by Luke Young
Jim said, “I’ll go check.” He headed toward the door.
“Jim.” Victoria called. He turned back, and she gave him a serious look. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He gave her a sad nod as if he were again on the verge of tears. “Me, too.”
They stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds until he covered his mouth with one hand, turned, and got the hell out of there before he really started to lose it. As the door closed slowly, Victoria let out a big sigh.
41
Victoria and Jim stood beside the isolette on either side of the baby, wearing proud smiles. She now had both the breathing and feeding tubes connected to her.
Jim said, “She does look like a Kaylie.”
“I think so, too.” Victoria leaned in for a closer look. “I think she has your nose.”
“No.” He scoffed.
Victoria reached her hand in and let Kaylie wrap her tiny fingers around her extended finger. “She’s strong.”
Jim smiled. “Just like her mom.” Victoria didn’t feel so strong right at that moment, and she curled her lip as she stared down at the beautiful baby and wondered how the hell she was going to pull off being a parent all by herself.
“And now comes the hard part, right?” Jim said.
“I know,” Victoria replied. She grinned up at him as if he were reading her mind.
“As soon as I graduate, we want to move to Miami so we can help.”
“That would be wonderful. And Jillian told me she wants to babysit every single day.”
“Take her up on that. I read they don’t sleep much for the first couple months.”
They shared a smile. Jim gently stroked Kaylie’s head. “Are you going to breastfeed?”
“She needs to be on this high calorie formula for a few days, but I’m going to try.” Victoria looked down to her swollen breasts and grinned. “They’re killing me.”
Jim glanced up. “They look huge.”
“Thanks, but they’re kind of ugly, all full of veins and everything right now. They also really hurt.”
“I don’t believe they’re ugly for a second.”
“You haven’t seen them.” Victoria stared up at him, thinking, I really do want you to see them.
“I’ll take your word for it.” He gave her a curious glance, and they shared a smile.
They spent the next hour bonding with the baby, singing and talking to their little creation until it was time to let Kaylie sleep. Afterward, Victoria returned to her room and quickly fell asleep herself.
Jim and Caroline went to Jillian and Brian’s house to spend the night. In the great room, Brian opened a bottle of wine to celebrate Kaylie’s birth, and Caroline drank nearly half of it. A second bottle was opened, and Caroline’s apparently unquenchable thirst continued.
The four sat around chatting and enjoying the wine. Caroline said, “The baby is beautiful. I knew it would be. You both, uh… I mean with, uh, you two, it would have to be.”
“She is adorable,” Jillian said. She glanced at Brian, whose eyes were drooping and fighting sleep. “I think we’re going to bed. It’s been a long day.”
Brian’s head jerked up, and his eyes opened wide. “What?”
“Are you tired?” Jillian asked while rolling her eyes.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“We’re all getting older, some of us before our time,” Jillian quipped.
“Hey!” Brian frowned.
“Oh, just get upstairs.” Jillian smiled. She stood and glanced at Jim. “You guys know where the guest room is, so just make yourselves at home.”
“Goodnight.” Jim nodded, and he watched as Jillian and Brian headed toward the stairs.
Leaning over, Caroline placed her head on Jim’s chest. “I really feel like doing it tonight. Do you want to do it?”
“Sure.”
Jim asked, “Do you feel okay?”
She smiled. “I think I just drank a little too much.”
“Are you okay with everything… you know, the baby and Victoria and—”
Caroline moved her lips to his and kissed him. Placing her hand over his groin, she squeezed it softly. Jim kissed her back. She pulled her lips from his. “Let’s not talk about it. I’m okay, I guess. I just feel like going to bed.”
Jim and Caroline retired to the guest room. That night Caroline was more passionate in bed than he had ever seen her before. After she gave Jim his third orgasm and started to work on a fourth, he had to delicately ask her to stop. He claimed he was exhausted, which he actually was, but in actuality, it felt like his dick was about to fall off.
