Magnet and Steel

19

September 9, 2003

She was so close to having her baby, but she was still at work dealing with everything that she deals with at work and today it was a closet dilemma. And she had to tell the family so they walked up to her and she just stood there for a moment with her hand rubbing her stomach and biting her lip. 

"I um...I...well, just come here." She moves them over to the bathroom.

"This looks great it's huge." Steven beams

"Isn't it fabulous. I'm glad you like it." Stevie nods her head her hand shooting to her rib where her son walled off and kicked her.

"It's fantastic. What do you think?" Steven looks at his wife, Stephanie.

"It's great but I think we had to lose something to get this big of a space." She replies.

"That's because you did." Stevie sighs.

"What did we lose?" Steven inquires.

"I had to take the two closets from Charlotte's room. That's how we've been able to make it this big." Stevie sighs referring to one of their children. 

"So are you replacing the closet in the bedroom." Stephanie questions.

"I haven't got that far yet. I want to get this finished and see how much room I have left before I do that because it might make me have to reconfigure." Stevie explains.

"You haven't thought that far yet." Stephanie gawks.

"No." Stevie shakes her head.

"Every single closet in this room was filled we need the storage space. I'm having a hard time understanding the logic of sacrificing something in one room to make another room bigger." Stephanie states.

"Would you prefer to have the closets and keep the small bathroom?" Stevie crosses her arms over her bump.

"No." Stephanie shakes her head.

"So there you go, just trust me and it'll be all fine and dandy in the end." Stevie sighs.

"Well Steven has put his faith in you and I...I guess I have no choice but to put some faith in you as well." Stephanie sighs. 

***

September 26, 2003

Stevie and Lindsey were traveling separately. That's just what they did because usually, Lindsey goes home right after the reveal now that Stevie's pregnant and going out for drinks really can't happen and she tends to go back to work, as Stevie was going to leave she bent down to say goodbye to Sulamith and then she turned her head slightly where the diaper bag and the hospital bag were sat by the front door.

She bit her lip and grabbed them chucking them in the trunk of her car. She didn't know why but something was telling her she needed to so she did it. She was just about forty-one weeks now and she was going to the OBGYN every other day to get checked, but they weren't making a move to induce her yet.  She was halfway to the client's house luckily on a road that wasn't super heavy with traffic when a shot of pain coursed through her body causing her to slam on her breaks. She sat momentarily to let it pass and then she continued on the drive and the pain came again when she parked the car. She took a deep breath and then she climbed out of the house where Lindsey was waiting for her.

"What's wrong?" He asks looking at her when she eases out of the car, because it was very evident that her baby had dropped as soon as she stood up.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She shakes her head. 

"Are you sure?" He asks.

"I am...come on let's go." Stevie smiles. 

They wait patiently for the couple and right as they're walking up she feels the pain again and her genuine smile quickly became fake as she rubbed quite aggressively on the underside of her stomach. 

"So here you are this is your new grown up living room." She introduces this set of clients tightly when they get into the house. 

"I love it." Shawn, the husband coos.

"I'm honestly speechechless. It's really lovely Stevie." Sherry the wife  beams.

"It looks so much more put together and sophisticated. You have new window coverings and now the biggest change, your new kitchen." 

"This can't be our house." Shawn shakes his head.

"This is so fantastic. I love it." Sherry beams. 

"Let's go look at the next biggest change. It was your eating nook, but now it's an entry to the kitchen and the backyard and right here is your bathroom." 

"This is really beautiful." Sherry coos.

"It's a lovely deep tub so bath time will be fun and there's way more storage." Stevie takes in a deep breath the pain coming quicker this time. 

"This really is great." Shawn nods.

"Alright, well now I have to hand you over to Lindsey." Stevie takes a breath and she's so thankful to be able to hand them over.

"Alright, so I knew from the get-go what I needed to do to find you a new home. We went through a bunch of houses and we are now finally on the same page. 800,000 is a lot of money but it wasn't going to get you what you wanted but I managed to find you a great home even though it was slightly over budget. Here however, you still have some money to spend. But this is your new listing. You went up from 700,000 to 820,000 dollars. So I think this makes it easier to get the home you wanted." Lindsey gives them the listing and goes over to Stevie.

"Again are you okay?" He asks seeing her slight distressed face.

"Yeah, fine...baby makes it...hard....to breath." She pants slightly.

'Well anyway, you really did do a great job where you kinda missed was the basement. I think that's going to be the big thing that sends them out."

"This works for the family. They don't want to leave their neighborhood and they don't want to go out of their budget." She shakes her head.

"Money isn't everything that's what you always say." He crosses his arms. She just gives him a look and they are beckoned into the house. 

"So are you going to stay?" Stevie asks.

"Or are you going to go?" Lindsey inquires.

"We are going to sell it." Shawn smiles.

"Well...I'm just...glad you're going to be happy." Stevie smiles, "Come on let's go, I need to sit down." 

"Thank you though and congrats." Sherry grins.

"Well thank you, bye guys." Stevie waves ushering Lindsey out of the house.

"So what now?" Lindsey asks.

"We have a meeting at my office with Loretta." She states.

"Oh right, let's go. Meet you there." Lindsey goes to his car. 

***

They get to Stevie's building and they don't even make it inside, before Loretta speaks to them.

"So you've wrapped are you ready for a few weeks off?" Loretta asks.

"Yes," Stevie grits out.

"What's your plans? Prepping for baby." Loretta questions.

"My plan is to go to the hospital." She winces.

"Well I assumed to have a baby eventually." Loretta nods.

"No, I'm going now, Lindsey my bags in the car." She says before hunching over and letting out a groan.

"Are you in labor?" Lindsey asks.

"Since this morning yeah." She grits out.

"Oh, okay, yeah let's go the baby bag is in your car?" He asks.

"Mhm." She nods easing her way to her passenger side and sliding into the seat.