The Neighbor II

Second Time Around

Ben woke up from the couch with a jolt when he heard a scream coming from upstairs. He quickly wiped the sleep from his eyes as he stumbled over his feet to get upstairs. He ran as fast as he could and rushed into the bedroom. Cassie was hunched over the bed, her hand on her stomach, and a giant wet spot on the floor.

Her water broke. 

"Ben!" She screamed. "It hurts!" Ben quickly ran over and helped her sit down. "You're alright, baby, you're alight. Where's the bag?" She gestured to the closet and he quickly went in and grabbed it. When he came back out, he saw her painfully getting into a new pair of sweatpants. 

He helped her get them on the rest of the way, then got her up. "Alright, here we go," he said as they started to walk downstairs. He got her on the couch as she started to whimper in pain. "I'm going to get Michael and I'm going to drop him off at Tom's," he calmly told her. "I'll be right back." 

As fast as he could, he ran upstairs to grabbed Michael after seeing him standing in his cot, crying his eyes out. Cassie's crying and screaming seemed to drown it all out. "Come here, Mikey," he cooed. He picked him up and packed a couple of his toys and blankets and diapers before running back downstairs. 

Cassie was still crying and whimpering as she held her stomach in pain. Ben ran out into the hall and started pounding on Tom's door. "Tom! Tom, it's Ben!" A few seconds later, Tom opened his door with a sleepy look on his face. "Ben?" He asked. "What are you--?"

"Cassie's water broke, I need you to take care of Michael, please!" Tom suddenly looked awake. "Oh, um, yeah sure," he said, as he took Michael from Ben. He watched Ben rush back inside the apartment, then come back out with Cassie. She was practically doubled over in pain. 

She gave a small wave to Tom and croaked out, "Thank you," before screaming again. She was going to wake the whole building. 

Once they got into the elevator, Tom looked to Michael and said, "Guess I picked the wrong day to start exposing your father." 

In the meantime, Ben got Cassie into the car and drove well over the speed limit to the hospital. "Here we go again," he said with a slight laugh and a proud smile. Cassie took his free hand and squeezed it impossibly hard. He grunted, but took it like a man. 

"Ben," she whimpered. "Ben, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He shook his head and told her, "No, no, baby, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you and I will never do it again, I swear it. Now, let's focus on your breathing, alright?"

They breathed together like she was told and he wiped her face with some stray napkins he found when they stopped at red lights. "I can feel her," Cassie suddenly said in fear. "Oh God, Ben, I can feel her! She's coming!" 

Ben put his hand over her stomach and said, "Listen to daddy, baby girl, you need to just stay in mummy for a few more minutes. We're almost there." Just as he said that, the hospital came into sight. He nearly ran a red light to get there quicker. 

He pulled up to the hospital and rushed to get Cassie out of the car. She struggled to walk because she said she could still feel the baby and was afraid she was going to come out any second. Luckily, a few nurses saw and came out with a wheelchair. 

One checked to see how many centimeters she was right there. "Oh my, I can see the baby's head already," she said. "We need to get her in now!" They got her into a room while the nurse asked Ben some questions as they followed. 

He explained that she was two weeks late, which the nurse said explained why the baby was coming out so quickly. They didn't have time to get Cassie dressed appropriately, so they stripped down her bottom half, propped up her legs, and told her to push. 

Ben was right beside her; holding her hand, dabbing her forehead with a cool cloth, and offering words of encouragement. "You're almost there," he told her. "Come on, honey, our little girl is almost here. Michael's going to have a gorgeous baby sister as soon as you give this last push." 

She nodded and took a deep breath. She squeezed his hand as if her life depended on it, then gave one last push. In a few seconds, her screams were mixed with the screams of their baby girl. Ben gasped when he heard them and gave Cassie a wide smile. 

"You did it, sweetheart," he chuckled. Cassie was panting and huffing, too tired to cope with anything at the moment. "Mr. Carlton," the doctor called, "would you like to cut the cord?" Ben nodded and went over to them. 

That's when he first set eyes on his baby girl. He was in complete awe. She was so tiny, so fragile...so perfect. 

He cut the cord and watched as they took her to the back to start cleaning her off. Ben followed with his phone out, taking loads of pictures of his girl.

They then handed her to Cassie. She took her little girl and cradled her in her arms. "Oh, look at you," she breathed. Ben came over and sat next to them on the bed. "You almost made mommy give birth to you in the car," she giggled. 

Ben let out a hearty laugh with tears in his eyes. "You wanna say hi to daddy?" She asked. She looked up to him with a small smile and he took their daughter in his strong arms. "Hey, baby girl," he softly cooed. "We are so happy to finally have you with us. You're going to be as beautiful as your mummy, I just know it." 

He breathed a kiss to his daughter's head, then asked, "What are we naming her?" Cassie couldn't help the yawn that came out, as her adrenaline was wearing off. "How about Jessica?" She sleepily suggested. 

Smiling, Ben looked down at his daughter and said, "Jessica Carlton. That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He placed one more kiss on her head, then looked to his wife. She was now passed out, letting out soft snores. 

**

Ben sighed as he flipped through the limited channels on the hospital T.V. with one hand, while his free arm cradled baby Jess. Cassie was sleeping peacefully in her bed and has been for a little over two hours now. 

He called Tom to check up on Michael and made sure everything was alright. Tom wouldn't have been his first choice to leave Michael with, had he known Cassie was going to go into labor tonight, but what was he going to do? He couldn't exactly take him with them. 

After flipping through a few channels, he skipped one that had a familiar picture on it. He flipped back to it and sat forward on his chair as he recognized the backyard they were showing on the news. 

It was Tony's backyard. 

He turned up the volume and listened closely; "Two bodies were found in the backyard of his ordinary suburban home. Sources say, one of the bodies was of previous owner Rachel Clarke and the other of a missing father, Tony Edwards. We have no new details on how this came to be, but the police are talking to anyone who has lived in this neighborhood in the past year."