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TK had never been one to watch the clock.
He had never really cared much about it, just moving from one thing to the next with ease, not really concerned about how much longer he had left.
Even in school, it had never bothered him, he had always been too busy to care.
And at work, forget it, watching the clock just made things worse.
So he had learned to just ignore it, as long as he started his shift on time, showed up for dinner dates on time, went to bed at a decent hour, it was all good.
But today, well today that had all ended.
“What’s taking so long?” He let out a whine as he continued to pace back and forth in the waiting room, his eyes crinkling as he heard Marjan chuckle behind him.
“TK, giving birth can be a long process.” He knew that, he was a paramedic now after all.
“But still…” He practically heard Carlos roll his eyes.
“Babe, you’ve gotta stop pacing.” The hand that grabbed his wasn’t that of his boyfriend though and when he looked down it was Tommy’s hand holding his.
“Please, TK, stop.” He realized that he was probably being a little crazy, if anyone should be wearing a hole in the floor it was Tommy.
It was her best friend behind those doors giving birth after all.
“I feel like we’ve been here all night.” He huffed out, falling to sit between his boss and his boyfriend.
“You do realize that you’re mother labored for twenty seven hours with you right?” He felt his mouth fall open as he snapped his gaze upward and toward his father.
“Excuse me?” There was no way that was possible. “I can’t… that’s… that’s more than a whole day.”
“How do you think she felt?” Nancy kicked his foot playfully and he sank back in the chair. “Look, Grace is a champion, I’m sure baby girl will be here sooner than we think.”
“Baby boy.” Paul corrected from beside her, watching as she rolled her eyes and Owen chuckled.
“I can’t believe you’re still the only person who thinks this baby is gonna be a boy.” The other man simply shrugged at Carlos’ words, but TK couldn’t help but huff.
“What if something’s wrong?” Marjan let out an exasperated sigh from beside Owen and TK found himself glaring at her.
“Nothing is wrong TK, babies take their time, she’ll be here when she’s ready.” Her words did little to comfort him, so he was thankful when Tommy reached out and took his hand in hers.
“And if, for any reason, something were to go wrong,” Oh please don’t say that, “Judd would come busting through those doors to tell us and you know it.”
He couldn’t think of anything else to say so he simply nodded in response, his eyes returning to stare at the clock across from him.
Only five minutes had passed since the last time he looked at the stupid thing and it made his head spin.
How had more time not gone by?
But just as he got ready to express his annoyance, the double doors to his left pushed open and none other than Judd Ryder appeared.
“She’s here.” Paul groaned as everyone else clapped and awed, jumping up to congratulate the new father with hugs. “Gracie’s fine, tired, but fine.”
“See, told you.” TK couldn’t help but roll his eyes as Nancy nudged him gently with her elbow.
“TK here has been in panic mode for the past hour.” Carlos wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he spoke, maybe to soften the blow of the teasing he was surely going to endure.
“Everything went fine brother.” And then Judd was pulling him into his arms and hugging him tightly.
“When can we meet her?” He sounded like an impatient child, but thankfully for him the others simply raised their eyebrows in agreement, waiting for Judd to answer the ever lingering question.
“I’ll bring her out shortly, once they tell me it’s okay.” TK felt his eyes starting to water because there was nothing he wanted more right now than to meet the newest member of their family. “But for now, I’m gonna get back to my wife before she reports me missing.”
Everyone simply chuckled, offering up hugs and congratulations once more, and then the man was disappearing back through the double doors.
“See, that didn’t take that long.” Marjan said softly, reaching out to pat his shoulder.
“Yeah, better than twenty seven hours, let me tell you.” Tommy said playfully as she ruffled TK’s hair and smiled.
He was glad it hadn’t taken twenty seven hours either, because lord knows he never would have made that long without busting through the doors himself.