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WARNING; difficult labour, mentions of hemorrhaging, please read at your own risk.
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January 19th, 2022
the day Maisie-Jayne Mount was born
Delilah groaned heavily as she rolled over on the sofa, trying her hardest to get as comfy as possible so she could watch the film waiting to be played on her TV screen. Blue had been nudging her hand all morning and she had no idea why, the girl feeling an immediate pressure in her pelvis that wasn't going away.
She shrugged it off as nothing important as she'd been having the same ache for the last two days anyway, so it didn't really mean much to her. When she finally got comfortable she reached for the remote and pressed play on her film, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she listened to Mason getting ready to go to work.
He came downstairs only moments after she thought of him, going into the kitchen to get his breakfast before he walked into the living room to give Lilah a kiss. She smiled at him, ruffling his semi-fluffy hair before he left for training.
"What's up Blue?" Lilah asks, scratching behind her ears thinking she was wanting some attention.
She sat through the entire film without moving, a success on her part considering she got up at least every 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, and when she did, she winced in pain. It was more unbearable than it had been in the previous hours since she woke up, and it was that bad she could barely walk without having some sort of pain shoot around inside of her.
That's when it hit her.
She was in labour, of course she was. Now that she was thinking about it, her waters broke in the shower the previous evening without her realising and she had the worst nights sleep ever. And of course, Mason wasn't even around to help her, and she hated disturbing him at work.
She sat back down on the sofa to relieve some of the tension as she scrolled through her phone to get to Mason's contact, ringing it a few dozen times but receiving no response. Her last resort was Tuchel, someone she didn't want to call but she was going to have to as none of the lads were answering their phones.
"Morning Delilah, how are you today?" Thomas asks cheerily.
"Hi Thomas, I'm okay, uh, is Mason there?" Lilah questions, scratching her head softly.
"He is, is something wrong?" Thomas asks.
"I'm in labour." Lilah responds, listening to him gasp before she hears him shouting for Mason.
"Yeah, yeah, Lilah what's up?" Mason asks with worry in his voice.
"I'm in labour." She responds, hearing some muffling and some cheers before the phone is passed back to Thomas.
"He's on his way, good luck to you both." Thomas grins.
"Thank you Thomas."
She hung up the phone seconds later, getting up and going upstairs to get changed into some better-looking clothes whilst she waited for Mason to get home. Once she'd gotten changed, she messaged Frizz to ask her if she would take care of Blue and waited for her response before she got her hospital bag and went downstairs.
"I'm pretty sure I've just got about 3 speeding fines." Mason pants when he walks through the door, wiping the sweat on his hands on his joggers.
"I hope you haven't because I'm not driving you to work when you've used all your license points." Lilah jokes sarcastically, watching him run a hand through his hair before he takes the hospital bag from her.
"Are you okay? Do you feel alright?" Mason asks, tucking some of her loose hair behind her ear.
"I'm okay, just getting shooting pains every now and then." Lilah nods, slipping her jacket on as Soph gets to the house to get Blue.
"Ahh! Good luck." Soph beams, kissing her cheek.
"Thank you Soph." Lilah responds, smiling at her before Mason drags her out of the house and to his car.
She got into the car and immediately turned the heaters on, warming herself up whilst Mason faffed around trying to get everything perfect. Lilah smiles a little as she watches him rush around, catching eyes with him for a moment before he leant forward to kiss her lips.
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"Are you okay?" Mason asks as he looks at his girlfriend lying in a hospital bed with her eyes shut and her blanket wrapped around her.
"I'm trying to sleep, hence why I have my eyes shut." Lilah responds, sighing deeply as it went completely silent in the room. Unfortunately for her, it didn't last long, as Declan walked in singing 'It's Coming Home' at the top of his lungs and a Nando's in his hand.
"I provide food." Declan grins, looking at Mason before he looks at Delilah who was attempting to sleep.
"I'm never gonna get to sleep am I?" Lilah huffs, opening her eyes to look at Declan.
"I told him to not sing that as he walked in but he doesn't listen." Lauren shakes her head, moving to sit on the other side of Lilah.
"Well at least I'm providing Nandos." Declan grins.
"Choke on it." Lilah shakes her head, watching Declan furrow his eyebrows at her.
"Why?" He questions.
"She can't eat dipshit, she's in labour." Lauren shakes his head at him, watching his face drops as Delilah gives him the evil eye.
She huffed as she watched Mason and Declan eating their Nandos, Lauren deciding not to eat as she knew that Delilah was jealous and wanted some herself. She moved uncomfortably whenever the Nurse would come in to check her, Declan and Mason both turning around so they didn't faint.
They were increasingly becoming more and more irritating as time passed and Lauren could see that they were getting on her nerves, trying to tell them to stop whenever they would burst into song whilst she was half asleep or whenever they would start laughing at a video on TikTok.
"Oh my god if you don't shut the fuck up I'll kick your arses." Lilah's patience finally bursts, snapping at the pair of morons sitting on the other side of the room.
"What's up with you?" Mason asks, as if wasn't already obvious.
