Before You Leave: A Romance Novel (21 page)

I rock back and forth at the side of the jeep panting until the pain subsides enough for me to get into the seat. Kieran runs around to the driver’s side and pulls the seat belt around my girth. “Need to protect you and those babies sweetheart. Right lets get you to the maternity ward, they don’t seem to want to wait around.” Smiling at me he brings my hand up to his mouth and kisses the back of it. “It’s time to meet our family.”

His hand locks into mine as he drives the jeep fast but safely towards the hospital. Between my grunts, yelps and pants Kieran makes a phone call to Izzie to arrange her to collect Sarah from the airport and another to our doctor to be waiting for us on our arrival.

The journey seems longer than it usually takes and by the time we get there Kieran’s hand is well and truly squeezed. A wheelchair is ready for me at the door but I refuse.

“Don’t be so stubborn.” Kieran tells me and I shoot him a look.

“I’m pregnant Kieran not sick. I read that walking helps.”

“Okay, okay but take my arm and let me help.”

I lean on him as we walk down the passageway to the examining room, stopping once along the way for me to get through another painful contraction. As soon as we get into the room the place is a hive of activity. The nurse guides me to the examination bed. Not sure where to stand, Kieran hovers between me and the door until the nurse kindly tells him to go and get himself a coffee until I am hooked up to the monitors and checked over.

“You are nearly ready. Those babies are determined to be a natural birth.” The fluent English-speaking nurse with the nametag Rosa tells me after her examination. “I will call the doctor, I’m afraid that you might not have time to have the epidural or the C-section that is on your birth plan. Gas and air will help you through your contractions and we will see what the doctor decides. Here on the next one breathe on this. It will help.” Handing me a piece of equipment that I had seen on my tour of the hospital I start to cry again. “Hey no need for tears, what are they for?” Rosa asks.

“I don’t want any more pain. I want the epidural.”

“Now don’t be upsetting yourself. Gas and air was used before epidural was ever invented. Your birth seems to be going fast. Just let your body do its job.”

Breathing hard onto the device, another contraction tightens the muscles inside. An over powering urge to push comes over me.

“I need to push.” I tell her after the pain briefly eases.

Pressing the button over my bed Rosa helps me to sit up a little. I know this from other mums talking that it is a better position for the birth and one I am happy to do as my back up to the C-section.

Kieran enters back into the room following behind more staff and my doctor. After checking my chart, the monitor I am attached to and examining me, he stands beside the edge of the bed. “I think both babies are ready. Next time you get a contraction, I want you to push down hard.”

We didn’t have to wait long before the wave of urgency to push arrives. As I breathe deeply through the device, Kieran lets me squeeze his hand tight while encouraging me. I push again and again, my chin taut towards my chest as I bear down until Rosa instructs me to start panting. Kieran looks at where Rosa is guiding him and his face is one full of pride. He broadly smiles as he reaches up for my hand. “It’s our baby Julia, I can see the head,” his eyes beam at me.

With the doctor’s command I push again, my face hot with tension and my teeth clasped tight as our baby slithers from my body with force.

My heart swells as I watch Kieran cut the umbilical cord and Rosa places my new bundle of joy on my chest. The tears just flow as I stare at how beautiful and perfect she looks with her tiny little Kieran nose and my eyes, all that pain to receive a precious gift in my arms was worth it. I didn’t think my heart could have room for the love that is radiating for her and Kieran right at this moment. Planting a kiss on her forehead I pass her back to Rosa as she takes her over to another nurse waiting to examine her.

“Well done my darling, see you can do it.” Kieran softly says as he wipes my damp forehead with a towel. It doesn’t take long before another contraction starts. “Oh Kieran, I don’t think I can do this again.”

“Of course you can, look at what you’ve already achieved, a gorgeous healthy baby girl. Now her sister is in a hurry to meet her and what kind of parents would we be if she had to stay in your belly forever?”

Passing me the mouthpiece, I close my mouth around it and breathe deeply in, grasping my teeth on the plastic.

Going through the same motions of panting, pausing and pushing, our second child is welcomed into the world screaming.

“Oh this one has a good pair of lungs on her.” I hear another nurse say as my daughter is placed on my bare chest. Her little pink mouth becomes silent and she closes her eyes in my arms. I lean down and kiss her warm forehead still damp from the birth. She smells so pure; I can hardly believe she is ours.

“Kieran look at her, she looks just like her sister but with dark hair.”

