A/N: OK, so I did some estimates and I'm pretty sure this is going to be seven chapters…and then maybe an epilogue. Yup…
Thanks to: Demon Flame, .Lu (Aw, poor squirrel!), LyllithWho (Excellent choices ^_^), queenith2, Indigo-Night-Wisp (I can try to put some John in here for you somewhere…), Fantasyfan4ever, Rogueslove22, aecul, Raven34link, TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba, and Megan 360 (Lol! I never thought anyone would actually call me that…).
This chapter is for Ava, because I'm borrowing your name.
…
"Alright hon, it looks like you're four centimeters," Nurse Shelby tells me in her soft voice. She stands up as she takes off her gloves and heads for the sink in the corner.
Four centimeters? That's it? My contractions still don't hurt that bad but it's been nearly two hours since I've been here and I'm only four centimeters? I thought the water breaking was supposed to speed things up. But it's not. Nothing is going faster, the clock seems to be moving slower than normal, I'm hungry, I'm cramping, and I have to pee.
And not only that, but now I've inadvertently said that I was going to name my baby Boaz. Damn that stupid man nurse! WHY did his name have to be BOAZ of all things? What the hell is a matter with his parents? Who names their baby Boaz? Me, apparently. NO! I will not name my baby Boaz! I refuse!
I express all of my feelings to Nurse Shelby. Except that part about Boaz, of course. She nods and comes over to pat me sympathetically on the leg.
"I know, it's hard, I've had three," she says gently. "Now how about we get you to the bathroom?"
I nod sadly and she takes the opportunity to start messing around with my IV. Remy and Professor X left the room a few moments ago when Shelby came in and said she was going to check me. Remy didn't have to leave, but he followed Professor X out the door claiming that he was going to go check on Kurt.
I have a strong suspicion that he's actually going to get something to eat and he's just not telling me. But that's ok, he needs to eat too. Still, thinking this does nothing to make me less hungry or make me not mad at him for eating.
He shouldn't be eating! He should be suffering along with me! That's right. That's what I think. Don't judge me!
Have I mentioned that I'm hungry and irritable?
Nurse Shelby is the main person that I like right now. She is being so sweet and caring and attentive that it makes me want to cry. I'm really glad that I got her as a nurse and not someone else. She doesn't even stare when the back of my…er…backless hospital gown comes open as I stand. Though I suppose that's normal for a nurse. Shelby must see a hundred butts a day.
Aaaand back to the subject. Oh wait, there wasn't a particular subject. No subject other than my griping, that is. I try to hold my gown together as I trudge into the bathroom. When I come back out, Shelby is standing there with a robe for me.
See, Nurse Shelby is just awesome.
After helping me into the robe, and then helping me back into the bed, I'm left alone…For about two seconds.
Kurt comes in just as Shelby is going out. His index and middle finger are tied together and wrapped up in two inches of white gauze. He's lookin kind of pale and doesn't appear too chipper as he comes in and sits down heavily on the chair next to my bed that Remy has vacated.
"Rogue…" He says slowly, "Next time I want to do something so stupid…remind me of this," he holds up his injured hand.
I try not to laugh or show that this amuses me in any way. "Um…Ok." I cough quickly and cover my face with my hand to hide the stupid grin coming up.
Kurt stares at me, unsmiling. "Do you know what they did to me? Do you know what I might have?"
"What?" I ask a bit worriedly.
He sighs heavily before he continues angrily. "Since I was bitten by a wild animal, I'm in danger of catching rabies. So they gave me a shot here," he points to his upper arm, "and then another on my ass."
I can't help it, I bust into a fit of giggles. This is so mean and not at all funny, but it's just making my day. Uh...but not as much as the baby coming of course.
Kurt just stares at me, failing to see the humor at all in the situation. Hm, I wonder why?
"Where's Kitty?" I ask quickly, trying to subdue my giggling.
Kurt narrows his eyes, suddenly looking quite pissy indeed. "Kitty left me! As soon as we went down to the E.R., Piotr comes in and Kitty went running off with him!"
My mouth drops at hearing this. Kitty is known for ditching us for what she calls her 'totally like, marvelously hot boyfriend'. But for her to leave Kurt when he needed her there…Geese…That's kind of screwy. And…wait a second…Where did they run off to? I'm up here in labor about to have a baby for cryin out loud! They didn't come see me? Hmph.
