[ FAMILY ] t i e s. - a tayvis story.

[ EIGHTEEN ]

"I want to push," Taylor told the midwife. She was the same midwife from Khi's birth. After giving birth to Koa in a hospital in Argentina, Taylor refused to do the hospital route for birth ever again. She felt forced into things she didn't feel comfortable with, and when she became pregnant the second time, in France rather than North or South America, she and Travis looked into home birth options. They were lucky enough to find a midwife whose views aligned with theirs, and they have stuck with her ever since. She also helped with Selena's pregnancy with Magic and Brittany's pregnancy with Golden before the baby passed.

"It's not time for that yet, sweetheart. You don't want to tear. You're only 8 centimeters," the midwife told her. This had been the conversation for the last three hours. Her water had broken around 5 PM, and now, it was almost 5 AM. She was tired of having contractions, and she was tired of being in pain. She was ready for this baby to be out of her. She was ready to hold her baby and see who she would look like. With Koa looking more like Travis and Khi looking more like Taylor, everyone was eager to see who Kali would resemble more. Taylor felt as if the baby girl would look like her daddy, simply based on the 4D ultrasound pictures that hung on their refrigerator. The ultrasounds looked just like Koa to her, even though Travis felt the pictures looked more like Khi. After many playful arguments, they placed a bet on who the baby would look like when she finally arrived.

"Where's Trav?" Taylor groaned, her eyes closed as she tried to breathe through the pain.

"I'm here, Pretty," he called to her, carrying a pot of boiling water to add to the birthing pool that she was sitting in. Not to far behind him was Kylie, carrying another pot filled with water to fill the pool.

She opened her eyes slightly, looking up at him and Kylie as they poured the water into the now lukewarm pool." I want you to get back in with me," she told him, letting out another long groan as she experienced yet another contraction.

"Alright, give me a few more minutes, okay?" He walked back to the kitchen, Kylie not far behind him. He placed the empty pot on the counter and picked up a full pot, doing the same as he had before. He walked over to the pool and poured the water into it. "Is that better?"

"Yes," she replied, nearly breathless. She took a deep breath, trying to breathe through her contractions. Travis took the pot back to the kitchen and then walked back into the living room, where their makeshift birthing center was set up. He stepped into the pool and sat down beside her, taking her into his arms and pulling her into him. He kissed the top of her head.

"You're doing amazing, Pretty," he told her as she made herself comfortable, laying her head on his chest. He ran his fingers up and down her back, and she tried to focus on breathing through the pain she was feeling.

"This might be a bad time to bring this up," Kylie said as she took a seat on the couch that had been pushed back from its original position to make room for the birthing pool. "But why do you call her Pretty instead of Taylor?" Kylie had been wondering since the day she realized that Travis called her nothing else. She had been living with them for a little over four months, and it was something that was resting heavily on her mind. It had to be the cutest thing she had ever witnessed in her life, and she was dying to know the backstory.

Travis let out a small laugh. "I call her Pretty because she hates when I call her Taylor." Travis stroked his wife's hair, one of the many ways that he comforted her when she was either in a bad mood or in pain. "It all started when I first talked to her. She was standing behind the bar of Playmarkers Pub. She was doing her job, but she looked beautiful. I didn't know her name, so I just started to call her Pretty Girl because she was a pretty girl. I had called her it so much, that by the time I asked her her name, she just told me her name was pretty girl. I don't remember when she finally told me her name, but Pretty Girl just stuck. I've called her Pretty Girl or Pretty ever since."