(My computer was overrun with viruses of all sorts, so I was forced to resort to hand-writing all of my fan fiction… Thank goodness for my sister being engaged to a tech savvy guy! Please enjoy, comments are always appreciated! I had some struggles with Jinx this chapter, tips on how to do it better are welcomed in the comments page ;D )
"This is humiliating…"
"Why? I went through it, a million women have gone through it, and maybe someday even Brandi will go through it! Don't be so embarrassed, c'mon, come to me Mary!" Jinx urged. Perhaps it was her tone, whimsically dancing around each word, but mostly it was because of the fact that Jinx had her arms outstretched with a goofy ass grin on her ridiculously happy face, practically screaming at Mary 'I have the upper hand now, and there is literally nothing you can do about it'. Even when her mother wasn't acting cynically condescending, every word that exited her seemingly devious lips always inflected the sharp taunting that was hidden deep within. Whether it was coming out of a coma because of God knows what or giving birth to her daughter a few hours after the fact, Mary couldn't put her finger on why; all of a sudden she was seeing Jinx as more than just a middle aged woman hiding years of alcohol abuse in her tired glassy eyes. She was more like an actual person, a real woman, with a 'hell hath no fury' mindset no less, who wasn't simply just coaxing her daughter from the hospital bed in which she had been staying, but rather purposely pissing her off , knowing that her daughter moved most stealthily when she was angry. Although Mary didn't want to admit it most of the time, Jinx was her mother and probably knew more about Mary than she gave her credit for.
"C'mon Mary, come to mama!"
With that, she absolutely couldn't stand it anymore- if it had been Jinx's motive to annoy her out of bed she had been successful and if getting her to stop talking baby talk at her meant feeling like an oversized toddler taking her first steps to her overly bubbly mother, Mary would most definitely do it. Mary hated baby talk.
"ALL RIGHT I'LL DO IT! Christ Almighty, if it will get you to shut your yapper I will sprint a God damn marathon with this packing between my legs!" Mary huffed, ripping the blankets from her bottom half, scooting to the edge of the bed, holding in the urge to cry out in pain. Screw drugs during child birth- Mary had practically forgotten what that had felt like already, but this whole walking thing after they had packed her up like something being overnighted by FEDEX- wasn't pleasant.
"Oh my God it's like they stuffed gauze into my uterus- it must look like a horror movie down there." She assumed, she hadn't really had any time to herself to, you know, check to see if all of her parts were accounted for. The doctor only mentioned heavy bleeding; Mary hoped she hadn't strategically forgotten to mention everything was stretched out like silly putty down there, yet again Mary's overactive imagination got the best of her.
"Mary the quicker you stop complaining, the quicker you prove to these ladies you can walk and the quicker-
"WE GET TO SEE THE BABY! I gotchya, just back off for a sec kay?" She exhaled, lifting herself up and pressing her feet to the cold tile of the hospital room floor. She looked up at the two nurses, eying her like two hungry vultures about to attack the same road kill; she hadn't been amusing them today, complaining about hospital food, calling one a "bedpan technician" and now refusing to let them fuss over the first time mommy in whatever "05", they couldn't look anymore unfriendly, usually Mary would find these death stares a fulfilling product of her harassments, but beside herself, they were the ones standing in her way of the NICU. It was the moment that had her re-thinking ever calling the gravy in her lunch "adhesive to keep her hot turkey sandwich together".
"Yikes." Mary closed her eyes once she had completely lifted herself to her feet, opening one she looked toward the ground.
"I have heard no 'splat' so I'm assuming that my reproductive organs have remained in my abdominal cavity…"
"Don't worry; the first step is always the toughest!" Her mother squealed in excitement. As Mary used all of her determination to push her right foot forward, her eyes stung with tears, not in pain, granted she did feel the least bit masochistic as her right foot triumphantly hit the floor in front of her, but in fear. In fear of the tiny person she may see in the nursery. She was afraid to look her own daughter in her tiny innocent eyes and know that if she hadn't been so irresponsible thirty-two weeks ago; maybe that little girl wouldn't have to be laying in an incubator, hooked up to so many machines. It was so surreal, when the doctor informed Mary, she just couldn't imagine, not only that there had really been a baby inside of her, but it was out and not ready to be out to top it all off. What a way to begin the life Mary had been so reluctant to give her. Mary barely realized her left foot habitually following to catch up with her right and found herself staring at her knees, cringing, but still upright, just not completely vertical. Her body ached, screaming for her to sit down.
