July Maxwell Was Born on Christmas Day

[Author's Note: Okay, this is not the best constructed story -- there's definitely better described baby births out there. I wasn't up to the task, but I had this idea and wanted to at least try it.]

A.C. 209
"Good night, Hilde. Merry Christmas." Duo kissed his wife and folded the blanket gently over her pregnant belly. Then he went around to his side of the bed, faintly humming O Holy Night.
"Merry Christmas," Hilde murmured in return. It was just past midnight. They'd only had a quiet evening at home rather than going to the various parties Duo had received invitations to. With the baby due in two months, Hilde had become cranky about traveling more than she had to. Duo understood.
Around five-thirty Duo awoke to realize he was alone in the bed. He bolted up, making a beeline for the bathroom. "Hilde-babe? You okay??" There was a long pause. He dove to snatch up the phone from the table just outside the bedroom. "Hilde!"
"I -- I think we have a problem," she finally answered shakily.
"Hilde!"
"My water broke."
"Shit." Duo dialed the hospital number as quickly as his trembling hands could. "Hello? Hello! My wife -- baby -- now!!" A pause. "Hold?! Are you #@$*ing insane?! The kid was supposed to come in Feb-!!" He swore again and threw down the phone.
"Duo...don't break it..!" Hilde opened the bathroom door, leaning heavily on the frame. She looked pale.
He grabbed up the phone and handed it to her. "Then you try them! I'll drive us there myself, knowing the rate that ambulance will get here!" He snagged his coat from the armchair in the living room on his speeding way to the garage. Hilde's face pinched in worry as she disappeared back into the bathroom.
Duo vaulted over a stray cardboard box to reach his small, half-customized car. The ruddy primer paint job looked more like rust at that moment, and fear seized up within him. He jammed the keys into the ignition to start the car. The engine sputtered. And again. And again. He pressed the gas pedal as gently as he thought he could in his state. Just more sputtering. "#@$* you, you #@$*ing bastard!!" He kicked the door open, leaving the keys where they were.
He glanced around, perhaps hoping to find something to smash the car with, instead spotting his motorcycle in the corner. He wretched the keys from the ignition, found the one for the motorcycle, and drove without concern for the box -- or the grass on the yard, for that matter -- which he ran over on his way to the front door. Hilde waited there, wrapped in her heaviest coat and gripping the phone. "Think you can hang on?" Duo asked, motioning to the bike with one hand while supporting her with the other. "Or is that ambulance on its way?"
"I -- I can't get ahold of them..."
"What?!" He put the phone to his ear. It made a strange beeping noise that was not a hold dial tone. "What the #@$* is with those guys?!" He raced inside to get their bike helmets, nearly tripping on his way back out. "Hilde-babe, you hold on tight, strangle me if you want -- I'm not losing you!" he said fiercely, guiding her onto the bike.
"Duo, I don't know..." She looked at him weakly.
"We gotta try, babes. Gotta save this kid. God can hate me all he wants, but he ain't taking this kid from us." He kissed her hand then pressed it tight to his side.
They only made it a mile before Hilde cried out in his ear. "Duo, stop! I..I can't..."
He immediately pulled over, abandoning the bike without a thought as he helped her to a pile of scrap metal off the side of the road. The junk pile formed a meager shelter, but it kept out most of the chill wind that sprang up. Duo tugged off his jacket and spread it out for her to lay on. "Hilde, you gotta hang on -- I don't know how to deliver a baby!!"
"Neither...do...I! But...we...don't have...a...choice!"
"Aw, shit." He took off his sweatshirt, and then his undershirt, ignoring the cold. It seemed to be only moments and then there was a too-small, silent baby held in his blood-stained shirt. And then he heard screeching tires, then a door slamming, and then a woman was pushing him aside. "It's okay, I'm a nurse. Get the kit out of the trunk, keys in ignition." He did so, running on automatic at that point. He returned with the kit and a blanket that had been with it. The woman went about tending the baby, but rattled off more instructions. "Use the carphone to call the hospital. Tell them emergency eight-one-four and then leave the phone on." This he did with all haste, his heart pounding. Thank you, God, for this lady's timing. I owe ya one, buddy.

