Who: Estella Derrick and family
What: Jacob's birth
When: July 7th, 1977



Tired, tired, she was so tired.

Estella stretched and dropped her head onto her shoulder in an awkward way, not beneficial at all to her aching neck. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the clock, trying to get the time to come into focus as she adjusted to being awake. It was almost three---that meant Jacob had been alive for four hours and thirty-five minutes. She smiled at the thought and looked about her hospital room, trying to find Jake. Estella wasn’t good with healers; she wouldn’t be able to ask any sort of questions when the healer came in, so she had to be sure to tell Jake exactly what she wanted to know.

But, the room was empty save for a few balloons and a new bouquet of flowers. Estella pushed herself up and reached over to pull the card out from in between the tulips. She smiled lightly as she saw they were from the Smethwycks, and was quite sure Florence would be dragging Smeth into the room any minute now. At least, if they could make it through.

Her door was open, and it wasn’t hard to see that corridors of St. Mungo’s was in quite the flurry. Estella wondered why the maternity ward would be, but noticed it wasn’t just the pediatric healers that were rushing here and there. There must’ve been an accident, and they needed all hands on deck, but Estella found her wand on the nightstand and shut it to keep out the noise. She couldn’t be bothered with a thing, right now.

It was strange; hospitals usually made her nervous beyond belief, but today had been so completely smooth. She’d gone into labor early this morning, they made it to St. Mungo’s, and with the potions and support from her husband, Jacob Andrew had entered the world with not a single problem. It was more than any new mother could have wished for, and Jake had immediately teased her for expecting the worst.

“And you were sure some terrible disaster would strike,” he quipped gently, rocking the infant in his arms with a scrunch of his face toward Estella. She stuck her tongue out and leaned forward to look at the bundle.

“There’s still time,” she said, patting down the rather surprising amount of hair Jacob had come out with, “A healer could come in any moment now and tell me that he’s part alien and the mothership’s waiting out back.”

“Is that a shot at me mum?”

Estella flushed and shook her head quickly, but Jake simply laughed and caught her in a quick kiss, somehow managing to hold their son in one arm while the other pulled her close to his side.

“I reckon we did a rather good job, yeah?” Jake asked, pulling his legs up onto the bed as Estella scooted over. She leaned into his shoulder and nodded, her eyes once again locked onto Jacob’s.

“Yes, my little alien is quite perfect.”

The door of the room opened quickly, making Estella snap out of her little daydream. She’d been expecting Jake to return with food (oh, how she had begged him for a ham and cheese sandwich), but instead it was her brother, a healer at the hospital. Estella’s first reaction was of pride and excitement, but the solemn expression on Tobias’ face made her falter slightly.

“Are you all right?”

“Susie,” he started, using a nickname and giving Estella chills; Tobias rarely called her that, only when he wanted something or was bearing bad news.

“Is the baby okay?”

“He’s fine, it’s---”

Estella fell back against the pillows, the state of concern she’d just put herself in washing away. If anything had happened to Jacob and she had been asleep…though, her eyes caught her brother’s again, wondering that if the news wasn’t about her son…

“It’s Jake.”

See. See, she’d told him there was still time for disaster to strike.