Torn (25 page)

“Your water broke, babe?” Jaxon took the pans
and handed them to Derrick, who was doing a horrible job trying to
suppress his laughter.

“Yeah, in the middle of all your chest
thumping. Do you have the car here?” I asked as I started up the
stairs to my old room.

“Fuck. No, I rode over on the bike.” Jaxon
continued cussing.

“Drew, I’m stealing a pair of sweats.”

“Help yourself, kiddo.”

Barb ran up and helped me the rest of the way
up the stairs. As I crossed the threshold, a contraction gripped
me. Barb checked her watch.

“Eleven oh six,” she mumbled.

She helped me get cleaned up then dressed.
Once back downstairs, I noticed most everyone had left. Jaxon had
also disappeared.

“They said to text them later.” Ashley walked
over and took my hand, leading me to the couch. “What can I do,
honey?”

“I’m okay right now. Just need to get back to
our house for my bag.”

“Jaxon left right after you went up. He
should be back any minute. He was gettin’ the bag and the car,”
Doug filled me in.

“Oooh,” I groaned and closed my eyes at the
pain of the next contraction.

“Eleven seventeen,” Barb alerted. “Eleven
minutes apart, honey. Do you wanna hang here for a little while
longer ’til they’re closer to five minutes apart?”

Ashley sat next to me, still holding my hand
as I breathed through the contraction.

“Brody. Where’s Brody?” I looked around. He
was in the kitchen but came right over.

“I’m here, babe.” He knelt in front of
me.

“We need the camera,” I blurted out. I knew
he’d be freaking out right now and he’d need something to focus
on.

“Right, the camera.” He spun and looked to
Jane. “Can you drive me home to get the camera?”

“Of course, dear. Let’s go now and we can
meet them at the hospital,” Jane said.

“Sounds good. I’ll call you as soon as we
leave for the hospital, okay?”

“Right. Okay. I’ll see you at the hospital,”
Brody stuttered, then rose and kissed my forehead. “Be careful… I
can’t believe she’s going to be here soon.”

“Drive carefully, please.” I smiled.

Just as Brody left, I heard my car pull up
and Jaxon came barreling through the front door.

“I’m back, baby. You ready?” His voice was
frantic.

“Jaxon, take a breath, honey. Her
contractions are still eleven minutes apart. Y’all have some time.
Why don’t you sit down and relax?” Ashley asked sweetly.

“Huh, why are we waitin’? She needs to be in
the hospital,” he insisted and pushed past his mother.

“Baby, are you okay? What can I do for ya?”
He plopped down next to me.

“Jax, I’m fine. We don’t need to leave yet.
Once they are about five minutes apart, then we can go. Did you get
the bag?”

“Yeah, it’s in the car.” He rubbed my
back.

“Barb, are you going come with us to the
hospital, or do you want Jax to call you when it gets closer to
time?” I looked over my shoulder at her and Drew in the
kitchen.

“I’ll probably hang here with Drew and wait.
Then we’ll come up later. You cool with that?” she asked, perched
on one of the barstools, swinging her feet.

“Sounds good to me. No reason for everyone to
be up all night.”

“You wanna take a shower before y’all go to
the hospital?” she asked.

“Yeah, but all my shit’s at home.” I turned
to Jaxon. “You feel like running me home so I can take a shower and
get my big-ass pillow?”

“Whatever you want, babe.” He leaned over and
kissed me.

“Good answer, son,” Doug chuckled softly.

“You certainly didn’t learn that from your
father.” Ashley pursed her lips and cut her eyes in Doug’s
direction. This had everybody stifling a snicker.

“Okay, let’s go to the house. I’ll text Brody
on the way to let him know we’re going be there, until the
contractions are closer together.”

Jaxon helped me off the couch and I used the
bathroom before we left. Halfway home, I had another contraction
and thought for sure Jaxon was going wreck my car. It was three
blocks, but he drove like a bat out of hell.

We took a shower together because Jaxon
insisted he needed to be close, in case the pain became too much.
Afterward, we climbed into the bed and watched TV. The TV helped
distract me. Jaxon finally fell asleep about two a.m.

I loved that he tried to hang in with me, but
he needed to sleep. I tried to nap between contractions, but as the
night wore on, the harder the contractions became. Brody kept in
touch via texts. I told him I’d text him as things got closer.