Shortly afterward, Duo sat hanging out the backseat of the woman's car, still shirtless and now feeling the cold but disregarding it. There had been two other blankets in the trunk but he gave them both to Hilde, since she still had to lie on the ground which was worse than losing a shirt. He could hear the ambulance siren approaching. With a weary smile he looked toward Hilde and the nurse. The baby was breathing, but needed to get to a much better facility to keep things that way. Duo studied the scene and noticed that the shape of the metal shelter reminded him of something.
He rose and made his way over to Hilde, singing quietly, "Away in a manger/No crib for a bed/The little Lady July lay down her sweet head..." He knelt and clasped one of Hilde's hands in his.
"July?" she coughed, but smiled.
"Yeah. Why not? That's when we found out she was coming."
"I thought we were going to name the baby Summer if it was a girl."
"So? That could be her middle name." He grinned.
"Duo, that's so silly--"
"It's different."
She couldn't resist that grin. "All right, then. But what's with the song?"
He gestured up in an arc at the makeshift shelter. "Divine inspiration. Or just coincidence at how lazy some people are with their junk." He winked then squeezed her hand fondly.
The ambulance arrived moments later. Duo went to thank the nurse while the paramedics tended to Hilde. "I can't thank you enough," he gushed, shaking her hand firmly. "I'm grateful you stopped."
"It's my job, sir." She smiled and waved toward the ambulance. "You had better get going. Oh, but first..." She reached under the lapel of her coat and drew out a small golden object -- unpinned from her own shirt, she handed him a tiny angel with rose quartz wings. "Call it a birthday gift. You and your miracle baby have a Merry Christmas now, Duo Maxwell."
"Thank you." He clenched the pin in his hand, smiling. "And Merry Christmas to you, too!" he called after her, waving before climbing into the ambulance. He sidled in beside the gurney on which Hilde lay and carefully crouched beside her. "Look, Hilde-babe, angels do exist." He showed her the pin.
"I knew that the day I met you," she murmured with a drowsy smile.

Epilogue

A similar situation occurred in a trailer behind a circus tent in the large park several blocks from the Winner mansion. The light came on and Trowa found himself physically yanked from sleep. "Wake up, bro! We've got an emergency trip!"
Trowa rubbed his head and glared up at a be-jacketed Catherine. "Please tell me, dear sister, why you had to dump me right out of bed?"
"Duo Maxwell is now officially a father."
Trowa's eyes widened. He grabbed the blanket and scrambled to his feet. "This can't be good."
Catherine snickered. "You've got that right."
Trowa quickly dug out a shirt and a clean pair of jeans. "I'm serious! How can you take this lightly? I thought she wasn't due for another two months!"
Catherine lobbed a rolled-up pair of socks at him, which he easily caught. "Because if anything was wrong, Duo would have been even more frantic than the usual new father when he called." She smiled and handed him his shoes.
Trowa sighed and shook his head.
Catherine went to the door of the trailer. "Better hurry. We'll be meeting Quatre and Stephen early. We're all taking the same shuttle." She smiled as he sped through tying his bootlaces. All it took was the right incentive...

