The Architect. [The Blacklist. Donald Ressler X Oc]

Alma.

Ressler.

The following weeks after Mags invited her nieces over, I finished the upstairs bedroom, painted the walls, set up the drawers that we later filled with clothes from the baby shower, I hung a few things Maggie'd bought, we got the baby bag ready, she and I spent a few days buying all the stuff we would need, things that hadn't been gifted to us yet. We had everything ready except for the crib, we had it undone upstairs but when I mentioned her that I'd get to building it soon, she just quietly said that it was bad luck to build the crib before the baby arrived. I didn't question it because I knew I would get a very terrible but also very superstitious answer from her. I just nodded in agreement and left it at that.

When she was 7 months in, I thought she was huge, and I was clearly mistaken. Now she was huge. 36 going 37 weeks along the ride, her stomach portruded out of her body like it was going to explode, it felt like it too.

Maggie had made sure that I knew it felt just like it. She had never complained over the pregnancy about any discomfort, but when she started to have contractions her complaints were more frequent and about just everything. She cried a lot, and I didn't know if it was because of the hormones or something else was happening to her. Maddie had assured me she'd been a crier too, and it was apparently normal.

On the 37th week I wanted the baby to come out just so Maggie could go back to her old self because even she was tired of being so annoying, so emotional, so whiney, in so much pain.

The day before her water broke, she was mad at me because she'd had dreamed that I cheated on her. I made the mistake to chuckle in response and tell her that she was silly for thinking that, and she went on a little rant about how it'll happen because she was not going to be pretty after the baby, that I'd find someone better looking, someone who had time for me and blah blah blah. Nonsense.

She'd need having contractions all day that day and we'd been timing them, but none of them had been regular enough for us to take the time between them as a sign that she was in labor.

They got more frequent at night, 30 minutes apart, that's when we called her midwife. She'd told us that until her water broke or until the contractions were 10 minutes apart we shouldn't need to head to the hospital just yet. I knew we would be in for a long night tonight, and Mags had opted for staying in the bedroom, alternating between the bed and one of the loveseats in between contractions to get some shut eye.

When I told her I was going to get some rest as well, I fell asleep almost as soon as I laid my head on the pillow, I don't know how much time went by, but I woke up in a jolt, Maggie's hand was holding my arm tightly. She was laying on the bed, a large noodle pillow I'd bought her was wrapped around her, her eyes were red. She insistently shook me again, I was still very groggy.

"Don wake up" she said in a whisper "I think my water broke" she followed, looking at me scared. I shot up from the bed and rubbed my eyes.

"You think?" I asked her, walking around the bed and lifting the bedsheets, the liquid was transparent and it didn't smell like pee. I extended my hand to her and she took it, heavily sitting on the bed.

"Is it?" Her hand quickly gripped mine strongly, her other hand shot up to her side as she gasped. She closed her eyes shut and I knew it was her water.

She stopped gripping my hand when the contraction ended.

"Okay, you need to stand up so I can help you get changed" I moved to hook my arm around her waist and help her stand up. She was breathing in and out superficially, and had adopted every pregnant woman's pose of one hand behind her back and the other one on top of her stomach.