•Life Moves On•

Nine

The first time she felt it was at 1.07am. She knew because she woke up all of a sudden and watched at their alarm clock. At first she thought she had just dreamed it but the pain in her lower abdomen was still there when she opened her eyes. She immediately brought her hand on her belly, thinking about the possibility that the baby was just kicking, but nothing changed. Alison used to kick in the middle of the night but Emily's touch usually calmed her down.

When she understood that nothing was gonna change the pain started to slightly disappeared. She knew it was the moment, she understood it right away when she felt that pain, she had already felt that, it was a contraction. One of her biggest fears was now reality, going into labor in the middle of the night. She had only slept two hours and she was already tired, how was she supposed to stay awake for the next even 24h? She remembered being so tired after Flynn was born and she had an entire night sleep. There was no time to think about it now, they had to be ready to go to the hospital, at least the traffic wouldn't be a problem.

"Cal" she whispered shaking him a bit.

He let out a groan and looked at her, seeing her awake and in a sitting position with her hands on her belly.

"Emily what's wrong?" he asked immediately getting up.

"It's time, baby is coming" she looked at him and he immediately got up, putting on a t-shirt and the first pair of jeans he found.

"Ok, I'm taking your stuff and we're gonna go to the hospital, can you walk?" he asked panicking.

"Cal I'm ok, my water didn't break yet so we have time, plus I just had my first contraction" she explained.

"Ok, ok so I'm gonna go put your stuff in the car and then we're gonna go to the hospital. Are you 100% sure it was a contraction? It's a bit early" he asked, her due was around September 17th and it was September 8th.

"I'm pretty sure it was but we can wait for the next one before leaving. You can still put everything in the car just in case and yes, I can walk" she tried to calm him down, he looked so nervous and she didn't want him to panic.

Cal nodded, taking the bag they had prepared the previous week just in case, thank God they did. He went straight to their garage to take the car, they kept his old one because in that moment they just couldn't afford a new one, but they will. He parked it just outside of the building and went straight back to Emily, jumping as fast as he could on the few stairs he had to take.

"Is everything ok?" he asked while going back into the apartment.

"Yes, no contractions for now, you were pretty quick" she chuckled, still laying in bed.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so nervous, tell me if you have another contraction and we go straight to the hospital ok?" he said running a hand on his face.

"Come here" she patted the mattress next to her and he climbed on the bed, taking off his shoes.

"It's ok, everything is fine. The hard part will come later, we have to wait and hope the baby won't be positioned wrong, otherwise I need to get a c-section" she explained, caressing his hair.

"Ok, did you think about whether getting anesthesia or not?" he asked, she had been thinking about it for a couple weeks now because she was unsure.

"It depends, you can ask for it whenever you want so I'll see how much it will take. If it's too harmful I will ask for it" she explained and he nodded.

The second time she felt it Cal's head was laying on her shoulder, they were just relaxing a bit to see what happened, and this time, she felt it fully. She brought both her hands on her belly and Cal got up immediately.