Cherished

by InvisiblePrincess2002

A few short months after Clarisse Renaldi finally wed Joseph, the love of her life, the happy, retired couple learns that for whatever divine reason, the good Lord has decided to give them a medical miracle: at their age, as unbelievable as it is, they're actually having a baby! Meanwhile, Mia struggles with several painful, shocking problems of her own that come up along the way.

26. Still Trapped

Chapter 26: Still Trapped

After calling out for help in vain for several long minutes, Clarisse and Joseph finally gave up and resigned themselves to the fact that they were definitely trapped in their bathroom for the time being. Clarisse soon put the lid down on the toilet and sat down and when she did that, Joseph grabbed the stool in the next room and brought it in where Clarisse was and sat down next to her, and for the first fifteen minutes or so that they were stuck in there, Clarisse just basically fought off the urge to push. However, after they'd been in there a little while, her lower back pain suddenly came back with a terrible vengeance.

"Oh, no," she gasped as she tensed up with pain. "There it is again."

"The pain in your lower back?"

"Yes! Oh Joseph, it's terrible. Oh, I need to change positions. I need to get on the floor. I need to be on my hands and knees again like I was on the bed earlier today."

"Hold on a minute, sweetheart," Joseph told her, and then he opened up the big oak linen cabinet that was across from the double sink in the first room of their bathroom. Thankfully, that cabinet was full of extra pillows, blankets, towels, washcloths, and sheets, and Joseph took out plenty of each. Then he put the pillows down on the floor to make a kind of makeshift bed for Clarisse so she wouldn't be stuck on her hands and knees on a hard floor. Then he helped Clarisse get up off the toilet and onto her hands and knees on the pillows.

"Oh yes, that's it," Clarisse said after Joseph helped her change positions. "That's better, but I still need you to put some pressure on my back, Joseph."

"Of course," he said as he got down on his knees beside her – forgetting all about his knee replacement – and started applying pressure. "Is that helping?"

"Yes," Clarisse sighed, and then the pain started to pass. "Okay, you can stop now. The pain's over."

"Alright, dear," Joseph said, and then he removed his hands from her lower back and sat down on the floor next to her while Clarisse relaxed on the pillows.

"Well, Joseph my love, I must say that as far as labors go, this one actually hasn't been too bad. I mean, the pain in my back has been murder today, but still, my first two labors with Pierre and Philippe were a lot more traumatic than this one has been so far."

"Thank God it's going more smoothly than your labor with Pierre. When I found you back in that maternity ward, screaming your head off and hallucinating and actually tied down to that hospital bed, I was never more worried or scared in my whole life, not to mention angry. I could have killed the doctors and nurses that dared to do that to you. I can't even begin to imagine how scared you must have been."

"As long as we're on the subject of past traumatic experiences, I may as well go on and admit it that with the exception of losing Philippe, my labor with Pierre was really the worst thing I ever went through in my life."

"I bet it was!"

Clarisse turned on her left side on the pillows then to face Joseph, and she looked into his eyes and asked him, "Joseph, are you scared now?"

Joseph shook his head and replied, "No, I'm not scared at all. I'm terrified."

Clarisse laughed when he said that, and in the next moment, she reached out and took his hand and told him honestly, "Me, too." Then she laughed again and said, "Who would have guessed that after all our years of living and working together, side by side, one day, you and I would eventually end up married, expecting a baby at this time in our lives, and in alone in another room with you having to help me through another labor?"

"Not me; that's for sure," Joseph responded, and then he gave Clarisse a loving smile and squeezed her hand. "But we got through it once before. We can do it again if we have to."

Clarisse returned the smile and said, "I know. But I will say this. Even though you and I are older now and even though we have all our years of life experience under our belts, I think that deep down in our hearts, we're still those same scared kids we were all those years ago."

"Oh, I know we are. But don't worry, sweetheart. I promise you, everything's going to be alright. I promise you I'll take care of you; of both of you."

They were still holding hands, and it was Clarisse who now squeezed Joseph's hand as she said, "I never once doubted that, darling. I won't try to pretend I'm not afraid about all this, but I know I have both God and you looking out for Isaac and me now, and I couldn't ask for anything more." It was in that precise moment that Clarisse's water suddenly broke, and the instant after it happened, she added, "Except for dry clothes!"

