ALL THE WAY
Chapter Twenty-Three

July 1931

"Can I come in?"

It was a beautiful July afternoon, and poor Rose was confined to a hospital bed, having just given birth to her fifth child. She had been trying to sleep for a brief period of time and it seemed that that time was now up. Her family was finally here.

The smell of sick people, medicine, and babies filled the air as Rose turned her head weakly toward the sound of the voice, which was followed by a quick knock. She just lay there and watched as Jack’s head suddenly appeared from behind the door. He gave her a sweet smile and then asked his question again. Rose nodded and then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, her husband was standing in the room, holding a ridiculously big bouquet of roses in his left hand, and what appeared to be a bottle of soda in the other. He set the flowers down on the beside table, but kept the bottle.

"Hey," she said softly to Jack who started to pull up a nearby chair. He sat down on it and reached out to take her hand in his.

"Hi," he replied back as before leaning over and kissing her forehead. "Your mother and the children are in the waiting room. They wouldn’t let the children past there, so your mother stayed behind to make sure all hell didn’t break loose. I told them I’d bring the baby down, if they’ll let me, in a few minutes." Jack paused for a moment while Rose smiled at him. "Oh, and I brought you a soda," he went on, holding up the bottle.

Rose laughed at the simple, yet sweet, gift and motioned to the nightstand. "You can put it there for now. Thank you though," she said amidst trying to sit up, which Jack helped her with, "you won’t believe what they are feeding me here."

Jack scrunched up his nose. "Not great eh?"

"It makes Mom’s cooking taste like a gourmet meal."

Jack laughed, "I’ll try to sneak some real food in tomorrow." He smiled at her for a few minutes while she just lay there. "How are you doing?" he finally asked.

"Oh, all right, I got up and walked around a little bit this morning, but I got really tired so I just came back here." She rolled her eyes. "These nurses are driving me crazy. Jack, I swear it was easier just having babies at home."

"How’s she doing?"

Rose smiled, softly this time. "Fine," she said gently. It had been touch and go for a little while yesterday. Their daughter had been breech, a complication that had not been known until the last minute. The doctor had been concerned for both Rose and the child at first, and had discussed with Jack the different things that might happen if they were to progress normally. He had taken in all these potential problems, but eventually decided that they should go ahead as normal. The other option of cutting Rose open had far greater risks, and he wasn’t about to go that far. Rose had agreed and they had proceeded with caution. For a while things hadn’t looked too good, but at the last minute the baby had flipped unexpectedly. From there things progressed somewhat normally, and, after some time, their daughter was welcomed into the world, but not without a careful examination immediately after. To everyone’s surprise, the nurses found a slow, if not irregular, heartbeat on the baby and had whisked her away where they could monitor her under very careful eye. It had been hours before the nurses gave them the news that the baby was doing better then before and that she should be fine. Meanwhile hours spent waiting for news had been very tentative for both Jack and Rose. Neither for them knew what to think and both were blaming themselves. It had been awful. It was not until after the joyful announcement had been made that Rose finally got to hold her for the first time. She had sat studying her daughter for the longest time, amazed, as Jack looked on. It was such a little miracle. Everything had been fine since then, but it could still take a turn for the worse if they weren’t careful.

It was just then that the nurse came walking in holding a bundle. Jack turned around in his chair and watched she approached Rose and gently laid the baby in her mother’s arms. She just held her for a minute while the nurse fused around with the pillows, allowing Rose to sit up more. She then did a routine check on Rose, which only took a few minutes, but even so, it was slightly personal. Jack just sat there feeling proud and slightly embarrassed at the same time.

The nurse finished quickly. "I’ll be back in a few minutes then," she said before leaving the room as quietly as she had entered.

Jack turned his full attention back to Rose and the baby. He watched as she stared in amazement at the little girl.

"We still need a name," he whispered to his wife after a few minutes.

Rose groaned, but she was smiling. They had been back and forth about names for months now. It was getting hard; all of the names that they liked were either taken by someone in their family, or by one of their friends. And some names just didn’t go with Dawson. They had very sensitively decided on Elizabeth a few days ago, but now that Rose was holding her daughter, it didn’t feel right. She just didn’t feel like an Elizabeth.

"I just don’t know," she said softly. "She is not an Elizabeth, Jack. What are we going to do?"

