Short Kings Anthem

Part 48

"I swear they purposely make this as awkward as bloody possible, put a camera in the box and then laugh at you trying to put it up," Lauren complained throwing the instructions down on the floor, she then sighed and rolled her eyes knowing she wouldn't be able to pick them up. Her official due date was in six weeks but she had a date in four weeks to go to the hospital and have the babies if she didn't go into natural labour by then which technically was possible any time from now.

"Do you want to take five minutes and come back to it?" Chris asked from his place on the floor, two planks of wood in hands. They were rushing to get the nursery finished, it was fully decorated, the cots were up but they still had the wardrobes to go and they were causing a massive problem.

"I'm not an invalid," she snapped back sighing rubbing her head.

"I know but you're getting frustrated." Chris was very used to Lauren's short fuse by now, he knew it wasn't anyone's fault, she was getting very uncomfortable and they were both starting to get anxious at the imminent arrival.

"You're right. I'm sorry I need a couple of minutes. I'm going to go and get a drink did you want anything?" Lauren asked as she made her way to the door.

"I'll join you," Chris said also needing the break from wood, screws and vague instructions. When Chris made her way downstairs and into the kitchen he found Lauren standing by the sink with a glass in hand.

"What did you want?" Chris asked opening the fridge and grabbing a diet coke.

"Just a glass of water," Lauren replied. Chris nodded and closed the fridge before turning his back to go upstairs but Lauren stopped him.

"Chris! Can I get a glass of water please?" Lauren asked thrusting the glass in his direction.

"You're literally standing next to the sink..."

"I can't reach the fucking tap look at the fucking size of me!" She snapped back, standing by the sink to show she was struggling to reach the tap, without squishing her belly anyway. Chris nodded and took the glass from Lauren, filling it up before giving it back to her.

"Here you go." Lauren accepted the glass before sighing and rubbing her head with her free hand.

"I'm sorry, I snapped at you.I keep snapping at you and it's wrong." Lauren sighed again but felt two arms wrap around her as much as they could. Chris then rested his chin on Lauren's head as she placed hers on his shoulder, burying it.

"You're at the late stage of pregnancy, with twins. I'm not going to pretend I know how you feel but I'd definitely be fed up of it by now." Chris assured her, choosing his words words carefully, avoiding phrases like heavily pregnant or massively annoyed. He knew Lauren was also really struggling with how much her body had changed, she was pushing through it for the health of their babies but he was gravely concerned for what she was going to do after they were born.

"Can we swap for the next few weeks?" Lauren asked looking in his amused blue eyes with her hopeful hazel ones.

"As soon as science finds a way," he agreed.

"I think you'd be much more of a princess than I've been," Lauren smiled for the first time in a hour. Chris couldn't help but agree, he liked being taken care of and up until recently Lauren had been quite independent still. In fact one of the reasons she was so grouchy was because she needed help and she hated it, she liked being independent and doing things for herself.

Lauren had a feeling Chris was going to be a protective father, but was a little surprise was how that protection had already kicked in. Since being thirty four weeks and being told essentially the babies could come at any time Chris wouldn't let Lauren out of his sight. He insisted that she go to all of his video shoots with him, into the office with him and when he had to go and do food shopping he would message her at least twice to make sure she was okay.

She was now thirty seven weeks and his mum was due to arrive from Jersey in a week to help them out. For now Chris was going to the office for what they thought might be the last time, due to his insistence of Lauren not being out of his sight for more than two minutes she was with him but she would rather be lying in bed at home.

"Take a seat," Will jumped up from the sofa and also budged Mikey who looked up from his laptop and did the same.

"My arse isn't that big," Lauren said half jokingly as she waddled over before sitting down. "Thanks though."

"We need to plan this big collab, will you be alright for a few minutes?" Chris asked Lauren as she shuffled about on the sofa trying to get comfortable.

"No I'm going to crown right here and give birth," she replied sarcastically. Chris ignored the comment and just nodded, going into the other room where the meeting was taking place. People were in and out both rooms and Lauren couldn't help but feel a little bit down. She was asked to partake in the video but turned it down because she didn't know how she would feel, filming was to take place a couple of months after the birth. She stood up from the sofa unable to get comfortable and instead started to walk around a little bit, one hand on her back and the other on the underside of her belly.

"Sure you don't want to join in the chat? Just in case you can make it. Chris can look after the kids," Simon said in earnest, Chris was just about getting on his last nerve.

"I'm good, you know me I don't want to make a commitment I can't keep." Lauren then gave a small smile as she swayed from side to side.

"What I'd love to see is you tackle a pub golf after not drinking for nearly a year," Arthur said as he opened his back pack and pulled out his pencil case.

"Even then I think I'd..." Lauren stopped talking as she heard a small pop and felt water running down her legs. She then shouted "Chriiis....CHRIS," she said more urgently as Simon, Arthur, Theo and Cal all looked on in shock. Chris came running into the room and looked at Lauren as she stood almost frozen on the spot.

"I think my water just broke," she told him in a panicked tone, her hazel eyes wide and full of shock, worry and anxiety. Chris looked down to the forming puddle by Lauren's feet and also noticed how wet the back of her grey dress was.

"A..are you sure?" He knew it was a stupid question when he asked it but he was in such shock he didn't know what else to say at the moment.

"No I just decided to piss myself in your office for shits and giggles. Can you pass me my phone?" Lauren pointed to it on the sofa leading Chris to retrieve it. She dialled the number for the labour ward, they answered.

"Hi, my names Lauren Martin Dixon I'm 37 plus weeks pregnant with twins and my waters have just gone. Yeah, no no contractions, yeah Dr Wexley. Oh.. there's more water," Lauren described and indeed more water was falling on the floor. "Okay yep bye," she hung up the phone before turning to Chris. "We need to go in."

"I thought so. Okay, do you have your notes?" He asked and Lauren nodded, by now everyone had slowly filtered into the room to see what was going on thanks to Simon who had called everyone in.

"Is there a towel or something I can put down in the car? I keep leaking." Lauren admitted not really caring who was in the room considering she was about to display everything to a room full of strangers.

"We'll find one. Wish us luck everyone." Chris swallowed, realising he was soon about to become a dad, wondering if Lauren really was that calm or if some of it was front and it sure was, as soon as they got into the car she took a deep breath and fought back tears.

"This is really happening isn't it?" She smiled nervously at Chris who nodded as he reached over and took Lauren's hand squeezing it not knowing who was needing more comfort, him or Lauren.