His Best Friend

Chapter 17- Baby's Here!

2 weeks later, I woke up one morning to a sharp pain in my belly. When I felt beside me I realized the bed was wet. As soon as I realized what was happening, I called,
"Lynette! Where are you?"
She came running up, opened my door and said,

"What's wrong, Ryleigh?"
"Apparently," I groaned at another contraction and held my belly, "this baby doesn't want to wait till the due date. It's time. I need to go to the hospital now."

She helped me downstairs where she and her husband hustled me into the car and we were soon on our way to the hospital. As soon as we got there, I was rushed into a room where my doctor began to monitor the baby's progress. She left to go check on another patient and I said,
"Lynette, where is Hunter right now? I mean, what state and what show is he doing tonight?"

"Umm, let me look at the schedule he sent me," She browsed at it on her phone for a couple minutes, then continued, "Ok, so, he's in Illinois now. And he's got a show tonight in Rosemont Theatre at 7pm." I groaned again as the contractions were becoming more frequent now, before saying,

"Rats, if this baby had waited till it was actually due, he'd be doing a show in Lafayette. And he could actually be here," I held a hand to my belly and continued, "Lynette, I don't know if I can do this without him."

"Of course you can, Ryleigh. You are more than strong enough to do this. And you know he'd be here if he weren't halfway across the country. And you're not alone, Leo and I are here and I called your parents and sister on our way here. I told them I would call them as soon as they can see the baby too."

"Will you call him? I at least want him to know, even if he can't be here."

"Of course I will." She found his contact in her phone and dialed him, but it rang straight to voicemail. So, I asked her to hand me the Ipad that was in my purse. When she did I opened my facetime app and selected Sam's name from my list. He answered within a couple minutes and said,
"Ryleigh, what's going on? Wait, are you in a hospital?"

"Yes, I don't have time to talk. Where's Hunter? Lynette tried to call him but it went straight to voicemail."
"Oh.. Umm, yeah, let me go find him. I think he's still on the bus. I was at the venue helping set up the equipment," He continued to talk until he got to the bus, walked in the door and called,

"Hunter, you in here?" To me he added, "Oh, wait, he won't hear me from his workspace in the back, as you well know."
"Just find him, Sam," I was in no mood for small talk right now.

He muted the sound and I could see him open the door to the back room of the bus and talk to someone, I assumed Hunter. Soon I saw him hand over the tablet and the next thing I heard was,
"Ryles, what's wrong? Why are you at the hospital?"
"Nothing's wrong. Just that the baby decided to come early."

"But it's almost 2 months early. I'm supposed to be in Lafayette when you're due."
"Well, doesn't matter since your parents were the ones to bring me to the hospital instead of you," I laid my head back against the pillow as the pain of the worst contraction yet ripped through my body.

"Ok, Ryleigh," the doctor came back and said, "it's time. Let's do this. Lynette, will you take the tablet from her?"
"No, if Hunter can't be here, I will be able to at least see him through this screen."

30 minutes later, 3 hours after we gotten to the hospital, the video connection with him went out just before he would have heard whether it was a boy or girl. The nurse on duty soon laid the little bundle wrapped in a pink blanket in my arms.

That's right, a perfect, adorable little baby girl. And more proof that Hunter's the father, she has blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. Lynette was standing right next to my bed as I gazed lovingly at my newborn daughter. And finally she said,

"It's a shame we lost the video with Hunter just before he got to see her. Do you want me to call him?"

A/N: So, Hunter hasn't seen his daughter yet... Of course, he was halfway across the country about to do a show... How will he find out? Did they agree on a name yet, or were they waiting to see her first?