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"Shouldn't we have heard something by now?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've done this before; it takes time."
"How much time?! We've been here for hours!"
There was a brief pause, and Nate cleared his throat from behind his newspaper.
"Hardison, take a look at your watch."
Nate waited for a moment, and then:
"What!? Uh-uh. No way! That would mean we've only been here for…"
"Half an hour," Nate supplied. Hardison stopped pacing and groaned. He sat down again in his chair, letting his head drop into his hands. Nate went back to perusing the paper, and for a few seconds there was blissful silence.
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap.
Nate sighed. "Hardison, you're tapping again."
The sound of drumming fingers stopped as Hardison launched himself out of the chair and began pacing again.
"Why does Eliot get to be in there and not me?!"
Nate looked over the top of his paper and raised an eyebrow at the younger man.
"What?" Hardison feigned innocence. "Just because I passed out a little bit means that I can't be with my wife in the delivery room?"
"You dropped in the floor right next to the bed. Nothing had even happened yet."
Hardison opened his mouth to defend himself, but Nate cut him off.
"Just sit down and stop whining, Hardison."
`~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~`
Nate hated hospitals. Even when he was injured, he tried to avoid them if at all possible, but this was an exception that he was willing to make.
He and Sophie had gotten the call at 4:27 A.M.: Parker's water had broken, so Eliot was driving her and her hysterical husband to the hospital. If the background noises from Eliot's phone call were anything to be believed, Parker was the one coaching Hardison on how to breathe, instead of the other way around.
Nate and Sophie were staying closer to the hospital than the others, so they got there just as Eliot pulled up. He nodded to them in greeting as he exited the car, and then opened its back door to give Parker a hand. However, once Parker was out and handed off to Sophie, Eliot's demeanor changed. He narrowed his eyes at something in the back seat and slammed the door.
"Hardison?" Nate asked.
Eliot shook his head and grunted in annoyance, "Parker had to put his head between his knees just so he wouldn't pass out."
Nate chuckled. What else had they expected? Just at that moment they heard the sound of a car door opening behind them and something large falling to the pavement. Nate spared a glance over his shoulder, but he didn't stop walking when he saw Hardison picking himself up from the ground.
"Wait!" the hacker called, but the others were already entering the hospital.
They found the Labor and Delivery ward, and after just a few minutes, the nurse was in the last stages of checking Parker in.
"Alright, Mrs. Hardison, I assume you would like your husband in the delivery room with you as well?"
Parker nodded, still gripping Sophie's hand like it was her lifeline. Hospitals weren't her favorite places either.
The nurse came out from behind her desk and said to Eliot, "Ok then, Mr. Hardison, if you and your wife would like to come back with me-" She was interrupted by Eliot's snort.
He cleared his throat. "Uh, no."
The nurse looked perplexed. She turned to Nate and opened her mouth, but shut it when Nate just shook his head.
"Mrs. Hardison, is your husband with you?"
Parker nodded again and was about to say something when the elevator doors opened behind the group. They heard a noise and turned to see Hardison, breathing fast and eyes wide, stumble out onto the hospital tile. Nate turned to the nurse.
"There he is."
Things had gotten progressively worse from there. The nurse had ended up having to give Hardison a paper bag to breathe into, and then Parker had had a strong contraction and nearly crushed Sophie's hand. But, eventually, Hardison and Sophie had gone back with Parker while Nate and Eliot had made their way to the waiting room. Nate had just picked up a newspaper, and Eliot had just flipped on the TV when the nurse from the front desk came to the door. Apparently Hardison had passed out. He had dropped right on the floor in the delivery room, directly in the doctor's path. He had been put in another room until he came to, and Mrs. Ford was requesting that one of the men in the waiting room come back to help her with Mrs. Hardison.
Nate sighed.
Eliot groaned.
`~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~`
So that was how the Grifter and Hitter ended up in the delivery room with the Thief, while the Hacker and Mastermind waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Hardison, whose nerves were dangerously frayed, alternated between sitting and bouncing his leg, standing and pacing, and sitting and tapping his fingers. Nate, who was contemplating knocking Hardison out again, sat in his chair and read the same two sentences of the Tribune over, and over, and over again. Time passed very slowly for the both of them.
Hardison's question of "how much longer?" (repeated every ninety seconds) didn't make the time pass any more quickly for Nate, and Nate's answers of "how should I know?" didn't help Hardison much either.
"How much longer?"
"I don't know."
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Bouncing.
"Hardison."
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Pacing.
"Hardison…"
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Tapping.
"Hardison!"
"But how much longer?!"
"How should I know!?"
This repeated until the five hours had been stretched into an eternity. Needless to say, when the nurse finally came back to tell them that they could see Parker and the baby, they were both very eager to go.