Choosing Love

Chapter 9: Fear

Lauren was beyond words as she stared at her friends. Her hand flew to her stomach, as if to protect her baby from her old life. There was a tense silence that coated the room.

"What are you doing here?" The alien words came tumbling out of her mouth as she shattered the quiet around them. She almost said "how did you find me?", but she knew that if anyone could find her, it would be them. Penelope stepped forward and hugged her.

"We missed you." She said, earnestly. Lauren smiled.

"I missed you too."

They all went and hugged her one by one.

Louise came up to her, smiling.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs. Doyle?"

"No thank you Louise."

She turned to the team. "May I get you anything?"

Each of them politely declined, and she went back upstairs to check on Declan while Ian worked in his home office.

They all sat down on the couch.

"When are you due?" Asked JJ.

"Two months." She answered, although her baby bump was so big she looked like she would be giving birth any day.

"What are you having?" Asked Hotch.

"It's a boy." She said, smiling a little brighter.

"Are you nervous?" Penelope questioned.

"Is there anybody who isn't nervous their first time around?" It was a good point. "What have you all been up to?" She asked, purposely changing the subject. They each summed up the past eight months in a few sentences while she listened, interested. After a few minutes she excused herself to go and use the bathroom.

When she sat down, however, she froze in shock as she saw blood stains in her underwear. For a second she couldn't say anything. Then, everything stopped and went into motion all at once.

"IAN!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs. The sudden noise made the entire team jump. Ian got up so fast that he knocked over his chair and ran down the stairs in a blur. He busted the bathroom door open and rushed to his wife, who was screaming as abdominal pain rocked her body. He followed her gaze and was just as alarmed at what he saw. He whipped out his cell phone and dialed 118. He spoke in Italian as quickly as his lips would move as he helped his wife up and started moving her toward the couch. He asked her several questions for the doctors on the other line, but all she knew was the pain and dizziness that was quickly overtaking her. She swayed precariously as her team watched her, alarmed. She lost her balance and fell backward into her husband's waiting arms. He had his cell phone between his ear and shoulder as he picked his wife up from the ground and laid her out on the couch. He flipped the phone shut and knelt beside her.

"The ambulance is on it's way." He told her. She blindly reached out for his hand and he took it, squeezing tightly. The entire team noticed the sparkle of the five carat diamond ring on her finger (which Ian had given her some months after they'd married in addition to the Gimmel rings). In an act totally unlike her, the team watched as tears leaked from her eyes and down her temples.

"Ian?"

"Yes, love?"

"I'm scared."

He gave her hand another squeeze, attempting to be comforting. "No baby. I'm here. Don't be scared."

She looked at him, and he wiped her tears away. "He's going to be okay, right?" Her voice was abnormally high and squeaky.

"I hope so." He whispered.

The time it took for the ambulance to arrive seemed to take forever. When it did arrive, they brought in a stretcher and loaded her onto it.

"come ti chiami?" They asked her, carrying her into the ambulance.

"Il mio nome è Lauren." She said as Ian leapt inside to sit with her. He held her hand the entire way to the hospital and ran next to her as she was wheeled into the emergency room. The team had followed her in their vehicles. Ian politely asked if they could have a doctor who spoke English, and got lucky that the doctor working with his wife was bilingual as she was rushed to the maternity ward.

"She's having the baby now." He told them.

"WHAT?!" Lauren shrieked as another contraction hit. "B-But I'm not due for another two months!"

"The baby is coming now."

Another contraction threatened to tear her apart from the inside out, and she squeezed her husband's hand so forcefully she was afraid of breaking it. But the pain overrode any residual guilt over that and she gasped for air. She suddenly felt a strange gushing feeling and looked to her Doctor for an explanation.

"Your water just broke."

The BAU asked for Lauren Doyle's room and were directed to the Maternity ward. They could hear her struggling not to scream as the contractions came in waves. They each came in one at a time to see how she was doing. As the hours wore on and the contractions grew stronger, the reprieve from them became shorter and shorter. The shorter the time between them, the shorter Lauren's temper became. By hour sixteen, the only one who would put up with her was Ian. Even the nurse came and went within minutes.

Finally, the time came for her to push.

The pain was inhuman, and almost intolerable. She'd been shot and tortured before and that was bad, but this... This was hell on earth. It seemed like it would never end. But, with one final push, her torment ended, and a cry pierced her ears. Her vision was blurred, but she reached up for him.

"Please, can I hold him?" She asked. The nurses exchanged worried glances, but nodded.

"Just for a minute."

A little blue bundle was placed in her arms, and suddenly everything in her world stopped.

His little eyes were closed, but he had the most perfect little lips and button nose that Lauren had ever seen. The love that burst open inside of her was indescribable.

"Anthony... So beautiful..." Ian looked at him with such pride and kissed his wife's forehead.

All too quickly he was out of her arms and being taken to the NICU.

Lauren, knowing there was nothing else she could do for him at that point, fell into an exhausted sleep