30. Chloe
CHLOE
I’m sitting up in the box when I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I’ve been having pains since last night, but they weren’t anything that I couldn’t handle. I've been dealing with braxton hicks for the last two weeks.
This one, though, this one fucking hurts.
The sharpness of it has me closing my eyes and trying my hardest to take a deep breath but it feels as if no air is coming into my body.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re going to the hospital.” My mom says from next to me, getting up from her seat and trying to get me up.
“No, we can't, they still have one more quarter to play.” I whine, turning to look down at the ice where Liam and his teammates are currently trying to get anything past the Florida goalie.
The Knights are ahead by one, but even I know that that score could change in a second. I don’t want to miss it.
“Chloe, andale. You’re in pain. You have to go to the hospital.” My mom urges, tugging on my arm and trying to get me up.
“But you said that labor takes forever, I can stay and watch the rest of the game.” I tell my mom, but then I get hit with another sharp pain that I almost double over and I’m sitting down.
Holy shit. Whoever made contractions so damn painful hated women.
“That one was way too close, sweetie. You have to go to the hospital,” Lynnette says as she comes and stands next to my mom.
I’m in so much pain that I can’t even marvel at how cute she looks wearing Liam’s jersey.
“I’m fine.” I say through my teeth as I try to give her a smile.
Both women give me a look like that says that they will drag me out of here if it comes down to it.I try to avoid their glares and look around the room for someone to help with this. Labor takes hours, I have time to watch one more period.
I make eye contact with my dad and he just looks away like he doesn’t want anything to do with it. Lawrence does the same thing
Huffing, I move on to my next victims. Sophia shakes her head and mouths something about being scared of the moms. Blakes mom and step-dad agree with the two grandmas that are about to grab me by an ear each and make me leave. My last hope is Blake’s brother and his fiancee.
Their eyes are wide and they are looking at me like they can’t believe that they are my last resort. We have a stare off and I think that I’m winning with the brother, Hunter holds up his hands in
surrender.
“I vote hospital. I’ll drive you there if you want. I don’t think I can deliver a baby at a hockey game,”Hunter lets out.
“Who said anything about you delivering the baby?” His girlfriend, Selena asks giving him a ‘you’re crazy’ look.
“Who else is going to do it?”
“Oh, I don’t know, how about one of the many EMTs or medical professionals that are in the stadium?”
Selena tells him and I mean I’m on her side. I don’t want or need a football player between my legs.
Another sharp pain hits me and I have a feeling that if they get any closer, I’m going to pass out.
The moms are right. It’s time to go to the hospital.
“Okay. Let’s go. Let’s go to the hospital.” I pant out, trying to remember those breathing exercises I learned. “Someone has to call the team doctor so they can tell Liam as soon as the game is over.”
“I’ll call on the way there,” Hunter says, as he walks over and both him and my dad help me up and walk me out to the car.
The hospital better have a tv because no way am I going to miss Liam and the Knights winning the game.
* * *
Apparently you can be five centimeters dilated and not even know it.
When we got here and the nurses brought me back, I thought that they were going to say that I wasn’t dilated enough and that they were going to send me home.
Wrong.
By the time that I got to the hospital I was already five centimeters and had to be admitted.
Meaning? I was going to miss the last period of the game. Sure I can check the score on my phone but it’s not the same in person.
But I still have my dad bring it up on his phone and start it up right where the game was when we left.
Given the cheering I heard from the nurses station a bit ago, I know the outcome, but I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to see it for the first time and support Liam in every way possible.
Because that’s what you do for the man that you love.
The fact that I’m able to even think the words is jaw dropping, but it’s how I fucking feel. And it’s not the baby hormones talking.
My parents and I settle my room, and as nurses come to hook me up to machines and take samples for whatever test they are conducting, I watch the game.
Who knew that one night with a hockey player can make you into an obsessive fan.
As the game continues, I bite my nails the whole time in anticipation of whatever is going to happen. Turns out that Florida ended up tying the game right before we left so the majority of the third period it’s a tie game.
When the clock on the screen gets under a minute, that is when things start going from exciting to nerve wrecking.
My eyes follow the number twenty-one all over the screen and when he gets the puck in the last twelve seconds I let out a scream.
I watch as Liam brings back his stick and slaps the puck across the ice and somehow makes it go into the net, right past the goalkeeper's left shoulder.
He scored the winning goal. Instead of letting out another scream, I start to silently cry.
They did it. They won. They won it all.
I hate that I couldn’t be there in person.
My eyes stay on the screen and I continue to cry tears of happiness for the man that has given me so much these last few months that I almost miss the door opening.
When I turn to see who it is, expecting it to be a nurse to come in to check on me, I cry even more.
Liam comes into the room, looking freshly showered in a pair of sweats with the team logo on them and a T-shirt and just seeing him makes me cry even more.
Why the hell does this man keep bring out the crazy emotions out of me?
Instantly, Liam starts to panic and rushes to my side, checking whatever is visible of my body for signs of distress.
“Are you in pain?” he asks, quickly turning to my mm for help.
I let out a few sniffles and reach over to place my hand against his bearded cheek. He hasn’t
shaved since mid-April. “You showered?”
He nods. “I didn’t want to smell like I cooked myself in rotten cheese.”
I let out a teary laugh and glide my thumb along his cheek bone. “I’m so proud of you. You guys did it.”
Liam gives me a dazzling smile and turns his head slightly to kiss the inside of my palm.
“I can’t believe it either, it hasn’t hit me just yet.” He tells me.
Every part of me wants to close the distance between us and kiss him, but my parents are here,
things will get embarrassing and awkward fast.
My mom being my mom, she notices my dilemma and pats my dad on the shoulder to get up.
