ICU TOO

Chapter Forty

Crystal

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out..."

DJ's eyes closed slowly as I rubbed his head and sang him nusery rhymes to sleep. He's had a rough day. For some reason when I dropped him off at school, he didn't want to go. I talked to his teacher and she said he hasn't been in any trouble. I saw his classroom footage and he's been doing really good; communicating with his peers and playing with them. Today was just a bad day for him, I guess. He's only three, he'll have plenty more of those.

"Mommy lay with me." He whined kicking his little feet against the bed.

"Didn't we talk about you sleeping by yourself like a big boy?" I ask rubbing his head.

Tears.

He started crying, more like whaling. I felt so guilty, so I stood up and got into the bed with him. His crying subsided, he moved closer to me. He put his hand on my boob and I heard him dozing off. Still crying in his sleep here and there.

Knock. Knock.

"Honey I'm home-"

"Shhh." I said looking at Devale peek his head in the room.

"What's wrong with him? Why are you in the bed?" He asked looking confused.

"He had a rough day today." I said sitting up.

I moved Dj over and got out the bed. Devale just stared at me as I crept out the room.

"How long have you been trying to get him to sleep?" He asked.

"Since 8 and it's 11 o'clock. So you do the math." I said feeling my stomach cramp. "Shit." I said sitting down on the bed.

"Hey hey hey, sit down." Devale said walking over to me. "How long have you been in pain?" I ask her.

"Just a couple of hours. It's nothing though I just need to get some rest." I said taking my house shoes off.

Devale walked over to the bed and made my place nice and comfortable. I crawled up to my pillow and put the covers over my body.

"I'm so tired." I yawned.

Devale took his shirt off and got into the bed, big spooning me. A heavy yawn fell out of his mouth and he squeezed me tightly.

"I love you Crystal. You're like superwoman." Devale said making me laugh.

"If I'm superwoman you're Superman." I responded.

"Mm yeah well Superman needs a break." Devale said. "I was at work looking at some houses and I found one-"

"That's great,"

"In Atlanta." He said making me squint.

"Atlanta?" I ask lifting my head a little bit.

"Yeah... Atlanta," Devale repeated. "I was talking to Morris and he was saying that he's thinking about going into early retirement. He feels like the job is halting his life. I kind of agree." He says as I yawned again.

"I'm sorry baby," I said chuckling. "I hear you. I mean you've only been doing this for twelve years you have much more experience than a surgeon your age. Plus, we're busy with kids at home so you have a right to be tired. We're both tired." I say rubbing his chest.

"When you have our baby and you're on
maternity leave I'm gonna take care of you and the kids. Everyday." Devale said making my face get warm.

Acts of service, really does something to my pregnancy hormones.