3 Months Later...
"This is not happening. I'm not ready." Jess gripped onto Jack's hand as she felt yet another contraction.
She had been in this hospital for the past 10 hours and the wait was becoming unbearable. When Jack had brought her here during the night, they had both expected things to be quick. Jess was giving off all the signs that she was most definitely ready to give birth however, once they arrived, they were told she still had a bit of a wait.
"I can't do it."
"You've done it four times before, I'm sure you can get through a fifth babe." Jack replied trying to be reassuring but little did he know, it was the worst thing he could say to a woman in labour.
"I don't fucking care if I've done it 100 times before. It still hurts all the same so I'd love to see you try!"
Jack had learned to take everything Jess said in this room with a pinch of salt. She was always on her last nerve throughout the whole experience so every little thing managed to annoy her. Her emotions were heightened and her hormones were going crazy therefore, she could very quickly go from needy to yelling within seconds.
"Luckily I don't have to try." Jack continued to tease as he leaned down to press his lips to her forehead.
The midwife in the room was smiling with admiration at the pair of them, knowing exactly how this went. She had delivered Ellie, Harvey and Mia so had gotten to know them extremely well. She was reaching her fifties now and still to this day, kept in touch and made sure she was here for Jess' births.
"This is the last time I go through this for us, Jack Lawrence. I swear!" Jess reached out to grab his hand once again when she felt another contraction coming. "No more. Never ever again."
"We have this same conversation every time baby. You're still not convincing me."
"I do hope you have a few more. I want to deliver some more Lawrence children before I retire." The midwife, Bessie grinned, causing Jess to laugh.
"Five is more than enough but we'll definitely still visit."
"I still remember your first." Bessie reminisced back to when Ellie was born. "You were both so young, still practically children yourself."
"It's crazy to think about it now." Jess chuckled, knowing how scared she had been yet put on such a front right up until labour began.
"You were both incredible though. Twenty years old and you were bringing a baby into this world. I remember just wanting to hug you both because you dealt with it so well."
Jess hadn't remembered dealing with it well at all and instead thought she had been a complete mess. However, Bessie thought differently and had been beyond touched to see a couple so young show so much love and support for one another in such a tough and new experience.
"I have watched you both grow into incredible adults over the years but somethings always stayed the same." Bessie began. "And that's your love for one another alongside your natural ability to be such incredible parents. I am honestly so proud of you both."
Bessie's words touched both Jess and Jack because she had seen it all. She had watched them from their most vulnerable and lost state when they were just twenty years old, to now. They were now twenty-nine years old, onto their fifth baby and were still going strong, loving not only their children unconditionally but each other too.
...
It was around fifteen minutes later when Bessie began setting herself up to see how dilated Jess was and also when Jack's phone began ringing loudly in his pocket.
"Shit, sorry." He quickly pulled it out to divert the call however, when noticing who it was, he knew it was best not to. "It's my dad, it could be about the kids. I'll be one minute."
"I'll give you a shout if I think your baby girl is on the way." Bessie beamed with excitement causing Jack to laugh.
"I'm sure I'll hear Jess before I hear you."
With that, he then quickly made his way outside the room to figure out what the sudden call was all about.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked and Dan didn't even take a second to respond, he was practically talking over him.
"I just wanted to let you know that the kids are with Connor and Gemma."
"What?"
Dan's voice sounded kind of frantic and concerned, sending the exact same feelings through Jack himself.
"It's nothing to worry about but your mum got brought into hospital this morning." Dan replied, not sounding at all convincing on the 'nothing to worry about' aspect.
"What? Why? Is everything okay?" Jack fell into immediate panic, knowing when it came to his mum it was never going to be simple.
She had been diagnosed with Leukaemia nearly a year ago but had been given full hope that she would fully recover. However, being brought into hospital had to mean only one thing and that was that things were not going well. Therefore, Jack couldn't do anything else but worry.
"Dad, is everything okay?" He continued when Dan was taking too long to respond.
