10. Back to the Start
“See, I can put you to work,” Natalie pointed out.
Ed held her to the wall. He went for broke for a moment before pulling back.
“I don’t think this is what they had in mind when we said we’d drop by and take the keys.”
“We had to… christen it.” Natalie panted as she got closer to climaxing.
“What does this do for you?” Ed asked.
“Literally everything,” Natalie’s eyes rolled back into her head and she dug nails into his strong shoulders. “Fuck! Oh, God, Ed! Fuck.”
He smiled as she came back from the heavens above. “Yeah?”
“Yes. For sure,” Natalie moaned.
“I’m too old for this.”
“You love it.”
“I love watching you lose yourself every time I thrust, yeah.”
Natalie bit her lip.
“I should pin you to the wall and take you from behind.”
“But I’ve been so good.”
“You are never good, Princess,” Ed lowered her.
With a bit of force, Ed flipped Natalie around and pinned her to the wall. She pretended to fight him as he pulled her legs apart and slid himself back inside. It felt so good. She loved it when he went full-on alpha male. Ed pinned her right hand to the wall with his, moving his other to play with her clit.
She moaned. It felt so good. They needed this. The estate deal closed unexpectedly soon. So, rather than fly to Balmoral and away from Edinburgh, they flew down to Wales to get the keys to their first house together and to make sure the place felt lived in. Natalie had thought this all up, informing Ed that she wanted him to take her in the new house as soon as the estate agent left. He didn’t think she was serious.
Natalie came again, screaming, “Oh, Edwin! Fuck me harder!”
And finally, Ed couldn’t fight it anymore. With a few more triumphant thrusts, he grunted and held onto her hips. She could feel his pulse racing against her back. Ed kissed Natalie’s neck. She turned, still panting, and gave him a cheeky look.
“You’re such a good sport, Winslow.”
He chuckled and tossed her knickers back to her. “I have always had excellent sportsmanship. Clean your slutty act up.”
She pulled her underwear back out and smoothed the sundress she’d worn out on this lovely afternoon.
“Ready to go then?” She asked.
“Yes,” Ed adjusted himself and kissed her. “You are unbelievable and also very distracting, Natalie.”
She smiled. Ed could still make her heart flutter at a moment’s notice. There was nothing like a man who could give you butterflies after fucking you against a wall two ways. Natalie knew she was one of the lucky ones.
The couple held hands as they returned to the car. A guard swung into action, holding the door for them. They headed to an airfield where Natalie’s plane waited patiently. It was heaven to be back and have a house they owned fifty-fifty. Ed’s sold his condo for a mint ages ago, holding onto the money and putting it into the new house. It was their first major marital purchase. Natalie knew it was important to Ed to contribute to their love nest in the countryside. All this time, he wanted to show her he could share the burden tangibly.
“You’re now a country person,” Natalie laughed, looking at her clipboard and reviewing her departure checklist.
“I’m not even!”
“You are. The man who loathes the countryside has come around.”
“I want a harmonious life where I get to look out at the sea, swim daily, and otherwise play house husband, I guess?”
“And you are darling at it.”
“That and the guys aren’t half bad. It’s nice to have more people around.”
He referred to some of the other officers who adopted Ed as a surrogate member of their little club. They now played golf. It was bizarre.
“My love,” Ed said as Natalie typed coordinates.
She held up her hand, focusing on the computer.
He waited, knowing that this could get them killed.
“Yes?” Natalie asked.
“Sorry. Non-pilot nonsense.”
“Oh, it’s fine. Just trying to do my job. You’re just here to look cute and pretend to be first mate. You do it well.”
“Har-har. No, I was just… do you think that the guards… heard us?”
“Darling, I think people on Mars heard us.”
He looked white as a sheet.
“It is their job to keep us alive. It is not their job to judge. Besides, as loud as I was in there, you look like a god among men, To be fair, you are.”
“Nat.”
“No, darling, You are spectacular and I will not apologise.”
Ed rolled his eyes.
“Hold this. Do you want to work the radio or shall I?”
“Can I just tell everyone we’re about to taxi?”
