At one point, I stopped and looked at him. “What if seeing him for real changes things for you?”
His brows pulled together. “What?”
“What if when he actually gets here…” I swallowed and forced myself to say it. “What if the real baby scares you more than the belly did?”
That seemed to offend him a little. He stepped closer, with his brows knitted together. He softly held me around my waist, bringing me and Cairo flesh against him. “Ava, I’m not going nowhere. I need you to stop saying that like it’s still on the table. I’m here. I’m with you. I’m with our son. I’m not about to look at him and get scared off. I’m not about to finally get everything I said I wanted and then run because it got real. It’s already real.”He rubbed his hand over my stomach, then back up to my side. “You keep waiting on me to switch up, and I get why. I do. But I’m telling you now, you don’t have to keep bracing for that. Not anymore. I love you. I love him. And I’m not leaving either one of y’all.”
I wanted to believe that all the way.
Before I could say anything else, a warmth rushed down my legs so sudden and heavy that I froze.
For half a second, I thought I had lost control of my bladder. Then more came. Me and Reek looked down hearing the splatter on the floor.
Then my wide eyes darted up at him. “Reek,” I breathed. “My water just broke.”
By the time active labor really hit, I understood why women screamed at men in delivery rooms and told them they’d never touch them again.
Pain came in waves that built and built until it felt like my whole body was being taken over from the inside. My back was on fire. My stomach kept tightening so hard it felt like Cairo was trying to split me open with his little head. Deep, punishing pressure sat low between my legs, and every time I thought I had caught my breath, another contraction came rolling in stronger than the last one.
I was in the hospital bed with my hair stuck to my face and neck and sweat all over me in spite of how cold the room was.
Reek was right there by the bed with one hand in mine and the other on my thigh, back, stomach, wherever he thought it might help. He looked just as stressed as I felt, but he was tryinghard not to let me see too much of it. That alone made me love him harder in the middle of wanting to cuss everybody out.
Another contraction hit, and I cried out.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, gripping his hand so hard I knew I was hurting him. “I can’t do this.”
Reek came closer instantly. “Yes, you can.”
“No, I can’t,” I cried, tears spilling out while the pain climbed higher. “This hurts so bad.”
He wiped my face with the little cold cloth the nurse had given him. “Yes, you can. Who are you?”
I was breathing too hard to answer.
He kissed my cheek. “Tell me who you are, baby.”
Another wave tore through me, and I cried harder.
“Tell me,” he insisted.
I squeezed my eyes shut and sobbed, “I’m a bad bitch.”
That made one of the nurses giggle under her breath. The other nurse smiled a little before looking back between my legs.
“That’s right.” Reek kissed my forehead, then the side of my face. “So, act like it. Breathe.”
I tried to breathe because he was right there in my face making me feel like I could survive something that felt impossible five seconds earlier.
Dr. Harrison checked me again and smiled. “You’re there. It’s time.”
The staff started to move with more purpose now. Dr. Harrison came in, ready to deliver since it was time. More instructions came. My knees were positioned. The pressure got worse. I couldn’t even call it pain the way I had before because it was bigger than that now. It was pain, pressure, stretching, and fear all mixed together into something so primal it took over my whole body.
“Push with the contraction,” Dr. Harrison told me.
I bore down and screamed.
Reek was right there by my ear. “That’s it, baby. Come on.”