"Jack I don't want you to worry, you need to focus on Jess and your baby." He tried to reassure his son yet that was no use.
"I can't focus on that unless you tell me what is going on?"
Realising that Jack was just going to get more and more worked up, Dan finally gave in a decided it was best just to tell him. Therefore, sighing he began to speak once again.
"She's okay... but they're just doing some tests. Things were looking good but she wasn't feeling great these past few days so they just want to give her a check over."
"Doing some tests for what?" Jack probed.
There were another few seconds where nothing was said.
"They're doing some tests to see if it's back." Dan breathed and you could hear the sadness in his voice.
Jack didn't know what to say. He felt physically sick.
They thought this was all over. They thought she was on the way to winning her battle yet now here she was, back to square one.
While him and Jess were in a hospital room prepping for the arrival of their new baby girl, Louise was here awaiting results on whether or not her illness was back to fight her once again.
"Honestly though Jack, please don't worry. She is feeling much better now; she's just having to wait around for the results."
It didn't matter how much Dan tried to reassure Jack, it wasn't going to work. His previous excitement and happiness had been completely transformed to worry and he wasn't going to put it to rest unless he saw her for himself.
"Where are you? Are you in this hospital?"
"Yeah." Was Dan's simple answer, already knowing what was coming next.
"I'm going to come to the ward. Give me a few minutes."
"But Jack what about if Jess-" Dan began before he was instantly cut off.
Jack then rushed back into the hospital room where Jess and the midwife were, with obvious panic on his face. He took about thirty seconds to quickly explain what was happening before rushing out of the room once again.
He had left Jess in a state of worry, not fully knowing what was happening and wanting to also get up and follow after him. However, that wasn't possible and Bessie had insisted she stay put. She was a matter of minutes away from giving birth so now wasn't the time for her to be wandering around a hospital.
*
Once Jack had finally found his mum's hospital room, he didn't waste any time in heading inside and enveloping her into a hug. Seeing her in this state was heart breaking to watch, as this was his mum, the woman who had spent all of her life putting on such a brave face through everything.
"I'm okay." Louise reassured, squeezing him back yet her hug was weaker than usual and that was enough evidence for Jack to know that she wasn't okay.
"Has Jess had the baby yet? Is she born?" Louise looked hopeful to her son once they had pulled apart.
"No, not yet." He began shaking his head. "Soon though."
"Oh dear, it's so typical I ended up in here today. I wanted to get to hold her."
Louise looked so sad. The love she had for her grandchildren was unexplainable and she didn't want to be missing out on meeting another due to being stuck in a hospital having countless tests.
"I hope this will be quick. I really need to meet her."
As Louise looked hopefully over to Dan, gaining an understanding squeeze of the hand from him, Jack sparked an idea.
He knew there was a slim chance of it working out but he was going to work for that slim chance and wouldn't take no for an answer.
"I'll be one second." He insisted as he headed out of the room and found the first doctor he came in contact with.
He knew he was short on time due to Jess being ready to give birth any minute, so he needed to make this quick. He spent the next few minutes pleading with the doctor to get his permission on letting his mum down to Jess' delivery room. If she was just going to be glued to a hospital bed doing absolutely nothing, he didn't see why she couldn't be with him and Jess.
"We'll take her down there in a wheelchair. She doesn't have to use up any energy or anything." He was literally begging with a stranger who was looking back at him with sorry eyes.
He obviously didn't look keen on the idea, yet Jack wasn't prepared to give up.
"It'll be quick and then she'll be back here. Please. She really wants to see her grandchild being born. She's never seen it and we've had four kids already."
Jack's comment caused the doctor to chuckle, something he wasn't quite expecting to do. However, it seemed to have a positive effect because the man's eyes softened.
"She really wants this?" He asked and Jack nodded his head.
"My kids mean the world to her, please."
"Okay..." The doctor trailed off, looking towards the room where Louise was. "Okay, we can do that but it has to be twenty minutes, only because we really need her here."
"So my wife has twenty minutes to give birth?" Jack asked causing the doctor to smile.
