Chapter Eight
Sunny woke at about two in the morning with horrible pains in her lower back.
Aaron was still pressed up against her, but she needed to move; the pain was so intense.
She shifted in bed and suddenly felt a rush of wetness between her legs.
Panic swelled up inside of her as she realized that she was in labor.
Not the pre-term labor pains that her doctor told her not to worry about, but the real thing.
She grabbed Aaron’s arm, squeezing him so hard she was sure that he would wake up, but he didn’t.
“Aaron," she screamed. He rolled over to face her, only taking a minute to realize what was going on, and he jumped out of bed.
“Okay, honey. We’ve got this, just breathe.” Aaron was rushing around the room trying to find clothes to put on, but instead looked like a chicken running around in circles.
“I didn’t take Lamaze classes,” she sobbed.
“I have no fucking idea what I’m doing, Aaron.
” The contraction seemed to ease, and the pain in her back let up a little.
She took that as her cue to get up from the bed and put on some clothes.
She rolled to the edge of the bed and pulled on a pair of pajama pants that Aaron handed to her.
He helped her pull on her top and slipped her socks and boots on her feet.
“Baby, you are the strongest woman that I know. We just have to get you to the hospital, and everything is going to be great.” He pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt and found his cell phone.
“I’m going to call the doctor. Where are the bags?
” Sunny could feel another contraction starting.
“Nursery,” she moaned. “Something is wrong: these contractions are too close together.”
“Hold tight, honey. I’ll call the doctor, and you can talk to him on speaker.
” Sunny nodded, unable to speak through the pain.
Her doctor groggily answered the emergency phone number that he gave her.
Aaron explained what was going on while Sunny tried to get through her contraction.
“And how close together are the contractions, Sunny?” Her doctor yawned into the phone, and she felt guilty for waking him up in the middle of the night.
“Um,” she squeaked, “they are about one to two minutes apart, maybe.” Aaron shook his head.
“Doc, they are about a minute apart and are lasting a little over a minute.” Sunny moaned in pain as another contraction started.
“Fuck,” Aaron swore. “They may be under a minute; they are coming fast and hard.” The doctor swore into the other end, and Sunny panicked.
She knew that they were too close together, and she was feeling the need to push, but she was too afraid to tell Aaron.
She didn’t want him panicking too—one of them needed to stay calm, and that person wasn’t going to be her.
She couldn’t help her scream; it felt like the baby was ripping her in two.
Aaron laid her back in bed and took her boots and pajama pants off her.
He took the call off speaker and was listening to the doctor’s instructions.
“It’s gonna be fine, honey. Doc is calling the ambulance, and they should be here in a few minutes.” Aaron looked at her nervously, and she wanted to cry. Sunny needed him to be strong and calm; otherwise, she would lose her shit. Sunny nodded, working through yet another contraction.
“In the meantime, I have some training, and I’ll put Doc back on speaker, so how about we take a look and see where you’re at?
” Sunny nodded and spread her legs so Aaron could check her.
“Shit, Doc, I can see the baby’s head, she’s close.
Why didn’t you tell me that you needed to push, honey?
” Sunny couldn’t answer. She felt the need to push, and all she seemed able to do was pant.
The doctor’s voice filled the room from Aaron’s cell, shouting out instructions for both Aaron and Sunny.
Finally, he told her to push with the next contraction.
She screamed, feeling as though she was being torn in half as her daughter’s head and shoulders appeared.
Aaron was telling her what a good job she was doing, and the doctor was giving him instructions on how to clean the baby’s airway after Sunny pushed her out with the next contraction.
As soon as the contraction hit, she shouted and pushed their daughter out into the world.
Aaron caught her and wrapped her in his T-shirt, then cleared her airway, as the doctor instructed.
“You did so good, honey—she’s beautiful.” He handed their squawking baby to Sunny, and she fell completely in love with her as soon as she looked into her daughter’s eyes.
“Hello, gorgeous, welcome to the world,” Aaron said, settling next to Sunny on the bed, and he pulled both her and his daughter into his arms. He only moved from Sunny’s side to let the EMTs into his condo and showed them back to his bedroom.
He kissed Sunny’s forehead and moved out of their way as they went to work clamping the umbilical cord and checking the baby’s and Sunny’s vitals.
Aaron stayed by her side through the whole process, watching to make sure that his little family was all right.
They loaded Sunny and his daughter into the ambulance, and he grabbed her bags and joined them.
There was no way he was letting either of them out of his sight.
Sunny watched the baby like a hawk, already a great mother.
“Honey, she’s fine. Don’t worry.” Aaron took her hand, and she smiled up at him. “But she does need a name.” Sunny’s smile disappeared, and he wanted to laugh. Naming their daughter shouldn’t make her so unhappy.
“I didn’t think about a name.” She shook her head. “All these months, and I never really thought of what I would call her once she was in the world. I’m a horrible mother already, and she’s only been here fifteen minutes.” She started crying, and Aaron sighed.
“You are not a bad mother, Sunny. You’ve just been busy growing a human. We can figure this out together, honey.” She wiped her eyes and nodded.
“Well, I’ve always liked the name Sadie,” she squeaked.
Aaron smiled, “Sadie,” he whispered as they both looked at their daughter.
“I love it, honey.” “Then Sadie Steele, it is.” Sunny sniffled and sighed.
“See, we are a good team. I panic and cry, and you swoop in to fix everything.” Aaron bent to kiss Sunny’s lips.
He was feeling so many emotions at once that he didn’t know which one to process first.
“I love you, Sunny. I’m so thankful that you gave me another chance.” Sunny looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes, and she nodded. Before she could say anything, their daughter started crying, and the EMT who was assessing her handed Sadie back to Sunny.
