Baby Steps
Part 4
Well here you have it, the final installment of my first completed NCIS fic! I hope you enjoyed reading it because I've loved writing. I have to warn you that this chapter is really fluffy and there's not much plot at all!
Thanks so much to: Tiana, Bex, Abc, Sweet Lil Loz, Spiffy-Georgie-Tate-4Eva, Mandy9578, PrestonGal, NCISAbbyLover, Kandon Kuuson, CampbellK2, CharmedBabyWyatt, MWSATDKT and Black Rose Goth for reviewing!
Please review this fic for me one last time:D xxx.
"Anybody having déjà vu?" Tony asked as he drove through the third red light in a row. Every now and then he would take his eyes off the road to look across at Kate to make sure that she was okay.
Kate didn't reply but let out a muffled groan of pain from the passenger seat. By the time they pulled into the hospital car park once more Tony was running purely on adrenaline and later he would remember very little about the manic drive to the hospital and the lead up to the birth of their beautiful child. Tony carefully guided Kate to the reception desk and they were both hurried up to the maternity ward by a female doctor who seemed to appear from out of nowhere.
When they reached the maternity ward the doctor, Claire Tanner, opened Kate's records on the computer screen while a team of midwives escorted the pregnant woman to one of the maternity side rooms. Tony stood nervously in the corridor, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and not quite knowing what to do with himself. Claire seemed to understand his agitation and looked up at him sympathetically.
"Would you like to go through and wait with your wife?" She asked.
"Girlfriend." Tony corrected but he nodded all the same. Wishing, not for the first time, that he had summoned the nerve to ask Kate to marry him but then she had become pregnant and everything had been so hectic ever since. Claire pointed to the door where Kate and the midwives had disappeared a few minutes earlier.
"Although the due date is not for several weeks yet the previous ultrasound scan shows nothing unusual so there's nothing to worry about. Mothers-to-be who suffer with preeclampsia in the way that Caitlin has often results in a slightly premature due date." Claire explained. Tony nodded his understanding, not trusting himself to speak and then headed for the side room.
Midwives surrounded the bed where Kate was laying so Tony stood at the far end of the room. He tried to make eye contact with her but there were too many midwives fussing around her.
"Her cervix is dilating." One of the midwives, Ava, commented. Kate was now wearing a hospital gown rather than the clothes she had been wearing previously.
"The baby is coming." Another said happily, causing Kate to demand to know where Tony was.
"I'm right here." Tony assured her, stepping forward and standing between two of the midwives. He took her hand in his and squeezed gently, letting her know that he wasn't going anywhere.
"Caitlin," Ava began. "Your cervix is fully dilated now, the baby really is on the way. We're going to need you to start pushing now."
Kate shared a look with Tony before turning back to face the nurse.
"Okay." She nodded, gripping Tony's hand so hard that he had to stop himself from crying out in pain.
Ava stood around the other side of the bed and gently encouraged Kate while Claire stood at the bed, waiting for the baby to appear.
"One more push, Caitlin." Claire encouraged while Ava instructed her to maintain her steady breathing. "Come on, Caitlin."
"I can't." Kate said, exhaling sharply. Her long dark hair was stuck to her forehead from the exertion.
"Come on babe, you can do it." Tony persuaded.
Taking Tony's hand in a final bone-crushing grip, Kate pushed as hard as she could.
"I can see the head!" Claire exclaimed and Kate felt such a rush of pride but knew she had to keep going. With one more exhausting push Kate and Tony's baby had finally arrived in the world.
"It's a girl." Claire informed Kate and Tony before taking the tiny bundle away to be washed and checked over.
Tony stroked Kate's face with his hand. "I'm so proud of you, honey." He told her. Kate may be exhausted from childbirth but to Tony she looked more radiant and beautiful than ever.
"I couldn't have done it without you." She replied, leaning her head back against the pillows. "What's taking them so long? I want to see my baby." She said.
"I know, honey." Tony replied. "They'll be back soon."
"Did you want a daughter?" Kate asked.
"I didn't mind." Tony admitted. "What are we going to call her?" He asked, but Kate was prevented from replying when Claire and Ava re-entered the room with a bundle wrapped in pink blankets. Claire handed the baby to Kate who took her into her arms as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"She's beautiful." Kate said, tears of joy in her eyes as she and Tony set eyes on their daughter properly for the first time.
"Just like her mom." Tony said, offering the tiny child his little finger for her to wrap her hands around.
Slowly the midwives and Claire began to file out of the room leaving Kate and Tony alone with their daughter.
"I honestly couldn't be happier than I am right now." Tony said, taking a seat beside Kate's bed and holding their baby in his arms.
Kate smiled. "Me neither. So did we ever decide on a name for her?"
Tony shook his head. "What do you think?" He asked.
Kate leaned over to look their daughter in the face.
"I don't know. I liked the names we thought of but part of me expected to have a son and I don't know why." She admitted.
"I liked the names we thought of too. Grace Isabelle. What do you think about that?" He addressed the bundle in his arms and then looked up at Kate. She nodded her confirmation.
"Grace Isabelle it is." She smiled, leaning over to kiss her baby on the cheek.
"Can we go and see them yet?" Abby pleaded to Gibbs once her boss had received the call from an elated Tony at the hospital.
"In the morning Abs." Gibbs smiled at the Goth's enthusiasm and went off to share the happy news with Jenny Shepard, leaving Abby to find McGee.
"Guess what?" Abby demanded, literally bounding over to Timothy McGee's desk I the bullpen.
McGee had given up on these games with his girlfriend long ago.
"What Abby?" He asked, but good-naturedly.
"Kate's had her baby! Tony just called the boss! She had a little girl called Grace Isabelle, isn't that the cutest name?!" Abby said in a rush that it took a while for McGee to translate.
"Will you take me to see them in the morning Tim?" She asked when he had told her how pleased her was.
"Of course baby," He replied and Abby headed back down to her lab all smiles.
"Isn't she adorable." Jenny Shepard said as she and Jethro Gibbs entered the maternity ward the next morning and saw Kate with her baby in her arms. She looked exhausted but Gibbs and Jenny had never seen her look so happy.
Gibbs nodded, taking the baby from Kate's arms as Tony looked on, playing his role as the proud father extremely well. Abby and McGee entered the room minutes later and Grace was passed from friend to friend before ending up back in Kate's arms.
"She's really quite cute." McGee said, handing the baby back to Kate. "Even if half of her DNA is the same as Tony's."
Normally this would have been rewarded with a head slap from Tony but today he just smiled at the comment.
"Tony and I have some more news." Kate said when things had calmed down a little.
"You're not having another one are you?" Abby asked incredulously.
Kate laughed. "Not yet!"
Tony reached out for her hand and took over from her.
"Kate and I are getting married. We know we've done things out of order but we felt that the time was right."
After many hugs and kisses of congratulations, Abby spoke up.
"Can I be one of your bridesmaids?" Abby asked and Kate nodded, grinning as she did so. "We would also like the four of you to be our baby's godparents if you'd agree to that."
Surprisingly enough, no one argued with this.