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epilogue
sweet child of mine
NINE MONTHS LATER
"Gillian, just breathe! In and out-"
"Respectfully, Tetsu, shut the fuck up!"
"Okay."
Pro tip: if you have the option, get the c-section. Labor is fucking painful, especially when it happens at one in the morning and lasts for three hours.
My mother had flown in to Sannoh to be there for the birth of her grandson, and if I'm being honest, having Courtney Wagner around just made me even more stressed. Tetsu was over the moon about having a son, and he took every possible chance to show off the ultrasound pictures. When I went into labor, he called everybody. And I do mean everybody: the entirety of Sannoh Rengokai was waiting outside the hospital room for the nurses to let them in.
It was overwhelming: people swarming around me, shouts and voices everywhere, the almost constant pain.
But all of that stopped in an instant when we heard the soft cries of a newborn baby carry around the room. I fought the tears as the nurse placed my bundle of joy in my arms.
"He's beautiful." My mom gushed in English, resting her head on my shoulder. "What's his name?"
"Jasper Yuki Morizono." I'd taken Yuki's last name when I filled out my residency paperwork. It only seemed right to carry on his legacy. And when Tetsu and I eventually got married, we'd both take Tetsu's last name too.
My mom looked like she was about to cry. She'd been very emotional at the thought of being a grandmother. She'd even knitted Jasper a baby blanket almost exactly like the one she'd made for me when I was born. My grandmother, excited at the prospect of being a great-grandmother (although she still felt like she was too young for that) knitted Jasper a hat, just like the one that she'd- you guessed it- made me.
"Your father would be so proud of you."
"I know. Yuki would have loved this." I said quietly, looking down at Jasper: his chubby little face, half closed but probably very wide eyes as he reached a pudgy little hand out for me, wrapping his small little fingers around a section of my hair.
Tetsu was sitting in a chair next to the bed, a wide smile on his face as he looked over at me and Jasper. He reached out a finger to brush across Jasper's face, and the newborn responded by dropping my hair and wrapping his fingers around Tetsu's bigger one. And then he started to cry, which in turn made me cry, which made my mother cry. There was a lot of happy crying going on.
"Do you want to hold him?" I asked, pressing my forehead to Tetsu's.
Tetsu nodded excitedly, unable to form the words as he took Jasper in his arms. I reached past my mom for my phone, which was resting on the bedside table. I took a quick picture of Tetsu and Jasper before slumping back on the pillows in exhaustion.
