Chapter Text
I couldn’t feel the contractions yet, but I could definitely feel the water between my legs soaking through the bed sheets. Dick was running around the room packing the to-go bag.
“Do you think we’ll need this?” Dick asked while holding up another blanket, even though he had already put two in the bag.
“I don’t think we need three blankets, Love.”
“Right yeah, yeah.” Dick went back to grabbing stuff like diapers, baby clothes, my clothes, bottles, binkies, and other things that he thought were necessary. I could feel the contractions now, though they were still pretty spread out so we didn’t have to worry about it yet.
“Dick, I’m pretty sure we have enough stuff. We should probably start heading to the hospital.”
“Yeah, we-we should definitely- let me get the car, I'll pull it out front.”
“Okay, I’ll go downstairs and wait.” Dick ran down the hall and then I heard the front door close. I rolled my wheelchair to the front door. I was still wearing the clothes I had on when we went to the market, just some jeans and one of Dick’s hoodies. I waited outside on the entryway for Dick to bring the car around. Once Dick brought it, he hopped out of the car and ran up to me. He helped me get into the car and put my wheelchair into the back then got into the front. He started driving to the hospital at a reasonable speed for Blüdhaven. I could feel what I thought were contractions, but it was hard to tell. The doctors had told me at the last appointment that it might be harder for me to feel contractions due to my paralysis, so I wasn’t too concerned. Once we arrived at the hospital and I was back in my wheelchair, we headed over to labour and delivery.
“We think my wife is in labour, where should we go?” Usually Dick talked to doctors and nurses for me because when I talked to them, they dismissed my opinion.
“Oh, okay. Follow me.” The nurse got up and started leading us to a room. “What’s your name and how far apart are the contractions?”
“Barbara Wayne-Gordon, I think around 10-8 minutes. It's hard to tell, really.”
“Okay, this is the room you’ll be in. A nurse will be with you soon.” We followed the nurse down to one of the empty rooms. Most people spent this part of the labour at home until the contractions were 6 to 5 minutes apart, but due to the fact I was considered a high risk pregnancy I was told to come to the hospital right away. The nurse helped me into the room and onto the bed with Dick’s help. Before she left, she handed me a hospital gown. I changed into the gown with the help of Dick.
“Hello Barbara, I am May and I’ll be your nurse today.” An older nurse came in with graying red brown hair and blue eyes. She had a kind smile, one that made anyone feel safe and warm. “I’m just gonna check how dilated you are.” She had me sit up a little more. “We are going to wait a little bit more because you are only dilated about 6 centimeters and we want you around 10. There are ways to increase the dilation like walking, rocking on a birthing ball, squatting, and getting a peanut ball. I’m going to get you a peanut ball, it’s a ball that goes between your legs to help with dilations. Most paralytic people use it during labour. I can have Dick help you rock on it.” Once she left the room, Dick moved to my side.
“How are you feeling?”
“Anxious, worried, whatever you want to call it. We are going to be parents soon. I don’t think I’m ready, what if I screw up. I mean, we are going to have an actual baby, what if-” the press of lips to my own stopped my spiraling.
“You are going to be an amazing mother, Babs.” Dick pressed another kiss, this one against my nose and cheeks where my freckles are. Dick has always adored my freckles. Said he was going to kiss all of them one day. “God you are gorgeous. I promise it’s going to be okay.” May then came back into the room with the peanut ball.
“Barbara, I'm going to have you lay on your side and this will go between your knees. It is used to help open up your pelvis so the baby can move. ” May explained as she positioned the peanut ball. “I want you to do some breathing exercises as well. I’ll be back every 10 to 20 minutes to check how far along you are.”
It had been around 4 hours since we had first entered the hospital. The contractions were happening more frequently and were a lot stronger. May had us do all forms of exercises to open my pelvis up. May was currently checking to see how far I was.
“Okay, it looks like we are finally 10 centimeters. Let me get the doctor and you can start pushing.”
“Thank God.” I was over being pregnant and just wanted this baby out. Dick was standing near my head, holding my hand. All the different medical balls had been moved out of the way and May was getting the doctor. Dick started rubbing my hand in a comforting manner.
Peter Pov
The last thing I remembered was Mr. Stark’s fearful face. He was trying to comfort me, I think. I couldn't hear really well. There was so much pain. Everything was just numb. I couldn't feel anything. I wondered what had happened. The pain had started with the snap, so could this have been a side effect? Did I just die?! Oh my God, I totally just died. Was this the afterlife? I thought the afterlife was supposed to be another step of life. Maybe I was in hell. No, that couldn’t be it. I could hear my own heartbeat, so I was still alive. Maybe I was just in a coma. Then, it was suddenly very bright and loud. There was a baby crying. I could tell that I was being held. I looked up to see who it was, and it was… May? Why was May here? I tried to talk to May but the baby’s crying just got louder. I was being passed to someone else. Why was I being passed around? The next person's hands I landed in were those of another girl, though she looked way more exhausted and had sweat forming on her forehead.
“Hello, little one.”
What does she mean by little one? Am I a baby?! Why am I a baby? Wasn’t I just a 16 year old? If I am a baby, would that mean I somehow got reincarnated? How is that possible? Could the stones have something to do with it? I mean, they can literally alter reality so being turned into a baby doesn’t seem to be that big of a stretch.
The lady holding me looked really pale. I mean, that could just have been from giving birth, but I didn’t think so. My concerns were confirmed when I was removed from the lady’s arms by Aunt May.
“She’s crashing! Get them out of here!” May and who I assumed was my new father ran out of the room. Wow, I wasn’t an orphan anymore. We stopped in the hallway and May passed me over to my new father.
