Long story about everything…for the few who still read this, here you go 3
*********6 months along***********
Rikki was walking to the juice net to meet the others, minus emma. She had been thinking about emma a lot lately. emma had been one of her friends for so long. She wondered what had made emma so mean. Caught up in her thoughts, Rikki jumped when she heard her name.
"Rikki!" the voice called. Rikki looked around. Speak of the devil. It was emma.
Rikki sighed. "What do you want emma?"
Emma looked uncomfortable as she walked over. "Look…Rikki…I owe you an apology. Well, much much more than that actually…"
"No kidding."
Emma took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, okay? I just got ticked at first and it was like the snowball effect…I started noticing every little thing and I got so mad and the others were all against me and…I feel horrible. I miss being your friend and it was stupid for me to be mad in the first place. Okay I'm really truly sorry."
Rikki sucked in air and let it out. "Well I appreciate you apologizing…and I do miss you too…but I mean what made you so mad in the first place?"
Emma grimaced. "Well…I guess I had the total wacko idea that you were just making up the whole baby thing…like for attention or something…or an excuse to let all your anger out on me –"
"It was Aiden! It's not like I wanted to!" Rikki said, hurt.
"I know, I know, it was ridiculous but then you were being such a drama queen…" she paused, gave a half smile, and said, "You know that's cleo's job."
Rikki gave her a half hearted smile. "Yea…I guess I WAS being pretty moody…"
"yea…a little. I really am sorry…I miss you…I mean, and everything…I just got carried away…I wish you could forgive me, but I know that would be asking way too much."
Rikki took a second. "It's not asking too much…and I do really appreciate this…would it be too much to ask you to be my friend again?" she asked, smiling slightly.
Emma grinned. "No, not at all!"
And the two of them hugged for a long time.
***************month 9-the final cut******************
The crew was at the juicenet, enjoying some smoothies, when rikki all of a sudden started feeling kind of funky.
"Guys…I think ima head home," rikki said.
"Wats up?" Cleo and Emma asked.
"I dunno…I just…feel like going home," Rikki said.
"Lemme walk you home," Zane said, getting up.
"No!" Rikki said, a little forcefully.
Z was taken aback. "You sure?? I really think I should."
"I said no."
Emmash and Clewis were skeptical, but Zane, tryping to avoid a blow out, said, "Okay."
Rikki tried to get up with her giant belly, Zane putting his arm around her waist, helping her.
She smiled at them. "Bye, guys. See ya."
"Bye," they answered.
Rikki headed home. It was difficult to walk by this point, being she was due in only 2 weeks. When she got to the house, she saw a note from her dad, saying he would be home at 2:30. It was 2:00.
Rikki sighed and wondered why she had been so reluctant to let anyone help her. She was more intensely moody than usual, but by now she was learning to control it.
Rikki walked into her bedroom. The room looked oddly different. It wasn't the baby crib on the left side of her bed, or the bright pink rug, or the baby bottle and diapers, or the pile of little clothes next to the crib, or even her mirror reflection, nine months preggerz in the full length mirror on her bathroom door. There was something else. Maybe it was the weight of new responsibility, or Rikki now thinking for someone else, someone who was her own who she would be a mother to. Whose little eyes would look out at this world, and pink rug, walking around in those little clothes, entranced by the mobile of mermaids. It was something magical. Exciting. And yet, Rikki was incredibly nervous for this baby.
As she pondered these thoughts, her bladder had something else that was urgent. Again.
Rikki walked into the bathroom. When she was done, she realized she had used a lot of toilet paper, and laughed to herself. That was, until she started feeling wet again.
"I just peed…" Rikki said. It took her a moment to realize that her water had just broken. She ran to her room and got underwear and a pad. Once it was on though, it started to gush. It was then that the pain hit. It crippled her to the floor. She couldn't move, and her dad wouldn't be home for another half hour.
**************************juicenet**************************
"Do you think she got home okay?" Zane asked for the five hundredth time.
"Zane," Ash sighed in frustration, "If you don't shut up…"
"Hey, you shut up Ash," Emma said playfully. "Zane, if you're worried, I think you should go check on her."
"Ah-greed," Cleo said.
"She'll be ticked," Zane answered.
"Oh well…just go," Emma urged, trying to help Rikki in some way.
"Fine…" Zane said, getting up from the table.
He walked the short distance to Rikki's trailer park. He knocked and knocked on the door, with no answer. He was getting nervous. Once inside Zane saw the note. It was about 2.15. Zane walked to Rikki's bedroom, and heard her struggling in the bathroom. He ran over and what he saw shocked him.
"Zane!! OMG HELP my water just broke!!"
"Omg Rikki! Okay…hold on…" Zane was wracking his brains. Rikki was in too much pain to walk, and there was no wheelchair anywhere. Rikki had gotten enough strength to sit by this point.
"I CAN'T HOLD ON DAMMIT! ZANE!!!"
"Okay!" Zane said not angrily. He ran over to Rikki. He helped her up, basically carrying her, his only option. She was breathing heavily and somehow, in this situation, Zane noticed the sweet scent of her hair.
After lugging Rikki to the car, he darted in and started the engine. He zoomed to the hospital as he called Rikki's dad, then Lewis to tell the others.
"Zane…" Rikki panted.
"What love???" Zane asked, still frazzled by everything.
"I'm sorry I didn't let you walk me home, and all the other times I was being a jerk and how I always snap and how I ran away like a total loser and how I'm whiny and how I never think fast enough and how I'm so stressed over all of this and how I yelled at you and made you watch Juno and vomited in front you and just got amniotic fluid on you're car seat and-"
"Rikki! Calm down it's okay!"
"But it's not," she choked, starting to cry.
"But it is…you know why?"
"Why?" she sniffled.
"Because I love you, even if you are moody sometimes and got nastiness in my car," Zane winked, "and even if this baby isn't ours scientifically, it will be emotionally, and one day we will have one of our own," Zane said in a gentle loving voice.
"You're too good for me," Rikki sighed.
"You've got that backwards."
Rikki just rolled her eyes. The unnatural pain wasn't as bad now. "I love you too you know. More than you I bet."
"Fat chance," Zane said.
"I think I do!" Rikki said.
"No, I think I do."
And they bickered until they got to the hospital.
********************************Hospital********************************
Rikki was laying in the hospital, holding the most gorgeous baby she had ever seen. Little Bailey Rae.
She was thinking about what had just been the seemingly most excruciating process over her life.
Giving birth.
It was all a bit of a blur now…
She had seen her father, who was crying, causing Rikki to as well. A bawling Emma, saying she was so sorry, Rikki saying how everything was going to be okay. A strong Cleo, who said how much she loved Rikki, and Lewis and Ash, supporting as ever.
The most she remembered, though, was Zane. He held her hand the whole time. Between every painful contraction, after squeezing her hand lightly, he would say how much he loved her, and tell her some random snippet, or quote, or joke, to make her happier. He never left her side.
As all the events, smeared only with the joy of the thought of Bailey, played through Rikki's head, she felt her love for Zane grow so much stronger. She never thought her heart could hold this much love, but in life there are so many surprises. Even if she realized this through giving birth at age 17 after being raped, something good comes out of everything. She thought about one day when she would get married, how she just knew it would be to Zane. Even at age 17, Rikki and Zane matured, and cherished a love, greater than most adults ever will.
As Rikki lay there with Bailey and Zane, it was the perfect family. And everything just felt right. 3
The End