A/N: The final chapter! Thank you all so much for encouraging me, it really means a lot to me.
Trigger warning: Birth story. Nothing gorey though, no worries.

Chapter 6

going through it

The doctor and nurse bustled around the room with great purpose, giving Charles orders. More water. More towels. She wished they would just stay still for a moment or two, giving her some time to compose herself. From the moment she had first missed her period, she had worried about the birth. So many women died from complications, so many children died of fevers, she wanted to scream: get this thing out of me! but she daren't. A wave of pain rippled through her belly and upper legs.

"Now, Mrs Carson, lets see how things are going. Mr Carson, could you please vacate the room?" The doctor sent Charles from their bedroom and Elsie yelled: "No! I need you here!", but the nurse pushed him out the door. "Please, Mrs Carson." was all she said and Elsie laid back in her pillows as the doctor lifted the sheet and examined her. "Oh. Well. Progressing very nicely, I should say. It won't be much longer before you will be ready to push."

A blind panic took hold of her. "But I don't know how!" she exclaimed, grasping the sheet.

The nurse gave her a small smile. "You'll find that you don't need to know anything."

The words had hardly left the nurse's mouth and Elsie felt as if she was being ripped apart and grunted with the pain. The nurse told her to roll to her side and helped her hold her leg bent and up.

"Alright, Mrs Carson, by the next pain, I want you to push as hard as you can. Really bear down." The doctor instructed and Elsie found the nurse was right. She was not in charge of her body at all anymore, it was much the other way around. As the next contraction hit her, she made a noise she did not know she was able to make, it sounded foreign to her own ears.

"Good. The baby is crowning. Not long now." The doctor encouraged her.

"Where is Charles?" Elsie panted, wishing he was there, if only to hold her hand, to comfort her through the pain.

"He is in the hall, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his child. So, breathe and..."

Elsie bore down again, pushing as hard as she could and she could feel how she was being completely pulled apart and then how her child slid out of her. An angry cry filled the room and she noticed how the nurse took the baby from the doctor, who had quickly cut the cord and gave the child a quick clean before wrapping it in a towel and placing it on Elsie's chest.

"It's a beautiful baby girl, Mrs Carson." The nurse crooned. Elsie took hold of the little bundle and stared into the crying face of her daughter. She stroked her tiny little cheek and marvelled at the perfection of her little nose and eyelashes.

"Now, Mrs Carson, there will be one more contraction, just go with it, don't fight it." The doctor announced it just as Elsie felt it. Something slithered out of her, but she barely registered. Her daughter had taken hold of her finger.

"Hello..." she whispered. "I am your mother..." A tear welled up in her eye and spilled on her cheek. "I've been waiting for you for so long..."

The nurse came over and helped Elsie to let her newborn to her breast. "The sooner the better." The nurse said with a big smile. The doctor was filling out forms. When the baby almost fell asleep, he told the nurse to weigh and measure the baby and then to help Elsie bathe.

When Elsie had changed into a clean nightgown and was wrapped up in cotton, the bed had been given clean sheets and the nurse had settled both Elsie and the baby, then called for Charles and left with the doctor, ready to give their full attention to other patients.

She saw him come in, bashful and scared, but his eyes lit up as she looked up at him and beckoned him. "Come... please..." When he sat in the chair next to the bed, he touched her cheek.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. Tired and sore and a little confused, but look... Look what we have done..." She peeled away the blanket from the baby's face.

And she saw how their daughter jumped straight into her father's heart.

The baby started to fuss and she did what seemed most logical. She opened her gown and started to feed the baby, clumsily, both of them not used to how it worked and no-one present to help them. The latching on was painful and she wondered if it was something she would get used to.

"Sorry." She apologized to Charles. "She is hungry."

"Well, she has had a difficult journey." He kissed Elsie's hair. "We must name her."

"Kathleen." Elsie said.

"Kathleen Elisabeth." He replied.

They both looked how Kathleen suckled and drifted off to sleep.

"Hello, mum." He grabbed her hand.

"Hello dad."

A/N: There she is: Kathleen Carson, very much wanted by both her parents and all happy and healthy. Thank you so much for staying tuned. Epic love for all of you.