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When Aleksi’s due date was first set to December 20th, he didn’t think anything of it. However as it approached he prayed Emma would be the rare pup and arrive on her due date. When the 20th came with no sign of Emma, Aleksi was pissed. He was sick and tired of being pregnant. He was ready to have his baby already.
“Maybe she’ll be a Christmas baby,” Joel said, attempting to lighten the mood but the thought of having to wait that many more days to give birth made Aleksi growl.
“Don’t even joke about that!” Aleksi snapped.
Joel through his hands up in surrender. “Alright! I’m sorry!”
Aleksi bared his teeth and Niko snickered.
“Joel, you’ve gotta learn to stop upsetting our omegas when they’re close to birth,” Niko said.
“I don’t mean to!” Joel exclaimed.
“That just makes it worse,” Joonas said, cuddling up to Aleksi.
Joonas let out calming pheromones and Aleksi felt himself melting back into mate’s embrace.
On the night of the 21st, after spending all day trying to induce labor, Aleksi finally felt contractions.
“It’s happening, I’m going into labor,” he told his mates.
Aleksi was ready to get his stuff and go to the hospital right then, but Tommi and Olli gently reminded him they had to wait till his contractions were five or four minutes apart before going to the hospital. Aleksi groaned in frustration as his mates got to work trying to make him comfortable.
Joonas was working on a nest and Niko was calling Aleksi’s mother in Nummela to see if she could make the drive to come get Esteri. Joel was looking over the go bags and Olli set out to the kitchen to get snacks.
“Where’s our pup?” Aleksi demanded, wanting his sweet daughter to cuddle with as the contractions tore through his body.
“She’s sleeping in her room, honey,” Olli said.
“Go get her! I want her,” Aleksi whined.
Joonas ushered Aleksi into the nest and he waddled over to the nest of blankets Joonas made for him. It was very comfortable and smelled safe, calming, like Joonas. Strawberries and cinnamon, like dessert Aleksi wanted to take a bite out of. Joonas himself snuggled up to Aleksi and Aleksi let him, feeling safer with his fellow omega closer.
Tommi approached the nest holding a groggy Esteri and Joonas bared his teeth at him, his instincts telling him to protect the mate, even from another mate. Aleksi ignored this and snatched Esteri from Tommi’s arms, holding her close and kissing her brunette curls.
“Pa?” Esteri asked, rubbing her big blue eyes.
“Hi, little star,” Aleksi cooed.
“Sleepy,” Esteri said with a yawn.
“That’s okay, go back to sleep,” he told her. “I’ll hold you while you sleep.”
Esteri closed her eyes and fell back asleep in Aleksi’s arms. The soft scent of their pup in the nest kept Aleksi calm through the next hour. When his mom got to the apartment, he didn’t want to hand over Esteri.
“It’s just to help, Allu,” she said.
“I don’t need your help,” he said grumpily.
“Allu!” Niko scolded, but Aleksi just glared.
“Honey, someone has to watch Esteri once you go to the hospital,” she said gently.
“Well my contractions are still seven minutes apart,” Aleksi said smugly.
“Okay, but don’t you think Esteri would be more comfortable in her crib?”
“No! She’s comfortable in my arms!”
His mother gave him a look of pity and he wanted to hiss at her. He didn’t need her pity, he needed his daughter.
“What if we had Esteri’s blanket?” Joonas suggested. “That would have Esteri’s scent. That’s what you want, right? Our pup’s scent?”
Aleksi nodded slowly.
“Then why don’t we get her blanket from her crib and add that to the nest, and let your mom take her?” Joonas asked softly.
Aleksi pouted. He hated when Joonas made sense, especially against him.
“I don’t want to let her go,” Aleksi said quietly. “What if she thinks we’re abandoning her? Or replacing her?”
“Oh baby,” Niko said gently.
“Then we’ll deal with it as a pack,” Tommi said. “Like we handle everything. But she won’t, my love. She’ll wake to her Mummo and know we’ll be back soon.”
Aleksi forced himself to see the logic in Tommi’s words and nodded. He pressed a kiss to Esteri’s forehead, breathing in her calming scent while Olli fetched her blanket. He didn’t release her until Joonas had incorporated the soft yellow blanket Olli’s mom had given them almost two years ago into the nest.
He watched his mom walk off to Esteri’s nursery with her and his heart yearned for her, for his pup. He couldn’t help but start crying and Joonas held him tighter.
“She’s still here, sweets,” Joonas said. “She’s just out of the room.”
It took another two hours for Aleksi’s contractions to hit five minutes apart and by then he was more than ready for the hospital. The baby blanket with Esteri’s scent helped keep Aleksi calm but it was now one in the morning and his body was wrecked with every contraction. Joonas wrapped him up in the largest blanket from the nest and Esteri’s blanket and the pack helped him to the car.
It had been a long nine months and as they approached the hospital, all Aleksi could think was fucking finally. His pregnancy had been full of morning sickness, aches and pains, non-stop cravings and now finally, finally , he was going to get his baby! While he still hoped Olli had sired his baby, he had shared the heat he conceived in with all of his mates so Olli could take breaks. It was possible any of them got him pregnant. But when he pictured Emma, he pictured a little girl that looked like Olli.
They arrived at the hospital and his mates helped him in. He was quickly admitted and taken to the maternity ward. As he dressed in the hospital gown Joonas was rebuilding the nest in the hospital bed.
“You don’t need to do that,” Aleksi said.
“Like hell I don’t,” Joonas huffed. “I’m getting you a comfortable nest to birth in. Don’t fight it, Allu.”
