motherbear (motherbear) wrote in mnhttnprjct, @ 2010-06-08 01:02:00 |
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June 3, 2029.
It was Eve's due date but nothing was going according to plan. For all of her excitement and all of her preparation, the fact of the matter was that this baby had a plan of its own and to hell with whatever this tired Mama wanted. Eve felt more than a little agitated, but fixed her face with an exasperated smile as she shuffled from her bedroom to the kitchen for a glass of ice water to get through the hot morning.
Eve had felt uncomfortable for at least a week and, with each passing day, she became even more and more uncomfortable. It became more and more difficult to walk and, she thought with intense desperation, surely today had to be the day. 6:19 p.m. Today was not the day. 11:59 p.m. Maybe tomorrow would be the day.
Apparently "Tomorrow" was not going to be the day, either. The exasperated Mama wanted to cry as she called her doctor, Felicia Brookstone, and pestered her with worries and concerns. "But I swear I'm having contractions." "How far apart are they?" "I don't know, I haven't counted 'em in a while. I guess every few hours. Can't you just induce it?" "I really don't advise medically inducing labor. The disadvantages of it far outweigh the advantages. We recommend you wait a week to see--" "A week?! Well I'm just-- I'm sorry but I can't wait that long." "Trust me, Eve. You're gonna have this baby. Just not today." 4:38 p.m. It was really hot and the couple's fan, which rattled from the window frame like its life depended on it, was not doing an adequate job of keeping poor Eve cool. The day was only going to get hotter. Eve took a cold bath to cool herself off and as she lay there, she splayed her small hands over her impossibly expanded belly. With a grumpy expression, she traced over the pinkish stretch marks with her fingers and counted calmly. One, two, three, four-- A heavy, unhappy sigh of impatience and worry and a touch of desperation resounded from the blonde woman. "C'mon, baby," her voice cracked as she whispered it. There was no comforting response from the baby inside and Eve started to cry.
Another contraction, more painful and less tolerable than the ones that had preceded over the last few weeks, had Eve gasping aloud. She muted the tv program (Wheel of Fortune) and called out to Remus, who was somewhere in the apartment. There was no immediate response to her summon, and the sharp sensation began to fade. Eve visibly relaxed as she slouched down into the sofa cushion once more as comfortably as she could to watch some more TV. The smooth, winsome tones of Pat Sajak's voice came back on as Eve pressed the mute button a second time. Mrs Alice Jazynski was in the lead and had just solved the puzzle when Eve was hit with another, more powerful contraction that made her crumple into a convulsing, shuddering ball of nerves and shivers. "Remus!" The baby was coming. It had to be the baby. She was a little giddy at the revelation, until a panicked thought entered her mind: or maybe something was wrong. Eve groaned as another contraction had her digging her nails into the padded palms of her hands. "Remus!" She shrieked again with an intensified sense of urgency in her voice. Eve's head was spinning and her muscles grew rigid as she tried to keep a firm hold of herself. "The baby's coming!"
Eve had said from the start that she would be happy either way and it was no more or less true now than it was then. Now Eve was speechless as she glanced down at the pink-adorned baby that lay in her arms. A girl. Eve had spent nine perilous and very long months with this baby inside of her and she only got the chance to meet her now. Eve thought she was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, with her small pink fingers balled up into a tight pink fist; with her tuft of black hair, obviously inherited from her daddy; with those big blue eyes who could belong to either one of her parents. But she was Eve's. She was theirs. She was the most perfect thing that Eve had ever laid eyes upon. Eve kept a snug hold on the tightly-bundled infant in her arms, the product of nine months' worth of extreme personal care and these latest seven-and-a-half hours of labor. She had eyes for no one else but this fragile little baby that had won her over in less than a nanosecond. Tears started to fall down her cheeks and Eve sniffled as she now spoke to her daughter: "My little baby Ruby," she mumbled to the groggy baby who Eve had pressed to her full, swollen breasts. "That's your name. You're Ruby Dane." |