Living on Love

Twelve days later, Ash was paying more attention to any signs his body whispered to him than he ever had before. He was a week away from his due date and had been feeling a few mild contractions from time to time ever since Mother’s Day, maybe a week before that. He’d felt fairly mild contractions for two or three weeks before Legacy was born as well, though it’d taken till dawn of the morning of his due date for them to settle into a rhythmic pattern and intensify.

His midwife had all but moved in with him again so she was close at hand, should he go into labor a little earlier than expected, and had been sleeping in the guest room. She’d checked him a couple times and found that, although they were pretty mild, his contractions had caused him to dilate to four centimeters. They were both pretty sure that labor was imminent, but didn’t know exactly when it would happen.

Over the course of that particular day, the bassist felt a few more contractions than he’d felt since the morning he gave birth to his older daughter. Unlike the ones he’d felt for the past couple weeks, they were a bit more intense, as well, so he called Ella to come get the toddler. He didn’t want her in the house, just in case this was the real thing, so he wouldn’t scare her with his animalistic cries as he labored. After his would-be sister-in-law agreed to come get the little girl, he called Andy, who was with the rest of the guys to perform for Rocklah-oma 2013 for the weekend.

“Hey, sweetheart,” the younger man said when he answered. “Everything all right?”

“I think you’re gonna have to drop out of Rocklahoma,” Ash answered, groaning as another contraction started. “My contractions have been settling into a pretty rhythmic pattern and getting stronger all day.”

“So the baby’s on its way?” he asked, clearly a bit surprised.

“I’m pretty sure she is, and so’s Erica,” the bassist answered, breathing as steadily as he could.

“Ella’s got Legacy, right?”

“She’s on her way to get her now, before things get bad.” He had to pause as the contraction reached its peak. “Sammi’s on her way over for moral support, as well.”

“All right. Jinxx is already insisting that we drop out of the festival and come home, not that I’d disagree, anyway,” Andy told him. “Since we’re about to go on, we wanna try to get through this show while John’s booking us a flight home.”

“That’s fine by me,” he agreed. “Even though I’m already four centimeters, Erica said it’d probably be five or six hours before she decides to make her appearance.”

“We’ll still try to make it there before then, sweetheart,” his lover promised. “I gotta go, though. I’ll see ya soon.”

“See ya soon, my love,” the bassist answered.

Once their call was ended, Ash managed to lay his phone on his nightstand and call out to the midwife that Ella was on her way over to get Legacy, Sammi to help him through this as she had the last time. She was getting her supplies from the guest room where she’d been storing them, making sure she had everything so that if she didn’t, she could run back home for them before his labor progressed too much.

It was all he could do to curl up on his bed in the meantime, his torso wracked with pain the likes of which he hadn’t felt since the day his older daughter was born. Like the last time, he’d insisted on a home birth because he wasn’t fond of hospitals, nor the cold and distant demeanor of the nurses. He felt more comfortable pushing a baby out of his ass in his own home, and unless something happened that made an emergency C-section necessary, he wasn’t having his baby in a hospital this time, either. He might be stubborn in that regard, but everybody knew better than to go against his wishes unless it was to save his and the baby’s lives.

Shortly thereafter, Sammi came into the room and grabbed his hand to let him know she was there, Ella hot on her heels. Jake’s fiancé had his daughter in her arms, having brought her in so she could say goodbye to Mommy before they left. Once the goodbyes were said and kisses given, she got her out of the room just before another contraction started, causing Jinxx’s wife to crawl onto the bed so she could rub his back. She remembered from the last time that it’d helped with his pain.

The next few hours passed entirely too slowly for his liking, but he made faster progress than he had the first time around. About four hours after calling his husband, Erica told him that he was up to eight centimeters and started getting the room set up as a delivery room again. Unable to bear the pain any longer, Ash begged for a hot bath to deliver in again, and she quickly nodded before disappearing into the master bathroom. Sammi stayed by his side, trying to comfort him as best she could while the bath was being drawn, not making a sound when he squeezed her hand so hard one of the fragile bones was fractured. She didn’t care about any pain he caused her since she knew he didn’t mean to and was in far worse pain himself.

“Ashes?” a voice called.

“In your room!” Sammi answered, knowing he couldn’t speak in the midst of a contraction.

“He okay?” Andy asked, entering the room with Jinxx on his heels.

“In the middle of a contraction,” she told him, rubbing his back. “You know he can’t do anything but scream and cry when he’s like that.”

“Or draw blood from my shoulder,” the younger man chuckled. “Other than the pain, you okay, sweetheart?”

“Better than…I thought…I’d be,” Ash panted, the contraction ending.

“Hey, Andy, Jinxx,” Erica greeted, stepping back into the room. “You guys help him up and into the bathroom. He’s almost ready to deliver and wants to be in a hot bath like he was the last time.”

“On three, we’re gonna pick you up and try to cradle you between us, okay?” his husband said. “One, two, three!”

With a grunt from the effort, the two men picked him up, his head resting on Andy’s chest while Jinxx wrangled his legs, and started heading to the bathroom. Ash let out a cry of agony, considering that he was already in pain to start with and another contraction starting as they carried him didn’t help. They allowed the contraction to end before depositing him in the hot water, which began to relieve his pain as soon as he was in it.

Before she even had to tell him to, Andy stripped down to his boxers and climbed in behind him, settling him between his spread thighs with his back leaning against his chest. The multi-instrumentalist headed back to the bedroom to continue Erica’s delivery room prep while his wife joined them to give him a hand to squeeze, considering that he hadn’t borne witness to Legacy’s birth and didn’t want to bear witness to this one. He felt he might faint if he watched his brother push a baby out of his ass and knew he’d be of no help in that condition, so he didn’t subject himself to such a sight.