"It's alright, love. I'll take care of it," Joseph said. Clarisse was wearing a pair of light blue silk maternity pajamas. The pajama top was plenty big and it almost went down to her knees, and the pajama bottoms were equally roomy, and in that moment, Joseph slipped the wet pajama pants and underwear right off and put them in the nearby hamper. Then he quickly covered Clarisse's lower half with some of the sheets and one of the blankets he'd gotten out of the big linen cabinet, and he also replaced the pillows that had gotten soaked with dry ones as well.

"That's better. Thank you, dear."

"Don't mention it," Joseph said, and then a couple of seconds later, the pain in Clarisse's back returned again and she had to get back on her hands and knees on the pillows. As she started rocking back and forth, Joseph asked, "What do you need me to do this time, love? Do you need pressure, or do you need a massage?"

Clarisse shook her head then and answered, "Neither. This time, I just want to rock."

"Okay, sweetheart. I'm right here."

After about a minute or so, the pain finally subsided and Clarisse relaxed and said, "There. It's over now."

"You're so brave, Clarisse."

Clarisse waved her hand and said, "It's no big deal, Joseph. Women have babies all the time."

"Well I say it's a very big deal. You really are an extraordinary woman to be so calm like this."

"Thank you, darling. It's just experience; that's all. After so many years as Queen, I guess I learned long ago how to keep my head and stay calm no matter how difficult things got. I mean, it'll hardly do either one of us or Isaac any good for me to get all emotional and go crazy right now."

"This is true," Joseph agreed, and then he lovingly kissed the top of her head.

However, things wouldn't stay all calm and loving between Clarisse and Joseph for too much longer. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, Clarisse went through a series of absolutely awful labor pains in her back, combined with an ever-building, incredibly intense need to push that she felt she couldn't allow herself to give into because she was still hoping against hope that somehow, they'd be rescued and would be able to make it to the hospital in time. Finally, when one really bad, intense pain ripped through her lower back and she yet again had to somehow try to fight off the truly overwhelming urge to push, it was enough to even make Queen Clarisse Renaldi lose her composure and get angry. And in fact, she wasn't just angry, but furious at Joseph for getting her into this mess in the first place, and in those moments, she gave in to the desire to really let her husband have it!

"Joseph, I hate you!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Why? What did I do?!" he asked in shock, trying to figure out just what it was he had done that had made Clarisse so mad at him just now.

"You got me in this ridiculous mess, you jerk! That's what you did! And I hate you for it!"

"Now hold on a minute, Clarisse. Be fair. It does take two to make a baby, you know. And besides, at your age, your ovaries were supposed to have closed up shop already. There was no way I could have known this would happen!"

"I don't care!" Clarisse angrily shouted. "I never will forget the night this baby was conceived. You came into our bedroom and got in bed, and then you started kissing me on that one spot on my neck that drives me crazy! You know perfectly well that when you kiss me on that spot on my neck, I become instant silly putty in your hands and I cannot say no, so for that reason, yes, I can say that this whole thing was completely your fault! And I hate you for it! I wouldn't be in this mess at all right now if it weren't for you and all your tomfoolery!"

Joseph actually laughed then and said, "My tomfoolery?"

"That's right, Joseph! You and your tomfoolery! And I want you to go away from me!"

"Oh Clarisse, come on, now. Be reasonable!"

Clarisse looked Joseph right in the eye in that moment and yelled, "Go!"

"Clarisse, we're stuck in the bathroom! There's nowhere for me to go!"

"Go stick your nose in the corner!"

"What?!"

"You heard me! When little kids in school are naughty, the teachers make them stand with their noses in the corner in time out. And since I'm going through all this pain and frustration because of you and your tomfoolery right now, I am officially putting you in time out! Go!"

"Alright, Clarisse," Joseph sighed as he got up off the floor. "I'll do it if it'll make you feel any better."

"Good!" Clarisse yelled, and then like a good supportive husband, Joseph stuck his nose in the nearest corner next to the sink while Clarisse continued to rock her way through the contractions on her hands and knees.

After another ten minutes passed, Clarisse really couldn't take it anymore. Joseph was still standing with his nose in the corner when all of the sudden, Clarisse let loose with the loudest yell Joseph had ever heard, and right after that, Clarisse started screaming all kinds of different swear words in a multitude of different languages. Joseph really started debating it with himself then as to whether or not he should leave his corner and go back to Clarisse and try to help her. He really wanted to help her, of course, but at the same time, he was afraid that if he did go over to her right now, that would only make her even angrier and more upset than she already was.