Aleksi was touched and thought back to Joonas’s birth. Joonas didn’t get to give birth in the nest Aleksi had set up for him, he had to have a c-section and was removed from the nest. It broke Aleksi’s heart a little to think his mate didn’t get the same comfort of their pack’s loving scent while bringing their daughter into the world. Aleksi climbed into the nest and patted the space next to him in the small bed.
“Come sit with me,” he said to Joonas.
Joonas squished himself into the tiny hospital bed with Aleksi and Aleksi laid against him. The others smiled at them and Aleksi squirmed under their attention.
“What?” He demanded. “Why are you staring?”
“Your omega bond is adorable,” Niko said.
Tommi nudged him.
“What he means is, it’s nice to see how you take care of each other,” Olli said.
Aleksi smiled softly. It was nice to know the others saw the bond that Aleksi cherished so deeply.
His labor continued and finally someone came in to see how dilated he was.
“Am I dilated enough for an epidural?” He said, ready to get on his knees and plead for the drug.
“Almost, you’re three centimeters dialted. You need to be four,” the nurse said.
Aleksi started crying and Joonas hugged him close.
“How can we help?” Tommi asked.
“You just have to wait,” the nurse said.
It took another hour and a half for Aleksi to be dialed enough for an epidural. It was now December 22nd when he finally got the shot in his back that provided sweet relief.
“Thank fuck,” Aleksi sighed. “I’m ready to say this is the last baby I have. How the fuck can you want more, Joonas?”
Joonas shrugged. “You forget about the pain after.”
Aleksi balked.
The next ten hours were brutal. His mates tried to keep him entertained but Aleksi was easily distracted by his contractions. Joonas was releasing calming pheromones around the clock, nuzzling Aleksi and offering sweet nothings. Aleksi nearly kicked him out of bed when the blonde playfully suggested blowing Aleksi to distract him.
Finally, after fourteen hours of labor, it was time to deliver Emma. To Aleksi’s horror, the nurse told him he was in the average time range for a first birth. Joonas and Tommi held his legs while Joel held his hand and Olli and Niko stood watching tearfully as Aleksi pushed for half an hour, then finally at 10:23 in the morning, a baby’s cries broke into the air.
“It’s a girl!” The doctor cried.
The gown was pulled down and she was placed on Aleksi’s bare chest. He looked down at her and started crying. He hadn’t felt like this since Esteri’s birth.
“Hi Emma, hi sweet girl,” he whispered.
Emma let out a squeak and he laughed.
“She’s beautiful, Aleksi,” Joel said, batting at his eyes.
“You did so good, Allu!” Joonas told him tearfully.
Olli and Niko were crying and even Tommi looked teary eyed.
“We’d like to clean her up, run some tests and a DNA test,” a nurse said. “May we take her?”
Reluctantly, Aleksi let the nurse take Emma. DNA was taken from each of Aleksi’s mates but Aleksi had a gut feeling she was Olli’s.
When they came back with a clean baby and a clean bill of health they announced Olli as her sire and Olli sobbed even harder in Niko’s arms.
“You did it, dude!” Niko cheered.
Aleksi was given her birth certificate and Aleksi thought back to two years ago when Joonas was pregnant. The pack had wanted Esteri’s surname to be that of her sire but Joonas had put his foot down. Packs were rare to begin with and the Porkos have a habit of forming them instead of being in couples.
“I want my last name passed down,” Joonas had said.
And they had accepted it. Now Aleksi was thinking about slapping Matela on his baby girl’s name but it just didn’t work for him. So he wrote down her name.
Emma Olivia Kaunisvesi.
Joonas grinned toothily. “It’s a beautiful name.”
“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” Tommi agreed.
They spent the next half hour passing her around and cuddling her as Aleksi had this nagging feeling they were missing something. Then it hit him that they were missing Esteri. Aleksi felt guilty for not thinking of her and wanted their firstborn with him now.
“Call my mom, I want Esteri here with us,” he said.
Joel called and in fifteen minutes his mom was walking Esteri into his room. She was wearing a little shirt that read “I’m the big sister” and a ladybug skirt. She looked so adorable, Aleksi just wanted to scoop her up and cuddle her.
“Hey little star, are you ready to meet your baby sister?” Aleksi asked her as she approached the bed.
“Baby siser?” Esteri asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion like a little puppy.
“Come, sit on my lap,” Aleksi said.
Joonas scooped her up and placed her on Aleksi’s lap. Aleksi kissed her chubby cheek and hugged her tight.
“Do you remember the baby in Pa’s belly?” Aleksi asked.
Esteri nodded.
“Well, she’s not in my belly anymore,” Aleksi said. “Now she’s in Isä’s arms.” He gestures to Joel, who was holding Emma.
Joel came closer to the bed and moved Emma so Esteri could see her face. Esteri’s little mouth fell open and she looked at her sister in awe. Aleksi felt tears well up again and saw his mother had her phone out.
“This is Emma, your baby sister,” Joel said.
“Emma,” Esteri repeated and Aleksi’s heart had never felt so full of love.
“Do you want Pa to help you hold her?” Joel asked.
Esteri nodded and held out her arms expectantly. Aleksi held out his as well and Joel put Emma in Aleksi’s arms. Aleksi settled Emma across Esteri’s lap. Esteri kept staring in awe.
“Can you say hi?” Joonas asked her.
“Hi Emma! I Esteri!” Esteri chirped and placed a big sloppy kiss on the newborn's cheek.
It was all too much for Aleksi. He started crying again and Joonas hugged him.
“I know, it’s a lot seeing our girls together, isn’t it?” Joonas whispered.
Aleksi nodded. It was a lot but he’d never felt such love in his life as he watched Esteri babble to Emma, surrounded by his mates and his mom. He was safe, he was loved and now his little family had grown.