Friday, November 1st. Weeks of pregnancy—30

"Naru! Where did you put the tape?!" Mai yelled from the living room. She was on her knees and her arms were against the large box that needed to be taped up. She shifted around to sit on her butt to give her swollen legs a rest for a moment.

"I think I placed it on the couch." Her husband answered from the kitchen where he too was packing some things. Mai looked, and it was there—half way across the room from where she was sitting. She groaned and went to try to push her up but found she couldn't quite manage to. Her stomach weighed her down too much, never mind the fact it was just plain awkward and tiring trying to stand up while being pregnant, and being exhausted didn't help any. She adapted to just crawling over to the couch and getting the roll of tape. With a panted huff, she crawled back to the box. Once she got on her knees again, she securely taped the box up and wrote 'living room' on it before sliding it over to the other boxes that had the same thing written on them with a grunt.

She and Naru had been talking about looking around for a house to buy for a while, and last week for their second wedding anniversary, Naru decided to surprise her with a listing of potential houses they could buy from. They had spent the entire day going to each one before they finally managed to agree on one together. Mai loved the house and couldn't wait to move into it tomorrow. They had been packing for several days and today was the final day. Their apartment was practically bare now.

Several minutes had passed before Naru came into the room to check on his wife, seeing as how he hadn't heard any movement for a while. He furrowed his brows upon seeing her sitting on the floor with a couple of the packed boxes supporting her back.

"Mai, why are you sitting on the floor?" He asked, stopping in front of her. Mai pouted and looked away from him.

"I can't get up by myself..." She murmured quietly. Naru refrained from smirking as he bent down and grasped her hands to help pull her up.

"Why didn't you just call for me then?" He questioned after he made sure she was steady on her feet. Sometimes she'd get random dizzy spells which he didn't appreciate in the slightest. What if she stumbled and fell?

Mai shrugged, going over to rest on the couch with Naru trailing behind her. "I don't know, I just wanted to rest for a few minutes."

"I don't see how you could rest on the hard floor."

Mai rolled her eyes and smiled. "I was fine, Naru."

Her husband only sighed before noticing the way she had her hand spread across her stomach and a look of distaste on her face. Recognition immediately flashed in his eyes.

"Are you feeling nauseous?" He asked. Her nausea didn't happen nearly as often as it used to, but they were still days when she had it. Wordlessly, she nodded a little, knowing he'd overreact.

"Yes, but it's fine—" But she was too late as he was already out of the room, going to make her tea with ginger in it. She let out a breath of defeat and only continued resting until Naru came back five minutes later with the teacup in hand. "You know I would've been fine without this." She said as he handed her the cup and sat back down beside her.

"If you didn't treat it now, it might get worse later on." He pointed out. Knowing he was right, Mai took a sip and decided to change the subject.

"What time are we leaving here tomorrow?"

"As soon as possible. I already spoke with the others and they'll be meeting us there to help me unload everything." He answered. Mai pursed her lips, noticing how he said 'help me' instead of 'help us'. He absolutely refused to let her help with the loading and unloading things into the SPR van—which was being used to help move their things. Of course she knew she couldn't pick up anything remotely heavy, but something really light would be okay! Now she'd be the only one who wasn't helping. Well, and Masako, since she wasn't even here with still being in America and all. But she knew better than to start an argument over it, having tried once already and failed before she could even finish speaking.

"I can't wait to start on the baby's room! I want to do it as soon as possible!" She grinned excitedly. She shifted around on the couch until her back was leaning against the arm rest. She placed her legs on Naru's lap, ignoring the look he gave her, with her feet on the cushion on the other side of him. Despite the annoyed look that was displayed across his face, Mai knew he secretly didn't mind.

"As soon as possible?" The dark-haired man raised a brow, placing his hands right above her knees since he didn't know where else he put them with Mai practically lying on him. Mai nodded.

"We only have two more months before my due date, but that doesn't mean the baby can't come sooner."

