Richard tapped his foot in frustration.

“Relax,” Kate encouraged. “The first baby always takes time. Joey took 18 hours.” A slight tug hit his heart thinking of her going through that alone. No husband, no father. At least Janet had Max at her side.

“Labor and Delivery room eight,” the guard announced. “Up to the fifth floor, there is a door on your right. They’ll buzz you in.”

“Great.” Richard turned toward the elevators.

“Wait up.”

The guard unfolded from his chair and moved around the desk while removing a wand style metal detector.

“Oh geez, I don’t have time for this,” Richard complained.

“Standard operating procedure, sir. I gotta do it.” “Fine.” Richard lifted his left elbow. “I’m carrying, my ID’s in my back pocket.” Suddenly on alert, the guard placed his right hand over his holstered gun. “You a cop?”

“Private security.”

“I’ll get your wallet,” Kate offered.

“No, ma’am, I’ll get it,” the guard said in a stern voice.

Kate pulled her hand back as if stung.

“He doesn’t want you to pull my gun on him,” Richard explained.

After checking his ID and clearing them both, they finally made it to the elevators that took forever to reach the ground floor.

After seemingly hours, they stood in the Labor and Delivery waiting room doing what everyone else was there doing… waiting.

They propped Joey on a pillow provided by one of the nurses so he could continue to sleep. Richard paced the room.

He could hear Janet’s cries from beyond the closed doors. His nose, quickly assaulted with the smell of pain and fear, might never recover. He wished his brother had given him better warning about how sensitive his olfactory nerves were going to work after the change. He glanced at Kate sitting next to Joey with a magazine in her lap. Even armed with more information, he still would have made the same decision. With the baby coming, Max’s priority would be at home. Capturing the wolf who hunted

Kate depended on him. Then again, maybe his father could help.

“I’m going to call my parents, let them know what’s happening,” he explained to Kate who smiled.

“You know where I’ll be.”

He leaned down, brushed his lips to hers, and left the room.

The conversation with his father was brief. The vacation in the Bahamas would meet a quick end and his parents would be at the hospital long before Janet’s discharge. Their excitement of their first grandchild buzzed over the long distance connection.

Watching Richard pace was almost comical.

Kate didn’t know if he could be more nervous if he were having his own child. She tried to calm him several times during the early morning hours, but now it was going on noon and he seemed down right haggard. The five cups of coffee weren’t helping.

Somewhere during the waiting process, she realized their previous evening’s activities could possibly put him in the position of being a father.

Caught up in passion, neither one of them used the precautions they normally did. Although she had gone on the pill with Janet’s suggestion, she was supposed to use two types of precautions for the first month.

Perhaps a side trip to the ER to obtain a morning after pill should be in order. She didn’t want to tax Richard with her worries, worse she didn’t want him to think her irresponsible. She considered her options while appearing to read old copies of parenting magazines.

Joey munched on a bag of chips while coloring pictures of Scooby Doo. Once the baby was born, she could sneak downstairs and check in to the ER. How long could it take? She only needed one little pill.

Richard gave up the pace and sat down beside her. “I don’t think it will be long now,” he said.

“Why do you say that? Max hasn’t given us an update for over an hour.”

Richard’s face grew pale and he gripped her hand. “Don’t you hear… never mind. I just don’t think it will be long.”

She patted his cool hand. No, he didn’t need the added stress of worrying about her possibility of being pregnant. If he was right, and the baby came soon, she could slip downstairs and see a doctor quickly. He would be none the wiser.

Not that the thought of having Richard’s baby wasn’t pleasing, it simply wasn’t the time.

Thirty minutes later, Max staggered through the door with wide eyes and a silly grin.

Richard stood and met him at the door. “Well?”

“It’s a girl.”

Kate clapped her hands together and jumped up to hug the new daddy. Richard roared and pounded his brother’s back. Even Joey got up from his intense coloring session and joined in.

“How’s Janet?” she asked.

“Amazing, she doesn’t even seem tired anymore.”

Kate remembered the first moments of Joey’s life. How exhausting it was during the labor and how thrilling it felt to hold the fruits of that labor in her arms.

“Can we go in?”

“Yeah, the doctor just left.”

They filed into the large Labor and Delivery Suite. Kate could see Janet’s worn eyes behind her smile. She wouldn’t last long before falling asleep.

In her arms was a seven-pound bundle all wrapped up like a little burrito in hospital issue blue and pink striped blankets. A splatter of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes peeked through the little package.

Janet’s proud smile met hers. “See what we made?”

“She’s beautiful,” Kate reached out and stroked her tiny head. “Ten fingers, ten toes?”

“Pink little button for a nose. Yep, I already checked.”

“Uncle Richard?” Janet called him closer to the bed. “Come meet Brandy Marie Ritter. Brandy this is Uncle Richard and Auntie Kate.” Kate moved away when Richard came beside the bed. Janet’s linking of her as family engulfed her heart with joy, even if it wasn’t true.

Janet held little Brandy out for Richard to hold.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can.”

“She won’t bite,” Kate told him.

Richard’s big hands lifted the bundle with complete caution. Once Brandy sat in the crook of his arm, he stared down in awe. There was something about the expression on his face that Kate didn’t think she would ever forget, the power of life being held in your arms where it wasn’t there before. The amazing ability of life to duplicate itself.