Jack sighed, Rose was right; it wasn’t the name for their daughter. But what was? He looked at the girl again and studied her. Physically, she was different from the other children. She had pale skin, soft delicate hands, and light, almost blonde, brown hair, which was different from the other girls. Her eyes, although he had only seen them a couple of times, were very blue, like his own. She needed a strong, established, feminine name that wasn’t Elizabeth.

"Gweneth?" he offered cautiously, after scanning his mind for a minute.

Rose shook her head. "Veto, everyone would call her Winnie or something. It would drive me crazy," she argued. "How about Katharine though?"

"No," Jack said as he shook his head. "That doesn’t fit either."

The baby started to cry just then and Rose begin to fuss with her. Jack got up from his chair and started pacing around the room. It was going to drive him nuts until they figured out a name. She couldn’t just be ‘The Baby’ for the rest of her life. He stared out the window for a while, as if to find the answer out there. It didn’t work though; he still came up with no solution. All he could see were the tops of a lot of trees and some birds. Sighing, he turned back to Rose, who was now nursing the baby.

"She doing okay?" he asked.

Rose looked up from admiring the baby and smiled. "Yes, nursing just fine," she said, although somewhere along the line she had started looking back at the baby and talking in funny little tones. Jack didn’t pick up the few last words of what she had said.

"I miss having a baby around," she said after another minute. She looked up at Jack. "This is going to be so great."

Jack didn’t say anything, just smiled. It was indeed going to be great; he would admit that much. But he also was thinking about all the late nights and early mornings, all the crying, diapers, toilet training all over again, and everything else that went along with parenting. Not that he minded any of it, he would do it if he needed to, he wanted to in fact. It was just that he and Rose were not getting any younger. It might be harder this time around.

Slowly, he walked back over to the bed and after a moment sat down on the edge. He put his arm around Rose, who turned and smiled at him, and then he managed to scoot closer. Gently he picked up one of their daughter’s hands and looked at it. His love of hands had never ceased. He still thought they were exquisite, possibly one of the most magnificent parts of the human body. The little girls hands were like Rose’s; he could tell that already.

"What are you thinking?"

Rose’s question broke through his thoughts. He gently placed the baby’s hand down and looked at his wife. "I’m thinking," he said slowly, "that five children is enough." This comment made Rose start to chuckle as she nodded her head.

"I think you are right," she agreed. After that she was silent again, leaving Jack to ponder the name business again.

Jack really wasn't sure what he and Rose were going to do. Rose didn't seem to be to worried though at the moment, she just kept staring down at the little girl with admiration. She would pick up one of her hands, look it over, softly brush her hair, and then she would at Jack and smile before doing it all over again.

Before long, the girl finished nursing and pulled away from Rose's breast. Out of habit, Rose went to burp her and then softly rocked her back and forth as her daughter fell asleep. Jack checked his watch and then mumbled that he better take her out to see the family before the nurse came back. Rose agreed, softly kissed the baby on its head, and the gently handed her over to Jack. He stood up carefully from the bed and cradled his daughter in his arms. She was so tiny; he'd forgotten how small and frail she was.

"I'll be right back," he promised to Rose, who just smiled and then shooed him out of the room with a swoosh of her hand.

Jack made his way down the hall, alternating his glances between what was in front of him and the child. He was so nervous that it seemed so far to the waiting room. He was scared that he might bump into something or someone and she would go away. Or that when he showed her to everyone she would be horribly deformed and they would laugh and point. The waiting room stretched out forever. And by the time he reached it, it felt like he had been walking for an hour, when even though it had only been a minute or two.

The rest of his family rose when he entered and they all excitedly gathered around him. Everyone began talking at once and Jack breathed a sigh of relief that he had made it here all right. He had to turn his attention to the people in front of him though because everyone kept asking things of him. Jillian wanted to know when she could hold her, Ruth and Danielle wanted to know what her name was, and Luke was wondering if he could see his mother. Michael was the only one not talking, but simply was watching on. Jack couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a look of shock or amazement in the boy's eyes, like he couldn't believe it. Jack made a mental note to talk to Michael in a minute.

