Colder than ice

'Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby'

August 2nd, 2018

'You okay?' Tracy asked her son's girlfriend, she looked a bit pale. The young adult nodded, unsure how she is meant to answer this. She was 37 weeks pregnant, she was tired all the time. She couldn't sleep because it felt like the baby was laying on a nerve. Her sex drive had completely gone, and she had a very strong urge to clean the book shelf sitting opposite her, however she didn't want to offend anyone.

'Just a bit tired.' She smiles through gritted teeth.

'Oh, I remember when I was pregnant with Zoe.' Tracy badgers on, she has to pretend that she's interested, nodding and murmuring at times that seem appropriate. Her son eventually comes back into the room, joining them for a drink. They stay another hour, to Dianne it seems like a lifetime, eventually Joe makes their excuses, sensing that his fiancé isn't interested at all. He grabs her hand, dragging her to the car.

'You okay?' He asks quietly. 'You were quiet.' She just shrugs, blowing a stray piece of hair away from her face.

'I'm so tired Joe.' He nods, he can't relate. He's hot, and he can't imagine being this pregnant during the height of summer. 'And your daughter insists on keeping me awake.' He smiles, biting back the comment he was itching to make, she's tired, uncomfortable and hormonal. If he wanted anymore children, the comment needed to be kept back.

'What do you want for dinner, I can cook, or we can get a takeout.' She shrugs. 'We can decide later.' The rest of the journey is quiet, Dianne turning up the radio and humming along to some of the songs. The pair park up and walk slowly towards the flat. Joe could walk faster, but he decides to walk at "Dianne speed" as he calls it.

'We still don't have a name.' She sighs, taking her top off and putting something much cooler on, still cursing the fact that Joe got her pregnant so that she would be heavily pregnant during the summer. They hadn't really thought of a name yet, they had a name they liked, Amelia. For some reason, they thought of it more as a middle name than a first name. They had said that they wanted a name that they both loved, so that was the back up name. If that's a thing, the duo weren't sure.

The last eight months had the pair do a lot of growing up. They had a long way to go, but they finally felt that they were resembling adults. However, they both felt the weight of choosing someone's name, a name that they were going to live with for the rest of their life. It seemed such a huge decision.

Joe hands her a glass of water, which she accepts willingly. The cool water plunged her out of the thoughts, he had put some ice in it which pleased her. She liked the heat, but this was another level. She had been expecting it to be hard, but the heat this year was killing her. All she wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep. Joe wasn't having any of this, having made her spend the afternoon with her mum. This week she had seen both sets of their parents, Neil and Amy. She felt so worn down.

It was sweet that Joe thought of her, but she sort of wanted him to get a taste of what it was like to be this pregnant. It was hard, much harder than he thinks. Much worse than being kicked in the balls. Over and over again. At times, she was tempted to try this out. Each time, something got the better of her.

She sits down, as Joe goes to the table. He has some admin work for the thatching business, accounts or something. She's trying to watch TV, but Joe is humming a tune that feels familiar, but she can't place where it's from.

'Could it be, could it be.' She sings quietly, the words coming back to her. She was sure she had heard this song. 'That you're joking with me. And you don't really see you with me.' She looks over to Joe, who looks up 'That's it.' He looks up, raising an eyebrow. 'Ruby.'

'Whose Ruby?'

'Your daughter.' He nods a little, toying with the idea. Ruby, it wasn't a name they had even thought about, but now she suggested it, he likes it. Baby Ruby. 'Ruby Amelia Sugg.'

It was that night that she went into labour, waking her fiancé up at 11:07, moments after her waters had broken. Although she was the one in labour, he was the one panicking. In the last few weeks, they had discussed this day in depth, she would eventually have to have this baby. Their lives would change, and it would be for the better. However, at 11PM at night, with contractions wreaking havoc throughout her body, she didn't quite believe it. Joe winced each time she cried out in pain, timing the contractions. He had read up on them, he knew that she had to go through this, he just didn't think it would hurt her this much.

'Joe.' He's dragged out of his thoughts by Dianne. 'Can we go, I kind of have a baby to drop here.' That gets them both laughing.

'Drop the baby?' He questions, one eyebrow up. 'When she's born, are you going to drop her?' She starts giggling, until she gets another contraction, leaning next to the door by the entrance to the flat. 'Come on, lets get you drugs'

She holds his hand on the drive to the hospital, it's a silent drive, bar some groaning in pain on Dianne's part. They eventually walk into the maternity wing of the hospital, Joe signing them in as they are taken to a room. Joe holds Dianne's as she gets checked, and drugs administered. He sits with her, wiping her forehead with a damn flannel.

At half two, Joe had a panic that he hadn't called any of their families. She reassured him that she wanted to be them, they could phone their families once she was bor. He sat back down, smiling back at her as another contraction hit her. They seemed relentless at this point, the pair of them wondered how people could do this time, and time, again. At this rate, baby Ruby would be their only child.

They were both surprised at how quick the labour was, three hours after they arrived at the hospital, Dianne was being told to push. At 4:17AM, Ruby Amelia Sugg was born, and Joe and Dianne became parents. A beautiful baby girl, weighing five pounds and seven ounces.

A/N Thoughts? So we have one more chapter left, and then the epilogue. I'm going to warn you now, the next chapter is where you find out what happened to Ruby. I don't go into detail about her death, it is more implied, but by the end of the next chapter you will know how Ruby died. I will put a warning  at the top of the chapter that it may contain some upsetting themes, but i'm warning you now too. The chapter will probably be up later today...