Behind the Veil 1/1
Title: Behind the Veil
Author: writen0w
Fandom: SPN RPS
Characters: Jared, Jensen
Word Count: 5742
Rating: R
Content Notes: mpreg, graphic birth
Summary: Jared, heavily pregnant, lives alone with his baby son after his boyfriend left him. He is in the apartment building's shared laundry room when he goes unexpectedly into labor. His neighbor, Jensen, finds him there.
A/N: Thank you, jord_el, for reading through this before I posted it!
Behind the Veil was written for this prompt at spn_hardcore's second Mpreg-Meme:
Jared lives on the 5th floor of his apartment with his baby son. His bf left him when he got knocked up for the second time. Jared's nine months pregnant and preparing to give birth any day. Jensen is his friendly neighbor from 4th floor, who has hots for Jared. Their elevator breaks down for about 2 days and thus, a heavily pregnant Jared has to take the stairs every time he needs to get out of the apartment. He takes the laundry basket and his son and goes to the laundromat at the basement. No one's there when Jared goes into labor. He is all alone with his baby, when Jensen comes down with his own laundry. Happy ending please 8-)
-*-
“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Jensen groaned as he got a glimpse of the sheet of paper that was haphazardly pinned to one of the sliding doors of the elevator.
OUT OF ORDER
He hoisted up the grocery bags under his arms and started in the direction of the stairs, pushed open the swinging door with his shoulder and made his way up to his apartment on the fourth floor. The air around him was stuffy and sweat pricked his skin. His dress shirt clung uncomfortably to him with every step he took. He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to kick back on his couch, cool beer in hand and forgetting about his day at the office.
He passed the second and third floor landings; nearly tripped over the shoes that lay scattered on the ground in front of the Rosenbaum's door, rolled his eyes at the all too familiar shouting coming from the Murray's apartment.
It was when he reached his own floor that Jensen noticed the smell of freshly-cooked dinner wafting through the air from above. He smiled at the same time as he felt longing and want begin to pool in his belly, desires he desperately fought not to take roots. Jensen could deal with a crush-and it really was only a crush-what he couldn't allow himself, however, was to fall for someone he knew practically nothing about beyond the friendly, buoyant demeanor he encountered while casually exchanging a greeting when one ran into each other on the stairs or took the same elevator.
Jensen wouldn't set himself up for yet another let-down; the memories of getting all his dreams of a future crushed on a single night and being left in a pile of shards of his own dreams still weight heavily on his mind, even after more than a year.
Yet, even the otherwise solid wall Jensen had built around his heart after the last disappointment couldn't ward off the small dose of infatuation with Mr. Padalecki-Jared, as the man had introduced himself-from the fifth floor he currently experienced.
Jensen sighed and set one of the grocery bags onto the floor to fish out his keys from his laptop bag. He opened the door to his apartment, heaved his purchases inside and placed them on one of the kitchen counters to be stored away later.
-*-
Jared let his gaze wander over the room one more time, mentally checking that he'd picked up every piece of clothing that had littered the floor only some minutes ago. He dreaded washing day but with a 14-month-old baby in the house doing laundry never was a long time coming. Add to that the fact that the summer heat made a heavily pregnant Jared change his clothes multiple times a day and he couldn't postpone the trip to the laundry room in the basement any longer.
He'd already noticed yesterday that the elevator was out of order, once again. Jared couldn't forget how often the damn thing had been defect in the last months-it may be no big deal for anyone else to use the stairs once in a while, Jared, though, burdened it especially. First, he'd had to carry his baby and the stroller up and down the stairs whenever they wanted to leave the apartment and now, with Elliot almost being able to walk on his own, Jared's ever-growing belly made tackling the most simplistic of tasks an utter struggle.
Being a single dad, however, left Jared with no choice but to attempt the unimaginable. The last months had been rough and Jared was sure that had he not had something to fight for, to keep up his daily routine for, he would have crumbled long ago. Being rewarded with his baby's toothy smile that was completely oblivious to all the upheaval around him, though, made it worth it and anchored in Jared the strength he needed to offer his little family a comfortable life. It provided Jared with the belief that he could master all that and more when the new baby came in a little less than a week.
