Seri
Three in the morning, and the octopus inside me had decided that my bladder made an excellent trampoline.
“Okay, okay,” I whispered to my unborn child. “I’m moving as fast as I can.”
Which wasn’t very fast at all. These days, getting vertical involved a series of strategic rocks, leveraging my elbows, and a final heave that left me slightly breathless. I glanced back at my sleeping husbands, all three magnificent specimens sprawled across our big bed in their boxers, then sighed and waddled toward my bathroom, nightgown brushing against my swollen ankles. The baby inside me shifted again, sending another urgent pressure signal that had me picking up my pace.
Still not fast enough, apparently. Warm liquid trickled down my inner thigh, and I groaned in frustration.
Zane’s ridiculous “WhenWill She Pee Herself Next?” chart taped to our bedroom door now needed its first timestamp in the ‘Total Embarrassment’ column.
Something felt different this time, though. This was not the usual slow leak I’d grown accustomed to these past weeks, but a flood that soaked through my thin cotton nightdress and pattered against thetiles. More concerning, the bathroom nightlight’s soft glow showed darker droplets in the puddle on the tile at my feet.
Then the pain registered, a shift ripping through me that stole all language except a guttural, “Hnnnnnng!”
My hands flew to my belly just as the first real contraction tore through me. Not the Braxton Hicks I’d been experiencing for weeks, but something entirely more powerful and purposeful. It was like a vise grip squeezing my entire midsection, stealing my breath, and my knees buckled.
“Husbands!” The word tore from me raw and ragged. “Baby inbound!”
My voice wasn’t particularly loud, nothing like a scream, but it might as well have been a battle cry for all the chaos it unleashed. Three pairs of supernatural ears picked up my distress call, and the response was immediate and overwhelming.
Casimir appeared first as he always did, trusty nine millimeter gripped in one hand and a pillow in the other. The nightlight caught the panic in his green eyes as they darted from my face to the puddle.
“Infant containment breach!” he barked, flipping the light switch on with his elbow. “Ko, get her vitals! Zane, towels and emergency kit!”
Koa shouldered past him, calm and solid as always, eyes wide as they swept over my hunched form. Then Zane, red hair sticking up at a dozen angles, stumbled in behind his brothers.
“What’s happen—” His words cut off as he registered the scene, his face draining of color so rapidly, I might have laughed if another contraction hadn’t chosen that moment to grip me. “Seri!”
“I’m okay,” I gasped. “Just starting to have a baby.”
“Now?” His voice cracked on the word as he staggered closer. “But we had aplan! There’s aschedule! Cas madecharts!”
I wanted to point out that their “plan” had consisted mostly of arguing about the best route to the hospital and timing each other as they loaded Brummy into the car instead of me, but I was too busy to bother.
“Plans change, Z.” Koa reached for me. “All right, sweet girl. Let’s get you to the SUV—”
“No time!” I slid down the wall. “Floor’s… fine… just need—”
I gave up trying to speak and breathed through it the way we’d practiced during our private sessions with the midwife.
Thank the Goddess my bathroom was enormous, a luxury spa-like space with heated floors (currently appreciated) and enough square footage to accommodate four adults with room to spare.
“I TOLD YOU SHE’D GO EARLY!” Zane bellowed. “Pay up, you mother—”
I heard a gun’s safety click off.
“Zane,” Casimir said, dead evenly. “Towels. Emergency kit. Now.”
“Don’t mind them, Seri. Just breathe into me.” Koa’s hand was warm and steady as it gripped mine.
Another contraction gripped me, stronger than before, and I cried out at the pain.
“What can we do, beloved?”
“Just be here,” I managed. “That’s all I need.”
Zane reappeared clutching an armload of towels, his freckles like tiny bruises against his ashen skin as his eyes fixed on the small puddle on the floor.
