Flame

Chapter 7

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

I was waiting outside of the investigation room for Claire to come out from and take us home. It felt like I had to wait hours on end before she finally left the room, the officer following behind her. He spoke to her about something but I lost concentration. Soon he walked away and we went home.

The car journey home was silent. That's probably because an incident like this isn't ideal so I ignored it, except I couldn't ignore it. I cracked my fingers from stress but I couldn't help it; the silence was so loud.

Eventually we arrived home. I ran straight into the living room and laid my body on the leather sofa. I was mentally drained from trying to recall the situation. Some of it was a blur so I wasn't sure if I got it all right or not but I was hoping Claire corrected a few things for me.

She walked in after locking the door and smiled "Tired?"

"Mentally," I replied "I feel like I got some of it wrong." I worried, looking at her with worried all over my face.

"Don't be," she said "The officer asked for my perspective and if I knew anything from you which was the whole situation. I have a good memory so I had you covered."

"Oh thank god, thanks, Claire."

"No problem, hun."

She made her way in the kitchen to prepare lunch. It's currently 12:35pm and I'm starved seeing as I skipped breakfast this morning.

"What's for lunch?" I asked.

"I haven't had time to go food shopping so it's just bacon sandwiches."

"Ooh they sounds yummy." I giggled. She laughed in response before walking to the dining table with a stack of bacon sandwiches only minutes later.

I walked over to the dining table and sat down. Seconds later, Claire did the same. We dug into the bacon sandwiches and I have a feeling I ate more than she did.

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

Nine months had passed. The case had finally come to a close and the creep of a principal was arrested under the broken law of pedophilia and the act of rape. He had been in prison for a month then. It took a while but we were both glad he was in prison.

I was thirty-seven weeks into my pregnancy. Claire told me that, that week was a healthy week to give birth, that up to the fortieth week. I was nervous but excited to give birth.

I wanted to leave the gender a surprise. So for a boy the name would be Blaze and for a girl it would be Phoenix.

We didn't have a baby shower or anything like that as we had no one to celebrate with us. Apparently our neighbours are very cranky, angry and impatient so we wasn't going to try.

It was 1:27am. I was stood up, rubbing my baby bump in front of Claire jokingly when I felt something wet dripping down my leg. Luckily I was wearing shorts so Claire could see.

"Ruby? You've gone into labour; your water just broke."

I panicked and rushed to her. I fell to my knees, resting my head on the sofa, as the contractions came in strong. She was just rubbing my shoulders, trying to comfort me with being in so much sudden pain. The contractions were minutes apart so every time I was free of them, we moved closer to the car. By the sixth contraction, we were in the car and driving to the hospital.

By my ninth or tenth contraction, we made it to the hospital. When we got to the room to have a water birth, the contractions were only a minute apart. A lot of nurses had to help move me to the pool set up for me. I took my oversized shirt off and kept my black crop top on. Before getting into the pool, a nurse checked how many centimeters I was dilated; 10cm.

All six nurses stayed in the room and helped me into the pool. The contractions were seconds apart. Four of the nurses were telling me to push. Then one finally explained to push like I was having a shit. So I then started pushing whenever I had a contraction.

After pushing for around four hours, I felt something come out from me. It was my baby as the nurse sat by the pool passed my baby to me. The baby started crying immediately in my arms as the nurse announced the baby was a girl.

Myself and Claire started crying. Claire was behind me the whole time, rubbing my shoulder and screaming to push like the other nurses did.

I looked down at my baby with tears landing on her already wet body "Welcome to the world, Phoenix."

It was decided that Claire would cut the cord. She had the biggest smile on her face when she did just that.

She then took the baby off me and passed her to the nurses who weighed her. Claire then wrapped her in a blanket whilst I pushed the placenta out with quick success.

"Congratulations, Ruby. Phoenix is beautiful."

"Congratulations, I'll get the certificate made now."

"Well done for being in labour for four and a half hours!"

All the nurses said. Claire gave Phoenix back to me and I couldn't stop looking at her. She had finally stopped crying and fell asleep in my arms when she was returned to me. Claire quickly took her from me again so I could get out of the pool and dry off. I then quickly changed into my PJs I brought with me. I laid on the hospital bed as Claire walked over and gently passed my daughter to me.

Looking at Phoenix properly, she had more of my features than the rapist which I was happy about; my red hair, my nose, my freckles, my small lips and eyebrows. Her skin colour was a little darker than mine but it was barely any different to mine. I guess Mr Jones was naturally orange.

I was also happy I finished high school way before giving birth. I decided to give college a miss so I could focus on raising Phoenix. It was also decided that Claire would be working as full-time as possible until I could finally start working myself. I needed help with my CV but that wouldn't be the hardest part.

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