𝓢𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓷𝓪𝓬𝓱'𝓼 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓒𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓭

4

~October 1st 1767~

"Hmmmmm.... haaghhh.... hnngg..."

Claire was red in the face, sweat dripping down her temple and rushing down her neck as she walked around the quaint log cottage Jamie had built as their new home here at Fraser's ridge. Her wispy curls of silver streaked dark hair was sticking to her sweaty forehead partially and in a complete disarray fanning around her rosy face.

"Aunty, what can I do to help?"

Young Ian asked worriedly, watching the woman laboring intensely. A few lines creased in his forehead and he himself had a faint blush to his face, but his was due to a bit of shyness and embarrassment combined.

"Do not fash lad, yer aunty here is a strong healer. She'll have nay issues ordering us around when the time arises."

Jamie responded, walking behind his wife and holding her hips supportively as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, trying anything and everything to simply try and get an ounce of comfort in this painful ordeal.

"Jamieeee!"

The auburn-haired man sensed the urgency in his wife's rising pitch of voice and looked over at his nephew fiercely. Oh it was definitely time now.

"I'll get the pot of water boiling then uncle, and warm blankets."

Ian said, not needing to be told. He had sisters and sisters-in-law alike. Many of who had given birth before. The Murray's sure reproduced like rabbits.

Jamie helped Claire to sit at the edge of a chair, his heart wrenching at the tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. He raised a hand and gently pushed back some of her disheveled hair offering a sympathetic smile and a gentle squeeze to her knee.

"..hhmmm... uhhhhhhh..."

Claire's pained moaning turned into a heavy grunting sound as she began to push. Her body's primal instinct to bear down was rapidly already way ahead of itself. She gripped onto the rickety chair handles for dear life, her knuckles turning ghostly white in the process.

"Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!"

Claire's cries and grunts of desperation lasted all of 3 hours before their handsome baby boy was born in a gush of fluids, straight into Jamie's waiting hands.

"Sassenach! Ye did it! We have a son!"

Jamie was utterly and blissfully enamored over the birth of his son. And boy did the lad have a pair of lungs on him, gracing their ears with his angry cries.