"I thought you said we were going to have the baby stay in our room for the first few months." Naru said, furrowing his brows.

"It is, but only the bassinet will be in there. The baby furniture, clothes, and everything else will stay in the baby's room." She replied, drinking more of her tea. Naru pressed his lips into a firm line, scrutinizing his wife.

"Should you really kept calling the baby an 'it' or just 'the baby'?"

Mai gave him a knowing, sweet smile to what he was alluding and shook her head.

"I'm not going to give anything away, Naru. I've already come this far without saying anything, and you are going to wait until this baby comes out to find out if you have a son or daughter. Or who knows, twins." She grinned teasingly as his skin turned noticeably paler at that word. She knew he was already afraid of having one baby, but having two would be outright terrifying for him. And for her as well, especially since this was her first pregnancy.

"The likelihood of you having twins are slim. I doubt you will especially since I am an—"

"Identical twin, not fraternal. I know." She emphasized teasingly with a grin. Every time she jokes about twins or if the word even comes up, he has to go into "scientist mode" and explain how usually only fraternal twins have the probability of producing twins themselves. "And if we do have twins then it'd probably be from my genes, not yours."

Naru gave her a small glare for interrupting him. "You don't even look big enough to look like you're carrying twins, and you only have two months left of your pregnancy."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry I brought it up, I won't do it again." She tried to soothe him. Not believing her from the smile on her face, her husband narrowed his eyes at her. "I promise."

"You better have." He warned her. Mai nodded to reassure him. While it was fun seeing him squirm like that, she would keep her promise. He begrudgingly admitted to her last week that he would be frightened of having twins seeing as how he didn't even know how he was going to care for one baby. It made her smile at the thought, everything about it from how awkwardly he told her to his expression. God, she loved that man.

"You know we never have discussed baby names." Mai mentioned after finishing off her tea. "We would have to pick out boy and girl names since you don't know what we're having." She flickered her gaze to her lap and pressed her lips together to refrain from smiling at the annoyed look on Naru's face. He hated it when she rubbed it in that she knew what the baby was and he didn't.

"You know, you could be wrong."

Mai confidently shook her head. "I'm not."

"The doctor hasn't told you."

"So? It's mother's intuition! You've never doubted my intuition before."

"That's your animal inst—"

"Naru." Mai chided him for getting off topic and also glared at him for that comment. It had been years since anyone had referred to her psychic intuition as 'animal instincts'. Naru only smirked. "Baby names!"

The young man let out a breath through his nose, contemplating for several moments. "I think we should wait until the baby is born to decide."

"Really? Why?" Mai tilted her head, curious.

"What if we already have a name set and then once the baby is born it could be completely wrong for him or her? I think we should wait and let the name come to us when we finally get to see our child." Naru murmured quietly, intensely staring at the teacup he took away from Mai a few moments ago. Even though he couldn't see, his wife smiled softly at him, a little shocked. That was the most sentimental thing she ever heard him say.

"Okay." She nodded. "We'll wait then." She couldn't help but continue to stare at him. It was always so cute how he would avoid eye contact when he was embarrassed in any way.

"I'll go finish packing things up." He told her after a few moments, not being able to take her stares anymore. That only made Mai's smile widen but she nodded nonetheless, and as he picked her legs up to get up and placed them back down, she let him escape. She continued to rest for a little while longer before she decided she should get back to packing the few things left around as well. She made sure to stand up slowly; the day before yesterday, she moved around too fast and her vision suddenly became blurry and went black for a few seconds. Becoming momentarily blind, she had bumped into one of the boxes that was laying on the floor and it had made a ruckus, leading to Naru coming to her and asking if she was alright. Shamefully, she didn't tell Naru what happened, but that was the only time she had something like that happen. She didn't want him to worry, but if it happened again, she would tell him.

After a while, just as Naru was coming back into the living room, Mai suddenly let out a painful cry and clutched her stomach, furrowing her eyes in pain.