A few minutes after that, she passed out, and Jim watched her sleep. His mind raced with thoughts of Kaylie, Caroline, and Victoria all swirling in his head.
42
The next morning Caroline, Jim, Brian, and Jillian ate breakfast together at the house. Brian prepared his famous pancakes. Caroline looked a little pale, and after her third bite, she rushed upstairs, went into the bathroom, and threw up. A minute later, Jim followed her and found her slumped on the bathroom floor. She decided to stay behind while the others returned to the hospital.
Jim asked to borrow the car, and after he dropped Jillian and Brian off at the main entrance, he went to run an errand.
As Jillian was browsing in the gift shop, she caught Brian’s bored expression and sent him up to the maternity ward. In Victoria’s room, the doctor was in the process of delivering the good news that Kaylie was progressing well and informing the new mother that the plan was to remove the baby from the ventilator and have her breathing on her own by the end of the day.
When the doctor left, Victoria took a deep calming breath, and for the first time since she arrived at the hospital, she was relieved. She finally felt that everything would be okay. She smiled, thinking, Maybe it’s time to stop worrying about everything and just focus on getting back to living.
Glancing down at her swollen breasts, Victoria shook her head with a grin. She missed her old ones. She had always fantasized about having really big ones, but now that she had them, she really, really wanted to go back.
Sliding her hand down, she touched her belly. It was still swollen, and she pondered how much work would be involved in getting some semblance of her old body back. She would need to exercise twice as hard. She moved her hand lower. She wondered if sex would feel the same now that she had delivered a baby through there. Not that she could even really remember what it was like, because it had been so long since her last time.
Victoria moved her hand down between her legs just to see if it still felt as she remembered. She carefully ran her fingers around her parts and began to frown. Something felt completely different. Pushing the sheets down, she craned her neck as she lifted up her gown and struggled to get a look at her vagina. That’s exactly the position Brian found her in when he entered the room.
He caught a glimpse of her and closed his eyes. “Sorry.” He began backing through the door blindly.
Victoria glanced up at him and smiled. “Good. You’re here.”
He stopped in his tracks but kept his eyes closed. “Can I open my eyes now?”
Victoria gave him a look. “It would help.”
Brian opened his eyes to find her staring at him with her legs spread and her gown still pulled up. He turned away quickly and whined, “I thought you were going to cover up.”
“Oh, just get over here.”
He shielded his eyes halfway as he smiled at her. “I’m really afraid to ask what you’re doing.”
“I need a favor.”
“Okay,” he replied hesitantly.
Victoria smiled. “Oh, by the way Kaylie will be coming off the ventilator today.”
Brian beamed. “That’s great news, but could you cover up a little?”
Victoria rolled her eyes and pushed down her gown. “I was kinda hoping I’d have a C-section.”
“Jillian told me.”
“I need you to look at my… you kno
w… and tell me if everything looks the same, or am I like some kind of freak show down there now? Something doesn’t feel right. It’s like I have a giant flap now, or something.”
“A flap?” Brian asked with a cringe.
“Yes, a flap.”
Putting his hand up, he held it in front of her as he furrowed his brow. “How would I even know what it’s supposed to look like?”
She glared at him. “Have you forgotten when you tricked me into touching myself in front of you?”
The realization hit his face. “Oh, yeah.” His look morphed into a sexy smile. “That was fun.”
“It was, wasn’t it?”
“Plus you spent hours looking at it when you drew it that time.”
“Now, that I forgot about.”
“How could you?” She smiled.
He wore a serious expression. “You see one pussy up close, you’ve seen them all.” He smiled. “I’m kidding. Yours was pretty nice.”
“Gee, thanks. I need to know if it still is.” She stared at him hopefully.
Brian moved to her. “But I don’t know if I should, really.”
“I think it’ll be okay.” She gave him a wide-eyed look. “Besides, if you don’t do it, I’m going to have to ask Jim.”
