Blurred Horizons

Ben helped Scarlett into bed and then tore out the door and down the shirt hallway to the quarter deck, frantic.

"Doc!" he shouted. The whole crew paused what they were doing to look up at him as Doc came weaving through them at break neck speed. He heard members of the crew muttering and laughing as hey realized who had won and lost their bets.

"Oh knock it off," Ben said, but he was too distracted to really care. Doc hustled into his quarters, gathering clean cloths and a large bowl of water. Ben practically dragged him back to the captain's cabin, feeling impatient and restless.

"I'll be better able to deliver the baby if you don't pull my arm out of the socket, Ben."

Ben released his arm as they made it back. Scarlett was sitting up in bed with her jaw and fists clenched.

"How long in between the contractions, Scarlett?" Doc asked as Ben went to kneel beside her.

"A few minutes-" Scarlett's answer turned into a growl of pain as she doubled over. Ben tied her curls back to keep them off her neck since she was starting to grow clammy and flushed.

"Hold my hand," he instructed.

"It's okay, I'm fine now," she said breathlessly. Ben was filled with a strange mixture of panic and joy. On the one hand, he would finally be holding his child soon. But he also hated to see Scarlett in so much pain. Doc ordered Ben to pick her up while he draped the bed in the clean linens he had brought, to prevent the bed becoming a complete mess. Ben set her back down gently as she let out another strangled scream. He piled all the pillows behind her and coaxed her to lay back against them.

"Hold my hand," he instructed again and this time Scarlett did. He kept his other arm around her shoulders while she struggled to breathe properly.

"How long is this gonna take, Doc?" she demanded.

"That depends entirely upon this baby," he replied. Another contraction hit then, and Ben was pretty sure his hand was going to bruise in her grip. Scarlett squirmed, trying to get comfortable.

"Little monster," she panted. "Is there a baby in there or a damn shark trying to eat its way out?"

Doc chuckled. "In my professional medical opinion, it's a baby, Captain."

Eventually the contractions grew closer together and Scarlett's face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

"Just breathe, Madi," Ben murmured. "Remember to breathe."

"You try to breathe when another human being is popping out of your body," Scarlett snarled. She glowered at her stomach. "Get out!" she shouted.

"I don't think that's quite how it works darling."

"You're not quite ready, Captain," Doc said.

"Like hell I'm not!"

"Let me rephrase. The baby isn't quite ready yet."

"Well make it ready! You said you knew what you were doing, Dr. Harley so get this bloody thing out of me!"

She fell back against the pillows again with a moan. "Christ this fucking hurts!"

Ben continued to try and whisper calmly to her but something as nagging at the back of his mind. Scarlett had called Doc Dr. Harley. There was something familiar about that name though he couldn't place it.

"All right, it looks like it's coming. Now, Scarlett, I really need you to keep breathing and push. Can you do that?"

Scarlett looked like she wanted to say something snarky, but she was suddenly too busy screaming and apparently trying to break Ben's hand. Ben knew he should be completely focused on the birth of his son or daughter, but he had a sense of foreboding as he struggled to remember why Dr. Harley was a significant name.

"Good job, now keep pushing," Doc instructed.

"You're Adrian Harley!" Ben practically shouted, remembering with a jolt. He tried to stand but Scarlett wouldn't release her hold on him so he ended up in a sort of crouch. "You're a bloody murderer!" Ben said with frantic anger.

"Kind of busy here, Ben," Doc muttered.

"I can't believe I even let you in here with my wife! I'm half tempted to shoot you this very instant!"

"That would be very unwise, unless you have the training required to deliver a baby."

Ben scowled. "You have training in killing attractive young women," he snapped.

"Ben do you really think I'm going to attempt to kill a woman who's in labor with her husband standing right there? Especially when he's armed and far more skilled than I am with weapons?"

"Ben leave him alone!" Scarlett shouted. "Everyone on this ship except you is a murderer! Now please let him get this fucking little monster out of me!"

Scarlett screamed again and Doc hastily busied himself with following her orders to get the baby out. Reluctantly, Ben knelt down on the floor again. He forced aside his misgivings and focused on Scarlett as she cursed enough to make even the most unsophisticated pirate blush and Ben had the absurd urge to tell her to watch her language in front of the baby. He resisted though and kept his mouth shut.

"I thought you said you knew what you were doing!" she yelled at Doc.

"Almost there," he grumbled.

"If you tell me to breathe and push one more time-"

"Breathe and push," Doc interrupted. Even in agonizing pain Scarlett rolled her eyes as she did as Doc instructed. She let out a final ear splitting shriek and then another small cry joined her ragged breathing as she fell back against the pillows, exhausted.

"It's a girl," Doc announced, quickly cleaning and swaddling the infant while Ben hovered over him worriedly.

"I'm not going to kill the baby," Doc said with a scowl. Ben snatched the baby from him as gently as possible, forgetting his outrage about Doc as he stared down at his daughter. She stared up at him with eyes the same crystal blue as Scarlett's and her little tuft of dark hair.

"Ben?" Scarlett whispered. He went to sit beside her.

"Scarlett she's perfect. And I told you it would be a girl," he added. Scarlett leaned over and looked at her.

"There'll be no living with him after this," she informed the wriggling infant. "You little traitor. You lost your mother a bet."

Ben chuckled, placing the baby in Scarlett's arms despite her hesitation.

"So what are you naming her?" Scarlett whispered.

"Gemma."

"Gemma Griffith," Scarlett said. "Her initials are GG. Gigi." She smiled. "I like it."

"You did wonderful, love." Ben kissed her cheek.

"I probably woke the dead and scared the crew."

Ben smiled. He noticed Doc cleaning up out of the corner of his eye and turned to glare at him.

"My days of murdering are behind me," Doc said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I had...a bit of a God complex. I became a physician very early and I was arrogant. But being arrested and becoming a fugitive was a humbling experience, I must admit."

"I'm not concerned with your humility, Doc," Ben snapped. "I'll figure out what we're going to do with you later."

"Fair enough." Doc finished cleaning up under the watchful glower of Ben. When he was gone Ben glanced over to see Scarlett staring in almost mesmerized awe at little Gemma. Ben slid an arm around her shoulders.

"Still afraid?" he asked.

"Terrified of the little monster. But she's...she's beautiful."

"Just like her mother." Scarlett handed the baby back to him and rested her head on Ben's shoulder, asleep in minutes. Ben stared down at Gemma in wonder.

"You got your mother's big blue eyes," he murmured. "You're lucky, little one."

Her eyes fluttered closed and for the rest of the night Ben could be found with one arm around his wife and the other cradling his newborn daughter, feeling like the luckiest man in the entire world.