Lovely
Part Two
Eye Wall Sidefic
by Ancient Lady

Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we'd be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely - made from love

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When Relena announced that she would be taking a four week leave because she'd been prescribed strict bed rest for the last month of her pregnancy, it was taken matter-of-factly. At first.

The very next day, the paper carried quotes from a press conference held by one of the SA region representatives, a Mr. Young. He said that Relena's pregnancy was negatively impacting her ability to fulfill her responsibilities, and that when the child was born, it likely would be worse. He called for her to step down from her position, so that a new Vice Foreign Minister could be appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He planned, he said, to make a motion in the Assembly the next day that they vote to admonish her to offer her resignation.

Edgar Young didn't have a great deal of support, but many of the representatives were conservative older men, many of whom had been a part of the old government. While they liked and respected Relena, it was speculated by analysts that they may be susceptible to Mr. Young's argument.

There was a surprise the next day, though. In the order of business, time had already been allotted to each of the two representatives from L4, Quatre Winner and Ellen Navarro. The purpose was listed as a trade issue that was stalled in committee, and they were scheduled just before Mr. Young.

When the time came for Ellen to speak, she and Quatre walked to the podium together, and each formally ceded their time to an unexpected speaker - Heero Yuy.

The press went into a collective seizure. Heero had been married to the Vice Foreign Minister for two years, but as yet hadn't spoken with the press. He was well known to shun the spotlight, and other than brief footage of him accompanying her on trips, or escorting her to diplomatic receptions and such, they were starved for information about him. Those of the press who had been assigned to cover Mr. Young were now counting their blessings and checking their batteries. The Assembly was stunned.

Heero walked up to the podium, and waited for the rush of voices and camera flashes to ebb. When all was hushed, he spoke.

"It has come to my attention that someone intends, today, to suggest that Relena Darlian is unfit to remain as Vice Foreign Minister and EU region representative. The reason being given, I understand, is that she is, under doctor's orders, taking a four week leave.

"I don't want to think that this action is being taken simply because she's a woman. I would hope that we've moved beyond such things. The fact remains that she is being unfairly singled out.

"Last year, Mr. Hopper of the AU region took a three month leave for cancer treatment. There was no suggestion that his illness made him unfit to continue as one of the AU representatives. In fact, another representative graciously offered to chair his committee in his absence."

Heero didn't say which representative that was. He didn't have to. Everyone knew that Relena had taken on the extra work of his chair, so that the committee's agenda didn't get backed up. He looked around the room, catching each of the instigators of this - this travesty - with a frosty gaze. Only Young met his eyes. Heero smiled slightly. That amateur didn't know what he was up against.

"Recently, Mr. Godwin, representative from the EU region, took a six week leave for heart surgery. As with Mr. Hopper, the Assembly passed a resolution expressing "best wishes and hope for a full recovery". There was no suggestion whatsoever that he wasn't fit to continue in his position.

"Just last month, Mr. Mackenzie, of the NA region, took a month's leave in order to spend time with his wife and newborn son, who had been diagnosed with congenital heart failure. Nothing was brought up in the Assembly, bar another "best wishes" resolution. By the way, Mr. Mackenzie, my wife and I extend our heartfelt hopes for your son's complete recovery."

The NA representative colored a little, and nodded his thanks. He seemed to have been leaning slightly toward Young's side, until he was reminded of his own leave. It had been brought home to him that he was holding a double standard. He gave Young an irritated look, as though he'd caused the discomfort.

Heero narrowed his focus to Edgar Young. The man was pale, but still unmoved. He hadn't yet been convinced to give up his fight. Time for the coup de gras.

"Mr. Young, particularly, should know how it feels to be ordered to take four weeks off, as he did that just this past year."

Young paled further, and Heero could see his mind working, see him asking himself how much Heero knew. It was an act of supreme will for Heero to keep a satisfied smirk of victory off his face. He secured his mask of professional seriousness before delivering the final blow.

"But apparently he feels that hemorrhoid surgery is more valuable and excusable as an absence than bringing a new life into the world."

A cascade of snickers started in the gallery. Young flushed brick red, then purple, and collapsed into his chair. All around, representatives tried to keep from laughing. They clamped their hands over their mouths, coughed, and bit their lips. One by one, they lost the battle with mirth and before long the chambers echoed. Heero waited for the laughter to die down before he finished his talk.

"Seventy percent of you have children. It is unfair to claim that having a child makes Relena unfit to continue in her current position, simply because she's a woman. You have passed laws preventing businesses from doing what was attempted here. Don't let the world and the colonies see you as an organization of hypocrites."

He left the podium then, listening for Quatre to make the motion he planned. Quatre was laughing too hard, though, and was beaten to the punch by Mr. Micheals, a representative from the AS region. He stood and called for a resolution in support of Relena, and in thanks for her devotion to the cause of peace. It was an utter surprise, as Micheals was a well known opponent of many of the Vice Foreign Minister's issues.

If Micheals thought he was securing a spot on the front page by his unexpected action, he was going to be disappointed. The newspaper that appeared on Relena's breakfast tray the next morning had Heero, large and in full color, spread across the first page, above and below the fold. The headline was a marvel of conciseness. It said: "Yuy Speaks".

Just as she was examining the stern, uncompromising visage in the photograph, the original appeared in the door. The corner of his mouth curled into a half-smile.

"Look at the inside page the story jumps to. If a newspaper published a picture of me with an expression like that, I'd retire from public view - permanently."

Relena flipped through the pages to see what he was talking about. There on the next page, appeared a large photograph of Edgar Young. A lucky photographer must have caught him in the lens just as Heero delivered his telling blow. Young's face was a composite of shock, outrage and embarrassment. He looked completely silly.

"It's nice to know I'll have a job to return to after the baby's born," Relena said.

