"Best Friends Forever"

Nicole and Richard Watterson's Love Story

Chapter Four: The First

After their storybook wedding, Nicole and Richard went to France for their honeymoon. Nicole's dad had enough in his savings to pay for the trip and stay at a three star hotel in Paris, the city his daughter had always wanted to visit. But instead of the perfection they were expecting, it turned out to be a general headache.

As soon as they arrived at the immortal city of lights they got ripped off by a cab driver, who drove them around town on purpose to make them pay more than they should. When they reached the hotel the concierge couldn't find their names in the registry, so they had to spend the night in the lobby until the next day, when another couple was checking out and they could have their room. And the worst part was when they were having dinner at one of the many traditional French restaurants in the area and the waiter asked Richard if he wanted to check the menu, and Richard, who didn't understand a lick of French, thought the waiter was insulting him, so he tried to pick a fight with him. As much as Nicole would try to tell him what that really meant he just didn't listen, and he wouldn't calm down, so Nicole had to drag him back to the hotel, right after apologizing to the poor waiter.

After a while of experiencing Paris they decided that the trip wasn't relaxing at all, so they decided to cut it short. What should have been a two-week-long stay turned to a four-day-long torture. When they arrived back home they couldn't help but sigh in relief. They returned to their usual routines almost instantly: Nicole had her job at the Rainbow Factory and Richard searched for one for himself, but as much as he looked and applied for a career he was always turned down. 'You're not qualified', they said. 'You don't have any skills whatsoever', they said. One company actually told him that he smelt funny. After a full month of going through the job section of every single tabloid he could get his hands on, he finally called it quits and decided to stay home. After all, his wife made enough money to provide for the both, so he wasn't worried.

A few months later Nicole was walking up the stairs to head towards her room, when she noticed the white door on her right. It was the last door down the hallway and behind it was a room big enough for a child or two, but it was empty, and that somehow bothered her. When they had first bought that house they had decided that those rooms weren't going to be empty forever, but somewhere along the line they had forgotten that. As Nicole entered her room she was determined to bring that up again to Richard as soon as she had the chance.

Later that night as Richard was putting on his pajamas, Nicole entered their room trying to sum up the nerve to discuss that delicate topic with her husband.

"Richard, honey?" she could feel her heart start to race.

"Yeah?" Richard squeezed his head through the collar of his pajama sweater.

"Do you remember the first thing you said when we bought this house?" Nicole waited eagerly for his reply. Richard rubbed his chin in thought.

"Oh yeah!" he stuck out his index finger. "I said: 'I sure am going to enjoy having barbeques here!'"

"No, not that. The other thing."

"About how we needed to hang a basketball hoop out back?"

"No…" Nicole placed her hand on her forehead and took a deep breath before continuing. "The thing about how we needed to fill up the rest of the rooms?" Richard's expression turned to thought.

"Nah, I think we have enough junk already."

"Not fill up like that, fill up like… you know… 'fill up'?" she made air quotes with her fingers as she pronounced those words. Richard's expression turned again, this time to recognition.

"Oh…OHHHH..." he had finally understood what she meant. "You mean…"

Nicole nodded. Richard gulped nervously. The topic of procreation had been familiar to him since they first started having Sex Ed. in school, but when it came to actually practicing that subject… let's just say he was still a rookie.

"Are you sure about this?" he inquired his wife.

"Absolutely." she answered, taking a few steps towards him. "Think about it: we have more than enough room, I make more than enough money and I really think a child would bring more joy into our lives." she advanced a few more steps. "So…" she took a few more steps and was now only a few inches away from him, gazing at him seductively. "…what do you say…" she caressed his cheek with her hand. "…Mr. Watterson?"

Richard was speechless. He was seeing a side of Nicole he would have never even dreamt about seeing: a flirtatious, sensual, lustful side. Even though he was blushing like a schoolgirl, he liked it. He liked it very much.

"Let's do it!" he smiled mischievously at Nicole, who grabbed his sweater collar and pulled him into a deep passionate kiss right away. He returned the kiss with great pleasure as they moved towards the bed. When they both collapsed on the mattress they started to remove each other's clothes.

It was going to be a night to remember.

A week later the Rainbow Factory was visited by a group of high school students, who had scheduled a field trip there, and Nicole was assigned to give them the tour, no doubt because she had been on her boss's soft spot since the day she was hired. It would have been a normal work day for her, if it hadn't been for one thing…

She had just shown the tour group where they inserted the ingredients necessary to produce a rainbow into one of the many machines operated in the factory, and was now leading them towards the area where they added the glitter.

