38. Baby Is Here!
"You did it, baccha..." Rakshit whispered, his voice trembling until it broke into a sob.
He pressed a shaking kiss against Shivika's forehead.
A tiny cry echoed through the labour room.
The sound was loud, raw and beautiful.
The room that had been filled with painful screams only moments ago was now filled with the most beautiful sound either of them had ever heard.
Shivika's exhausted body went limp against the bed. Tears slipped down the corners of her eyes as she listened to her baby's cries. Every contraction, every sleepless night, every insult she had endured, every tear she had hidden... suddenly felt worth surviving.
Slowly, both their eyes turned towards the tiny miracle.
So impossibly little.
Baby's tiny body was still covered in blood and vernix, tiny fists tightly clenched as baby cried with all the strength her little lungs possessed.
Rakshit forgot how to breathe.
Nothing...
Nothing in this world could ever compare to the sight before him.
Business victories, wealth, success... everything lost its meaning in front of the tiny life he was looking at.
He had just witnessed the most precious moment a human being could ever witness.
And Shivika...
She looked at her daughter with tear-filled eyes, her heart overflowing with emotions she had never known existed.
This was the child she had protected with every heartbeat.
The child for whom she had sacrificed everything.
The child because of whom she had lost her family... yet somehow gained an entire world.
The doctor smiled beneath her mask.
"Congratulations," she announced warmly. "It's a baby girl."
A watery laugh escaped Shivika's lips.
Rakshit's wish...
His little princess...
She was finally here.
"Note the birth time," the doctor instructed. "12:05 a.m."
The nurse immediately wrote it down while another nurse began preparing everything.
"She's perfectly healthy," the doctor said after a quick examination. "Let's start immediate skin-to-skin contact. Sir, please unbutton your wife's gown."
Rakshit's eyes were still glued to his daughter. It took him a second to register that the doctor was speaking to him.
"H-huh... yes..."
With trembling fingers, he carefully unbuttoned Shivika's hospital gown, constantly looking at her for permission. Shivika smiled weakly and gave a small nod.
The very next moment, the doctor gently placed the tiny baby on Shivika's bare chest.
The instant their skin touched...
The baby's loud cries slowly faded.
Within seconds, she settled against her mother's heartbeat as if she already knew that was the safest place in the entire universe.
A broken sob escaped Shivika.
Instinctively, her shaking hand came up to cup her daughter's tiny back.
"So this..." she whispered through her tears, "...is what it feels like."
She had carried her beneath her heart for nine months.
Now... she was finally in her arms.
While the baby peacefully rested against her mother, the doctor clamped and cut the umbilical cord.
The nurses gently wiped away the blood and fluids without separating the newborn from Shivika any longer than necessary, allowing mother and daughter to remain together throughout those precious first moments.
Rakshit had unconsciously stepped aside to give the doctors space.
His hand covered his mouth.
His shoulders shook violently.
He wasn't crying anymore.
Breaking under the weight of happiness he had never imagined a heart could hold.
"Our daughter..." Shivika whispered, never taking her eyes off the tiny face resting against her.
Rakshit nodded so quickly that fresh tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Our daughter..."
He repeated the words silently.
As if saying them aloud would make this dream disappear.
His legs had long stopped supporting him.
He wasn't even sure how he was still standing.
He couldn't feel the floor beneath his feet.
He couldn't hear anything except the tiny breaths of his daughter.
Nothing else existed anymore.
Only them.
Only his family.
After a few peaceful moments, Shivika slowly looked up at him.
Her eyes softened.
"Doctor..." she whispered weakly, "please... let her papa hold her."
Rakshit's eyes widened instantly.
"What?"
"He has waited for this moment... for so long."
The doctor smiled.
"Of course."
The moment the nurse turned towards him with the baby, Rakshit instinctively stepped back.
"N-no..." he stammered, shaking his head repeatedly. "No... she's too tiny. What if... what if I hold her wrong? What if she slips? No... no... I can't..."
His panic was genuine.
He wasn't afraid of holding her.
He was terrified of hurting the most precious thing he had ever seen.
Shivika looked at him and almost laughed despite her exhaustion.
"Aksh..." she called softly.
He looked at her with frightened eyes.
She smiled through her tears.
"Relax... shhh..."
Then, in the same familiar tone that always melted him, she whispered,
"Won't you hold your second baccha?"
