Chapter Text
August 31st.
Pepa was exhausted. She was due to give birth any day now, and last night she had suffered the worst back pain she’d experienced during this pregnancy.
She didn’t think much of it; the baby was about as big as it was going to get now, and it was very heavy to carry around twenty four hours a day.
She just had to grit her teeth and bear it as she got ready for the new day.
She felt Félix’s eyes on her as she tied the yellow ribbon in her hair.
“I’m fine, amor. The baby’s just struggling to get comfortable. I know how it feels.” Pepa grunted as she stretched her arms above her head.
Félix rubbed his wife’s swollen belly with a chuckle.
“Are you uncomfortable, mi arcoiris? Are you causing problems for your poor mami?”
Pepa smiled fondly at the nickname, but there was sadness there.
Mi arcoiris.
My rainbow.
Their rainbow baby.
This baby wasn’t their first child; they had had a daughter six years prior, and they had only gotten to spend a matter of hours with her before the infant died in her sleep at a day old.
Slowly the couple had healed, but the pain would never truly go away.
They visited Gabriela’s grave once a month and lit a special candle for her every year on her birthday.
She would never be forgotten, and Pepa and Félix would make sure that this new little one would know about their older sister.
It had taken them six years to have another successful pregnancy.
They struggled to get pregnant, and when they did, they would lose the baby between five and nine weeks.
But now here they were, due to have their little one any day now.
A small cloud appeared above Pepa’s head as she felt another tightening in her stomach, but then said cloud evaporated along with the pain.
“I think I’m having practice contractions again.”
She’d been having them on and off for a few weeks now.
Félix sympathetically kissed her forehead.
“As long as you’re sure you’re alright, mi vida. Let’s go eat.”
-x-
The day turned out to be pretty uneventful as far as days in this family go.
Julieta had given birth a couple of weeks ago herself, and was already back in the kitchen, cooking food for the town.
Agustín and mamà were running errands and Bruno was in his tower…doing Bruno things, Pepa supposed.
She didn’t know what her hermano did with his time nowadays.
He’d become more and more of a recluse as the years passed.
All she knew was she didn’t see him much.
She wished she saw him more than every once in a blue moon, and she missed him, but the thought of the baby growing inside of her kept her well distracted.
That left Pepa and Félix to babysit their new sobrina, Isabela.
Alma had decided that since Pepa was so close to her due date, she would be better off staying at Casita and not venture too far.
Pepa was fine with this arrangement; it gave her time to spend with Félix, Julieta and now her perfect new niece.
She was getting good at burping and diaper changing if she did say so herself.
Félix…wasn’t so great with the changing part.
Pepa hadn’t known about his sensitive gag reflex until he’d been the only one available to change the newborn, and the mess had exploded out of her diaper and up her back.
That hadn’t happened this time, thankfully, but he was still struggling.
“How does someone so small make so much-“ Félix gagged and practically leapt backwards from where Isabela was laying on the floor, half naked and needing to be wiped up.
“Ay, I’ll do it.” Pepa gave a world weary sigh. “Just help me down onto the floor.”
Félix did as she asked and Pepa cooed and chatted to Isabela as she began to finish what Félix started.
Félix stayed well on the other side of the room.
“Your Tio is a silly man. Afraid of a little baby poop. Yes he is. Now let’s get you all clean and feeling better.”
Isabela gurgled gratefully and stretched out her tiny limbs.
She’d grown considerably since birth but she was still small.
The smell wasn’t pleasant for Pepa either, especially being pregnant and all, but she needed the practice.
When she finished, she picked little Isabela up to snuggle her.
Then she felt it.
A horrible cramp that took her breath away.
Luckily she kept hold of the baby as she gasped.
“Félix, I think I’ve wet myself.”
The pain eased off and Félix took the baby from his wife, looking excited.
That was rude. Why was he excited about her having an accident?
Not to mention, the wet feeling was vile.
“You haven’t, Pepi, amor! Your waters have broken!”
What!? Now!? But she wasn’t due until next week.
Gabriela came on her due date, her heart pulled thinking of her.
“Are…do you think…what?” She struggled with her words, her senses too overloaded to properly form a sentence.
“I’ll go get Julieta!” He placed a sleepy Isabela in her cradle and rushed from the room.
She barely had time to be annoyed with him for leaving her on the floor, because he and her hermana were back in record time.
Julieta looked beside herself with glee.
