Dreaming of You
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Summary: Natalie and John are happily married and they are expecting a baby. While John is sick with the flu, he dreams of the life that he's about to have with Natalie and their baby girl.
Pairing: Natalie/John
A/N: This is a one-shot. After seeing the episode on January 11, I knew I just had to write it; although, I first thought of this idea when John dreamed of having a family with Natalie. I hope you all enjoy it and I love reading reviews.
----
Natalie McBain walked out of the kitchen with a steaming hot bowl of chicken noodle soup cradled in her hands. "Here's your…" Natalie started, but stopped short when she saw her husband, John, fast asleep in their double bed. She smiled and put the soup on the nearby coffee table. The flu sure could drain the energy out of a person.
Natalie, who was eight months pregnant, slowly lowered herself to the couch, put her hand on her swollen belly, and watched John sleep peacefully. A year ago, she never would have expected this; to be happily married again after Cristian and expecting a baby.
She watched John stir, as a smile spread across his lips and he murmured her name. She went to get up so she could climb into bed with him, but she realized that if he looked that peaceful in his sleep, he must be having a good dream and she thought it best to leave him alone, so she settled comfortably back down on the couch.
"John, I can't do this anymore," Natalie said in pain.
"Yes," he said, squeezing her hand a little tighter. "Yes, you can, Natalie. Just one more push. Come on. You can do it."
She looked over at John, who looked back, and she was comforted to know that he was there with her, holding her hand.
With his free hand, he moved a wet strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.
"John's right, Natalie," Michael McBain said from the foot of the hospital bed. "I can already see the head. One more push."
Natalie gave one more final push, as she screamed in agony.
"She's here," Michael said with a smile, as a crying filled the room.
Natalie relaxed her body, looked at John, and said ecstatically, "It's a girl!"
"You did good, Natty," John said, running his hand through her hair and giving her a kiss on the lips.
"Would you like to hold her?" Michael asked a few minutes later, after she had been cleaned up.
Natalie nodded eagerly.
Michael gently handed Natalie her daughter. She beamed and moved the pink fleece blanket wrapped around her daughter out of her face, as, for the first time, she looked her baby in the face.
"I have to go do my rounds," Michael spoke up, "but I just wanted to say congratulations."
"Thanks Mike," John said.
"Thank you, Michael," Natalie added.
"She's beautiful," John said when they were alone.
"John," Natalie said, looking away from their daughter and into his gorgeous blue eyes, "I love you."
"I love you too, Natalie," he said, leaning in to give her a kiss.
----
John quietly walked into Natalie's hospital room, holding their daughter.
Natalie lay with her back to the door and, although John couldn't see her face, he could tell by her laboured breathing that she was sleeping. The past twenty-four hours had taken quite a toll on her and she deserved this; a good long rest.
Unfortunately, when he pulled a chair up to the bed, the legs scraped the floor, albeit quietly, and Natalie began to stir.
"Hey," Natalie said, as her eyes flickered open. "It's my two favorite people."
John smiled, but he could see how tired she was; her face looked absolutely drained and her eyes had a sunken atmosphere to them.
"You look tired. If you want, we can come back later."
"No. It's okay. Seeing you and our daughter is worth being tired."
"Well, I hope you don't regret saying that because you…I mean we," John quickly added, seeing Natalie raise her eyebrow and give him a piercing stare, "won't be getting much sleep for quite awhile."
Natalie slowly, with a little more effort than was absolutely necessary, sat up, resting her back against the pillows propped up on the bed.
John furrowed his brow; Natalie's actions were a little hard to go unnoticed and they seemed a little off. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know. You just look a little sore."
Natalie shook her head. "I'm fine, but I'd really like to hold our daughter. We need to think of a name," she added, as John handed her the baby.
"I was actually thinking of names and I thought Ava Elizabeth had a nice ring to it."
Natalie smiled, nodded her head, and looked at their daughter. "Ava Elizabeth McBain it is."
----
"Natty, here's your water," John said, as he walked into her hospital room, holding a Styrofoam cup of water, as well as a cup of coffee for himself. John stopped short when he saw that Natalie had company: Cristian.
"Cris," John said, quickly getting over his shock-he hadn't realized that Natalie had been expecting company-and walking the last few feet to the bed, "what are you doing here?"
"I just thought I'd drop by to see how Natalie's doin'. Hey, congratulations, man." Cristian extended his hand to shake John's, but instead, he raised his hands to indicate that they were full. Cristian uncomfortably withdrew his hand.
"Here's your water," John said, once again.
"Thanks. Could you just set it down for a minute?" Natalie said, pointing with her head to the bedside table. "Cris, would you like to hold Ava for awhile?"
"Sure."
Natalie gently handed a sleeping Ava to Cristian.
As she grabbed the cup of water, she said, "You're going to have to come by the apartment sometime when she's awake."
John watched, from behind Cristian, as Natalie took a long sip of, what was now probably warm, water. He watched uncomfortably as Natalie and Cristian interacted as though they had spent no time apart and they were still married, although he knew they were just friends; he didn't know why it was getting to him so much.
