27. Lachlan
Lachlan
Lainey had been quiet since Birdie and Beau left.
I was trying not to hover, but I think she was getting frustrated with me asking if she was okay every time she shifted on the sofa.
I was trying to not over analyze everything as we sat in the living room—like we did every night since she moved in—staring at the TV.
But there was no friendly competition tonight to see who could come out on top at Jeopardy!
No funny banter or any sassy comments from her.
I tried not to notice the way she was sitting, her back rigid and her shoulder tense. I hated that I might be the reason why she seemed to be feeling so uncomfortable. Her hand had even been rubbing absentmindedly over her belly for the better part of an hour.
“Did you want some chocolate pie?” I asked, finally unable to take the silence any longer.
“No. Thank you, though. I actually think I’m going to turn in,” Lainey answered.
“Are you feeling okay? Have you taken your blood pressure recently?”
“Yeah. It’s been really stable. I just hate storms, and I’m hoping I can sleep through this one.”
I nodded. “Make sure you put your phone on the charger. Oh, I put a battery powered lamp in your room in case the power goes out.”
Lainey moved to the edge of the sofa and I got up, taking her hands to help her stand. Her belly bumped into me, but she almost immediately took a step to the side as I tried to stabilize her.
“Thank you. For that, and for the lamp. And for everything else today. It was such a jam packed day, I’m sure I’ll sleep right through it all.”
“I hope you do.”
Clearing her throat, Lainey nodded as she disappeared up the stairs.
An alarm blared from my phone, jolting me wide awake from my sleep. I tossed my half-numb arm over to the night stand, banging it around until my hand slapped against the cool glass of the screen.
The light blinded me as I turned the screen on, my eyes taking forever to adjust. But as soon as they did, I was up from my bed, trying to get to Lainey.
I didn’t bother knocking on her door. She was asleep, and I needed to get her up and moving downstairs. Fast. At least, I expected her to be asleep.
Instead, when I rushed in, I found her sitting on the edge of her bed, her face pulled tight as her hand rubbed over her belly. The storm lamp I’d left for her was on full blast, casting harsh shadows around the room.
“Hey, I’m glad you’re up. We have to go.”
“I know,” she whispered. Of course she did. She would have gotten the same alert I did.
“Good. You need a hand?”
“Yes, I think…”
She grabbed onto my hand, squeezing tightly as a sharp gasp filled the room.
Oh fuck.
One look at the pain etched across her face and I knew she wasn’t talking about the storm notification.
My eyes dropped to her belly, where she was now grasping onto tightly.
“Trouble? What’s going on?”
“Oh, you know…thought I’d just add to the chaos and have my baby tonight.”
“You…” I felt every last drop of blood drain out of my face as her words washed over me.
“I’m so sorry. Everyone knew.” Her voice caught. “And I was selfish, because I wanted to stay here. But I think…I’m so sorry, I think I’m in labor. We have to call Birdie. I have to go…”
Of course. Of course the universe was going to do this to her. She was going into labor, and she was stuck in the middle of a fucking tornado warning with me.
“Shit,” I groaned. “No, we can't go anywhere. Other than downstairs. Right now. There’s a tornado warning. Confirmed touchdown just this side of Silver Springs proper, more could be spawning in the storm. Even if they don’t, this storm is a beast. We need to get to the bathroom where it’s safe.”
Her eyes went wide, and in the harsh glow of the little lamp on the bedside table, I could see all the color draining from her face.
“Oh…okay. I think…um…maybe we should grab some blankets, or um, towels…My phone and the bag over there. At least bring it downstairs if an ambulance can get out here?”
“I’ll get anything we need after I know you’re in a safe spot. Let’s go.”
I wrapped my arm around Lainey’s back, hating the fact that I couldn’t scoop her up in my arms and carry her downstairs.
Lainey stopped on the bottom step, turning back to look at me.
“Keep going. The bathroom down here is the safest spot for us to be.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
My hand landed between her shoulders and I rubbed up and down as we walked into the bathroom.