"Mai!" Naru rushed over to her and kneeled down beside her on the floor. He gently grabbed her shoulders to support her as she let out a deep breath once the pain started to subside. "Are you okay?"

This time she took a slow breath. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine."

"This isn't 'fine', Mai." Naru gave her a stern look. "This has been happening a lot this week; you need to go to the doctor." Without warning, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the couch. He laid her down and sat on the edge of it, one of his hands resting on the other side of Mai to support himself.

"It's just the baby kicking." She insisted.

"The kicks haven't ever hurt you this much before." He pointed out.

"Well, the baby is getting bigger and there isn't much room to move in there." Mai gestured to her stomach.

"I still think you should go the doctor." Naru said seriously. He remembered what the doctor said the warning signs of preeclampsia was, and with how Mai had been acting lately, it's hitting too close to home. Mai let out a breath through her nose.

"I have another checkup Monday... I'm sure it's nothing." Mai said, but Naru wasn't convinced especially with the way she had an arm over her stomach.

"Mai, this is serious. You need to go to the hospital." As soon as the words came out, his phone began to ring. He sighed in annoyance before standing up and answering it. Mai watched as he walked behind the couch and started to talk to the other person in the line. From the sound of it, it was Lin. He was supposed to be looking after the office today with Madoka so she and Naru could finish up the packing before tomorrow, which surprisingly the office will be closed then.

"Alright, I'll be there soon." She heard Naru say before he hung up. She frowned. He's leaving?

"Where are you going?" She asked, looking up at him.

"I need to go to the office for a bit, and it's not you it's we."

"What? I don't want to go!" She frowned even more. And you shouldn't be going either. It was just supposed to be the two of them today.

"Mai, I am not leaving you here by yourself, especially after what just happened." He told her sorely. Regardless of the fact that she was upset with him for going to the office when he promised her he wouldn't, Mai honestly didn't feel like going anywhere. She was tired, and now irritable, and she just wanted to stay home.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere. I don't feel like it, so either leave me alone or don't go like you said you weren't." She shot back. I am so tired of these crazy hormones! Her husband closed his eyes for a moment, as if debating something, and she looked away.

"I know, I'm sorry." Naru stated, realizing why she was suddenly so angry. "But something came up and I need to go." He leaned down over the back of the couch to get closer to her face. "I won't be gone no more than an hour, and I do not want you to get up from this spot for whatever reason. Lay down and watch TV while I'm gone." He ordered after thinking it over. The sharp pains in her stomach never seemed to happen while she was lying down, so as long as she stayed where she was, she should be fine until he got back. Though he hated the idea of leaving her alone, her staying here would be better than her getting up and going anywhere. He'd only be ten minutes away.

Mai bit the inside of her cheek. "Fine, whatever."

Naru gave her a kiss on her forehead before handing her her phone which was laying on the table beside her. "Call me if you need anything and I'll come back sooner." He said before grabbing his coat and leaving.

Huffing, Mai laid in silence for a few minutes with her arms crossed over her stomach. Really, and the day had been going great... She shook her head and reached for the TV remote and turned on the television. Mindlessly she flipped through the channels until she went through them all twice and still found nothing to watch. After a while she decided just to cut the whole thing off. She sat up, feeling better than she had after that painful attack. She knew Naru said not to get up from where she was sitting, but surely that didn't count when she needed to use the bathroom? Nope, gotta go!

Coming out of the bathroom, Mai found herself wandering into the kitchen. She needed to make sure everything Naru packed was packed and done correctly. For him to be great at so many things, packing was not one of them. The young woman smiled slightly at the thought, looking through the boxes. Apparently his skills were improving. It wasn't quite the mess she was expecting. At least it seemed she didn't have to re-pack anything.

There as one box left she wanted to check, which was under another box. Sighing Mai grabbed the bottom of the top box to half pick it up, half guide it's way falling. Just as the box left the surface of the other box it was under, another sharp pain went across her stomach. She let out a cry and fell to her knees as the box slipped out of her hands and its contents spilled on the floor. As lightheadedness began to come over her, she realized the pain wasn't disappearing like it normally does. Is it not the baby kicking then?