"Guys!! Hi!!"
Quatre and Trowa were nearly bowled over as Duo spotted the small group coming down the hall toward him -- and promptly launched himself at the former pilots, catching them in a bearhug. While the two attempted to regain their composure after he released them, he moved on to place a gentlemanly kiss on Catherine's hand, then ruffled Stephen's hair. "Heyya, kid!" Next he addressed the group as a whole. "Didj'ya hear, guys?? I'm a father!!"
"Yes, Duo, we know," Quatre grinned, fixing his now crumpled shirt. Trowa merely coughed.
"Where's everyone else?" Catherine asked, steering Stephen clear of more hair-ruffling.
Duo rocked on his feet restlessly. "Wufei should be on his way, I couldn't get ahold of Imena, and Heero has a bodyguard job he can't leave unless he gets a call from the Grim Reaper asking for a Mr. Yuy."
"Well." Quatre blinked. "Who is he 'guarding'?"
"Mariemeia Khushrenada."
The door behind them opened just then, ending any comments. "Wufei!!" Duo cried, racing over and raising his arm as if to slap him on the back, and instead grabbing him in a hug.
"Maxwell, get off!!" Wufei roared in answer. Sally giggled behind him then guided Li around the two and continued laughing when Wufei tried to extricate himself from the jokester.
Li ducked out of his mother's hold to go greet the adults with stiff politeness, nodding to each. "...Miss Bloom...Mr. Winner..." He elbowed Stephen when he reached him. "Looks like we have a new cousin."
"Yup. We can teach him everything we know." They traded sneaky glances.
"Her." Duo interrupted, putting his face level with theirs. "And you won't be turning her into some martial-arts-robotic-genius freak!"
"Duo!" Quatre warned sharply.
Stephen neatly interjected, "You're the only weirdo here, Uncle Duo." The boy smiled politely, shooting a quick glance at his father. Quatre sighed.
Wufei cleared his throat. "So what have you named this daughter with demon potential of yours?"
Duo turned to face them all and grinned proudly. "July Summer Maxwell!"
Silence and stares reigned. Trowa finally broke in, "You do mean Julie, don't you?"
"Nope." Duo continued to grin.
Wufei looked worried. "What were you drinking when you came up with that? --And what drugs have they given Hilde for her to agree?"
"A lot of coffee. I mean, I had the coffee, I don't know what poor Hilde's had. But she thought the name was perfectly fine. I wanted to wait until everybody was here so I wouldn't have to tell the story, what, like, five different times? I mean, I already had to explain things to the doctor--" Duo was cut short from his running monologue by Quatre grabbing him by the shoulders.
Yet it was Wufei who asked the question they were all thinking. "What story?"
Duo grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we didn't exactly make it to the hospital in time." Horror-filled faces answered this announcement. "Hey, I tried! My stupid car died. We had to go on the bike but the baby had other ideas."
Sally stared at him blankly. "You put a pregnant woman on a motorcycle? Is Hilde conscious enough to kill you yet?"
Three of the men stared back at her, while Wufei hung his head. Sally shot glares at Trowa and then at Quatre. "And like you two would know!!" Quatre looked sheepish and took a step back toward Stephen, while Trowa merely shrugged.
"Uh..." Duo could only manage a grin. "Uh...c'mon, you gotta see my baby!" He grabbed the arm of the inexplicably furious Sally to lead them to the infant ICU.

"She's so tiny!" Catherine exclaimed. They all stood outside the room where the special care for premature babies was housed. The monitor over July's crib proclaimed that she was in stable condition.
"She's beautiful," Sally cooed.
"I can't see," Li complained. His eyes just cleared the bottom wall but he couldn't view the baby.
Trowa picked him up and placed him on his shoulders. "There you go, short stuff."
"Thanks, Uncle Trowa."
"I can't see, either," Stephen hinted with an endearing look at his father, but Quatre only shook his head. They both knew Stephen was taller than Li and could see just fine.
"I want to check on Hilde, guys. Anyone want to come?" Duo turned down the hall.
"Sure," Catherine replied, followed by Sally and Trowa. Quatre, Wufei, and the two boys remained to watch July for a while longer.
Quatre leaned on the frame beside the window and commented quietly, "One more for the legacy. Do you think there will be any others?"
"Don't look at me," Wufei snorted.
Quatre chuckled. "Nor me."
"But who knows what Yuy could be up to," the other mused. "And knowing Duo..."
"Actually, I think he and Hilde will be cautious after this." Quatre looked in at the baby's heart monitor. "It isn't something I would ever risk if this had a chance of happening again."
"I doubt you have much to worry about," Wufei murmured.
"The technology isn't perfect, Wufei," Quatre responded quietly. He glanced over at his test-tube born son who sat with Li in two stiff metal chairs, both looking bored. "I could have lost him, too, at any time in development."
"Then let's stop this gloomy talk and be thankful for what we have," Wufei smiled and looked into the room again.
"Agreed. Three miracles who can live in a peaceful world."
"Won by their fathers." Wufei gave a half-smirk, nodding.
Meanwhile, little July Maxwell slept away, blissfully unaware of the legacy her uncles had spoken of.

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(c) 2000-2004 Autumn Loweck. This work may not be copied, distributed, or reprinted without the author's permission. Characters of Stephen, Li, and July are property of Shiri (Autumn L.) and may not be "borrowed" or mentioned in other works without notifying the author first. Characters of Duo, Hilde, Quatre, Catherine, Trowa, Wufei, and Sally belong to the creators of the GundamWing series, Sotsu Agency, Sunrise, Bandai, and whoever else in Japan involved in this most cool anime.