"Push, Olivia."

The doctor's voice was the only calm and orderly sound she could hear and Alex clung to it, a secure and reassuring bastion appearing in the relative quiet between wrenching shrieks and harsh gasps. Alex had to hang on with all her might to the obstetrician's unworried words and the knowledge that there would be a priceless prize at the end of this long fight. Otherwise, she was sure she could drown in her beloved wife's laborious suffering. She cursed Olivia for her obstinacy; why couldn't she have agreed to the epidural? But, no, Olivia had insisted that doctors with long needles keep their distance. This was her first child, and likely her only opportunity for pregnancy, and she intended to experience every aspect. Alex supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Olivia's hyper-macho attitude was immeasurably dear to her wife. Olivia wouldn't be Olivia if, even as she embarked on this most feminine of undertakings, she didn't take it upon herself to outdistance the boys. Not that, in Alex's opinion, the pain contorting Olivia's face wouldn't make Elliot cry like a baby. No, Olivia was the toughest of the tough. She interpreted the offer of anesthesia to be an insult of the worst kind.

Alex, on the other hand, was seriously wishing that standard operating procedure during birth included offering painkillers to spouses. She knew that Olivia was strong but, as she bore down, she seemed almost possessed by the spirit of Mr. Universe. Alex was absolutely certain, irrational it was, that her hands would resemble juiced lemon rinds by the time the baby arrived. From her supporting posture behind her wife, Alex could offer Olivia both hands and she was beginning to regret it. Every time Olivia shrieked and groaned, she crushed Alex's slender fingers in her iron grasp and Alex muffled her own shouts of pain by pressing her lips to her shoulder. She couldn't believe how badly it hurt. It was something that, if she remembered, she'd ask Elliot about. The thought was marginally reassuring; Kathy had done this three times and Elliot still had the use of his hands. There was hope for Alex too.

Once again, the doctor's voice carried over the noise and commotion with the words that Alex and Olivia had so looked forward to. "I can see the head. Just two more pushes, Olivia. You're doing great."

Alex gasped, the pain spidering out from her hands suddenly a distant and unimportant sensation. This was it. She drew her knees up even tighter, cradling Olivia's straining body as securely as she could manage and moving with her as her spine curved and shuddered. Just as suddenly as she had begun to push, she sagged heavily against Alex, sucking air desperately into her burning lungs and making the most of the brief period of rest. Alex nuzzled against her cheek, kissing, cuddling and whispering. "Oh, Liv, you're so close. Come on, baby. Just one more. You can do it."

Seemingly at the last of her strength, Olivia rose up once again, sobbing unselfconsciously as she struggled through a last push. She hardly believed that she could do it. She was completely exhausted, physically and emotionally. She just wanted to collapse back onto the pillows and breathe. The pain wasn't as bad as she had imagined, mitigated by the endorphins and excitement flooding her bloodstream, but she still craved rest and serenity. She was glad that it was almost over. She couldn't take much more. And then it was finished.

The grinning doctor straightened up, gloved hands clutching a squirmy, skinny infant so that Olivia could look up over her bent knees to see. A red-faced squall broke the comparative silence that still thrummed with Olivia's screams and the two new mothers both gasped with reviving delight. "Congratulations, it's a girl. Would you like to cut the cord, Alex?"

Olivia waved weakly, shooing her wife into action. Olivia had enjoyed the privilege of carrying the infant; Alex deserved the treat of a father's first act. "Go, Alex," she breathed. Gently but quickly, Alex leapt at the opportunity, slipping from behind her wife's body and accepting the surgical shears. Smiling against the overwhelming urge to sob, she broke the last connection between her daughter and her wife and then, glancing back at Olivia, followed the nurses as they whisked the newborn to a far corner. It was all part of the birth plan she and Olivia had mapped out with Dr. Lopez. There were things the doctor had to attend to for her patient that, quite frankly, Alex did not need to see. After all, Alex had too many memories of blood and needles and her wife as a patient. Her job at that moment was that of a mother first, a wife second.

She threw herself wholeheartedly into the task, wedging herself amidst the orderly confusion to keep a watchful eye on everything to do with her new daughter. She felt as alert and potently dangerous as a grizzly bear guarding her darling cub. As an adult, Alex knew that the nurses were caring for the baby, cleaning her up and counting her fingers and toes, but, as a mother bear, Alex wanted to claw her child out of their impersonal hands and deposit her into the safety of Olivia's arms. She bit her tongue and kept the primal urge in check, choosing instead to admire the tiny, screeching, perfect bundle.

Most strikingly, the infant had an unruly, eyebrow-raising head of black hair. Her eyes were squeezed tight shut and she squalled and raged, the tiny sounds emanating from between her toothless gums making a comical contrast with the vehemence indicated by her beet-red cheeks. As the nurses scribbled down her statistics, a soft voice drifted to Alex's ears. "Is she okay?"