"And after they're turned into all the colors of the rainbow, the final product comes here, where this particular machine sprinkles them with glitter so they can be shiny when they're shot into the sky." she explained to the students, keeping her happy tone constant. "Afterwards, it-"

And that's when she felt it: her heart started beating uncontrollably, she was producing more saliva than it would be normal, she got some sort of metallic taste in mouth, she was breathing hardly, and she felt woozy, so woozy she had to lean against one of the building's support beams to keep herself from falling down.

"Are you OK?" one of the students from the group came up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "You look kind of pale."

"I don't feel so good… I think-" before she could finish that sentence she felt an acid substance coming up her esophagus. She only had time pick up a nearby trash bin and release a mouthful of vomit into it, making the tour group step back in disgust. She wiped her mouth and stoop up straight. "I am so sorry! This is so unusual! I'm never sick in the…" she froze in shock. "…morning." She threw the bin away and ran out the door, right after telling one of her co-workers to finish the tour for her and tell her boss that she had to take the rest of the day off for health reasons.

While all that commotion was happening at his wife's work, Richard was at home, flipping through channels on the TV, bored out of his mind. He was about to doze off into one of his many daily naps, when Nicole slammed the door open, snapping him out of his sleepy state. He was now fully awake.

"Hey, honey. You're home soon." he checked his watch: 10:05. "Really soon!" she moved towards him with a grin so wide it was scary, like a serial killer right before making his first victim. He was starting to get scared. "Is… is everything alright?"

"Oh, Richard…" she squealed, unable to conceal her delight. "Everything is just wonderful! Look!" she practically rubbed what she was holding in his face. It looked like a white and blue pen, but it was thicker and flat. In its center was a small green circle, which appeared to be a little screen, showing a blue plus sign. Richard forced a smile out of himself.

"Wow, that's great…" he tried to fake some enthusiasm. "Really! Good for you!" Nicole frowned.

"You have no idea what this is, do you?" she asked in a monotonous tone.

"Not a clue." he replied with indifference. Nicole groaned.

"Richard, this is a pregnancy test."

"Huh..." he still didn't get it.

"A positive pregnancy test!" she applied special emphasis on the word 'positive'.

"Huh…" then his eyes widened. "Wait! You mean… you're…"

"Yes, Richard, I'm pregnant! We're gonna have a baby!" her enthusiasm returned. Richard got up, picked his wife in his arms and twirled her around, both of them letting out laughs of excitement. They hugged each other tight and cried with joy.

"We're gonna be a family…" Nicole whispered between her sobs.

As the months went by Nicole realized that pregnancy wasn't a picnic. Her morning nauseas didn't disappear until her final month, the baby wouldn't sit still for one minute, and as soon as it started kicking it never stopped. She had terrible cravings, which most of the time meant Richard had to get up in the middle of the night to run to the gas station and buy her some of the most ridiculous edible items known to man, and her mood swings were horribly unstable. One minute she was fine, the other she was depressed, the other she was furious… Richard had learned a long time ago to stay out of her way when she had emotional issues. Someone or something would always pay.

Nicole had refused to stay home while she was pregnant. Even though her boss insisted that she should take some time off to rest she kept telling him she was fine. Eventually he gave up and let her decide her own life.

Now the baby's expected birth date was coming up, and they were fully prepared. They had bought all they needed in terms of baby furniture, bottles, toys, you name it. They even had reserved a room at the hospital on the specified day, but unfortunately that had to be postponed…

One morning Nicole was driving to work with a full-grown belly, and was about to make a turn, a turn she would have missed if she wasn't going in the designated speed limit, because as soon she turned the wheel she felt a searing pain in her abdomen. She was able to pull over after driving on the sidewalk for a split second, but a policeman saw her and approached her vehicle, determined to give her a ticket.

"Ma'am, do you realized you could have run over a pedestrian? You need to-" he ceased his talking as soon as he saw Nicole, who was grasping her enormous stomach in pain, the seat beneath her completely wet. Her water had broken. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"NO, I'M NOT ALRIGHT! I'M GOING INTO LABOR, YOU FREAKIN' IDIOT!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, the pain being too much for her to bear. He ignored the insult because he was too busy panicking. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and called an ambulance to that location.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" Richard had just arrived at the hospital. He had gotten a call saying Nicole was there, giving birth to his child. After driving like a maniac he was now yelling desperately at the nurse at the reception. "WHERE'S MY WIFE?! SHE'S IN LABOR!"

"Oh, you must be Mr. Watterson!" she checked her computer. "She's in Delivery Room 2-B. But you can't-" before she had time to finish Richard had already ran to the elevator and was frenetically pressing the 'up' button.

