"You have been going to your doctor appointments, right?" Lindsey was standing at the end of the bed, holding one of her legs up in the air to message down her calf.
She had woken up feeling a little rough, and after a hot shower, a morning nap and three cups of coffee, Stevie still wasn't feeling the best.
Nodding her head, she let out a soft moan. "Don't talk, Lindsey. Just rub." She was on the bed, all wrapped in a blanket, eyes glued shut, and hair sprawled out around her.
"They look like they're gonna explode, babe." He was being serious- her feet were beyond swollen, worse than he'd ever seen them with any of their babies.
And the scary part was, she was only half way through the pregnancy, yet her body was reacting quite different compared to when she carried normally. But she had been seeing her doctor, almost every other week in fact and he never seemed too worried about it... So she wasn't either.
"I'm okay," she held up her hand to calm him down, another moan escaping her when he hit the ball of her foot.
He smirked softly as he set her leg back down on the bed. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Lindsey slowly crept up, finding himself hovering above her a moment later.
Stevie returned the smile, but still shook her head. "I'm sorry, honey." Her index finger met the bridge of his nose and then trailed down to the tip. "I feel icky." She wanted to, she really did, but self conscious would have been understatement when describing how she felt.
She was bloated, swollen, in pain, and just really uncomfortable.... Whatever was on his mind, was the very last thing on hers in that moment. After all, being pregnant isn't easy for anyone, but for someone that far beyond the childbearing age, it was miserable.
He fell into the sheets next to her, draping one arm around her waist to pull her in a little closer. "You're beautiful." He wasn't expecting anything, but he still wanted her to know that she definitely didn't look "icky."
Just as she was getting ready to lean in and kiss him, there was a soft knock on the hotel room door. "I brought snacks." Elise pushed it open a second later, trailing through the room with a gentle smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You guys are too cute." She was supposed to meet them in their room an hour earlier, but since her mother- in- law wasn't up to it quite yet, Elise decided to get coffees and bagels before they headed out for the day.
Pushing herself up, Stevie fixed her hair and readjusted her blouse before she got out of bed. "Thank you, sweetheart." She turned back around and reached out to help Lindsey up as well.
"What are we doing today, ladies?" He wasn't sure if Stevie was up to hang out with Lucy and Crosby, or what- it was all up to her.
Stevie let out a soft sigh, shrugging her shoulders a little. The truth was, she could have just spent all day in bed, curled up with Lindsey, watching movies... Like they spent some of their Saturday's at home.
Cradling her foam cup of coffee close to her mouth, Elise shook her head. "You two should spend the day together, and I'll go hang out with Lucy, or something." She assured before taking a sip.
The very last thing she wanted to do was ruin their alone time, especially since all Lindsey had talked about on the flight East was how much he'd missed his wife. Elise wanted to see Stevie, but she figured she could do that from afar.
"Oh, honey, you're more than welcome to spend the day with us." Stevie knew, deep down, that she wouldn't have wanted to spend the entire day with Lucy, so she didn't want Elise to feel obligated to either.
Looking beyond Stevie, Elise tried hard not to laugh at Lindsey, who was shaking his head casually- trying to cox her into going to Lucy and Crosby's. "I'll be just fine." She told her mother- in- law with a soft giggle.
~
After Stevie finally got her shoes on her feet, she decided that she wanted to go to lunch, and maybe try to walk around the city a little. So on their way to get to catch their reservation, they dropped Elise off at the apartment, where Lucy was patiently waiting to go do some shopping.
"That is such a cute sundress." Elise finally broke the silence that had washed over them as they traveled down the sidewalk, sneaking through crowds of people blocking the pathway.
A Saturday in Chicago was always hectic, but that weekend there was a huge baseball game, which meant the streets were packed.
"Thank you," Lucy gave her a soft smile as she pushed some of her lose curls behind her ear.
It was a little awkward for them, simply because they really didn't have much in common and they hardly even knew each other at all. Elise had only met Lucy once before the whole transfer thing, and it really didn't go well. They hardly spoke when they all went out to dinner that night, because Elise was so upset that no one told Stevie, who was working at the time. She threw a huge fit and told Lindsey that if he didn't tell her, she would... She never did, but only because she didn't want to hurt Stevie's feelings.
"Are you excited for the baby?" Elise wanted to talk to her, yet there was only so much she could talk about.... there was only so much she knew about her.
"I am, but it's been hard." Lucy admitted, a simple shrug following her words.
"Why is that?" Creasing a brow, Elise's eyes moved from the cracks on the sidewalk, right to her sister- in- law.
Lucy couldn't help but chuckle a little. "You have to know how difficult Stevie is..." she figured if there was anyone who understood her frustration with her mother- in- law, it would be Elise.
Pausing for a moment, she tried her best not to act so shocked. "Difficult?" She questioned, biting down on the inside of her cheek as she hurried to kept up.
"She just tries too hard, and my mother said she was totally rude at lunch the other day." Lucy rolled her eyes, a little annoyed just thinking about it.
Elise couldn't help but scoff, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, I don't believe that." She didn't care if she sounded "rude" in that moment... She knew there was just no way Stevie had been anything but pleasant when she met those people.
"I didn't mean to upset you, Elise." She was starting to feel a little uneasy about saying that, especially since Elise was getting so defensive. "I just figured that you knew how overbearing she can be. I mean she doesn't sit still, she tries to baby everyone and she's by far the most spoiled woman I've ever met." She was starting to ramble, yet her words just seemed to get stupider and stupider in Elise's opinion.
"That woman is giving you a baby..." She stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk, a true look of disgust washing over her face. "If she knew how you were talking about her, she would be heartbroken." Her eyes grew soft, but her voice didn't.
"I know she's giving me a baby, Elise." She was trying to defend herself at that point, but it went in one ear and right back out the other. "I'm reminded of it everyday."
