L A Y L A ' S   P O V

Derek stops screaming long enough to call an ambulance and Spencer stops freaking out long enough to grab some blankets and towels and help me get Averie set up.

This is definitely not ideal, but we've made it as sterile as a campsite in the woods can get.

"We'll be over here!" Derek yells from fifty yards away. He has Aidan in his arms, both of them blocking each other's eyes with their hands, clearly not wanting to witness a minute of this spontaneous premature labour. "Yell if you need anything!"

"Do you know what you're doing?" Spencer asks me.

I can't say I'm trained or qualified in any way but.. "I think I'm the best option we've got right now."

First step.. check how dilated she is.

I grimace at Averie. "I love you but my hand is not going in there."

"I don't blame you," She cries along with a very sharp this is not real life. "Spencer, you need to do it."

"Ten centimetres," Spencer concludes. "The head is right there."

"Okay, good." I say to him. "Now you focus on her."

The next five minutes is filled with lots of breathing, contracting, a fair amount of swearing, lots of positive encouragement from Spencer and Averie cursing the fact that she couldn't get an epidural through every push.

"Is the ambulance coming?" Averie cries. "The baby is premature. What if there's health risks—"

"Ave,  you can't think about that right now." Spencer says, beating me to it. "You need to focus on getting the baby out."

With a few more pushes and a few short breaks in between, I can officially see the head.

"The worst part is almost over, Averie." I say to motivate her. "You're doing so great. Keep going."

Slowly but surely with each push the baby gets closer and closer. Once the head is out I make sure the cord isn't wrapped around the neck and thankfully, it isn't.

"One last push," Spencer says, kissing her head. I must say, he is going a good job at not reacting to the brutal hand squeezing he's getting. Im pretty sure his hand is turning purple. "You're almost there."

"I am never letting you convince me to do this again," Averie cries through her groans of pain. Spencer's counting her breaths, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "You're getting that vasectomy this time!"

The baby's shoulders, torso and legs follow and it's all over. I have never been more relieved than when that baby lets out a strong healthy wail and when I place that little baby on Averie's chest there is not a dry eye between us.

"It's a boy, Spencer." Averie sobs, tears turning to ones of joy.

"You did it, Averie." Spencer sniffles, grabbing his little hand. "He's perfect."

To the best of my knowledge that baby is healthy and happy so my work here is done. I don't want to intrude on a very special and personal moment for them so I make sure to cover them over with a blanket before I step away.

"Derek?" I call out as I approach. They're both still looking into the abyss of trees. I use my forearm to wipe the sweat off my forehead. "I think I can add obstetrician to my resume."

Derek turns slightly, peaking through his parted fingers. "Is it over? Everyone okay?"

"It's over." A grin breaks out across my face. "The baby is here and perfect."

Aidan joins him, peeking through his fingers. "Is it a brother or sister?"

I may have involuntarily included myself on a very significant moment in their lives so I'm not about to ruin another one for them. "I think your mom and dad will want to tell you that."

Sirens draw closer and closer and thankfully the ambulance pulls up to the cabin. Derek and Aidan hang back again while I approach the paramedics and give them a run down on what just happened.

It's not long before Averie is on a stretcher being wheeled up to the back of the ambulance and the paramedics don't seem to be too worried about any complications so that makes me feel one hundred times better.

"Layla," Averie starts, those thankful tears making another appearance. She looks down at that sweet little baby she's cuddling in her arms before back to me. "You have no idea.."

"I'm the best." I tease. "I know."

"What do I need to bring?" Spencer asks, frantically looking around. "Aidan.. the car.."

"Go with them," I say to Spencer, nudging him into the ambulance. "We've got it."

Spencer suffocates me with the biggest hug, pouring all his gratitude into me. "Thank you," Finally taking a breath, he settles. "If you weren't here I don't know what I would have done."

"I can't believe you just did that, Layla." Only when the ambulance pulls down the driveway does Derek approach, sparing Aidan and mainly himself all the gory visuals. He smiles at me. "You should be so proud."

The last hour of my life has completely thrown me for a loop. I might be pregnant and I just delivered my cousins baby but the only thing I can think of is..

"I need to wash my hands."

-

"Now do a silly one."

I giggle as I snap another photo of Aidan. He's being such a good sport for my impromptu photo shoot in the hospital waiting room.

I brought him to the gift shop on the way in where he picked out a balloon and a teddy bear and I spotted a 'big brother' tshirt just before we hit the checkout so he's fully kitted out. He's absolutely adorable and I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of him.

Derek dropped us off at the hospital then went over to Spencer and Averie's house to pick up their hospital bags which thankfully over prepared Averie had already packed.

As far as I'm aware the baby is currently getting some tests done to make sure everything's okay. We haven't heard anything yet, but I'm feeling confident.

As Derek comes down the hallway, bags in hand he spots Aidan first and his new tshirt. He still has my sunglasses on from our photoshoot, the balloon is tied to his wrist and the bear is tucked under his arm. "Dude. You look so cool."

We only get two rounds into I spy before I quite literally spy Spencer coming down the hallway.

Aidan hops down from the chair, running as fast over to him as his little legs will carry him. "Dad!"

Spencer hoists him up into his arms, grinning at his son. "Are you ready to meet the baby?"

Our sighs of reliefs are audible when Spencer gives us a quick nod, confirming everything with the baby is okay before him and Aidan disappear down the hall.

