Disastrous

Sixty

One month later.

Shay's POV

"Austen, I'm going to be late!" I hollered down the hallway, holding myself up against the wall with one hand as I balanced my foot on my knee. I tried to jam the flat on in place, but it just was not working.

Huffing in annoyance at my strangely rapid growing belly getting in my way, once again, I held the shoe in place and opted for taking some deep breaths instead.

"Me help?"

My head shot up as a pair of dark blueish-brown eyes and floppy brown hair came into my view. Rory stood directly in front of me, his stylish jeans in place correctly and his red and black plaid short sleeve tucked in at the front. Austen had dressed him today, clearly; he looked like a farmer supermodel, or something. It was cute, though.

"You help what?" I asked, half paying attention as I once more focused on trying to pull my stubborn shoe over my heel without keeling over and dying from lack of breath.

"help." He cooed quietly, and my focus from him faltered again for a moment until his tiny fingers covered mine and he attempted to help me. I watched him study my own movements, his tiny brows furrowed in thought as he tried hard to repeat exactly what I was doing with my hands.

Help, he wanted to help.

Tears built up in my eyes as I watched my baby grow up right in front of me. It scared me to death.

Austen appeared around the corner then, his hands occupied with Rory's black dressier shoes. His head was down as he fiddled with the Velcro, but as he looked up he stopped everything he was doing. I laughed quietly as his eyes widened, and he quickly fumbled the shoes over to one arm to pull his phone free.

I wanted to protest as I looked a mess and was on the verge of weeping like a baby, but I let him snap some pics of Rory "helping" me with my shoes regardless because it was a big moment and I'd like to remember it later.

After Austen came over and aided the both of us in getting my shoe on, he picked Rory up and finished his outfit off too. Then he proceeded to laugh and stick his tongue out at me when I frantically wiped at my emotional mom tears, as I called them.

"I can't help it, jerk." I rolled my eyes playfully at him and picked up my purse from the floor. Austen gasped and quickly halfheartedly covered the baby's ears. "Not in front of the children." He joked, to which I proceeded to punch him in the arm when Rory wasn't looking.

"Ouch." He whined as we left through the front, the warm June air blowing softly. It caught the ends of my sundress and blew it against my legs, but I didn't mind it. It reminded me of the warmth and ocean breezes in Colombia and I liked it.

I locked the door as Austen took Rory to his car seat and buckled him up, giving him his toys to play with in his lap. We were on our way to the hospital for another check up appointment where my medications would likely be changed again. The pregnancy was not going good but still better than I had expected. I was still getting sick a lot even though I was in my sixth month, and the cramping and pains I experienced were sometimes so bad I couldn't move from bed. But I was getting through it and I would continue to do so to keep the baby safe and as healthy as possible.

"Niall's going to be there?" Austen asked as he got on the freeway, but I was already half lost in thought and typing away on my phone. Rachel had found out the sex of her baby today. Boy. I was desperately hoping that he was Lucas's child for his own sake, as he was so invested and emotionally attached already.

"Mhm." I mumbled with my attention still on the phone, typing a congratulations to Rachel.

"I could probably tell you that Moses has just parted the Polka Dot Sea and is voyaging to Saskatoon as we speak and you'd still say mhm" he laughed at his lame joke, causing me to slowly turn my head towards him and glare. He laughed even harder, which caused Rory to laugh as he laughed at anything now.