A small laugh escaped the doctor and nurses.
Rakshit closed his eyes.
He couldn't refuse her.
Never her.
The nurse gently guided his arms into the correct position.
"Like this... support her neck... yes... now your other arm underneath."
His hands trembled so much that even the nurse smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry, Papa. We've got her."
The doctor carefully lifted the baby from Shivika's chest and slowly placed the tiny princess into Rakshit's waiting arms.
For a second...
He forgot how to breathe.
She was unbelievably light.
So tiny that she occupied only a small part of his arms.
The baby whimpered, searching for her mother's warmth, her tiny lips trembling as another cry threatened to escape.
Then...
Rakshit's trembling hand instinctively caressed her impossibly small back.
His warmth surrounded her.
Almost immediately...
She stopped crying.
Her tiny fingers curled around one of his.
And she became quiet.
As though she already knew...
These arms would protect her for the rest of her life.
A tear slipped from Rakshit's eye before another followed.
He carefully tightened his hold just enough to make sure she felt safe, terrified that even the air around her might hurt her.
"My princess..." he whispered, his lips trembling uncontrollably.
"I've got you."
His tears fell onto her tiny blanket.
"I promise... no matter what happens in this life..."
His voice broke completely.
"...Papa will always protect you."
Shivika watched the sight through blurred eyes.
Her husband.
Her daughter.
The two halves of her heart.
The sight before Shivika blurred behind the tears gathered in her eyes.
Rakshit stood there with their daughter nestled safely against his chest, holding her as though she were the most fragile treasure ever created.
His eyes had not left the little girl even once.
Every few seconds he looked at her tiny face, then at her impossibly small fingers wrapped around his, only to break into another silent smile through his tears.
Something inside Shivika finally settled.
It was because, for the very first time, she saw what her heart had refused to acknowledge all these months.
The man standing before her...
The man who had married her when she carried another man's child.
The man who never once questioned her past.
The man who stood beside her through every contraction.
The man who had cried more than she did while watching her suffer.
The man who held their daughter as if she had always been his...
The realization hit her so suddenly that it stole whatever strength she had left.
Her heart had waited for this exact moment.
Nothing needed to be hidden anymore.
"Aksh..."
The moment his name left her lips, Rakshit's head snapped towards her.
"Hmm?" he answered instantly, his entire attention shifting from the baby to his wife.
Shivika looked at him for a long second.
The local anaesthesia had already started numbing the area while the doctor quietly began stitching, allowing her exhausted body to finally relax after the hours of unbearable labour.
Sleep was slowly pulling her away.
Her eyelids felt impossibly heavy.
Yet there was one thing she needed to say before exhaustion won.
Her lips curved into the faintest smile.
"I love you."
The words escaped in nothing more than a whisper.
Soft.
Fragile.
Yet they echoed louder than anything Rakshit had ever heard.
His breath stopped.
His eyes widened.
For a second he genuinely thought he had imagined it.
He carefully adjusted his hold around the baby before taking two slow steps closer to Shivika.
"What...?" he whispered gently.
His voice trembled.
"What are you saying, Ika?"
Shivika forced her tired eyes open just enough to look at him.
There wasn't even the slightest hesitation anymore.
No confusion.
No fear.
Only certainty.
"I love you, Aksh..."
Another tear slipped from the corner of her eye as the words left her lips once again.
This time...
Rakshit couldn't mistake them.
He stood frozen.
The world around him disappeared.
The sounds of medical instruments...
The quiet conversations between the nurses...
Even the doctor's instructions...
Everything faded away.
Only those three words remained.
Three words he had never expected to hear.
Not today.
Perhaps not ever.
His eyes filled instantly.
He looked at Shivika, whose eyes were slowly closing under the combined weight of exhaustion and anaesthesia.
She wasn't trying to impress him.
She wasn't saying it because emotions were running high.
She had simply spoken what her heart had finally accepted.
His throat tightened.
Unable to trust his own voice, he lowered his gaze towards the tiny girl sleeping peacefully in his arms.
A smile mixed with tears appeared on his face.
He bent down carefully and placed the gentlest kiss on her tiny forehead.
The baby stirred ever so slightly before settling again, her tiny face completely relaxed in the warmth of his embrace.
Another tear escaped Rakshit's eye.
He had become a father.