Chapter 15 — Olivia

I have around one week to go until our baby is due and I’m back home with Mom and Aunt Veronica, because they didn’t want to live in the penthouse with us. Mom still has a thing about being at home. I get that, she doesn’t want to give it up, it’s the last place that she was with Dad and she still holds memories of them being together. She’s not the only one, if I’m honest. I do miss him all the time. Ross bought and built the crib in my old bedroom. He complained at first about us not being at home, but then he found himself spending more time here than in the penthouse.

“We have a nanny on hand to help with things,” he complained once, but it was falling on deaf ears. I wasn’t about to have a baby and hand him over. No, I wanted to be there for every special moment. Besides, I’d put my career on hold for so long, that I didn’t feel like returning to it, even if I could.

I couldn’t believe how much things had changed in such a short space of time. Well, not exactly a short space of time, but in the space of a year. I managed to get Ross the best mature secretary that he could imagine, and he saves all his pleasure for me once he comes home.

Either that or his 'Fifty Shades' buddies. Letting him join was the worst thing that I could ever have done. The man’s obsessed. He’s either at lunch with them, playing tennis, watching the movie—how many fucking times can you watch the movie?—or discussing the books with them. It’s like they’re obsessed with the damn thing.

Even Erika and I have stopped going to the events, hoping that Alec and Ross would follow suit. It just made them want to go even more. Ross was even talking about setting up a 'Fifty Shades' roadshow, for him and the guys.

I didn’t even want to know what that would entail, but he seemed to have an idea. He bought a white board and started putting Post-it notes on it. I didn’t want to tell him there were special markers for whiteboards and the notes weren’t necessary.

“Ross!” I called out as I came back from the bathroom. I’d been to the bathroom three times and every time I think that I want to pee—nothing happened.

I thought back to our prenatal class. What had they said again?

“Dear, he’s on the phone to one of his buddies,” Aunt Veronica said. Mom was holding the popcorn and Aunt Veronica was holding the bottles of beer.

Great, they were getting ready to watch 'The Walking Dead' again. Aunt Veronica said that she could only watch it tipsy. It stopped her from having nightmares, even if it was three in the afternoon.

“I’ve been to the bathroom three times. I think that something’s happening.”

Mom pointed at me. “Looks like it’s already happened!”

“Does this mean?” I gasped as I looked down at myself.

Aunt Veronica nodded. “Yes, we’ll have to watch the show later. We need to get to the hospital now.”

“Oh my god, Ross!” I screamed at him to get him off the phone.

He rushed to my side immediately, a confused look on his face. “Babes, did you pour water on yourself?”

I shook my head.

“This means…?”

I nodded.

Aunt Veronica became animated. “Don’t just stand there, man! We need to get to the hospital quick. Sis, put the beer in the fridge. We’ll watch the show later.”

Then we all scuttled as panic came from all of our voices. Somehow Aunt Veronica called Brett and he was standing outside ready to jump in the car.

“How did you get here so quick?” I asked as we got in the car.

“Oh, Aunt Veronica has me on speed-dial. So, she just flashed me twice and that meant to come over.”

I looked at her, forgetting my pain for a brief second, wondering if we were really related. No matter how many times I thought that, she always managed to remind me that we are.

“No time to think. Just get in the car!” Ross screamed.

That was his first mistake as Ross jumped in his own car and then shut the door and left, alone.

“Good, now that he’s out of the way. Let’s go!” Aunt Veronica shouted to Brett. That was when I saw another car, one that I’d never seen before, and Mom walked over to it and opened the door as she said, “Get in.”

I was in too much in pain to ask where Brett go the money to buy a new car and I didn’t have the strength to have a conversation, but as we start heading to the hospital, I felt the need to push so fucking hard. As if the baby was coming now and it couldn’t wait until we got there.

“Mom, I can’t hold on,” I said as I held on to her hand at the back of the car. Then she started to sing to me, the same way that she used to do when I was a kid. Suddenly the memories flooded back of her holding me and telling me that everything was going to be okay when I was being bullied by the other kids for being too thin or too short. She used to hum it to me all the time. No words, just a lullaby. When I was on the playground and no one wanted to play with me, it gave me the strength to go back and go on the swings alone.

The next few minutes became indistinct as I started to go to sleep. I no longer felt strong, but weak, as if something else was taking over my body.

“Don’t let her sleep! In Grey’s Anatomy it happened to a woman and she lost the baby. Just don’t let her sleep!”

“It doesn’t matter we’re here,” Brett said, “And so is Ross.”

I was being told to take deep breaths and there was a stranger holding my hand. Judging by her white coat, she was a doctor.

“Olivia can you hear me?”

I nodded as I felt weak and unable to move. It was as if something was stuck between my legs and I suspected that it was my baby.

“Yes,” I whispered as the pain took over my body.

“Good, she’s responsive. Let’s get her inside quickly and smoothly.”

I nodded, but I knew that she wasn’t talking to me.

Then they started to move me, and I could hear Ross’s voice in the background.

“I can’t believe that I fucking drove here alone.”

Aunt Veronica was calming him down. “Ross don’t worry it happens to the best of us. I remember in this one episode of General Hospital a dad did exactly the same thing!” she giggled, but she was laughing alone as he kept repeating the same words: “Sorry Olivia.”

I shook my head, I wanted to tell him that it was okay, but I felt myself on a stretcher and being moved inside the hospital. It was fast, it wasn’t smooth.

Before long I was pushing and being helped by Ross, he was no longer panicking, but kissing my forehead and saying, “Come on, Olivia, you can do it.”

I could hear them telling me that the head was out and then as if he was watching a football match Ross screamed.

“Just one more try!”

I was trying but I was so weak, that I didn’t even change my clothes. Everything that was in my birth plan including my doctor seemed to be unimportant. I wasn’t wearing the dress that I wanted to wear, but somewhere in the midst of it all I was wearing a hospital gown. My panties were a thing of the past.

When did I lose them?

I started to feel faint again, but Ross wasn’t letting me go to sleep, as much as I was craving it right now. I could hear voices and none of them were recognizable as I tried to open my eyes, but then every tug meant that they were closed again. My legs were wide open and all I could hear was Ross shouting, “Come on, babes, our son’s here! You just have to push the afterbirth out.”

A boy! We suspected that we were having a boy, but somehow hearing the confirmation that we were having a boy, just made me push even more. One last burst of strength and then it was over.

I heard him crying and he sounded so far away, but yet so near.

“You did it, babes. Our baby’s fine.”

I smiled at him as he wiped the sweat and tears off my face. Then he handed me our little treasure.

“I suppose we’re going to have to call him Junior?”

He said, “No way, we can call him whatever you want. Besides, I was thinking Keith after your dad or we could go with Christian?”

He winked at me. He had to be kidding me. I looked down and saw his eyes closed and felt the need to join our baby, whose name will be Christian, in sleep.

“I just need to rest, Ross.”

He kissed me on the head and the last thing I heard was, “You can sleep for a little while. You have the rest of your life to hold him.”

He took our little one and I could feel that I was being cleaned up. I used to laugh at the idea of having a natural birth. Yet, it had taken every ounce of strength that I possessed and I realized that it didn't matter what plan I followed, because our baby was healthy and I knew that soon I would be joining Aunt Veronica on the sofa and catching up on the series while holding my little baby in my arms and it made me smile knowing that the future was everything that I could possibly imagine and more.

The End.