“Ready, Ellie?” Jared asked his son when he was assured that he'd indeed gathered all the garments together.
Elliot's mop of chocolate brown hair whipped up excitedly at the sound of his name and the attention that had been bestowed on the large building bricks in front of him only seconds ago was now solely on Jared. The boy stood up carefully and wobbled on unsteady feet toward his daddy.
Jared's heart swelled with the familiar feeling of pride as he watched Elliot's advance and he let out a stream of encouragements that made his son giggle between his careful steps. The boy extended his arms in Jared's direction and gripped the leg of his sweatpants in his tiny fists when he was near enough, nestled his face in the fabric and murmured incomprehensible words into the soft cotton.
“I know, baby,” Jared laughed and cupped the back of Elliot's head gently in his palm. He let his thumb caress the dark locks for a moment.
Jared leaned down further, conscious of the obstacle his swollen belly presented, and maneuvered around it to pick up the laundry basket. The muscles in his back twitched slightly as she straightened again. He opened the front door and motioned for his son to follow.
When they were both in the stairwell, Jared waited for Elliot to take the first step down the stairs.
The boy didn't move, so Jared nudged him softly. “Come on. We need to get downstairs.”
Ellie didn't follow Jared's instructions, only turned big eyes at his daddy and stuck one hand into his mouth to gnaw on his fingers.
“All right, wanna take Daddy's hand?” Jared asked and took his son's spit-slick fingers in his. That seemed to do the trick and they started to make their way downstairs.
The progress was slow and sluggish-Elliot paused on every step and hesitated before taking another, gathered his bearing and crunched his little face up in concentration.
Jared's heart pounded rapidly with exhaustion and he felt flushed from carrying the laundry basket, looking after his son and somehow supporting his heavy baby bump.
When they reached the second landing, Elliot stopped walking. He stood rigidly and even Jared gently pulling him forward by the hand didn't do much to change his posture. It only seemed to have the contrary effect-the boy stayed rooted to the spot and didn't hesitate to express his discontent. “Nonono,” he cried out, the sound echoing through the hollow hallway.
Jared took a deep breath and fought to stay calm, reminded himself that his son was still a baby, too young to pick up on his dad's discomfort. “We're almost all the way down, Ellie,” he tried patiently. “I know you can manage to walk the last couple of steps.”
Elliot regarded Jared questioningly and remained standing where he was, on the step above Jared's. When his hand was once again tugged forward, the little boy shook his head. “Up-py,” he said instead, extending his free hand toward Jared.
Jared sighed. He spent every minute of the day with his son, knew him well enough to know that he could be quite stubborn. Elliot had learned to ask for being carried only recently but once he articulated said wish, he wouldn't budge until he got his will.
He took a moment to seek out the logistics, but there wasn't really that much of a choice in how to proceed-he couldn't bring the basket to the basement first and simply abandon his son in the middle of the stairs; felt uneasy to leave his baby unattended in the laundry room while he went back to pick up their clothes.
Jared renewed his grip on the basket on his left side and bent down carefully, gathering up Ellie with his unoccupied arm. The boy clung to him and Jared straightened slowly. He winced as his stomach tightened under the too heavy weight but didn't pay it any real attention, rather focused on getting his task done and over with as quickly as possible.
Elliot babbled happily away as soon as he had taken his place in his daddy's arms and swung his feet contentedly against Jared's pregnant belly on the rest of their way downstairs. Jared pretended not to notice, smiled instead at his son's cheerfulness.
He suppressed a whoop of joy at the sight of the apartment's shared laundry room and couldn't remember ever being so relieved to reach the place. He walked cautiously to the small plastic bench at the end of the room and sat Elliot down, then surveyed the row of washers. Since it was only early morning and the other house occupants were probably still asleep, Jared noticed gladly that all of the machines were empty.
