Ok so here's the thing: this chapter is 8 months after the last. Nothing's really happened besides school and couple goals and therapy. So here you go!!
- JAMES' POV -
Angie and I are lying in bed. It's only 8 pm, but with this baby, she's been getting tired earlier. We're only a week from her due date, so this baby can come at any time. We found out the gender a while ago: a girl. I was so excited. We had been thinking of names for a while now and have decided on either Rachel Renee, after our mothers, or Jasmine Elise, because we really liked the name.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Angie hitting my shoulder.
"What's up, Angel?" I say. What if she's having the baby?
"You fucking idiot! My water broke and I'm having contractions! The baby's coming! Get the bag!" She hisses at me and I'm standing for a second, not knowing what to do. She whacks my shoulder again and I grab the baby bag and car keys as she puts on her flip flops.
I drive to the hospital fast, calling everyone on the way:
Call 1: To: Alexander Hamilton Time: 8:36 pm
"Alex!"
"Hey James, what's up? Is Angie having the baby?" He asks
"Yep. Meet us at Princeton Hospital. I have to call everyone else, love you." I say hurriedly.
"Ok. Love you, see you soon." I end the call and dial Eliza.
Call 2: To: Eliza Schuyler Time: 8:39 pm
"Liza! Angie's having the baby, Princeton Hospital!" I say, not wanting to waste time.
"Oh my gosh! I'll let you call everyone else! See you soon!" She squeals at the end of her sentence and she hangs up.
Time to call Peggy.
Call 3: To: Peg Schuyler Time: 8:40
"Is she having the baby?" Peggy says as soon as she answers her phone.
"Hello to you too. And yeah, she's having contractions right now and her water broke." I say.
"Holy shit. Princeton, right? I'll be there soon." We pull into the parking lot and I ask Peggy to tell everyone else to meet us here.
We rush into the birthing ward and we're rushed into a room where Angie's midwife, a doctor and a few nurses are. She's stripped out of her leggings and sweatshirt and put in a hospital gown. The contractions are getting more and more frequent and painful, coming ever few seconds. The doctor tells her to push on the next. I'm sitting next to her, and she's holding my hand. God, she has a hell of a grip.
"We're here!" Alex, Peggy and Eliza chorus as they run in.
"Where's everyone else?" I ask.
"They had to wait. They'd only let us as we're siblings." Alex explains quickly. Eliza and Peggy are talking to Angelica, holding her other hand.
"Push now!" The doctor yells and Angie screams as she does. We've been in the hospital for about an hour. This baby is coming fast.
Angelica squeezes my hand and I cringe from the pain. Then, I hear a cry and my beautiful girlfriend sighs, happy that it's over.
"Good job Angie!" Eliza praises.
"Congrats Angelica!" Peggy tells her.
"That was badass, A!" Alex says. What a shock, he's the only one who just had to incorporate swearing into his. That's my brother.
"I love you so much, Angel." I say, kissing her sweaty forehead, then sort of regretting it. It was a little gross because of the sweat.
A few minutes later, a doctor comes in bouncing our swaddled baby.
"Congratulations! Your little girl is all healthy and good, Mr. Hamilton and Ms. Schuyler." She tells us.
"What'll her name be?" She asks as she hands Angelica the baby. We stare in awe at her beautiful face. I knew what her name would be as soon as I saw her, and I knew Angie agreed.
"Jasmine Elise." She says, smiling. Then she whispers the name to Jasmine.
"My beautiful little Jasmine Elise." She's whispering. God, they're gorgeous. Jasmine blinks her eyes open, and I gasp when I see that they're mine. Tears fill my eyes. She has Angelica's smile and cheekbones, and our noses combined. Over all, she looks just like Angelica. But her eyes! I can hardly contain my happiness.
"Go see Daddy." Angelica smiles and hands me the bundle. I beam down on my little girl. Tears blur my vision and a few slide down my face.
"What's wrong?" Angelica asks. I shake my head.
"She's so perfect. I'm just afraid I'm going to screw it all up." I look up at my girlfriend.
"Babe! You won't mess it up. And if you do, I'll fight you. I can throw a hell of a punch." I laugh and cover Jasmines ears.
"Shhh! Don't swear, there are little ears around!" We laugh again and the midwife brings us the birth certificate. It says:
Name: Jasmine Elise Schuyler-Hamilton
Date of Birth: May 11th, 2017
Time of Birth: 10:36 pm
Hospital: Princeton Hospital, New York City, New York
Father: James Hamilton Jr.
Mother: Angelica Schuyler
Weight: 7 pounds, 4 ounces
Length: 18.8 inches
We look it over, still feeling like we're fling because of Jasmine. Yet another person comes in the room. People, actually.
Eliza, Peggy and Alex come back in. They left after Jasmine was taken away after being born. With them are Herc, Laf, Maria and Thomas. They all sit and stand in various places around the room, and play a game Alex calls "pass the baby", where they each get a certain amount of time with Jasmine before passing her to the closest person next to them.
Everyone's awwing and cooing over Jasmine. It's a little after 1 am now, and we're tired. Angelica's already asleep, the baby in her arms. Our friends and siblings are all leaving to go home. I'm about to fall asleep when Alex leaves the group and stays behind.
"Hey, James, congrats again." He says. I can tell there's something else he wants for talk about.
"What's wrong, Alex?" I ask him.
"I don't know. Something feels weird with my life. I feel too good. Every time good things happen, something horrible brings it crashing down. I just-- be smart. Don't do anything that will ruin what's going on right now. Please. And don't you even dare think about leaving them." He gestures to Angie and Jaz at the end, and I hug him.
