Homerun

•72•

Dansby and I made the truck back down the mountain laughing and joking. When we emerged from the woods I was shocked to see all of my family running around frantically.

"What's going on?" I ask as my mom runs by.

"We think Nicole is in preterm labor." Mom said panic.

"She's only 30 weeks!" I say trying not to freak.

"Yes we know that honey. Jeremy and her both are freaking out, are you calm enough to drive?" She asks hopeful.

"I am, I can take them." Dansby steps in making me glad. "I'll go get the car, Tae go grab my wallet and Nicole's bag and I'll help you brother get Nicole."

I nod before running inside I run to mine and Dansby's room first grabbing his wallet then to Nicole and Jeremy's room.

"I'm not ready to do this Jeremy!" She cried. "We aren't even married. We're supposed to be married before it comes."

"You're not ready I'm no ready! I don't even have the nursery done yet!" Jeremy exclaims.

"YOU? You are not about to push a baby out of you! We haven't even finished birthing classes." I take this as my time to step in.

"Hey look it's going to be ok." I walk in. "Dans and I are going to take you to the hospital. And it will all be ok." I attempt to assure them. "Jere go ahead and take her to the car and I'll pack y'all a bag."

Jeremy nods as he helps Nicole up and leads her out the door. I grab Jeremy's duffel bag and dump it out before stuffing clothes for a few days for Jeremy and some stuff for Nicole. Once I got it all together I race down the steps and hop into the front seat of the car.

"We all buckled?" Dansby asks looking in the rear view mirror.

"Yea." Jeremy nods holding Nicole's hand as her face scrunched up in pain.

"Oh my god." Nicole groaned.

"Babe can you turn the GPS on and put the hospital in?" Dansby asked driving as fast as he could without putting us in danger.

"Yea of course." I nod typing it into my phone.

Dansby turned an hour drive into a 35 minute one and whipped into the parking lot with a cursing Nicole in the back. "Dans go park the car I'll help Jeremy get her in." I instruct as I wrap my arm around Nicole as Jere gets on the other side.

"Hey can we get some help?" I ask as we walk her in.

"What do we have." A nurse asks rushing up with a wheelchair.

"I'm 30 weeks and freaking in labor!" Nicole fires back.

"Well there's no need to freak out it's fine." A nurse assured her.

"Don't sugar coat this for me! I'm a damn pediatric nurse!" Nicole screamed.... ok this was going to be a long night.

The nurse pushed Nicole into the maternity ward while Jeremy followed and I was left to sit out in the waiting room. "Hey where are they?" Dansby asked coming in.

"They just took her back. Told me to wait out here until they figure out what they can do." I sigh leaning back into the chair. "I really hope everything is ok." My voice cracked as I thought of all the possibilities.

"Hey everything will be fine I'm sure." Dansby tries to comfort me. "What ever is happening just remember there is always a plan."

"I just, Jeremy was never the type to settle down, but this baby... it made him grow up and take matters into his own hands. If something happens to Nicole or this baby, I'm afraid it will destroy Jeremy and I just couldn't stand by and witness that." My head rested on his shoulder as worry took me over.

Soon our whole family made it to the hospital and we still had not heard from a doctor. "Nicole Sims?"

"That's us." We say as we all stand up.

"Ok well she is in fact in labor. But we are going to postpone the labor for as long as possible here. Now we have her on monitoring and we are giving the baby corticosteroids which should help speed up the development of the baby's lungs." The doctor explains.

"So how long do you think until she has the baby?" My mom asks wrapping her arms around my dad.

"3-4 days maybe." He says.

"Alright can we go see her?" Mom asked again.

"Yes ma'am but just know the father is the only one allowed to stay the night." He informs us.

"We understand. Thank you sir." My Dad nods. "Has anyone called Nicole's parents?" He asks as the doctor walks away.

"Yea I called them on the way here." I say taking a seat again. With a deep sigh I lean back. I feel a lot better knowing no one is in danger right now.

"Would y'all want me to go down the street to Bojangles and grab some breakfast for y'all?" Dansby offered.

Mimi looked up and nodded. "If you don't mind, I'm sure everyone here is starved." Looking around all the young ones were either passed out in their parents laps or mindlessly playing on their iPads.

"It's no problem." Dansby assures. "You wanna go with me babe or do you want to stay?"

"I'll go with you." I say standing up and taking his hand. "Just text me what y'all want." I tell mom as we walk out.

Dansby stops outside of the doors taking both my hands. "Hey, I know your worried but I don't need you have an anxiety attack, ok?"

He knew I was getting close to one, when ever stressful things like this begin happening my mind goes into over drive.

"Right now I'm just trying to stay positive." I say running a hand through my hair as he opens the car door for me. "I just can't help but thinking maybe it's my fault, what if I had told Jeremy earlier maybe they could have stopped it."

"Tae even when Jeremy knew they didn't go to the hospital last night, you telling him wouldn't have helped." He attempts to assure me.

"I know but it's just a thought in my head." I admit closing my eyes.

"Let's talk about something else how about Christmas, what do you want?" He asks resting his hand on my knee.

I shrug thinking. "I don't know, I have everything I could possibly want. I already know what I'm getting you though." I smirk.

"Ohhh what is it." He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm not telling you ya big goof." I laugh.

Dansby kept my mind off of everything as long as he could. When we got back to the hospital mom and Dad and gone back to see Nicole and Jere and now it was Dans and I's turn.

"Hey Nic." I say knocking on the door and easing it open. "How you feeling?"

"Pregnant." She smiles, this was the first smile I had seen since last night from her.

"They got her on some meds to ease the contractions and slow down the labor." Jeremy says taking her hand.

"I can't believe this little one will be here in a few days." I smile taking a seat.

"Considering she's not su..... shit." Nicole sighed realizing what she said.

Jeremy's head shoots her direction. "You looked?"

"I couldn't help it! My hormones got the best of me!" She defends herself while laughing.

"She'll be beautiful." Dansby says wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Well thank you. Hopefully she get my looks and Jeremy's smarts." Nicole jokes.

"Tae can I talk to you for a minute?" Jere asks pointing outside. I nod following him out.

"So what's up?" I lean against the wall.

"Look I know this is a lot to ask but I haven't gotten the nursery finished and I was wondering...." I cut Jeremy off holding my hand up.

"Dans and I will work on it." Jeremy let out a breath as he wraps me in a hug.

"Thank you so much Taegan. You and Dansby both!" I chuckle hugging him tight.

"Don't worry about it."