“We aren’t. I haven’t even checked with them yet. I am no more special than any other person behind the controls. I will tell you when.”
“You’re so rough with me today,” he snickered.
“You love the abuse, Winslow. Besides, we’re both happy. We bought a house together. How wonderful is that?”
“It’s great. Very normal. I love it, Nat.”
“I do, too,” Natalie smiled. “God, we’re going to be okay won’t we?”
“Definitely. I am glad we did this.”
As she was about to call the tower, Natalie’s phone rang.
“Darling, can you?—”
Ed already answered. “Hi, Vanna. Filling in for Nat as she’s in the process of the departure checklist.”
He listened, “Oh, wow. Okay. Well, I guess we will see. I will talk to her. There will be a heading or some such. I dunno. We’ll ring you from the ground.”
He hung up. “We are about to have a niece or nephew. Sanne is in labour.”
“So we should go to London?”
“Looks like it, yeah,” Ed smiled. “Fancy meeting a baby?”
“It fucks up my heading, but yes. I could do,” Natalie replied.
“Paul,just… can you stop for a fucking second and just… listen to me?”
Paul feverishly sorted through his closet. He claimed he’d lost jeans, but Sanne spotted them on the ground. It was a panic reaction to the fact that her waters had broken, and their baby was on its way a week early. Paul reacted in panic. He was riled up.
Sanne took a deep breath and fought through a painful contraction.
Landing on the other side, she asked, “Paul, sweetie. Have you taken your medication today?”
“Shit. No! Oh my God! There are my jeans! Bugger all!”
He bolted across the room to take his stimulants. It would help.
“They are packed in the bag,” Sanne reminded him of their location.
Paul ran towards the bed, rummaging as Sanne gripped the bedpost and yowled through a horrid contraction. He knocked back the tablet and shook his head.
“I’m so sorry, baby. It’s not fair. I wish I could make it stop.”
“I know, I know,” Sanne panted. “Fuck. This hurts so bad.”
“They said it would. I suppose it does live up to the hype? Well, we’d better go. Don’t want you to have the baby here.”
“Paul, you need to put on pants.”
“I’m wearing pants.”
“You’re not!”
Paul looked down. “I am.”
“Trousers, Paul. Actual trousers.”
“I still get confused with you,” Paul said.
“Your mum still calls trousers pants. It cannot be that confusing.”
Paul pulled on his jeans and grabbed the overnight bag. “Still confusing. Context. You’re not my mum. Yes, you sound the same, but I don’t like to confuse you with her.”
“It’s funny because everyone else does,” Sanne groaned.
“Do you think this morning helped? Is that what this is about?”
“Paul, I do not think you going down on me like it was your life’s calling was what did the trick. However, it did make me happy, which is good. Because my entire body is about to be ripped apart and you may never want to be within five feet of my pussy ever again.”
“Nonsense. There are few places I enjoy quite so much. Promise.”
“There will never be…” Sanne gripped Paul’s arm and let out a low growl. “Normal again.”
“It will be fine. I will love you—all of you—as I always will. We’ll return with a remarkably cute baby. We’ll be so happy, Sanne.”
“I hope so,” Sanne groaned.
They climbed into the waiting car and sped to the hospital, passing all the paps on the way out. They drove surrounded by photographers. It was disorienting and made Sanne want to vomit. The pain was intense. She felt like her back was going to split open and the baby might crawl out. She didn’t want to be photographed. She just wanted to be medicated.
Paul reached over to feel a contraction passing. He marvelled at it and made mention of how “cool” it was. Sanne wanted to smack him. The day had finally come when he would hold his son or daughter in his arms. He wanted nothing more than to be a father while Sanne unexpectedly panicked about motherhood. She’d watched her sister do it for years. She knew how difficult it was. What if she wasn’t good enough?
“Paul, I am going to be a bad mom. I can feel it.”
“Don’t say that,” Paul pulled into the parking garage.
The door flung open. Paul held out his hand.
“I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Nor did my parents,” Paul said. “But I’m alive.”
