[Shane]Stop... Baby Time

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire looked around the shower, she hated spending time in these things. Cause what if her water broke and she didn’t know it? “ SHANE!!!” she yelled out, poking her head out of the shower. She frowned as he came into the bathroom. “ I forgot the towel….again..” she said, reaching out gratefully as he offered her a dry towel. “ Thank you,” she said, doing everything she could to step out carefully so she didn’t slip anywhere. After drying off her hair and changing into a pair of navy blue shorts with a gray t-shirt she looked around the room. Sneakers weren’t an option, bending over seemed impossible. And she didn’t want to ask Shane to do another favor for her. So instead of being a hassle, she walked over to her flip flops, stepping into them clumsily before making her way to the kitchen. She wanted to make chicken salad sandwiches for everyone and had gotten most of it done. Claire pushed her hair away from her face, looking down at the recipe since she’d gotten some fancy one from a magazine that Blake had sent her. All of the sudden she felt a pain at her side and held onto the side of the counter, noticing that the pain radiated through her lower abdomen. “ Ow.” she said quietly, gripping her fingertips along the counter so much that her knuckles were turning white. Before she had a moment to process that she may or may not be going into labor, she could feel the water falling onto the floor. Yeah, her water had definitely broken. “ Uh oh,” Brayden said, looking at Claire. “ Ax-ident?” he questioned with a concerned look on his face, trying to understand if Claire had just had an accident on herself. “ Uh oh!” he said excitedly, running out of the kitchen to go find Shane, echoing ‘uh oh’ repeatedly until he found him.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane sat at the desk in their home office, thinking it was fucking weird that he even used this room in the house but since Claire was really motivated about her dance studio getting up and running after the baby was born, Shane was trying to finalize paper work with the contractors who were doing some of the last electrical stuff before they started bringing in all the dance stuff. Like ballet bars and getting wall to wall mirrors installed and shit Shane never would have thought he'd ever know about let alone need to know about. Not to mention he had some pretty good ideas for marketing he wanted to mention to Claire and see what she thought. Getting established was going to be the hardest part of getting this off the ground. Shane was just looking at numbers and bills, sitting back in the desk chair when Brayden ran in, slightly clumsily still, saying uh oh continuously, "What's uh-oh, buddy" Shane asked, standing up and walked over to where Brayden was standing in the doorway, "Mommy peed," he said, that little sound of concern in his little voice. Shane thought that over, she had literally just gone to the bathroom, Shane would know because he helped her get up, how could she have possible peed herself. And just like that it clicked, leaving Shane wondering if all the waiting they'd been doing was finally over, "Claire?" he called, heading to the kitchen where she was standing, holding onto the counter and looked at the floor. He looked at Claire, processing what was going on, "Okay." He started going through a mental list of shit like the baby bag, and calling Rosie, who they'd agreed on watching Brayden at the current moment in time due to who was all where this week. Shane walked over to her, leaning down to give her a kiss, having prepared for this and yet here it was, and it was like, oh shit it's here. At least this time he didn't have to hop a flight from brazil, he thought, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire stood still at the counter, holding onto it almost in fear that if she let go that she would topple over. But the pain passed quickly and as Shane entered the kitchen, she held the side of her stomach looking up at him. She knew he was probably mentally going through everything that they needed to get done before they left. “ Okay,” she repeated back to herself. But no screwing around this time. But when she got to the hospital this time, she was not waiting around for drugs, she was getting that damn epidural. After he gave her a kiss, Claire tapped him on the arm. “ I need my hair straightener, too. It’s not in my bag.” she said, holding the side of her stomach as she moved towards the fridge, taking out a jar of pickles. “ And don’t forget Braydens overnight bag for Rosie. We have to bring that to the hospital, too.” she said, wincing as she took a jar of peanut