Fine, they can just be that way. If they want to run off and make out instead of coming to see me then…they don't get to hold the baby.
Yeah, I said it.
Mwuahahaha…Oh, I am so going to use that to get what I want from now on.
"Hey, where's Remy?" I ask Kurt suddenly.
He shrugs. "I dunno, I haven't seen him."
AHA! So he did go get something to eat!
"But Jean said that she's getting off soon," he continues, "And Logan and Ororo called a while ago and asked what room you were in."
I was just starting to wonder why no one else had come up here…I mean, I know they have jobs and lives but…my baby is way more awesome than their jobs and livelihoods.
"Ok," I nod instead of saying any of that to Kurt who might disagree with my opinion. But he had better not disagree! Not if he wants to hold his niece or nephew! Heh heh….
"Are you bored?" Kurt asks me as he leans back in his chair.
"Yeah," I shrug, "kind of. Who knew having a baby could be so boring?"
His shakes his head slowly before yawning. "Well they always say that the pain is worth it. Or so I hear."
I grin. "I think they say that because of the actual pain, not because of the boredom."
His eyebrows come together as he frowns at me. "Are you in a lot of pain?"
"No, not much. I only hurt when I have a contraction and they only come every ten minutes or so."
"Ok," he nods, still frowning. "But if there's anything you want, let me know, ok? I'll sneak you some food in here if you want, or hook up a DVD player to that TV," he nods at the TV, "or get you some more ice or give you a foot rub. Do you want a foot rub?"
A foot rub sounds amazing right now. My feet haven't stopped hurting for nine months; no matter how many times Remy rubs them for me. But just as I'm about to let Kurt know this, a better idea comes to mind. Well, it's probably not a good idea but…it's what I want.
"Actually," I say to Kurt hopefully, "there is one thing I want…But you might have to get a nurse's approval…"
Kurt leans forward. "Say it, whatever you want, I'll make it happen."
I grin, suddenly liking my brother more than I ever have before. "Well…I kind of want out of here…just for a few minutes? I feel kind of trapped…I want to see the babies in the nursery."
He stands up and confidently starts walking to the door. "You've got it, Rogue," he says over his shoulder, "I'll go get a nurse; be back in a sec."
I highly doubt that he's going to be successful but I find myself hoping it just a tiny bit anyway. To get me out of here, they're going to have to unhook me from the machine that's monitoring the baby's heartbeat and drag the IV out of the room. At least I'm still wearing the robe that Nurse Shelby gave me, so I don't have to worry about mooning the whole hospital.
But I don't think they'll even give me the opportunity to moon anyone. They just want to keep me trapped in here, I know it. It's in the hospital's evil agenda. That's right, on the big white board up at the desk I'm sure it has a list of what to do that day that says something like: get more gloves, perform c-section, go to lunch, torture Mrs. Lebeau until she goes crazy…
I'm sure that's what it says.
I don't even know if I'm supposed to be let out of this room. What if it's unsafe? I have no idea why it would be unsafe, but what if it is? Oh my gosh…what if I suddenly shoot to ten centimeters while I'm out in the hall and have the baby right there?
No, wait…the pregnancy books said that wouldn't happen. Not that I wouldn't have the baby, it said that I wouldn't just spring open like that. Or…actually, it used a lot of medical terms for that, the words spring open didn't appear once. BUT, however, the words mucus plug did appear. But I won't tell you what that is. Judging by Remy's reaction when I told him what it was, and then showed him a picture…apparently people don't like to know those things.
I won't go through that whole interaction, but it went something like…
"Hey Remy, wanna know what a mucus plug looks like?"
"What's a mucus plug?"
"This!"
"…"
"Remy, are you ok?"
"Rogue…why?"
"That is inside of me."
"AH!"
Yeah, that was really toned down version but you get the gist.
Suddenly the door opens and Kurt walks in with a very young looking nurse trailing behind him. She's very small with dark hair and eyes and she looks very nervous. Kurt stops next to my bed and looks at her expectantly but she just shifts from foot to foot nervously.
"I…I don't know about this, I don't know if it's allowed-"
"It's definitely allowed," Kurt says smoothly, "I have a friend who has had children and she said that they let her out of the room."
Geese, when did Kurt become a liar? And when did he become so good at lying? Just as I'm getting over the shock that he's outright lying to this poor girl, he sends her his best grin. Oh lord. That's not good. I slide my gaze over the nurse who is now blushing brightly and wringing her hands in front of her.