After checking him once again, the midwife told him that he was on the verge of ten centimeters and that, if he had the urge to push, doing so might help him dilate that last little bit. Ash took a deep breath and curled up so that his chin rested on his chest, his legs spread wide with his hands gripping his thighs tightly as he pulled them back toward his chest. His husband sat up with him to help him curl up even more while he was pushing, murmuring encouraging words in his ear as he did so.

The bassist flopped backward and let out his breath in a cry of pain once he reached a mental count of ten, then took another breath and curled up again. It wasn’t long before Erica saw his baby’s head crowning and encouraged a gentle push to avoid him tearing. The moment his daughter’s head was out, he groaned in agony, his ass feeling like it was on fire from how much it stretched as she checked for a cord around her neck. Since she didn’t find one, she told him to push gently again as he delivered the shoulders, again to make sure he didn’t tear, her hands gently cradling the baby as it emerged. Once he had the baby out to her waist, it took only one last push for her to be delivered.

“It’s definitely a little girl!” Erica announced, using the aspirator to clear her nose and mouth.

“Oh, my Godsmack,” the bassist groaned, flopping back against his husband. “Happy birthday, my little tomboy.”

“She’s so beautiful, Ashes,” Andy murmured in his ear, gently kissing his temple. “You did such a good job.”

“Wanna cut the cord, Daddy?” the midwife asked, holding a pair of scissors out to him.

Nodding with tears in his eyes, the younger man accepted the honor and cut his second daughter’s cord right between the clamps that’d been placed on it.

“All right, Sammi. You know what to do,” she said, handing the baby off to the other woman.

“You got everything ready, Jinxxy?” she asked, disappearing into the bedroom with their squalling baby.

“I want ya to gimme a couple gentle pushes, Ashley,” Erica said, turning her attention back to her patient.

“Argh,” Ash groaned, curling up slightly.

“Shit. Andy, rub his belly like you did the last time,” she instructed. “It’s not wanting to detach.”

Just as he’d been told, Andy reached down and gently but firmly rubbed his sweetheart’s belly right over his navel as she gently tugged on the remains of the umbilical cord. Between those efforts and a few gentle pushes on his part, the placenta was soon delivered and thrown into a trash bag to be disposed of. He sighed softly in relief as he leaned back against his husband, exhausted beyond all belief from caring for Legacy all day on top of giving birth for the second time.

Moments later, Jinxx came back into the room and, ignoring the slightly pinkened water they sat in, helped his husband out of the tub. Once he was standing and dried off a bit, they worked together to lift his exhausted body from the tub and carry him back to the bedroom, where he was laid on older sheets to be cleaned up. After thanking his friend, the younger man disappeared into the bathroom to shower, therefore washing the essence of their second daughter’s birth from his body, while his husband and child were cleaned up and settled in comfortably.

By the time he was done showering, Ash was propped up on a mound of pillows, their newborn daughter cradled in his arms. She lay snuggled against his chest, listening to his heartbeat as she pawed at it while nursing. The older man had a tender but exhausted smile on his face as he looked down at her, one hand gently stroking her downy hair while the other supported her little body.

Andy was awed by the sight just as he’d been upon seeing him hold Legacy for the first time a couple hours after she was born. There was no more beautiful sight in the world than that of the man he loved gently cradling their child, such a tender, serene expression on his face as he did so. He gently crawled onto the bed beside him, Sammi, Jinxx, and Erica standing back to give them some space as they reveled in the beautiful sight as well. His sweetheart looked up at him and connected their lips in a gentle kiss as their as-of-yet unnamed daughter continued to nurse. Once their lips parted, he brushed his sweaty hair back behind his ear before gently caressing the top of her head.

“So what are we gonna name her?” he asked softly.

“I like the name Logan Amaryllis,” Ash answered tiredly. “It seems fitting for a tomboyish girl that loves flowers and running around in meadows.”

“Yeah, I get the feeling she’s gonna love those things, alongside making mud-pies and climbing trees, when she’s older, too,” the frontman agreed. “Besides, she’s a Taurus, right? Perfect name for a child born under an Earth sign.”

“Gemini, actually, which is an Air sign,” the bassist answered. “But Water wouldn’t travel without Fire to make it evaporate and the Air to carry it from place to place. She’s also pretty close to the cusp between the two signs, since Taurus ends on May twentieth and she was born on the twenty-fifth.”

“Close enough for government work, I’d say,” Andy chuckled, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“I can’t help but agree,” he told him, joining their lips once again.

“You did so well, sweetheart. I love you so much,” the younger man said after they ended the kiss. “You, too, Logan Amaryllis Biersack.”

Once the newborn was done nursing, he got up to grab a diaper, receiving blanket, and clean clothes for her from her nursery while his sweetheart burped her. As the older man laid her on his lap to secure the diaper around her lower half upon his return, she opened her eyes and looked at them both while cooing softly. They both smiled serenely when they noticed that, while she was almost identical to Andy in looks, she had Ash’s eyes and skin tone…the very opposite of her big sister.

Now that she was ready for bed and her mommy’d been cleaned up and dressed, the younger man gently put her in the bassinet by the bedside. They were both too tired to go back and forth between the master bedroom and her nursery, and the plan was to keep her as close to them as they could for the first three or four months, just as they’d done with Legacy when she was first born.

Ash gently rested his head on his lover’s chest once he’d settled down in bed, not wanting to be spooned for once since his ass was a bit sore from delivery. He sighed softly as he wrapped his arms around him, pulling him close as they settled down for the night. Sammi and Jinxx said their goodbyes and let themselves out so they could get some rest, Erica locking the door before settling into the guest room for the night since it was so late. All in all, the day had ended on a wonderful note, despite the pain and exhaustion, simply because their baby’d been born and was safe, healthy, and happy.

Notes