Chapter 9 #2
Khrome was laying on her side with her eyes closed, but she wasn’t asleep.
She had been in the hospital for three days, and she was still annoyed.
The doctors didn’t want to discharge her because her water had broken.
There was still amniotic fluid around the baby, but they had to be careful.
Amniotic fluid was what kept the environment that she was in, sterile.
If too much fluid was lost, infection could set in, and the baby would be born very sick.
Khrome had to be monitored closely. Seeing as how she was only six months pregnant, she was looking at being in the hospital for at least another two months at the least, and she hated that for her.
Lethal tried to make her feel better by telling her that she could still work for him from her hospital bed.
At least she would be discharged to money in her bank account and while she was in the hospital, she was safe from Cam’s psychotic ass.
Khrome’s back was hurting and it had been all day.
No matter which way she turned in the bed, she couldn’t get comfortable, and she was just over it.
She was glad her baby was okay but once again, things would go good for a little while, and then boom, some bullshit transpired to remind her that she’d never be one of God’s favorites.
Trials and tribulations were a very regular part of her life.
Khrome’s eyes opened and widened a bit at the immense amount of pressure that she felt in her vagina. “Oh, that doesn’t feel right,” she mumbled as the nurse walked in the room.
“Hey, Hun. You okay? I’m just about to check your vitals.”
Khrome wanted to be sure of what she thought she was feeling before she said anything. Slowly, she turned on her back and attempted to sit up.
“Oh, Honey,” the nurse stated as she looked over at the monitor by Khrome’s bed. “You’re having a contraction, and it’s a big one. Have you been having them in the past hour or so?”
“My back has been hurting all day. It doesn’t feel good, but it doesn’t really feel like a contraction.” She panicked because of the look of concern on the nurse’s face.
“I need to get the doctor in here to see if you’ve dilated. I’ll be right back.”
“Noooo,” she moaned as it literally felt like something or someone was stomping on her vagina. Could she really be in labor and not know it? She had always heard that contractions were excruciating, and there would be no doubt about it when she had one.
Despite being uncomfortable, on a scale from one to ten, her pain was only about a six.
She’d had menstrual cramps that hurt worse than what she was currently experiencing.
The nurse came back accompanied by a doctor.
Khrome braced herself for the discomfort that was about to come.
She hated this part. It felt as if the doctor was putting his entire fist inside of her vagina whenever he checked to see if she was dilated.
Last time he’d checked, which was the day before, she was only one centimeter.
The pressure she was already feeling increased as the doctor probed her, and Khrome closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing while waiting for the discomfort to subside.
“You must have been in active back labor for most of the day,” the doctor stated. “You’re seven centimeters dilated, and at this point, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop it. Once the baby comes, she’ll be taken straight to the NICU.”
Everything he said after that was drowned out by the pounding in Khrome’s ears.
Her own thunderous heartbeat affected her hearing.
She was terrified. How was she in labor?
She had been thinking that everything was good and that her baby was going to stay put for a while longer.
It was way too early for her to be born.
Tears rolled down Khrome’s cheeks as she tried to process the fact that she was damn near ten centimeters.
She had no one to call aside from Lethal.
No friends. No family. That made her cry harder.
She only had one job; to keep her baby safe, and she couldn’t even do that.
The nurse comforted her while she cried, but Khrome was inconsolable.
Lethal entered the room and when he saw her crying so hard, his heart dropped.
“What’s wrong?” he instantly feared the worst.
“I’m in labor. They can’t stop it,” she sobbed as the nurse rubbed her back.
That wasn’t what Lethal wanted to hear, but it was better than what he’d feared they were about to tell him. He had done his research, and they were at the best hospital in the state of North Carolina. Lethal walked over to the bed and grabbed Khrome’s hand.
“She’s going to be good. You gotta calm down, so you don’t run your blood pressure up. We got this,” he coached in a soothing tone.
Khrome blew out a shaky breath as the nurse stepped away from the bed.
He was right. She needed to calm down and be strong.
The baby was coming whether she wanted her to or not, and Khrome had to get herself together.
Another pain rolled through her back, and she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.
“You need anything?” Lethal asked, still holding onto her hand.
The nurse had stepped out of the room.
“No. Maybe some ice. My mouth is dry all of a sudden.”
The nurse came back in the room with one more nurse, and it dawned on Khrome that she was really about to have a baby.