Heero slithered up beside her on the bed and slipped an arm around her swollen belly, "maybe that speech wasn't such a good idea after all... "

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As soon as Dr. Pell announced that Relena was fully dilated and ready to push, events moved in quick succession and with the kind of coordination that Heero had only seen before in battle. Before he could blink, the head of the bed was raised, handholds pulled out of the bedrails and locked in place, and the entire lower half of the bed, save for two thin areas on each side where Relena's legs rested, unlatched and dropped completely away.

Heero managed to catch the bed controls long enough to lower the head enough for him to slip behind Relena, so she could lean back against him. By the time he was in place, Dr. Pell was stationed at ground zero between Relena's legs, a large light had been set up and focused on her and a mirror erected to one side so that he could see the actual birth. He had no sooner finished noting that, than a large warming bed appeared almost magically, propelled by a third nurse, and behind her a fourth rolled in a cart. She whipped off a sterile towel from the top of it, and uncovered a dizzying array of shiny stainless steel instruments. The sight shouldn't have bothered him, but unaccountably, he began to feel a little sick.

Relena was pushing. He could feel her where his body pressed against hers. She wasn't just pushing from her abdomen. She was gripping the handholds with a white-knuckled clench and pushing with her whole body. He could feel the muscles knot in her back, and stand up in harsh relief on her arms and thighs. The sound that came out of her mouth was somewhere between a groan and a growl.

She threw her head back against his shoulder for a second's respite and a deep breath before folding into the next push, head bent forward, back hunched, biceps standing out as she hauled on the handholds. Her face was stretched into a grimace. Around him, he heard the nurses chanting, "push, push, push," to the clapping of hands. He'd never expected there to be so many people crowding in the room for this very private moment. In his mind's eye, he and Relena had been alone with the doctor. This was more like a cross between a pep rally and a spaceport at rush hour.

His concentration was more on Relena, than on what was going on at the other end of the bed, but it was forcibly wrenched back by the doctor's announcement, "it's crowning..."

What he saw, when he looked in the mirror, shocked him to his very toes. Intellectually he knew what was going to happen, but there was an abrupt and visceral reaction to the sight of Relena stretched so wide. The hood of her labia seemed tiny and suspended just above this enormous round... deformation. The immediate gut reaction, Would she ever be the same again? he immediately damned as insensitive and unfair. But still... He felt his penis shrink in reaction. No matter how endowed a man was, there was no comparing to that. It was enough to make a man feel... insignificant.

To get his mind off thoughts that, if ever voiced, would put him on the couch for eternity, he concentrated on the baby, narrowing his attention to the round scalp laced with fine, wet black hair.

"Just a couple more pushes and the head will be out," he heard the doctor say, distantly. Relena strained, and he wrapped his arms around her, offering support where he could not offer his strength. His eyes were fixed over her shoulder on the mirror. In it, he saw the baby's head push out, then sink back in when she paused. Then, with a wet sucking sound, it was all the way out.

It was amazing. Wet and smeared with blood and white stuff, black hair plastered across a slightly ovoid skull. He couldn't quite see the baby's face, just an impression of squinched up features and a little knob of a nose. A few minutes later the shoulders were out and the rest of the baby came in a mighty rush accompanied by more sucking sounds.

The doctor swung it... HER... swung her up onto Relena's belly. All at once she was surrounded by hands. One set putting a little white cap on her head, others wrapping her in a towel and briskly rubbing her arms and legs.

There was just a second, an extremely vivid snapshot, where it seemed like he saw and comprehended every thing about his new daughter. Time stopped.

She lay there, squirming in a crumpled blue towel, streaked with blood and a white substance, her mouth opened impossibly wide in a soundless scream. A white cap stretched across her head, over eyes shut tight. She didn't look like he'd imagined a baby would. She was oddly shaped, especially her head, she was pale and wet and messy. She was beautiful.

Time started back up again, and the events rushed by as they had before. The baby cried. Not a loud yell, but a tiny squeaking sound, like a mouse. A nurse untied the shoulder of Relena's gown, and they lifted the baby up to her breast. As soon as she felt the skin, she started nuzzling and rooting around until she found the nipple with her mouth and latched on with a vengeance.

Relena yelped a little, but smiled and stroked the baby's soft cheek. They sat there like that for several minutes. Relena nursed the baby, and leaned back against Heero's chest. He wrapped his arms around hers, holding them both.

He almost didn't notice when the nurse touched his shoulder.

"Do you want to cut the cord, Dad?"

Once he got over the shock of being called "Dad", he told her yes and watched as they clamped off the twisting, bluish cord. The nurse handed him a pair of scissors, and held a length between her fingers for him to cut.

It's so easy to say "cut the cord", but that doesn't prepare one for how tough that sucker is. He thought he'd just snip through it, only to be defeated when the cord slipped right out of the scissors. It was a slippery, tricky thing. The next time he approached it with a will. It didn't slip away and escape this time, but he had to saw at the thing for a full ten seconds to get it cut.

Before everything could settle back into peacefulness again, Dr. Pell told Relena she needed to push some more, to deliver the afterbirth. It didn't take long, and within a few minutes fell into the bucket they held for it with a loud slap. He carefully examined her, using the light, while the nurse took the bucket away. A few minutes later Heero heard him say something about a "small tear" and "no stitches" but he wasn't really paying attention.

He was focused on the tiny girl Relena held to her breast. She was beautiful. No, that wasn't quite right. Then just the right word came to him. Lovely. Full of love, beauty that inspires the emotions, inspiring love or affection. All the definitions of "lovely" fit. More appropriate for this child of love than the weaker, empty, "beautiful". She was lovely. Just... lovely.

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Isn't she pretty
Truly the angel's best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely - made from love