Kevin

 

 

I am pinned by Oliver Plaid, and he hits me in the jaw a few times. I use my feet and back to try to get free. I need him to stop beating my face, so I can have my hands free. He loses his grip once I buck off the mat with all my strength and I can stop using my hands to block the blows. I try to push him off me. I am just about free when the round ends. I get to my feet going to my corner. Clint wipes at the blood from a small cut in my brow. I stare over at Oliver’s corner his coach also wipes the blood from his face. I smile inside knowing I’m not done with him yet. I know he won the first round and I won the second. I think I might have won this round, but it could go either way. Clint puts a water bottle up to my mouth, and I take some, swishing some around before spitting it back out.

“Kevin, I need you to win this round.”

“I’ll do my best, but I am sure I can win the next two rounds.”

“Okay let me rephrase that. I need you to end this fight this round.”

“Why, do you think he is going to win? Do you not have faith in me?”

The bell rings and before I get center ring, he yells out, “Do it, Lightning. I mean it.”

I don’t get what the big deal is. I am still thinking about his reasoning when Oliver gets a good hit to the side of my face, making my small cut bleed more. I get to my senses when I feel a kick to my calf. I back up out of his reach just as he dives for my waist. He stumbled when he thought he was going to get me down. I take the moment to get my mind back into the fight. He gets his footing, and we dance around each other. Then he reaches out taking a swing at me. I spin and land a sidekick to his thigh. I do it again catching his lower leg that time. He falls backward into the cage. I have him pinned, and I take a few punches while giving him a knee to his stomach. The referee interferes, and I back up a step. Oliver pushes himself off the cage. I take the moment to give him a sidekick to the jaw. He falls to the mat, and I leap on him to pin him down. I get tapped by the referee, and the fight stops. Another sidekick knockout under my belt. Clint comes to the cage and once I am announced the winner. He hands me my belt, and I say a few words to the crowd.

He leans over and says, “We gotta go. Eve’s water broke, and your Mom took her to the hospital.”

I run back to the locker rooms as fast as I can. Ripping my gloves off on the way. I grab my bag and belongings, and I’m hurrying out of the locker room when my father stops me.

“I called a cab; it’s waiting for us out the side door.”

“Is she alright? It’s too early, Dad. This isn’t supposed to be happening yet.”

“As far as I know, your Mother has said they are just now getting Eve up to the maternity ward. Let’s not worry yet until we know what is happening.”

We get into the waiting taxi, and my dad gives the driver the address. It will take a half hour before we get there. My heart is racing in my chest as we take off for the hospital. I say a silent prayer my girls will be alright. Everything goes through my mind. It’s not her doctor, we haven’t done the baby room yet, but mostly it’s not time yet. We had at least four to five weeks left to prepare for this. My dad takes my hands and begins to remove the tape from them. I wipe at the cut over my eye. It’s stopped bleeding at least. I feel the swelling and then I think what if this fight put Eve into labor early. What if she was too stressed out with worrying about my fight? Could I be the reason our baby is coming to soon? Should I have stuck to my plan of not getting into the cage anymore?

The taxi pulls up in front of the hospital. I get out when my dad said he’ll find me and to just go. I leave my bag and everything behind running into the emergency room. I find the help desk and ask for Eve Thornton. I then take the elevators up to the third floor. When I step out the nurses look at me like I have lost my mind because I am still dressed in my fighting clothes.

“Eve Thornton’s room please,” I ask.

They continue to look at me like I have two heads. I spot my mom, and I call out her name. She waves for me to come in her direction. I take off down the hall. When I get to Eve’s room, my mom, lets me know I didn’t need to yell at the nurses. Guess I didn’t realize how loud I was, but at this minute I don’t care. I step past my mom going to Eve. She grips the bed rail, and my girl is in pain. I take her hand once she sits back on the bed.

“Are you alright? I came as soon as I could.”

“I’m scared, Kevin. This isn’t supposed to be happening yet.”

“I know, but our girl must be ready to meet us. Have the Doctor’s said anything, yet?”

“They are getting everything set up for her care. She might have to be in NICU for a while depending on how she is, but they say her chance are good.”