butter out of the fridge. Claire moved, carrying the two jars as she made her way towards the garage. “ I’m in the middle of asking you not to speed because Brayden is going to be in the car, and begging you to because I want drugs. I want them now,” she said, trying to maneuver her stomach around the car door as she got to the car. “ Brayden! Where’s Brayden?” she called out. “ I right here…” he said quietly, holding onto his stuffed spiderman. Claire sighed as she looked at him, thinking she was already losing her mind. “ Can you climb in sweetie? I can’t pick you up,” she said, gesturing to the carseat.She moved out of the way as Shane came over to do it quickly. He was like this whirlwind of organized chaos. Once Claire finally got in the car she took in a deep breath. “ I forgot to put tequila in my bag for after the baby is born.” she said, shaking her head at her absent mind lately. “ And the chicken salad is on the counter. I think I left the bedroom tv on,”

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane dialed Rosie's number, opening the front closet door and held the phone between his ear and shoulder as he grabbed the already packed bags; one for Claire with everything she needed, and a little one for Brayden. Shane kept an eye on Brayden as he heard Claire mention her hair straightener, "Got it," he added, climbing the stairs and tossed Brayden his stuffed spider man from the top. "Hey Rosie," he said, locating Claires straightener and wound the cord up, "Claire's in labor, could you meet us at the hospital to get Brayden?" he asked as he reached the bottom step again, Brayden standing in the entry hall with his spiderman, not knowing where to go but followed Claire to the garage. Rosie had promptly agreed that she would be there as soon as possible and Shane thanked her, hanging up and grabbed the Tequila from the bar and stuffed it into Claire's bag along with her hair straightener and then headed into the garage where he tossed the bags into the backseat and told Claire he'd thought of the Tequila, which was funny of all things to remember but she'd said she wanted it earlier. Shane scoooped Brayden up in one swift movement and plopped him into his car seat, "I grabbed the Tequila" he responded, buckling Brayden in, "I got a hold of Rosie, she's meeting us there," he also stated as Brayden tugged at his seat belt, asking why, "Because we're going to the hospital, your new sister is gonna be here soon. Isn't that cool?" "Cool." Brayden said still holding onto spiderman and Shane wondered where the hell his Batman doll was. Shane climbed into the car, starting the engine and started backing out, "I'll call my parents when we get there..." he said absentmindedly, waiting for traffic before pulling out onto the street. Shane hated New York traffic, even in the burbs, but today he tried his best to rein in his road rage as he drove to the hospital, seemingly taking forever but once they got there it felt like it had taken seconds.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire kept strangely quiet for the remainder of the drive to the hospital. It seemed like every thing she had forgotten about, Shane just had easily already handled. So she might as well let him take the reins on this one. She was going to have enough work to do for herself later on. Claire cringed, clenching her jaw tightly when she felt another contraction and reached down to squeeze the hell out of a water bottle. It was better to do that than to make any noise. She didn’t want Brayden to hear her and get scared thinking she was hurt or something. “ I hate New York,” was all she said until he was able to park the car. Claire looked behind her, unsure of how Shane was managing to be able to carry both her bag and Brayden’s, as well as make sure that Brayden was holding his hand and still seem like he was keeping it all together. Claire walked up to the front desk, “ Hi, I’m having a baby. Can I have an epidural?” she asked , taking in a deep breath as the nurse started to move around from behind the counter to bring her a wheel chair. “ No I don’t need that, I need an epidural” she said again, not wanting to sit back down yet. Sometimes the contractions hurt in such a weird way that if she was sitting down, she felt like she was going to die. She wanted to be able to walk for as long as she could until it was time to deliver. The assistant started getting forms together, which Claire asked could be filled out later once Rosie had gotten here to pick up Brayden so that Shane didn’t have to juggle a million things at once. “ We’ll check your vitals and see how dilated you are and according to that we will see about the epidural.” the nurse said politely, bringing Claire towards a room. Claire pulled her hair over to one shoulder, stepping inside. But the nurse stopped short looking at Shane. “ I think it’s best if you two wait outside just for a moment so there’s no… questions?” she asked, with a lift of an eyebrow as she tilt her head down to Brayden. Claire leaned down, giving Brayden a quick kiss before she moved so that she could get her first check up. “ Are you the father?” a young nurse asked Shane outside of the hospital room, idiotically, as she looked up at him batting her big stupid doe eyes as she did her best to fill out paper work.