However, when Clarisse got so incredibly mad that she started grabbing nearby objects, like her slippers and Joseph's shoes that he'd had to take off because they'd gotten wet when her water broke, and actually threw them across the room, that's when Joseph knew he had to step in. He left his "time out" corner then and knelt down beside her while Clarisse continued to yell her head off in pure frustration.

"Clarisse, talk to me, please. What's wrong, sweetheart? What's wrong?"

"I have never been more frustrated before in my entire life! That's what's wrong!" she snapped.

"Okay, okay. Why are you so frustrated? What's happening, darling? What's going on?"

"I'm frustrated because I am so tired of not being able to push! I'm sick and tired of being pregnant! I'm sick and tired of being old on top of that! I am sick and tired of all this dreadful pain in my back that just never goes away no matter what I do, and I am sick and tired of not being able to push! I have never been this mad or this frustrated before in my entire life and I am sick and tired of it!"

"Clarisse, listen to me, sweetheart. I know you wanted to wait until we were rescued and made it to the hospital before you started to push, but I think we have to face reality now. I don't think we can make it to the hospital in time. I know you wanted Dr. Hart to deliver Isaac, and frankly, that's what I wanted, too, but I don't think we have much choice now. I think you and I are going to have to bring Isaac into the world by ourselves."

"Oh, God help us," Clarisse groaned.

"He will, sweetheart. He will. And I'll be right here with you every step of the way. Everything's going to be alright, so don't worry about anything. Just push whenever you need to push. Your body's telling you to push for a reason, so don't fight it anymore. Listen to what your body's telling you, Clarisse. Do what your body's telling you to do now. It's alright."

A moment later, Clarisse once again got the overwhelming urge to push, and this time, she didn't try to fight it anymore. She just took a deep breath and pushed with everything she had, and it was a great relief to her to be able to do so.

"Yes, that's it, love. That's it. That's it. You're doing great. You're doing just great," Joseph told her as she pushed. When the push was over, he asked, "Did that help?"

Clarisse nodded and said, "Yes. That helped a lot. It was such a relief. Not being able to push was driving me absolutely crazy!"

"I'm sure it was."

In that next second, Clarisse said, "Oh, Joseph, here we go again!"

"It's alright, Clarisse. It's alright. Push," Joseph told her, and Clarisse pushed just as hard as she could, which again, was a great relief to her.

Clarisse continued to push with Joseph by her side for the next fifteen minutes or so, until finally, she told Joseph, "Joseph, this position just isn't working for me anymore. I need to try something else. Will you help me to stand, please?"

"Of course, my dear," he said, and then he helped her up off the pillows.

Clarisse then walked into the adjacent room where the shower and bathtub were, and when she felt the need to push again, she bent over a little bit and started pulling on the towel rack for leverage. She did this several times until one time when she was pushing, she actually ended up pulling on the towel rack so hard that it gave way and came loose from the wall.

"Well isn't this just fine and dandy?!" Clarisse said sarcastically.

"Hold on, darling. Let me help you into the other room, here. I've got an idea."

"What is it?" Clarisse asked as she started walking with Joseph, but then just before they made it into the other room, Clarisse had to stop and get down on all fours again. "Wait, Joseph. I have to push again," she told him as she started getting down on her hands and knees once more. And yet again, Joseph forgot all about his knee replacement and knelt down on the floor beside Clarisse as she pushed.

"Good job, Clarisse. Good job," he told her when she was finished pushing, and then he helped her stand up again and helped her walk into the adjacent room where the toilet was. Then he had Clarisse sit down on the closed toilet where she'd been sitting before and Joseph sat down in front of her on the stool.

"Now, what's this idea of yours?" she asked him.

"It's very simple, actually. You need to pull on something for leverage to help you push, right?"

"Right."

"Well that something is going to be me. Whenever you need to push, just grab my hands and pull as hard as you can, and I'll pull in the opposite direction."

"Oh, yes, that does sound like a good idea."

"I've been known to have them from time to time," Joseph teased, and Clarisse laughed.

A moment later, Clarisse held out her hands and yelled, "Pull, Joseph!"

"Yes, ma'am!" he responded, and then he immediately grabbed her hands and pulled while she pulled on his hands with all her strength, and when she did that, Joseph was actually rather surprised at how much physical strength his wife possessed. He'd always known how strong and healthy Clarisse was for her age, of course, but he had honestly underestimated just how physically strong she could be.

