Love Child (RoyalChaos)

Chapter 8: "Everything Has Changed"

"Hey internet, guess where we're on our way to!" Chilled cheerfully chanted into his camcorder, making sure he had me in the shot in the background. I was looking out the window, then I turned to stare in the camera like I was in The Office. I think he was being too cheerful; he's not the one who's about to go under the knife in a few hours.

"Is that really necessary, Anthony?" I asked, half-sarcastic, half-annoyed.

"What? I want to share this moment with the world! I'm going to be a daddy soon!"

My due date's almost here and we're on our way to the hospital. Jess is driving, Anthony's in the front recording the whole thing, and I'm sitting in the back seat. I still can't believe that the last nine months or so actually happened, and by this time tomorrow I'm going to be a dad. Everyone's been waiting for Fiorella for so long, and now she's almost here.

And pretty much everyone is here: my parents, Anthony's parents, some other friends and family, even Smarty and GaLm, and Tom as well. The fans are certainly excited about her arrival too. It's awesome to know that she already has a network of people who adore her. The circumstances of how she got here are strange and complicated, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

We arrive at the hospital and Jess pops the trunk for me to get my stuff. Of course, Anthony, being the overprotective caregiver type that he is, rushed up to me so he could carry it on his own.

"Oh no, mister," he scolded. "You're not lifting anything as long as I can help it."

"Thanks, dad." The three of us walked in the main lobby together and Anthony checked us in. While I was standing there, a young pregnant girl who looked to be about my age stood beside me. An older lady, presumably her mother, got in line behind Anthony. I looked at the girl, who kept eyeing me up and down.

"Hi," I greeted shyly.

"You're a guy," she answered.

"Uh... yeah?"

"Well, this is a first. My name's Ivana. What about you?"

"Steven."

"Nice to meet you, Steven. What are you having?" she asked.

"A girl, Fiorella Joy. You?"

"A boy, Ashton Burke. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but how did this happen? I mean, how did you" - she did a finger motion up and down beside me - "you know."

"Oh, this? See the guy over there, the one with the dark hair? Well, we're best friends, and we're also YouTubers. We were hanging out in my hotel room at a convention and well... you can pretty much guess what happened then."

She giggled. "That's funny. At least your baby's dad is around." She looked down at her feet, and I didn't even want to ask what she meant.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that, Ivana."

"It's okay. I'm sure we'll do just fine without him."

Then I asked something I should have left alone. "How old are you?"

She sighed. "17. Yeah, I know you're going to judge me."

"Not at all. Personally, I think you're going to be just fine. Just keep your head up and keep carrying on."

She finally smiled. "Thanks, Steven."

Anthony finished up at the front desk and came to get me. "Everything's checked out. Ready?"

"I'm ready. It was nice meeting you, Ivana, and good luck with everything."

"Thanks, Steven. Same to you." We fist bumped, then she had another thought. "Hey, you said you're a YouTuber? What's your channel name? I'd love to check out your stuff."

"It's ZeRoyalViking. Hold on, let me write it down. Do you have a phone?" She nodded and opened the notepad app on her phone, and I wrote my channel name in it. I gave it back and hugged her, then I went down the hall with Anthony and Jess.

"Who was that, Steven?" Jess asked.

"A young girl I met while Anthony was checking us in." Nice girl, I hope I can see her again.

I got dressed to go in for surgery, then I laid down on a hospital bed they gave me. I sighed and looked at Chilled standing over me. "I'm scared, Anthony."

"Hey, every time you told me that in the last eight months, everything turned out just fine. This is no exception. They'll take good care of you, I promise."

I smiled. "Thanks, Chilled." I was rolled into an operation room, and Chilled's promise was the last thing I remembered before I went under.

~Anthony~ 

"Hey internet, it's me again. Well, everyone's here right now, and we're just sitting around waiting for Ze to get out of surgery. We'll have the newest member of the Derp Crew in no time."

Steven's been in surgery for the last hour, and one by one everyone has shown up to join me and Jess. Their support has been a lot of help. I know I told him not to be afraid of anything, and here I am scared out of my mind.

"Hey, Chilled, it'll be okay," Smarty comforted, while GaLm and Tom took turns beating each other in Mario Kart on the waiting room TV. "We all know Ze's a tough one."

"I know. I'm just ready to see him and Fiorella together."

"Aren't we all? But he should be done soon."

A few minutes later, and his attending doctor came out looking for me. Everyone turned to watch me as I left the room with him. He took me out into the corridor.

"Well, Steven is currently waking up and Fiorella is as healthy as she can be. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you." I smiled and teared up as he took me to see her in the nursery. I could easily tell which one was her.

Once the nurses were done with her in the nursery, one of them gave her to me and I went down to the waiting room to introduce everyone to her. From what I can tell, it looks like she may have my nose but everything else will come from Steven.

"Hey, everyone. Have you met my daughter yet?" I asked with pride. Everyone got up and came up to me, and I pulled her blanket back a bit so we could see her more closely. I can't help but notice just how beautiful she is. The road to get to this moment had a hazy start and a confusing path, but I wouldn't trade it for anything right now.

Everyone got their fill of her, then I went down to Steven's room to see if he was fully awake. He was sitting up in his bed and his face lit up when I walked in with her.

"Hey there, Steven," I whispered as I came closer to him. He held out his arms and I gave her to him. "She's finally here, can you believe it?"

He chuckled and shook his head no. "She's beautiful, don't you agree?"

"You know I do."

"I can't wait for everyone else to see her."

"I've already introduced her to everyone in the waiting room." He looked up at me and smiled, then I pulled out my phone. "Wait, hold that pose." I took the picture and showed it to him. "How's that?"

"I love it. Almost as much as I love her." Ze leaned down to kiss Fiorella on her nose, and everything was just perfect. In small groups, all of our friends and family came in to spend time with us: first, both our parents, then Jess and the Derp Crew. Then the picture and video spam commenced. 

"Who would have ever guessed that we would have gotten to this point?" Tom asked.

"We certainly didn't," Steven stated with a smile.

Everything is just great. Our daughter is here and she's already well-loved, by both our family and friends and our fanbase. It was a long eight months, but it was worth it in the end.

(A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read up to this point! Well, here was the moment we'd all been waiting for: little Fiorella is finally here. There's one more chapter left after this one. This has been a crazy, albeit short, journey with this writing experience, but it was so much fun to do. And the positivity about it, wow! Almost 500 total reads! You guys must have really loved it.

Anyway, last chapter is coming out tomorrow or Monday. Hype!)