When She Smiles

Chapter 33

Epilogue

(six years later)

It was a beautiful day the sun was shining, birds were chirping, flowers were in bloom and Gaara was in the spare bedroom of their house putting together the new crib they had received from Naruto at their baby shower. The room was decorated in pale purples and pinks, and framed on the wall was the ultrasound of their baby. Everything was set up except the crib which Gaara was still trying to figure out, though luckily he was getting it down rather quickly. It had taken him a good hour but once the crib was set up he admired the little room, it was perfect. Picking out Hinata's favorite of the three crib bed sets the red head went to work putting on the sheets, blankets and crib bumpers, he wanted the finished nursery to be a surprise for when she came home from her father's house.

Finally he heard the sound of the car pulling into the driveway and made his way down the stairs to meet her at the door.

"Welcome home my beautiful wife." Gaara said as she opened the door smiling at him, Hinata would never get tired of being called his wife, or calling him her husband.

"Thank you my handsome husband."

"How have my girls been doing?" he asked resting his hands on her large belly feeling as the baby kicked.

"Well she seems to be doing just fine, I on the other hand feel thoroughly beaten up, I think Misa's mad at me today, she'd been doing this for hours now not to mention those false contractions. I'm getting all beat up here" Hinata said wincing from a particularly sharp kick. "I'm sensing a good bit of your sister in her too by the way."

"Yeah I'm sorry about that, can't really control my genes." Gaara said with a shrug as Hinata playfully slapped his shoulder. "But I do have something to show you." The red head said walking behind the bluenette and covering her eyes. "Let's go, start walking, we're going up stairs." he said leading her through the living room and up the steps in the hall taking a left at the top of the stairs.

"Gaara where are we going?" Hinata asked as he led her in the direction of the bedrooms finally pausing in front of a door.

"Are your eyes shut?"

"Yes and even if they weren't your hands are covering my eyes Gaara." Hinata said with a laugh hearing a door swing open.

"Ok, you ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Removing his hands from her eyes Gaara walked in front of her to see the look on her face. Hinata opened her eyes and stared in surprise as joy welled in her chest. The baby's room was finally finished. Hinata beamed at her husband who grinned at her, smiling as she hugged him hard.

"I love the room, I love you."

"I love you too, kettle's already on the stove."

"Good, I'm going to make some tea and grab my camera to take a picture of the room, I'll be right back." Hinata said making her way down stairs leaving Gaara in the nursery and feeling accomplished as he looked around. He'd built everything himself and it all looked amazing. Suddenly the sound of shattering glass had him hurrying down the stairs.

"Gaara!"

"Is everything ok?" he asked entering the kitchen taking note of the shattered mug on the floor and grabbing the broom.

"It broke." Hinata said in a choked voice.

"It's ok, it's just a cup we'll get a new one just relax." He said softly kneeling down and picking up the large shards.

"No Gaara not the cup my water broke." Hearing this he quickly looked up at her noticing the slowly growing stain of wetness on her shorts. Quickly the bluenette hurried to the bathroom and Gaara waited outside the door.

"Hinata is everything ok?"

"No it's not ok I'm probably going into labor!" she yelped from the other side of the door. Gaara opened the door and peeked in finding Hinata sitting on the toilet and flipping through one of the pregnancy books she'd had lying around and finally paused at a page reading. Finally after a few moments she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are we good?"

"The book says that real labor won't start for a good twelve hours or so, maybe longer." Hearing this Gaara too sighed.

"Good, that's a relief."

"Gaara?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you get me another pair of pants and panties?" she asked sounding completely miserable, and hearing it in her voice he blinked before nodding.

"I'll be right back." Heading up the stairs the red head grabbed a pair of black stretchy capris and a pair of panties heading back down to the bathroom. After receiving her change of clothes and giving herself a quick wash Hinata walked from the bathroom glad she still had pads under the sink.

"So what's the plan?"

"We pack an overnight bag and deal with this as it comes."

"Well the bag's all set, even the baby bag."

"Oh that's good. Would you mind making me some tea? My back hurts." The bluenette said walking to the living room and slowly sinking onto the couch. Gaara returned minutes later with the heating pad and a mug of tea. Leaning forward Hinata allowed him to place the heating pad on the back of the couch, and finally with tea in hand she lay against the pad feeling the heat soothe her back. The bluenette had come to terms that those false contractions she'd been having for the last day now were actual ones. Closing her eyes serenely she pushed through another contraction with a deep steady breath. Sitting next to her Gaara pulled her close kissing the top of her head.

"I can't believe in the next day or so Misa's gonna be here." Once again the baby kicked sharply.