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane almost laughed a little when the lady at the desk tried to get Claire a wheel chair and all she wanted was an epidural. She knew what she wanted, she was going to get it. Shane figured he'd want an epidural too, he heard that shit was premium. Shane thanked the woman when she said it was fine the paper work was filled out once they got settled in, sighing gladly as he glanced down at Brayden, so naive to what was going on, holding Shane's hand and hopping around but never letting go. Shane just wanted to set these bags down. He followed Claire and the nurse to a room, Brayden asking about balloons he had just saw, Shane looking up when the nurse suggested they wait outside. Shane realized that even though he wanted to be there for every minute he had missed the first time, they also had a toddler this time around and Claire didn't need him to be there every damn second so he agreed to wait outside. He leaned over to kiss Claire's cheek, smiling a little and stupidly happy that when the nurse asked if he was the father, he could respond proudly, "Yeah, husband too." He shrugged, reaching down to pick Brayden up with arm, "Give mommy a hug, we have to go in the waiting room for just a few minutes," he explained while Brayden leaned over to give Claire a kiss and then headed out of the room, setting the bags down and sank into a chair, resting Brayden in his lap. He let out a breath, wondering how soon Rosie was gong to be there, letting it sink in that things were about to be so much different soon. Yeah they'd planned this baby and they'd been talking about it for months and waiting and now it was just SO real. It was one thing to talk about "When she's here," and quite another to realize that soon they were going to have another baby. A daughter, at that. That were gong to actually get to see her soon, and hold her, welcome her into their little goofy family. Brayden had been such a learning experience already, now they were going to have to figure out a girl, and her personality and her cute little quirks. He wondered what she would look like, maybe a lot like Brayden. Some time passed, Shane having a conversation with the two year old about the epicness that was Batman, and why having no superpowers was so much more awesome in theory, and then remember to call his mom. The phone call was short, she'd just wanted to get going so they could get there as soon as possible, asking him to text if anything important happened when the nurse came out and told him they could come back in.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire didn’t even care this time around about the needles being poked into her. People that said that you forgot about childbirth pain were liars. She knew what pain was coming, she knew what drugs she wanted. But she also didn’t want Shane to miss too much. It had been a different experience the last time. She’d been in shock from the school shooting, it was more scary than anything. This time her entire little family was here and it could be looked at for how amazing it truly was, instead of how scary. But she waited, after all of the needles were put in, she waited, sealing her legs shut by putting a power grip on locking her knees together. She had dancer legs, if anything on her body was powerful and had strength, it was her legs. No one was getting in and doing anything until Shane came in. No checking on anything, no decisions,nothing. All of the ‘scary’ stuff for Brayden had already been done. Needles and iv’s were in. The epidural wouldn’t even be able to be arranged for probably another fifteen minutes and hopefully Rosie would be here by then. Claire looked up at Shane as he came in, her knees still locked together after a Nurse had stood up, exhibiting defeat at being able to tear her legs apart. “Hey little man,” Claire said to Brayden. “ What do you think the chances are that daddy’s going to bring you home a balloon?” she questioned with a lift of her eyebrows. “ Did you call Ethan ? He’ll call Dalton I’m sure,” she said as she looked up at Shane, reaching her hand out