Mistaken Consequences

Chapter 31: June 28th, 9:21 pm

Helene had thought she was all cried out, but as the minutes ticked by, a steady stream of tears began to trickle down her face again. The hallway where she sat felt too big, too empty, her only company being her husband's breaths on the other end of the line and the occasional woman's cry drifting from further down the hall.

For the first time, she wondered if maybe she shouldn't have come. Maybe she wasn't wanted here. She should have waited for Niall. They could have visited afterwards. She didn't need to be here...

"Is Hamish-" Niall suddenly cut the silence, several minutes in. "He's in there, right? She let him?"

Helene smiled weakly as she remembered watching the two of them together. "Whatever their history, they were leaning on each other when I got here. She's not having that baby without him."

"Good," Niall murmured, falling into silence once more.

By the time a new sound broke through, Helene was openly crying. She stood and walked closer to the door.

"She's here. Can you hear her?" she asked quietly.

She wasn't sure if Niall could hear the sound of their granddaughter's cries through the phone, but she could hear Niall's.

Lilith kept her eyes shut as she hummed along to the music blaring through her headphones. She was never having children. Never. If childbirth could make someone as stoic as Vera Stone scream so much, Lilith wanted nothing to do with it. Even this was too close for her comfort, as well as the other wolves.

Randall had tried to steal one of her earbuds, and when she'd refused, he and Jack had decided to go outside for a few minutes. She'd almost joined them – the earbuds only helped drown out the screams so much – but she felt like someone needed to stay.

Somebody needed to keep the non-wolves up to speed. Alyssa, Gabrielle and Kepler were all watching them closely, knowing she, Jack and Randall would be the first to hear the cries of Hamish and Vera's daughter.

And then there was Lily herself. Lilith had unintentionally saved her life, by unintentionally saving Vera's. She had played a role in ensuring that baby girl's very existence. Vera had recognized that, had chosen her daughter's name with that in mind. She couldn't just leave in the final minutes before Lily was born.

Still...she didn't envy Hamish his place at Vera's side, even if he was exactly where he wanted to be.

It took Lilith a minute to realize Vera's pained sounds were no longer a background to her music, and she tentatively removed one earbud to listen.

The sound of babies mewling and crying over the past hours wasn't new and had deadened her ears to the sudden addition of a new cry, but she heard it now – the angry wail of a newborn, unhappy at being shoved out into the cold world.

A smile began pulling at Lilith's mouth as she pulled out her phone and sent Randall a text.

The screaming stopped.

All eyes were on her when she looked up again and she nodded.

"Lily's here."

Hamish couldn't stop staring. Vera was really beside him, her cheeks still lightly flushed from exertion, his daughter held to her breast and suckling sleepily. It was real. She was here. And so was he.

Vera kept glancing up at him and smiling with a tired happiness. He'd seen her smile before. He'd even heard the quiet, almost soundless burst of laughter when something truly amused her. He'd never seen her so obviously content, though. Vera Stone had been made to be a mother.