“It’s okay if you have to. All part of the process.”
Lainey groaned. “You can call Birdie, can’t you? She’ll know…what…ooph…”
I cringed as Lainey’s body bent in half, her elbows resting on the sink while she swayed back and forth through the contraction.
“How often are these happening?” I asked as I slipped my phone out of my pocket. Perfect. I had no reception.
“I don’t know,” she groaned. “Maybe every ten minutes or so?”
“Okay, I’ll start timing them. If they’re ten minutes apart, I think we’re in okay shape.”
“How do you know that?!”
“Lots of pregnant ladies in the family recently. And I have anxiety, remember?”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “So, what? You started studying obstetrics?”
I laughed, and that got a searing scowl from her as she stood back up, her hands digging into her back.
“Yeah. Something like that. Okay?” Lainey’s nod was the only response I got. “I need to go get some things. Pillows. Blankets. Towels. The first aid kit.”
“I literally don’t care about any of that anymore, but could you please bring a glass of water in here?
I was getting ready to come down for a drink when you burst into my room.
” She grabbed the hem of my sweatshirt and pulled it up over her belly.
My eyes shot to the ceiling. “Don’t worry. I’m wearing a bra. I just…I’m too hot.”
“Right. No.” I cleared my throat. “If cell service doesn’t come back soon, I imagine a bra will be the least of our worries.”
Her eyes went wide. “What do you mean?”
“The storm must have knocked out the nearest tower. I don’t have any bars.”
“That’ll take too long…we can’t call for help. What are we going to do?”
“We’re not going to panic,” I said, knowing full well that was a fucking lie. My hands were already sweating and I felt like I was going to hurl, but I wasn’t about to let Lainey know that. She had to be a thousand times more anxious than I was about the situation we found ourselves in.
“How?”
I smiled. “I’ll show you when I come back.”
“I can help—”
“Stay right here. This room is the safest in the house if a tornado comes, or the storm winds get worse. I won’t risk something happening to you or the little alien just so I can get what we need in two trips instead of three.”
Lainey nodded, turning toward the tub as I left the bathroom.
It ended up taking four trips, but after stacking some pillows against the outside wall of the tub, I helped Lainey sit.
Her phone and mine now rested on the edge of the sink, her hospital bag plopped with all the hope in the world right by the front door.
She drank down the glass of water in between my second and third trip to gather what we needed, so I just grabbed the entire pitcher of water I normally kept in the fridge.
“So, what was that thing we were going to do…to distract me…from…Shit…” Her cheeks hollowed and then puffed out as her hand rested on her belly. That one was only eight minutes from the last one.
“We’re going to play cards.”
“Cards?”
“I used to do this with Jessie when she was little and had a tummy ache. It was a good way to distract her. You’re both competitive, so I figured it would work for you, too.”
“Damn straight, it will.” The words came out choppy between her clenched teeth.
“Hey, you need to relax your body when the contractions come.”
“Are you serious? Would you be able to relax at a time like this?”
“No.” I chuckled. “But yes, I’m serious. I know it feels counter intuitive, but you have to go with your body. Don't fight against it.”
“Sure thing, Florence. I’ll get right on that.”
“And that is a straight flush.” Lainey laughed as she laid down her cards on the floor between us. We’d been passing the time for over an hour with the cards…first with Pitch—which she absolutely crushed me in—and now in poker. I had a feeling I was getting hustled this whole time.
“How in the world—”
“No, no, no,” she cried, my blood running cold as I looked up to see the pure terror on her face. I watched her tuck her legs underneath her body, falling forward on her hands. I pushed up from the floor, stepping over the cards to position myself where I could rub her back.
“Is it another contraction?” I asked, double checking my watch because I knew she wasn’t due to have another one for at least two more minutes.
“No. I feel…wet.”
“Wet?” I reached over the toilet to where I had extra towels stored on hooks.
“I thought it would be more. Like the movies. But I just feel wet.”