"Natalie," Cristian said, "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'm supposed to meet Evangeline in a few minutes and I'm already gonna be late. I'll see you later and I just might take you up on your offer to drop by." He handed Ava back to Natalie and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, before leaving.
Natalie watched John uncomfortably shift positions and the blanket, which was halfway down his body to begin with, slid to the floor. As Natalie got up to pick it up, she saw John's smile fade and him shiver. She put the blanket back on him, letting it rest just above his shoulders.
Her hand found its way to John's face and she caressed it, feeling his stubble on her fingers and freshly manicured nails. She bent down until she was inches from his face-she could feel his breath on her face; in her hair-and she placed a soft kiss on his lips. She knew that if nothing else would, then that kiss, even if he didn't consciously feel it, would put a smile back on his face and she was right. She watched as a small, inconspicuous smile came back to his lips.
"I love you, John," she whispered.
"Well," John said, wrapping his arms around Natalie's waist and resting his chin on the crevice where her neck and shoulder met, "we have the apartment to ourselves for the next few hours and I was hoping you'd like to join me in the shower."
Natalie smiled and leaned into his body, allowing him to slightly tighten his arms. She quickly turned around-so she could look into his eyes-and he moved his hands ever so slightly so they now rested on her hips. She put her arms around his neck and her lips found their way to his, resulting in a passionate kiss.
"Nothing would make me happier."
Natalie had completely forgotten about the soup she had made John earlier. She picked it up off the coffee table, with every intention of putting it in the refrigerator for John for later, but that plan was discarded when she heard a knock on the door.
Startled, she jumped and dropped the bowl of soup. She winced as the glass shattered on the floor, spraying soup everywhere.
"Shit," she silently cursed, as she quickly looked at John, who was beginning to stir. She waited a few seconds until she was sure he wasn't going to wake up, then she half-walked, half-ran to the door as quickly as she could.
"What was that crashing sound?" Rex asked, as Natalie-wanting to tell whoever it was to shut up and go away-opened the door.
"Rex? Roxy? What are you doing here?"
John watched from inside the shower as Natalie dropped her last piece of clothing to the floor and joined him. He took her hand and brought her closer, until he could feel her breasts against his chest.
"John…" Natalie started, but he silenced her with a kiss.
She elicited a moan as John began a trail of kisses down her neck, which continued as he reached the valley between her breasts.
As he lifted his head and looked into Natalie's eyes, he gently and lovingly tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear.
With her eyes gazing into his, he could see something in them that he hadn't seen before. A tiredness? Well, that was to be expected, what with their daughter waking up in the middle of the night, every night. He was sure that if Natalie looked hard enough, she'd be able to see the same look in his eyes, as she was making him get up too. Not that he was complaining; however. He loved every opportunity he got to spend with his daughter, even if it meant getting up in the middle of the night.
But this was different, though. Her eyes looked as though they were filled with sadness or fear.
Although he knew it would eat him alive until he found out what was on her mind, he didn't want to ruin this moment by asking her about what he perceived to be something, but could actually be nothing. Maybe he would ask her about it after supper or as they climbed into bed.
He tried to push those thoughts out of his head, so he could turn his full attention back to making love to his beautiful wife.
He pushed her up against the wall and finding her hands on his chest, he moved them above her head, so they now rested on the wall of the shower stall, where he trapped them with his own.
"Oh, God. I love you Natalie," John said, as he continued his assault of kisses on her face and body, with those earlier thoughts lingering not far on his mind.
Natalie grabbed some paper towel and a trash can from the kitchen and hurried back to the mess of soup she had made earlier. It only seemed like a few minutes, but in reality, it had been about twenty. Roxy and Rex had kept her busy longer than she had anticipated or longer than she would have liked.
She tried to bend down to pick up the glass-these days she couldn't even bend to tie her own shoe laces-but she couldn't, so she tried another tactic. Using the couch as support, she lowered her left knee to the floor with still a level of difficulty; the other knee quickly followed.
She began picking up piece after piece of broken glass and putting them in the trash-she'd have to remember to take it out later. Unfortunately, she underestimated the degree of sharpness of a particularly large piece and she quickly dropped it, as she felt a sudden burst of pain shoot up her finger.
"Damn," she said, a little louder than had been intended.
She finished cleaning up the mess and got up, again having a hard time, going to the kitchen to find a band aid.
She put the trash can under the kitchen sink and rummaged through the cupboards for a band aid, finally finding one in a cupboard above the stove.
As she wrapped the band aid around her finger, which was still bleeding profusely, she felt the baby move and heard her stomach growl. "Are you hungry?" Natalie said, putting her uninjured hand on her stomach. "Well, I'll get something to eat as soon as your Daddy wakes up."
"Yeah?" John said, as he heard a knock on his office door. He heard the door creak open and looked up from his paperwork.
"Lieutenant McBain? Here's the report you wanted," an officer named Jacobs said.
"Thanks Jacobs. Just put it on my desk."
Officer Jacobs walked into the office and did as John requested, placing the file on the corner of John's desk. "Detective Vega wanted me to tell you," Officer Jacobs said, before leaving John to his work, "that you have company."
