More Than Us (Ianthony)

Chapter 24: Finally

Anthony followed the young nurse through the maze of surgical equipment, feeling a lot calmer after Peter's encouraging words, but still feeling a little nervous. However, the remaining bundle of nerves wasn't really bothering him. After all, he didn't expect to be completely nerve-free. He's becoming a father... it's normal to have some types of anxiety during such a wonderful time. After what felt like hours of walking through the dark halls, they finally made it into the birthing room. Dr. Wilson and the assisting nurses were still preparing for the delivery while Ian laid there with his legs up in stirrups, his lower body almost completely covered with surgical blankets, and his head leaned up against the pillow as his pristine blue eyes stared up at the ceiling. Anthony smiled at him through his scrub mask and walked over to him, taking his hand into his. It was warm and slightly damp with sweat, but Anthony didn't care. Ian jumped slightly at the sudden contact but calmed down when he saw that it was only Anthony. Ian couldn't see Anthony's large smile through the scrub mask, but he could tell that he was smiling because he could see the apples of his cheeks poking through the mask and his warm, mocha eyes sparkle with a rollercoaster of emotions.

"Hi," Anthony whispered. Ian returned Anthony's smile.

"Hey." Anthony took his other hand and ran it through Ian's hair, his other hand keeping Ian's hand in the tight grip.

"This is it, Ian. We're about to become parents." Ian's smile grew larger.

"I know. I can't wait to see him."

"Me neither. I wonder who he'll look like?" Ian shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. I'm the sexiest, though, so hopefully, he'll look like me." Anthony scoffed.

"Well, what about me?" Ian held up his free hand and made a "so-so" gesture.

"Ehh." Anthony scoffed again, allowing a small chuckle to erupt from Ian. Anthony was going to give Ian a witty comeback, but he was interrupted by Dr. Wilson.

"Alright, Ian, everything looks good. Have you been feeling any kind of pressure in your abdomen?" Ian nodded.

"Yeah, but it's only during contractions. It doesn't hurt, it just feels like my muscles are tightening." Dr. Wilson smiled and nodded.

"Perfect. The next time you feel that let us know, okay? That's when we'll start pushing." Ian nodded.

"Okay." Anthony felt a wave of excitement wash over him, causing the grip on Ian's to tighten slightly.

"Let's meet our son, huh?" Ian looked back over at Anthony and returned his excited gaze. It only took about a minute or two for Ian to feel the sensation of a contraction. 

"I feel it," Ian told the doctor.

"Excellent," he commented as he put on a pair of rubber gloves over his hands and arms. Once the gloves were on, he took his seat in front of Ian and raised the surgical blankets. "You ready?" Ian looked down at the doctor and nodded. "Alright. Ready and... push!" Ian gulped down a large breath and held it, pushing as hard as he could. It didn't hurt, but he could definitely feel a lot of strong pressure that made pushing feel like the hardest thing he's ever done. His teeth were tightly clenched together, his toes were curled, and his grip on Anthony's hand was almost bone-crushing. "You're doing great, Ian! Just a little longer." Dr. Wilson praised. Anthony could've sworn his hand was about to break from the pressure that Ian was applying to it, but he never faltered or complained. "And breathe!" Ian collapsed back onto the pillow and let out the large puff of air he was holding. Anthony ran his free hand through Ian's hair again to help relax and encourage him. Ian felt like that his pushing was taking a long time and he was starting to worry if he was making any kind of progress at all. He had read in one of the pamphlets that Dr. Goodin gave him that pushing could take anywhere from five minutes to even an hour. He had hoped that it wouldn't take that long, but Mason has proved to him that he's not a baby who does things on time and he has proved it once again after 35 minutes of pushing. For what felt like the millionth time, Ian laid his head back on the pillow and tried to catch his breath. He felt Anthony's hand in his hair again and heard him whisper calming things to him.

"You're doing so good, baby." Ian felt comforted by Anthony's words, but he was starting to get extremely exhausted and he was afraid that he was going to be pushing all day.