"Holy hell it feels like I'm being probed with a serving ladle!" she yelled.
"Oh honey, you're doing great, just a few more steps!"
Reluctantly, she forced herself to continue toward her overenthusiastic mother.
"Keep in mind; I'm not doing this for you! I'm doing this to see my kid!" Mary pointed an intimidating finger in Jinx's direction and spun around on one heel to advance directly back to the bed, finding relief from the pain in her gut, ranging from dull to sharp, back to achy and then coming full circle to just plain uncomfortable, radiating from her knee caps to her chest. The nurses had disappeared, but reappeared shortly, baring aspirin and a wheel chair.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Mary fretted, slipping the drugs under her toungue, reaching for her water, "I get myself outta this bed and exert-not to mention embarrass, the hell outta myself walking across this room, just so you can stroll in thirty measly seconds with a wheelchair? I mean, was it so much to hope for that you would let me feel like I've accomplished something for an entire minute? Was that so much to ask!"
"It's protocol ! Anyway, wheelchairs aren't allowed in the NICU and that's precisely where we are going!" she replied coldly, clearly fed up with Mary's commentary.
"Oh, well I'll bring the liquor you condescending- Just before Mary could spit back the venom she had been swallowing difficultly these past fifteen minutes Jinx stepped in.
"Here! You ladies can lead us and I will follow with Mary!" She grabbed the chair from the unsuspecting nurse, and rolled it over to her daughter, her face now completely matching her normal rosy accent of her blush. With fire in her eyes, she looked straight into her daughter's pupils,
"Get your ass in this chair! We are going to see my granddaughter- AND NOT A WORD FROM YOU MARY! NOT A WORD!" she scolded as Mary began to open her mouth.
After that Mary was so stunned, she couldn't speak, which as anyone who had spent two seconds with her would have known to be, extremely unlikely, to say the very least. As they approached the NICU, Mary's heart began to race and the empty feeling in her stomach roared with emptiness. The hollow feeling in her tummy this past day had been her only reminder that there was in fact a tiny baby Shannon in her life now.
She inched over to the automatic doors, forgetting her aching bottom half and began to fumble with the get up the NICU permitted to be worn around the babies. Jinx practically pushed her daughter through the automatic doors, giving her the frustrating push Mary had needed to follow through with meeting her daughter. The gleeful squeals of Jinx filled the room as they approached the squirming pink bundle. Her little arms and legs were curled up, making her seem much smaller than her already tiny four pounds, two ounces. Mary's eyes widened in surprise at her little girl's information card taped to the corner of the incubator, she had seemed so much heavier, Mary blushed looking down at her middle for the first time, maybe those French fries drowned in Hershey's syrup hadn't been a smart choice, now that she looked back at it all.
"It's hard to believe…" Jinx stared at the tiny child, her voice had exponentially softened, nearly to an inaudible whisper.
"What?" Mary asked oblivious to her mother's transfixed gaze on the infant.
"That she's, she's yours." She stated so matter of fact, Mary almost fell over.
"You're mine, yeah that's right kid, you're mine." Mary grinned, repeating after Jinx.
The tiny baby took a moment to examine Mary, who had shamelessly let her tears fall again. What wonder this was, she had a baby. The moments where she had actually been considering relocation flooded back to her, suddenly making her feel guilty, but she had her heart set on making it up to that little girl. If anyone could raise this baby, she could, she wasn't Jinx, she was no con artist, she was U.S Marshal Mary Shannon- Mom to- she cocked her head to one side and grabbed a pen from the basin of a nearby sink. She crossed out the neat print, "Baby Shannon" to replace it with her messy script. Now she was, U.S Marshal Mary Shannon, Mom to Baby Norah Shannon.