Leaning down to set the basket on the ground and fill the washer was uncomfortable. Jared felt weary and irritated, short of breath in the airless room. Before rising again he put his hand on his stomach and felt along the bloated form. The baby had been unusually inactive since he went to bed last night-there hadn't been any of the reassuring kicks that had often kept him sleepless the months before, but Jared had been too worn out to worry.
“Dada!”
Jared looked up at the sound of his son's voice to find him getting impatient. He fidgeted in his seat and was starting to climb along the bench. It was time to occupy him with something and Jared stood up slowly, cringed when he felt a sharp pain seize his lower back muscles but pushed ahead to settle down next to his little boy.
Relieving his feet off some of the weight didn't cause the anticipated ease. Something was off and Jared knew it, yet didn't dwell on the thought any further as Elliot scrambled to his side and snuggled up close to him. He disregarded the pain sitting down caused to listen to his son's excited gaggling and the rumbling noise of the washer, let the sounds wrap around him and lull him into the pretense of everything being alright.
-*-
Jensen was an early riser. He always had been and not even his four-year-long marriage had changed his routine of starting his day at the crack of dawn with a morning run through a city that was still very much asleep. It made him feel like it prolonged the day-gaining a few hours in exchange for being disciplined.
To Jensen's mind, an early start during the months of summer heat had all the more advantages and so he found himself in an upbeat mood when he returned sweaty and pleasantly worn out to his apartment on Saturday morning.
He allowed himself the luxury of enjoying a lazy breakfast, browsing through the architecture and design magazines he subscribed to, but couldn't find the time to peruse in the week due to a hectic office life.
Starting on the household chores was only another thing on his to-do list and no matter how indifferent Jensen felt about it, being a bachelor and living alone did not leave him with much of a choice but take it on himself.
Laundry first.
-*-
“Where's the doggie?” Jared gritted out through clenched teeth. He waited for Elliot to point to the picture of the animal in the book they'd brought downstairs with them to pass the time and forced out an affirmative sound when the boy indicated the image of the dog.
Jared helped Elliot turn to the next page and was about to ask another question when he felt the stabbing pain in his lower back again, noticed how it radiated to the front and made his swollen belly become rock hard. He let out a groan and put his hands to the sides of his abdomen, but it did nothing to soothe the firmness. When the wave subsided, he shifted subtly on the padded plastic bench; he was afraid to move too much and jostle Elliot, who had picked up that something out of the ordinary was going on, anyway.
The picture book lay forgotten in the boy's lap and Jared found himself facing curious brown eyes. He forced a reassuring smile to his face and trailed his finger along Elliot's chubby cheek. “Seems like you're going to become a big brother earlier than we thought.”
Jared was sure now. He had already been through labor and delivery once and could distinguish real contractions from false ones, could tell that what was happening to him were no Braxton Hicks. Elliot's birth had happened without complications, even the midwives themselves had been surprised by the smoothness of the delivery of his first child.
Jared knew what to expect. Yet, this happened unnaturally fast. Thinking back, Jared thought, he should have recognized the familiar signs but he hadn't paid enough attention to them-Ellie was his number one priority and caring for him took up most of Jared's time. He was alone now, didn't have the presence of a helping hand by his side and he was still adjusting to that. He could tell himself that, persuade himself that it was okay to not be perfect, but a sense of bad conscience washed over him now regardless. He had neglected the new baby, had disregarded all the signs that told him it was time.
He would have the baby. Now.
Jared felt another contraction sweep through his body, stronger than the last one. The muscles tightened again and he couldn't remain seated. He had to get up and walk. Do anything to lessen the strength of the pain.
He supported his hands on the bench behind himself and desperately tried to push off from it, but it hurt too much. He couldn't move. Jared sagged back against the backrest and panted harshly, gasped for air as he followed the urge to rid his belly of the band of tightness that had once again settled around it. He rubbed his hands over the taught skin and tried to massage the firm flesh but it did nothing to loosen the tenseness.
