A/N: WHOO! 1,865 words pre-A/N! That's a record for this story. Anyways, you know the drill. I'm super sorry for the wait, but that's life you know? Now without further ado, the birth! (part 1) smiling devil emoji

[9 months pregnant]

Beca's POV

The end credits played as Jesse and I sat in a somewhat awkward position on the couch. I was leaning with my back against the armrest and legs draped over Jesse's lap from the earlier foot massage. He sat next to me trying to reach my shoulders over my big belly. When the credits were done, Jesse carefully lifted my legs off his lap and stood up. He offered a hand to help me up and I reached for it, groaning as I stood up. When I was fully standing, I realised I felt something liquidy running down my legs. Then I realized it had started with a gush. My eyes widened with the realization, and I started hitting Jesse's arm over and over until he said, "Ow! What?"

"Jess, my legs are wet."

"Well go change your pants! We're going to bed anyway."

"No, Jess. My LEGS are WET."

"Huh?" Jesse's face contorted in a confused look.

"Honey, my water broke."

"WHAT?" Jesse's mouth dropped and he stood frozen in front of me.

"We need to go to the hospital. Call Dr. Mourey and tell her we're on our way and that my water broke-" The panicked look was still plastered on his face. "You know what? I'll do that. You go get the bag. You remember where it is? In our bedroom closet? Yeah?" He nodded. "Good. Meet me down by the door once you have it," I said, surprising myself with how calm I was.

I pressed the contact for my OBGYN and waited for it to ring.

"Hello?" There was a faint noise behind her voice, as if she was in a room full of people.

"Dr. Mourey? Hi, it's Beca Swanson."

"Oh. How are you tonight, Beca?" I heard footsteps and the background noise reduced.

"Fine, I guess. Thanks. Um, so, my water kind of just broke and so I called you." Dr. Mourey laughed into the phone.

"Kind of?"

"Well it did, actually"

"Alright. Well, I can get to the hospital in about 10 minutes so we'll probably meet eachother there. Just drive patiently and I'll see what to do next," she said calmly.

"Ok. Thank you. See you soon."

"Yup. Buh-bye"

I hung up just as Jesse ran down the stairs. "Hey nerd," I said calmly as he ran into the entryway, where I was slipping on my hoodie. He looked stressed out and out of breath, but he was clutching the overnight bag we had packed for the hospital.

"Ok," he said, panicked. "Ok. I got the bag. Are you ok? What did the doctor say? Wha-"

"Jess," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You need to calm down, ok? Everything is finOWWwww." I hunched over a bit, digging my fingers into his shoulder for support as the searing contraction strobed through me. "Shit this hurts."

"Becs? Are you alright?" he asked, even more panicked than before.

"Yeah," I said as the painful contraction started to pass. I kept the steady breathing pattern we had learned in Lamaze as I replied, "It was just a contraction. Come on. Dr. Mourey is meeting us at the hospital."

I took a deep breath and continued the process of leaving the house. I went through the checklist in my mind.

Get the bag. I glanced at Jesse and at the striped bag he was gripping. Check.

Put on sweatshirt. I finished zipping my pale blue hoodie. Check.

Get house keys and car keys. I pulled them both off the shelf and handed the car keys to Jesse. Check.

Get out of the house in one piece. I pushed the frantic Jesse out the door. Check.

Lock the house. The lock clicked as I turned the key. Check.

Get in the car. Jesse finally snapped into action and hurried us out to the car. He opened the passenger door and helped me in, handed me the bag, and rushed around the hood of the car to the driver's side. He climbed in and slammed the door, fumbling with the keys. I smiled as my adorable husband began to grow calmer and go into action mode. Check.

"Jess," I said gently as he continued to scramble with the key ring. "Jess." I sighed. "Jesse." He looked back at me with a slight deer in the headlights look on his face. Not quite in action mode yet, I see. The keys continued to jingle as he froze. "Jesse, everything is fine. You can stop freaking out babe. I've only had one contraction and we're going to meet the doctor right now. Just drive carefully and then we can…" I stopped to breathe, "...get through this."

His eyes met mine, a mix of worry and love, and then he sighed and stuck the keys calmly into the ignition. "Calm," he said in a low voice. "I can do calm." He put the car into reverse and pulled out of the driveway. "Peace. Serenity. Kumbaya…" His reassurances trailed off as he continued muttering them to himself under his breath. We drove down our street and he turned onto the freeway. When we were getting close to the hospital, I felt another searing pain come on, and I saw Jesse look at me and speed up a little. The contraction had passed by the time we reached the hospital and I climbed out of the car waiting for Jesse as he extracted the hospital bag.