A minute later, she had to push again, and this time, she really needed to just grunt and growl as hard as she could. "Oh, my!" she gasped once that push was over. "I don't believe I've ever made such a ghastly noise in my entire life!"

Joseph laughed because the noise Clarisse had made was really nothing compared to the kind of noises he'd heard throughout his lifetime, and then he told Clarisse, "Don't worry about it, my love. I actually really like the way you push!"

"Oh, quit being so silly, Joseph!"

"No, it's true!" he insisted. "You rule with gusto. You eat with gusto. You even push with gusto!"

"Oh, Joseph!" Clarisse said as she rolled her eyes at him.

In that next moment, Joseph asked, "Are you getting warm? Would you like a wet cloth for your face?"

"Yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Joseph said as he got a washcloth and wetted it at the double sink. Then he started dabbing it all over Clarisse's face and forehead, which felt really good to her.

Clarisse pushed twice more, "with gusto" as Joseph put it, and then after all they'd been through that day and all of Clarisse's hard work, it finally happened.

"Oh, God! Clarisse, he's here! I see his head!" Joseph announced the instant Isaac started crowning.

"Really?" Clarisse asked, unable to believe that it was finally beginning to happen after all the waiting they'd had to endure!

"Yes, really!" Joseph said aloud, his face just bursting with joy and excitement. Seeing his own child starting to come into the world was a feeling unlike anything he ever could have imagined!

"It's a good thing he finally decided to show up, Joseph, because I'm old and tired and I do not have that many pushes left in me!"

"You may be tired, sweetheart, but I promise you, you will never get old. Not to me," Joseph said with tears of joy brimming his eyes, and then he gave Clarisse an incredible kiss.

Then Clarisse needed to push again, and in that moment, she said, "Oh, Joseph," and reached for his hands.

"Yes, Clarisse! That's it! You're doing it! He's coming!" Joseph said aloud as the head started to come, and then he let go of one of her hands so he could support Isaac's head with the other. "You did it, Clarisse!" he told her a moment later. "You did it! The head's out." Joseph had already laid out a big bath towel over his lap to wrap Isaac up in when he came, and he scooted up even closer to Clarisse than he already was in that moment so that his knees were touching hers. "Just rest a minute, darling," he told her then.

But Clarisse shook her head and said, "One more." And Joseph could tell by the look of fiery determination in his wife's eyes that now was not a good time to try to argue with her, so he gave her his arm to pull on while he continued to support Isaac's head with his other hand.

After that push, Isaac's shoulders and chest were delivered. "You're doing great, Clarisse. You're doing an amazing job, sweetheart. Just amazing."

Once Clarisse caught her breath again, she said, "I love you, Joseph, and I appreciate the encouragement, but I don't need compliments right now. I need a progress report. How far out is he now?"

Joseph had to fight to stifle a laugh then. That was so like Clarisse. Her emotions may have gotten the best of her before, which was perfectly understandable of course, but now, she purely practical and logical in her thinking, and she was all business. Queen Clarisse Renaldi had a job to do and the only thing she cared about now was how far she'd progressed in getting that job finished. Joseph just loved it about her that she wasn't interested in compliments or encouragement now, but news of her progress only and nothing else.

"His head, shoulders, and chest are out," Joseph told her. "You're halfway there." Clarisse let out a tired sigh and nodded. "He should come all the way out with the next contraction."

"Oh, dear Lord, I hope so! I'm too old for this sort of thing, Joseph!"

"Nonsense, Clarisse! Nonsense! You're just getting your second wind!"

"Oh, shut up!" Clarisse told Joseph, and he laughed. Then a couple of seconds later, Clarisse cried out, "Oh, Joseph, this is it! He's coming!"

Joseph gave Clarisse his arm again, and Clarisse pushed one last time. A few seconds later, Joseph announced, "You did it, Clarisse! You did it! He's here!"

"He's out now?" Clarisse asked breathlessly.

"Yes, he's out. He's all the way out now," Joseph replied.

"Thank God," Clarisse sighed, and then she took a quick second to catch her breath again.

But then Clarisse and Joseph realized something: silence filled the room, not the sound of the crying of a newborn.

Clarisse asked Joseph then, "What's wrong, Joseph? Why isn't he crying?"

"I'm not sure," Joseph replied as he dried his son off with the towel in his lap.

Clarisse locked her eyes with Joseph's in that moment and told him, "Give him to me."

