JUSTIN 

Emmett called to tell us that Max was finally in labor, and Max was being impossible about going to the hospital.

“Put him on the phone.” I tell Emmett.

“Here talk to Justin, and then we are going to the hospital.” I hear Emmett telling Max.

“Jay, is it true they don’t let you eat anything until the baby’s born?” He ask me.

“Trust me you're not going to want to eat anything.” I tell him.

“I really wanted some Chinese, but Emmett wants to go to the hospital.” He tells me.

“Order on the way, and you can eat it before you get there.” I tell him.

“See Emmett, I knew Jay could find a way for me to eat.” Max tells him.

“Hey, Brian and I are catching the next flight, so we’ll see you as soon as we can.” I tell him.

“You know we should just buy a plane.” Max tells me.

“Why would we buy a plane?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, but… Motherfucker… is there a reason this hurts this bad?” He tells me.

“Something the size of a watermelon is trying to get out of you.” I tell him.

“OUCH, Jay I don’t think I want Chinese anymore, cause it feels like someone is using a sledge hammer on my back.” He tells me.

“Go to the hospital, they give good drugs.” I tell him.

“I wanted to go natural.” He tells me.

“Since when?” I asked him.

“Just wanted to say what you always hear right before the stupid people demand drugs.” He tells me.

Emmett grabbed the phone and told me they would see us at the hospital. The kids and I were on our way to pick Brian up at Kinnetik.

“Uncle Max is having my baby?” Jewel asks me.

“Uncle Max is having Uncle Em’s baby.” Gus tells her.

“Uncle Max said I could call it my baby.” Jewel tells him.

“Daddy is the baby ours?” Aidan ask me.

“No, the baby is Emmett and Max’s baby.” I tell him.

“But you and Dad have babies not them.” He tells me.

“Honey, other people have babies.” I tell him.

“Why have we never seen other babies?” Aidan asks me.

“This is the first one a family member has had.” I tell him.

“Why can’t we have the baby?” Jewel asks me.

“It’s not our baby.” I tell them as we pull up to get Brian.

“Can’t you and Dad have one for us?” She ask me.

“Have what for you?” Brian asks as he gets in the car.

“A baby, Daddy says that Uncle Em and Uncle Max get to keep the baby.” She tell Brian.

“It’s their kid, so they keep it.” Gus tells her.

“But Daddy, I want a baby to play with.” She tells us.

“Honey, you can’t play with a baby. It’s not like your doll, babies aren’t toys.” I tell her.

“Then can I have a doll?” She asks us.

“We can talk about that after we go to see Uncle Max.” I tell her.

MAX

Labor sucks in ways no one ever tells you. First it starts off with twinges and you think ‘this isn’t bad’ then it becomes like someone beating the crap out of you continuously. By the time I  was delivering my child, I decided that Emmett was an asshole and didn’t deserve me for the amount of work getting this kid out was taking. There was no way I was forgetting what this shit felt like. Emmett was Mr. Cheerful, but he wasn’t the one having to do anything. I wanted to get up and punch him when he said ‘one more push’ for the fifth time. I would have too, but the doctor was lifting the baby and I decided when I looked at the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Emmett could live.

“It’s a girl.” Emmett tells me.

I was holding out my arms because it was my girl. The doctor cleaned her and then the nurse put a blanket around her and handed her to me. Emmett sat next to me.

“Emmett is it bad that I love her more than you?” I ask him.

“It’s perfect, because I feel the same way.” He tells me.

“What are we going to name her?” I ask him.

“Why don’t we name her after your sister?” He ask me.

“You wouldn’t mind?” I ask him.

“I think it would be a great way to remember her.” He tells me.

“Welcome to the world Anna.” I tell my daughter.

“Thank you for my daughter, Max.” Emmett kisses her forehead.

“Thank you for giving me a family.” I kiss my husband.

BRIAN

We stayed with Max and Emmett for a couple days. I took the kids out while Justin took care of Anna, so Max could sleep. Justin seemed to just pick up taking care of a baby like he was born to do it. We both had been talking about when to have another baby. I have a feeling that Justin is done waiting and I really don’t see any reason to wait either. 

I waited until we were in bed to ask him if he was ready for another baby.

“Do you want to do it?” I ask him.

“I always want to do it.” He tells me.

Justin undresses and smiles as he crawls up the bed to straddle my lap. He leaned over and kissed me while pulling my shirt over my head. I lift up so he could take my underwear off. I sit up and continue the kiss and flip him on his back. Justin reached for a condom and I stop his hand.

“Brian?” He questions.

“I want to have a baby.” I tell him.

“Are you sure?” He asks excitedly.