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Mai started to crawl her way into the living room, through the intense pain. She felt too out of it; something was wrong. The baby... She panicked. She managed to reach for her phone and call 119.

"Please state your emergency."

Mai gritted her teeth as her vision began to swarm. "Am...ambulance..."

"Can you please give me your location?"

"Um..." Beads of sweat slid down Mai's face as she tried to remember. The pain was too much. She was only half way done giving the operator the address when the darkness took over her.

Naru silently cursed when he checked the time on his phone. He had already been gone for a little over an hour, not to mention the ten minute ride home. Mai was not going to be pleased with him. She was upset enough as she was.

"Shouldn't you be heading home?" He looked up from his phone at the sound of Madoka's voice. "Everything's fine now."

"Yes, I'm about to—" As he was putting the phone back into his pocket, it began to ring. He furrowed his brows at the digits displayed across the screen, since only a few selective people have his number, while Madoka joked that Mai was already calling him to come home. "Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Kazuya Shibuya?"

Naru suddenly had a bad feeling form in his stomach. "Yes."

"I'm calling from General Shibuya Hospital. I'm calling on behalf of your wife. She was admitted about forty minutes—"

"What?" Naru couldn't help but cut the woman off. How could Mai be at the hospital? What was wrong with her? He just left her not long ago! "What happened? No, never mind." His mind was too frazzled at the moment to realize he had just hung up on the woman, not that he really cared anyway. It wasn't until he was almost out the door and Madoka called out to him did he forget he didn't inform her and Lin of anything.

"What is going on?" Madoka demanded worriedly. Lin and Madoka glanced at each other before looking back at the younger man.

"Mai—she's at the hospital." Was all he said before hurrying out of the office. It only took a few moments before they were following right behind him.

"Noll! Noll!" Lin and Madoka tried to catch up with the man, who took long hurried strides and was a good deal distance away from them.

"Naru, wait!" Madoka chased him after taking off her heels and shoving them into Lin's chest for him to take. She placed a hand on his shoulder and yanked him back right before he burst through the hospital doors.

"Madoka, let me go." Naru growled as Lin managed to finally reach them and shrugged off her hand.

"Naru, calm down first." The Chinese man told him, handing Madoka her heels back. "You can't burst in there and scared everyone to death. You don't even know what happened."

"If Mai called a hospital first instead of me, then I'm certain it's serious." He shot back, glaring at two for getting in his way.

"Calm. Down." Lin ordered quietly once he noticed the apprehensive looks bystanders were giving them—or more specifically Naru. It seemed he was frightening people just by his tone and appearance. "Stay here with Madoka, and I'll go see where Mai is."

"You're not—"

"I'll come back and tell you. You'll be the first to see her." Lin assured. He made his way into the hospital before Naru could say any more, leaving him and Madoka to wait outside.

"She's okay. Whatever is going on, Mai will okay. She always is." The pinkette tried to console him while putting her heels back on. Naru said nothing and kept looking straight ahead. He wasn't even going to bother to give a respond to that. How could she be so nonchalant about this? Mai wasn't some indestructible human being; she wasn't made of steel. It angered him that people seemed to think this way of his wife. She could get hurt, or worse, and broken like anyone else. Just because it hasn't happened so far doesn't mean it won't.

Lin came back after what felt like an eternity. As soon as he told him the ward and room number she was in, Naru was on his way. Madoka and Lin followed him until they got on to the floor Mai was on and decided to wait in the waiting room, knowing Naru wouldn't want them there especially since it might 'be too much of a crowd for Mai right now'. The Chinese man didn't like the idea of leaving Naru to himself, but he seemed to calm down a little as they got closer to seeing Mai.

"Let us know when you find out anything." Madoka warned her former student. He gave a nod before continuing on to Mai's room. Numerous hallways later, he finally found it.

"Are you Mr. Shibuya? Mai Shibuya's husband?"