“Dada?” Elliot quirked up next to Jared, he shifted in his seat and tried to stand up only to fall on his butt when he couldn't get enough purchase on the bench. He shifted nearer to him, leant up against his side and put his tiny hands clumsily near Jared's, onto the stretched abdomen.
During cuddle time, Elliot often happened to touch Jared's bump-it simply got in the way the longer the pregnancy progressed-and Jared told him about the new baby but couldn't guess how much Ellie understood. His son was particularly fascinated with it whenever the baby shifted and kicked inside him, started giggling when the baby pushed against the walls that confined it and pressed the skin outwards, contorted the otherwise regular, round form with a shape of something that could be a foot or a hand or a knee.
At the moment, the boy gurgled blissfully to his daddy and normally Jared would be talking back to him, would repeat the sounds Elliot made and converse with him as they did so often. He didn't now, though; rather prepared for the onslaught of a new contraction and tried to somehow keep track of the time between them.
Now that the first shock was over, Jared was surprised by how calm he still was. Sure, if he had picked up on being in labor hours ago, he would have called his brother or sister and one of them would have taken him to the hospital-just like they'd planned for weeks-and everything would have been a hell of a lot easier but somehow he knew what to do. It hurt, a lot, yet he had the feeling he could trust his body. He already went through all of this once and they said the second delivery was faster and more manageable than the first; from what currently happened to Jared, he was hopeful that saying applied to him. His only worry was Elliot. He'd no idea what to do with his son while all of his attention was focused on the delivery of his new baby.
-*-
Jensen stepped out of his apartment and headed for the stairs. He shot an angry look at the elevator and promised himself that some day soon he would pack his bags and leave this crappy building and its non-functioning appliances the hell behind.
He dragged the basket in his arms downstairs and neared the laundry room. As he approached the end of the hall, his ears peaked up and voices drifted his way. Jensen prepared for the usual small talk that went along with running into your neighbors at a time when you had absolutely no desire to chitchat to any of them, and cursed his bad timing; he'd been certain that none of the other inhabitants would be up and doing chores this early in the morning. He tried to hide his annoyance by forcing a somehow friendly expression to his face and rounded the last corner.
The sounds floating from the room got louder, became more distinct, and Jensen's heart rate picked up a notch. A strange feeling of excitement bubbled up in him and the smile that was forced only moments ago spread wider naturally. Without his consent, it morphed into an open gesture and Jensen couldn't deny that he liked the giddiness it caused. From where he was, he could clearly hear the babbling of a baby and that meant there could only be one other person inside the room.
The cheery Good morning fell easily from his lips as he pushed the door to the laundry room open and zoned his eyes in on the person that caused him to feel these long-forgotten sensations of happiness.
Jared, his son beside him, waited on the bench at the end of the room, surely for his washer to finish, and he looked as if-
Jesus.
Jensen stopped short, took in Jared's flushed face, noticed the hair that sweat made stick to the man's forehead. His eyes were drawn to the exposed belly, a heavy ball sitting in Jared's lap, and Jensen would have found it beautiful, would have been in awe with the way Jared's body had changed to accommodate another life, hadn't he registered how Jared's face contorted with pain.
Jensen catalogued his observations and he gasped as the scales fell from his eyes.
Jared was in labor. He had to be.
Jensen dropped his laundry basket where he was standing and crossed the room to get to his knees in front of the bench.
“Jared, are you alright?”
The other man just looked at Jensen, unmoving. Perhaps he collected his strength or maybe he waited for a contraction to be over, but after some moments he forced himself to speak, his voice small and strained, hinting at the distress he had to endure. “The baby is coming.”
Jensen nodded. He'd figured that much. “Do you want me to take you to a hospital?”
“No,” Jared choked out. “No, the baby is coming now. There's no time for that.”
“But there are no doctors here. You need a doctor. Let me take you to the hospital, please. You can't just give birth in a laundry room. What if something goes wrong and-” Jensen snapped his mouth shut when he saw panic rising on Jared's face.