I nod and watch the condom drop to the floor. It felt different when I joined us with no barrier. When we were both ready to finish, I thrust one final time and emptied myself into him. 

“It’s feels different when there is a possibility of a new life.” I tell him.

JUSTIN

I was sitting on the bed waiting for Brian to come home. For five months we’ve been trying to have a baby. When I wasn’t pregnant, Brian told me that he was just fine with continuing to try every night. I wanted another baby, but wasn’t going to sit and worry about it. When it happened, it happened as far as I was concerned. 

Brian came into the bedroom to change and walked into the bathroom. I sat waiting for him.

“Justin, what’s this?” Brian asks me coming out with the gift bag.

“Look and see.” I tell him.

Brian reaches in the bag and pulls out the test I took this morning, after he left.

“Congratulations Mr Kinney.” I tell him as he looks at the test.

For me, being pregnant was like any other day. I didn’t have morning sickness or really get sick at all. My problem was Brian suddenly acting as if I was incapable of doing anything. He was driving me insane with his overprotective caveman routine. If I shivered I had blankets wrapped around me. He was consulting the doctor about everything, including sex. I finally had it with him acting like I was incapable of even cooking dinner.

“Jesus Brian, I'm pregnant not dying. You need to back the fuck off.” I tell him. 

“I'm just trying to make things easier for you.” He tells me. 

“I don’t need you constantly hovering over me. I've done this before and managed just fine.” I snap at him. 

“I HAVEN'T! “ Brian yells 

“What are you two arguing about?” Mel asks coming in the kitchen. 

“Brian seems to think I can’t wipe my ass unless he's there.” I tell her. 

“Excuse the fuck out of me, for wanting to take care of you.” He snaps at me and walks out of the kitchen. 

“Why can't he understand that he doesn't have to do everything? It’s not my first time having a baby.” I tell Mel.

“Justin, he's never done this before.” She tells me. 

“Jewel and Gus tells me he has.” I tell her. 

“Brian has never been around when the person was pregnant. This is new to him.” She tells me. 

“What about Michael and Lindsay, he had to have been around sometime?” I ask her. 

“He was, but not on a daily basis. Justin, in a way you're having the first child that Brian has. He didn’t get to be with you when you were pregnant with Aidan. Lindsay and I didn't include him in things with her pregnancy. Michael tried, but Brian didn’t want anything to do with him. Stop treating him like he's in the way, because this is new for him.” She tells me. 

“It’s hard for me to have him treat me like I might break if I do anything. “ I tell her.

“He loves you, let him help.” She tells me. 

“When did you get so smart?” I ask her. 

“When someone told me to start living again.” She tells me. 

“I need to go apologize to him.” I tell her. 

“I'll watch the kids. Take your time.” She tells me. 

 I go to find Brian and hope he wasn't pissed enough to leave the house. I finally find him sitting on the roof.

“Why are you up there?” I ask him. 

“I didn’t want to make finding me easy on you.” He sneered. 

“I'm sorry, it's just different having you with me. I didn’t have that when I was pregnant with Aidan.” I tell him. 

“If I hadn't tossed you out, you would have.” He tells me. 

“Brian, that wasn’t the only reason.” I tell him. 

“You're right, I also made it impossible for you to feel you could tell me that your were pregnant.” He tells me.

“We need to buy some wood.” I tell him.

“Why?” He asked me.

“For the cross you can hang on when you want to blame yourself for everything. Brian, I was eighteen and didn’t understand everything wasn’t happily ever after. So when things got complicated, I didn’t talk to you either. What would you have said if I had told you?” I ask him.

“I wouldn’t have been jumping for joy at first, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have kicked you out.” He tells me.

“I was acting like a child who took his toys away to punish you. I got on that plane and thought to punish you for not being the perfect boyfriend. You just got robbed, and at the time I really thought I didn’t set the alarm. Instead of staying somewhere you could find me, I took off and went to New York. Michael said at the trial he followed me all over the city, until I went to make a call. Do you want to know who I was calling?” I ask him. 

“Me.” He tells me. 

“No, I was going to call Daphne and have her tell you where to find me. I was still being childish. I wanted to make you feel like shit, because I was mad at you. Instead of telling you first, I was going to tell other people I was pregnant. If I hadn’t been acting like a child you would have been there to see Aidan born.” I tell him. 

“Justin, it doesn’t matter what you did. I acted like my things were worth more than you.” He tells me.

“Can we just call it even, you for not knowing what was going on and me for not trusting you enough to talk to you?” I ask him.

“I just can’t promise you that I’m not going to want to do everything that I couldn’t when you had Aidan.” He tells me.

“I can promise you that I won’t run away from you, even when I you drive me crazy.” I tell him.

Brian climbs down the ladder and I run to him.