"I'm tired, I'm in pain and I'm hungry. You've got one chance left before I kick you out and go into delivery with Lauren instead." Lilah looks at them both, giving them their last warning before she shifts uncomfortably again and lies back against her pillows.
As expected, from both Lilah and Lauren, they didn't listen, assuming that she was just kidding when she said she would kick them out. Mason did try and turn down their activities a bit though, attempting to be a bit quieter so she could get some rest, but it was mere impossible whenever he was around Declan.
"Guys shut up will you." Lauren scolds them both so they would listen.
"What? We're doing nothing wrong." Declan huffs.
"Yeah well you're being loud and Lilah's trying to sleep, so shut up." Lauren scolds them both again, raising her eyebrows at them before she looks at Lilah.
"I'm gonna kill them." Lilah shakes her head, moving her hand up to her face tiredly whilst also trying not to knock the needle in her hand.
"Excuse me, Nurse." Lilah speaks when she see's one walk past her room.
"Yes, is everything okay?" She asks.
"Can you please make these two dimwits sit in the waiting area?" Lilah asks politely, watching both boys look at her with shock.
"Of course, both of you follow me." She grins at the blonde before escorting Mason and Declan out of the room.
Lauren laughs quietly, watching Lilah's phone start to blow up with texts just as she starts to doze off. Luckily, she put her phone on do not disturb quick enough for Lilah not to hear it and she let her sleep for a while.
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Lilah was suddenly woken up when she felt someone's cold hand on her leg, the girl shooting up to see if someone was coming to murder her but it was just her Midwife. Dr Greene smiled at her warmly, offering her apologies for scaring her before she checked on how dilated Delilah was.
"Looks like you're ready. You slept for a bit too which is good, it relaxed you quite a bit." Dr Greene smiles.
"What?" Lilah asks as if her heart had just been ripped out.
"They're taking you for delivery." Lauren informs her, watching how she started to panic because Mason wasn't around. She had 0 recollection of kicking them out, so she was worried that he had just left her in the hospital on her own to deliver their child.
"Wait, please wait, where's Mason?" Lilah sobs, trying to get out of bed but Lauren stopped her.
"I'll go get him, stop worrying." Lauren attempts to calm her down, the girl immediately rushing to the waiting room to retrieve Mason.
"Oi, dipshit, your Mrs is going into delivery and she's sobbing her heart out to wait for you." Lauren points at Mason who looked bored sitting on the waiting room sofa with Declan.
Mason stood up on his feet and stayed still for a moment to let everything sink in, he was going to be a father, a father to possibly one of the most gorgeous baby girls ever, and the love of life was her mother.
"I'm gonna be a dad." Mason smiles.
"Yes you are, but you won't if you don't go and help Lilah. Good luck." Lauren responds.
"Good luck mate." Dec grins, patting him on the back before he sprints down the hall to find her.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, I'm here." Mason reassures her, taking her hand as she looks at him.
"Mason I'm terrified, I can't do it." Lilah speaks in response.
"Think about Football, think about us winning the UCL last year, think about how we're going to win the Prem this season, the FA Cup win we're going to get too." Mason attempts to calm her down, briefly looking at Dr Greene who was smiling at him proudly.
"We've won the Prem?" Lilah asks.
"Not just yet, we need Finnegan's magic touch back first." Mason beams, watching her smile before they get to the delivery suite.
Dr Greene praised Mason for being so calm and collected during her childbirth, holding her hand and telling her things that were keeping her relaxed. Moving her hair out of her face, wiping the sweat off of her forehead, not being fussed whenever she would squeeze his hand too hard, pressing soft kisses to the top of her head to tell her how good she was doing.
Mason felt calm when he heard the cries of his daughter in the room, his eyes tearing up as he looked at Delilah who had immediately gone pale. Everything happened so quickly, his daughter being taken away from the pair of them before he could even see her and him having to listen to the midwives shout things at one another.
"Sir, we're going to have to ask you to step out of the room." One of the Midwives speaks to him, escorting him out.
"What? Why? What's happening?" Mason asks with panic in his voice.
"The mother is hemorrhaging, we need to operate on her as soon as possible. I know this isn't the way things were supposed to go but we need you to stay calm and stay positive for her." She informs him.
Everything went silent after that, the door being shut in his face moments later. He made his way back to the waiting room on his own, pushing the sleeves of his training jumper up as Declan and Lauren both stand to their feet.
"What's wrong?" Lauren asks, having a gut feeling that something bad was happening.
"Is she here? Is she alive?" Declan asks.
"Maisie's here, she's here all well and good." Mason begins to speak, his mind going into overdrive when he started to think about losing the love of his life. He couldn't lose her, not now and not ever, it would physically tear him apart if he lost Delilah, he just couldn't bare it.
Declan's heart shattered when he saw Mason start to cry, moving his hands over his face to hide it whilst Declan moved forward to hug him. Mason didn't even respond, he just wrapped his arms around his best mates torso and thanked him silently for letting him cry without being judged.