I woke Jaxon up at 6:30 a.m. and told him it
was time to head to the hospital. The contractions were now between
five and six minutes apart and lasting for a good sixty
seconds.

Brody met us, with a wheelchair, as we pulled
up to the hospital and he helped me out of the car. How the hell he
beat us here was beyond me, but I thought he must have been here
before I texted him. He grabbed the bag from the backseat and threw
it over his shoulder.

Amazingly enough, Jaxon didn’t shit a tribe
of little baby goats. He simply jumped out of the car and threw,
yes threw
, the keys at the security guard
and yelled, “Here, uh, park it or, uh, tow it, or whatever. My
woman’s in labor.”

“Jaxon. That’s my car. Don’t you tell him to
freaking tow it. Go park it. I’m not paying two hundred dollars to
get that shit out of impound. Besides, they could scratch it and
arrgggh
. Goddamn. That hurts. Son of a
bitch
.” I had a death grip on the arms of
the wheelchair.

“Breathe, Lei—” Brody coached.

“Shut it, Brody, I am breathing,” I growled
through clenched teeth. My abdomen felt like someone was gutting me
from the inside out.

The security guard took one look at me and
tossed the keys back to Jax. “No way, man, she’s pissed enough. You
park it.”

“Fuck.” Jax slid his hand down his face.
“Babe, I’m gonna park the car and I’ll be right back. You okay with
Brody?”

“Heee heeee whoooooooooo,” I panted and just
glared at him.

“Okay, I’m gonna go.” He ran back around the
car and muttered good luck to Brody.

Poor Brody. He was in for a shit show of a
day and he didn’t even know it yet.

After about an hour of waiting for a room, we
were finally upstairs on the L and D floor in a birthing suite.
Contractions were now four minutes apart and steady. I was six
centimeters dilated and ninety percent effaced. The on-call doctor
told us it would be a few more hours before we would welcome our
little bundle of joy.

Joy my ass
.

Bundle of pain and exhaustion, maybe. This
shit sucked ass.
What the hell was I thinking? No
drugs? Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
And of course, I made both
Jaxon and Brody promise me at least a dozen times each, that no
matter what I said or did, not to let me have any drugs. I wanted a
natural birth.

Yeah, well. Fuck. That.
Shit.
That was before I had experienced transitional labor.
Now I wanted drugs and an epidural. Hell, I’d be happy if someone
hit me over the head with a bat.

“Babe, you made us swear on our balls, no
drugs,” Jaxon reminded me, while I was on my hands and knees on the
bed, in the throes of a hellacious contraction.

I had already yelled at them and they didn’t
budge. They only rubbed my back and fed me ice chips. Oh, and told
me to breathe. To which I so eloquently responded with, “How about
you go fuck yourself, how about that?”

“Babe, you can cuss me all ya want, but
you’ll thank me afterward.” Jaxon smiled at me, making me want to
punch him.
Oh, I am going to thank you all right,
buddy.

I was up and down several times over the next
two hours, trying to figure out if it was less painful to sit on
the birthing ball, squat, sit on my hands and my knees, or just lie
on my side.

As I gripped the bed rail, groaning through
another contraction, the nurse entered the room. “How ya doin’,
honey? Can I get you anything?”

Brody and Jaxon simultaneously and
overzealously shouted, “No.”

As the contraction subsided, I took a couple
of deep breaths and looked at Emily, my L and D RN.

“Yes, I want the anesthesiologist. I need an
epidural. Like thirty minutes ago,” I blurted out with wide crazy
eyes.

“No, she’s fine. Our birth plan is no drugs,”
Jax disagreed.

“Drugs. Now,” I reiterated, shooting daggers
at him.

“No, Lei. You made us swear.” Jax didn’t
waver.

But Brody did.

“Jaxon, maybe we need to rethink this. She’s
in a lot of pain and with no prior experience, I think we let her
make this call.” Brody sympathized with me, rubbing my back. “I’m
not sure how much longer I can sit by and watch her in this kind of
agony, man.”

Meanwhile, Emily was charting and checking my
monitors. “Let’s check your progress before the next
contraction.”

Both guys quickly moved to the head of the
bed and got to checking the ceiling for God knows what.

“Seriously?” I asked. “You two are a bunch of
babies. It’s not like I’m crowning. Jesus, she’s just checking my
cervix.”