“I know you are probably really stressed right now, but I need you to help me with the baby. He needs skin to skin. Usually we do that with the mother, but obviously that's not an option.”
“He’s a boy?”
“Yes.” We got led into a different room and the guy sat on one of the chairs in the room ignoring the hospital bed. He took off his shirt and rested me against his chest, I was positioned in a way where I could see his face pretty well. He looked exactly like Richard Parker, which was insane. Wait, could that mean I was not only reborn, but in a different universe as well? I would have to look into that at a later date because I was becoming increasingly more drowsy and it was hard to keep my eyes open. He was so warm. I slowly faded into unconsciousness.
Dick’s pov
The only word I could use to describe the moment right now was numb, in just a matter of minutes I had gone from slightly worried to full of joy to just purely panicked. From what the nurse had told me, because Barbara was paralyzed and had a spinal injury during the labour, it had caused autonomic dysreflexia which led to very high blood pressure and ended in her going into cardiac arrest. Which was not helping with the panic attack I knew was happening. How could this happen to us? We were about to become a family. The baby almost started crying again, interrupting my thoughts as I rubbed his back. God, I couldn’t believe that I had a little boy now. He was a tiny little thing. God, Barbara had better survive this. I couldn’t be a single father.
Twenty minutes later, May had left to help the others and I was left with the baby and my thoughts. Which wasn't the best place to be left in right now. He was talking again, hovering in front of me.
Replaced me already, Big Wing? And so close to my birthday. You really were such a bad brother. I mean, look at you–
Little Wing was cut off by a code blared across the PA system. “Code Blue in room A1-15! I repeat, Code Blue in A1-15! Can any available doctors or nurses report!?” That was Barbara's room. I immediately got up, which woke the baby up and caused him to cry, but I couldn’t bring myself to care; I was already rushing back to Barbara's room. When I got there, doctors and nurses were surrounding Barbara. Her gown had been removed around her chest and a defibrillator was attached to her.
“Clear!” One nurse yelled as Barbara's body was shocked and jolted. They waited a second and then started charging it back up to shock her again. The room was filled with the sound of a flatlining machine, doctors yelling and a baby crying.
“Clear!” Her body jolted again. She was so pale that she had none of the energy of life that she'd had just hours before.
“Let’s call it, the time of is death 21:24.” It was like time itself had stopped. Ringing blocked all other sounds, my gaze locked onto my world, or at least the corpse of it. I was briefly aware of someone taking the baby away from me and forcing me to sit down. Death. Barabara was dead. Barbara, my wife, the one who dips fries in her vanilla milkshakes. Someone who teases me as a form of love. Someone who can make me smile by just existing. Who had brainstormed baby names with me. Oh God, our baby was going to grow up without a mum. How was I supposed to raise a kid alone? Where was my kid?
“Wh-where's my kid?” I cringed at the way my voice sounded so weak and broken. I tore my gaze away from Barbara and to the nurse who I recognized as May.
“He’s in the nursery getting weighed and receiving all the other normal tests done on newborns. Do you want alone time to say goodbye?” I nodded and May left the room. I slowly got up and walked over to the bed. I grabbed Barbara’s hand, the same one I held as she brought life into the world. Now it was limp and dead just like her. Memories from our first meeting, first kiss, our wedding, from when we found out she was pregnant, all of it came to the forefront of my mind, releasing the dam that was holding me together. I could feel my heart shattering. I clung to her and just sobbed. I didn’t know how long I'd been crying over her, but it was long enough that my eyes had run out of tears to cry. I had my cry now it was time to be responsible. I had a brand new baby to look after.
“laćhes Barbara te trail amaro kamipen sajekh anθ-i lumja maj dur” I pressed a kiss to her lips. I then got up and left the room. To my surprise, the nurse, May, was standing outside and it looked like she was waiting for me. “Where is my son?” I asked, surprised that my voice was steady.
“In the nursery, I can bring you to him if you’d like? We have done a full examination on him and other than being slightly under the normal weight, he seems perfectly healthy. We do need a name for the documentation.” May said, leading me down the hall to where the nursery was. Everything was still a bit numb and unfocused, but I was here enough to realize I had no clue what to name him. We were going to make the final decision together, and Marcus and Parker just didn’t feel right. Once I got to the nursery and looked through the window and saw my little boy in that tiny cot, then I knew exactly what to call him.
“His name is Peter Grayson-Wayne-Gordon..” Earlier today, Barbara had mentioned Peter as a name option. God, had that really only been a few hours prior? She changed her mind once it triggered a panic attack due to the fact Jason’s middle name is Peter, but now I didn’t feel panicked at the thought of naming him Peter. It felt right. It would be a way to connect him to both Barbara and to Jason.
“Okay, I will go put that under file. Before I do that, would you like to hold him? It’s still very important for skin to skin.”
“Okay Yeah, I’ll hold him.” When she handed Peter over to me, it was like the hole in my heart filled just a tad bit. He was so tiny and precious. I pressed a kiss to his forehead and just admired him. I could already tell he had his mother’s facial features, his skin was so soft. He had barely any peach fuzz really. As I watched Peter sleeping, it dawned on me. I was going to have to manage being a single father and also plan a funeral. How was I supposed to do that by myself? The answer was, I couldn’t. I was going to need help from someone, and I knew exactly who. I carefully took out my phone and looked through the contact list until I found the one I wanted. It rang three times before the person on the other side picked up.
“Dad? Something just happened. I need your help, please.”
“Dick? What happened? Where are you, are you safe? Is Barbara safe?”