"Lilah's hemorrhaged, she went all pale and fragile when Maisie came out and I just... I can't do anything without Lilah here, I'm lost without her." Mason splitters, moving one of his hands to wipe his tears.
"Mate, this is Lilah we're talking about. She's a super trooper, she's gonna be fine. Both Delilah and Maisie are going to be fine, trust me." Declan reassures him, calming him down whilst they waited for some news on Lilah.
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"Delilah Finnegan?" Dr Greene speaks into the silent waiting room, Lauren and Declan half asleep and Mason wide-awake with terror on his mind.
"Yes, yes, is she okay?" Mason stands up quickly.
"She's fine. We operated on her, the bleeding stopped, and she woke up about half an hour ago. We gave her some alone time with your daughter first so she wasn't startled, but she's ready to see you now." Dr Greene hums, listening to Mason, Lauren and Declan sigh with relief.
"I'll come get you two in a moment." She speaks to Lauren and Dec before she escorts Mason into her room, leaving them alone.
His eyes cast over Delilah first, watching her tired eyes move around before they landed on him. She was okay, just like Declan had told him. He sighed deeply as he walked over to her, pressing a long and loving kiss to her lips and moving her hair out of her face for her before he looked down at his daughter.
"Spitting image of you." Mason grins, timidly waiting for Lilah to let him hold her.
"I'm sorry for scaring you." Lilah apologises.
"Don't apologise for something you can't help, angel. Look, you're here and you're healthy, that's what matters. And our angel, our little girl is here as well, and she's just as beautiful as her Mum." Mason smiles softly.
"You wanna hold her?" Lilah asks, watching him nod like a child in a sweet shop before she sits up and passes Maisie over to him.
He carefully sits in the chair beside her hospital bed, holding his daughter in his arms with the biggest smile on his face. He was over the moon, he finally had another girl to spoil in his life, another girl to love and cherish forever, just like he did with Delilah and Blue.
"Are you okay Mum? Do you want a shower or anything?" Dr Greene asks.
"Oh, I'd love a shower. I feel disgusting." Lilah laughs softly, looking at Mason who was completely and utterly infatuated with Maisie.
"Alright, I'll help you with your shower whilst Cassie over here sorts out your little one's birth certificate." Dr Greene responds, not wanting to tear Mason away from his daughter just yet.
Mason felt tears welling in his eyes when Maisie wrapped her hand around his finger, watching the way she stretched herself out before she started to eagerly move around in his arms. Her eyes opened, the stark blue colour reminding him of Delilah's which he had fallen in love with all over again when he saw her lying in bed with their daughter.
"You are the most beautiful girl, hm? Take after your mummy don't ya? Uncle Dec and Auntie Lauren are waiting outside to meet you, do you wanna go meet them?" He coos, standing up carefully to sort out Maisie's birth certificate and everything else.
"Mummy's got you a Chelsea babygrow to go home in, has Daddy's name and number on the back which is pretty ironic given you were born on the 19th." Mason giggles, holding her as he walked down the hallway to the waiting room.
Lauren and Declan both stood on their feet the second they saw him, tears in their eyes as they walked over and saw Maisie for the first time.
"She looks like Delilah did when she were a baby." Declan smiles.
"I said the same thing, she's spits of Lilah." Mason grins, stroking his thumb over the soft skin on her cheeks.
"How's Lilah?" Lauren asks.
"We can go see her if you want." Mason responds, watching the blonde nod before they walk back to their room.
Lilah walked out of the bathroom just as they walked in, smiling lazily at the three of them before Dr Greene helped her into her bed again. She wrapped her blanket around her to keep her warm, watching Mason sit back down in the chair whilst Lauren and Declan both pulled one up to the bed to sit with them.
"How are you?" Lauren asks.
"Tired and starving, feel like I could eat a whole buffet." Lilah laughs softly, moving her hair out of her face before she looked down at Maisie.
"Mase, you know you have to let other people hold her, don't you?" She teases, watching him look up at her before he looks at Declan.
"Be careful, you drop her I'll drop you." Mason warns his best friend before carefully handing him over. Mason took hold of Lilah's hand meanwhile, giving it a light squeeze whilst they admired Declan.
"Hiya, it's your Uncle Dec, the cool one. I'm gonna buy you everything your Mummy and Daddy tell you that you're not allowed." Declan speaks, listening to Lilah laugh.
After a few minutes, Declan handed the little girl over to Lauren who was tearing up at the sight of her niece, the girl who she'd been waiting to meet for so long.
"I'm Auntie Lauren, you're gonna be part of the girls squad now aren't you? Mummy and I are gonna spoil you rotten." Lauren giggles.
"Lilah she's spitting image of you." Declan admits.
"Do you reckon?" She responds, watching them all nod.
"Well I should hope she is after the bloody scare she gave me, christ." Lilah laughs quietly, letting Lauren hold her for a bit longer before she gave her back to her mum.
Mason admired her for a second, watching how she tucked her into her blanket as much as possible and made sure her hands and feet were warm, a smile plastered on her face as she did do.
His world just got even more perfect, and he couldn't wait for the rest of his life to unfold.
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