"Why is it taking so long?" Ian asked in between deep breaths of air while keeping his eyes closed. "I don't know how much longer I can go." Dr. Wilson pat Ian's knee from where he was sitting, but Ian couldn't feel it because of the epidural that numbed him from the waist down.

"We're almost there, Ian. Just a little more pushing and you'll have a little baby in your arms." Ian was getting discouraged, but he continued pushing anyways with all of his might. Just when Ian was about to give up, Dr. Wilson finally gave good news. "I can see the head! Keep pushing, Ian!" Ian's heart leaped with excitement and adrenaline began to pump through his veins. He took every last bit of strength he had and pushed harder than ever. Every muscle was tense, his loud grunts could be heard by Mari and Peter down the hall while Anthony never stopped cheering him on. Suddenly, all the pressure on Ian's abdomen was gone and there seemed to be a small pause in time. Then, he heard it. The sound he had been waiting five long years to hear. The sound of his own child crying for the first time.

"It's a boy!" Dr. Wilson exclaimed when the time seemed to finally resume. He then laid the newborn child on Ian's chest so he and Anthony could see him while the nurses began to clean him up, but neither of them could really see him properly because they were both crying too hard. Waterfalls of tears streamed down their cheeks as they beheld the unbelievable sight of their newborn son. He was crying loudly, his small pink face scrunched up as the nurses all around him was still working to clean him up. Ian brought his free hand up to his child and caressed his little head, not caring at all about the fact he hadn't been properly cleaned up yet. "Anthony, would you like to cut the cord?" Dr. Wilson asked holding out a tool to him. Anthony nodded, taking the tool from Dr. Wilson's hands and cutting the cord where he had showed him. All too soon, the child was off of Ian's chest and taken over to the nearby incubator where he could be tested and cleaned off a little more. Anthony kissed Ian's sweaty forehead through his now tear-soaked scrub mask and rest his head on Ian's. Ian couldn't pry his eyes off of his newborn, tears still falling from his eyes. Once they were done with cleaning him off and testing him for the basic things like his breathing and heart rate, a nurse wrapped him up in the traditional hospital blanket, put a blue cap on his head, and brought him back over to Ian and Anthony. Just a couple months ago, Ian was terrified to hold Nikki with the fear hurting her, but now he had no hesitation what so ever as the nurse placed the small body into his arms. Ian sniffled a bit and looked down to his now sleeping child that was resting in his arms. He could hardly believe what he was looking at. He had been carrying this child within his body for 40 long weeks, but to have it in his arms alive and perfectly healthy was something that Ian never thought he would experience. Knowing that they didn't have much time left with him before the nurses took him down to the nursery, he let Anthony hold him for the remainder of the time. When their time was up, the nurses placed Mason into an incubator cart so he would be kept warm until they could get him to the nursery. Ian and Anthony watched closely as the nurse pushed Mason out of the room and through the delivery room doors that seemed closer than what they were to Anthony when he followed the young nurse into the delivery room. They could only imagine how crazy Mari, Peter, and whoever else had arrived at the hospital were going right now over the sight of Ian and Anthony's newborn. As Dr. Wilson cleaned Ian up, the adrenaline of giving birth began to wear off and exhaustion began to sit in. He might've slept for a while, but giving birth to a stubborn child wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do and he felt like he could sleep for a thousand years. After Ian was all cleaned up and placed back on his other bed, Anthony covered Ian up with a thin blanket. Ian looked up at him with sleepy eyes and smiled at him. Anthony pulled down his scrub mask away from his mouth and leaned down to give Ian's lips a gentle peck.

"Get some rest, baby. You've earned it." Ian nodded lightly and began to close his eyes, but he opened them again when he heard Anthony start talking again. "For the record, I think he looks like both of us, so he's equally sexy." Ian sleepily chuckled and felt Anthony place a kiss on his forehead. "I love you." Ian wanted to say it back, but he was too exhausted to even form a coherent sentence and it came out instead as:

"Ove youu... tooo." but it was good enough for Anthony.