Note: Here it is, guys! I will be writing a short epilogue, but here is the final chapter. Content warning; childbirth happens, though largely 'off-camera', as well as nursing, but it's nothing you wouldn't find on regular daytime TV. The scenes jump around a lot, so hopefully it won't be confusing. If it is, let me know and I can edit things a bit. I hope you enjoy it. Zerach is heeeere~
Peridan's knuckles cracked as Elizabeth squeezed his hand like a sock puppet, but he barely noticed. He quietly encouraged her, telling her that she could do it, that she was doing so well, that it would all be over soon. She hadn't made much noise so far, but earlier she'd had the wild-eyed look of a prey animal, and during a moment alone she had confessed her fears to him.
'I'm afraid...Afraid of what might happen.'
'Just hold onto me. I'm here.'
And he hadn't left her side. Girbius had returned with a few things they'd be needing, and the old faun and Yehosef had been working together with hardly a word spoken between them.
Now, as Elizabeth strained to deliver her child, she found new courage in the fact that she could finally do something, that she finally had some control over what was happening; she was no longer a hostage to her own body, and she was making this happen, rather than letting it happen to her.
She was tired, though. So tired.
Tavish and Aamnia were trying hard to tune out the screams from upstairs. Even though the sounds were few and far between, Tavish had to admit that his sister had quite a set of pipes! Their game was abandoned, and now they simply sat side-by-side, looking at the staircase and listening anxiously for the sound of a baby cry.
Malachi, his ears flattened to the sides of his head in his anxiety, paced fitfully and occasionally looked at Tavish as if asking him what was going on. The cries from upstairs had unnerved the large dog, who simply couldn't understand why they were all downstairs when they were clearly needed upstairs! He rested a paw on Tavish's knee, looked soulfully into the man's eyes, and whined.
"It'll be over soon, boy," Tavish petted the dog, trying to reassure him, but another scream rent the air and made the dog whine again. "I hope..."
Aamnia shook her head, picking up her pencil and beginning to draw. "Me, too. I'm getting sleepy, but I can't sleep now. Too noisy."
"Ah, she can't help it," Tavish chuckled. "Say, what're you drawing?"
Before Aamnia could answer, there was another scream, followed by a whimper and exhausted panting. They could faintly hear Peridan encouraging her.
"You can do it, you're almost there!" Peridan told her, not loudly, but firmly, excitedly, cheering her on.
Yehosef turned his head and made an urgent request of Girbius. "Towels. Quickly, please! The baby comes."
Tavish and Aamnia, though neither would admit it to the other, were paying close attention now. Although they were downstairs and in another room entirely, neither of them had been present for such a thing, and they didn't quite know what to expect or how to react.
Aamnia was simply vowing to herself to never have children if it hurt badly enough to make a woman bellow so, but Tavish was praying that both his sister and the baby would be safe and well when this whole thing was all done.
Another scream, the loudest one of all. Silence. Then, from upstairs, a wonderful sound indeed! The raucous, healthy-sounding wail of a newborn. Yehosef's voice, sounding slightly choked with emotion, telling the new parents, "A healthy son!" Peridan laughing and sobbing at the same time, and it sounded like Elizabeth was doing the same. Girbius gravely offering his congratulations.
Tavish's tense face melted into a joyful smile, and he pulled his niece close and kissed the top of her head as she embraced him back. "Congratulations, big sister."
Malachi's ears perked and his long whip of a tail started to wag before he began to bark. As happy as he looked, he seemed to be cheering in celebration.
Girbius had come downstairs just long enough to tell Tavish and Aamnia that it was a boy, and that mother and child were doing just fine. After that, it was quite some time before they were actually allowed up. Elizabeth needed to recover for a few minutes, and there were some other things to attend to before either she or the baby was ready for visitors.
A little over half an hour later, though, Peridan came down. His eyes were a little red, but he was grinning from ear to ear. Aamnia was on her feet in a flash, and she attacked her father with such a fierce hug that he was actually knocked back a step. "Would you like to see your baby brother?"
Malachi took that as an invitation and dodged around Peridan's legs, thundering up the stairs and sitting patiently outside of the closed door.
Except for Aamnia's declaration that the new baby looked like 'an angry little potato person'--which her father was rather horrified by, but Elizabeth was actually sort of amused by--Zerach's debut couldn't have gone any better.
Malachi had gotten in despite Peridan's efforts to block him, but he had been so delicate, sniffing lightly at the baby in Liz's arms before moving to the hooked rug in the middle of the room and lying down like a sphinx as if keeping guard over his new ward. There was no way he'd be allowed to stay in the room all night, but Peridan saw no reason to chase him out right away with how well he was behaving.
Tavish had denied that he was crying, saying that he only had something in his eye. He wasn't fooling anybody, but no one badgered him about it.
At last, though, Tavish and Aamnia were ushered out of the room, and Aamnia got three extra good-night kisses from her father before finally heading off to bed. Tavish, who said that he didn't mind sleeping on the couch, decided to turn in as well.
Finally, at around two in the morning, the excitement had died down and Elizabeth and Peridan were alone with their newborn.
"I am so proud of you, Beth!" Peridan whispered, kissing Liz's temple as she nursed Zerach.
She smiled tiredly, lightly smoothing back the baby's hair. It was dark brown, much darker than her own reddish-brown hair, but not quite as dark as Peridan's black hair. She wondered if Zerach's hair would acquire coppery highlights from sun exposure, the same way hers did.
Zerach's eyes, during the brief time they were opened, were a dark, steel-blue that would most likely change over to brown in the next month or so. Or, quite possibly, hazel.
"I think he looks like you, Peri," she told her husband, who was letting their son grip his forefinger in a tiny fist. The resemblance really was uncanny. Zerach's skin was a little bit lighter than his father's, but if Peridan's mother were still alive, or if his father was there to see, they would have both asserted that little Zerach could almost be Peridan's twin from another generation.
Almost. Zerach had his mother's eyebrows. And that perturbed frown he had gotten on his face after he had been bathed and swaddled in a blanket, almost as if to say, 'You would not believe the day I've just had, the rude treatment I've just been subjected to'? That was one hundred percent Elizabeth!
"I see some of you there."
Hearing the tightness in his voice, Liz chuckled softly through her nose. "You're crying again."
He sniffed, but didn't deny it. "I'm just so glad I was here...and that all is well. I never thought I would see a miracle happen right before me..."
"Not half as glad as I was," She sighed, still exhausted from her efforts. "When you left the room that last time, I didn't think you were coming back..."
"Of course I was coming back...Why--"
"Men usually aren't there for it. Then again, nothing about this has been conventional...I'm glad it happened the way it did, though. People I trust...and my husband was there..."
Her eyelids were beginning to droop, and seeing that Zerach was no longer feeding, Peridan gently took the baby from her and let her cover up again.
Peridan had intended to put Zerach in his cradle so that they could get a couple hours of sleep before the next feeding or nappie change, but he found himself unwilling to set the baby down just yet. He whispered to the baby in his first language; 'My beautiful son...my boy...You have no idea how much we love you...but we will show you every day.'
Perhaps Zerach had his uncle Tavish's sense of humor, because, as if on cue, he opened his mouth and burped.
When Elizabeth and Peridan finally stopped laughing--quietly, but fairly hard, because the timing of the burp had been priceless!--Elizabeth asked in a drowsy voice, "Are you going to sleep yet?"
Feeling the slight, warm weight of the baby in his arms, Peridan shook his head and gave Zerach his finger to hold again. "Soon."