by Amy Brent
“It’s not for you. Read more of it.”
I looked back down and kept on. Slowly, I realized who exactly this was for and why he was grinning like a maniac.
“This is against Chelsea, Jason’s ex.”
“That it is,” he said, still grinning. “And look about seven pages in.”
I did, shuffling through the stack, until I found what looked like even more legal paperwork. “These are harassment charges, and trespassing. And even slander.” I said, somewhat incredulously. “We’re taking her to court?”
“Most likely not. The lawyer said these are mostly to scare her. But if she pushes it, I’m more than happy to ruin her life.”
“But I didn’t press these, so I don’t understand how these are here.”
“You didn’t have to. My child is being affected by this so I was able to file them myself, and my lawyer is leveraging all the time I’ve lost with my company by being here. I think it’s safe to say that Miss Chelsea Altrieth is no longer going to be an issue. And if she is, I’ll have her in court and then in jail before she can whip up a single poster.”
I couldn’t believe it. I threw the papers into the air, letting them fall down around me like I was making it rain, and laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And laughed.
James hugged me, being his exceptionally careful self as usual of course, and we both shared the moment together. It was nice to have something so joyous after the tense ride we’d had lately, and I felt myself getting caught up in the emotion.
After a few moments, when he tried to pull away, I took a chance and crashed our lips against each other.
Yes.
This was exactly what I needed, and I felt my whole-body heat. James pressed into me, his hands resting gently on my belly, a low groan issuing from him.
The tension ramped up as our bodies started responding to each other, and I leaned against him, willing for him to swallow me up and give me everything that I was craving. But he pulled away at the last moment, standing up so quickly that I nearly faceplanted into the couch.
“Sorry,” he said, giving me a weak smile before crossing to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
“Aw come on,” I whined, laying across the couch. “A little bit of fun is good for the baby!”
“Maybe under normal circumstances,” he said calmly despite the flush to his cheeks. “But the doctor said no strenuous activities”
“It’s alight. I’ll be gentle, I promise.” I said, batting my eyes at him.
“But I wouldn’t,” he said, his smirk only growing.
Oh, something about the way he said it made goosebumps rise all over my skin and my heart skip a beat. Damn, he was so sexy! And he wasn’t even trying.
“Look, if you want to, and I want to, why resist?”
“Because, as beautiful as you are, I value your health, and the health of our baby more than getting my rocks off.”
I sighed and finally sat up. “Fine. I guess one of us has to be responsible.”
“That we do. And since you’re busy healing, it makes sense for it to be me.”
“I guess.” I pouted. But in reality, I was so thankful to have someone like him looking out for me. It wasn’t something I could say happened often. “Well, I think I’m going to take a nap. After that, do you think you’re fine with me cooking dinner, or do I need to be carried on a litter for that too?”
“Maybe we can cook it together. You’re almost a month through this, I’d hate to get to ambitious when you only have a month or so to go.”
“Alright, good. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
“Yes, you will, now go get some rest.”
*
I had never been much of a nap person when I was younger, but golly did I love them now. I guess the doctor was right that I had been pushing myself far too hard and my body needed a lot more rest and special care. I had just been so stressed and so tired for so long, that I had thought that it was normal.
I guess not.
But as I woke up from my nap, I felt refreshed and ready to cook that dinner I had talked about with James. Well, I would be ready once I went to the bathroom. One thing that had certainly never been exaggerated to me was how much the baby growing within me would press on my bladder.
Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I heard James watching some sort of stock report in the living room. The noise gave me quite a bit of comfort, assuring me that I wasn’t alone. That, for the first time in my life, I had someone who was one hundred percent on my side.
Too bad we were getting divorced.
I shook that thought out of my head. Our divorce had always been the plan, so I couldn’t cop out now. We would just be best friends and ex-spouses.
I went about my business in the bathroom, smiling as I heard James argue with the reporter on TV who couldn’t hear him, and went to wash my hands. Wiping them on the towel, I started to call out to James to ask him what was going on, when suddenly I was hit with one of the most intense cramps I had ever had.
“Holy halibut,” I wheezed, both of my hands going to my lower stomach. I tried to breathe through it, but the squeezing was impossibly painful. I managed a single step towards the door before there was the strange sound of water hitting the tile and suddenly my bare feet were wet.
No… oh no.
“James!” I cried, my voice shrill and cracking. “James, I need you right now!”
I heard his feet thundering to me, and I tried to take another shaking step, but mostly just ended up clinging to the towel rod for support while my abdomen continued to shake, rattle and roll like a warzone.
James practically barreled through the door and took one bewildered look at me like he was trying to figure out what could have possibly gone wrong. It took me several solid gasps before I could collect myself enough to blurt out a response to his confused look.
