Curious

Midnight

Taylor almost leapt from her seat only to realize that she wasn't able to go through the door. She sank back down, watching Marjorie turn around to head back to Laura's birthing suite. The hospital door swung open again, this time Stef and Laura's brother came through with Sam at their side.

"Here for a baby delivery!" They grinned, sitting down in the seats across from Taylor. She looked up, taking a breath. It was good to have Sam there, as the representative from her side of the family. Sam tilted his head, glancing at his older sister. He frowned at her obvious tired expression, and dampened behavior.

"Hey, why aren't you back there?" Sam asked, jerking his thumb towards the door into the birthing suites and the ER and beyond. He questioned his sister with an eyebrow raise. She returned it back to him with a sigh.

"I'm not family." Taylor replied curtly, trying to hold herself together. Marjorie had returned to the birthing suite, to be there when the birth finally took place. Sam's face fell at Taylor's explanation, pitting two and two together.

"At least we both can't get in." Ben grumbled from the other side of the waiting room. Taylor glared at him, shaking her head. Sam sat up a bit taller, realizing who Ben was in all of this.

The clock struck midnight after Ben spoke up, and the rest of the hospital, non emergent cases, closed up shop. Lights went out, patients and doctors left quickly leaving the place. The receptionist got up from her chair as her shift replacement arrived, and she changed the date on the whiteboard behind them.

July 27

Taylor glanced at the date, furrowing her brows. She shook her head. That couldn't be right, could it? She had been so wrapped up in preparing for the birth, had she really forgotten her own birthday?

"Taylor," Marjorie came back to the door once again, smiling at the younger woman. Taylor got up, walking over to her.

"Is she...has it gone ok? She knows why I can't be there, right?" She asked nervously. Marjorie squeezed her hand.

"She's ready to start pushing. The baby is early, she'll likely have to spend a few nights in NICU for her organs I think it was. You can be signed in as a visitor as soon as she moves to the post birth suite. But Tay, she asked me one last time what name you chose." Marjorie explained to Taylor, smiling. She was about to be a grandmother, what wasn't there to be excited about.

"Ella." Taylor said softly, turning to go sit back down as Marjorie headed into the birthing suite again. This was it. The last stretch. Taylor paced amongst the chairs of the waiting room, desperately wishing she could just go back into the room.

Tonight would change her life. From this day on forward Taylor would no longer be just herself. She would be a mother. She promised Laura she was all in. This would be motherhood. It was scary and exhilarating, but she had made the decision.

She and Laura had a long, messy, complicated love story, that she knew but she also knew that she didn't turn her back on her promises.

Sam pulled himself out of his seat and he reached out to hold Taylor as she drove herself crazy over this baby.

"Happy 33rd." He teased her, rubbing her back. Taylor sniffled, burrowing herself in her brother's arms. Life was scary. Babies are scary. For just one moment, Taylor would do anything to be a child again. Ben walked over, sighing loudly as the pair broke apart.

"I want to see my daughter once she's born. That's why I'm here Taylor. She is my flesh and blood." Ben explained. Taylor already knew that's why he was eavesdropping on her conversations with everyone. She stepped back, shaking her head.