The dark-haired man turned around just as he passed the nurse's station and was about to enter his wife's room. He saw a middle aged woman standing behind the desk with a look of slight distaste. He then recognized the voice—it was the same woman who called him to inform him of Mai's hospitalization.

"Yes, I am." He answered, reluctantly walking over to the desk.

"Well, the doctor would like to speak with you before you go in." The nurse informed. "Nothing extreme though. I will tell you she's fine and so is the baby."

"Thank you."

"I'll let the doctor know you're here." She said before going down the hall. It took several minutes for her to come back, something that made Naru even more impatient. Mai was so close and he couldn't even see her yet. Is she even awake?

"Ah, Mr. Shibuya."

Naru turned and saw a man who looked to be in his sixties coming to stand beside him. "How's my wife?"

"She's...okay now. It seems she began to have extreme pain in her abdomen and she managed to call for an ambulance. She was unconscious when they found her, but she woke up not long after they brought her in." The man explained, and Naru silently let out a breath of relief that she was awake. "Your wife has a hypertension pregnancy."

Naru momentarily closed his eyes. "She just went to the doctor a little over a week ago. She was fine—"

The doctor held up his hand. "I've already spoken with her and from what she told me she's been having symptoms of it all week." From the look he saw on Naru's face, he continued warily. "She hasn't told you anything?"

"No... I know she's been having some sharp pains in her stomach, but she kept writing them off as the baby kicking. She's never told me anything else." The father-to-be clenched his jaw. Why didn't he notice her having any other symptoms? More importantly why didn't she tell him? Because she hates people worrying about her. She probably did too much as well with their preparations for moving.

"Well, I've looked through her records, and it seems she has had quite a rough pregnancy." The doctor mused. "And considering she almost had a miscarriage when she was four months pregnant, I want her to stay on bed rest until the end of her pregnancy, or until further notice. Her obstetrician can decide that. I've already told your wife all of this, but I have a feeling she doesn't listen to doctors much. Perhaps she'll listen to you."

"She doesn't listen to anyone. She's stubborn that way." Naru wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed at that, but right now he was leaning more towards the latter. The doctor chuckled.

"Well, she's awake so I won't keep you any longer; I'm sure she's eager to see you. Just make sure she rests. No standing or walking for more than a few minutes."

"I will." Naru gave a nod, and made his way back to Mai's door. Without knocking, he walked in. She was lying down with a lot of different machines hooked up on her arms, chest, and stomach. She looked pale, but she was awake. He went around the bed to sit down in the chair beside her.

"Hi..." She said. It was barely audible, but he still managed to hear it.

"How are you feeling?" He asked softly, sitting down. She shakily held out her hand for him to take, and he gently grasped it.

"Just tired." She jutted out her lips for a moment after he kept quite for a while. "Naru..."

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry." She didn't say anymore and she didn't have to. She watched as Naru closed his eyes and leaned his head down until it rested on her hand that was holding his. He stayed like that for a while, and Mai slowly ran her fingers through his hair. Sometimes he would let her see those expressions that said he was worried about her or those rare ones that said he was happy, but when he was overly afflicted, he still refused to let her see.

Finally, he lifted his head back up after he got his façade built again and put his hand on the side of her face.

"Mai... if not for me or anyone else, do it for our baby. Take your health more seriously, stop saying it's nothing to worry about."

Tears pricked her eyes. She's screwed up so many times already during this pregnancy and it's put their baby at risk almost every time. What kind of mother was she?

Nodding with more strength than Naru had seen since he's been there, Mai reached out and grabbed his hand that was still caressing her face. She swallowed thickly, trying not to cry.

"I will, I promise."

*gasp* I actually posted only a month since the last one this time! So this chapter was probably boring and I feel like it wasn't written that well, but yeah, sowwy. Mai's so close to giving birth though... Hehe. Which means this story will end as well though. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Thursday, and to those who are not Americans and do not celebrate it...hope you had a great day! XD

Please review~!