so that she could take his. “ It’s weird…different, this time, huh?” she asked with a quiet laugh. But instantly she felt another contraction, and since Brayden was in the room she couldn’t scream so every force she had in her body went straight into squeezing Shane’s hand as physically hard as she possibly could. “Well I hear someone is going to be a big brother,” the doctor said with an emphatic tone as he walked into the room, looking down at Brayden. “ I suppose that makes you the little man in charge, huh?” he asked before standing up, introducing himself to Shane and Claire. “ The doctor you two had selected is on vacation.” Claire took in a deep breath, trying to remain calm. “ Our doctor took a vacation… when he knew I was this close to labor?” she asked, just to make sure she had it right. “ There’s no reason to be alarmed, he went over everything with me. I’m aware of the complications from the first labor and I promise you we are going to avoid any predicaments that we may come across,” he said before turning to look at Shane as the nurses went back to talking to Claire, not about anything important. Pillows, was she comfortable, did she need ice chips? Claire made a face as she looked at them. If she needed anything, Shane would’ve already known it and brought it for her. “ I’m a grown ass woman. You think if I wanted ice chips I would ask for them?” she asked testily. “ My daughters are huge fans of yours, Mr.Madden,” the doctor said as he began to scribble along his chart.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane smiled when Claire asked about him bringing a balloon home for Brayden, "I'd say pretty good," and then set the bags down on a nearby chair, "Yeah I called him and he didn't pick up so I left a message and texted him. Maybe he's on set." Shane pulled up a chair to sit in but didn't sit because he was becoming anxious, nodding when Claire mentioned how different it was this time around, "Yeah, different is one way to put it." Last time Shane had had no time to think except about how he was getting there and when he got there it was time and Brayden was born and he hadn't had time to process it before it happened. This time left a lot of time for thinking. Like how tiny she was going to be and if she was going to have his eyebrows and praying to god there were no complications. Shane listened as a doctor came in, not the one they wanted, and explained about their doctor being on vacation so Shane sighed, placing his hand in Claire's, "Alright, no big deal," he said, trying to stay positive as Claire snapped at the nurses about ice chips and the doctor mentioned his daughters being fans of him. "Oh, cool," he said, suddenly realizing that someone's daughter's were a fan of HIM, and how ridiculous that truly was because he was such a hobo sometimes and his own soon to be daughter was going to be a fan of some rock star hobo that Shane would surely hate and Shane asked suddenly, "On a scale of one to ten, how difficult are daughters?" And the doctor could only muster a chuckle. He didn't know why but even though Brayden had been scary, Brayden was a boy and some how Shane could justify it in his mind that that had been manageable because Shane was a dude too and he had been a little dude once, but it was so tripping him out about having a daughter because he wasn't a girl and he'd had no sisters, and he was just realizing this was a totally different ball game up in here and the thought of a daughter he was realizing kind of terrified him. Shane looked up when he heard a soft knock on the door, seeing Rosie poke her head in, "Hey guys," she smiled, looking about as excited as any female around new babies and she came over to hug Claire, kissing her on the cheek, "How are things so far, epidural yet?" Brayden was being a shy little goober for about five seconds until Rosie asked about Spiderman and he was all into showing her and she picked up his little bag. Shane reached down and picked Brayden up, "Brayden, Aunt Rosie is gonna take you to her house and you guys get to hang out and do fun stuff. And me and mom are gonna be here waiting for the new baby, okay?" Brayden looked like he was down for whatever, which was good. "Spiderman come?" "Oh for sure dude, Spiderman can go with you wherever you want. And we're gonna call you when the new baby is here and then you can come back, does that sound okay?" "Okay." he had responded, so Shane gave him a hug and a kissed and brought him over so Claire could say goodbye too and set him down, putting his little hand in Rosie's and waved, flopping Spiderman all around on his way out. They were so damn lucky that Brayden didn't give a fuck and was comfortable enough around Rosie enough to go with her, he saw her all the damn time anyways.