No Spare Key

Chap 27 😣

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!"  Butcher kept repeating, packing seemingly random baby things from Julia's room.  "I thought she was due in a month!"

"We all did.." Johnny says, again, putting the baby bag together much more coherently than Butch.

  "Okay, Jaime and Anders just put Julia on my bed, her contractions aren't coming too close within the other yet so you guys have some time to pack a little more...consistently." 
Johnny nods in acknowledgment but Butcher just keeps panicking
  "Butcher, I mean you."

"What?" He stops abruptly, looking up at me, but more like he's looking through me.

  "Butcher, this is under control.  Julie's fine, she's breathing evenly, her contractions aren't consistent enough to even take her to the hospital yet." I explain

  "Not to the hospital yet?!  What do you mean not yet?!  She's in active labour!"  He exclaims

"No, she's in early labor.  Active labor would mean she's giving birth, and she's not.  She's in the back of my mattress, she'd better not be." I joke

"Lucy's right man, I was there when my cousin went into labor.  It was like twelve hours before she even gave birth."  Johnny says, backing me up.

  "When I went into labor with Rosie I was in early labor for two days.  Finally I went into active labor on the third day, and Rosie was very indecisive because she kept going in and then coming out again and again so I had to have an emergency c-section.  With any luck, this'll be a lot easier for Julia." I tell them, and their horrified faces
"...Anyway...I'm gonna go check on Julie, if anything happens I'll let you guys know."  I walk off to leave the awkwardness of the room

It's snowing, and still pretty cold even inside since Jaime likes the house to feel like an ice box.  I knock on the door to my bedroom and ask "Julia?  Honey you okay?  Do you need blankets or something?" 

"No, but can you come in please?"

I enter the room and she's still laying in the bed in the same position we left her in. 

"Could you help me stand up?  This hurts more than just standing." 

   "Oh, yeah sure." I hurry to help her up and she groans in pain.
She stands and starts walking around and tearing up.  "Hey, honey you okay?  Are you in pain?"  I ask

"No no, I haven't had a contraction in like five minutes.  It's just...I was supposed to have my mom help me with this and...I mean Jeffrey's not even here.  Not that that's fucking surprising considering he only got me pregnant to trap me even more than he already had." 

  "I still can't believe you slept with a white guy with dreads.." I mumble

"Urgh, don't remind me..I don't know, I think I'm just feeling really alone..." she looks down and starts crying

I come close and hug her.  "I know how you feel." 

"No you don't.  Jaime is an incredible father to Rosie, and you have your sister and I'm assuming your parents aren't dead.  I don't see how your situation could've been more perfect." She snaps slightly

  "Julie, Jaime's not Rosie's biological father."  I confess

She looks up at me a little shocked

  "Jaime met me when Rosie was six months old.  He kept asking me out and I kept rejecting him because I'm mean, I've got a lot of baggage.  For a while I was still living with my parents so you're right on me still having them and Annie, thank fuck.  But Rosie's birth father's an absolute piece of shit.  When I went into labor I was still married to and living with him." 

  "So, what's your birth story?" She asks

"Uh, pfffft, shit.  That's a story.  Um,  I wasn't premature, I was actually the opposite, I went past my due date.  So it was a lot of me bouncing on those big exercise balls, arguing with my ex-husband about how it fucking is his baby, whether he wants to admit it or not, eating the spiciest food to try to induce labor, crying because of his emotional abuse in the bathtub full of hot water, etc etc.  Um, eventually I went into active labor, gave birth and everything and Wyatt wasn't there for a single part of it."

  "I'm assuming Wyatt is your ex."

"Yep.  I'm not gonna lie to you, labor and giving birth was the worst for me.  I was in labor for three days, so I was even more uncomfortable than I already was during the rest of my pregnancy.  Then once my water broke on the third day, Annie rushed me to the hospital, no one was there with me while I was giving birth because I kept waiting, stupidly might I add for Wyatt to come and be with me.  For hours I kept pushing and pushing and pushing and Rosie kept going in and out and in and out so eventually we just had to go for an emergency c-section.  So my pussy looked like I'd given birth but I got the recovery of the major surgery I went through, too.  So I got the best of both worlds, you could say.  After I'd given birth and I was finally able to hold Rosie in my arms and my family was let into the room, it was like suddenly all the pain was worth it.  I didn't care as much that Wyatt had never showed up, I didn't care that I was in the worst physical pain I'd ever been in, I didn't care that my mom and aunt were kind of ruining the moment by giving me copious amounts of unsolicited parenting advice.  I had Rose.  She was mine and she was perfect and this was everything I'd been training myself for.  I felt alone, because my husband seemingly wanted nothing to do with me, my parents traumatized me so badly as a kid that I knew I couldn't stay with them for too long before losing my mind, Annie would've let me crash with her in perpetuity but it felt like I'd be taking advantage of her.  I went back home and when I asked my husband why he'd never shown up and he said "Why would I show up to the birth of a kid who isn't mine?"  So I knew I had to do this alone.  So I finished getting my masters in psychology, both criminal and developmental.  Thank god I still had a scholarship.  I was doing my homework while I pumped my breasts, got a job that paid me well to start off, Annie and Anika took care of Rosie while I did, I still couldn't thank them enough for that."  

"They sound awesome." 

  "She is.  I moved out and separated from my ex, stayed with Annie for a while, then with my parents and my brother, which just motivated me to save up even more.  After six months I moved out of my parents house again and got my own place.  By that time I'd already met Jaime and he'd began the courtship, I guess.  You know we actually met because he used to live near my parents' place?  He saw me coming back from work once and screamed a hello to me from a few houses away."

"Aww, that's so cut-" she was saying but got cut off by a contraction, probably.

"You want a hot water bottle? Those can help." I suggest.

"Nah, forget it. But yeah, that's so cute." She said, panting.

"Yeah, Jaime was real smooth." I joke

"God your ex sounds like an asshole."

"Uh, yeah. He was the worst."

"Didn't he show up here a while back ago with his sister? How'd he even know where you were?"

"I was stupid enough to keep in touch with his sister and he convinced her that he's changed and whatever."

"Aww, that's awful Lucy. I'm sorry."

"My point is, you're not alone. At least not as alone as you're feeling. Johnny is here and he loves you, and we love you too." I say, looking directly at her. "Seriously Julie, we do. Especially Butcher, in case you haven't noticed."

We laugh, and suddenly we both felt a lot lighter...