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“Catalina.” The girl was at Erin’s side in a moment. Erin’s mother was behind Catalina as well, watching Erin. She was now in a gown and sitting in the birthing unit of the hospital. She was not yet fully dilated but she was getting nervous. Jonathan still wasn’t there. “What if he isn’t here?”

“He’s going to be here,” Catalina promised. She pushed the hair out of Erin’s eyes. Even though she wasn’t about to push those final few times, she was having contractions and they were coming often and hard. “A police escort met him fifteen minutes after the arena.”

“How did you swing that?”

“Let’s just say I did a favor a few years ago.”

“I’m scared.”

“He’s going to be here.” Catalina squeezed Erin’s had. “Your brother is on his way too. Jonathan’s parents are in the waiting room with your dad. And-"

Catalina’s words were cut off by the door banging open, making Erin flinch wildly. A nurse was yelling loudly as Jonathan entered the room, jersey and tight athletic shorts. He looked a mess and was sweaty but Erin didn’t care, a sigh of relief escaping her lungs as he rushed to her, dropping down to her side and pressing a firm kiss on her head.

“Jesus,” Catalina muttered.

“Actually, I’m Jonathan. But I’m here,” he panted. Catalina left her side to deal with the nurse who was yelling at him to sign in, Catalina getting the woman out. “I’m so sorry, I’m here. You’re okay, and we’re together and this is all okay.”

Happy tears escaped Erin’s eyes as she laughed and nodded. He was running her hands through her hair, making sure that it was out of her face. He was there, even if it had taken him a little over an hour to get there. She felt better now, no pressure weighing down on her. She had been terrified that she would have a quick labor without him, but it seemed everything was now set in place. A huge weight lifted off of her shoulders as he pressed another kiss to her forehead, smiling at her.

“I’m going to change really quick, okay?” He asked her, brown eyes searching her face. He looked tired but excited, a exhilarated tilt to his lips. “Is that okay? Catalina had clothes for me.”

“Yeah, just come back.”

“Absolutely.”

Jonathan vanished into the bathroom. Erin’s mother was by her side, sitting in the chair and yawning. Erin was thankful her mother was there, especially calming her down in Jonathan’s absence. It had certainly been a stressful hour filled with anxiety, tears, and some irrationality. But she made it through nonetheless with her family and her best friend, who all managed to get there before Jonathan. It was like someone was testing her emotional stability.

For the next two hours, Jonathan remained sitting next to her while they followed the game on the TV until it’s end. The contractions were more frequent and they were worse every time, Erin feeling like her insides were being twisted and pulled out. She had never experienced anything like it and each time she had to eat ice chips to try and distract herself from it.

At infrequent periods, Erin’s mom or dad came in and out of the room. Jonathan’s parents would be there in a an hour or two, having had to catch a private plane that Catalina had contacted a month prior to be ready to fly any time during the week of Erin’s due date. Erin had no clue just how much her friend had really planned, but she was thankful more than ever that she had someone like that in her life, planning the small things that Erin didn’t think to.

Yawning and with a smile, Erin’s mother excused herself from the room to get something to drink. Jonathan and Erin were in the room by themselves. Catalina had vanished somewhere in the building on the phone for work, not without giving Erin a look and rolling her eyes at being on call.

“Now that we’re alone, want to talk about godparents, really quick?”

Erin nodded. She was tired already, but trying to be patient, though it was now past eleven at night. “You still want to go with the original plan, right?”

Jonathan nodded. “I think it’s a good choice.”

Erin thought about her earlier conversation in Catalina’s study before there was a knock on the door. They both glanced up to see a freshly showered Patrick standing in the doorway. Catalina’s small frame was peering around him a fresh cup of water in her hand. “You can come in,” Erin said gently. “Actually, we wanted to talk to you.”

“Uh oh,” Patrick said, crossing his arms over his chest as he came in the room, sitting down. Catalina made a beeline for Erin, giving her the large cup of water with a straw. “What did we do? Disturbing someone already?”

“Surprisingly, no,” Jonathan laughed, rolling his eyes at Patrick. “Solid goal in the third, by the way. Did Sharpy and Keith do a good job without me?”

“Of course they did.”