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire smiled as she watched the interaction between Shane and Brayden, forcing herself to take in deep breaths. But when the doctor was talking to Shane about the band, she could feel her nostrils flaring as she continued to try and keep her breath steady. Was now really the time? But Shane had switched the subject, asking if girls were difficult basically. Claire put her hand on his, smiling as she kissed the back of his knuckles. “ It’s a little you and a little me. She’s going to be perfect and amazing, and a part of each of us. So there will be scary moments, but your heart will always know what’s right.” she said, kissing his hand again before putting it down. If anyone could do this, it was them. They had this. They may not be conventional parents, but she sort of thought they were good as hell at this parenting gig. When Rosie popped in, Claire sat up as best as she could to give her a quick hug. “ Thank you so much Rosie, I know this is asking a lot,” she said, thanking her genuinely before she rested back against the set of pillows. “ Bye baby,” Claire said as she watched Brayden leaving the room. She counted to ten to herself quietly, so that Brayden had enough time to get down the hallway before she put her hands to her side, pushing herself up. “ I need the epidural! Like right now!” Claire screamed out. “ Mrs. Madden, we have to get ahold of the anes-“. “ RIGHT NOW!” Claire said, feeling the veins bulging at the side of her neck before she took in a few deep breaths. “ I’m gonna go get ice chips” a quiet cna said before making a quit exit from the room. “Mrs.Madden it looks like you have about three more centimeters to dilate before we can have you go ahead and push. I don’t think it’ll take more than another hour or so, but we’ll keep checking periodically. Is there anything I can get for either one of you?” the doctor asked as he looked between Shane and Claire. Claire gasped quickly looking at Shane. She’d taken her wedding ring off because her fingers had gotten too swollen about a month ago to wear them anymore. “ Oh my god I forgot my wedding ring. Our little family is going to be all together and I don’t have my wedding ring.” she said, putting her hand to her chest. But the moment of fear was quickly brushed aside when Claire felt another contraction, this time audibly screaming since Brayden wasn’t within distance. She sort of felt terrible – Shane hadn’t been around the first time, and now he was getting to see that it was just a lot of her in pain.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane was grateful for what she had to say, and she was right. Chances were they were already fucking boss parents so they'd be super awesome for kid number two and while it eased his mind a little to hear her confident about it, the initial nervousness still lingered. Being responsible for little people and making sure they didn't break themselves and all that was a lot of work and it was scarier thinking about having to watch two of them. They'd just have to do it like they always did, one day at a time. But as soon as Brayden was out of earshot, Shane was getting an ear full of all the stuff he didn't experience last time, and yikes yikes yikes was all he had to think about that. The doctor was talking about being dilated and pushing and was it just Shane or was all this happening super fast? Maybe this kid was like, yo, I'm tired of being all up in here. What if that was foreshadowing to a child who did not like to wait for what she wanted. Ha, well that sounded right, sounded like Claire. "Wait, what?" Shane asked, registering that she didn't have her wedding ring. Shane stopped, trying to think. He knew that, he knew she'd taken it off. He dug around in the duffel bag, no it was not in there. He had put it somewhere. He'd been so scattered brained remembering things, where had he put such a small piece of jewelry? And then his eureka moment happened, reaching to take his wallet out, opening it and dug he ring out, "I knew I had forgotten something, but it was on the dresser when I got your hair straightener," he rattled off and he realized he did not even remember having grabbed it, he'd been in such a rush. Now that they had time to just sit and wait, Shane sat down beside her, letting her squeeze the shit out of his hand, realizing now for the first time how much she was crushing it. Well, she had to squeeze the shit out of something. They just kept asking about what else she needed and all Shane could ask was, "Um, epidural? When does that get to happen? I think that's about all that's needed at the moment, but thanks."