“That is ridiculous. Think of poor Lucy! Her parents are fucked and?—”
“Sanne,” Paul said. “My love, it will be okay. Lucy’s parents are fucked, but we are not Lucy’s parents. And I’m not an alcoholic last I checked.”
He wasn’t. Paul could have taken or left booze. Both preferred an edible to waking with a hangover. Unfortunately, weed was criminalised in the UK. Mentally, Sanne gave Michigan another check mark and took one away from London. She wished she were stoned right now rather than listen to Paul ramble as she suffered excruciating pain.
Inside the ward, Sanne was swept to a private room. Paul was on the horn with his mothers-in-law trying to coordinate their arrival. They were presently in nearby Oslo—nearby being relative when you lived on an island in the Atlantic.
“The baby isn’t going to take long, Sanne,” a nurse said. “Looks like you’ll be in transition before too long.”
“I need drugs NOW!” Sanne’s voice rang strong.
It was as if she had no other volume level. She commanded people suddenly. That wasn’t her leadership style with anything other than troublesome, misogynist fathers-of-the-bride or badly-behaved grooms.
“We will put the order in.”
“Paul! Paul!”
No response. He was still on the phone.
“Paul Edward!”
He was hyper-focused on the call. Sanne wanted to toss something at his head.
She barked, “Paul Edward Simon Niall! Whatever that is, it’s less important than I am.”
He turned. “Shit. Yes. Uh, I will have… someone else coordinate it. I dunno. She’s shouting at me. Yes, I know she’s in labour, Natalie. Bye.”
He hung up.
“Why are you ringing Natalie while I’m here in hell? Time for a fun family chat?”
“Sanne, she is on the tarmac in Wales. Mum rang her and they were putting in the coordinates to come here, but she”ll grab your mums and bring them down.”
“Oh,” Sanne burst into tears. “I’m such a bitch.”
“You aren’t, sweetheart. You’re just in a lot of pain and very stressed out. This is scary, baby. You have a baby inside you trying to burst out.”
“Hopefully not burst out. Jesus, Paul!”
“Deep breaths,” Paul said. “You are doing such a good job.”
He was trying, at least. Sanne was all over the place. When the doctor showed up for the epidural, she said she would have kissed her if it wasn’t harassment. It got everyone laughing. It wasn’t long past that point that Sanne was staring down the nose of pushing.
Sanne believed a push or two would bring the baby into the world. She was already sweating and miserable. Had she not done enough already? Clearly not. She pushed, grunted, and swore. She shouted and flagged.
“Has it been ten hours?” Sanne asked.
“It’s been fifteen minutes. You’re doing a lovely job, darling,” a nurse encouraged.
“Why isn’t the fucking baby here yet?”
“I can feel their head but you’ still must push harder, ma’am,” the consultant said. “With everything you have. Everything all at once.”
Sanne attempted what she thought was sufficient, but it wasn’t. She flagged again.
“Sanne, you’re one tough cookie, as you’d say. Be relentless,” Paul said. “Go for broke and just… get him here.”
“We don’t know if it’s?—”
“I’m certain this is a boy,” Paul said. “But now is not the time to argue with you.”
A nurse holding Sanne’s other leg nodded. Paul tried to stay out of the doghouse with everyone.
And, with that, Sanne pushed a few more times as if she might fall to pieces. And boom, she felt relief! A screaming baby appeared, held up high by the consultant attending the birth. Its little face was red and angry.
Someone declared, “Baby is a boy! He’s a big, healthy boy!”
Paul was right but didn’t gloat.
“You must break it to Nat that she must train a male pilot. Oh, the indignity,” Sanne joked, catching her breath.
Paul kissed her forehead. “Well, he’ll be just fine with that. Everyone is going to love this baby to bits.”
“We will,” Sanne said. “He’s perfect.”
“The best. That’s me being impartial,” Paul joked.
And with that, their lives changed. Sanne’s momentary disappointment that her baby wasn’t the girl she’d imagined faded to black as she held his tiny body close to her chest. Now, they’d give him a name and bring him home. Sanne had no idea what to do with a baby boy, but she’d figure it out. He was theirs. All theirs.