"Who is it?" John smiled, having a pretty strong feeling as to who it was.
"It's Natalie and your daughter. They're right outside. I'll send them in."
"Thanks," he said, gathering up the papers on his desk and putting them in the top drawer.
"Daddy," Ava said, running into the office, with her orange hair bouncing on her shoulders. She was closely followed by Natalie.
"Hey, it's my two favorite girls," he said, picking Ava up and setting her on his lap. "What are you two doing here?"
"Well, we thought we'd bring you something to eat," Natalie said, holding up a brown paper bag. "Do you think you could break away from your work for a few minutes?"
"Yeah. I was just about to take a break anyway. So," John added, changing the subject, "what have you two been up to today?"
"Well, we went to see Bree and Tommy," Ava said, counting things off on her fingers. "Oh, and Mommy said that if I talk to you, we might be able to play a game of pool tonight."
"I don't know. I've been kind of tired after work lately."
"Come on John," Natalie said. "Why don't we go to Rodi's and play one game of pool and if you're still tired after, then we can go home. What do you say?"
"Please Daddy," Ava added.
"Okay. It sounds like a date."
"Now that that's settled. Ava, I need to talk to your Daddy for a few minutes. Why don't we go see Uncle Bo?" Natalie said.
The five year-old quickly got off John's lap and took Natalie's hand.
While they were gone, John ran through his head everything that Natalie could possibly have to tell him; the good and the bad. However; more bad explanations seemed to come to mind and just thinking about it was giving him a headache, so he began massaging his temples with his index fingers, in the hopes of relieving the tension.
"Are you okay?" Natalie asked, re-entering the room.
"Yeah. It's just a headache. I'm fine. What are you doing?" he added tiredly, indicating with his hand as Natalie shut the door.
"What I'm going to tell you, I want to remain between us for awhile. But first, you look like you could really use something to eat."
Going around the desk, she sat on his lap, where Ava had sat moments earlier, and he put his arms around her waist; he could already feel his headache dissipating.
Out of the bag, she pulled a sandwich and she broke off a piece. "Here. It's ham and Swiss," she said, feeding it to him.
"This is good. Did you make it?" he said, after swallowing.
She hesitated. "No. As much as I'd like to take credit for it, I can't. Carlotta did." She broke off another piece and was about to feed it to him again, but he pushed it away.
"Natalie…how bad is it?"
Natalie sighed and set down the piece of sandwich on a napkin. "It's not bad, John."
"Then why are you so nervous about telling me?"
"It's just…I'm nervous about how you'll react to it, that's all. I mean, we have Ava and we're happy, just the three of us, but…"
"Are you pregnant?" John asked, realization dawning on him.
Natalie nodded. "Yes."
----
"Remember what I told you Ava. There's no hurry. Just keep your eye on the ball and concentrate," John told his daughter, who was in his arms, so she could easily hit the balls.
Ava nodded and licked her lips concentration.
Natalie laughed. "She's definitely your daughter!"
"I wouldn't be laughing," John said mockingly, "'cause we're gonna beat your butt, aren't we Ava?"
"Yeah. And when we do, you owe us a beer."
Natalie laughed again. "I don't think so. I'll owe your father a beer. You don't get to drink beer until you're twenty-one; you have quite a few years until then. But I won't be owing anyone anything, anyway. Didn't your father tell you? I always win," she added, jokingly.
"Don't count on it," he muttered.
Ava began impatiently tapping the pool cue on the pool table and when she saw her parents' attention focus back in on her, she positioned her pool cue; then she took her shot. They watched the white ball hit their coloured ball, moving Natalie's striped one out of the way. Unfortunately, she miscalculated the shot and the ball missed the hole by inches. Her face fell.
"It's okay, Ava," John said, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Natalie walked around the table, looking for a good opening and it didn't take long for her to find it. She expertly took her shot and watched as the ball went in to the hole. They continued this game of cat and mouse, until only the black eight ball was left.
"The moment of truth," Natalie said.
"Hit 'er good," John told his daughter.
"Daddy, I want you to hit."
"Are you sure?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
She nodded.
"Okay." He gently set her down and took the pool cue. He seemed to decide which better route to take, then upon deciding, he hit the white ball into the black one; it smoothly hit its destination. "And there you have it," John said, putting the cue on the table. "We win. Cough up that beer."
"Natalie," John said, as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Hey, you're awake," Natalie said, standing a few feet from the bed.
"What are you doing over there? The Doctor said you should stay off your feet as much as possible," he said groggily, still waking up.
"I know, but I…How are you feeling?" she said, hastily changing the subject.
"Like I just got hit by a truck; I feel like hell. Why don't you come over her and make me feel better?"
Natalie needed no second thoughts. She quickly got into bed with John, letting him wrap his arms around her.
She put her hand on his face and placed a soft, gentle kiss on his lips. She let John's body soothe her and she closed her eyes. "I love you John," she whispered.
"I love you too," he said, letting it fall on deaf ears, as Natalie had already fallen asleep.