When he got to the right floor he ran down the hall to Delivery Room 2-B, from where a doctor had just come out, fully dressed for the delivery, his gloves drenched in blood. Richard stopped right in front of him, panting hardly and trying to catch his breath.

"Mr. Watterson, I presume." Said the doctor, his voice muffled by the surgical mask.

"Ye… yeah… that's me…" Richard was breathing with difficulty.

"I just got paged saying you'd be here." Continued the doctor. "I'm afraid you can't come in just yet. Your child's delivery is being harder than we thought." Richard stood up straight.

"How hard?" just then he heard Nicole scream loudly from inside the room. It sounded like she was being murdered, slowly and painfully. Richard gulped.

"I have to go. I'll warn you as soon as it's over." The doctor returned inside, leaving Richard alone in the hallway. He sat on one of the chairs available and waited.

Nicole's excruciating pain manifests didn't cease for another four hours, and Richard was starting to get worried. Suddenly there was silence, and the doctor poked his head through the double doors.

"Mr. Watterson? You can come in now." Richard followed the doctor inside, where Nicole was lying unconscious on the bed, her fur in an absolute mess. "Don't worry, she just passed out. The pain and the pressure she applied were too much for her. The nurses will return with your baby momentarily, right after they're done cleaning him." Richard sighed in relief, but then his ears perked up.

"'Him'?" Richard's heart started racing. The doctor smiled at him.

"Yes, Mr. Watterson. You have a son."

Richard threw his fists into the air and started celebrating. The doctor exited moments later to check on the baby, and Richard sat beside Nicole's bed, eagerly waiting for her to wake up and give her the good news. She finally started to come to her senses a few seconds later. She moaned and turned to her husband.

"Ri… Richard? What… what happened?" she asked weakly.

"You did it, honey! You had a boy!" said Richard, still overly excited. Nicole smiled faintly.

"A boy…" she smiled and a tear went down her cheek as her husband held her hand in his. Just then the doctor returned with the baby wrapped in a blanket. Nicole sat up slowly, still feeling weak.

"Mr. and Mrs. Watterson… I present to you… your son." He handed their little bundle to Nicole, but as soon as they saw their son their smiles disappeared and were replaced with expressions of shock and disgust. The baby was a blue kitten, just like his mother, but for some reason his head was compressed into the shape of a pear.

"What the heck happened to him?!" asked Nicole, barely believing her eyes.

"Well, when he came out he had the umbilical cord tied around his head, which was why the delivery was so difficult." Explained the doctor. "It must have been like this from the start of your pregnancy for it to have affected his cranium this much. I'm sure it'll return to its normal shape as he starts to grow, but just to be safe I'd like to keep him here under observation for a few days. And you better stay too, ma'am."

The doctor had to leave again for a few minutes, and Nicole and Richard examined the child in front of them.

"Well, just because he's a little less perfect than I imagined, it doesn't mean I'm going to love him less…" said Nicole, smiling at her newborn child.

"And he does have your eyes!" observed Richard, making his wife giggle with that remark. He picked up his son and lifted him up over his head. "My boy!"

"We still have to name him." Remembered Nicole.

"Ooh, can I do it? I've been giving this a lot of thought, and I have the perfect name!" exclaimed Richard excitedly. Nicole smiled.

"Well, OK… but I name the next one if it's a girl! Or another boy." She pointed out.

"Yeah, sure." He looked at his son again, pride growing in his chest. "You shall be named… Gumball Tristopher Watterson!"

"Gumball?! That's no name for a child!" Nicole was almost appalled. "And Tristopher? Don't you mean 'Christopher'?"

"No, I mean 'Tristopher'! 'Trisha' for short. And Gumball is a fine name! Besides, we have a deal. I get to name this one whatever I want, and I name him just that: Gumball Tristopher Watterson." Nicole sighed at how stubborn her husband was, but she didn't have the strength nor the patience to deal with that right now, so she just let him have that one.

"Fine… but if the other kids laugh at him it's your own fault! Not let me hold him!" She stretched out her arms and Richard handed her son to her. Even though he was a tad deformed, he was still an adorable little baby. And perfect in his mother's eyes. She smiled at her child and held him even closer. "Gumball… It actually is an adorable name." She smiled at her husband, who did the same.

They were finally a family.

AUTHOR'S NOTE (PLEASE READ)

OK, before you all starting asking, and some of you complaining, here are the reasons why I DIDN'T describe Nicole and Richard having sex:

a) This is a freakin' kid's show!

b) This fanfic is rated K+.

So all leave it to your sick twisted minds to imagine what they did.

And please don't start stressing if I don't update this thing as soon as you want. Believe it or not I have a life outside this website.