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire felt a small sense of odd relief at the fact that Shane had gotten her wedding ring. It felt so symbolic of their relationship to her ; odd, unique and beautiful. It had a humbling aura to it that made her just appreciate what she had with him. “ Thank you,” she said, pushing her hair to the side. “ I’ll go see what I can do about getting her moved up on the list,” the doctor said in remark to Shane questioning about the epidural. Once it was just the two of them, Claire relaxed her hand slightly, bringing her other hand up to her forehead, feeling the small amount of sweat that was already starting to form at the top of her hairline. She took in a few deep breaths, realizing that this may be their last moment of silence together for a while. Last moment of silence at the hospital, at home. She didn’t want to ruin it. She traced her thumb along his hand as she held onto it, looking around the hospital room. “ If she gets anything from you, right now I am really hoping it’s being laidback and just chill with stuff, because this already hurts and she should just take it easy,” Claire said, bringing her free arm up behind her head as she bent it. “ Knock knock,” the guy said cheesily before he entered the room. “ Oh thank God,” Claire said, moving so that she could reach her arms out to Shane, so he could help her sit on the edge of the bed. Claire held her hands onto Shane’s forearms as she sat at the edge of the bed, letting the anesthesiologist move in place behind her. He explained what he was going to do, more for Shane’s benefit than her own, explaining how he was going to take the needle and insert it basically into the spine to inject the medicine. Claire dropped her forehead onto Shane’s chest, feeling like she was already too weak for all of this. When the needle went into her back she clenched her hands a little tighter around his arm, but didn’t say anything. “Okay, well the epidural should kick in fairly quickly and I know the nurse is going to want to come in to check how you’re progressing in just a little while,” he said before turning to Shane, “Say my sons are big f-“ he started saying before Claire reached over, taking the plastic cup and chucking it towards him. “ I’ll be going,” he said before ducking out quickly. Claire adjusted herself against the pillows, her back a little sensitive from the needle. But that feeling quickly went away. And a few minutes later, Claire noticed her arm movements getting slower. But she couldn’t help but chuckle, putting her fingers over her lips as she turned her head to look at Shane. “ Shane.. can you imagine…how much chocolate pudding this place has?” she asked before laughing, with no sound and without much energy. “ Just pudding cups everywhere. Everywhere….I wonder what Blake even ate when she was in the hospital. “ she said, clearing her throat as she tried to put on a southern diva accent. “Y’all call this a pastry? Who y’all got cookin in there? Is that puddin’?” she said, finding herself pretty hilarious as she looked at Shane.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane nodded in agreement about the hopes that any kid of theirs would adopt his laid back nature. Brayden had it, he was chill as hell. Most people said if one kid was one way, your other one would be the opposite, but in this case Shane was hoping they'd get lucky. "Oh god, I hope so. Chillest family on the block." The guy came in for the epidural and Shane was pretty sure he felt relieved as well. The easier things could be made for Claire, the easier they could be for everyone. Even though the dude explained about the epidural, Shane tried not to think about it too much while it was going on and felt a little bad for the guy on his way out. Any other day Shane would be super glad to chat about his rock star status but not today because it just so happened that his normally chill wife was not feeling very chill this afternoon. But it was nice though, the little bit of quiet time they had to both just relax for a moment. It felt like they had been there for all of ten minutes when it had been over an hour. But in labor time that was pretty fast that this was moving along. They weren't waiting for anybody, just AJ. And she wasn't wasting much time either. The epidural was starting to take effect, and Shane knew when Claire started talking to him about pudding and silently laughing in such an exaggerated way that he couldn't help but start cracking up himself. Every time she spoke, he just let out another fit of laughs because, really, it was humorous, through all this, if you take it back; the epidural, the pain, getting here, leaving the house, fighting less than a week ago, all the built up tension and nerves about today, they were sitting here laughing about pudding like a couple of fucking five year old's. He couldn't even bring himself to muster up a response because he was just laughing and he honestly didn't know what Blake ate in the hospital but noticed his phone ringing in his pocket and pulled it out, seeing a facetime from Ethan, which made him realize that even though he was sure everyone was being told abut Claire being in labor because Shane had texted and what not, the rate at which this was going, most people were going to arrive after or just before, and that left them a lot of time to just be together which was pretty fine with him. Claire was still talking about pudding and Shane answered the call, laughing to himself as he moved so that he and Claire were both in the screen and saw Ethan's face appear. Shane said hello, but he was still cracking up at Claire's state of epiduralness.