Suddenly Erin leaned forward, digging her fingers into Jonathan’s arm. Everything in her hurt as she closed her eyes, feeling another contraction wrack her body. Patrick looked terrified as Catalina came around the other side of the bed, rubbing Erin’s back and telling her quietly to breath it out and not to push. But she could barely hear what Catalina was telling her, focused only on the insane need to get the contraction out of her body. It was like a period cramp on serious steroids, going from her back all the way to her pelvic region, wreaking havoc.

“You’re okay.” That was Jonathan’s voice. Catalina had stopped talking, only moving her hand in circles on Erin’s bath soothingly. Erin opened her eyes, taking deep breaths. Jonathan had grabbed her attention, his eyes wide and warm. “Breathe with me, come on.”

So Erin did. She breathed every time he inhaled and let go of her breath only when he did. She focused on him entirely, waiting for the contraction to ride itself out. It took a few minutes but it began to subside, ebbing away slower than the ferocity of which it hit. Tired, she leaned against the bed. Catalina offered her ice chips and Erin took them without comment.

“You okay?” Jonathan asked quietly. Erin nodded. “Just rest, okay? I’ll ask.”

“Okay.”

With a small smile, Jonathan looked up at Catalina and then over his shoulder to where Patrick was sitting. If Erin had the energy, she would have laughed. He was ghost white, his eyebrows raised and sitting on the edge of his chair. “Erin and I have something to ask.”

“Yeah, anything,” Patrick insisted, nodding. “What’s up?”

“We want to ask you to be the godparents.” Both Catalina and Patrick blinked in surprise. Catalina backed up from Erin and sat on the arm of the chair where Patrick was. Erin watched as he immediately moved his hand to her back. She wondered if he even knew if he was doing it or if it was just an automatic reaction. “We thought for a long time about this and we decided that we really want you to be the godparents. You guys have been so involved in our lives and we full trust you with the care of our first child.”

It had been about two years since Erin had last seen Catalina cry. And yet she was sitting on the armchair, corner of her mouth upturning as a single tear escaped. She wiped it with the back of her hand quickly, erasing the evidence. She looked down at Patrick who was already looking up with her, and something that Erin didn’t really understand passed between them, some sort of communication.

“We would be honored,” Catalina said, turning back to Erin and laughing loudly. Patrick kissed Catalina’s arm fondly as the girl smiled at Jonathan and Erin. “Absolutely, a hundred times yes. We would love to be the godparents.”

There was no time for Erin to get excited over their agreement. Another contraction began to sweep into her body and Catalina jumped up, insisting that she was going to get the nurse. The contractions were far too frequent now, happening in a few minutes of one another.

When the doctor came back, he ushered everyone out of the delivery room, he, Jonathan and nurses the only people allowed in. Erin looked up at the door and watched as it closed, Catalina’s green eyes the last thing she saw beyond it. She realized that she was now about to give birth and her heart began hammering.

“It’s okay,” the doctor said, smiling at her. “We’re not starting right off. We’re going to give you the epidural and wait about fifteen minutes, is that okay?”

Erin nodded her head, unable to say anything. She already had the epidural placed in her spine, having done that early on when she got there. It had hurt like a bitch but the nurse insisted that whenever she was ready for labor, they could give her the anstesia. Given too early, it could slow her labor. Given shortly before, I would be most effective and making it easier on her.

“Are you excited?” Erin was brought to reality as they waited for the numbing to set it. “We’re about to meet Rosie, after all this time.”

Erin nodded, biting her lip. “I just want her.”

Already, Erin felt that her lower half was going foggy. The pain was starting to feel like pressure, which she knew was normal. The hardest part about her labor wasn’t going to necessarily be the pain, but how hard and exhausting it was going to be to push a child out. She took a few steadying breaths.

The minutes ticked by as the doctor and the nurses prepared, sterilizing everything and settling in. Jonathan was sitting in a chair pulled all the way up to her, her hand clutching his. He brought her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to the top of her hand. Erin was nearly shaking with nerves as the doctor settled in.

“Alright, Erin,” he said. “We’re going to start pushing, okay. I’m going to count to three and I want you to push really hard until I tell you to stop, okay? Don’t overwork yourself. Slow and steady wins the race.”

“Okay.”

“You can do this,” Jonathan whispered. He leaned on the bed and she leaned forward, preparing herself. “I believe in you.”

“One, two, three!”

Following the doctors advice, she didn’t push hard enough to make her exhausted, but she felt as though she were hitting a brick wall. Everything in her was screaming as she closed her eyes, doing what he said as the doctor counted out how long she needed to keep going. She was clenching Jonathan’s hand and he was murmuring words of encouragment to her.