"Ow. You know I think she kicks me every time we call her that."

"Maybe she doesn't like it?"

"Well it's her name and that's that Miss Misa." Hinata said rubbing her belly where her daughter once again kicked. With a sigh she shook her head and closing her eyes Hinata rested for a bit as she lay her head on Gaara's shoulder.

O0o0o0

Hinata woke feeling pain on a much different level than before, this was a 'go to the hospital right now' pain. Suppressing a gasp of pain Hinata pushed herself off the couch feeling a growing pressure as another contraction struck and came hard.

"Oh this doesn't feel good at all." Walking from the living room and into the kitchen the door opened.

"Hinata how are you feeling?"

"Like I'm in labor, where'd you go?"

"I put the car seat in and packed the car." Gaara said simply.

"Good job because we're leaving right now."

"All right, let's go." The red head said grabbing his keys and wallet and pulling Hinata's purse off the side table before locking the door behind them. Getting in the driver's seat he started the car heading off towards the hospital. Once they hit a red light he grabbed his cell phone and called a number.

"Amy. Yes this is Gaara, cancel all of my appointments for today and tomorrow the baby's on the way. Good, yes good, thank you." He said hanging up and flipping through the contacts once again before dialing another number.

"Lo Hello?"

"Your niece is on the way."

"Yes! It's about damn time Gaara Hinata shoulda' popped much sooner than this."

"She's a week away from her due date, she's pretty much on time Kankuro."

"it's all in the details." He said rolling his eyes "I'll be there in a half an hour, Tems on staff."

"That can only go so well."

"I know she'll be running the whole damn show. Take pictures!"

"Invasion of privacy much?"

"No precious family memories Gaara. Whatever I'm heading there now."

"See you soon." Once again Gaara hung up and deciding this would be a good time Hinata reached into her purse pulling out her own phone and dialed in her father's number.

"Hiashi speaking."

"Hi Daddy."

"Hinata, is something wrong?" hearing this Hinata laughed nervously, especially since she'd only been by a few hours ago to see him.

"I'm in labor."

"Your sister and I will be at the hospital immediately where are you?"

"On our way right now."

"Good we'll see you soon, I'll tell Neji." With that her father hung up, and Hinata had a feeling that her father would be at the hospital much sooner than they would. Next to call was Kurenai.

"Hey Hinata, what's up?"

"The baby's on the way."

"Ok sweetie everything will be fine." Kurenai said in a soothing voice that made Hinata burst into tears startling the red head beside her.

"I'm so scared! It's gonna hurt and it already hurts and I'm so tired of being fat!" the bluenette wailed, her rampaging hormones getting the better of her.

"Yes Hinata it will hurt you're about to give birth, it's going to hurt like hell but you can get an epidural for the pain, and you are not fat, you're pregnant, that's all baby there. I'll be there in the next hour or so, Asuma's working his second job and junior here has to get dropped off at his grandparents but I'll see you soon hun, just remember to keep breathing."

"O-Ok." Hinata sniffed hanging up the phone

"Feel any better after that?" Gaara asked warily, Hinata's shifting moods were very vast and frightening.

"Yeah I do feel a bit better actually." With a sigh of relief Gaara continued on their way to the hospital.

O0o0o0

It had been hours and the only thing to happen was an increase in the pain she felt and Gaara did not like that. In the room was her father, cousin, sister, and Kurenai. Temari had visited during her shift and just left to go to her place to get changed only to come back, and Kankuro doing his rounds hitting on all the nurses.

The wait was long and grueling and eventually after Hinata let out a cry of pain from the particularly strong back to back contractions Hiashi got pissed off at the lack of attention his daughter was receiving from the nurses and stormed from the room, only moments later Temari arrived once again looking absolutely thrilled.

"Hinata, dear dear Hinata, your dad just threatened to sue the hospital."

"WHAT?!" walking over the blonde opened the door and all of them could hear the man shouting down the hall.

"…And how long does she have to suffer in there before you get up and do your damn jobs? And another thing-" Temari closed the door with a smirk before walking over to the other side of the room.

"Expect pain relief in 3…2…1…" right on cue the door opened and a frazzled looking nurse hurried into the room.

"Mrs. Sabaku we've been informed that your pain has increased?"

"Substantially." She said gritting her teeth after another wave of pain squeezing her husband's hand.

"Ok I'll have the doctor come right in, are you having any strong feelings of pressure?"

"Ow, ow, ow, my hand Hinata ow!" Gaara said quietly.

