"Honey, is it too soon? I have a little less than a month left. What if something's wrong?" Karen panicked while she lay in a hospital bed. Felicity was sitting next to her, brushing her mother's hair, and Will was in a chair next to the bed.
"Kare, the doctor said that you and the baby are fine. Stop worrying."
"Where're Jack and Grace. I need Jack." She tapped her foot around at the foot of the bed. Will rolled his eyes and stopped her movement with his hand.
"You need to settle down." Jack rushed through the door and ran over to his best friend. He pushed Will out of the way and pulled her into a hug.
"Are you okay, Karebear? You sounded so weird on the phone. Is everything alright? How's the baby? It's too soon." Karen bitch slapped him across the face, effectively silencing his rant. "Thank you, I needed that."
"We're fine, Poodle, I'm just in labor. Where's Grace?"
"She was moving too slowly for me so I just left her." As if on cue Grace walked through the door of the hospital room. "What took you so long Grace?"
"You left me." She walked over and pecked Karen's lips. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, honey."
The hours passed by very slowly. Karen's contractions were getting closer together, but she wasn't dilating very quickly at all. Felicity and Grace had gone down to the cafeteria to get some food for everyone. Karen had dozed off and Jack and Will were both watching her, enjoying the sweetness of her face.
"So, did she talk to you about names?"
"We haven't decided on anything. We thought that we'd have at least another month." Will said, nervous yet excited about the birth of his son.
"Well, did she say anything about her dad's name?"
"What are you talking about?" His confusion was evident and Jack decided to explain his question.
"Karen and I got some baby name books a few months ago and she hated everything in them. I suggested that she name the baby after her dad and she told me that he had died when she was seven. She got really weird about it, but I think she was interested in the name."
"What was her dad's name? I don't think she's ever told me."
"Joshua."
Will thought in silence about the name of his baby boy. He wasn't sure if Karen even wanted to name him after her father, but he felt the need to discuss it with her. He liked the name and the way she had occasionally talked about her father showed what respect that she had had for him. The meaning behind the name was deeper than the name itself and he would agree with Karen if she wanted to use it.
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At four o'clock in the morning Karen finally gave birth to a baby boy of six pounds and nine ounces. Everybody was in the room with her; she was too scared to let them leave, and they witnessed the blessing of a new life. She cried when the first sounds of her baby were heard over the heart monitor and she knew that her life would never be the same.
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Karen had just finished bathing her two and a half month old son, Joshua, and was getting ready to lay him down to sleep for the evening. She kissed his soft head and held him close to her chest while singing a lullaby, tenderly calming him into sleep. She put him in his crib and turned on the monitor before walking out of the room.
She walked to her bedroom next door and lit a few candles on the night tables. It had been months since she and Will had made love and she finally felt that her body was ready for it again. He had been working late and she took that opportunity to fill their bedroom with a romantic vibe before he returned home.
She opened up a bottle of wine and poured it into two glasses before she walked into their large closet and changed into a dress that she knew that he remembered. It was the dress that she had worn on the night that they first made love, or rather had casual sex in her limo, and she kept it in her closet for a special occasion like the present. She had done her hair and makeup earlier when Joshua was sitting in his bouncy seat so all that she had left to do was wait for her fiancé to return home. She sat down on the bed and picked up her glass of wine, taking a slow sip and letting the liquid caress her throat with ease.
Two hours and countless glasses of wine later Karen still hadn't heard from Will. She was drunk for the first time in a long while and felt extremely angry. He should have called if he was going to be so late. But what if he was hurt? No, he was just being insensitive. Her thoughts were turning grim when the phone next to her bed rang.
"Hello?"