*TEN YEARS LATER*

I walk down the hall of my house, just having finished a business call with one of my representatives. The house is strangely quiet for a Saturday afternoon, usually Abby is up and figuring stuff out by now. I walk downstairs and into the kitchen because that's where she usually is, but I'm surprised when I don't find her digging through our refrigerator. Her absence would usually lead me to believe that she's planning something for my birthday, since that's today, but this year is different so I'm not expecting her to do anything big for me.

Ryder, the golden retriever I got for Abby on our six year anniversary, looks up at me and growls a little when I walk past him. I know he doesn't like me, and that's okay because I don't like him either. I only keep the mutt around because Abby loves him.

I walk back upstairs and down the hall to our room. Cracking the door open, I peek inside and see the giant lump that is my wife lying in bed on her phone. I smile a little bit and walk over to her, kneeling next to my very pregnant wife.

"What're you still doing in bed?" I ask and she puts her phone down to look at me.

"My back hurts," she whines with a small pout on her face.

"Do you want me to buy you a new bed?" I ask grabbing her hand. "I can go do that right now."

"Scott you just bought this mattress two days ago when I was complaining about my back hurting then," she rolls her eyes at me. "It isn't the damn mattress, it's this damn baby"

"We're almost there," I try and comfort her. "The baby is due in just a few weeks."

"I'm hungry," she moans, rolling off of her back and on to her side so that she's facing me. "Go make me some tacos."

I stand up quickly, without any questions, and I'm about to rush out of the room. But Abby's voice stops me and I turn my head toward her, confused by what I hear.

"Want me to get some cum so you can put it on your meat?"

"W-wait," I stutter a little and she frowns at me. "What did you just say?'

"I asked if you want me to get some rum to poor on the taco meat," she says slowly as I blink a few times. "Like we did last time you made the tacos. Those tasted good."

I slowly nod, wondering why the hell I thought she said that. This has been happening a lot lately. I've barely gotten any since Abby got pregnant, and I'm not complaining or anything, but I keep imagining her saying all this dirty stuff that she actually isn't.

"Okay," I nod but she's already on her phone and ignoring me again. I sigh and walk out of the room, Abby isn't the only one who's ready for this pregnancy to be over.

"No you listen to me," I growl through the phone as I walk around my home office. "I have a pregnant wife that's due in a couple of days, I refuse to fly over to Europe right now!"

"Mr. Rogers," my assistant says in a very frustrated voice. "This meeting was set up months ago, the Governor can't keep switching up his schedule."

"Well then you tell the Governor that he can shove a pen right up his-"

"Mr. Rogers if you would just listen-"

"Who even set up this meeting?"

"Your wife did sir," he says and I frown. "Before she went on maternity leave, she was supposed to go with you. She obviously can't now since she's too close to her due date to fly."

"Okay then, you listen to me-"

I'm cut off by a piercing scream and I immediately run up the stairs to where the screams are coming from. My assistant is asking me what's going on through my phone but I ignore him, hanging up the phone. I run into our room, but Abby sin't in her usual spot on the bed. I walk over to the bathroom and find Abby sitting on the toilet with her legs out wide.

"Why'd you scream?" I ask kneeling next to her and grabbing her hand.

"Water broke," she says and I frown, tilting my head at her.

"Babe," I say shaking my head. "The pipes are just fine, the plumber came by last-"

"Nooo," she groans squeezing my hand so tightly that I almost lose feeling. "My water broke."

My breath gets caught in my throat when she says that and I swear that all the breath leaves my lungs. Holy shit. What am I supposed to do? I stare at her with wide eyes, not being able to move because I'm still in slight shock. I'm shaken out of my shock when I hear Abby start yelling at me.

"Wake the fuck up and get me to a hospital!"

"I'm gonna be a dad. I'm gonna be a dad. I'm gonna be a dad. I'm gonna be-"

"Scott," I look up to see Anna, Falon, and Daniel rushing into the room with a look of worry on all of their faces. I stand up and quickly walk over t them. They greet me with hugs and pats on the back once they reach me.

"Hey guys," my voice sounding shaky as I try, but don't succeed, to cover up the nervousness. "Glad you could finally make it."

It's only been about three hours since Abby and I got to the hospital. Her parents are currently driving down from out of state, they were on a trip together, while my Mom and Dad got here about two hours ago.

"Sorry it took so long for us to get here," Anna says as holds Falon's hand. "How have you been holding up?"

"Fine?" I shrug as I mess with the tie that's been hanging around my neck all morning. I took my suit jacket off earlier and left it in the room with Abby and my parents. "I just stepped out of the room to get some water. "Abby's doing pretty well with the whole...birthing process..."

"We should probably go in there to see her," Anna says as she tugs on Falon's hand. "To let her know that we're here for her."

"You guys go ahead," Daniel slides his arm around my shoulders. "I've got to talk to Scott for a minute."

Anna and Falon start walking toward Abby's room and I frown at Daniel who still has his arm around me. He smiles at me happily, I will never understand how this man is always so happy.

"A little friendly advice," Daniel says as he drops his arm from around my shoulder. "If you decide that you don't want a kid, at least pay child support. We don't want you to get in trouble with the law."

"I'm not going to leave my kid," I shake my head even though I know that he's only joking. "What'd you really wanna say to me?"

"Are you going to stay in there while she's..." I raise an eyebrow at him as he explains his questions. "You know...popping a baby out of her vagina?"

"You couldn't have found a different way to say that?" I laugh at my brother. "Like saying 'while she's giving birth' would have been far more acceptable than what you just said. And I have to right? Isn't it, like, my duty as a husband?"

"I just wanted to know," he shrugs. "I've heard that most dudes end up fainting while they're in there though."

"I know," I sigh. "But fainting is a way better consequence than what Abby would do to me if I weren't in there ."

I'm never going to give birth again.

I know that I'm not the one that actually had the baby or anything, but I feel like I was just by the way that Abby was gripping my hand the entire time. I tried to let go several times but I couldn't even move my hand. What pregnancy does to a woman's strength is just unnatural.

But I wouldn't take back what my hand went through.

Especially now, as I watch Abby cradle our newborn son in her arms. I'm standing next to the bed and watching, ignoring the doctors that are rushing around the room. I can't tell who he looks like yet, right now he looks sort of like a red potato. Hopefully he doesn't always look like that. Someone needs to carry on the Rogers family good looks and from the looks of it, it might not be this little fella.

But I'll love him even if he does turn out ugly.

Abby looks up at me with a big tired smile on her face. I already know what she's thinking about right now by the way she's looking at me. We've agreed on what his middle name should be already, but we still haven't quite settled on a first name yet. There are millions out there, but only one will be fit enough for our son.

"I think I have the perfect name for him," she smiles down at our little boy. "I know it's common but...as soon as I saw him it just made sense."

"Oh yeah?" I ask even though I'm probably going to go with whatever she's come up with anyways. I've never been very good at saying 'no' to Abby. "What is it?"

"Nathaniel," she says happily. I look down at the child and realize that it's the perfect name for him too. I know he only looks like a red potato right now. But soon he'll look like Nathaniel the red potato.

My kid is going to hate me.

As I continue to watch stutter girl rock back and forth with Nathaniel, I can't help but think about how nicely his name is going to sound. How well it's going to fit him. How well he's going to fit into our family. How he's the first, of possibly many, that I'm ever going to have.

Nathaniel Liam Rogers.