"I s-should go a-at least ask someone f-first," she stutters over her words and quickly looks at anything other than Kurt.
I attempt to deliver a kick in Kurt's direction but the blanket over my legs hinders my movement. I didn't think he saw, but afterwards he came up to stand near my head.
"I already asked someone else," Kurt said, "and she told me to get you."
Still blushing furiously, the girl raises her head and narrows her eyes at Kurt. "No she didn't."
I couldn't help but smirk. I feel bad that Kurt is lying to her, but I'm still not going to help her out, I want out of this room. But I'm sure Nurse Shelby would let me out and I'm about to say so when Kurt speaks first.
"She did," he insists in a soft voice, "she said that you were the most talented and beautiful nurse on the floor and no one else would do for this job." He sighs, "Well, ok, I added the beautiful part, but can you blame me? You have seen a mirror, right?"
Oh good lord. He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?
I didn't think it was possible, but the nurse turns even redder than before and now closely resembles a tomato. I swear I think she might be about to pass out. I'm actually kind of worried about it—it's entirely possible that…wait a second…when the hell did Kurt learn to do this? This girls reaction to Kurt's flirting reminds me of myself three years ago when Remy would come around.
My face used to burn a lot in those days. In fact, I think that even after Remy left that it still burned. The last time I blushed that bad…Hm, I think it was on my honeymoon. No, wait, I'm positive it was on my honeymoon.
But I'll skip that story.
Even though it is a nice story…sans the burning face of course.
Instead of responding to Kurt, the nurse lets out this weird strangled squeaking sound and then runs out the door. Well…I guess she's shy and flighty.
I click my tongue in annoyance as I turn to glare at Kurt. "Was that necessary?"
He drops his head and shakes it slowly. "Well she is cute…I just didn't think that she would run off like that."
"Right," I roll my eyes, "well I'm going to call Nurse Shelby and see-"
But as soon as the words are out of my mouth Nurse Shelby is coming through the door and being trailed by a very red young woman. I glance quickly at Kurt, trying to tell him with my glare not to do anything stupid. But he just shrugs at me and the younger nurse is staring intently at the floor.
"You want out of the room, honey?" Nurse Shelby asks me.
I nod quickly and try to look as sad and helpless as I can.
"Well that's no problem. Do you want to walk around to help the labor along?"
"No, no!" I say quickly, though I'm not sure why. Walking would make the baby come faster and that's what I've been wanting. But then, let's remember that I don't want to spring open out in the hallway and deliver the baby there.
"Ok, that's quite alright," Nurse Shelby nods and then tells the other nurse to go fetch a wheelchair. She immediately scampers from the room, looking very relieved.
It took ten minutes to get everything situated. It's never taken me ten minutes to simply climb out of a bed and into a chair and I never thought that it would. But first I had to make sure that my robe stayed close so that I didn't flash my brother, then Shelby had to pull the little sticky things off of my stomach that hooked me up to the heart rate machine, then when I was climbing out of bed I had a contraction.
It was a little worse than the others. Still not unbearable, but it wasn't comfortable. Kurt held my hand and patted me on the head like I was a dog, but I was grateful to have him there to hang onto. Shelby waited patiently and murmured words of comfort while the red nurse, who turned out to be named Ava, looked extremely panicked and kept asking if she should go get a doctor.
That was annoying.
Finally we got me completely situated in the chair with my IV hanging on the back of it. Both the nurses leave us—Shelby stressing very hard that we come get her before I get back into bed—and Kurt is left to push me along. We were just walking down the hall when Jean and Scott came from around the corner and spotted us.
Scott ran up, wide eyed and started looking first at my lap, then at the nurses walking away, and then at Kurt.
"Did you have the baby?" Scott asks as he eyes my stomach uncertainly.
"Yes, Scott," I respond in a flat tone, "I had the baby and I'm still this big. It's unfortunate, isn't it?"
Scott blinked and then looked at me seriously. "Rogue…if you keep acting sarcastic then you don't get the present we brought you."
"Oo, a present!" I grin at him. "Sorry I was sarcastic now where is my present?"
"Good God Scott," Jean comes to stand next to him, looking embarrassed. "Lets think before we speak, ok?"
Scott looks like he wants to say something back to this but Jean cuts him off and thrusts a paper bag at me.
"Happy giving birth day," she smiles brightly, "I hope this will make it a little easier."