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire just laughed to herself, thinking of Blake working in the kitchen hospital. Because she was so tall… and did they have their kitchen made so that the equipment was tall so she didn’t look like a circus act? “ Does Blake have a special oven?” she asked, cause the question made sense in her head. Claire put her hands on her lap, because she wanted to remember this moment so she knew to ask Blake later. She looked over her shoulder as Shane got closer to her, holding his phone up. “ It’s Gaaalee..” she sang out quietly in a sing song voice. “ I really hate Gale. I really hate him.” she said emphatically. “ Oh thanks Claire. How are you two holding up? Are things moving?” he asked from the other end of the facetime. “ Shane isn’t allowed to impregnate me anymore. Because thinking about it.. I think… I think we can buy enough pudding and Cheetos for the four of us. But if I have another kid I mean… how are we gonna maintain that manufactured cheese puff amount with delicious creamy pudding? The ratio can’t be matched Ethan. It just can’t. I wish that you got some sort of cast in pregnancy. But then you get a baby. But people can’t sign your baby. And the cast would be on your cooter. And I don’t really want people signing that.” Claire said as she basically continued to have a conversation with herself. “………Do I get to know if I have a new niece or nephew yet, Shane?” Ethan asked. “ You sound SO Australian. Aw crikey Barbie. Shrimp and stuff. Lassie. I really don’t like Gale. I’ll always be team Peeta. He’s so much better. So much. Like… Gale doesn’t even compare. In any sense. He’s terrible. The absolute worst.”

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane could have had a lot to say while Claire was rambling things off but it was funnier letting her talk and watching Ethan's facial expressions. Ethan probably had no idea back then that asking Shane to hang out with his sister would lead to this very moment and Shane laughed at the thought as he imagined what Ethan must be thinking right now. Even as Ethan asked how things were going, Claire explained off multiple things, including how she and Shane couldn't have any more kids and Shane laughed at her reasoning being that they couldn't afford the correct pudding to cheeto ratio. Ethan was trying his best to ignore Claire's comments about people signing cooters, asking about the baby being a boy or a girl and Shane shook his head, "Not just yet, but you do know that I get to pick the name right? So I have a few options and I think I know what I'm picking, but I'm waiting to see. Because I feel like you have to see what name is the most suitable." Claire was just rambling about Australian accents and Shane shook his head, "It's gonna be interesting though with Brayden. I mean we told him what was going on but I don't quite think he knows," he laughed, "It's like he thinks he's just getting a new friend or something. Rosie's got him at her place right now though."

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire stopped for a moment, listening as Shane talked about how he got to name the kids, and how sometimes you just couldn’t know what their name was until you saw them. “ Yeah. YEAH” she said, widening her eyes. “ So those lil fuckers running around named Dwight..or Eugene.. Gretchen…Margaret.. you KNOW their parents thought they were ugly. You know. You don’t look at a beautiful baby and say “I name you Dwight” Claire said, shaking her head. A nurse stepped in, “Okay Mrs.Madden we are going to have to take a look at how far you’re dilated,” she asked. “Well ask Shane, he spends more time down there than anyone,” she said, dropping herself back onto her elbows. “And now my lunch is coming up,” Ethan said from the phone. “ That’s great though mate. What sort of names are you looking at?” he had questioned, clearly trying to get a leg up on what the gender was. “ Well listen I’m gonna be on the next flight out, I promise.” Ethan promised, apologizing for not being there to help out with Brayden even though it seemed like Rosie had things under control. “ We have a bit more to go,” the nurse said before walking away. “ Still tight!” Claire said, putting her hand up so she could high five Shane. “Hey, Ethan. Did you know that Gale’s name has ‘gay’ right in it? Say it slowly. Go ahead. Let it sink in.Hey remember when you asked Shane to watch me because I otherwise would have gotten myself into a predicament...” she said before looking around. “ I’m just gonna push. Cause maybe they are a little baby and can fit through,”