Derek's arm comes around me, tugging me into his side. His lips press to the crown of my head. "How are you feeling?"

There's a whole mess of thoughts going on in my head, so I give him the highlights. "Tired. Confused. Scared."

Derek props his shoulder up for me to rest my head against him. We keep our voices low even though the waiting room is quite empty. There's a few people dotted around but no one in earshot.

"Do you feel okay about taking a pregnancy test?"

"I don't really have much of a choice. Whether I take it or not the answer is still going to be the answer."

"I got one in the store," Derek whispers to me. "It's down in the car."

I lift my head up and our eyes meet. "When we get home?"

His smile is warm. "When we get home."

Maybe about fifteen minutes pass before Spencer comes to get us and we follow him down the hallway to their room.

Averie is in the bed with Aidan tucked under her arm, helping him hold the baby. He looks absolutely infatuated already.

"It's a little brother!" Aidan tells us with pure, genuine excitement. "I have a brother!"

The baby is swaddled in a blue blanket, sleeping soundly in their arms. He's cleaned off now so I can get a better look at his face, and one thing for sure is that Spencer has strong genes.

"He looks just like Spencer," I shake my head disapprovingly at Averie. "All the work and no reward."

Her frown at Spencer is teasing, only slightly serious. "If the next one doesn't look like me I'm suing."

"The next one," Spencer laughs. His eyes dart to Aidan quickly, just like they always do when he's about to use a word he doesn't want to explain. "So no snip?"

Her eye roll is instant. "You know you can't use anything I say in labour against me."

The baby starts to stir, letting out a couple cries and Aidan spooks. His eyes dart up as he slowly inches away. "Is it someone else's turn now?"

I step up eagerly and Averie passes me the baby gently and I cradle him to my chest, supporting his head with my arm. Holding this little baby in my arms makes the possibly of me being pregnant not seem so scary anymore. How could something this small and fragile be scary?

I look over to Derek and when our eyes meet he's smiling at me, so lovingly. There are so many thoughts storming behind his eyes but the main one is screaming at me. Someone has baby fever.

"Do you want to tell Layla and Derek his name?" Averie asks Aidan.

"His name is Evan." Aidan says at the same moment I pass the baby to Derek to hold. That good because I might have dropped him otherwise.

"Evan," I repeat in disbelief, looking at Averie and Spencer. My last name is Evan's, so it's not hard to connect the dots. Great, now I'm crying. "His name is Evan?"

Averie nods, smiling when she accepts the hug she was getting whether she liked it or not. "After the best aunt and the main character in my birth story that will not be topped."

I'm crying, she's hugging me, Aidan joins in, closely followed by Spencer.

"Wait," Derek says, completely unaware of the emotional moment happening right now. "So if I delivered the baby you would have called him Morgan? I struck out."

-

Since they're stuck in the hospital for probably a couple days it came without question that Aidan would be staying with us. Not only is the hospital no place for a toddler, Spencer and Averie need time alone to bond with the baby.

Aidan was so excited for another movie night but we barely got some dinner into him before he passed out, drained from the activities of today.

After putting him into bed Derek finds me in our en-suite, pregnancy test in hand.

My eyes meet his in the mirror. "I'm so nervous."

I can tell he's excited, so excited, but he's trying to hold back because he can sense my hesitation.

He takes my face in his hands so gently, tilting my face up to his. "No matter what it says we're okay and everything will work out just how it's meant to. Okay?" He kisses me, so softly. "I love you."

Even though the instructions are pretty clear I read the box just to make sure. As I expected, pee on the stick and wait for the results.

My heart is racing the whole time. When I close the cap over the top. When Derek passes me a towel after I wash my hands.

The idea that the trajectory of our whole lives could change depending on what this little stick says is a strange feeling and the three minutes we wait for the results are daunting. And when the alarm goes off it takes everything in me to flip the test over.

Negative.

"Negative." I say in disbelief. I can't tell if a weight has just been lifted from my shoulders or the pit in my stomach just got deeper. "It's negative?"

Given todays events and that adorable baby we just left in the hospital, my opinion may be biased but I think.. I think I would have been happy if it was positive. Scared, but happy.

If you had told me this morning that this is how I'd be ending my day to say I wouldn't believe you is an understatement. I don't want it to, but a tear drops down my cheek. "This is so stupid. Why am I crying?"

"It's okay to be upset," Derek says sweetly and thankfully I don't see any disappointment on his face at the negative result, because I think that would have twisted the knife. I've never known comfort like it when he holds me in his arms and he always knows just what to say. "This all happened so fast and regardless of whether you expected or wanted this, it's okay to be sad."

My tears have mostly dried by the time he gets me into bed. He puts on the tv but the two of us are too distracted to watch so we let it fade into background noise. I'm curled into his side while he tickles my back and plays with my hair as we begin the conversation we've had before, but never this serious.

"I need you to tell me exactly how you feel." Derek is thankfully very good at understanding that at the end of the day it's the woman that has to go through all the pregnancy changes, physically and mentally, alone so he's always said these decisions are up to me. "I need your opinion."

"I think if you decide this is something you want right now we're ready. Financially, mentally, physically." Derek hesitates for a second, then he continues. "And I think you being so upset at that negative result definitely says something."

Exactly my thoughts. "It does, doesn't it?"

Derek takes our laced fingers up to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. "We don't have to be actively trying if that's too much for you.. but we could continue how we have been not preventing it. If it happens it happens."

I smile. "I think I like that idea."

-

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! 🩷