“I have to throw up,” she groaned as her stomach twisted, and her nervous system began to wreak havoc. The nurse found a small pink pan and as soon as Khrome took it, the contents of her stomach came out of her mouth in disgusting chunks.
She was grateful for Lethal because not only did he take the pan when she was done, he brought her another one along with her toothbrush and toothpaste, so she could brush her teeth from the bed.
The nurses moved around the room, preparing it for her birth, and everything seemed to be happening very fast. Before she knew it, the doctor was back to check her once again.
Khrome had barely felt any pain, so when he told her she could push, she almost shit bricks.
How could labor be so painless? The discomfort in her back wasn’t a walk in the park, but it wasn’t anything that she was going insane because of.
The infamous back labor that she’d heard about was better than regular labor, or at least it was for her.
When it was time to push, she felt like she wanted to throw up again.
Her palms were clammy and sweaty, but that didn’t stop Lethal from gripping her hand.
Each time she pushed, Khrome grunted and squeezed his hand with everything in her.
The pressure in her coochie was worse than the pain in her back, and she just wanted it to be over.
Khrome pushed so hard, she was surprised she didn’t burst a blood vessel.
After six long, hard pushes, her daughter’s head popped out of her opening, and even though she wasn’t that big, her head still hurt coming out of Khrome’s vagina.
“Get it out,” she cried while her legs trembled.
“She’s almost out, Khrome. You got this, Baby. Come on.”
She was tired of being in pain. Khrome’s forehead was covered in sweat, but she was shivering as if the room was freezing. One more push, and she heard the tiniest cry fill the room. Once again, she began to cry.
“You did it.” Lethal sounded like a proud father as they cleared the baby’s mouth, cleaned her, and weighed her. “Three pounds four ounces born at 6:41 p.m.,” the nurse called out as she put the baby in an incubator on wheels and whisked her away.
The fact that she couldn’t even hold her baby made Khrome erupt into tears.
She felt like all she’d been doing lately was crying.
The purpose of her leaving his home was to protect her baby from Cam, and she had failed, miserably.
The statement he made about pushing her down the stairs, so she’d have the baby early rang in her mind, and her blood boiled.
Khrome hated Cam more than she’d ever hated Vick, and that was saying something.
Vick took advantage of her being a na?ve, young girl with a money-hungry mother.
He lured her in, only to end up being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Cam was just a bit worse. He knew exactly what she’d been through and swooped in to be even more abusive and controlling.
Her judgement was piss poor, and Khrome was just as angry with herself as she was of her choice in men.
The only thing she’d done right was get pregnant by a man like Lethal.
No matter how nice he was to her or how much he protected her, she had enough sense to know that it was only because of the child they shared.
Nothing more. Life could have gone so different for her had she been with a man like him from the start, but there was no going back.
As she wiped her tears, Lethal paced around the room with his phone pressed to his ear.
He was talking to various family members while she had no one to call.
Khrome was very aware that if she dropped dead, there wouldn’t be a soul at her funeral.
Hell, there wouldn’t be anyone to plan her funeral.
After she passed the afterbirth and got settled, Khrome couldn’t stop shaking.
She was shivering so hard that her teeth were chattering together.
“You cold?” Lethal asked with furrowed brows.
She shook her head. Maybe her body was in shock. She wasn’t sure why she was shaking, but she couldn’t control it. Lethal sat down beside the bed and peered into her puffy face. “What do you want to name her?”
“I don’t know,” her voice cracked, and fresh tears spilled over her eyelids. “You can name her.”
“Word?” Even in her sad state she didn’t miss the slight excitement in his voice. Clearly, he’d been thinking about it because he had a name in less than a minute. “Lyric Sade Thornton.”
Her face barely moved as she offered a small smile. “I like that.”
“That’s what it is then.” His head bobbed, and his face held a proud look.
Lethal had always been taught that men were strong, they were providers, and leaders.
Even if he was in the room alone, he would have done his best to remain positive and to keep a poker face on.
But deep inside, Lethal was more afraid than he’d ever been.
They had already been educated on the dangers of their child being born so early such as the risk of cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, respiratory issues, brain bleeds, and the list went on and on.
Cam had better hoped and prayed with everything in him that Lyric was okay.
He was going to die, regardless, but if his baby girl had to suffer, then Cam was going to get done extra dirty, and Lethal put that on everything he loved.