Chapter 16
They spent the next few days in Los Angeles just kicking back and taking it easy at the hotel. They were on their way back with C.J. asleep in the back seat when she felt a distinct pain in her abdomen. She groaned and clutched the dashboard.
“What’s wrong? What is it?’ Buck asked in a worried voice.
“I think I might be having labor pains,” she replied.
“Might be?”
“Okay. I think I’m in labor.”
“My God,” he muttered, looking at her anxiously. “Should I pull over somewhere?”
“Not unless you want me to spit the baby out a window like that scene from Men In Black,” she teased as the pain subsided.
“What do I do then?” he gasped.
“Just get us home. It will take a while for the contractions to get close enough together for delivery.”
Buck sped up, weaving in and out of traffic. Lorna clutched her seat, now more because of his driving than labor pains.
“Buck, slow down. I’d like to get there in one piece. These just started. We’ve got time.”
Buck let off the gas a bit, hitting the speed dial on the phone link from this steering wheel. She heard it ringing through the speakers and then Melanie on the other end.
“Hey, Buck. What’s up?” she asked.
“Lorna is in labor,” he said anxiously.
“Oh, God. Are you still in Los Angeles?”
“No. We’re on our way home. ETA an hour and a half.”
“How far apart are her contractions?”
“I don’t know,” he moaned.
“They are not anywhere near one another. I’ve only had a couple so far,” Lorna interjected.
“Okay. You should be fine until you arrive then. I’ll meet you at the house and be ready for you. They might just be false labor, but we won’t risk being unprepared. Just remember your breathing.”
By the time they arrived at the house, the contractions seemed to be coming much faster, only about five minutes apart. They pulled up to the front door and Buck helped her out of the car, walking her slowly up to the front door and pushing in the code to enter the house. Melanie heard them entering and met them on the other side, coming down the stairs to help get Lorna into the large room downstairs they had converted to a makeshift labor and delivery. Lorna was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone.
“Lorna, this is my husband, Matthew. He’s a doctor, a human doctor. We’re going to take good care of you and the baby,” she said.
Lorna was both surprised and relieved. She wasn’t sure why Melanie had never mentioned her husband or that he was a doctor, but she wasn’t about to complain about it. Things seemed to move quickly after that, with her contractions getting closer and closer together until it was time for the baby to come. Buck had given her over to Melanie and Matthew for a few minutes while he retrieved the still sleeping C.J. from the back seat of the car and put her to bed.
Now, he was back, holding her hand as she prepared to give birth to their baby. She had not expected things to be like this. In her mind, it would all be very clinical like the conception had been, with her giving birth and then the baby being taken out to her, transferred to its proper owner, if you pleased. Instead, he was here with her and this was now their baby. She wasn’t sure what this did for the contract, but she no longer cared about that or the money it had once meant to her. She was exactly where she wanted to be and yet it was the one place she had never desired for herself.
Everything had changed so much in the last nine months and now, things were about to change again as Melanie and Matthew coaxed her through the birth of their child, a healthy seven pound, ten ounce boy with lungs like bullhorns from the sound of him. He sounded like a bullfrog on steroids, Lorna thought with a smile.
“You hear that?” she asked.
“I do. He’s got quite a set of lungs.”
“Yep. That’s your son,” Lorna told him.
They both laughed as Melanie cleaned him up for Matthew to check over. Then they brought him over and laid him on her chest. She and Buck smiled down at him. He was the most beautiful thing either had ever seen.
The following morning, a sleepy C.J. wandered downstairs to where Lorna remained with the baby for now. She held her father’s hand as they walked in. Her eyes lit up when she saw Lorna holding the baby.
“He’s so handsome!” she cooed, softly touching his cheek. “What is his name?”
“We don’t know yet. Do you want to help name him?”
“Yes!” C.J. said proudly.
“What should we name him?” Buck asked.
“Christopher,” C.J. replied.
“You don’t think that’s a bit too much like Christina?”
“No,” she replied, folding her arms over one another stubbornly.
“How about Carter James? Then he’ll be a C.J. just like you.”
“Okay, Daddy!” she beamed, accepting the substitution.
It was only the beginning of a long journey together. Less than a week later, while Lorna was still recovering, they got word that the screenplay she and Buck had written together was already gaining speed in Hollywood. Not only was Dallas Dalton not involved, but he had been blacklisted from everything after Buck’s associates had called him out for his antics with female creatives and some of them had come forward in suits against him. Lorna had decided that she would not be joining them, but would give them her full support and testimony about her own experience.
Perhaps she should do more, but she had a new baby and a little girl to raise. She was unwilling to let Dallas Dalton cast any shadows over her now happy life and she certainly didn’t need his money. Per their agreement, Buck had placed her fee in her bank account so that she was somewhat wealthy in her own right and with the movie in motion, she might be even richer soon.
What more could a woman ask for? Nothing was her answer.
The End.