Work Text:
Nine months of panic and worry came down to this moment. This was the day that Robert and Aaron met their daughter.
It had been sixteen months since they got the call to say they found a surrogate for them. A whole lot of tears later, they had met Nancy. She told them that she had been a surrogate mother once before and she loved giving couples who wanted a baby exactly what they desired. She said that it was rewarding and that it’d be an honour to be their surrogate. They knew it would be a struggle from the moment they started researching the possibility of surrogacy. IVF wasn’t a cheap procedure and there was no guarantee it would ever work, but they tried because all they wanted was a baby to call their own. They had received some discrimination against them when they had gone to the first scan, unaware of the rule about the amount of people allowed in the room. They explained to the nurse that they were both going to be the father of the baby, but the nurse told them that they had to wait outside while the scan had taken place.
Being relatively new in the world, same sex surrogacy was something that the public clearly struggled with, Robert and Aaron were, more often than not, told they couldn’t be involved in the pregnancy, being told that they wouldn’t have rights to the child until it was born and they had the paperwork.
Robert woke up at 7am every day for the past month, thinking that every noise was a phone call saying she had gone into labour. This morning it was 6:12 when Robert’s phone rang from the table next to his head. Aaron’s legs had tangled with Robert’s in the night, something that happened to stop Robert kicking. Aaron’s head was lead on Robert’s chest, drooling on to his bare skin. Robert shuffled, struggling to lift his body up, opting instead to just blindly grab it.
He recognised her voice straightaway, she was panting down the phone, trying to calm her breathing like they were taught in antenatal classes. “Rob, she’s coming.” Robert just sat in shock as Nancy carried on breathing heavily whilst trying to tell him about the contractions and how regularly they were coming. When she finally put the phone down, Robert tried to climb out of bed, somehow shaking Aaron’s shoulder at the same time.
“-What’s up?” Aaron slurred out, still half asleep.
“She’s coming Aaron! Our baby girls coming!” Robert shouted, jumping on one leg to pull his trousers over the other leg.
Aaron shot up out of bed, running over to his clothes that they laid out every night while Robert grabbed the hospital bag and car keys before rushing out. Liv had been staying between the pub and Gabby’s recently, the boys worrying that they’d wake her up during exam season if Nancy went into labour in the early hours in the morning. She’d move back in as soon as the baby came home, which seemed like it was happening sooner than they had anticipated. She wasn’t due for another two weeks but she was huge already.
The clock ticked by slowly when they eventually got to the hospital. Aaron paced the corridor, waiting impatiently. Minutes dragged into hours and it wasn’t until just before one in the afternoon that a midwife opened the door blocking Aaron and Robert and said “You can come and meet your daughter now.”
Robert burst into tears straight away, closely followed by Aaron, who was now holding his hand out for Robert to clasp. Aaron’s fingers tightened around Robert’s hand, both of them trembling as they tentatively stepped into the room, their daughter mere metres from them. Aaron was the first to hold her, his strong arms a warm inviting cradle for their baby. She snuggled into his chest, something that Robert did often enough himself to know how good it feels. Aaron smiled down at the child in his arms as he lifted his left arm from underneath her so he could stroke her face. “Hey there little miss.” He whispered as it looked as though she was about to fall asleep. Typical, they wait nine months for her and all she wants to do is sleep.
Robert walked over to where Aaron was holding their daughter and rested his head on his shoulder. Looking down at their daughter, he kissed Aaron’s neck and pulled his arm around Aaron and rested his hand gently on their daughter’s head, his long fingers stroking through her surprisingly thick dark hair. “She’s gorgeous.” Robert said in utter awe.
Neither of them wanted to look away from her whist the midwives told them how much she weighed and her length. “You wanna hold her?” Aaron asked, not even daring to peel his eyes away from his daughters closed lids.
Robert nodded, his chin still attached to Aaron until Aaron moved and put her into his husband’s arms. “God she’s perfect.” Robert gasped as he let her grasp hold onto his finger, her tiny hand barely managing to fit around his finger. Robert wiggled his finger slightly, laughing at how she tightened her hold instantly.
Aaron rolled his eyes at his husband’s reaction but definitely in love with the pair of them. “Whipped already I see.” He said, watching Robert as he turned around, his eyes only lifting up for a couple of seconds before dropping them and shrugging his shoulders, being careful to not wake her up.
They were joking, but really they wouldn’t do anything to change this moment. This perfect piece in time when all harmony is restored and they’ve extended their family. Robert holding their long awaited for daughter in his arms, Aaron staring at the pair of them, completely and utterly in love. They had waited for so long, faced prejudice, got told they wouldn’t make it as fathers, went through two failed IVF rounds and heartbreak.
Robert passed her back to Aaron, who held her for a matter of minutes before the rest of the family turned up, demanding to see her face or hold her. Robert smirked and motioned for Liv to sit down on the green chair next to the bed. The three of them had decided that Liv would be the first person to hold her after them. Aaron put her into Liv’s arms, Liv instantly protective of her newborn niece.
“What’s her name, love?” Chas asked after taking a series of photos of Aaron and Robert handing her over to Liv.
Aaron nodded to Robert to show that it was okay for him to announce her name now, finally. “It’s Annie. Annie Olivia Dingle-Sugden.”