Softly, he handed the baby over to Ruth who held her in complete awe. Jack hadn't realized that this was her first baby grandchild. It must feel strange to her, he thought. Gently, he placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him and smiled. Jack smiled back and then moved over where to Michael was standing, his arms crossed and that same look on his face. His son didn't say anything as he came and stood by him, he didn't even look at him. They stood there watching the rest of the family play pass the baby and Jack began to wonder if Michael even knew he was there.

"You doing okay?" Jack asked after a minute. He didn't look at Michael, just asked his question.

Michael was dragged out of his trance and looked up at his dad. "Yeah, sure, why wouldn't I be?"

Jack shrugged and continued not look at him. "You've just been really quiet."

Michael didn't say anything again for a long time. He went back to looking at the family and kept quiet. Finally, he broke the silence. "It's just weird," he commented. "I can't believe you and Mom made her."

Jack didn't know whether to laugh or be shocked. Just how much about husband and wife relations did his son know? He knew that neither he nor Rose had explained it to him yet; they hadn't thought he was mature enough last year. And well, the last nine months had been so crazy that they hadn't thought about it. But of course the boy was fifteen, certainly old enough to figure things out. Maybe he had heard something at school. Or perhaps he had heard it from Jillian, who had been told when she started her monthly cycle.

"You don't have to look so shocked Dad, I'm not a little kid anymore." And with that Michael walked off toward the baby. Jack just stood there for a minute longer, not knowing what to say or even think. He was impressed in the least, that his son would have the guts to say something like that. He certainly was growing up.

Jack sighed and looked around, attempting to clear his mind. His eyes instinctively began to fall upon the artwork in the room, and to his surprise, he spotted some work that he had once had hanging in his gallery. There were some landscapes, a couple of still lifes, all impressive. But it was the last painting that Jack came to that really caught his eye. It was a beautifully done oil portrait of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary's eyes spoke to him in a way that only artists can understand and he began to feel a little dizzy. He shook his head to get rid of the feeling and all at once the solution to the name problem came to him. Quickly, he placed the first name he had just come up with together with Dawson. It fit; in fact it was a beautiful name. But the question was would Rose like it or not?

"I'd better take her back," Jack said coming over to Jillian, who was holding her baby sister. "We shouldn’t get her too excited or anything right now."

Jillian nodded and handed the baby over to her dad. He took her and then mumbled that he would be back out in a few minutes before walking back to Rose's room. He was excited about his name and couldn't believe that he and Rose hadn’t talked about it before. It was such a simple solution.

Knocking briefly, he came into Rose's room. His expression on his face must have shocked her because she sat up as quickly as she could and asked what was the matter.

"I've got it," he told her plainly, as he looked down at the baby.

"You have what?"

"A name for her."

"Really?" Rose asked excitedly as she motioned for him to come over. He did so and sat on the edge of her bed. "Well, what is it?"

Jack took a big dramatic pause and then came out with it. "Mary," he said excitedly. And then more proudly, "Mary Rose Dawson."

Rose raised her eyebrows. Jack couldn't tell if she loved the name or not, she wasn't showing any emotion. She was just kind of sitting there, looking at him and the baby.

"Well?"

"It's pretty Jack," she sighed heavily, "but Mary is just so popular. I know a half a dozen kids with the same name." She reached over and pulled the blanket away from her daughter's face and studied the girl.

"So what? Elizabeth is too, and we were going to go with that."

Rose didn't say anything, just looked at her daughter. And the more she looked, the more she could tell. The girl was clearly a Mary. And what Jack had said about the name was true, it was popular, but so was Elizabeth. And that had been her name for so long. So why not go with another popular name?

She slowly looked up at Jack and then her mouth broke into a smile. "Okay," she said after a second.

Jack looked at her in a mixture of shock and happiness. "You mean it?" he asked in disbelief.

Rose reached over and gently took the girl from Jack. She looked at her a second more, and then started nodded. "Yes," she said affirmatively. "I really do." She smiled at Jack. "She's definitely a Mary."

Jack leaned over and kissed Roses on the cheek and then settled in next to her. "Hello Mary," he whispered to her as she began to open her eyes. "Welcome to the Dawson family," he continued on. He said more things like that while Rose just watched. She was laughing in her head at what he was saying. It was too sweet for her to say anything about how funny his voice sounded. So she just kept quiet and continued watching as Jack talked to their little Mary.

Chapter Twenty-Four
Stories