"Jade! Jade!" Tori hissed, slapping my arm hard enough that it stung. I opened my eye and was met with her big round belly, "Jade! Get up! We need to go to the hospital, now!"
That got me up in a blink; I crawled off the end of the bed and grabbed my jeans, tugging them on followed by a discarded hoodie and a pair of flip flops. I grabbed our hospital bag and walked to Tori, grabbing her arm and helping her out to the car. Inside she texted Beck and Cat to meet us there.
"Hurry up!" Tori screamed at me.
"I'm going, Vega!" I screamed back, "The kids not about to pop out!"
"You aren't one who's pregnant and a week and half past her due date, West!" Tori shoots back.
"If you wanna be alive you won't beg me to speed up and kill us by speeding on wet roads!" I scream back, that shuts her up and her only sounds are her complaining about how much her contractions hurt. I tell her to call ahead and when we get there it isn't long before she's taken into a room.
By the time Beck and Cat show up Tori's doctor has already come in to let her know that she's not fully dilated yet and it could be a few more hours before she's ready to give birth, but they gave her the epidural and now that she was feeling less and less she was finally about to fall asleep. Beck and Cat sat silently with me.
"When did she go into labor?" Cat whispered.
"About an hour ago she finally woke me up but she said she'd been having mild contractions for awhile before I got home." I told them, looking over at her where she was sleeping. My stomach was in knots and I was about to start chewing my nails.
"Cat, text me if she wakes up, okay? I need to walk around." I get up and kiss Tori's forehead before leaving the room. As I expected Beck follows me out of the room. We head to the cafeteria since it finally opened and get ourselves some breakfast and a table in the back.
"Jade, breathe and taste that food." Beck says, taking a bite from his eggs, "Tori's going to be okay, everything is going to be okay."
I glare up at him, "no, don't you start lecturing me, just because you're the constant cool head and your wife isn't in labor doesn't mean you can boss me about!" I continue to inhale my food, not bothering to taste it. I needed something to distract me.
When Beck finally finishes he forces me to go with him on a lap around the hospital to 'calm down'. I don't want to admit it but it calmed me down a lot, except for the paparazzi everywhere. I gave them the finger the whole way up to the front doors. This was my baby's birth and they were here to try and ruin the whole thing? Fuck them. Back inside the room Tori was still asleep and Cat was watching the TV on silent, giggling her ass off and talking to her belly.
"Hey Kitty Cat." I greet, shooing her out of my chair. She gets up and moves into her chair, rubbing her barely there baby bump. I dragged my chair closer to the bed and stared at the screen. She was watching one of our old movies.
"Jade?" Tori whispered, her eyes blinking open slowly.
"I'm here baby. What's wrong?"
"How long have I been asleep?"
"About two hours." I whispered, sitting up and taking her hand, "how are you feeling?" I heard Beck and Cat walking out the door and looked up to see the doctor standing there with a smile on her face.
"How are you two doing?" she asks, pulling on her gloves.
"I'm feeling okay." Tori says with a tired smile. The doctor checks her dilation, tells her she's probably got a few more hours, talks to us for a bit and then leaves us alone, "was that Beck and Cat I saw sneaking out?"
"It was." I replied, rubbing the back of her hand with my thumb. She glances at the screen and then settles back down on her pillow, smiling at me before closing her eyes for a minute, "how many paparazzi are outside?"
"A few." I reply, "how'd you know?"
"You're rubbing my hand. You only do that when they're around. Did you flip them off?" I smile and she smiles back, "good." We spend the next hours sitting together watching whatever shitty movies we can find. And since it's nearly Christmas that's all we're finding, "you know the only thing we're going to be watch for years is kids movies."
"Don't remind me Vega."
"And Barney."
"Hell no. Our child is not watching Barney or Dora. I'll buy VHS copies of Blue's Clues, Comfy Couch, Bear in the Big Blue house, everything but those new shitty TV shows for kids. And Disney movies? Bring it on. Disney is my favorite." Tori is smiling now, laughing her ass off at how disgusted I was by the notion of my child watching Barney.
"Knock, knock?" Cat's head peeked around the door.
"Hey guys, come on in!" Tori calls. Cat comes in with a happy swing in her step and takes the seat she was occupying earlier. Cat's hand is always on her belly when I see her. I think she remembers how Tori got to feel our baby kick around now and she's upset she hasn't gotten to feel her little baby kick.
"So have you guys decided on a name?" Beck asks, "I know you don't know the gender, so have you thought of a name for each possibility?"
"We have." Tori replies happily, rubbing her stomach. She looks at me and I smile back at her. If it was a girl we were going to name it after Cat and Trina, since Cat was like a sister to me and Trina was her sister. Our baby girl would be Katrina West-Vega. We hadn't decided on a middle name for her yet, though. And a son would be David Andrew West-Vega. David for her father and Andrew for Beck, since he was the whole reason it was possible for us to have our child in the first place.
"Not going to share?" Beck asks, I shake my head no.
"Then we'll never tell you either." Cat says, raising her chin defiantly with a childish attempt at a serious look on her face. I roll my eyes and relax back against my chair. Cat yawns from where she is.
"Beck, maybe you should take Cat home. She's had a long day and has a baby to take care of. I'll call you if anything changes." I offer, "And I'll send you a picture of the baby."
"Okay." Cat says, any protest out weighed by how tired she undoubtedly was. A few minutes after they left the doctor came back in. She was followed by a nurse and had Tori's chart in her hand.
"Let's have a look here." She said, smiling at Tori who flashed a brief smile before turning to me with a nervous look, "We'll be back to start pushing in about twenty minutes, Tori."
Tori's face lit up and the doctor smiled and patted her knee before she and the nurse exited. Tori turned to me and squealed with delight, throwing her arms around me as best she could. I hugged her back and kissed her and then her belly. Twenty minutes they came back in with a second nurse. I stood by Tori the whole time, holding her hand and brushing her hair away from her face.
Surprisingly for such long labor it was about a thirty minute delivery, Tori managed to crack every knuckle in my hand, but she didn't scream or cuss at me like in the movies-though she did manage to tell me through one horrendous push that she was never having another baby, the next one was all mine.
I just smiled, kissed her hand and said okay before she crushed my hand again. And at 9:45pm, 16 hours after we arrive at the hospital, Katrina Andrea West-Vega was born at 10 pounds 8 ounces with wisps of dark hair and chocolate brown eyes. The nurse went to hand her to me but I stepped back and pointed to Tori. Tori held her arms out and cradled the small bundle in pink in her arms. I sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over her.
I kissed her temple and cupped our babies head, rubbing it with my thumb. She was crying, and Tori was trying to shush her to no avail, but I didn't care. She was ours, and she was here, and she was beautiful. Tori handed me Katrina so she could have her epidural removed and sit up higher in her bed and I sat down in the chair with my baby. She was quiet now, looking up at me with glossy eyes.
I heard a click of a phone camera and looked over a Tori, she was pointing her pearPhone at me with a smile on her face, "My two favorite girls." She whispered, biting her bottom lip. I looked down at Katrina.
"Wanna see momma again, Katrina?" I whisper, standing up slowly. I handed her back to Tori and took my place beside her on the bed one arm wrapped around Tori's shoulder and the other wrapped under our baby, "I'll have the baby next time, don't you worry. But not anytime soon." I kiss Tori's temple and kiss Katrina's head and sit back with a smile on my face.