What the fuck was he thinking? Jared obviously knew best what to do and Jensen making him more worried than he certainly already was didn't help in the slightest.
He raised his eyes to Jared's openly pleading orbs and his decision was made. He didn't have the vaguest notion of delivering a child, but he couldn't just leave and let Jared do this alone. He simply couldn't.
“What do you want me to do?”
Jared took one hand off his belly and gestured at the toddler beside him. “Ellie...”
Jensen nodded. He'd have to keep the child busy with something since Jared was obviously in no way able to care for his son right now. Jensen had some experience with children-all stemming from baby-sitting his nieces-but he didn't have the time to play with the boy; his priority was helping Jared and he'd have to think of something else to engage the kid in. Only, he had no toys here, nothing to keep Ellie busy with. The child was currently engrossed in playing with one of his little feet, but that probably wouldn't last very long.
Jensen looked around the room, hoped for something to catch his attention. His gaze landed on an empty laundry basket that set on top of one of the dryers. He went over and picked it up, opened the dryer to pull a handful of clean clothes out and put them in the basket.
Before he returned to Jared's and Ellie's side, Jensen remembered the cell phone sitting in his pocket. No matter what Jared had said about there being no time to bring him to the hospital, a call for an ambulance couldn't hurt.
He dialed 911, explained their emergency to the officer on the line. Reassured that they'd send someone their way, Jensen turned back to Jared's son.
“Hey Ellie,” he said softly to the boy, “why don't you come and sit in here?”
Jensen reached for him, but as soon as he had Ellie halfway off the bench, the child started crying and struggled in Jensen's grip. Ellie's tears weighed on his bad conscience, yet Jensen didn't let himself get influenced by it and pulled the wailing toddler forward to put him into the basket.
“I'm sorry,” he said to Jared, gesturing to his son, “but...”
“'s okay,” the other man breathed and shut his eyes. He gripped his rounded stomach and moaned deeply, squirmed in his seat.
Unease spread inside Jensen while he observed Jared with worried eyes, wondering how they'd manage this.
Ellie's incessant cries still resounded through the room and Jensen gently patted the boy's curly head, trying to soothe him.
“Hey, little man, everything's all right. Do you want to show your daddy what a big boy you already are?” Jensen picked up one of the items inside the basket and wiggled it in front of Ellie's face. “Look at these. It's so much fun playing with them.”
Ellie was still whimpering, his face reddened from crying, but there were no more tears leaking from his eyes. He patted through the clothes in the basket and Jensen convinced himself to be satisfied with that for now. He was a stranger to the kid, after all. If Ellie stayed at least reasonably quiet, it could be counted as a major success.
Behind him, Jared gasped and Jensen turned back to the laboring man. “I have no idea what to do,” he admitted.
“Get some towels.”
Jensen stood and went back to the dryers, checked the one that was already done and breathed a sigh of relief when he found what he was looking for. He pulled the clean towels out and laid them on the ground.
He felt helpless and completely out of place, overwhelmed by the prospect of what was about to happen. But something inside him convinced him that this was where he needed to be, and at the sight of Jared, for whom this had to be terrifying, he pushed these thoughts to the back off his mind.
“Do you want to stay on the bench or maybe try a different position?” he asked Jared, who looked increasingly uncomfortable half-sitting, half-laying down.
“No, I...” Jared shook his head. “Help me down, please?”
Jensen supported the pregnant man as he slowly settled on all fours on the towels. Jared crossed his arms on top of the bench and leant his head down on them, emitting a small groan when he had adjusted to the new position.
“Better?” Jensen stretched out his arm, wanted to touch the long and inviting expanse of Jared's broad back, but stopped himself in the last second and pulled his hand back awkwardly.
“Mhm.” Jared shifted again, hesitated before he continued, “Can you look if-,” he bit his lip uncertainly, then added, “It's happening so fast. Feels like the baby is coming quickly.” He met Jensen's eyes, willing him to understand.
“Oh.” Jensen felt his cheeks redden as understanding dawned. “Do you want me to check?” He asked, gesturing to Jared's pants.