“Jim, really?”
“Yeah, you two are the only guys who know what my pussy is supposed to look like.”
“Can’t I just get you a hand mirror or something?”
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Okay, yeah. Go out to the nurses’ station and ask for a hand mirror. Tell them that I’m so vain that I need to look at my pussy immediately.”
Brian stood. “Be right back.”
“Uggg. Get over here. I was kidding.”
“Sorry.”
“Will you do it?”
Glancing out the window, he rubbed his hands through his hair. “All right.”
Victoria grinned, pulled her gown up and spread her legs wide apart.
“Okay, but let’s do it quickly.”
“I’m waiting on you.”
Brian moved between her legs and took a look as Victoria asked, “Is there a new flap?”
“I don’t see it.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Right here,” she said as she ran her finger over one side of it.
“That just looks like a normal lip thing, you know. Like a regular one.”
“Okay, good.”
“Can you see the bottom?”
“What?”
“The bottom. I’ve heard of women who rip all the way to their anus.”
Glancing up at her, Brian asked sarcastically, “Wouldn’t you have felt that?”
She glared at him. “Just look for me.”
He moved his head closer to the mattress. “I can’t really see. Can you lift up or something?”
Just as Victoria lifted her ass off the bed, Jillian popped into the room carrying flowers and took in the scene. Her jaw dropped. “What the hell are you doing?”
Victoria glanced up casually. “Oh, hi, Jillian.”
Lifting up, Brian turned to his wife. “Don’t just stand there. Help me look at her vagina.”
“What? Why?”
“She asked me to.”
Victoria smiled. “I want to make sure everything looks the same down there.”
Jillian shook her head. “And he’s the one you chose for this mission?”
“He’s seen it before. Thanks to you both.”
Nodding matter-of-factly, Jillian moved to the bed and got down on the other side of Brian to check everything out.
Brian turned to Jillian. “Kaylie is coming off the ventilator today.”
Jillian smiled. “That’s great.” She turned to look at the target area as an almost clinical look spread across her face. “I’ve never been this close to it, but it looks okay to me.”
Pointing to a particular area down there, Brian said, “Huh.”
“What is it?” Victoria asked, suddenly concerned.
“I don’t know, but that looks new… different.”
Victoria craned her neck down. “What do you mean?”
He furrowed his brow and pointed. “That little thing right there.”
“What?”
He stared up at Victoria and smiled. “I’m kidding.”
“You bastard.”
Brian shrugged. “I think everything looks pretty much the way I remembered it. Maybe just a little more hairy.”
Victoria said, “The hair grows like crazy when you’re pregnant.”
“I can see that,” Brian shot back with a smile.
“Does my asshole look darker?”
Brian and Jillian narrowed their eyes as Victoria lifted up a bit more.
They both shook their heads and nodded reluctantly. He said, “It’s a little hard to tell through all that hair.”
“Look away. I’m hideous.” Victoria slumped down and covered up.
Brian and Jillian stood and gave her a sympathetic look. Brian said, “You look great down there. Nothing a little waxing won’t cure.”
“I’m getting a waxing and a bleaching as soon as I get out of here.”
Jillian said, “I think you’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting… uh, how hairy is your ass?”
Brian smiled. “It doesn’t have a single hair on it. I was just recently in that general area, so I know.”
Jillian and Brian shared a knowing chuckle as Victoria stared back at them, a little irritated. “Can you knock off the lovey dovey shit around me? I haven’t had any sex in, like, four months, and it’s pretty much killing me.”
“Sorry,” Jillian replied.
Moving to her, Brian said sincerely, “I’m sure as soon as you shave your ass, men will be back all over it. I promise.”
“Gee, thanks.” Victoria gave him an angry stare before breaking into a smile. The three began to chuckle.
Victoria said, “That was a good one, Bri… You got that one out with a straight face and everything.”
