Baby Come Back (17 page)

             
“Gina,” his tone had that slight warning sound in it.  “We’ve been over this before.  That child is nothing more to me or to Trey than a niece or a nephew.  Period.  Got it?”

             
“Yes, Tristan,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

             
I lay there for a few more minutes thinking about what he had said.  I wondered if it was really so easy for he and Trey to view it from that perspective.  Women felt different attachments than men perhaps.  That is what Tylar had told me.  I knew it bugged the hell out of her though.  That was one reason she had been so hell-bent on getting pregnant before Tess’s surrogate did.

             
I realized then that Tristan hadn’t eaten any dinner since he came home.  I wasn’t sure if he had managed to grab something to eat at the club.

             
“Tristan - are you hungry?”

             
Silence.

             
I looked up at him.  He was dozing peacefully, his one arm up over his head resting on the pillow.  I loved this man so much.

             
I had another two weeks until my due date.  The heat and humidity was insufferable at the end of July in Atlanta.  I hadn’t felt like leaving the cool air-conditioning of the apartment for days.  I was on the phone with Tylar, trying to politely but emphatically decline her repeated invitation to drive out to the country for a visit.

             
“It’s too fucking hot and humid, Ty.”

             
“For goodness sakes, Gina, your car is air-conditioned, our home is air-conditioned, so what?  You can’t endure the ten steps from the elevator to where your car is parked in the garage?”

             
“Yes, but it’s a longer walk in the heat once I get to your place,” I whined.  “Why don’t you drive in?”

             
“I told you Gina, Preston is taking a nap and Jean is at the grocery and then has some errands to run. I’m not sure when she will be back.  I’m lonely for my BFF.”

             
Tylar could lay the guilt on with the best of them.  I rolled my eyes knowing that she would get her way.

             
“Okay.  Let me get a quick shower and then I’ll drive out.”

             
I felt like a hippo in my summer dress as I put in on over my head, helping it past my belly.  I slid into some flip-flops and grabbed my keys.  I tried to reach Tristan on my cell as I got into my car.  My call went straight to voicemail.  This was getting to be a bit too frequent to suit me.  After I had made such a big deal of how I loved and trusted him, I couldn’t very well start calling others at the club to check on his whereabouts when he didn’t have his Blackberry on.

             
I tossed my phone over onto the car seat and started the car.  The drive out to DeKalb County wasn’t bad once I got out of the city proper.  It was a nice sunny day.  The heat didn’t bother me now that I had my A/C blasting on high.  I maneuvered the vent so that it was blowing on my face and neck.

             
Once I got to Tylar’s, Preston was up and immediately came running over to see her Aunt Gina.  She was so cute in her little skort and tank top.  She looked as if she had been getting a little sun.  Her hair was getting long and it was up in a ponytail to keep her cool.

             
Tylar was kicked back on one of the two matching Barcaloungers in the family room.  She had the flat screen on watching ‘Days of our Lives.’  Jean was clinking around in the kitchen.  Tylar had it made in the shade with lemonade.  Where the hell at that old rhyme surfaced from?

             
Jean poked her head out of the kitchen.

             
“Hi Gina.  Would you like a cold glass of lemonade?”

             
“You read my mind, Jean.”

             
Tylar waved for me to take a seat in the other Barcalounger.  I felt like a beached whale as I plopped unceremoniously down into it and pushed it back to recline.  My ankles were a bit swollen so I tried to keep them propped whenever possible.

             
I started to say something but Tylar shushed me; her eyes were glued to the television screen.

             
She had a major crush on E.J. DiMera.  She thought the character that played that role looked like Trey.  I finally got her attention when the show went to commercial.

             
“I’m sorry, Gina.  E.J. is just so flippin’ fine, isn’t he?”

             
“Yeah, sure.  He kind of looks like Trey, doesn’t he?”

             
“Now you’re just being a smart-ass,” she replied.

             
Jean brought us each a tall glass of iced lemonade.

             
Tylar grabbed the remote and set the DVR to record the rest of her soap.  She turned to look at me.

             
“Wow, you have really popped out in the last couple of weeks.  You look like you’re ready to explode, Gina.”

             
“Thanks, Ty.  I thought it was just my imagination that I felt like a stuffed sausage ready to burst out of my casing.  I appreciate your confirming that for me.”

             
She started laughing good-naturedly. 

             
“It’s all worth it when you hold your tiny little baby in your arms.  Mine has been kicking the hell out of me all day.  I’ve had to pry either fingers or toes out from between my ribs all morning.”

             
I had finished the lemonade and knew I would have to get up to pee shortly.  I started rocking myself forward trying to get the lounger back in the upright position.  On my third try, I felt the gush of water between my legs.

             
(Holy shit!  Did I just pee in Trey’s chair?)

             
It couldn’t have been that because I still felt the urge to pee.

             
“Uh oh.”

             
“What uh oh?”

             
“I think my water just broke in Trey’s chair, Ty.”

             
“Oh my God!”  Tylar was up and out of her chair, helping me get my soaked crotch out of the chair I was in.  She yelled for Jean.

             
I asked Jean to get a towel when she appeared so that I could wipe up the amniotic fluid in the leather lounger.