Jared opened his mouth to answer, but bit back his words, whimpered instead, and rocked slowly back and forth, riding out the pain shaking his body.
Judging by Jared's behavior, the contractions were coming regularly now, not much time in-between them, and Jensen figured there was no sense in waiting any longer. He risked a hasty glance in Ellie's direction, saw the kid mostly calmed down sitting in the laundry basket, playing with the clothes in there, and reached for Jared's sweatpants. Jensen rolled the waistband and the briefs underneath gingerly off Jared's hips until they fell to the man's knees.
It didn't escape Jensen how intimate a moment it was as he brought his eyes level to Jared's ass. He suppressed the gasp of surprise that threatened to leave him, schooled himself to keep calm at the sight of Jared's hole, gaping open and heavily dilated. “I think it won't be long now,” he told Jared calmly.
Jensen couldn't take his eyes off the stretched muscle, smeared with mucus and gunk, when a thought occurred to him. “Your water didn't break, yet,” he stated the obvious.
“No,” Jared panted between breaths, “but it's okay. I read that it's okay.”
He moved on the towels, small but perceptible motions. “Need to get out of these clothes,” he murmured, more to himself than to Jensen, but Jensen cursed anyway, scolded himself for not thinking of that. Jared was face was tinged pink, sweat adorning his skin and soaking through his threadbare T-shirt. Getting Jared out of his clothes and relieving him of their load was the least Jensen could do; it wasn't much, but anything to make Jared more comfortable was welcome.
Jensen didn't waste any more time. He pulled the shirt off, lifted each of Jared's legs in turn to get him untangled from his pants and briefs, and threw the fabric aside.
Jared's bared skin was gleaming in the piercing overhead light from the fluorescent lamp above, and this time Jensen didn't hold back. He followed his impulse and touched the sun-kissed expanse, put his hands on Jared and stroked along his flank.
Jared moaned softly and Jensen continued his ministrations. He kneaded Jared's lower back carefully, mindful of not putting too much pressure on the tender skin. “'s good?” he inquired and Jared nodded.
Jensen felt Jared tense under him and he massaged the man through the next contraction, followed his increasing wobbling movements. When the tension left Jared's body, he gasped for air. “Need to push,” he whined.
Anticipation grew inside Jensen. It was surreal; he didn't know what he was supposed to do, was just glad to be here at all, not to have Jared go through this alone. “Okay,” he murmured into Jared's ear, although he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to. That he would help him, maybe. That he would support Jared and see him through the miracle of giving birth. He repeated the word, more confident and steadier, drew strength from the fortitude with which Jared endured his pain.
They would manage this, Jensen was certain. All would go well and at the end Jared would be blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby. Jensen was astounded by how much he believed this to be true. Yet, he needn't have. It was the connection growing between them while this momentous experience progressed that instilled absolute faith in Jensen and gifted him with the conviction he was now aware of.
He squeezed Jared's sides at his realization, and when Jared's deep groan signaled the arrival of a new contraction, he moved one hand to the swollen belly, caressed the tightening skin and whispered softly to Jared, “You're doing so well. Only a little bit more and you'll hold your baby in your arms. You can do it, c'mon.”
Jared let out a pained yell and Jensen could feel him bear down, his body shaking with tenseness. He encouraged the pregnant man, and tried his best to lend him support by keeping up a running commentary of praising words.
In the periods of little rest Jared was allowed, Jensen kept checking on Ellie. The child was increasingly bored looking and when sitting in the laundry basket and playing with clothes had lost its fascination, he climbed out. Ellie settled next to Jensen and picked up the picture book that had fallen from the bench earlier, began turning the pages slowly and pointing out animals to Jensen.
Jensen was relieved to see him occupied and as much as he would've loved to play with Ellie himself, Jared needed him, so he turned his attention back to the laboring man.