“We’re going to go get something to eat,” she says, giving me a smile right before grabbing my dad’s hand and leaving the room.
“You sure, you’re not in pain?” Liam asks, placing his hand over mine, and rubbing small circles along my skin.
“I’m sure,” I say, before doing what I wanted to do earlier and leaning over and brushing my
lips against Liam’s.
I’ve been wanting my lips back on his for a long time, and now that it’s happening, I can’t get enough.
I want more, but there is not so much more you can get while in a hospital bed and have wires everywhere.
“Did I tell you that I was proud of you?” I say when I pull away from him.
“You did,” he says, dropping our hands and letting them rest on my lap. “Is that what the kiss was for?”
I nod. “That and I really wanted to do it.”
“And why is that?” he asks, a smile playing on his lips and his eyebrows rising.
“Because I realized something earlier.” I say, my eyes down casting a bit.
“And what did you realize?” He asks, sitting deeper into the bed until he’s right next to my legs, one of his hands landing on my stomach.
“That I love you.” I say with all the conviction that I’m able to muster. Of course I had to tell him while I was in labor. How cliche of me.
Liam, who was looking down at my hands, looks up with his eyes wide with surprise.
All this time, he’s been the one that has expressed his feelings. I was always the one that denied what he was saying, and never told him that I felt the same way.
I thought it.But I never said it.
Until now. To him and to myself.
“I’m going to need you to repeat that,” he orders, his face still looking stunned.
“I realized that I love you.” I say again, this time with a lot more strength behind the words.
“I know that I'm always pushing your feelings to the side, but I was doing it because I was scared. I was scared that if something happened between us, I would lose you. These las few months you’ve become my everything. Friend, lover, father of my child. And while you were my everything, you showed me so much. Kindness, care, love. I kept telling myself that you were only interested in me because of the baby but even that was getting harder to believe. I’m sorry I pushed your filings to the side.
I’m sorry that my thoughts sometimes got the best of me.
I don’t want to keep pushing you away. I don’t want to move out either.
I want to stay with you wherever you live and raise our daughter together.
I don’t want to figure out holiday arrangements and who gets what weekend.
I want us to go to your hockey games and take Emma to her dance recitals and go visit her grandparents in Missouri and Texas.
I just want to do this with you, Liam. I want to do this with you and only you. And now I’m a blubbering mess.”
I don’t know when my tears went from silent to full on sobs. I swear, there is something about this man that makes my emotions and feelings go haywire.
He did it the first night we met, and he continues to do it now.
Liam shifts, coming to sit right next to me and taking me in his arms, consoling me.
“I want to do this with you and only you too.” he says, into my hair.
“You do?”
“I do, want to know why?” I nod my head against his shoulder. “Because I love you too, sweetheart. I have for a while. You just wouldn’t hear it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, you’re hearing it now and that is all that matters.”
“Yeah.” I say to him.
We stay in that position until a nurse comes in to check in on me.
According to her, we have a long way to go so we should get comfortable.
So we do.
For the next five hours, I try to do everything to stay comfortable. I decided to go drug free
for the birth and by the time the nurse tells me that I’m about nine
centimeters dilated, I regretted that decision.
And when I was told that it was time to have this baby, I regretted it even more.
The baby was going to be here very soon and I was going to feel every single second of it.
My mom and Liam end up staying in the room with me, while my dad went out to the waiting room to be with Liam’s parents.
Once the doctor gives the go ahead, everything starts happening so fast.
My mom and Liam each stand at one of my sides, all the while nurses surround them waiting for something to happen for them to jump right in.
“Okay, Chloe. I’m going to have your mom and Liam hold your legs and when I say push, you push as hard as you can okay?” Dr. Long instructs and all I can do is nod.
“You got this, baby. Me and your mom will be here the whole time.” Liam tells me, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“Alright, Chloe. When I say push, you push until I say stop. Got it?”
I give her another nod, not able to find my voice.
“Okay, on three. Push, Chloe. Push.”
I do as I’m ordered and push with all that I have. I push until my insides feel like they are getting ripped apart. I push and I push and when Dr. Long finally says stop, I feel like I ran a damn marathon while burning alive.
“You are doing so good, Chlo.” Liam says, brushing my hair back.
“One more Chloe. One more and your baby is here.”
* * *
“She looks like you.”
Liam says from where he sits next to me on the bed, an arm around me and our daughter.
“My mom said the same thing.” I say looking down at the little girl sleeping in my arms.
“I can’t believe that a night at the ballet would result in a whole new person coming into our lives.”
He says, slowly grazing her cheek with the back of his finger.
“I can’t believe it either.” I say, smiling up at him, remembering what it was like to make eye contact with him from across the room. “I wouldn’t change a single thing about it, though.”
“Neither would I. Not skipping that night was the best decision that I have ever made. I love the two of you so much,”
“And we love you too. More than you will ever know.”
This time last year, I had one thing in mind, and that was dancing.
I was determined to be the best ballerina and dancer that I could be. I was at my peak and I never wanted to come down.
But now, I still love dancing and everything that comes with it, but the best decision I made for myself was to keep this pregnancy and give my life a different meaning.
I have a little family know and I may have been at the peak of my career, and I still might be, but being here with Emma and Liam, I’m at the peak of my life and there is no coming down from it.
Don’t get me wrong, I will go back to dancing, but I will do it with my little girl right next to me and Liam, my anchor in the audience cheering me on. And I will do the same for him with every single hockey game until he retires.
“I never would have put a hockey player with a ballerina together but in our crazy ass world it works.” Liam says, placing a finger under my chin and tilting my head up to give me a chaste kiss.
“It really does.” I say, a smile spreading across my face.
“Thank you for captivating me that night.”
“Thank you for giving me everything .”