I looked at her pale, sweaty form, her face twisted in pain as she struggled to breathe... yeah, getting that call was never fun... but for once, it was a good thing. A great thing. Even if I was petrified. We wore matching smiles as she looked up at me.

"Are you ready to be an uncle?" she asked, before grimacing and letting out a few breaths.

"Do I have a choice?" I quirked an eyebrow and strode to her side, gently taking her hand, which she immediately put in a vice grip.

Ellie's long, blonde hair was stuck to the side of her face with her sweat. "I'm excited," she said, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

"Me too." I squeezed her hand.

"But I'm also scared... really scared, D..." She closed her eyes.

I swallowed hard. "Me too," I repeated.

My sister's eyes snapped back open. "Holy c.r.a.p... did Damien Harrington just admit to being afraid?"

I thought about giving her c.r.a.p but I could still see her fear despite her attempts at levity. "Never." She was still smiling when Naomi walked in.

"Hey, sweetie." Naomi came to stand next to me as she laid her hand on Ellie's arm. "How are you feeling? Are you ready?"

"No," she panted out as another contraction hit and her grip tightened. Her eyes were squeezed shut when she asked, "I actually have a favor to ask."

"Anything," I said immediately.

"Not... you..."

"Anything," Naomi repeated with a small smile.

Ellie opened her eyes and looked at my girlfriend with so much love it almost knocked me on my a.s.s. "Will you... will you stay with me? As much as I'd love to have my brother here, I think that'd be weird. But I still want... I want family with me."

I looked back and forth between the two girls I loved most in the world, and was amazed at how far they'd come. Naomi froze next to me and when I looked at her, her eyes were bright with tears, and for once she didn't try to deny how affected she was. She didn't try to stop them or wipe away the evidence when they fell.

Then I looked at Ellie and saw her waiting for her answer, but not with anxiety like she feared the response. She was just waiting for the answer she already knew was coming, knowing Naomi wouldn't let her down.

Being in the room while someone delivered a baby was f.u.c.king terrifying. It sounded, and looked, like a scene from a horror movie. How could it not? Between the screaming, the blood, the violent threats-those came from me, Ellie was her typical reserved self apart from the mild screams and cries-and the general feeling of terror radiating off Damien's sister, it was hard to equate it to anything else.

"Okay, one last push," the doctor said.

"You just said that." I gritted my teeth as Ellie's grip tightened. The doctor didn't look impressed by my presence; in fact, she was probably two seconds away from making this a real horror film and asking someone to kill me.

Three "last" pushes later and a wail echoed loudly throughout the room. The doctor cut the cord-Ellie and I both thought it best.

"Is he okay?" Ellie immediately asked as she attempted to push herself up. She didn't get far. I held on to her arm and tried to bring her further up to see her son.

Ellie didn't want to know the gender of her child ahead of time. Or rather, she said she already knew and didn't need the confirmation. It was a boy, she was positive. Damien had rolled his eyes every single time she mentioned it, and normally I would too. After all, there wasn't scientific evidence to back up that kind of thing. But the thought that she just knew, that she was already so connected to her child that she could tell, I just... well I liked it and despite myself, I believed her.

"Well?" she asked once more, her nerves plain as day, as they continued to clean him up. "How is he?"

"He's perfect." The nurse turned around and handed the bundled baby to Naomi.

"He?" Ellie's voice trembled with relief and awe.

"Yes. You have a beautiful, six-point-nine-pound baby boy."

She laughed as she stared down at him and held her son close. "She's right. You're perfect."

"I'll go get your brother." Ellie didn't even acknowledge me, too wrapped up in the tiny baby in her arms. I smiled. Damien had been the center of her universe for so long, I wondered how he was going to react to being the second man in her life now. Walking out, I saw Damien and Grayson both staring at the ground, looking terrified. Neither man saw me, both too lost in concern for Ellie. I clapped my hands, shattering the quiet atmosphere. "It's a boy," I yelled.

"No s.h.i.t?" Damien asked.

"Did you doubt your sister?"

"No," he said quietly, talking about so much more than the gender of her kid. Smiling, I grabbed his hand and we turned to walk back to the room when I stopped. "You coming?" I asked Grayson.

"No, I-I think it's best if I leave."

"I think my sister would like to see you," Damien said. Grayson nodded and trailed behind us. We all stopped in the doorway.