“She is perfect Julia, both girls are perfect just like their mum.” He whispers to me, kissing my sweaty forehead. Reluctantly I have to hand her over for her turn to be examined and for the doctor to check me.

When the room hushes and only two nurses remain, I hold my first born again. Kieran cradles our other daughter in his arms and she looks so tiny in her daddy’s very protective hold. Lifting our daughter’s small delicate hand, her skin is so soft. I am overcome with unconditional love for my little family. Life can be tough. It can be deceitful, tiresome and sorrowful. But sometimes things have to happen to make us stronger, to allow those we never knew, come into our lives. Without Sarah pulling me from my old apartment that day, I would never have met Kieran and learnt what lies I was tangled in. Without the love he has had from me from the first meeting I wouldn’t have become the woman I am today. Stronger, freer and feeling more loved than I have ever been.

“Can I hold both together Kieran?” I ask him as I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

“Of course you can my darling.” Carefully Kieran places my beautiful baby girl in my other arm making sure they are secure and comfortable.

“So which one would you like to name first?” I ask him looking down at both of their angelic faces.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kieran leans over the three of us. “This little darling has your eyes so I think she should be named Roisin because it means little rose. And this little beauty has dark hair, a little like me so I would like to name her after my mother.”

“Perfect names for perfect little girls,” I say softly, “Hello little Roisin, hello little Saoirse. Did you know Saoirse means freedom?” I ask while still smiling broadly at our girls.

“I did my sweetheart, it is very fitting don’t you think?” He says while planting a soft kiss on their noses in turn.

“It is a shame Sarah missed the whole birth but what a lovely surprise when she gets here.”

“I have something I want to give you.”

“Me? I couldn’t ask for anything more than what I have here with me right now.”

Kieran pulls out a small box from his back pocket and leans towards me while the girls are blissfully peaceful in my arms.

“Julia, I know I should be on my knees at this point, but I want to be close to you. I have a question I have wanted to ask for a very long time.” Taking a deep breath his hand starts to shake. Licking his bottom lip, Kieran gently pulls it in before he speaks again. “Would you…” he begins, his voice crackling a little. I have inkling what he is going to ask me and my heart starts pounding in my chest, waiting for him to finish. “Would you do me the honour of being my wife?” He asks, opening the red velvet box in his hand, quivering. The antique diamond cluster ring glares out from within, “it’s beautiful Kieran.” I manage to answer through my tear soaked eyes.

“It was my mother’s. I have been saving it for you.”

“Yes oh Kieran I would love to be your wife.”

Quietly, the nurses clap at the announcement then take the sleeping girls to place them into their cribs. As my fingers tremble Kieran slips his mothers ring onto my finger with ease. Leaning towards me, his kiss seals the proposal, holding my exhausted body close to him. Sitting back down on his chair, he holds my left hand admiring the ring that looks very at home on it.

“Could you pass me my bag Kieran, I need to get something out of it.” I ask him.

Retrieving my handbag he rests it beside me. Scrabbling around the inside I find the item I am looking for. Pulling out the small pink lock I bought over a year ago and a marker I had in my bag.

“I want you to do something for me tonight before you go home.”

“You know I don’t want to leave you here.”

“I know but you must, we need to sleep and you will have to take Sarah home after she meets her two goddaughters. I don’t think the nurses would be impressed if they found you in my bed in the morning either. Can you take this lock and place it where we stopped at to look out to sea, do you remember where that is?”

“I remember every footstep we have made together.” He answers as I write on the lock. Finishing I take his hand and turn it over, place the little lock into his palm and kiss his closed fist around it.

“Can you attach this on to the railing for me?”

“Do you not want to be there when I do?”

“No, I want to find it when I take the girls for a walk one day.”

Opening his hand, Kieran silently reads what I have just written and leaves a lingering kiss implanted on my lips.

“This is beautiful Jules.”

“I have been waiting for the right moment to use it and now I feel it is.”

Placing the lock into his pocket he holds my hands into his and slowly I drift off to sleep, content, exhausted and smiling.

~ Never lose faith ~

The O’Callaghan family 2015

The End

About the Author

Leaving the bright lights of London behind in the early 90's, Amelia J Hunter is an indie writer who lives in the Irish countryside with her family, a good coffee maker and plenty of fresh air.

Before You Leave is Amelia’s first romance novel

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https://www.ameliajhunter.blogspot.ie

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