CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Lindsey
“JOHN, I NEED you to come get me. I’m in labor.” I was at Maggie’s house, visiting with the girls when the contractions hit. Unlike the previous two times, I knew for certain that this was the real deal. “Just go to the hospital,” he huffed over the phone. “No, you’re not that far away. I’ll just wait for you to come get me at Maggie’s house. Just pick up my bag before you come here.” “Are you sure you’re in labor?” “Yes, I’m absolutely certain,” I said smiling, trying my best not to let my irritation show. “Well, you were certain the last two times at three o’clock in the morning.” “Well, it’s not three o’clock in the morning anymore. It’s four o’clock in the afternoon and my contractions are about five minutes apart. They’ve been steady for the last hour.” He sighed into the phone, which just pissed me off even more. “Well, I have a few things to finish up, so why don’t you head over and I’ll meet you there with your bag.” “Are you fucking serious?” I said through a smile I was trying to keep on my face in front of the girls. My man had seriously lost his mind right now if he thought I was going to go to the hospital without him. “Look, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be. I’m sure you won’t have the baby before I get there.” “Right. I’ll just wait here.” I hung up before he could say anything else. Turning to Maggie, I grimaced as another contraction hit. “I’m going to need you to call your husband and inform him that my husband is in denial about having a baby. He seems to think that he can hang out at Reed Security and get a little more work done before he comes to the hospital.” Maggie rolled her eyes. “Men. I’ll take care of it.” She pulled her phone out and dialed Sebastian’s number. “Cap, you need to get John’s ass in gear. Lindsey’s over here and she’s in labor…Yes, I realize that, but I’m with her and I’ve been timing the contractions. This isn’t a false alarm…Well, maybe you’d like to tell John the story of how I had the baby on the side of the road…Because if you don’t get his ass here in the next five minutes, I’ll be putting Lindsey in your favorite chair to have her baby. Just remember what happened to your truck.” She smiled as she looked over at me. “Thank you, sweetie.” She hit the end button and sighed. “He’ll get him here. He just needed a reminder of what it was like with Caitlin.” “I don’t get it. John is so overprotective about everything. Now I’m having a baby and he’s acting like it’s no big deal for me to go the hospital myself. It’s not that I can’t do it-” “Trust me, you can’t do it. It’s never a good idea to drive when having contractions.” “But you could take me. Still, that’s besides the point. He’s completely denying that we’re having this baby.” “He’s just freaking out. I’ve seen it before. Sebastian got all worked up and passed out when I told him I was in labor, but other men just stay eerily calm and pretend like if they ignore it, it’s not happening.” “That’s John. The Iceman.” “Don’t worry. John will be here in no time and we’ll make sure that he pulls his head out of his ass.” Thirty minutes later and seven more powerful contractions, I was pacing the house, wondering if John was really coming. I looked at the clock again and took another lap around the kitchen. “Here, drink some more water. The contractions hurt more if you get dehydrated.” I nodded and chugged the water, wishing I hadn’t when it felt like I would throw it back up. “When is he going to get here? The contractions are getting closer together.” “Do you want me to just take you?” “No, I want him to get his ass here,” I said loudly. “Take it from me, you don’t want to have your kid on the side of the road.” “I know,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Ten more minutes and then I’ll let you take me.” Just as Maggie was about to drag me out the door fifteen minutes later, Sebastian pulled in the driveway with John. I stalked out the door and paused at the truck door when another contraction hit. This one was even more painful than the last. “I thought you were in labor?” John said. “Shouldn’t we be going?” “Excuse me for taking a minute to breathe through the fucking contractions!” My voice grew louder with every word. “If you had come here when I asked you, I’d have my epidural by now.” “You should have just gone to the hospital.” “And you should have just come home when I asked you.” “Seriously? This is another false alarm, just like the last two. I had work that I needed to finish up.” I spun around to Maggie. I didn’t even need to say anything. She grabbed my hand and dragged me over to her car, opening the door and shoving me in. “See? You could have done this an hour ago and saved us all a lot of driving around,” Ice shouted. I rolled down my window and held up my middle finger. “You asshole, if you don’t get to the hospital in the next five minutes, I’m going to make sure that the only way you can be identified is by your baby toe!” “That’s not a thing,” he scoffed. “Then I would suggest you get to the hospital.” Maggie peeled out of the driveway and got