Epilogue One Rory

Pacing back and forth, I try my damnedest to keep my sanity as I hear Callie groaning.

"Dammit, Doc! Why can't you give her anything for the pain?"

She just eyes me patiently. "I already told you that she's too close. The painkillers won't even kick in before she gives birth."

"Surely there's something you can do!" I stalk closer and Callie growls at me.

"I told you to stay over there until you can be civil to my doctor, Rory." Her pointed chin is tight where her teeth are clenched and her glorious blue eyes are clouded with pain.

I hate seeing her like this. I run my hands through my hair and tug it hard. "I can't take this! She needs help! She needs drugs!"

The doctor just looks up at my wife. "How do you feel, Callie? You feel alright?"

She nods her head and I want to throw my head back and scream, rail, maybe hit a wall or something.

Like she can read my mind, Callie glares at me. "So help me…if you punch a wall and break your hand, I'll never forgive you."

The woman is a fucking mind reader. She knows me too well.

"Baby, why can't you take something?"

"You already heard the doctor. Now if you don't stop, I'm gonna kick you out!" Her jaw is clenched tighter and her little hands are fisted into the thin sheet. I can hear the fabric shrieking as she throws her head back and lets loose a guttural scream.

"That's it, Callie! You're so close. Just a couple more pushes and you'll be holding your beautiful little boy!"

The doc nods at me and I move up behind my wife, letting her rest against my chest until she's ready to push. Then I help her practically bend herself in half pushing.

A screeching wail has both of us smiling and tears roll down Callie's pale, sweaty cheeks.

"Oops!" The doctor smirks. "Guess it's not a boy. You've got yourselves a little girl!"

My head reels and I stare at the wrinkly, angry little face. I reach out a gentle finger and she reaches out and takes it, her screams stopping, her deep blue eyes searching for me.

"She knows her daddy," chuckles the nurse. My heart pounds and it's like everything fades away to black in here but my family. My little girl and my angel.

My family.

"I love you, little one. I'm gonna take good care of you just like I do your mama. I'm gonna teach you how to dance and how to tune up a car and when you get old enough that some boy comes to my house looking for you, I'm gonna make sure the little shit knows that if he does even one thing to make a single tear fall down your pretty cheek, I'm gonna take him out to the woodshed and beat the living shit out of him because no man is ever gonna hurt my little girl."

Callie snorts. "She might have something to say to you about you threatening her boyfriends."

I shrug my shoulders and smile at my wife. "She can think whatever she wants but I'm her Daddy and that's my job. Make sure that she's safe and happy and that no man can ever take my place in her heart."

The doctor and nurse laugh and Callie groans. "Oh, jeez. She's gonna hate that if she's anything like her Daddy."

"She'll survive."

I move over to my wife and I reach down and caress her soft cheek, staring into her sweaty, pale face. "I swear you've never been more beautiful, angel. You're glowing."

Callie groans. "It's called sweat. I freely admit. I don't glow. I sweat."

"Still more beautiful than a goddess on high. You are and always will be the most stunning woman I've ever met and I'm a lucky fucker to have you."

"Language," she huffs, but her full lips are smiling.

She's my perfect match. She tames the wild part of me and brings me so much joy and love that I can't stand to be apart from her.

And now she's brought me a daughter that I hope looks like just like her when she grows up.

Even if I have to kill every man who comes calling.

"I love you, angel. So much." Her eyes glow with love and the mussed hair and sweat don't mean a damn thing to me.

"I love you too, Rory. You're gonna be a helluva daddy."

With her as our little one's mama, I can't be anything less.

"What are we going to call her? We only picked out a boy's name."

I study her and it comes to me almost immediately. "Faith. Faith Dawn."

"For the start of a day and the never-ending faith that you have in me."

Her eyes glisten with tears. She nods and clears her throat. "That's perfect."

The nurse hands our Faith to Callie and I sit next to her on the bed, watching my girls get to know each other. And I know in this moment, nothing will ever change the way I feel right this second.

Because right here is my whole damn world. I might have more children with Callie one day but our love will stretch and strengthen, taking in each one of our children and shielding them with our hope for their future and our faith in what the future will bring us.

We will always have each other. Always have hope and love. And faith that our love is enough to get us through whatever comes our way.

That our family is the world to us. And that's as it should be.