Eve takes my hand, and she squeezes it tight. I see her breathing through her contraction. I remember everything we learned in the classes we took and begin to coach her through them. When it passes, I give her the cup with ice chips to wet her lips. I give her a kiss and rub her belly.

“We are going to be a happy, loving family and our little one is going to run the house.”

“Did you win your fight?”

“I did. Were you stressed, is that why you went into labor early?”

“No, Kevin, it had nothing to do with that. The doctor said it’s just nature taking its course. So, don’t even start blaming yourself.”

Another contraction begins, and we work though it together. I hold her hand, and we do these weird breathing techniques. My parents are in the room with us waiting. Eve told them that they could go back to the hotel, but they refuse. My mom has been helpful and caring. Eve feels horrible that her mom isn’t here like they had planned. We called them, and Eve cried through the entire conversation.

A nurse comes in and checks Eve over, she tells us it probably be a few more hours. Eve said yes when they asked her if she wanted an epidural because the contractions are getting stronger. If she waited much longer, she wouldn’t be able to get one. I hold her hand and talk to her through it. Once it’s all in and the nurses leave I get up on the bed with her. Eve is resting more comfortably now.

“Kevin, maybe you should take a shower and get dressed. I think you are making the nurses nervous.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“It’s not like you won’t be here. The bathroom is right there.” she says pointing to the bathroom.

After I shower and get dressed, I join Eve on her bed. I hold her as she rests. My parents sit quietly in the room. It’s like the calm before the storm. Not that my baby is a storm, but I know this isn’t going to be easy for Eve to deliver a baby. Who knows what the outcome will be once she arrives. I lay here praying and hoping she’ll be alright. Not just the baby, but both of them. They are my girls, and I can’t survive without either one of them.

Five hours later and Eve says she feels like it’s time to push. The nurses call the doctor in, and he tells her what to do. Twenty-five minutes pass and on each contraction, she pushes. I hold her hand and tell her she can do this. When I see the baby’s head, I feel like I could pass out. It feels as if time is in fast forward and ready or not, our baby is coming. As a man, and a father so many things run through your mind. I can’t possibly know what is going on in Eve’s brain. But I do know that no matter what we will do this together because once she is here, we will forever be a family.

“One more, Eve. On the next contraction, you push hard.” The doctor tells her.

She looks at me briefly. I can see the fear in her eyes. I lean down next to her ear. “You got this, Eve. Just one more push and we will be parents.”

She nods her head and a tear leaks from the corner of her eye. The last push, and the doctor says, “Happy birthday, to your baby girl.”

We wait for her cry to come and it feels like eternity, but when her little cry comes, Eve and my eyes are full of tears. I give my wife to be a kiss before I cut the cord. She weighs four pounds and five ounces. She is so damn tiny. They let Eve hold her for only a couple of minutes before they take her away to the NICU. She needs to be ventilated. My heart wants nothing more than to give her my lungs, so she can breathe easier.

“Kevin, go with them. I need you there to watch Amelia and make sure nothing happens to her.”

“Amelia? I love it.”

When I leave the room, I am torn. I want nothing more than to stay with Eve the love of my life, but yet I can’t as a dad without knowing my baby is alright. Eve told me, I needed to be with Amelia more right now and she’d feel better knowing I was there. I find the elevators up to the next floor. I watch through a glass door at the doctor and nurses taking care of my tiny Amelia. I want so badly to go in there and hold her, to bring her into my arms and protect her from anything bad happening to her. I stay standing here for a long time just watching. A nurse tells me when she exits the room to go and get some rest, that Amelia is in good hands and doing well. I stay here worried that if I leave something horrible will happen. My mom touches my shoulder, and I give her a quick glance before I put my eyes back on my baby.

“She’s so tiny, Mom.”

“Yes, she is, but don’t worry, Kevin. She’s a Steed, and that means she is a fighter.”

“How is Eve?”

“She asked me to come get you. I’ll stand guard while you go to see her. I think she needs an update.”

“If anything at all happens you promise to call me, right?”

“Yes, Son. I won’t let anything happen to my Grandbaby.”

I take one last look at Amelia before I go back down to Eve’s room.