We walked into the maternity ward and checked in with the gum-chewing nurse at the front desk, then followed another nurse who led us to the room where we were meeting Dr. Mourey. The bubbly, scrub-clad woman pulled open the large double doors and told us, in between smacking her gum, to wait in the room for a few moments until Dr. Mourey was washed up and ready. I took a seat on a cushioned bench off to the side of the examination table, resting a hand on my swollen belly, and watched as Jesse sat next to me, his left knee bouncing in anxiety and anticipation.

"Jess," I said softly, "We're fine. Everything's alright. You have no reason to worry."

"Beca, of course I have reason to worry." He ran a hand through his hair worriedly. "You're going into this… this terrifying, and painful, thing tonight and there's nothing I can do to… to help. To save the day. You're going to be in so much pain and I'll just have to watch. I don't want you to hurt…" I took his hands in mine, chuckling softly and shaking my head slightly.

"Jesse, I know this is scary. Hell, I'm the one who has to do it. Do you think I'm not scared by all these pregnancy books that tell you everything that can happen?" His eyes met mine and a small smile formed on my face. "But the thing that pushes away all the bad thoughts, the thing that reminds why I'm doing this, is that once I go through this one night from hell, we're going to be holding our daughter. Our beautiful little girl, half you, half me, half Treblemaker, half Bella. And I know that that moment after the pain will be worth all of it."

Jesse looked back at me with pure love and I matched his grin. "I love you so much Bec. And our mini-Bella." I gave his hand a squeeze. His eyes lit up as if he'd just had a brilliant idea. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked with a playful glint in his eye.

"I think we just found our name," I replied, pressing my lips to his.

"Our little Bella," he responded with a smile, placing his hand on top of mine on my stomach and pressing his lips into my hair.

With that moment fresh in our minds, there was a light knock and the door swung gently open as Dr. Mourey stepped into the room. Her honey blonde hair was swept back into a fancy looking chignon, and that combined with her diamonds studs made it look as though my delivery had interrupted a fancy event of some kind.

"Sorry it took me a moment to get ready, Mr. and Mrs. Swanson." She took her lab coat off the wall hook and slipped it on over her peach scrubs.

"Woah, Dr. You're looking fancy, did we interrupt something?" I tried to light-heartedly bring up my curiosity.

"Oh, nothing important. My husband's 25 year reunion at his high school. Very blase. We were the most exciting couple there. I was all too happy to get the call." She pulled on a pair of gloves and motioned for me to sit on the bench. I moved as she continued, Jesse helping me up onto the cushioned seat and remaining next to me. "My husband didn't mind either. You know reunions, they're all about looking impressive. And having your hip OBGYN wife get called out for a delivery is pretty impressive, I'd say."

She smiled as she sat on the rolling stool next to us, flipping through the folder the nurse had left. "All right. So, you're water has broken, and you've had... 2 contractions?" I nodded in confirmation. "And about how far apart would you say they were?"

"About 7 minutes, I'd say?" Jesse replied, looking to me for agreement. I nodded again.

"Alright. Usually we wait for them to be about 5 minutes apart and about a minute long, so I'm going to move you into a delivery room now and I'll come back in and get this show on the road when a nurse pages to tell me they're regulated and at those lengths. Ok?"

I nodded once more and stood up, holding Jesse's hand as we followed her through the door.

"Oh, one more thing. It's hospital procedure to transport the mothers in wheelchairs, so I've got one waiting right outside, reserved especially for the Swansons. Jesse smiled at this, he loves it when he gets to take care of me, as I'm usually so insistent upon my being independent. I lowered myself down into the wheelchair nonetheless, and looked around the halls as he pushed my after Dr. Mourey. Halfway down the hall, another contraction waved through me, and as I gripped the handles of the chair, I felt Jesse's pace quicken. The contraction lasted 30 or 40 seconds, and by the end we were in the room. Jesse was kneeling beside me when I peeled open my squinted shut eyes.

"Okay?" he asked, clearly nervous again, to which responded a breathy 'Yeah'. He helped me up onto the hospital bed, and set the hospital bag down near the window before pulling the room's chair closer to the bed. We sat there talking and breathing and holding hands as more contractions came and went, waiting for the nurse to come and check on them again. Finally, Nurse Gina, dressed in pale blue scrubs printed with balloons, gave the okay and paged Dr. Mourey. The confident blonde doctor entered the room with a determined smile and said, "Alright Beca, let's do this."