Alex had only enough time for a quick glimpse back at her wife before a nurse gently pressed the newborn into her arms. Words escaping her, Alex decided to let Olivia see for herself. With a smile that eclipsed the power of any phrase she could have thought of, Alex cradled her squirming daughter and walked her back to Olivia's bedside. Her eyes flickered between the pinched, red face and her wife's hungry, longing gaze, hardly able to put her thoughts into any semblance of order. She was overcome, with happiness, relief, hope and a bucket's worth of joyful, unshed tears. As she perched one hip on the edge of the bed, Olivia frantically fought to pull her gown down to her waist before holding her arms out.

This desire for her baby was more than just a want. It was a need, an urgent and absolute requirement that she press her newborn to her chest. Utterly irrational, overwhelmed by the biological imperatives dictated by hormones and the tinny racket of the baby's squalling cries, Olivia reached out and eagerly took her child from her wife. Sighing and gasping with love and relief, she folded her arms around her daughter for the first time, brushing away the last corner of the loose pink blanket and cradling her against her breasts. One sob squeezed out of her suddenly tight throat as she fixed every thread of her attention wholly on that tiny face, those impossibly minute fingernails, that silky shock of damp dark hair. This baby was hers, a part of her, fed by her body and influenced by her very genes. She had always expected this moment to be life changing but she had to admit that she hadn't really understood, not until now. This moment was so much more.

Obeying yet another imperative, Olivia tore her focus away from her infant for just a moment, to acknowledge her trembling, tear-stained wife. "Alex," she breathed. "She's beautiful."

One arm encircling her newly expanded family, Alex stroked Olivia's hair with her free hand and caressed her temple with her lips. "I knew she would be," she cooed. Cupping Olivia's chin, Alex drew her in for a deep kiss, giving physical voice to the oversaturated love she couldn't express any other way. She laid adoring claim to every inch of her wife's mouth, full to the brim with tenderness, before relaxing back to pay attention to the now-quiet infant.

As if she understood that she was safe in her mother's arms, the baby's cries had softened and faded until she hiccupped once or twice and opened her eyes to look up at the hovering faces. Alex cooed and Olivia bit her lip. Their daughter had the loveliest dark eyes, round and rich and so much like her mother's that it was almost a shock to look into them. Alex's heart was swelling and breaking at the same time. She almost jumped out of her skin when a hand touched her elbow.

A nurse stood just at her side, smiling and cooing to the new mothers. "I bet she's hungry. Would you like to try feeding her now?" Olivia nodded quickly, suddenly ripped from the fury of labor and the lovingly frantic admiration of her baby and thrust back towards a state relative calm. As Alex grudgingly scooted a little to the side, the nurse guided Olivia's hands, helping her to support the baby appropriately and correctly offer her breast. Alex kept up her vigilant oversight, tracking every nuance and fragment of advice and storing it unconsciously for later use. She might not be directly responsible for breastfeeding but she could learn and help. She smoothed her palm over Olivia's hair, joining in her wife's expectation as they waited through a few tense moments. And then, the moment marked by a sudden gasp on Olivia's part, their daughter took the nipple and began to suckle.

Instantly, a new rush of hormones swept through Olivia's body and she sank into blissful, milky placidity. The baby wriggled gently in her arms, continuing to stare up at her mother for a lingering moment before her eyes fluttered closed as her tiny belly began to fill with her first taste of milk. Olivia sighed, slowly and weightily, and she leaned to rest her head against Alex's solidity. She felt very tired, warm and sleepy and pleased and… complete. The last piece of her life had just fallen into place, a piece she had barely acknowledged as missing in her life before this moment. She couldn't resist a smile and didn't want to. Alex's breath warmed her scalp and Olivia yawned.

"So, Liv, what's it going to be?" Olivia understood exactly what she was referring to. Unsure of the baby's gender, they had narrowed the extensive lists of names down to a few but they hadn't decided on the perfect one. It was to be Olivia's choice. Taking her time, Olivia ran her fingers with feather-light pressure over her daughter's body, touching every part from her tiny round toes to the translucent shell of her perfectly formed ear. She knew what her choice would be.

"Margaret Grace. That's her name. Margaret Grace."

Alex cooed her approval and appreciation. "Good choice, Liv. A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl with eyes like her mother's." She folded one long arm around Olivia's shoulders and tucked the other under her infant, at last proudly enfolding a real little family in her embrace. She took a moment to consider her life. She had fought hard to get here, to get to this hospital suite and cuddle her wife and daughter to her chest. Spats with her parents, the seemingly endless struggle through examinations and heavy tomes, the jagged ups and downs of life in the courthouse, the long evenings of wooing her girlfriend, the chafing rut of medical care and antiseptic wipes, the ecstatic high of her wedding day… All of it melted into the distant background in the face of this new triumph. She was a daughter, advocate, friend, wife and, now, a mother. She very gently swept all of her musings from her thoughts, allowing the power of this moment to take root in her heart and engross her mind. This family was all that was important to her. Her wife and daughter, her Olivia and her darling little Peggy.