Daniel shoved his hands through his hair, muttering, “Feck.”
Amelia’s Da laughed. “It’s stressful, isn’t it?”
“I dunno how people do it. But damn it, I want in there. I’ll break the bloody door down in a minute.”
“Sometimes the best thing you can do is wait.” He patted the chair next to him and Daniel went, reluctantly. “I know Gail told you how thankful we are that you rang us and forced us to see reason, but I wanted to tell you in person. Sometimes parents make mistakes and it takes a strong man to make them see the light.”
Daniel didn’t feel strong. Right now he felt more like a weak mess of nerves. His wife was in there, damn it, his wife. And there wasn’t a thing he could do. He didn’t know what they were doing in that room. Didn’t know her condition. She might be terrified. She might need him.
The last thought had Daniel shooting to his feet – but Brian stopped him. “Just give it some time. If no one comes to tell us anything in the next ten minutes, we can go knock on the door and see, all right?”
“Ten minutes!” That was a bloody lifetime!
Then the door opened. Tension coiled in his muscles, watching the damned thing creak open slowly. Too slowly.
“Daniel, she’s asking for you,” Gabby said, smiling.
If she had a smile on her face, it had to be good news.
Nothing could have kept him away.
Inside the small room, Amelia was on a bed of cushions and blankets, blood-soaked towels piled next to her. His heart stopped – until he saw her smiling.
“Jaysus, lass,” he said, rushing to her side. “Don’t feckin’ scare me like that!”
“Daniel! You can’t swear in a church!”
He wiped the sweat-drenched hair from her brow and opened his mouth to answer, but the gurgle at her chest froze his muscles. His eyes flicked there and landed on the face of his baby. Their baby.
“She did just fine,” Dr. Sheenan said, packing up the soiled linens in a bin bag. “Both mother and baby are doing well. When the helicopter arrives, we’ll take her to hospital and get them both checked out, but things are fine, Daniel.”
He nodded, only half listening to the doctor. Everything. Right here in this room was his everything. The rest of the world ceased to exist – there was only him, his wife, and their child. He didn’t know yet if they had a boy or a girl, and it didn’t matter. Christ, he couldn’t breathe through the tangled mess of emotions milling in his chest.
“Say hello to your son, Daniel,” Amelia whispered, pulling back the blanket to reveal his sleeping boy.
“Son…” He shoved a hand to his throat. “I… We…”
“…have a son,” she finished for him, laughing. “What should we name him? I was thinking…Liam George.”
“A-after…” He swallowed through a fist of emotions “…my Da?”
Amelia smiled. “Yeah.”
“Ah lass…” His mouth came down on hers, soft and sweet. “Thank you.”
“Helicopter’s here,” Brian announced.
“Can I lift her?” Daniel asked the doctor, without breaking contact from Amelia’s eyes.
“Sure,” he answered.
Daniel lifted the two most important people in the world to him up and into his arms. He touched his lips gently to his son’s brow, then, with his heart near bursting, he carried them outside to the waiting chopper. The sooner they got her looked over, the sooner they could go home and begin the rest of their lives together.