A/N:And here we are, the final installment of One More Second Chance. I hope you enjoy it!

Part Twelve

Red faced and squalling, Felicity Jade Winston entered the world one stormy afternoon a few weeks shy of her early September due date. After six hours of labor, and nine months of waiting, the last thing Grace wanted to do was give her up, but she reluctantly did so—but only so she could be cleaned up and checked over. Although slightly early, the doctor proudly announced that Felicity was born a healthy four ounces over eight pounds, and stretched twenty and a half inches from head to toe.

Hours later, exhausted and ecstatic, Grace held the baby against her chest, counting her fingers and toes. They were all there, just like the last time she checked. Noah, seated on the edge of the bed beside her, kept stroking his fingers along Felicity's arm, the bottom of her foot, the downy blonde hair atop her head.

Awakening from a nap, Felicity opened her eyes, a soft, hazy blue, and blinked owlishly up at her mother. "Hi there, Felicity," Grace cooed with a smile. "How's mama's little girl doing?"

"She's perfect," Noah responded. "Ain't that right, baby girl?"

"She is perfect," Grace agreed as Felicity gripped her finger with surprising strength. "She looks like you."

Noah made a sound of agreement. "She has your hair, though."

She did, but other than that, Felicity was almost entirely Noah. From her size—Grace had been two inches shorter and more than a pound lighter at her own birth—to her nose to the shape of her chin and her ears. There might have been some of Grace's influence around the mouth and her eyes; it was a little hard to tell as she was less than six hours old.

Grace fed Felicity when she began to fuss, and after, Noah carefully picked her up to burp her. He looked absurdly sweet holding her tiny body, his big hands dwarfing her. She must have felt safe in her daddy's arms because throughout it all she didn't make a peep. Noah crooned to her softly as he checked her diaper, nonsense words explaining what he was doing that had Felicity riveted if her unblinking stare was any indication.

Placing her carefully into the bassinet, he bent down to tenderly lay a kiss upon her forehead. "I wanna just hold her forever," he said to Grace, returning to her side. "I know you do, too, but it's time for you to eat." Like he had just done to their daughter, he laid a kiss on Grace's brow. "I'll ring for the food while you go freshen up in the bathroom."

Stiffly, with Noah's assistance, she got out of bed. He helped her shuffle to the bathroom, but she shut the door firmly in his face when he offered further aid. Having a baby did some gross things to a woman's body, and Grace wanted Noah to see as little of the aftermath as possible. Cleaning up once she used the toilet, she changed out her pad, grimacing all the while. She couldn't wait for the bleeding to stop; it was just plain icky.

Out in the room, Grace checked on the baby, whose eyes were drooping as she drifted off to sleep. Grace rested her hand on Felicity's chest, feeling the rapid thrum of her heart and the rise and fall of her lungs. A wave of emotion hit her like a tsunami, bringing a rush of tears to her eyes. Accustomed to the mood swings her hormones caused, Noah simply handed her a few tissues and put an arm around her shoulders.

As the months passed, the young parents frequently found themselves in a similar position, watching their daughter sleep. She grew well, all pudgy arms and surprisingly long legs. Her blonde hair fell out, and she spent a fair amount of time nearly bald before it grew back. In the meantime, her eyes turned dark; though they stayed blue, they were more hazel than the crystalline hue of her father.

Nearly three years after Felicity's birth, Grace and Noah stood once again watching her slumber. Beneath her eyelids, her eyes darted restlessly back and forth as she dreamed, her breath puffing out from between parted Cupid's bow lips.

"I wonder what she's dreamin' about," Noah whispered. "Maybe about bein' a big sister?"

Placing her hand over Noah's where it rested on her still-flat abdomen, Grace leaned her head against his shoulder, and thought back to the earlier discussion they had with Felicity. "I really don't think she understands what it means yet," she told him. "Maybe once I'm showing she'll grasp it better, but for now I think it'll be business as usual."

"Probably." He fell silent. "I call dibs on a boy this time." He shifted to stare down at her. "And I mean it, woman."

She chuckled softly at his stern expression. "I'll do my best," she assured him. "Any particular reason why you're so insistent?"

His grin was audible as he replied, "Because I think it'd be really cool if we could introduce them as our first child, Felicity, and our second, Chance."

Grace sucked in a breath as tears once again stung her eyes. Damn hormones, she thought as she went up on her toes to press a kiss on his wonderful mouth. "I think that sounds perfect."

Again they opted for the baby's sex to be a surprise, and eight months later, their wish was granted.

"It's a boy, Grace," the nurse announced. "A big boy with hair like his daddy's."

Noah met Grace's eyes and grinned through his tears as his son was handed to him. He laid his lips on his forehead and murmured, "Welcome to the world, our beautiful second Chance."

Megan

2013

A/N 2: Thanks for taking this trip with me guys and for those of you who stuck with me through the erratic updates. It was supposed to be take about a month to post and it wound up taking twice as long(plus 2 days!) Sorry about that! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts. They really mean so much. I'm currently slaving away on a couple stories (Where She Belongs and another untitled story) and hopefully I'll be finished with at least one of them by the first of the year. No promises, though...seems I'm not too good at keeping those in regards to my writing lately.