“I’m going to be a Tia again!” She squealed, herself and Félix helping Pepa to her feet.
By the time they’d gotten her upstairs and into bed, she’d had a couple more contractions. They were mild, and they made the sky darken, and when the discomfort passed the clouds would clear again.
She was making it very obvious to everyone in town what was happening, and although the weather was fine now, everyone had shut themselves in their homes in preparation for what was to come.
Mamà was home with Agustín, and he was with Isabela.
Alma had just examined her, which was painfully awkward and it started raining half way through.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, mija.” Alma chuckled, for once not caring that she was getting wet. “Would you like the good news or the bad news?”
The cloud above Pepa’s head grew, her brow furrowed inconcern.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing at all, mi hija. The good news is, you’re definitely in labour, the bad news is, you’re only three centimetres. It’s going to be a while. Get up and walk around if you can. Julieta and I will come and check on you, but come and get us if you’re worried before then.” Alma pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You remember going through this before, mi vida? You were so wonderful and brave. You’re going to be just fine.”
She wasn’t used to mamà being this tactile with her, and her words rang in her ears once she and Félix were left alone to wait for labour to progress.
Mamà was right. It had been painful with Gabriela; she remembered that much.
But seeing her and holding her for the first time, it had made it all worth it.
There was truly no love like it.
She could do this.
-x-x-
She couldn’t do this!
Thunder rumbled overhead and heavy rain fell onto the streets of the Encanto.
The town knew what that meant; Pepa Madrigal would see her new baby any minute now.
“Push for me, mija!” Alma encouraged. “I can see the top of the baby’s head! It has curls just like Félix.” She had just enough time to give a weak smile to her son in law, who was slowly losing the circulation in his fingers with the vice-like grip his wife had on his hand.
Pepa screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as the head started to crown.
The weather was bad, but nowhere near hurricane level.
It was merely some heavy rain and a few bursts of thunder.
Mild considering what everyone knew Pepa was capable of producing.
The head crowning was the worst part; it felt like someone had taken the candle and held the flame right to her…area.
It burned like hell and she thought she was going to tear open.
Having Félix and Julieta on either side of her was an enormous comfort and gave her the strength to keep going.
“The head is out, Pepi.” Alma’s voice was filled with emotion. “Just one more, and it’ll all be over.”
With the next and last contraction, Pepa pushed as hard as her exhausted body would allow her, and she felt her little baby slide the rest of the way out.
Relief flooded her.
The pain was gone.
She had done it.
She could hear her baby crying.
“It’s a girl, mi cariño.” Alma gasped as she wiped the baby mostly clean, allowing the proud papa to cut the cord.
Alma placed the naked newborn onto Pepa’s bare chest.
The heavy rain turned to a mist and a rainbow shone brightly over the Encanto.
Julieta kissed Pepa’s sweaty head, tears rolling down her own cheeks.
“Oh Pepi, doesn’t she look like the perfect mix of you and Félix? Just beautiful.”
The tiny infant opened her large eyes.
Precisely the same shade of brown as her papi’s, and it made Pepa melt.
“Hola, Dolores. I’m your mami.”
-x-x-
The rest of the evening had been calm yet chaotic at the same time. The other family members had briefly met and held Dolores, but Pepa was tired so they finally decided to let the new parents bond with their hija.
“Do you still want to name her Dolores?” Félix whispered gently to his wife.
They had been calling her Dolores all day, but better to be safe before the name was completely set in stone.
“Dolores Gabriela.” Pepa nodded in agreement as she stroked her sleeping child’s little nose.
As Julieta had said earlier, she was the perfect mix of her and Félix.
Her skin was slightly darker than Pepa’s, but with Pepa’s eye and face shape and Félix’s hair type and brown eyes.
“I’m scared, Félix.” She admitted.
All new parents were scared, even Julieta (although she’d never admit it) but this was a new kind of scared.
They had lost a daughter already, and although Pepa had accepted what happened wasn’t her fault, after years of blaming herself, the fear of it happening again was still very much present.
“So am I.” Félix gave her a gentle hug. “But I think we’ll be okay. She has her hermana watching over her. She’s going to be just fine.”
Pepa couldn’t think of an argument, and she was too tired to try.
She just leaned against Félix’s chest as they watched their daughter sleep soundly.
She truly was their rainbow.
-x-x-x-
Dolores Gabriela Madrigal.
August 31st.
6lbs 9oz.