Finally, another fic! This one is for #Ron-x-Hermione's Milestones Contest over on deviantART. Forgive me for making up a few things! St. Mungo's never mentioned a place for women to give birth in, so I went ahead and made up some things regarding how and where wizardings births occur.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: these characters are JKR's, not mine.

"Hey, you."

Ron says this as he walks into Hermione's hospital room, clutching a full cup of tea and handing it to her as he reaches the bed.

"Oh, thank Merlin, this is just what I needed," Hermione says, taking a large sip from the cup. "How's Rosie?"

"She's great," says Ron as he sits down on the bed next to her. "Granddad and Grandma Weasley are fawning over her right now. Those Muggle Healers—"

"Doctors, Ron."

"Yeah, them. They weren't going to let Mum in to see her, saying something about how only the immediate family was allowed in. I think she may have Confunded them, though," Ron says, laughing. "Last I saw, they were wondering around the waiting area, looking a bit lost."

Hermione bites her lip in worry. "Oh, I hope she puts them right, it'd be awful to have a Confunded doctor treating these patients."

Ron grins and kisses Hermione on the forehead. "That's my girl, always worried about something. Come on, you've just given birth! Let someone else worry about the world's problems. Speaking of, I think I'll go out and see how those doctors are doing. I'll be sure to bring little Rosie with me when I come back!"

And off he goes.

Ron's going to go get our little girl, Hermione thinks. Ron's and my little baby girl, Rose. So much had happened in the last day that Hermione's mind hardly had time to catch up! She takes a deep breath and starts to relax, letting all the events of the past day play out before her.

They were having dinner at Hermione's parents' house when her water broke. Hermione, having read every pregnancy and parenting book that she could get her hands on, was calm and collected when she told Ron that she was going into labor.

Ron, however, was decidedly not calm, even though he kept reassuring Hermione that he would keep a level head once the big day came. He started running around the Grangers' house in a frenzy, trying to gather up their things before they went to the small wizarding hospital near Ottery St. Catchpole, where all seven of Molly and Arthur's children had been born.

Halfway through their packing, though, Hermione said, "But Ron, how are we going to get there? I can't Apparate, and the hospital is halfway across the country."

Ron stared. "Oh bollocks, you're right! What are we going to do? Maybe I can pop back to our place and get some broomsticks? Or how about the Knight Bus!"

"Ron, I am not riding that awful bus while I'm going into labor!"

"Good point, that."

Hermione smiled. "We could always go to a Muggle hospital, there's one not too far from here."

Ron, who had really been looking forward to the idea of his daughter being born in the same hospital he had been, sighed. "I suppose we don't really have another choice, do we?" he said, chuckling a bit.

And so they ended up going to the Muggle hospital that was a few miles away. Ron borrowed the Grangers' car and bewitched it to drive itself; he sat next to Hermione, gripping her hands tightly as she started experiencing contractions. It was killing him to see her in such pain.

"Nearly there," he said softly, kissing Hermione on the cheek as she went through another contraction.

Once they reached the hospital, Ron and Hermione checked in as quickly as they could. Ron wanted to get Hermione as comfortable as possible as soon as possible.

"Now, Ron," said Hermione quietly as the nurse was showing them to her room, "I know you're not quite used to Muggle doctors, so just trust me when I say that anything they put in me—"

"They're going to be putting stuff in you?" Ron whispered tersely.

"Yes! It's all to help with the delivery. It's not as simple as a wizarding birth, where a simple anesthetic charm can numb all the pain. I just don't want you to worry about me, no matter how much I'll be yelling or screaming—"

"Hermione!" said Ron exasperatedly.

"Just listen!" she continued on. "It's going to look like I'm in a lot of pain, and I probably will be, but it's all for the sake of the baby. It's all normal. Got that?"

Ron nodded. His face had turned white.

"Okay," said Hermione with a tone of finality. "Here we go."

Ron stayed with Hermione while they started giving her all sorts of injections and medicines. As her contractions started coming more and more frequently, it was harder for Ron to stay with Hermione – he didn't know how much more of his wife's pain he could bear to witness. Finally, Ron had to leave the room once Hermione's contractions started happening only minutes apart; her screaming was just too much for him to handle. He told one of the nurses to come get him when it was over, and stepped out into the hallway.

What felt like days – maybe even weeks – later, someone peeked outside of the room.

"Mr. Weasley?"

Ron, who had been dozing off at this point, perked up immediately. "Yeah?"

"Come see your baby girl."

Ron power walked after the nurse down to Hermione's room. As he entered, he saw Hermione, face shining with sweat, holding their little baby Rose in her arms. She was beaming down at the impossibly tiny girl, stroking her head with her hand. Ron had never seen Hermione look so proud and so happy.

"She's beautiful," said Ron as he approached Hermione's bed. "Just like her mother."

Hermione flashed a watery smile at Ron as he sat down next to her. She had been crying as well.

"Oh, Ron," she said, with a big sniff. "Here, you hold Rosie."

Ron took her in his arms. How could she be so small? He took his hand, which was trembling slightly, and put his finger in her open palm. She immediately grabbed onto him with a strength that was surprising, coming from such a small creature. A few tears rolled down Ron's face and fell onto Rose's head. Hermione, noticing this, smiled and wiped them gently off, and then kissing the spots where they had fallen.

Ron, whose eyes were still leaking with tears, turned to his wife.

"I love you," he said in a shaking voice. "I love you so much that I can't even express it in words."

He leaned down to kiss her gently, and then went back to looking at little Rosie.

"I love you too, Ron," said Hermione, watching her husband smile at and play with their newborn daughter.

Our daughter, she thought. Our Rose.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review, they mean so much to me!

~HPLives