“Alright, rest for a moment.”

Erin gasped for air, tilting her head back. She had no idea how many time she was going to have to do that but she was already worried about having to do the same thing over and over. Jonathan leaned up quickly and kissed her head. “Get that look of worry off your face,” he chided. “You’ve got this in the bag, baby. You’re tough and I’ve seen you do amazing things. You’ve got it.”

“Yeah?”

“Absolutely. You’re the number one champion today, okay?”

“Okay.”

A pattern took suit. Erin pushed hard with each contraction, so hard that she thought that she was going to fall apart. But Jonathan was there the entire time, telling her to keep going and making sure that she wouldn’t give up. His voice filled her ears, his grip kept her steady.

Breathing hard, she leaned back. The doctor informed her she had one more big push to do. She felt ready. She wanted to stop pushing and she needed to see her daughter for the first time. Erin wanted nothing more in the entire world, and she was going to give it her all and bring her daughter into the world.

Getting ready, she began to squeeze Jonathan’s hand- hard. He made a sound. “Babe, I love you but I need my hand for hockey.”

“Get a new one!”

“Okay!”

“Alright, Erin, push!”

In the next moment, she wasn’t sure if she pushed harder or screamed louder. She did both, but was completely unable to tell which one all her effort went into. The screaming helped, even though everyone told her breathing was best. She wanted to scream it out, shutting her eyes and praying to god that it would just stop. She wasn’t in as much pain as she was tired and body physically unable to squeeze anymore. Giving breath was using every single muscle in her body and she wasn’t sure how many more times she could manage.

And then the most beautiful sound hit her ears.

It was a soft sound, a voice as soft as a feather and high-pitched. It was barely there for a moment until there was a distinct cry, Erin instantly, falling backwards and crying because she could hear the cry of her daughter as the doctor went about the rest of the process, swiftly moving with the now crying baby. Jonathan had one hand in Erin’s and the other over his mouth, his brown eyes welling up as a nurse wrapped the baby.

Everything seemed to hang still in that moment. Erin’s eyes were fixed on the bundle in the nurses arms as she game over, handing the child to Erin. She was only mutely aware that she was crying, completely overwhelmed as she let go of Jonathan’s hand and cradled the small picture of life in her arms.

Nine months of effort and love was right there. It was breathing, eyes shut, fists sqeezed tight and crying like no tomorrow. But Erin thought that there was never a more beautiful sound. Her heart swelled like a balloon, filling her chest as she looked at the precious life- an actual, breathing and living thing- that her and Jonathan had made.

“Hi,” Erin said through tears, smiling as she looked at her daughter. She had a swath of dark hair and she was so small, but Erin didn’t mind. She was perfect. Everything about her was beautiful, from the small curve of her nose to the way her lips pulled back when she cried. “Welcome to the world, Rosemary Leigh Toews.”

“She’s so beautiful.” Jonathan was leaning over Erin, his chin on her head. “She is the most beautiful girl in the entire world, tied for first with you.” Erin looked up at Jonathan to find that he was in fact crying. He didn’t look back at her, rather he watched his daughter. Erin had thought that Jonathan loved no one more than he loved her, but she smiled to find out that it was different now. She saw it right there in his brown eyes, the light that lit them. Erin saw how Rosemary Leigh had stolen the heart right from her father’s chest. “So, so beautiful.”

“Want to hold her?”

Jonathan looked at Erin. “May I?”

She was still crying as she nodded. “Of course you can. You’re her daddy.”

Gently, Erin gave her to Jonathan. He held her to his chest, looking down at her as she began to quite down. He was smiling down at her, radiant. “Hi,” he whispered quietly, bouncing her slightly. “I’m you’re daddy, and you may not know what I’m saying yet, but you’re beautiful mommy just worked really hard to get you here, and I’m very glad she did. Because you’re the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen in the entire world, and I love you so much.”

Jonathan sat on the edge of the bed and leaned back by Erin so that they cold both look at her. Rosie still whimpered but she wasn’t crying anymore, her little hands balled up and moving slightly as she made sounds. “And I love you more than anything,” Erin agreed, watching with glassy eyes. “You’re going to be happy, and beautiful, and we’re going to love every second of having you. Forever.”

Jonathan kissed the top of Erin’s head. “And ever.”