Because Of Love

Twenty Six

May 16, 1996

Janet, Tupac and Elijah were back in LA. Their trip to Georgia was much needed. Being there, away from everything gave her a peace of mind she'd lost for a minute. Now, she was ready to go home. Ready to tell her family about the new baby and ready to get back to her life.

Her pregnancy was going relatively smoothly and quickly.

Since the day Janet found of she was pregnant while in Georgia, she spent the majority of April taking it easy and enjoying her pregnancy. She spent her days with Elijah in the backyard. He was eight months and already walking.

Today was Janet's birthday and Tupac intended to pull out all the stops for her. She was also in her second trimester, five months. She was twenty weeks. This pregnancy was different than when she was carrying Elijah. She was congested, the kicks she felt were incessant and she had the worst headaches ever.

The upside was Janet's hair was growing pretty fast.

They'd been back in LA for two weeks. When they got back, she found out they were having a little girl. Which she already knew.

They had got baby clothes and Janet's mother had kept a few of her baby clothes.

Elijah was kissing her stomach all the time now would always talk to his baby sister in the womb. Tupac would talk to her as well, every night before they went to sleep. They decided her name would Liyann Crystal Shakur.

Tupac picked the name Liane because it meant 'daughter of the sun' and he'd always said Janet was a ray of sunshine. He switched the spelling up a bit to Liyann. Janet picked her middle name, Crystal after her grandmother's name.

Tupac and Elijah were about to surprise Janet with flowers and balloons for her birthday. He wanted the start of her birthday to be joyous. After all, turning thirty is a big deal.

Janet had no idea what her husband had planned, but she knew it would be nice.

"Happy birthday, Square!" Tupac yelled with Elijah in his arms. In his hand were balloons and flowers.
Janet was still in bed, the baby had been kicking and moving all night, so she was tired still.
"Thank you, my babies!"
"Birfday, Mama!" Elijah said excitedly.
"Thank you my sweet boy."
"Come on, baby." He motioned for her to get up.
She pulled the covers back and got up, she turned around saw a puddle of blood on the sheets.

No. No, no, no...No!

"Lesane!" She screamed.
"What happened?!" He rushed back into the room and saw the blood on the sheets.
"I don't know!!"
"We have to go to the hospital! We can't lose this baby."
"I'll get the hospital bag and come back and help you get into the car."

They called Afeni and dropped Elijah off at her house and headed off to the hospital. Everything was happening so quickly, Janet didn't really have time to process how she felt.

I'm only 20 weeks! She's not ready yet. I'm not ready yet. She thought.

All she could think about was how small and fragile her daughter was. How she was only half way through her pregnancy. Her baby was only 10 ounces and Janet was still barely showing. If she had this baby now, she didn't know if she would make it.

"Baby..." She said barely above a whisper. Tupac was gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were turning white. He was silent as tears streamed down his cheeks.
"I don't know if she's going to make it..." Janet's voice trailed off.
"She has to.."
"But she's too little..I'm sorry..I tried my hardest."
She turned towards her window and began to cry as quietly as she could.

I can't lose her. I can't.

When they arrived at the hospital, Janet was completely out of it. Tupac explained to the doctors what was going on.