Michael, exasperated, took over the job and pushed me to the nurse’s station where they immediately gave us a room.
“What? Did you threaten them, too?” I asked with a narrowed eyed look over my shoulder.
Michael smiled. “You’ll never know.”
I rolled my eyes.
The man was incorrigible, and he couldn’t help himself sometimes.
“Are you going to let any of the nurses take care of me?” I asked dryly. “You’re horrible.”
Michael helped me into the bed once he’d locked the wheelchair’s wheels, and I sighed in relief to have my feet up.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, he is!” Hannah crowed as she came into the room.
I rolled my eyes. “You know, it’s really, really weird to have your sister in law’s hands up your cooch.”
Hannah smiled. “We’re all adults here. If you can handle it, I can handle it.”
I just shook my head. “I haven’t seen you on this floor in a while. How perfect that you’re on shift today,” I said dryly.
Hannah grinned. “In reality, I wasn’t supposed to be on this floor today. But I’m scheduled on this floor for the time being until you’re back from maternity leave.”
She gave me a pointed look that said she’d known where I was today. Something I’d told her but not my husband.
I blushed.
I was supposed to be on maternity leave.
But when Jasmine had begged me to continue seeing her once I’d graduated school, I could do nothing less.
Even if it meant I had to deliver her kid while I was in labor with my own.
Something Michael hadn’t realized I’d done yet, since I’d left while he was at work and conveniently forgot to tell him.
“That’s cool,” I said, changing the subject.
“Alright, Hannah, check her out so we can see where we’re at,” Michael ordered.
Hannah shot him a disproving look. “I know how to do my job, boyo.”
His brows rose. “You’ve been talking to Peek.”
Hannah grinned and lifted up her shirt to reveal her belly to us.
She’d gotten a tattoo of Reggie’s name on her lower hipbone in bold, beautiful scripted letters.
“Wow, that’s awesome,” Lennox and I parroted at the same time.
Michael smiled. “It hurt, didn’t it. I told you not to go there with your first tattoo.”
Hannah shrugged. “Hurt like a motherfucker. But Peek gave me a shot of Jack Daniel’s to tide me over. And kept them coming until it was done. When I left I could barely stand. Had to call a cab to take me home.”
I gasped as another contraction tore through me, bringing everyone’s attention back to me.
“Alright, you know the drill,” Hannah picked up a gown and tossed it at Michael. “Help her in that, and we’ll step outside the curtains. Let us know when you’re done…and what the fuck happened to your face?”
I coughed to cover up my laugh.
She’d just now noticed that after being in the room with him for ten minutes?
Michael ignored her and swung the curtains closed himself before walking over to me.
“You ready for this?” He asked softly, his eyes taking in my every feature.
I nodded and started to strip my shirt over my head, followed by my sports bra.
Michael’s eyes flared as he caught sight of my swollen belly and big breasts, but managed to stand still as I stood and pushed my maternity yoga pants over my hips, followed closely by my panties.
I offered him my hands, and he slipped the gown on over my chest, covering my nakedness without one lewd touch or comment.
He must really be scared, I thought.
Which stood to reason.
I was scared to.
Really scared.
But the thing about Michael and me was that we’d both gone through hell together, and had come out the other side.
We had our scars.
We had our doubts.
But we also had each other, and as long as I had him at my side, we could get through just about anything.
“I love you, Mikey Mike,” I whispered, knowing it’d draw a smile from him.
And he didn’t disappoint.
He smiled, eyes sparkling.
“I love you more, Nik.”
“Impossible,” I whispered fiercely.
“Nothing’s impossible when it comes to you. You showed me that,” he said just before pressing his soft lips against mine. “You ready for this?”
I nodded and touched the side of the bandage covering up the right side of his forehead.
“Have you had this taken care of?” I asked, feeling another pain coming.
He nodded. “Ten stitches.”
I winced.
Not only because that was a lot of stitches, but because it felt like this child of ours was trying to claw its way out of my vagina like a tiny Hulk.
“Epidural,” I insisted.
He smiled and helped me sit back down before yanking the curtains open.
Lennox and Hannah turned from their discussion, hurrying up to my bedside.
“Alright, lay back and let me feel you up.”
I covered my face with my hand as Hannah snapped gloves into place over her hands.
“Sit back, I’ll try to make this good.”
I huffed out a laugh as I moved until I was flat on my back, moving my enormous beached whale body until I was in position, then slowly open my legs.
Hannah didn’t waste any time doing her thing, and I was grateful.
“You know,” Lennox said from her positon by my head. “I’ve never seen a pregnant woman so calm before.”
I didn’t say anything to that.
I was freaking the fuck out.
Michael, though, didn’t need that from me.
I was sure he was already nervous enough, and I didn’t want him to regret having a kid.
He didn’t need yet another insecurity, and I wouldn’t be the one to give it to him.
“Do you remember what I do for a living?” I panted.
“You’re at six centimeters and fifty percent effaced. Doing good. You can still have an epidural, but I’d recommend making that decision quickly,” Hannah said, taking my gown and covering my knees.
Lennox sat the head of the bed up, and I looked to Michael to see him staring at the wall.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“I can’t tell you how disturbing it is to see my sister’s fingers up your…you know,” Michael informed me.
I smiled at him.
“You’re better at it, if it makes you feel any better.”
He made a gagging sound. “Disgusting.”
I snickered as Hannah tossed her used gloves in the trash and washed her hands. “I’ll go get the on call anesthesiologist. We’ll get your shit knocked right out.”
“Should she be talking like that?” I asked, eyes closed as I tried to breathe through my next contraction. “Motherfucker, this hurts like a bitch!”
The room stayed silent for long moments while my question and subsequent comment hung therein the air around us.
“What?” I asked, opening my eyes to squint at Michael.
He just shook his head. “Nothing.”
Lennox busied herself hooking up the monitor, starting an IV, and drawing blood while Michael and I watched the screen to monitor my progress.
“That was a big one,” Michael said a few minutes later.
I grunted.
I knew it was a ‘big one.’
Simply because I’d felt the motherfucker.
But I tried to be nice about it.
“Uh-huh,” I agreed tiredly.
Then Michael and Lennox started talking about medical jargon that was too advanced for my exhausted brain to process, so I ignored them and tried to sleep during my contractions.
Something I realized wasn’t working very well.
Especially since two of my favorite people in the world, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t shut the fuck up.
“Go away,” I muttered.
The talking stopped, and I ordered my husband to do my bidding.
“Go call your family and mine. Let them know what’s going on. And stop talking over my body. It’s annoying,” I ordered them.
Michael chuckled as he bent down and kissed my forehead. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay, Nikki. This is Amy Jones, the nurse anesthetist. She’s going to do your epidural for you. This is Eddie Gonzales, he’s the anesthesiologist that she works under. They’re here to answer any questions you might have. Okay?”