ben’s eyes drifted to Madison as something close to utter panic rose inside him. “Madison, I don’t know how to hold a girl. I only practiced with Jonathan.”
“Just hold out your arms, Ben.”
He gulped, stiffly putting his arms in the cradle position.
Don’t screw up. Hang in there. Don’t drop her.
She had Madison’s nose. And from the baby pictures he could remember, she had the exact same bone structure. A round, slightly pointy chin, similar eyebrows.
“Oh, f- frack.”
The knot in his throat had never been bigger than in that moment.
“Madison, we have a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“She’s so perfect.” He gazed down at what was, in all honesty, the most beautiful baby in the whole world. “She so fu-fracking perfect.”
The nurse pulled a chair next to the bed for him to sit down. He leaned closer to Madison, so she could look as well.
“I really don’t get why you wanted a boy, Pumpkin,” he said, letting a finger stroke the softest, most flawless cheek.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Can I hold her?”
“No.”
“Ben!”
“What?”
“You can’t just keep saying no to people. Chris is her godfather!”
“And?” Ben tore his eyes away from his daughter, looking at Madison. “I’m her dad.”
“You have to share her at some point.”
“I do! You held her until now!”
“I was nursing her, dimwit. Until you grow lactating boobs, you’re gonna have to accept you come second.”
He pinched his lips, looking at her in accusation. “I offered a very reasonable compromise.”
“The fake boobie-thingy from Meet The Parents is not a compromise.”
He shrugged, settling back more comfortably in the chair. “Who’s my little princess?” he murmured. “Mmh? Who’s the most beautiful baby girl? And daddy is your favorite, right? Even if he doesn’t have the boobies.”
“Ben.”
“I’m communicating with my child, Pumpkin. It’s very important to communicate with your baby, I’ll have you know. And she has to know that even though I was a little bit caught by surprise that she played that little trick, I love her and she is perfect as she is.”
“Caught by surprise? That’s gonna be the official version then?” Madison asked with a grin.
“Dude, I hate to make fun of this,” Ian started before pausing suddenly. “Who am I kidding, I’m having a blast. Anyway, you thought your dog was a male, it turns out it’s a female. You thought you were having a boy, it’s a girl… If I were you, I’d check if I still have my balls because Madison here? She seems to have some kind of wicked witchcraft aptitudes.”
“Ha ha, very funny. Don’t you have a donut or two to eat in your car or something?”
“I’m off duty, Benedict. Or… is it Benedicta now?”
“You know, if I wasn’t holding my daughter, I would flip you off into next Sunday,” Ben said dismissively. “But since I’m still learning and can’t do the one-arm trick like Chris, I’ll have to settle for a rain-check.”
He listened distractedly to the chirping around him, enjoying these unique, priceless moments. She was going to grow. Fast. The day she was born was something he wanted to remember for the rest of his life. How small and light she was in his arms.
“She is so adorable. Really makes me want to give number two a try sooner rather than later,” Everleigh said with a wistful sigh.
Madison laughed. “I know, right? I mean… it’s barely been hours for me but… yeah, I can understand wanting to get the same feeling of holding her for the first time again.”
“You think you’ll want a second one?”
“… Yeah, I think-”
That made him focus on the conversation. “Oh, hell, no!” He whisper-yelled, attracting everyone’s attention. “I am not going through that again, Pumpkin. We have a beautiful daughter, and that is enough.”
“You are not going through that again? You?” Violet repeated.
“More than twenty-hours, Vi. Twenty Hours. Chris, back me up on this one.”
“I’d like to leave this room with my ability to father children still intact so… I’ll just pass,” Chris replied slowly.
“What?” Ben shook his head in confusion. “You guys think it’s all fun and games watching her in pain like that? Knowing you can’t do anything? And damn, thinking at every contraction that something could go wrong and you could lose her, or lose them both? That thing is no walk in the park, I’m telling you. No, no. We have a daughter, she is perfect, we don’t need any more children.”
“Ben, honey.”
“Yes?”
“Did you push your little princess out of your vagina?”
“… No.”
“Who did?”
“You.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You also threatened to cut off my balls in my sleep, told me it was my fault, and that next time, I had to figure out a way to do the delivery bit for you, but you were OK with the pregnancy itself.”
“I said all that?” Madison asked with a little frown.
“Yes. Some of it, several times.”
“I won’t cut off your balls.”
“Well, now you say that because you’re planning on having another kid.”
“True. But… not right now. More like in a few years. Maybe.”
“A few years?”
Madison nodded.
“I can work with a few years. It should give me the time to get over the trauma, I guess.”
“Maybe it will be a boy next time,” Chris said, resting his hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t you think there’s already way too many of us in the universe, Chris?” He snapped, before going back to his gazing, thinking about how overrated boys were anyway.
“Yeah, I give up,” Chris said, exhaling slowly. “Madison, on our behalf… I don’t know how you do it.”
She grinned. “I think I have the Ben translator naturally implanted in my brain.”
“Really?” Harper asked. “So what does your translator have to say about him borderline pressuring you to get married?”
His head snapped up, then he looked at Madison.
“That he’s not pressuring me,” she replied, her eyes never leaving his. “He asks me all the time because he doesn’t want me to think he changed his mind. He wants me to know he wants to marry me every single day we spend together, the good ones and the bad ones. When I’m angry, when I’m happy, when I’m sad, and when I’m so exhausted that I just want to give up on everything.”
Yeah.
She really knew him insanely well.