“Okay, you’re almost there. Nine centimeters
and fully effaced. Which also means no epidural.” She was so
chipper and exuberant I wanted to choke her. Although I was
thankful she was nice.

There were a few nurses up here I would have
thrown out of my room. You should not be a labor and delivery nurse
if you couldn’t be understanding and patient. Women scream when
they are in labor because it was excruciating pain, not because
they didn’t get ice cream with lunch.

Emily removed her gloves and left just as
another contraction came on. I turned on my side and clutched the
railing again.

About forty-five seconds into the
contraction, I finally broke down and cried. I looked over to
Jaxon, who was standing in front of me, and began pleading with
him. “Please, baby. Oh God, it hurts. Help me, please.”

The look on his face was gut-wrenching. As
his eyes got watery, he swiped the wet rag over my forehead and
leaned down. “Baby, I’d do anything I could to take your pain from
you. If I could do this for you, I would. But I can’t. This is all
you. You can do this. You’re doin’ such a great job, babe.”

Just as I was coming down, Brody, who was
behind me rubbing my lower back, encouraged me. “I’m so proud of
you, Lei. You’re so amazing. She’s almost here. Our baby girl is
almost here and that’s all you. You wanted a natural birth and
you’re doing it.”

Between contractions I looked at both of
them. “Her last name is going to be hyphenated. Davis-Coleman.”

Neither of them argued or even seemed to
flinch at the declaration. They agreed, nodded, and kept feeding me
ice chips. Jaxon and Brody had been wonderful the entire time. No
bickering or fighting, they were solely focused on me and our
daughter.

Around noon, Barb and Drake popped in. I was
just about ready to start pushing and Drake decided now would be a
good time to tease me, asking if I wanted him to deliver her. Jaxon
and Brody quickly pulled him out of the room.

Lucky him
.

Barb grabbed the nurse and started prepping
the bed.

“Barb, you don’t have to do this, honey.
You’re not working.”

“I’m just gettin’ the bed ready, then I’ll
leave.”

“No. Stay, please. I really want you here. I
know I didn’t ask before, but I wasn’t sure how this whole thing
would go,” I rationalized as the nurse left the room. “Please.”

“I’d love to.” She ran around and hugged
me.

Jaxon, Brody, Dr. Rogers, and a pair of
nurses all came back in a few minutes later.

“Ready to start pushing, Leila?” Dr. Rogers
inquired.

“Not really, but it’s not like I can push
pause, huh?” I tried to joke.

“Not unless you know something I don’t.” She
smiled and gowned up.

Brody and Jaxon took their places next to me
and helped support my legs as I commenced pushing. Dr. Rogers
agreed to let Barb gown up and catch Lillian as she was born.

Just as I was crowning and ready to give up,
Brody looked at me. “Come on, baby, push hard.”

“I
am
pushing hard,
you asshole. I swear to all things holy if you tell me to push hard
again, I will punch you in your throat.”

“You’re doing great, Leila. Rest for a few
more seconds and then on the next contraction we should be able to
get her head out,” Dr. Rogers reassured with a gentle pat on my
leg.

I had always heard about the “ring of fire”
but until you experienced it, you had no clue.

None.

Several contractions later, I heard the best
noise in the world. I heard my baby girl crying. Well, wailing was
probably more appropriate and I cried right along with her.

Overjoyed didn’t begin to cover it. Love
wasn’t a strong enough word for that emotion. No word would ever
come close to describing that all-consuming feeling.

“Oh my God, baby, you did it. She’s here,”
Jaxon cried and crushed his mouth over mine. “She’s really
gross-lookin’ with all that shit on her but she’s beautiful. And
she’s got lots of red hair.”

Brody had tears streaming down his face too.
He was speechless as he looked back and forth between our daughter
and me. “She’s perfect. Gorgeous. My God, she’s so tiny.”

Barb held her up and placed her on my chest,
wiping her as she went. “Congratulations, Momma.”

Best. Moment. Ever.

It was like a flip of a switch. Instant,
overwhelming, intense love, adoration, and joy. Nothing would ever
compare.

Brody held her after I did, then graciously
looked to Jaxon. “You want to hold our daughter, man?”

“Hell yeah,” Jaxon managed to choke out.