"You sure?" Nick wiped the perspiration from Sumire's drenched brow. "It's been hours, Mimi-chan, you must be exhausted."

Sumire shook her head, eyes closed, brows drawn. "I'm sure, I'm sure. Don't ask me anymore, okay?"

Nick let out a frustrated breath, looking at the delivery room nurse. He had tears in his eyes.

The nurse looked back, a look of sympathy in his brown eyes. "There's nothing we can do," his eyes seemed to say to Nick.

"This baby's awfully big, Sumire, and I can't extend the episiotomy any more, you understand?"

Sumire nodded, eyes still closed. "I understand," she gasped. "I can do this, I can," she added. She turned to Nick, a tear slipping from her eye and sliding down to her neck. "Don't doubt me, Nicky, please," she begged. "Don't lose faith in me, okay?" She redoubled her grip on his hand, making him wince. "Please," she repeated.

Nick watched the huge mound of her pregnant belly quiver and tighten as another contraction overtook it, and listened to the baby's heartbeat slow down momentarily.

"Come on, baby, push, push," he encouraged, putting an arm around her shoulders and holding her up as she dropped her chin to her chest and blew air out, grasping her knees and pushing with all her might.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and--relax," everyone counted as Nick eased Sumire's slight body back down on the bed.

"I really think we should think about a C-section, you two," Dr. Gettleman said, wiping her own brow with a gloved hand. "She's been pushing for over two hours with no progress at all."

"Is the baby in distress?" Sumire asked.

"No, the vitals look okay so far," the doctor admitted.

"Then there's no reason, except to admit that I'm weak, that I can't do it, and I'm not giving up yet," Sumire said, her small voice determined. "Nick-san, please, please have faith in me." She looked up at him, liquid brown eyes brimming with tears.

"Of course I have faith in you, of course I do," he assured her. He looked imploringly at Dr. Gettleman.

"Ten more minutes, that's it, okay?" The doctor said firmly. "She'd getting weaker and weaker, and I just don't see any purpose. Beyond a certain point she just won't have the strength to push the baby out, and we're fast getting to that point."

"Another contraction," Keith, the delivery room nurse, said. "Here we go."

Nick held Sumire up, bracing her as hard as he could. "Come on, my darling Mimi-chan, you can do this, you're the strongest person I know! Let's get this baby out!" He kissed her cheek as she closed her eyes and dropped her chin to push.

She let out a noise, half moan, half groan, as the pain overtook her, and Nick was nearly fainting just from hearing it. Then, before she had a chance to relax, along came another contraction, and she had to bear down and push again, and again.

"Good job, good job, there's the head!" Dr. Gettleman declared as Sumire finally lay back, gasping for air. "The hardest part is done, dear girl!"

"Wow, Mimi-chan, I can see dark hair--" Nick gasped.

Sumire smiled, though her eyes remained closed.

"Okay, here we go, a bit more, then we're all finished," Dr. Gettleman encouraged.

With the next push the shoulders came out, and with next, in a gush of fluid, the rest of the tiny body.

"And here's our little boy," the doctor declared as Sumire and Nick laughed and cried in each other's arms.

The nurses quickly wrapped him in a swaddling towel and placed him on Sumire's belly so they could cuddle their new baby boy.

"Aww, look at him, Mimi-chan, he's perfect!" Nick said, his voice hushed with awe. "Ten tiny fingers, ten tiny toes, and--fuck me, one ginormous set of balls, holy shit!"

Sumire laughed, grimacing at the same time. "Oh, ouch, don't make me laugh, Nick, it hurts."

"Sorry, but, holy moly, you ever seen anything like that?"

By now the whole room was laughing at his words.

"My husband the comedian, ladies and gentlemen," Sumire said as she lifted the baby to her bosom. The little newborn turned his head and rooted for her breast, latching on almost immediately all on his own.

"Oh my goodness, look at that!" Sumire gasped in surprise. "Is that normal?"

"Some babies just get the hang of it," Keith said. "You should sit up, and angle his head so his nostrils stay clear and he can breathe, see?"

"Like this?"

"Yes," Keith said approvingly. "You're a natural."

"Well done, mama," Nick said with a smile like the sun. He put an arm around Sumire and the other around the baby. "And well done, Joey Nicholas Pensieri."

"His name is Joseph?" Dr. Gettleman asked. "That's my father's name.

"His name is Josuke, actually," Sumire said, turning a tired smile the doctor's way. "It was my father's name."

"Welcome to the world, little Joey," Sumire whispered to her son, dropping a kiss on his dark head.

🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣

"So you're really happy with the color of the walls, right?"

"Yes, aren't you?"

Nick looked around. The walls were pale blue and green, two of each, with a stencil of planets going in a border around the top. The ceiling was dark blue, with stars all over. A crib stood against one wall, a changing table and dresser against another, a bookshelf and toy box against another, while a love seat and rocking chair filled the remaining wall.

Sumire sat in the rocking chair holding Joey, who nursed contentedly, tiny hands on his mother's breast. Nick sat in the love seat, as close as he could, watching the two people he loved the most.

When Joey was full, he detached on his own, and Sumire passed him to his father so he could burp his son. Nick took the precious bundle, putting him to his shoulder in expert fashion, alternating between gentle pats and circular motions until he felt the little expulsion of air from his son's lungs.

Even Joey's burps were peaceful events, Nick reflected, as he laid his son's head on his shoulder to pat him to sleep. He wanted his child's world to be a happy place, where no strife existed, where no cross words were ever spoken. He knew that such a thing couldn't be, but he wanted to try to make it so for as long as possible. Joey was such a gentle soul, even his name sounded calm and pacific to Nick's ears. When he was awake, he would look at his father out of eyes that looked like they were going to be gray, like the color of the ocean on a cloudy day. He was a beautiful, calm child, a child on whom no violence must fall, ever. Nick would see to it, he would give his dying breath to make it so.

Nick quietly laid his sleeping boy in his crib and took Sumire's hand as they gazed down at him in quiet wonder, this amazing bit of living perfection they'd produced.

Had there ever been a more incredible baby, anywhere?

Nick turned to Sumire and kissed her, his wonderful wife.

"When can we make another one?" he asked softly.

"How about now?" she replied with her lovely, small smile.

"What?"

"I'd love another baby," she elaborated. "The sooner the better."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, let's go, baby."

"After you, Nick-san."