Scout realized that, however the decision had been made, her baby was going to be born in the back bedroom at Farraway Mist, and her delivery was going to be attended by her baby daddy and two very kind but inexperienced teenaged boys. And four curious dogs. In the middle of a violent thunderstorm. And the possibly malevolent spirit of the baby daddy's dead first wife.

Oh my god.

She looked around the candlelit room, which really did look like something out of a gothic romance novel. The flames flickered, casting weird shadows on the walls, while the flames from the fireplace gave the whole place an eerie glow. At least it was relatively warm, and close to the kitchen, where the boys were using the gas powered stove to heat water, and George could get Scout ice chips from time to time.

The contractions were coming fast and furious now, nearly one on top of the other, and Scout was having a hard time keeping on top of the pain. She was used to things hurting; she'd spent her entire life falling off her bike, hitting her head on diving boards, breaking limbs, things like that, but this continuous, deep ache, with no end in sight, with no professionals to help her, was frightening.

"Miss Scout? You okay?" Sunil asked, seeing her expression. He was arranging a bunch of things, including a pair of scissors and a very sharp knife, on a clean towel along the top of the chest of drawers. Scout saw the array and blanched. He followed her gaze.

"Oh no, miss, please, don't be scared," he said with a gentle smile, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. He took her hand. "I mean, I'm not saying there's no reason to be frightened, I'm just saying there's no point, you understand?" He looked carefully at her face. "Like I've heard you say to Mr. Wilder at some point tonight, most women could do this completely alone, no problem at all." He patted her hand. "We're just here to help out if you need us to, like."

Scout looked around for George.

"He's getting you some more ice, miss," Sunil said.

Scout nodded, gripping Sunil's hand tightly as she felt another contraction. Sunil held tightly and counted with her until it was over. He wiped her forehead with the cloth when she was finished.

"I'm really, really glad you and Alfred are here," she confessed to the boy in front of her. "Please keep an eye on Mr. Wilder, okay? This is really scary for him, you know? In many ways, it's probably more frightening for him than it is for me."

Sunil nodded, smiling like a brown-eyed angel at her. "I know, Miss Scout. He looks like he's going to faint dead away sometimes. We're watching both of you." He looked up when the door opened. It was Alfred, carrying more clean things carefully on a tray. Sunil rose to go help him.

George was right behind him, with more ice for Scout.

Scout took a deep breath. She was already exhausted. It felt like she'd been in labor forever in this room lit by candles. This was going to be a long night.

She felt another contraction coming, and braced herself, reaching out for George's hand.

*********************

"I want to walk around," Scout said.

"It might help," Alfred put in.

It was close to one A.M., and everyone was feeling the strain of waiting. George nodded, and held out a hand to help Scout get out of bed.

Wordlessly Sunil followed along behind her with the mop to clean up any drips, which Scout found hilarious, even given the awful, dire, scary circumstances. She turned around to look at him a couple of times and smiled when he waved at her while holding the mop handle, waving back at him, biting her lips together.

The dogs, of course, followed along behind Sunil, which just put the humorous exclamation point on the whole, hysterical thing. Alfred stayed behind to clean up the bed while Scout wasn't in it, and to set the room a little bit to rights while it was empty.

"Oh, come on, George, smile, it's a little funny, you must admit," Scout admonished, looking at his strained face.

"What's funny about this?" he asked, eyes huge as he looked at her.

She gestured behind her. "First of all, I look like I've wet my pants. And I've got Sunil following me with a fucking mop, wiping the floor, like I'm some kind of incontinent royalty. Then we have a procession of dogs following him, like they're hoping he misses a spot so they can lick it up or something." Scout stopped to consider. "I wonder if dogs like amniotic fluid?" she mused.

George was grossed out in spite of himself. "Eww, Scout!" He made a face, smiling with disgust.

"At least I made you smile," she said, leaning over to kiss him. She stopped as she felt a contraction.

"We need to go back," she said, her voice and expression speaking for themselves.

They quickly returned and got her settled, and a check revealed that the baby was much lower than before.

"It feels like she's really pressing on me," Scout said through gritted teeth. "I really want to push, you guys."

"It's not quite time yet, Miss Scout," Alfred said, lowering her nightgown. "A few more minutes, yet, if you can wait, miss." He patted her knee.

Scout took a deep breath, and made a sound, half way between a whimper and a sob, which kind of embarrassed her.

"Oh no," George said, stroking her hair. "Oh god, she needs something for the pain, she needs something--" He stood up and took a few steps around the room, not knowing what else to do. He ran his fingers through his hair.

Sunil left his place at the foot of the bed and went to George. "Mr. Wilder, please, you can't do this right now, you just can't," he said in a low voice. He looked over his shoulder, to where Scout was shifting her hips in the bed, trying in vain to find a more comfortable position. "Miss Scout needs you so much right now, you know? You have to remember, sir, that whatever you're feeling, whatever you're going through, what she's experiencing is so much harder than that."

Scout felt another contraction, which made her cry out and fist the sheets. "George?" she called. "George, please, George," she continued to call softly.

George swallowed and made it back to the bed in two long strides. "I'm here, darling, I'm right here, don't worry," he said in a calm voice, stroking her hair back from her drenched forehead. "Nearly done, nearly done, you're doing beautifully," he murmured.

Scout shook her head. "Something's wrong," she said in a defeated voice. "It's not supposed to hurt this much, I'm sure of it. I've never felt anything that hurt like this, anything. I know something's wrong, George, I'm sorry, I'm sorry--" she turned to look at George, large eyes sorrowful.