“I’ve been working on my delivery,” he said proudly before adding, “In all seriousness, I’m pretty sure men will be chasing you around soon enough.”
“I sure hope so.”
Jim arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later and made his way up to Victoria’s room. He carried a small jewelry store bag and tucked it into his pocket before entering Victoria’s room.
When he found her alone, he smiled. “Where are Jillian and Brian?”
“They went for coffee.”
“When will they be back?”
“In a few minutes.”
Victoria smiled. “Have you seen the baby yet?”
“No.”
“They’re going to take her off the ventilator today. They think she’s ready to breathe on her own now.”
He smiled brightly. “Thank God! I was so worried.”
“Me, too.”
Jim moved quickly to her. “I’ll go see her in a minute, but I want to do this before they get back. I got you something.”
Jim pulled the bag from his pocket. Victoria smiled as she stared down at it, and her heart skipped a beat. Her mind instantly went to engagement ring, but when Jim pulled out a box a little too long for a ring, she sighed, feeling both stupid and silly.
After handing it to her, he waited while she simply held the box looking up at him with a confused stare. After pausing she said, “You shouldn’t have gotten me anything.”
“All new mothers need a gift.”
Victoria felt her emotions getting the best of her. Jim glanced at the door. “Could you open it now before they get back? I don’t want to—”
“Oh, sorry.”
Opening up the box, she pulled out the beautiful amethyst bracelet. She looked it over with her mouth open, shaking her head. “Wow, it’s…”
“When Brian and I were born, my father bought one just like that for my mother with our birthstones in it. This is Kaylie’s birthstone.”
She stared at him, absolut
ely blown away. “It’s so beautiful. I, uh… you didn’t have to.”
“Could you not tell anyone that I bought it for you? I wouldn’t want Caroline to get the wrong idea. I mean… I’m not sure what I mean. It’s just—”
“Sure, sure. I’ll tell people I bought myself a gift from the baby.”
“Thanks.”
She stared down at the bracelet. “Help me try it on?”
Jim placed it around her wrist and struggled with the clasp. As his fingers brushed her skin, she felt the heat of his touch. Her gazed traveled up to his eyes, and she watched him, mesmerized. Victoria breathed in deeply to capture his scent. He turned his head slightly and found their lips were just a few inches apart just as he secured the clasp. “Got it.”
They smiled at one another for a slightly awkward moment before he pulled back to a safe distance. Looking down, he found her still staring at him.
Jim asked, “Are you okay?”
Tearing her eyes from him, she shook her head. “Oh, yeah.”
He looked down at her wrist. “It looks nice.”
Victoria stared straight ahead while wearing a lost expression. “What?”
Jim rolled his eyes. “The bracelet.”
Snapping out of it, she smiled down at the gems. “Sorry, I think the drugs are still working through my system… I love it. It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad.”
“So, where’s Caroline?”
“She wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed back at Jillian’s.” Jim smiled to her. “I’m going to go see my daughter now.” He chuckled. “That sounds so weird to say… my daughter.”
Victoria grinned. “Okay, bye, Father.”
“Be back soon, Mother.” Jim’s smiled disappeared. “That sounds a little creepy.”
“It does.”
“Let’s not call each other that.”
Victoria nodded and Jim turned to leave. Glancing down at the bracelet, she said, “Wait! You better hold this for me, if you don’t want anyone to see it. I’d hate to lose it. Just slip it into my jewelry box at home. Jillian has the key. Just tell her you need to pick up something for me.”
“Good idea.”
After unclasping the bracelet, she handed it to him. He tucked it away and slipped out of the room. She stared at the door until it was fully closed and then returned her gaze to her now-bare wrist. Closing her eyes, an image flashed in her brain of Jim, her, and the baby. They were lying in her bed on their sides with the baby between them, and all three were giggling about something. She opened her eyes, and the image faded away. She turned, curled up with her pillow, and began to cry.
