Falling Free

BONUS CHAPTER

Niamh stood back to admire her handy work; the beautiful animal mural she had spent the last few hours lovingly painting in her unborn baby's nursery was complete. And thank God because she was flipping knackered, but it was completely worth it because everything in the nursery was perfect and ready for the small arrival whenever they came.

Her hand rested subconsciously on her protruding bump and the baby kicked against her palm making her smile. Only another two weeks to go and they would be here. She found herself daydreaming often about whether they would be a boy or a girl; would they look like her or Alfie; whose temperament would they have? Please let them have hers and not Alfie's. Then again, at least if they had Alfie's temperament they would never be walked all over in life. Meh, but the very idea of having a toddler who was a mini Alfie filled Niamh with horror. Speak of the devil, she thought to herself as the front door slammed shut and Alfie came bounding up the stairs as fast as his dodgy hip would let him.

"Niamh, I came as quick as I could! Are you alright? Talk to me love, where are you?"

Alfie burst through the nursery door, breathless and red faced and came to an abrupt halt mere millimetres from her.

"You're not in labour?" he frowned.

"Er no," Niamh eyed him as though he had gone completely mad. "Why would you even think that? The baby's not due for another two and a bit weeks."

"Well that's why I come rushing down here like a madman, ain't it?" Alfie tutted as though she was the one behaving bizarrely. "Got a phone call from Mrs Ashcroft all in a flap saying that she'd seen you up a ladder and then you'd put your hand on your back and come down the ladder real quick like and she just knew that you summit wasn't right."

"Ok well she's a nosy old cow and also a little bit blind," Niamh sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "But yes, I was up the ladder and yes, I did put my hands on my back because it was aching due to the fact that your child weighs a tonne already. And then I climbed down the ladder because I had finished needing to be up the ladder and I wasn't going to stand there all day, was I?"

"Why were you up the ladder in the first place? You're carrying precious cargo and you need to be careful, not flitting about and putting yourself in danger

"I was being careful," she glared at him. "You're behaving like I was swinging from the lights or something. I was just painting the mural for the wall. I've been sketching it out for a few days now and I wanted to surprise you with it. But well done because you've gone and ruined that now."

"Painting!" Alfie exclaimed in disgust as though Niamh had just told him she had been snorting drugs all morning. "What the fucking hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea what the fumes can do to the baby?"

"Oh Alfie," she was beginning to get annoyed.

He had been like this when he first found out Niamh was expecting. He wouldn't let her even lift a dinner plate or anything, and in her hormonal state she had almost ended the marriage because she just couldn't cope.

Well, ok she would never have really left him because Alfie was her entire life and she loved him to death, but the problem was that he loved her so much that he didn't always behave rationally. Thankfully he had calmed down somewhat after the threat of divorce, especially when Ollie had had a bit of a word with him at work the next day about pregnant females and their hormones. But as the due date was fast approaching, Alfie was slowly getting worse again. Just last night, he had caught Niamh standing up on her tiptoes reaching for the cake tin on the top shelf in the kitchen and he had lost his mind, convinced that she was going to pull a muscle in your side and damage the baby somehow. He had even threatened to call Polly on her for it.

"The only thing that's about to get damaged is your face if you don't pack it in," Niamh had replied curtly. "And if you call Polly she'll tell you to stop being an idiot."

And as for Cyril; poor bloody Cyril. After Alfie had come home late from the bakery a couple of weeks back, he entered the bedroom to find Cyril fast asleep on her baby bump and he had thrown Cyril out and forced him to sleep in his crate downstairs. Apparently there was a danger that Cyril's weight would suffocate the baby inside of her stomach. Luckily, after that night she had managed to get Alfie to agree that Cyril could sleep in the bedroom so long as he didn't get in the bed. Of course Alfie didn't realise that on the nights he worked late, Cyril would sleep snuggled up to her until the front door opened and he would then dart to his bed on the floor.

"Maybe you're the one that needs to be worrying about fumes because evidently the ones at the bakery are affecting you. You're acting like an absolute psychopath," Niamh crossed her arms across her chest.

Alfie said nothing. He licked his lips and Niamh realised his eyes had fallen down to her chest which was heaving angrily against her arms.

"My face is up here, Alf," she pretended to be mad, but the truth of course was that she would have used her very female assets (spectacularly enhanced due to the child growing inside of her) to good use the second he walked through door if she had realised this was the effect they would have had on him. At least she wouldn't have been forced to deal with his dramatics.

"Have I told you how beautiful you look today?" he stepped closer, his eyes hungry as they roamed Niamh's body before finally looking up into her own eyes. One hand cradled her face while the other rested gently on her stomach. "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen; all swollen with my kid. It does things to me, honestly."

"Is that right?" she smirked, lifting her face to kiss her husband. "What kind of things exactly?"

"Hmm, do you really wanna know?" Alfie murmured, the hand that was on her stomach sliding up and brushing against her breasts which were so sensitive that her mouth parted before she could stop it.

"Please Alfie," Niamh whispered, bringing his lips to hers once again and pulling him as close to her as her stomach would allow.

Niamh pulled away abruptly as she felt something warm and wet trickle down her legs, and she glanced down to see the smallest of wet patches forming down her leggings.

"Well that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'getting wet for me', don't it," Alfie chortled to himself. 

"Alfie, I think that was my water," Niamh stared at him in something close to both fear and excitement. 

"Nah," he shook his head, chuckling like she was an idiot. "'Cause when a woman's water breaks it's like a massive gush aint it? If you've pissed yourself it aint the end of the world love; there's no need to be embarrassed."

"I'm not, Alfie," she said firmly as the liquid continued to trickle out like a dripping tap. 

"Oh my God," Alfie's eyes widened as he finally realised Niamh was being serious. "Right, you just sit there and breathe and I'll boil some water and fetch some towels. Do I need hand towels or great big bath towels? And should the water be boiling hot like, or just warm? And your aunt. I'll call her now. Or shall I get the towels first-"

"Alfie, just calm down," Niamh took his hand. "You don't need water or towels. Just come and sit with me for a while."

"You what?" he frowned. "We're about to have a baby at any second and you wanna just sit and have a little chat? Where's your sense of urgency, woman?"

"Gone far away along with your sanity apparently," she grinned, kissing his hand and then leaning into his body for a cuddle. "It could take hours or even days for the baby to come and right now I just want to enjoy a few moments of peace with my husband, because soon there's going to be three of us and we'll never be just us ever again."

"Are you scared?" Alfie asked quietly, kissing the top of Niamh's head. "'Cause I'm shitting myself if truth be told. I'm petrified I'm gonna have no idea what to do with the little bugger when it gets here."

"Despite coming from a family as big as mine, I'm scared too," Niamh admitted. "Although at this moment in time, I think I'm a little more scared about actually getting it out of me. What if I can't do it?"

"You can," Alfie smiled against your hair, breathing in your sweet smell. "You can do anything 'cause you're amazing and 'cause you got me. I won't leave you for even a second."

"Promise?"

"Promise."