"No, Miss Scout," Alfred interrupted in a sunny voice. "Nothing's wrong, honest. Like I said before, I've only ever seen my pet pig Princess do this, but I remember how things happened, and so far everything's happening absolutely the way it's supposed to, I swear."

And George snorted with laughter, which made Scout smile, which lifted George's spirits a little.

"Oh my god!" Scout breathed with her next contraction, and Sunil pointed something out to Alfred. Alfred looked closely. At the peak of the contraction, he could see something smooth and dark between Scout's legs.

The baby's head was crowning.

"Okay, Miss Scout, with the next contraction, time to start pushing, all right?" Sunil called. "Mr. Wilder, you brace her up there, and we'll brace you down here, got it?"

Scout nodded, dropping her head, and when the next contraction came along, the job of getting Alis Mathilda Wilder into the world began in earnest. Everyone in the back bedroom at Farraway Mist focused on this one task, breathing as one unit, counting, stopping, waiting, all in unison.

Once Scout just fell back into George, exhausted, too tired to even hold herself up. He braced her for a few moments, after which she tried to sit up, saying, "Sorry, so sorry, I'm just so fucking tired."

"Jesus, love, if anyone's entitled to be tired, it's you," George murmured into her ear, planting a small kiss on it after.

"I love you, George," Scout said softly, turning her head.

"I love you more," he said, tightening his arms around her.

And she sat up, grabbing her knees and dropping her chin to begin counting and pushing with the next contraction.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the baby's head was out, and Scout had to stop pushing for a few seconds so they could clean her nostrils.

"Oh, Miss Scout, she's lovely," Sunil gushed. "And she looks just like you, too! Hold on, let me wipe her a bit, so she's not quite so slippy, don't want to drop her, like--okay, then, here we go, ready?"

And with two more pushes, baby Alis had arrived.

Alfred quickly scooped her into a clean, soft towel after Sunil wiped as much goo off her as he could. Then he placed her on Scout's tummy, face down, while George quickly pulled Scout into a comfortable reclining position on the bed.

Sunil piled more logs on to the fire to make the room as warm as possible, and to provide more light, while everyone gathered around the bed to look at the new baby.

She was pinking up nicely, and giving a few preliminary cries, which sounded healthy to everyone, which was lovely. Scout and George unwrapped her very briefly to look at her arms and legs, which looked normal, with ten fingers and ten toes, and to see that she was, indeed, a perfect little girl.

George was crying, as Scout had known he would. Scout carefully wrapped Alis up again as best she could, making allowances for the umbilical cord, and cuddled her to her body, trying to keep her warm. The room was surprisingly quiet and relaxed, with the majority of the noises coming from baby Alis herself, quiet cries and smacking noises which alerted the curious dogs.

George poked Scout in the arm and gestured to the side of the bed when she looked at him. She turned to where he was pointing, and saw all four dogs sitting, tails wagging madly, heads sitting on the edge of the mattress, wanting to see the contents of the soft towel.

"You guys want to see?" Scout asked with a smile. "Hm? You want to meet her?" She handed the baby to George. "Be careful, she's still attached to me, okay?"

George slowly got up and walked around the bed, bending over so they could sniff the baby. All four dogs gathered eagerly around Alis, tails wagging, leaning forward to sniff at her. She chose that moment to poke her tiny hand out of the towel, and Bandit leaned forward to give a preliminary lick, which made everyone in the room laugh. After all four had had a chance to meet the new arrival, George sat back down with the baby, smiling like his face was going to split in two. He hadn't stopped crying since she'd come out.

"Give her back, ya big baby," Scout teased him. "I have to figure out how to breast feed her."

As George handed her back, he asked the boys, "Don't you have to cut the cord?"

"We want to wait until the afterbirth's delivered, we think," Alfred explained. "Sunil thinks he read something about how that's better for the baby, and it kind of makes sense, you know?" He shrugged. "It certainly can't hurt, anyway."

"Whoa," Scout said, eyes widening. "I think it's happening now, guys." She quickly handed the baby back to George.

Sure enough, within ten minutes, she passed the placenta, which was almost has hard to deliver as the baby had been, only a lot less fun. The boys strategically chose a place, tied off the cord, and cut it with the scissors, which had been boiled in the kitchen.

For better or worse, Alis was on her own in the world.

"Okay, kiddo," Scout said, unbuttoning her nightgown, "let's see if we can figure this breastfeeding thing out, hm?" She took the baby from George and began to try strategically placing her where she thought a nursing baby should go.

"Miss Scout? If I could offer some advice?" Sunil politely interjected.

Scout nodded. "Please. This feels awkward as fuck, if I'm honest."

"Okay, so you need to turn the baby so her tummy is on yours, like completely facing you. Yeah, like that. Her little arm should be under. And her face should be facing the breast--may I?" He reached in. "I watched my sister do this," he explained.

"So yeah, her little arm goes there, and you hold her like this, and--your breast is just the right size for this, if that's not a strange thing to say," he said with a shy smile.

Scout grinned at him and shook her head. George smiled, too.

"Whoa!" Scout said in a shocked voice. "I think it's working. Wow, she's strong!"

"Exactly!" Sunil said in a pleased voice. "That's when you know they're doing it properly, it should feel really strong." He sat back. "Perfect."

"You know, boys," George said in a quiet, emotional voice. "We couldn't have done this without you two." He wiped his face with the back of his hand, and put an arm around Scout, who looked up from her daughter's face and nodded at them. "I don't know how we'll ever, ever repay you."

Alfred and Sunil smiled at the couple and newborn in the bed.

"Ah, we love you guys," Alfred said shyly.

"You're like our own family," Sunil added.

Just then, a ray of sunshine broke over the hills and shone into the room through a window.

A new day had begun.