Joseph knew that voice. It wasn't the Clarisse voice he was used to, but the authoritative, commanding voice of the Queen, and he knew exactly what that meant. He knew that the Queen was about to take charge of the situation, and he knew to do exactly as she said and not to argue, so he immediately handed Isaac over to Clarisse like she said.

For the next several moments, Clarisse put Isaac over her shoulder and patted his back, much like a person would do when she was burping a baby. Mercifully for Joseph and especially for Clarisse, in that next second, Clarisse's patting on his back caused Isaac to cough up some mucus, and he let out a nice, loud cry. And the instant he did that, both of his parents started crying right along with him.

"Yes, that's it, sweetheart," Clarisse told Isaac through her tears while he continued to cry. "That's it. Good boy. Good boy." Then a moment later, she said to Joseph, "Get me a clean towel, would you please, dear?"

Joseph was actually too stunned to respond. It was the most incredible thing he'd ever seen! As a man, he couldn't even begin to imagine the agony of childbirth, and yet Clarisse had just endured it all astonishingly well, and on top of going through such a painful experience, she'd kept her head even when their son hadn't been breathing, and she'd figured out what to do to get him to start crying. To say the least, Joseph was in shock. In awe.

Clarisse then snapped her fingers in front of Joseph's face and said, "Earth to Joseph."

"Huh?" he finally responded, and this time, it was Clarisse who had to stifle a laugh.

"Joseph, I need a clean towel over here to wrap Isaac up in."

"Oh, right! Right," he said, and then he got up from the stool and got a fresh towel and handed it to Clarisse, who wrapped it around Isaac.

For the next several minutes, Clarisse held Baby Isaac in her arms and just simply stared into his little face, taking in all his features, and Joseph continued to stare at both of them, again in pure awe, and they didn't say a word. They just sat together and listened as their newborn son's crying turned into adorable cooing, and they looked into their baby's face, trying to absorb everything that had just happened.

As it turned out, Dr. Mackenzie's declaration in the beginning that Isaac was bald was not at all accurate. He had a head full of blonde hair just like his mother's, which pleased Joseph immensely. Joseph had dark blue eyes and Clarisse's eyes were a lighter shade of blue, and Joseph was equally pleased when he saw that their son also had his mother's light blue eyes. However, his nose, cheeks, chin, and profile were all Joseph's, and Clarisse just loved that.

A few minutes later, the placenta came and Joseph got rid of it. After that, Clarisse started getting chills and feeling shaky, and while she didn't tell Joseph what was going on at first, she did ask him to take Isaac for a while.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" he asked after he took Isaac in his arms.

"I'm just tired."

It was then that Joseph saw that his wife was actually visibly shaking. "Clarisse, you're shaking. Come on. I'll help you over here to the pillows, and then you can get under all the sheets and blankets I got out of the linen cabinet earlier. We need to get you warm."

Joseph set Isaac down on one of the pillows for the moment, and then he picked Clarisse up off the toilet seat and carried her over to the makeshift bed he'd created and laid her down and covered her up. Then he picked up Isaac again, and got down on the floor next to Clarisse and sat down next to her with Isaac in his arms.

"Don't worry, Joseph," she told him after he'd moved her. "It's normal to be shaky after giving birth. I really got the shakes after Philippe was born."

"I just want you to be comfortable, that's all," Joseph said, and Clarisse laughed.

"I hate to break this to you, darling, but it's going to be quite a while before I really start to feel comfortable again. In movies and TV shows, they portray it as though a woman can just lose all the baby weight she's gained, get back on her feet, and be perfectly back to normal the moment after she gives birth. Real life does not work like that."

"I know it doesn't, but if I have anything to say about it, you will be comfortable, or at least as comfortable as possible while you recover. We'll get you whatever pain medication from Dr. Hart, and you know I'm here for anything else you need."

In that very moment, Isaac cooed again and Clarisse laughed and smiled, and then she touched his little cheek and looked up at Joseph and said, "Right now, Joseph, as long as I can be with you and look into the face of our child, then I have everything I need."

Joseph gave Clarisse a very long kiss then, and looked into her eyes and smiled. They'd been through a lot. They'd had a very hard night. Clarisse was still in a fair amount of pain from giving birth, and they were both exhausted. And on top of that, they were still trapped in the bathroom! But yet, as they cuddled together with their new baby that night, their hearts were filled with nothing but pure joy.