“We are at the hospital, and I’m pretty sure your daughter is ready to eat. A nurse will help you with all that once we get you into a room. Congratulations.”
Aaron shook his hand and thanked both EMTs for their help.
He stayed with Sunny and Sadie the entire way up to the second floor, where they had a room waiting for them.
Sunny’s doctor came in a few minutes later, and everything seemed to be moving too fast. Sunny seemed to notice his discomfort and asked him to go call Piper and Tag to tell them what happened.
He was thankful for the reprieve but hesitant to leave them both.
“Please, Aaron, I need Pipe here,” Sunny said.
He nodded and pulled out his cell. “I’ll be right out in the lobby,” he assured.
She smiled at him and gave her full attention to the nurse who was giving her instructions on how to feed their daughter.
Tag answered the phone in a whisper, and Aaron felt like an ass for waking him up in the middle of the night.
“Hey man, what’s up?” He could hear the concern in Tag’s voice.
“Well, Sunny went into labor about thirty minutes ago—” Tag cut Aaron off, seeming to wake up at the mention of Sunny being in labor.
“I’ll wake Pipe, and we’ll head over to the hospital. You guys there yet? I know Piper will want to be there to help Sunny through all this.” Aaron laughed at Tag’s questions, not able to get a word in edgewise.
“Tag—take a breath, man. She went into labor about half an hour ago, and she had the baby at our condo. I delivered her and she is perfect.” Aaron found it hard to speak past the lump that formed in his throat.
All the emotions from that evening were catching up with him, and he felt like he was about to lose it.
“Fuck man. Is Sunny all right?” Aaron could hear Piper asking about a hundred questions in the background.
“Yeah, she’s good. She’s feeding Sadie now. That’s what we are naming her.” Aaron looked around the corner to where Sunny’s room was and noticed that things had quieted down.
“Well, that’s a beautiful name, Aaron. We are getting dressed and heading down now.
Pipe won’t give me a moment’s peace until she gets to hold that baby.
” Aaron chuckled into the phone and promised to see them both soon.
He wanted to get back to Sunny and Sadie.
He felt uneasy and didn’t like how quiet things were.
He decided to stop at the nurse’s station to ask about staying the night when Sunny’s scream stopped him cold.
He ran to her room to find her standing in the corner holding Sadie to her chest. He barged into the room and pulled them both into his arms. Sadie started fussing, and Sunny was shaking.
“Honey, what happened?” Sunny was so upset she could barely speak.
Aaron rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.
“It’s okay, Sunny, you’re safe. I need to know what happened,” Aaron coaxed.
“A man—he was standing over Sadie’s bed,” she stuttered.
“I went to the bathroom, and when I walked back in, he was standing over there, in the corner.” She pointed to the spot she was talking about.
“When I screamed, he ran out of the room.” Aaron kissed her forehead and made her sit down on the bed.
“I need for you and Sadie to stay put.” Sunny nodded, cuddling the baby and trying to calm her.
“I’ll be right outside, but I need to call security.
” Aaron ran out of the room, trying to find a nurse or anyone who might work at the hospital.
He finally found Sunny’s doctor and told him what happened.
By the time Piper and Tag arrived, security was alerted, and a guard was outside of Sunny’s door.
Aaron wasn’t taking any chances with Sunny or the baby.
“What the hell is going on?” Tag pulled Aaron into the hall to talk privately while the women gushed over the baby. Sunny was still pretty shaken up, and he knew that Piper would be able to help soothe her.
“I’m not sure, man. I got off the phone with you, and then she screamed.
It all happened so fast. They said that the cameras should have picked up on someone coming and going on this floor.
Security is going over the footage now, and they will verify the guy’s identity with Sunny once they have something.
” Aaron shook his head, trying to figure out how the whole night went sideways.
Their New Year’s celebration sent Sunny into labor, and it was a downhill spiral since then.
Tag looked like he wanted to say something, but he seemed to hesitate.
“Just fucking say it, man. It has been a long night,” Aaron grumbled.
“I’m just thinking—you said that your tire was slashed the day after Christmas?
” Aaron nodded, not liking where their conversation was going.
“Well, what if it’s the same guy? I mean, can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you or Sunny?
” Aaron sighed; yeah, he definitely didn’t like where their conversation was going.
“Fuck, man, I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Sunny.
Everyone loves her. And as for me, I don’t have any enemies.
” Aaron shrugged, trying to think of one single person who might have a grudge against him.
He couldn’t think of anyone who would slash his tire or want to scare Sunny to get to him.
“Listen, Sawyer will be back in two days. Let’s see what security digs up, and then we can go from there.
Sawyer already knows what is going on. The security detail that he put on Piper told him about your slashed tire.
He put in a request to your condo’s security for any footage they might have from that day.
Sawyer said that he will investigate that incident, and I will make sure he knows about today.
If anyone can figure this all out, it’s him,” Tag promised and clapped his big hand on Aaron’s shoulder, pulling him in for a hug.
“Thanks, man, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Aaron said.
“I’m taking Sunny and the baby home today.
I’ve already talked to the doctor, and he said that he would like to keep them both until tomorrow, but he won’t force us to stay.
I think I can keep them safer at the condo.
” Aaron was worried that whoever the guy was, he wouldn’t give up.
For some reason, someone was out to hurt him, and he couldn’t put his family in any more danger.
“I’ll come over and help you secure your place.
Torren and Sawyer helped me set up security at the cabin and both my and Piper’s stores.
I’ll call Torren and have him meet me over there when Piper gets her fill of holding Sadie.
You concentrate on Sunny and the baby. Torren and I will get your place secure,” Tag promised.
Aaron nodded, and that fucking lump was back in his throat.
Fuck, having a daughter was turning him into a puddle of mush.