“I think my water broke.”
“Your water broke?!” he repeated like I had stuttered or something.
“No, I decided to just splash something on my feet because I can’t bend over anymore. Yes! My water broke! It’s time for that hospital plan we put together!”
“Right, of course! I’ll go grab our blitz bag!”
“Yeah, do that!” I said, managing to stand up slightly. “Whew, the cramps halted for a moment. We’ve only got a little bit before they come back again.”
“Try to get to the car. I’ll be right behind you!”
“You sure?” I asked, panicky. “Aren’t I not supposed to take stairs?”
“…we have an elevator, Nicole.”
“Oh… right. That’s a thing. I’ll get going.”
I grabbed a towel and waddled out, careful not to slip on the wet tile. I was in such a state of shock and scrambling to remember what James and I agreed was the best protocol that I didn’t even have time to think about the fact that I was having my baby three months early. I just rushed for the car as fast as my pregnant legs could take me.
Naturally James caught up with me before I was even out of the front doors, my duffle bag over his shoulder. “You alright?” He asked, looking more nervous than I had ever seen him before.
“Yeah, but I don’t promise anything when the next round of contractions come around.”
“How far apart are they?”
“I don’t know, James,” I said with all the patience I could muster. “I haven’t had the second set yet.”
“Oh, yes. You said that. That makes sense.” We reached his car and he opened the door for me, helping me in. For once I actually needed his assistance, because I couldn’t quite muster the leg power to get myself up and in.
At least I managed to buckle myself in before James slid into the driver’s seat. I didn’t even have to tell him the address, he had it memorized and was punching it in before I could even open my mouth.
He gave me one last look, his expression one of anticipation and total fear, then punched the gas.
We were having this baby a
lright.
Chapter Thirty-Four
~Nicole~
Boy, they weren’t kidding about those contraction cramps in the one birthing class I had been able to attend via video. I felt like someone had a hold on my stomach and was trying to push it down into my abdomen and out of where the sun didn’t shine. No matter how slow I breathed, or how much I focused on calming rivers and soothing forests, panic came with each and every wave.
Ow.
Own.
When we reached the hospital, I was on my third set of contractions and I just wanted to curl in on myself so hard that I stopped existing. Unfortunately, since I hadn’t figured out a way to break the laws of physics, all I could do was rock in the passenger’s seat until he came around to help me out.
“We’re almost there,” he said, opening my door but leaving me stuck inside of the car. I called after him to help me out, before realizing that he was grabbing a wheelchair.
Oh, that actually was a good idea.
He rolled it up to the car and threw on the brakes before helping me into it. I wasn’t sure how I managed considering the state of my insides, but maybe it was just adrenaline borne out of the fear of having my baby right in the parking lot.
James, to his credit, rushed me as quickly as he could inside and right to the front desk.
“Hello, sir, how can I-”
“She’s six months and she’s having her baby. Her contractions are less than ten minutes apart and her water broke.”
“Of course sir, take a deep breath. We’ll admit her as soon as possible. Ma’am, are you alright?”
“I dunno, my water broke about three months early, you tell me.” The receptionist just gave me a look over then nodded. “Alright then, ma’am. Sir, if you want to wheel her over to the door, we’ll have someone from our obstetrics unit by to pick you up and admit you.”
“Thanks.”
I didn’t know how James was able to keep his relative cool, because I felt like I was losing it more and more with every passing minute. I guessed that I was lucky an orderly came to wheel me off before I blew a freaking gasket.
My cramps wore off as we went down the hall and I had a chance to breathe. Thank goodness, because I really didn’t want to be admitted to the hospital when I was cursing and covered in sweat. If the next round could wait until after I saw my doctor, that would be great.
Surprisingly, I got up into a room relatively quickly. I mean, not ten minutes quickly, but certainly not as long as it had taken when I was first admitted that time I passed out in my work parking lot.
I was in the middle of another round of contractions as they plugged and IV into me and those little sticky circles that read out my vitals. The frantic beeping of the machines only made my anxiety worse, and before I could ask what was going on, they were injecting something into the mainline of my IV.
“Hey, what’s that?” I asked, gripping the nurse’s arm with a vice-like grip. “What did you give to me?”
“Just a little something to calm you down. Your heartrate is a little high and we don’t want you stressing out the baby.”
“But I didn’t want pain pills,” I argued, not caring if sweat was pouring down my forehead and down into my eyes. “the doctor said that even if I was premature, that we would only use them as a last resort.”
“Don’t worry honey, that wasn’t pain medication. I promise. The doctor will be here soon to talk about your options and what’s going to happen, so don’t you worry, okay?”
I tried to tell her that I would do my best, but instead a cry of agony ripped out of my throat before I could do anything about it.