"... and I'm gonna give you a great life, I promise. If you want to play with Barbies instead of cars, that's fine. If you want to love a guy, that's fine, too. As long as he treats you right," Ellie said sternly before her face softened and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. "I love you so much, little guy. I promise you'll never doubt it, or feel like you're missing out on something. You don't have grandparents and you don't have a dad... and I know I'm not much." I felt both men tense beside me as she shrugged and gazed adoringly at her son. "But I'll love you with everything I have."

We hovered there as she grew quiet, and after a few minutes I made a dramatic entrance, making enough noise to wake the dead. Ellie glanced up and smiled brightly, clearly having no idea we'd heard her.

"Hey, guys."

Damien gave his sister an affectionate one-arm hug and a kiss on the forehead, while Grayson merely nodded and said, "Ellie." A furious blush rose over her cheeks as she looked away and mumbled another h.e.l.lo. We all gathered around to look at her son, spending the next hour talking and laughing. Well, Damien and I did. Ellie mostly nodded and let out a few weak laughs; she was clearly exhausted. Grayson only nodded, keeping his eyes on Ellie the entire time. After a while Grayson excused himself, saying he needed to go to work. Ellie's eyes fluttered a few minutes after he left.

"We'll go. Let you get some rest," I said as I squeezed her arm.

"Wait... what's his name?" Damien asked.

"Andrew. Andy for short," Ellie said through a smile. She raised her eyebrows like she was trying to convey something. Damien and I looked at one another before turning back to her with small frowns of confusion. "You don't get it?" Her smile got wider as her gaze bounced between Andy, Damien, and me.

"Sorry, Ells, but you're gonna have to spell it out for us." Damien rubbed her shoulder affectionately as he smiled at his nephew.

"Andy," she said slowly. My smile matched hers as it sunk in, and between the two of us, it felt like we could light up the world. "Ellie," I whispered as tears welled in my eyes.

"What?" Damien asked as his gaze swung wildly between us, not enjoying being left out.

"Andy," I said it slowly as well.

"N and D. For Naomi and Damien," his sister said. "For the two most important people in my life. I couldn't have done any of this without you. Without both of you."

Damien looked beside himself with emotion. Sensing they needed a moment, I held out my arms for Andy. Ellie smiled as she handed him to me. She barely had time to adjust when Damien wrapped her up in a tight embrace. I watched Ellie's eyes flutter closed as tears of joy streamed down her face.

"D," she murmured. "I did it." She paused as a wave of emotion came over her and all she could do was sob for a few minutes. "I did it."

"And you're going to continue to do it," he said fervently as he squeezed her once more. I looked down at Andy, amazed by how tiny he was, despite his huge impact on our lives.

"He's going to be a little devil," Damien muttered after a few minutes of us all just staring at Ellie's son, back in his mother's arms.

"Hey, shush." She placed her hand over Andy's exposed ear. "Why would you say such a thing?"

"If he's gonna be raised by the three of us? How the h.e.l.l else would he turn out? We're gonna spoil this kid rotten."

Ellie beamed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

"It'll be complete mayhem." Damien looked at me meaningfully, with love and happiness in his eyes. He slid his hand into mine and rubbed his thumb on the the inside of my wrist.

"Yeah, it will," I said softly as the rest of the room, the rest of the world, dropped away.

And I'll love every minute of it.

I was smiling as I walked down the stairs, happy to see that everyone was already here. Julie, Mark, Derek, and Naomi were standing by the fireplace looking at the pictures my two favorite girls had put up. Most of them were recent, with Andy in every single one, but a few were from Naomi's childhood. Ellie and I only had portraits from our youth, and neither of us wanted to contribute those.

My sister was standing close by, clutching the baby monitor to her chest, as Julie told a story about Naomi and Derek when they were younger. All of them were laughing at the picture she was pointing to.

The rest of our friends were lounging in the family room, grilling Sherry about Hunter, her boyfriend. I was still kind of confused by the whole thing. But Sherry was happy, which meant Naomi was happy, so I was grateful everything worked out.

Stopping at the bottom step, I still couldn't believe this was my house. I didn't think I'd ever get used to it. It was a two-story home with three bedrooms and two baths, plus a nice backyard that Naomi wanted to fill with dogs. Truthfully it had been more than a little bit out of our price range, but I saw Naomi and Ellie's faces when we walked in here-it was love at first sight. And who was I to deny them?