me to the hospital in no time. Lucky for John, he pulled in just after us and grabbed my bag. Though, I could still tell that he didn’t believe I was in labor. I was brought into an exam room first to check the status of my labor. Each contraction was growing stronger and stronger. I just wanted my epidural. “Okay, Mrs. Peters. It looks like your baby is still breech. Now, we can try to turn the baby, but my recent readings suggest that it’s actually safer to deliver breech. There are less complications involved.” “Okay,” I said, nodding my head. “Wait,” John said as he stood. “Are you serious? She’s actually in labor?” I rolled my eyes and did my best not to whip the computer on the table next to me at his head. “Of course, I’m in labor. I told you that all day today.” “I know, but…I just…whoa,” he swayed on his feet and the doctor reached out to steady him. “Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down.” “Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Maybe I could get some ice chips or-” “Hey!” I shouted at him. “I’m the one in labor. Man up!” The doctor grinned at me and slowly lowered John into a chair, like he was fragile. “Alright, we’re going to get you admitted upstairs and we’ll get you that epidural.” “Thank you.” The doctor walked out and John scooted over to the bed, grabbing my hand. “Baby, is there anything I can get for you?” “Oh, now you care? I was in labor for hours and you thought I was faking it.” “I didn’t-” “Don’t even start arguing with me, John. I’m not in the mood for it right now.” He nodded and shut his mouth. A half hour later, I was in my room and the anesthesiologist was setting up to give me my epidural. Four hours later, the doctor and nurses were all set up and ready for me to deliver. I was happy as could be because I couldn’t feel a thing. The epidural had pretty much knocked out all sensation to the point that when the nurse asked me to roll to my other side, I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t feel a thing in my legs. They backed off the epidural drip and it was time to push. “Alright, Dad. Do you want to see your baby delivered?” The doctor asked. “Uh,” John paled a little, but nodded his head. I didn’t particularly want John to see this, but what the hell. Jules was in the room, supporting John. You would think they were women, the way they had to stick together. Jules slapped John on the back and he stumbled down to the foot of the bed. His eyes widened in horror when he looked down there. “What? What is it?” I asked nervously. “Your pussy, it’s fucking huge!” The nurses chuckled, but I turned beat red. “Shhh. Don’t say stuff like that. My daughter is about to be born.” “Son,” he argued. “We’re having a boy.” “We’ll find out in just a minute here. I’m going to make sure the umbilical cord isn’t wrapped around the baby’s neck, so you may feel some discomfort.” All the sudden, I felt a hand in my tummy. A fucking hand! It was so strange because I felt the sensation, but not any pain or anything. It was kind of like a ghost was moving around inside me. “What the fuck are you doing? Get your hand out of my woman’s pussy!” John yelled at the doctor. The nurse put a hand on John’s arm to calm him. “Sir, the doctor is just doing his job. You need to calm down or I’ll have to ask you to leave.” “The umbilical cord is clear. Now, Lindsey, I want you to push with the next contraction.” It hit moments later, though I barely felt it with the epidural. I pushed, but started laughing when John’s face went even paler and his jaw dropped. “Lindsey, we need you to focus,” the doctor chastised. “I’m sorry. You should have seen his face,” I laughed. When the next contraction hit, I pushed and did my best not to look at John’s face. “We’ve got the feet,” the doctor announced. I looked at John with a smile, but it quickly turned to a frown when his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out, hitting his head on the counter behind him. Jules ran forward to see if he was okay and made the mistake of looking up to see me. “Holy shit! Look at the size of your cooter! That’s fucking huge. It’ll never go back down.” He looked down and shook John. “Dude, you have to see this. You’ll never be able to fuck her again.” “One more big push, Lindsey.” I took a few deep breaths and waited for the next contraction to hit, then I was pushing and moments later, heard the the sounds of my baby crying. “Oh crap. That’s a lot of blood,” Jules said as he looked down at me. “Will you stop looking? You aren’t supposed to see my hoo hoo!” “It’s there,” Jules said, almost as if he was surprised. “And it’s fucking huge. It’s gonna shrink, right?” “Of course it’s going to shrink,” I snapped. The nurse cleaned up the baby and then set it on my chest. I looked down at its little fingers and couldn’t believe how tiny they were. “Congratulations, momma. You have a beautiful baby girl,” the nurse smiled at me. “Dude, you are so fucked,” Jules said to John as he finally sat up. “What?” John asked in confusion. “You have a girl,” Jules said forcefully. John’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out again.