“Yes ma’am, I know exactly what you mean.”
She patted my head and then left, leaving me alone with James for the first time since we had been admitted into the room.
“Hey, are you alright?” he asked, rushing to my side and holding my hand.
I tried to answer him, I really did, but another powerful surge rent through me and it was all I could do to hold on through the pain. At least this time I didn’t scream, I was started to get a headache from my own voice.
“You’re doing great, really,” he continued, pulling a damp cloth from goodness knows where and dabbing it on my forehead. It felt magical, to be perfectly honest, and I leaned up into the comfort.
“I… I think this wave is stopping now,” I said, trying to catch my breath. As hard as I tried to keep control of my inhales, it was hard to get enough oxygen when it felt like my abdomen was being squeezed through a vice.
“Good. Is there anything you need? Anything I can do for you?”
“I wouldn’t say no to some water, I think.”
“Okay, let me grab that for you. You sure you’ll be alright?”
“James, I’m in premature labor, not a war zone. I’ll be okay for a few minutes.”
He still didn’t look quite sure, but he nodded anyways and headed out. The few seconds alone gave me a chance to breathe and figure out how I really felt.
I was terrified. I was well aware that this could definitely endanger the life of my child. The thought that I could have put so much time, and hopes, and dreams into this baby only to never meet them was bone-chilling, and just thinking abut it made my heart pound ridiculously hard.
No wonder they had to give me medicine to calm me down. Even with its effects I felt like I was going to burst under the pressure of it all.
“So, I hear we’re having a baby!”
I looked to the door to see the same doctor that had diagnosed me standing there, looking cheerful considering the situation.
“That’s the hope,” I answered, trying to sound just as chipper but mostly sounding insane to myself.
“Great, how far apart are the contractions?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered, pushing myself up higher on the bed. “James had been keeping track. Time goes funny when a watermelon is trying to push itself out of your body.”
“Yeah, I imagine. And where is Mr. Hines? He’s the tall man in the suit, if I recall correctly.”
“You do,” I wheezed, my middle pinching again. “He’s going to get me water but you’re just in time for another round.”
“Another round of wh-”
Before he could finish the question, I was moaning again and sweat was starting to bead on my brow. Man, James had just wiped my face and I could already feel myself becoming grody again. Why did pregnancy have to be so gross? Why couldn’t the baby just slide out of me and we could have a grand ol’ time naming it and taking thousand of pictures to remember the moment in? That would certainly be nice.
“Ah, I see. Well, if you want to put your leg’s up in the stirrups, I’ll check how dilated you are and we can see what the best course of action is.”
“Sure,” I groaned between the short breaths that I had been taught. “But I’m going to need a little help.”
“Of course. The nurses should be here any second. I asked them to grab a couple things in case your baby decided that they’d prefer the accelerated course for being born.”
“You’re hilarious, really.”
“Thank you. My mother always told me so.” The doctor gave me a wink and that actually did make me chuckle, but the mirth was quickly forgotten as my abdomen bore down again.
True to his word, the nurses came in just before James did, helping me scoot down the bed and get my ankles up into the stirrups. It felt alarmingly similar to some sort of medieval torturing device, but I kept my opinions to myself.
Mostly because I was panting too hard to speak.
The nurses put up some sort of modesty panel and I wondered whose modesty they were protecting. The only people present were the doctor, who’s fingers were already heading towards my vagina, the man who had gotten me knocked up in the first place, and two nurses who had probably been through the same thing. It was pretty much guaranteed that everyone present was going to see a whole bunch of my nether regions and what was going to come out of it.
<
br /> I flinched as the doctor’s finger poked at me and I let out a yelp. It was less than pleasant, but thankfully it was over soon.
James stood there, shocked. I realized that with taking care of me, he probably hadn’t had much time to research what this part was going to be like. Well, at least he was in for as much as a ride as I was. Looking to him, I reached out, and he grabbed my hand almost instantly. No matter what happened, I would get through this. James might have been my soon-to-be-ex-husband, but he was also my best friend.
Chapter Thirty-Five
~James~
I couldn’t believe it.
I could not believe it. I was standing in the middle of Nicole’s room like a complete and utter dingus because she was about to give birth right in front of me.
Okay, maybe not about to, the doctor hadn’t even announced how dilated she was yet, but it certainly had to be coming soon. Judging by how close her contractions were, the baby could be anywhere from an hour to a half-day away.
I was never going to forget that scene when I nearly slid into the bathroom of her apartment. She was standing there, face red, hair askew and a look of such undiluted terror on her face that for a moment I had been afraid she was having a heart attack. But then the reality of the situation clicked when I saw the puddle of water at her feet and suddenly I was thrown into the plans that we had written up, but thought weren’t going to be used for another month or two.
