The Circle of Life

A head appeared around the door, "Allie!"

I held my arms out and Mark rush over and held me.

"I flew straight back from Melbourne when I heard."

"Who said you could be my birth partner?"

"Well you never said no."

Just then a strong contraction hit me and I clung to him for dear life as I breathed through it.

I had a long hard labour of 16 hours and he hardly left my side. As he reminded me later, he never fainted.

Towards the end when I was getting closer, after a very hard contraction, he said, "Allie I am so so sorry I fucked things up between us. I want them to be right again."

I looked at him totally exhausted, "Is now a good time to discuss this Mark? Can't this wait?"

"Allie, I just want you to know I am here for you whatever. I will never ever let you down again, I promise."

"Thanks Mark, I appreciate that, but this child about to appear is not your responsibility."

"You don't get it, I couldn't care less I didn't conceive this baby. I still love you heart and soul. Tell me you don't love me."

"Of course I still love you Mark."

"Then marry me," and with that he pulled out a little box with a diamond ring in it.

"YOU ARE ASKING ME NOW!! REALLY!!"

Then, another massive contraction took hold. I managed to scream out "YES," then did a lot more yelling.

I heard a nurse say, "I can see the head now."

After four or five more hard contractions, I lost count, my beautiful daughter Sarah was born into the world.

Somewhere in between, Mark had slipped the ring on my finger.

I held my baby to my naked chest for the first time as she cried, then she quieted down after latching on for her first suckle. They let Mark cut the cord.

"I told you that you will make a good mum Allie."

After she was briefly taken away to be checked over, weighed and wrapped up, Mark carried her back in his arms beaming from ear to ear. It was only when she demanded more food that he relented and actually handed her to me.

Later, one of the nurses asked me the father's name for the birth certificate.

Before I could think of what to say, a firm voice next to me said, "Mark Anthony Williams."

Another WOW moment.

Later while resting, I looked at my fiancé who was contentedly holding our now sleeping daughter in his arms, and smiled at him. I just lay there enjoying the moment, utterly exhausted but utterly happy too. Not in my wildest dreams a year ago did I think I would be where I was now.

"You good Allie?"

"I will be when my vagina stops feeling like someone dragged a water melon through it."

I got a mock look of sympathy back.

I poked my tongue at him and said, "So DAD, how do you feel?"

"Fantastic actually, can we do this again soon. A brother would be great for her."

"YOU ARE ASKING ME NOW!! REALLY!!"

Epilogue

We were married three months after Sarah was born. Two years later her brother John arrived into the world.

We were both very happy together, after all he was the love of my life and my soulmate, and I was his.

Never once did he ever think that Sarah was not his real daughter.

I continued working as a doctor and became a general practitioner.

As we knew the truth would come out one day through DNA, when she was old enough, we told Sarah about Karl. She didn't seem at all concerned. She loved her dad as much as I did. Many years later Karl actually tried to make contact with her via the internet when she was 18, but she just told him she had her real dad already and wasn't interested.

We often wondered what would have happened if we had stayed together in Sydney instead of Mark going off to Europe. Would he, or I, have eventually got restless and left for different experiences, maybe for good? Did the adversity make our relationship stronger in the end? We will never know.

Mark's final opinion, probably to assuage his guilt, was that it's fortunate it all happened otherwise we would not have our gorgeous daughter Sarah. Damm, one thing he knows I can't argue against.

To clear the air and start afresh, we also confessed to each other our various lovers while we were apart. I took the opportunity to also confess I wasn't a virgin when we first got together. Mark was very surprised as I had been such a good actress.

He pressed me for details so I told him.

"No bloody wonder you were so good in bed from the 'get-go'. I never realised, I just thought all girls were like that."

"Oh Mark, You poor little innocent."