             
“Don’t worry about that, Gina.  I’ve got to get you to the hospital.  You need to call Tristan.”

             
Tylar was starting to freak out which made me want to freak out.  Tylar asked Jean to get a clean pair of underwear for me.  Jean scrambled to do it. 

             
“Where’s your phone, Gina?”

             
(Huh?)

             
“Hello, Gina?”

             
“Oh, it’s still in my car, I think.”

             
Tylar grabbed her Blackberry and called Tristan from it.  Jean returned in the meantime with a clean pair of underpants for me.  She helped me to the downstairs bathroom so that I could change.  I was in a fog.

             
Once I had finished up in the bathroom, Tylar was waiting for me, her purse and car keys in hand.

             
“Come on.  We need to hit the road, Gina.  Stop dawdling.”

             
“Relax, Ty.  I haven’t even had a contraction yet.”

             
By the time Tylar drove up to the ER entrance of the hospital, I was writhing in pain and had cussed out Tristan on his voicemail three times.  I had managed to call my mother at work and let her know that it was ‘showtime.’  She had argued with me that it was two weeks early, asking me if I was sure.

             
“Mom, I’m pretty sure that when one’s water breaks it’s for sure!”

             
I was helped into a wheel chair and taken up to the maternity floor.  Tylar had to wait in the visitor’s lounge until I was fully admitted and prepped.  The nurse had examined me and said that I was at three centimeters.  It hurt like a whole lot more than that.

             
Finally, Tylar was allowed to come in and wait with me.  She still had not been able to get in touch with Tristan.  She had called Trey but he was in depositions. 

             
“Tylar - would you please ask the nurse for some ice chips,” I moaned.

             
“Sure thing, Gina.”

             
She was back in a couple of minutes, handing me the plastic cup with crushed ice.  I immediately started crunching on it. It was something to do at least when the pain wasn’t racking through every nerve and muscle in my body.

             
It seemed as if a painful eternity had passed before the nurse came in and checked me again.  All the way to four centimeters - whoopee!

             
Tylar was on her phone now with my Aunt Becky to let her know that I was in labor; telling her my progress.  She kept it short as I started in with my sobbing and cursing.  Tylar tried coaching me but I was totally distraught with the pain and the fact that Tristan was not here with me.  She convinced me to lay on my side, while she pressed hot towels against my lower back to help with my back labor.  It offered a little relief. 

             
Tylar was right when she had told me modesty went out the window during labor and birth.  I didn’t give a shit who saw what at the moment.  My hospital gown was open in the back; my underwear had been confiscated when I was given the gown to wear.  Tylar was trying to put slight pressure with the hot towels but I was still restless.

             
“Gina,” Tylar said, pulling the warm towel away from my rump.  “When did you have your tattoo redone?”

             
“What?”

             
“Your tattoo on your hip that used to spell ‘Ian’, you freaking had it re-done to spell ‘Tristan’?”

             
“Yeah - actually, Tristan paid for me to have it done.  Isn’t it neat the way the tattoo artist made the ‘I’ in Ian into a fancy ‘T’ in  Tristan?”

             
“Ingenious,” she said, chuckling.

             
Just then another wave of pain came crashing through me. I let out a string of cuss words and waved Tylar away when she persisted in trying to get me to do the ‘hee-hee-hee’ breathing exercises. It was starting to get on my nerves. I sent her out for more ice chips afraid I might start cussing her out.  It wasn’t her fault.

             
I managed to get through the last contraction without splitting in half.  My lips were dry; I tasted blood where I must have bit down on the bottom one.

             
Where in the hell was Tristan?  He should be here suffering through this with me.  Where the hell had Tylar gone off to?

             
She certainly was taking her good old fucking time getting those ice chips I thought after my most recent, mind-blowing contraction had ended.  My doctor came into the room just then, pulling on his latex gloves.  I wondered how many more fingers were going to be prying into my Who-Ha before this baby made his entrance.

             
Tylar returned with my ice chips just as the doctor informed me that I was at five centimeters.  I ordered the nurse that was at his side to bring me my fucking epidural now.  She scurried away to get it.

             
Once administered the effects were immediate.  It was fantastic.  I relaxed back against my pillows getting comfortable.  I just wanted to take a short nap while I could.  I closed my eyes drinking in the pain-free refuge I had found.  It seemed only momentary before pain was back.  It was different.  It was higher up and it was agonizing.  I felt like I was freezing cold; I was shaking.  I saw the look of alarm on Tylar’s face; then she started screaming something.  The doctor was back with several nurses beside him.  Tylar was ordered to leave the room.  I saw someone put a clear, plastic cone shaped apparatus up to my face.  I was instructed to breathe in deeply.  Then I fell into a blessed, pain-free sleep.

              I had been dozing so peacefully when somewhere I heard a baby crying.  It was a newborn baby’s cry, I could tell.  Was that my baby?  I willed my eyes to open to see if I had delivered our baby boy yet. 

             
The first thing I saw was Tristan’s face.  He was sitting next to my bed.  He was watching me.

             
“About damn time you got here, Tristan.”

             
He immediately leaned over and kissed me.  I noticed he was holding a tiny, swaddled bundle in his arms.