“I’m not following,” I admitted as I handed her a towel. She immediately pressed it between her legs and sat back down.
“My water just broke.”
Oh, fuck.
“I’m really in labor.”
I took a deep breath, committing the time to my memory. They’d want to know when she was on her way to the hospital, how long it’d been since her water broke. That was one of the important things I remember reading in the books.
“We already knew that.” There was no point in sugar coating it. “Your contractions have been getting closer. They’re every seven minutes now. Have been for the last twenty minutes. And they were eight to nine minutes apart for almost an hour before that.”
“God, we’ve been stuck in here that long?”
“Don’t worry. The warnings are going to lift, cell service will come back, and we’ll be able to get Birdie over here. She’ll be here, and she’ll know what to do.”
“No… ohhhhh shit,” Lainey groaned, her fingers turning white with the strain of her grasp.
“Hey. Look at me.”
“I can’t,” she cried. “This hurts…this really fucking hurts, and I’m so mad I’m giving birth in your bathroom right now.”
“I know.” I chuckled. That earned me a death stare, but at least her eyes were back open now. “I’m so sorry. Trust me, this isn’t what I wanted for you, either. We were going to get you to the hospital. I had it all planned.”
I counted the stack of towels. Looked over the two bottles of alcohol. Fought the urge to wash my hands…again.
“They’re hard to breathe through.”
Fuck it. I couldn’t do nothing…I groaned as I leaned a little too much on my left leg, the muscles pulling painfully as I lowered myself to the ground. I swept up the cards and tossed them onto the sink next to our phones. And then I pulled myself up, turning the water on as hot as it would go.
I washed my hands for a count of twenty-six. Then started over again. I had to get this right. If I delivered Lainey’s baby, then everything had to be as safe as it could be. I had to be as safe for them as I could be.
“Lach, please!” Lainey’s hand stretched out toward me. But I wasn’t done. I couldn’t walk away from the sink. If my hands weren’t clean…if they were dirty, filled with dangers I couldn’t see…I could hurt her or the baby. I needed to be sure. I had to finish—“Lach!”
God. Couldn’t she see I was doing my best?
If I didn’t get clean, if I had to…if I had to deliver her baby and something happened.
The antiseptic smell of the hospital room I’d been confined to after my first surgery slammed into me.
I blinked, looking down at my leg while my hands still rubbed back and forth furiously over the bar of soap.
It was healed, gnarly red scars closed up and wrapping around my muscles and bones. I wasn’t in the hospital. I was at home. With Lainey. I was at home with Lainey, who was in labor during the middle of a fucking derecho. “I just need to finish.”
I hadn’t noticed her moving toward me, but felt the second her hand landed on my arm. “No. Please. I need you. Your hands are clean. You’re keeping me and the little alien safe. Your compulsions don’t need you right now. But I really, really, really do.”
I nodded, shutting off the water and drying my hands on the fresh towel at the top of the stack I’d brought into the bathroom earlier.
“Are you okay?” she asked, shocking the hell out of me.
“I think I should be asking you that.”
“I wasn’t thinking before. This has to be…hard…for you. I’ll…I’m okay. I don’t need to shout like that. I can be calm. If you need me to.”
“No. Screw that,” I replied.
“What?”
“Don’t shrink yourself for me. Live up to the nickname I gave you. Raise some hell. Yell, scream, cry. Scratch my skin. Break my fingers. Whatever you need to do to get that baby here, we’ll do it. And you won’t, for a single second, worry about me. Got it?”
“I can’t do that. I care about you. I don’t want this to set you back…”
I helped her sit back down before getting down on the floor next to her, our backs both against the bathtub.
I brought my hand up, gently cupping the side of her face farthest away from me, before encouraging her to turn.
As soon as her eyes met mine, I nodded. “Sloane isn’t going to believe me when I tell her what I’ve been up to since our last session.
And I kind of can’t wait to tell her. So, why don’t we really give her something to be impressed with? Yeah?”
“Okay.”