Love's Not A Competion

Family

A few days later the swelling had gone down considerably in Ricky's arm and he could have a new plaster cast. We were also picking his parents up from the train station after the appointment. A frankly magnificent bruise had come up on his right thigh and bottom. I couldn't help laughing as he stood nearly naked in front of the mirror looking at it every evening before bed. I offered to rub some sort of cream on it but I hadn't really thought that one through. It was just an excuse to feel his bum.

The drive to the hospital was awkward. He drove with the wheel in his left hand and loosely holding it with his right hand fingers. He'd shout "clutch!" and then a gear number as we changed speed and it was my job to change gear in between us.

"Well, that was weird." he shrugged as we got out the car at the hospital.

"You can always borrow Elmo. He's an automatic and it'll be a lot easier." I said.

"I refuse to drive a Nissan." he said bluntly.

"Don't talk about my car like that." I said, swatting him playfully on the chest.

"We need to get a bigger car anyway. We can't fit two baby seats in either car." he said.

"True." I nodded.

After the plaster cast was put on I insisted on driving to the train station to pick up his parents. We waited in the station for them with cardboard cups of tea, herbal and decaffeinated for me, as we'd got there early. It was cold this time of year.

"There they are!" Ricky grinned and waved at his parents through the crowd.

We pushed our way over to them and were greeted with hugs. We'd seen them a few times over the last few months and they were always as pleased to see us as we were to see them.

"Look at you!" Ricky's mum greeted me. "You look amazing!"

"No I don't!" I laughed. "I'm as fat as a cow and having a terrible hair day!"

"No no, that's not fat! That's baby!" she laughed.

"And they're saying hello." I laughed as they started kicking with excitement.

"Hello my grandchildren!" she cooed at my bump and felt them kick.

The four of us squished into Ricky's mini and I drove us home. Ricky told the story of how he broke his arm, slight over dramatising it and leaving out the part about the impressive bruise on his bum. I'd have my daily look at it later.

When we got home I started to help Ricky's parents get the their things out of the car.

"Richard!" his dad called after him, making him freeze with terror. "Are you really going to leave a pregnant woman to unload the car?"

"But I've got a broken arm, Dad!" he sulked.

"I brought you up better than that!" his dad sighed.

"Yes dad, sorry dad." he sighed and shuffled back over to take the bag out of my hand.

"Thank you." I smiled and kissed him.

We lead them inside and took their bags upstairs. We'd had a lot of redecorating since they were last here. We'd alternate between going up north to see them and them coming down to see us. We hadn't started doing up the baby room last time they were down. What used to be one of the bedrooms upstairs was now the baby room and the room downstairs that used to be a library of sorts was now a bedroom. We'd moved the books and their shelves into the sitting room where the Christmas tree now was. Tibby and Fatty had taken up a sort of residence under the tree like two fluffy parcels.

Ricky was explaining the reshuffle to his parents as we showed them which room they'd be staying in. I ushered his mum, Hayley, into the baby room.

"This is actually our second colour scheme." I explained. "It was originally going to be yellow but once it was finished we didn't like it so we redid it in this green."

"I like the green. Oo, I also love the disco ball!" she grinned as she noticed a little disco ball light on a chest of draws.

"It's it gorgeous?" I giggled. "I just had to have it! I'm hoping they'll inherit our mutual love to dance around like weirdos. If all this kicking and wriggling is anything to go by they will."

"Ricky was a wriggler when I was pregnant with him. Not much has changed has it?" she laughed.

"No!" I laughed. "At least he'll have lots of energy to play with these two monsters."

"Are you two laughing about me?" the afore mentioned gentleman asked as he stepped into the room.

"Of course!" I smiled sweetly then turned back to his mum. "Did you bring the photos? Mum wants to see fat baby Ricky."

He groaned when his mum nodded with agreement. "But you were a fatty too!" he protested.

"Yeah, I was a right porker!" I laughed. "Mum's bringing my fat baby pictures too. It's only fair."

We had a quiet night in with the Wilsons, just chatting and eating dinner around the kitchen table. When I moved to sit on the sofa Tibby joined me and stretched out on my lap on her back. Such a chilled out cat! Occasionally she'd get a fright as a baby kicked her in the bum but she was getting used to the huge bump threatening to push her out of the way.

The next day was the day before Christmas Eve and my parents would be arriving. On hearing that Ricky had broken his arm my dad had lurched into business mode and was now going to cook us lunch on Christmas Day.

Ricky stood in front of the mirror that night and examined the reflection of his bruised backside. I thought it looked better but he thought over wise.

"It's getting worse. I'm sure it's darker." he was muttering.

"You're fine." I shrugged.

"I'm sure this isn't normal." he continued.

"Well you can't go to a doctor this week. They're closed unless it's an emergency." I told him. "As amazing as it is your little bottom isn't an emergency. You'll be fine!"

The next day my parents arrived with a car full of goodies. Dad always went over board with presents. We put my parents in the ground floor bedroom that used to the library as my mum had recently had a knee replacement and was still struggling with stairs. Ricky took mum's arm to lead her across the gravel to the front door and then handed her over to me.

"Hello my baby!" she greeted me with a hug. "And my baby's babies!" She giggled and rubbed my bump.

Later on we put the presents under the tree. Mum sat on the end of the sofa nearest the tree and handed me presents to arrange as I sat on the floor. Tibby and Fatty were still under the tree and would occantionally pounce on a present or pop their faces out of the branches, making us laugh.

"They're not all for you Tib!" I laughed as she pawed ribbons and wrapping. "You can have fun with the paper when we've unwrapped them."