So I dipped into my tattoo shop fund. Because even though having my own shop was still the dream, I had other dreams now. And keeping my family happy was the most important one of all.

"Hey, Ells? Do you have a minute? It's about Andy." I pointed over my shoulder. Ellie's room and his nursery were on the second floor, while Naomi and I had the master on the ground level.

"Is he okay? I didn't hear anything..." she said in a panic as she looked at the monitor.

"He's fine. Just c'mon. We'll be right back," I hollered to everyone else before grabbing her hand and dragging her up the stairs.

"I need to borrow your baby," I said as soon as we made it into his room.

"What?" Ellie's eyebrows bunched.

Reaching inside my pocket, I pulled out the small box and extended it her way. My sister gasped as she grabbed it from me and flipped it open. Her eyes flew between the ring and my face.

"OhmyG.o.d! OhmyG.o.d!" she screeched. "But wait, wait... what does this have to do with Andy?"

I walked toward his dresser and took out my other surprise. Facing Ellie's direction, I unfolded it and watched as she slowly took in the words, her eyes growing large and her mouth gaping wide.

"That is the cutest thing I've ever seen, D."

I turned it toward me, taking in the custom onesie. It was sky-blue with the words Will you be my Auntie? written in white across the chest. I even had the designer add a diamond ring off the e in Auntie.

We both walked over toward his crib and looked down to find big, gorgeous hazel eyes staring up at us, eyes just like his mother's.

"Whadaya say, little man? Are you ready to be my wingman?" I held out my fist for a b.u.mp. He started giggling as he lifted his hands to bat at mine.

"I love this," Ellie said. "You and Mark around this baby are so adorable."

"You don't call men adorable, Ells. We've been over this." But I cracked a smile as I said it.

"Well, I don't care. Neither of you can talk to Andy without making the "baby voice," you both wear perma-grins when you're in the same room as him, you make silly faces when you think the rest of us aren't looking, and you actually argue over who's going to change his diaper, just so you can spend more time with him."

I nodded along. "And I'm not embarra.s.sed by any of that."

"Exactly. Adorable." She stuck her tongue. "Well, of course you can use him. But you didn't want to be alone when you did this?"

"No. I wanted the entire family here."

She smiled as tears filled her eyes. "Naomi will love it."

"That's the idea. We're just waiting on one more person."

"Who?"

"Grayson," I answered as I picked up my six-month old nephew.

"What?!"

"Yeah, like I said, I wanted the entire family here. Besides, you're partially right. I do want to be alone at some point, so you'll need to take Andy and stay somewhere else for the night. I already asked Grayson if you could stay with him."

"You did what?" she screamed.

"He said he didn't mind," I added casually as I rocked Andy in my arms.

"But... you can't... you can't just..." she sputtered.

"Ellie, relax. He looked thrilled to be honest."

"Yeah, who wouldn't be thrilled with having a toddler for the night? Damien, you-"

The doorbell rang.

"You should go get that. It's probably him," I said as I motioned toward the hallway.

I didn't know how I went from the brother who was locking her in a tower and throwing out the key, to the brother who was making fun of her over a guy, but it felt great. Even as she glared at me and stomped out of the room.

"You ready? This is kind of a big deal, buddy." He sputtered and drooled, little bubbles of spit on his bottom lip as he smiled. "I agree, I'm one lucky guy."

Ellie was right, this kid had me wrapped around his finger. Mark and I, both.

I came down a few minutes later and saw that Ellie and Grayson were talking by the front door. They both followed me as I put Andy in his playpen before joining Naomi with her mom and Mark. Derek had wandered to sit next to Sam.

Mark winked as I unconsciously patted my pocket. He had been the only one who knew what was going on tonight. He and Naomi had gotten really close in the months following Julie's hospitalization. It only felt right that I asked Mark for her her hand. When I pulled him aside to get his blessing, he started crying, confirming it was the right decision.

I waited another thirty minutes, with Ellie standing by the pen, somehow keeping anyone from picking him up. And when a group of us had migrated toward the dining room where we had a bunch of snacks set out, I made my move.

"Sweetheart?" I asked as I grabbed a celery stick and dipped it in peanut b.u.t.ter. "Could you grab Andy?"

Naomi rolled her eyes, but she immediately went to him. "Hey there, little fella." She reached in and hefted him up, before sliding him down her side. "Woah, you're getting heavy, little man." Andy giggled as she continued to pretend he was too heavy to keep on her hip.