"YES!" she yelled at the nurse who scurried from the room. "And don't you dare 'ow' me, you did this to me, this is your fault!" Ouch, that one hurt and seeing the look on his face Hiashi walked over to his son-in-law pulling him aside.

"For the next several hours or so, everything will be your fault, it's just the pain talking, Hina was the same way, well she was actually kind of worse she threatened me with divorce if I ever brought up the thought of having another child ever again… but just take it in stride, she doesn't mean it." Hearing this made Gaara feel better as he sat on the chair next to Hinata holding her hand. Moments later they watched as the door opened and a doctor entered.

"Ok so whose having the baby here?" the man said trying and failing to lighten the mood as Hinata gave him a deadly glare. "Right, so I'm- I'm the one on call right now so who will be staying to watch the birth?"

"I'm staying with my wife." Gaara said firmly.

"Like you ever had a choice."

"Hinata I love you to death but that all looks like it'll be really gross so I'll be in the hall." Kankuro said with a smile.

"I'll be making sure he doesn't harass any of the nurses." Temari said.

"I will be staying with my daughter. Hanabi will be in the hall."

"But Dad!"

"Not a snowball's chance in hell." Hinata said pinning her little sister with a look that made the younger girl pale.

"Right, a ok."

"I'll keep Hanabi out of trouble." Neji said pushing the girl ahead of him

"I'll be staying with my god daughter."

"Right, that appears to be everyone." The doctor said watching as they walked from the room. "Right now I'm going to check your dilation and we'll go from there ok?"

"What about something for the pain?" Gaara asked.

"It depends on how far along she is..." he said lifting the sheet and bending down to check her dilation. "She's kind of too late for that now though the baby's already crowning."

"WHAT?! Because your nurses are ridiculously inefficient my daughter has to suffer through this with no pain relief!?"

"Unfortunately yes. Though it could have been that her labor progressed at a faster rate than anticipated. But not to worry, I have done this for years, and for centuries women have been giving birth without pain medication, it can be done."

"But I WANT pain medication!"

"I'm truly sorry Mrs. Sabaku but right now it can't be done, the only one efficient enough is an epidural and you're too far along in your labor for there to be any real effect. I'll call in the team and we'll get this done."

"Hinata everything is going to be fine ok?" Kurenai said trying to calm the panicking woman who was having none of it.

"NO IT'S NOT! If all's going to be fine and well you do it then!"

"Sweetie, I already had a baby."

"Hinata." Gaara said softly earning her attention. "Relax, I am right here for you. You have to stay calm because the more you panic the more it will hurt, breathe. Ok? Breathe." He said taking deep calming breaths. "Are you calmer?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, now do that silly breathing thingy they taught us at that weird birthing class."

"Ok." Hinata said starting a pattern squeezing his hand tightly once again. Finally the doors opened once again and the doctor entered followed by several nurses.

"Are you ready to have this baby Mrs. Sabaku?"

"No but it's not like we have a choice." She said groaning.

"All right, let's have us a baby." The doctor said donning gloves and getting to work.

O0o0o0

And he was terrified, every painful sound Hinata made scared him to death as she practically broke his hand as she endured ridiculous amounts of pain.

"Ok, one more big push should do it now." The doctor said catching the red head's attention.

"You hear that one more push, you're doing great." He said softly holding her hand tightly, and after a good sixteen hours, their baby was born. Gaara stared as they placed the baby on Hinata's chest so they could get the first look at their baby. She was covered in blood and slime and a whole bunch of gross gooey stuff, but she was his, and she was beautiful crying her little heart out. The nurse took the baby cleaning her off and after taking measurements and her weight offered her to Gaara who accepted immediately, he could see bluish purplish hair poking out from under her pink hat, sitting on the bed next to Hinata he hugged her tightly holding their daughter between them.

"Have you any ideas for a name?" The nurse asked.

"Yes it's-"

"Gaara wait…She doesn't look like a Misa, not at all." Hearing this Gaara nodded, she was right, then he had a thought.

"I have an idea…" he said looking from Hiashi to Hinata. Leaning over he whispered his thought into her ear, and for a moment Hinata stared at the baby as a smile crept across her face.

"I think that would be perfect."

O0o0o0

Three days later the couple and their newborn were home safe and sound surrounded by family and friends who had come over, all there to welcome home the newest edition, Hina Sabaku, named after her grandmother.

The (real) End

The story has been completed in a years time, it turns one today, shocker huh? You've been following this for a good year, where does time go? Kinda scary when you think about it. Thanks for sticking with this story to the end guys, and just so you know your reviews mean the world to me so for ALL of those who did review, thank you very much. TT^TT Much love and forever writing! ^_^ -Nikki