Everything For Naomi

13. Hello & Goodbye

The dining room table glowed from the candles and the house full with the smell of Great Wall takeout.

"Are you going to fucking talk to me Janice or what?" Damien yelled.

She threw her fork on the table, "Talk about what Damien? What the hell do you have to say to me? You bringing all these Cambridge bitches around my daughter, in my house. How do you expect me to be acting towards you? I'm carrying your daughter AGAIN and you're still doing the same shit you did five years ago!"

She stood up, trying to walk away and fell, catching herself on the table. Janice grabbed her belly and moaned in pain as she felt her water break underneath her, followed by a hard contraction and her scream.

"What's wrong Jay?" Damien tried to stand her up straight.

"My water broke." She whined.

"Aren't you only seven months though?" He laid her down on the sofa.

"Yes! And that's another problem right now too Damien!" Janice said through clinched teeth, "I don't remember contractions being so painfully or this close together either. Damien I need the biggest favor ever right now."

"What it is?" He tried to put his arm through his jacket sleeve.

"Take my pants off, stick your hand down there--"

Damien cut her off, "Janice, I don't think this is a good time for me to be finger you."

"I'm not asking you to finger me dumb ass. I want you to see if I'm crowning or something because these contractions are way too close and I feel like I need to push now." She let out another painful moan.

Damien did as told, took off Janice's pants and felt around.

"You need to shave Jay. It's hella hairy and feels weird as hell." He laughed.

"You're not touching my coochie. I don't feel you down there." She snapped back.

Damien looked down to see a tiny head full of hair, slipping out of her.

"Yo!" He threw himself off the sofa, "It's a head coming out."

Janice wined through her tears rolling down her face, "Are you serious? Damien, we have to get to a hospital, NOW."

"Do I call 911 or what? Like Janice, I'm new to this shit."

"Get me to the bedroom please. We're just going to do this here." Janice gripped the couch and gritted her teeth.

Damien picked Janice up and carried her to the bedroom, lightly sitting her up on the bed.

Janice took a deep sigh, "Okay, I'm just just going push now. We can replace the sheets later. Go get a warm towel, the nose cleaner that's in the baby's room and a piece of string. GO!"

After what felt like an eternity, Damien rushed back to Janice's side.

"Put the towel down there and I'm going to push."

Damien did as told and Janice prepared herself to push.

She took one, ten second push, paused to take three deep breaths and then did another ten second push and three deep breaths.

"There's head and shoulders out." He yelled from between her legs.

Janice breathed heavily and tried to catch her next wind followed by her last push.

The baby's cry bounced off the walls of the empty apartment walls. Janice threw her head back in relief and cried to the sound of her daughters beautiful first breathes. Damien wrapped with the piece of string around the cord and curled the baby up in the warm towel.

"Give her here and call 911." Janice put her arms out, "Damien, give me the baby and please go call 911."

"I'm sorry Jay. You're not raising my daughter around some dyke like Naomi." He cradled Nova tighter and stood up, walking out the room.

Janice tried to sit up in the side of the bed. "Damien please stop. I'll break up with Chase, I won't bring her around the girls ever again, I promise. We can raise Nova together, she can have your last name, just don't do something you'll regret right now." She pleaded.

"Stop talking to Chase and I'll change, Deal?" He adjusted the baby in his arms.

"It's a deal." Janice wiped her tears, "Can you please call 911? I'm in pain and we have a newborn being exposed to all these germs in here."

Damien handed the infant over to Janice and she gently rocked her to stop her crying. Her tiny eyes started to struggle and open with her gray irises shining.

-------------------------------------------------

Janice lied in the hospital bed, staring at the flowers Damien had bought from the gift shop and left on the heater. Alana had an "emergency" with the baby and Damien rushed off across the bridge to the hospital. Her eyes moved over to the dry erase board that read:

Nova Teigan Neal
December 7th, 2015 @ 7:30pm
Weight: 5lbs & 10oz
Length: 16 inches

A nurse lightly tapped on the door, "Miss Neal? How are we feeling?" Her Minnie Mouse scrubs cheered Janice up a bit.

Janice sat up, "I'm okay. I still have the same burning pain and my chest hurts but that's just a broken heart."

"This is your first baby? That burning will fade away. Everything down there is just trying to find its place again." She laughed to herself.

"No. She's actually my second one. Same fuckboy father. Same mistake made twice. He doesn't deserve to be called 'dad' by my girls." She chocked on her tears and looked over to Nova, asleep.

"Girl, I know what you mean. I'm sure you at least got two beautiful girls out of it." She checked and scribbled down Nova's vitals on her clip board, "What's your other daughter's name? If you don't mind me asking."

"Naomi. She's five, beautiful and incredibly intelligent beyond her years. Everything is for Naomi. She's my biggest accomplishment. I have higher hopes and better dreams for her than what I've had for myself." Janice wiped her tears from her cheek.

The door creeped open.

"Hello, is Janice in here?" Dallas tapped around the curtain, waving and smiling, followed by Chase and Naomi.

"Mommy!" Naomi smiled from ear to ear and ran over to Janice's side, climbing up on the bed to lay beside her mother, "Is that my sister, mommy?"

Janice laid down some of Naomi's baby hairs that were sticking up, "Yes. That's your sister. Go talk to her."

Naomi slid off the bed and jogged over to the "crib" holding Nova.

"I'll come back later to check up on everyone again." The nurse walked out, shutting the door behind herself.

Chase stood at the foot of the bed with her arms folded, "So where's Damien?"

"Alana had an emergency with the baby. I think I'm actually done after today. I gave birth to his second child and I'm still on the back burner." She covered her face to hide the tear flow.

Dallas crossed her legs, "Then be done Jay. Get him out of you and the girl's life somehow. My nieces deserve so much better than Damien and you have Chase."

Janice threw herself back on the pillow, "I know but how am I suppose to just kick him out of my life Dallas? I just had a baby, I just found out we were sisters not cousins. I just need my life to be together."

Chase sat down on the edge of the bed, "Tell him that the girls aren't his. That boy in between him and I, say that he's Naomi's father and that someone else is Nova's father. You know with his temper, he'd believe that in a heartbeat."

"He never believed Naomi was his daughter anyways." Dallas snapped.

Janice whipped her face and moved her view to Naomi and Nova, "Everything I do is for Naomi and Nova now. My girls deserve the world."

"You can't give them the world if Damien is still around and holding you back from that." Dallas hugged her sister in comfort, "You gotta let him go."