"I never plan on leaving. And on the good and bad, I'm here. You have Thomas, you have Eliza, you have me and everyone else. We're here for you. I'll be smarter for you, though, if I can grant you peace of mind." I say. I know he has such bad anxiety and depression and stuff that he has to go to therapy. I feel bad for him. From an older brother standpoint, I feel like I should have the problems, not him. It kills me to see him sad and afraid.
I hug him again and take Jasmine out of Angie's arms. She's fast asleep just like her mother. I hand her off to Alex.
"Your niece." I say, even though I know he already knows it.
"I never thought I would hear those words. It's so... surreal and just... amazing." He chokes out, then kisses her forehead.
"Hey Jazzy. I'm gonna call you that. Your mommy and daddy are so happy because of you, ya know that? And we love you so much. I love you so much." He mutters. I smile at his words and kiss Jasmines nose.
"Can you watch her for a little while? I'm super tired but I have a feeling Angie'll be awake soon." I ask him, suddenly having a wave of exhaustion hit me.
"Of course. I hardly sleep anyways, so I'm not tired. I'll take good care of her." He says and I smile and thank him. I drift off to sleep in the chair near Angelica's bed, my baby in my brothers arms, in absolute bliss.
- ALEXANDERS POV -
Jasmine Elise Schuyler-Hamilton. My brothers baby. Oh my God. It's still such a blur. But I feel like it won't last. The happiness, that is. The depressive episode I had after starting to date Thomas is long over, but I'm still feeling the aftermath of it.
I'm suicidal still, less, but now I have another thing grounding me here. Jazzy. That'll be my nickname for her. She looks a lot like Angelica, but with James's eyes and his nose a little. She lets out a little cough and I rock her small body. She's just 7 1/2 pounds. I'm worried my brother will do to them what my dad did, but I know he won't. Or at least, I pray to God he won't. Weird, before Thomas I wasn't really religious. I sort of... wanted to be though. I wanted to have another thing to distract me. I'd talk to Thomas about it.
I look down at my promise ring and smile. I remember the date we went on. How it hit me right in the heart, but in just the perfect way. How long did it take him to plan that? I flash back to how we couldn't keep our hands off each other. How he nearly screwed me right there in the car, then the parking lot, and pounced on me the second we got to the couch by the door. I laugh silently to myself when I hear the door open. Speak of the devil, who's actually an angel, Thomas.
"I thought you left?" I say. I'm sort of confused.
"I was waiting in the waiting room for you because I didn't think you'd take this long." He replies and I nod. He smiles down at the baby in my arms.
"This looks like what I want my future to be." He says. I'm a little surprised. Thomas never really talks about wanting kids. I've always wanted one, but I never knew about him.
"Y-yeah." I stutter. Then I realize: we're 2 gay men. I always thought I'd have a child of my own. I want to cry thinking of it. I wouldn't mind adoption, but...
I snap my attention back to the baby, who's started to wake. She blinks her eyes open and smiles at me a little, her small cheeks lifting as her eyes light up. Her hand moves out of her blanket and reaches up at my face. I put my nose in her hand and Thomas laughs a little. Angelica wakes up from the little noises the baby and Thomas are making.
"Alex? What are you still doing here? With my baby?" She asks, squinting in the darkness and from exhaustion. Childbirth did its toll on her.
"I was talking to James and he got tired, so he asked me to watch Jazzy." I motion to my sleeping brother and she nods, then says,
"Jazzy?"
"My nickname for her."
"Cute." She lies back down and falls asleep quickly. A doctor comes in quietly, even though it's late.
"They're both asleep?" She asks quietly when she says the parents lying down and the baby in my arms. I nod.
"I'm supposed to take Jasmine to the maternity ward where all the babies are, I'm afraid. Can you wake someone?" I laugh a little since Angie fell asleep approximately 25 seconds before she came in. I tap James's shoulder and he jolts awake.
"The doctor needs to take Jazzy." I tell him as he rubs sleep from his eyes.
"Alright. Are you leaving, Alex? Oh, hey Thomas." He says as I hand Jasmine to the doctor. Thomas waves at James and tells him we are leaving. When everything's settled with the doctor, we say goodbye to James and leave, going back to our dorm. When we get under or covers in bed, I spill everything out to Thomas.
"I really want a baby but not right now, and I'm sad because we're gay and we can't have babies but I want a baby who has our DNA and I'm sad about it and I just fell like something bad's going to happen and I can't keep doing this, also I want to go to church is that ok?" Thomas shuts me up with a kiss.
"Ok. I'll answer all your questions, alright baby? I want a baby too, with our DNA. I've been looking at this thing though, where you can combine your, uh, sperm and get a woman to carry for you, if they're willing of course. I know your sad. That's what therapy's for. That's why you have all these people in your life. And nothing bad is going to happen. I'll prevent anything I can to my ability. And I don't know why you mean by "I can't keep doing this", but if that means suicide you can't do that. I would die of grief if you died. As for church, we can look into it and go if you want to." He says. It's a long rant-type sorta thing. I kiss him like he did to me, and he kisses back. I melt like I did the first time we kissed. I do every time.
"Goodnight Alexander, my love, and don't stay up too late, please." He says, and pulls me closer. Somehow I know I'll be falling right asleep.
"I love you." I whisper as I close my eyes. All is well for now.
AUTHORS NOTE: Angie's baby is born!! Ahh sorry I skipped so much time I just didn't feel like writing in circles and I'm really lazy. Also depression and anxiety are hitting me like trucks and I'm just really having a hard time. I said this a while ago, but I'm sorry if its effecting my writing. I sorta want to give up on this story but I'm too far along not to. Anyways, thank you so much for reading!💕
Word Count: 2341 words