The contractions seemed to be flowing into one another now, like waves overcoming Jared and pulling him under, only to have him resurface stronger. Jensen lost track of time as he was caught up in following Jared's every move. He helped him stay on all fours-a position that was apparently convenient for Jared, too-and relieved him of some of the ache by deftly working the sore muscles.
It was when Jensen noticed a change in Jared's breathing that he realized they were transitioning into the next stage of labor. Jared grunting out hurts so much confirmed his suspicion, so Jensen maneuvered around to get a renewed look at the progress of dilation.
He couldn't fathom how much pain Jared must be feeling, but the amount the usually tightly furled pucker was widened hinted at something unimaginable for Jensen. The skin was reddened from spanning a width it was unaccustomed to, and all Jensen could think was that this wasn't even the maximum stretch it would reach today.
The next contraction overcame Jared, he pushed, and Jensen's attention caught on what was becoming visible inside. “I can see the head,” he exclaimed excitedly. “I can see it. You got to keep pushing, Jared.”
Jared emitted a cry, the convulsion over for now. He sagged slightly on the towels and Jensen reacted immediately, caught him in his grip. “You are amazing. The baby is almost here, thanks to you. Only a little more, man,” Jensen cheered him on, the last of his words overridden by Jared already bearing down again.
When he stopped this time, the head didn't get sucked in again, it stayed stuck halfway. “Oh God,” Jared sobbed, “take it out. Please. Hurts.”
The ring of muscle girdling the head was stretched obscenely-just looking at it made Jensen feel a phantom burn in his own ass-then it widened inconceivably more on the next push. Fluid spilled out and dribbled onto the towels under Jared as the head advanced forward, bulging fully out of the hole.
Without thinking, Jensen tightened his hold on Jared and grabbed one of the man's hands, guiding it to the head. “Feel it?” he asked, as Jared patted around his baby's head warily.
“What is this?” Jared's voice was laced with confusion and he tried to twist his body as if to look behind himself. “Something's wrong. This doesn't feel right. Tell me!”
“Shh, it's okay,” Jensen soothed. He'd noticed, of course, and was pretty sure he knew what made Jared react so panicky. He'd never seen something like this before, but it had to be what he thought it was, couldn't mean anything else. “Ever heard of a baby being born with the caul?” he asked gently and after Jared's nod he went on, “I think your baby may be so lucky.”
Jared inhaled a sharp breath. “You mean-,” he trailed off, whined deeply. His whole body arched, and, after some grunted pushes, the baby suddenly slid out. Jensen caught it with the towel in his hands, and looked at it, fascinated by how translucent membranes covered the baby's face.
Jensen pulled the film from the baby's chin slowly upward, over its entire face, to the forehead, and removed it carefully with trembling fingers as if lifting a cap from its head.
A second later, a high-pitched cry resounded in the room and Jensen felt a burden he had forgotten he carried fall from his chest.
He looked up to see Jared shuffling until he was seated on the ground, his back leant against the bench. Jensen transferred the infant onto Jared's chest and Jared's hands came around it and cupped it tenderly.
The baby was tiny braced in Jared's large hands, and Jared himself looked exhausted and tired, but underneath it shone a happiness that warmed Jensen's heart.
Jensen spread another towel over Jared and his baby, then averted his gaze to allow father and child the privacy of their bonding time, their first moments together.
With the excitement of the last minutes rinsed from his body, Jensen felt a little shaky. He became aware of the magnitude of what had transpired, and although it was terrifying in a way, Jensen wasn't ashamed to admit that he was proud of what they'd managed, of what Jared was able to do.
Jensen noticed Ellie sitting on his bum a foot away from him. The boy was chewing on the fingers in his mouth, his eyes attentively tracking the happenings around him.
“You okay, buddy?” Jensen inquired, crouching down in front of the kid. He didn't answer, of course, but Jensen was sure Ellie could do with a diaper change. Food and a nap probably, too.
He extended one hand, and Ellie gripped his forefinger tightly, rose to unsteady feet with Jensen's help. Jensen smiled fondly at the child. “Want to meet your brother now?” he asked and steered Ellie Jared's way.
The End