The soft chirping of birds wakes me from my peaceful sleep, and I peel my eyes open, a thick blanket of sleep glazing my eyes over. I blink rapidly, allowing my eyes to adjust to the bright room as I struggle to loosen Blake's vice like grip on my waist. All of a sudden there's pounding on the door, and Blake jerks from his deep slumber, the door gets thrown open and there stands a panting, frantic Jenn. Shit.
I stand up and run to Blake's dresser and toss him sweats, boxers and a t-shirt, before I grab my sweats, lingerie, and t-shirt, pulling socks on, and tossing some to Blake, as we run out of the room, I grab Jenn's arm, and Blake grabs the other and we help her down the stairs, and stopping briefly to grab shoes, before laying her across the bed of the truck. I buckle her in, around her middle, and we immediately take off in the direction of the hospital. I turn around in my seat to look at Jenn, as the contractions become more painful, and her screams fill the truck. I grab hold of her hand, and every ten minutes, she squeezes until my fingers turn white, and I lose all feeling below my wrist. She takes a deep breath, and then resumes her panting.
"I'm-" She gets cut off by her own screams of pain, and after a few minutes she goes back to panting, "sorry."
I smile at her and shake my head just as we pull up to the hospital. I unbuckle myself and jump out, throwing her door open, and Blake comes around to my side as I reach in, push down on the red button that releases the seat belt and grab her arm, pulling her forward into a sitting position. She grimaces, and Blake wraps an arm securely around her waist, before pulling her down to the pavement.
"I'd... Hurry... Up... If I... Was.... You..." She pants.
Blake looks at me, and I kick the truck door closed before nodding at him, he bends down and heaves her up into his arms bridal style before jogging to the automatic doors of the hospital entrance. I jog beside him, Jenn's hand firmly holding onto mine, showing no signs of letting me leave her side. As soon as we get to the front desk another contraction assaults her, and the receptionist looks up in a panic before running around to our side of the counter and leading us down a few halls, and into the maternity ward, where she opens a door and allows us in. Before she closes, she turns to look at the three of us, giving Jenn a sympathetic smile before wishing her luck, the young nurse, around twenty, tells us that a different nurse will be in soon. I thank her and she leaves, encasing us in a room, where the only sound now, is Jenn's heavy breathing.
Like the blonde nurse said, another nurse enters the room, this one around 30, with long brown hair. She asks Jenn as many question as she can before the next contraction, and then turns to me and continues asking them. How old Jenn is, when's her birthday, her full name, our relation to her, where the father is, if she wanted to give birth naturally, or wanted a caesarean section. I answered all of them as best as I could, and the last, Jenn yelled out "Just give me the damned pain meds and let’s get this over with." The nurse stared at her in shock before bustling out of the room leaving Jenn and us to cope with another contraction.
****
The most beautiful baby boy is washed, wrapped and held snugly in the arms of Jenn by midnight, who stares down at him with so much love and compassion; you'd think she'd already forgotten the last 19 hours of pure agony just to get him here. She looked up at me, tears in her eyes, holding him out to me, "Meet your God Son."
I gasp and smile at her before I take him carefully from her arms and smile down at the baby. He makes a gurgling sound and I grin widely. "He's perfect." I whisper.
"His name is Bryant." Replies Jenn, and I look up at her while tears spill from my eyes. Blake and I were going to name our son that, if that's what I'd had. Bryant.
"I can't.... He's... Wow..." Breathes Blake from beside me, and a light laugh escapes my mouth and Bryant gurgles in his throat again.
All three of us take pictures with Bryant, and the whole time, all of our eyes shine with pride, and unshed tears.
The doctors took Bryant to make sure he was okay, and Blake and I stayed with Jenn and we all talked for hours, until a nurse came back, pushing a plastic bin with a sleeping Bryant inside. I squeeze Jenn's hand, before going over, and leaning in, pressing a feather like kiss to his head, while the nurse asks Jenn some questions about how she's holding up. I walk back to the side of the bed, while Blake walks over to his nephew and starts murmuring words, while staring lovingly at the small child.
"Hey, you okay?" Jenn asks reaching out and grabbing my hand in her own, rubbing the back gently.
I give her a smile replying, "Yeah. I just sometimes wish I hadn't lost the baby. Seeing how happy he is with his nephew, I'd do anything to see him look at his own child like that."
She gives me a tiny smile, "You'll see it one day."
I give a small shrug, before I bend down and press a kiss to her forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Blake gives his sister a kiss on the cheek, and together he and I walk out of the hospital, hand-in-hand, thoughts plaguing both our minds, questions ready to burst forth, but too caught up in wondering, to let them loose.
