JC was fast asleep with his head resting on his folded arms. He had been down in his studio all night writing. There was a low melodic beat playing through a set of headphones that were lying next to the baby monitor near his head. A small line of saliva slowly trickled down the side of his lip as he snored.

"Hello?" Rachel answered JC's cell phone that had been ringing to the beat of "take me out to the ballgame" for almost a half hour. She had tried to ignore it, but after the tenth call, she'd had enough.

"Is JC there?"

Rachel squinted over at the clock and noticed it was almost 5am. "Who is this?"

"It's Hallie. I need to speak to him right away." Rachel turned over in bed to nudge her fiance, but there was only an empty space. It had been like that for awhile. She sat up in bed and looked towards the bathroom to see where he was, but it was pitch black.

"Rachel? Hello? Can you put him on the phone please?"

"I don't think he is here." She spoke groggily.

Hallie automatically assumed she was lying. "Where would he be without his cell phone then, Rachel?"

"I don't know. Gimme a minute to find out!" she snapped back before swiftly hanging up.

Rachel walked down the hallway towards Nikki's room and found the baby sound asleep in his crib, but JC was nowhere in sight. She pulled the blanket up to cover the baby and was startled by the phone ringing once more. She tried to cover it up, so as not to disturb her toddler. She walked out into the hall and closed the door before answering the phone. "Didn't I say to gimme a minute? What the fuck is so important that you need to call here at 5am, Hallie? Did Laura break a nail?"

Just as Hallie was about to curse her out, Rachel started again, "Look, he's not here. But I'll make sure to let him know that you called."

"Yeah, just like you let him know Laura had called."

"Look-"

Rachel immediately jumped when she felt a hand touch hers. JC snatched his phone from her hand, "Hello?"

He looked over at his stunned fiance and he continued to speak to Hallie. The only light was that of the moon gleaming in through the windows of the hallway. Rachel could hardly make out his face to see if he was glaring at her, but she could feel he was. "Seriously? I'm on my way." JC hung up and jogged down the hall towards their bedroom. He grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt and threw them on before grabbing his wallet and rushing towards the front door.

"Where are you going?"

"Laura's in labor. I gotta go."

Rachel just stood there and watched him frantically dial a number in his phone. After his call ended, he ran out the front door, never looking back to say goodbye to his fiance. Rachel stood in the middle of the hallway with tears flooding her eyes. Just as she was about to fall to the floor and let her tears flow, JC rushed back in the door. She looked to him anxiously only to find he had left his keys. "I'll call you later." he yelled.

She stood on the walkway and waved, "I love you."

JC just muttered "yeah, me too." before hopping in his car and speeding off down the street.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm trying to get a flight out now, Laura."

"It's okay, Hallie. You don't have to go through all that. I'll be fine."

"I don't want you to be alone during this, girl."

"My mom should be here in a few hours or so. They say I have a long way to go before I'm fully dilated."

"Well I still want to be there. I called JC and he is on his way."

"Oh...Okay."

"When I called to get his number, Justin told me something about a private jet that they use, so he might be there before your mother."

A contraction started to kick in. "I need to hang up, Hal. I'm in too much pain to be holding up a conversation with you buddy. I'll see you when you get here. Love ya." Laura handed the nurse the phone as she gripped the railing of the bed and winced in pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wow. 8 1/2 centimeters. You're making good progress. How's that epidural treating you?"

"God, it's awesome." Laura breathed deeply as she smiled at the nurse. She sucked on a crushed piece of ice and wiped away a few beads of sweat that running down her face.

KNOCK KNOCK

The door opened slightly and Laura turned her head to see who it was. JC stood there nervously looking inside the room.

"You can come in, JC."

"I wasn't sure I was in the right place. It's like night and day. I walk in here and it's like a plush hotel room in here." he laughed nervously.

Laura smiled and introduced him to the nurse. "Nice to meet you, Betty."

"Are you going to be with her during the delivery, daddy?"

"Ummm...Only if she wants me to."

"It's up to you, JC. Do you want to-"

He didn't even let her finish. "Yes."

"Well that's settled." Laura smiled towards nurse Betty.

JC found a seat in a rocking chair that was near her bed. Laura was busy changing channels on the tv to notice him staring at her. "Oh look, Friends. You still like this show, right?"

She looked to him for a response and found his eyes centered on her face.  Self consciously, she pushed her damp hair out of her face.  "What?"

"You're so beautiful."

"I look like shit, but thanks. Just don't let your wife hear you say that."

"She's not my wife."

"It's just a technicality at this point." Laura turned her attention back towards the tv. JC just sat quietly and watched the show with her as they waited together, for their child to enter the world.