I rip into the bag eagerly to find…a biscuit. Good gravy it's a biscuit! Yay! Never have I ever been so happy to see a biscuit. Of course, this biscuit has no butter or jelly or any kind of flavoring whatsoever but hey, it's a biscuit. But that's not all. No, I dig deeper into the bag to find—yay! A…a…something.
"Its chicken broth," Jean answers to my quizzical look.
Yay! Chicken broth!
"Those two are some of the only things that won't make you sick when you're in labor." Jean explains. "Of course, there is still the off chance that they could, so make sure you eat them slowly-"
"Whafm?" I ask through a mouth full of biscuit. What was that she said about eating slowly? Oh well, it doesn't matter now, not after I've just shoved the whole biscuit in my mouth. Oh darn, crumbs are going everywhere. I realize that right at this moment when my mouth is stuffed full of biscuit, my cheeks are puffed out from said biscuit, and crumbs are flying in all directions that this moment of all moments is probably not my most graceful. But I just can't find it in me to care. I'm hungry, dammit!
And of course when I look like this, it's when my charming husband and Professor X decide to re-appear.
"Uh—what are you doing in that chair?" Remy asks worriedly. "And why are you eating? And how is Kurt pushing you with an injured hand? And oh-" he ruffles his hair, looking a bit guilty, "um…Kurt…how did you get up here so fast after I saw you downstairs?"
I roll my eyes and attempt to swallow. I don't look up to Kurt's reaction to this but I hear him behind me sounding confused.
"What? You never came to see me…why are you shaking your head at me like that?"
I jerk narrowed eyes at Remy but he's trying to look innocent. Really, does he not think that I figured him out twenty minutes ago? Now that I've got a biscuit and broth, I'm not so upset with him for going to eat. I know it was kind of unfair of me to be…or maybe not. He impregnated me and it's all his fault that I'm going through this. That's right! Not my fault! All Remy's.
You would understand if you had been there. It went something like…Well, have you ever seen those specials about lions on the animal planet? No matter what the subject is, at some point during the program there is always a scene with the antelopes. They're sitting there, minding their own business, drinking from the waterhole. And then bam! Here comes the hungry lion.
Now just make me the antelope and Remy the lion and you've got the right picture in your head. That's how I got pregnant. Except…you know…the antelope is only halfheartedly fighting and then eventually it's having as much fun as the lion.
I can't say that I didn't enjoy it…BUT…it's Remy's fault. THAT I can say.
"How did your hand get injured, Kurt?" Scott asks as he peaks around me to see Kurt's hand.
I immediately force myself to swallow what I've got left in my mouth. "Kurt got attacked by a squirrel!" I squeal excitedly…maybe a little too excitedly. I promptly clear my throat before looking innocently over my shoulder at Kurt. "Sorry," I say quietly…before I remember something else. Something even Remy doesn't know yet.
But I should hold it in…it would be mean of me to say it. But…when the hell is this ever going to happen again?
"And he has rabies!" And then I clamp my hands over my mouth before I can say anything else.
"WHAT!" Said…well, all four of them said that at the same time.
I glance back over my shoulder again. "I'm sorry…"
Kurt just clenches his jaw.
"I'm having a baby," I pout and rub my stomach for emphasis. "It really, really, really hurts." Actually, it doesn't hurt that bad yet, but Kurt doesn't need to know that.
His face softens a little bit and it makes me feel bad. I shouldn't have said anything. Kurt and his rabies are a private matter. Kurt and his…RABIES. Oh lord. I shouldn't have thought that. Now I have to hold in a bubble of laughter I can feel rising in my throat. I quickly turn away from Kurt so that he can't see, but he's not even looking at me. He's looking at everyone else.
"No, I don't have rabies," he says slowly, "they gave me a few shots because I'm in danger of catching rabies…and I have to go back to get more shots later. But that's not important. What's important is that I do NOT have rabies."
There's a long stretch of silence where everyone just stares at him, and while I'm forcing myself not to laugh.
It's turning out to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. Once again, this is not funny at all, yet…there is something stupidly humorous about my brother catching rabies of all things. I mean, he couldn't have caught something normal, something that would have made me laugh less. Like the flu or the common cold or strep throat. Noooo, he's got to go and catch rabies.
I'm sure he did it just to make me laugh.
But anyway, the whole thing is so freaking hilarious that I—AH! Contraction.
Damn. That's not funny.
Three more chapters…