Fated (A Chris Evans Series)

Jackson Christopher Evans

The closer Denise's contractions got, the more nervous she and Chris became. She was in a lot of pain so she tried to focus on that pain to distract herself from the fact that she was about to have a baby. She channeled her writer's mind, convincing herself that this was an experience she could use to better her writing. Denise did things like that all the time, she found she coped better if she saw what she feared doing as an experience to help with her writing. The last time she went to the dentist, she told herself she was a spy who'd been caught and was being tortured for information. Chris thought she was insane, but said if it worked to relieve her of her anxiety that came every time she had to go to the dentist that she should "do you, boo." So now that she was having blindingly painful contractions- which had become five minutes apart- she convinced herself that she was a victim of a stabbing so she could later utilize the pain to write something in the crime/thriller genre.

Chris, on the other hand, had his sole focus on Denise. He wished he had the capability to distract himself with her methods, instead he had to live through her agony and listen to every whimper she emitted whenever she had a contraction. It'd been three and a half hours of five minute apart contractions, yet there was still no progress. Denise naively believed it would've been easier, that after her water broke she'd start pushing and a baby would pop out of her. Unfortunately, it was not; she was going to suffer for quite a while before her son arrived. Chris was glad his in-laws were around to keep them company, but he really wished his mom was there too. He glanced at his watch, it wouldn't be long now. It was 11:56AM now and Lisa's flight was arriving at 12:15PM. Richard left for the airport half an hour ago to pick Lisa up to save Chris from leaving Denise's side. Everyone in that room knew she needed him with her every step of the way, that there was no way she was going to do anything without him.

"What do you need, sweetheart?" Chris asked, gently brushing away the tears that had rolled down Denise's cheeks. She couldn't take the pain anymore, her distraction was losing its effect because no story was worth what she was going through. "Do you want me to get you something from the vending machine? A packet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?" He quizzed and she nodded quickly, hoping chocolate would help subside, or at least distract her from the pain.

"No, I'm sorry," Tina stopped Chris, "no. I don't recommend eating while in labor, sweetheart. It'll be dangerous if they have to end up putting you under, you could vomit and choke." She explained her disapproval and Denise frowned with a pout. "If you really need to eat something, you've got it keep it light. You should only eat things that won't make you feel worst than you already do, and we all know chocolate is not one of those things."

"That's true, baby," Chris agreed with Tina, and Denise silently did too. She loved chocolate, but that didn't mean chocolate always reciprocated that love. It wasn't that she was allergic or intolerant, it was more of a psychological reaction because she preferred to clean eat and chocolate wasn't exactly part of clean eating. Either way, she usually felt awful after chocolate. It was a kind of awful she didn't need while already going through something awful. "You can have Reese's after you have Jack, as a celebratory snack."

"So what can I have?" Denise asked, then screwed her eyes shut as another contraction hit her. It wasn't even just the contractions that caused her pain, it was everything; everything hurt at that point in time. "Other than ice chips because I'm sick of chewing ice chips," she told them, taking another few deep breaths.

"I'm going to go see if I can get you some Jell-O," Tina offered, patting the back of her daughter's hand. "Watch her and call Dr. McCullough if anything changes." Chris nodded. "And don't get her that chocolate bar," she warned and he nodded again, lips pursed. "And don't you try and convince him to get you that chocolate bar, young lady." She said to Denise before she took her leave because she knew her daughter like the back of her hand.