"Yes, twenty minutes."
"Okay, easily done. She loves a challenge."
*
Once they had Louise in a wheelchair, Jack and Dan were pretty much running her down the corridors of the hospital to get her to Jess' room. It was a comical scene to watch; regardless of the pained emotional state they were all feeling. It brought some light to the pain and Jack knew that getting to watch her grandchild come into this world would absolutely make his mum's day.
"Oh Jess, you're doing amazing." Louise beamed as she was sat beside her, holding onto her hand.
Jess felt so much love for this woman who was by her side, wanting nothing more than to see her smile through all this pain. She was dealing with everything so incredibly well and having her by her side, through Jess' most vulnerable time, was an incredible feeling.
"Fifteen minutes and this baby has to be out." Jack grinned as he stood by her other side, earning a chuckle from the midwife.
"I think we can do this, don't you Jess?" Bessie looked up at Jess who although in pain, was showing the same positivity.
...
After a good ten minutes of the pain and usual screams, all the tears and exhaustion had been completely worth it, as the baby they had spent 9 months waiting for was finally welcomed into the world.
Jess was unable to control her tears as the newborn was laid on her chest and she looked over to Louise who was smiling and crying with so much happiness.
It made every single part of this worth it.
"Oh my God." Louise's hand covered her mouth and her excitement even brought a tear to Jack's eyes too. "She is here, she is finally here!"
After the eventful birth Jess and Jack had experienced with Addie, they were so relieved to hear the screaming tears from their newborn baby. Previously, it had been nothing but stress from the moment Addie was brought into the world however, this time had been completely different.
...
"You were told you were having a baby girl, right?" The midwife turned around to look at Jack and Jess once she had taken their baby to be washed.
They just nodded in return.
"Well, it seems as though your nurse made a little mistake at the scan. This is definitely not a little girl." She chuckled before passing the baby over to Jack whose mouth had quite literally dropped open.
"What?" Was all he managed to say as he took him into his arms and that first touch filling him with an insane amount of love and need to protect that he couldn't explain.
"It's a little boy... definitely a little boy."
"No way!" Jack began to laugh, as obvious excitement filled his face. Everyone knew he had desperately wanted another son and now he was getting exactly that. "Harvey has a brother, no way."
As Jack turned around to face Jess and his mum, he instantly caught sight of the tears welling up in both of their eyes. Making his way over, he was about to lay him across Jess' chest once again but Jess quickly turned to Louise.
"Do you want to hold him?" She asked and the expressions she got from Louise was priceless.
Not only did she smile bigger than they had ever seen, the tears were back and they did not stop.
"He's absolutely beautiful." She sobbed, leaning down to place a kiss to his head.
What had started off as an extremely tough morning for Louise had suddenly turned around. She had been able to forget all about her illness and instead been there for the birth of yet another grandchild.
"It's a boy!" Jess laughed reaching out for Jack, who happily obliged.
He was expressing the same shock and beaming face as Jess, neither of them quite knowing what to say. They had spent so long prepping for another little girl, even to the decorations and clothes they had purchased yet it hadn't quite worked out as planned.
"So we can scrap you girls name choices and go for mine and Harv's instead?" Jack raised his brows in a hopeful look, as he wrapped his arm around Jess and pulled her into him.
"I guess so." She mused, reaching up and pressing her lips to the bottom of his chin.
Turning to look at her, Jack hovered his own lips over her own for a moment before glimpsing over at their son and his mum from the corner of his eye.
"How about Theo?" He suggested and it was a name that Harvey had picked out before he knew he was having another sister.
"I like that a lot." Jess smiled as Jack pressed his lips to hers.
There was such a calmness flowing through them in this moment that they didn't ever want to let go of. They had just welcomed their new baby boy into this world, while in the company of Jack's mum who had been an absolute rock for the both of them throughout life.
It was incredible how much joy a baby could bring to people and Theo had just completely brightened up the day for this family.
**
NEW BABY!
thank you for reading:))))