Only a couple of weeks in advance of Valentine's Day 2013, Stephanie had been in for a pleasant surprise. Her primary doctor in Greenwich had seen fit to remove her arm cast after she had worn it for weeks on end, and it was a day she had been lying in wait for ever since she had woken up in a hospital bed in Winnipeg. Had she not been sitting down during the procedure, her knees would have buckled at the dreadful aroma that accompanied the removal of her cast, a result of dirt and grime being trapped underneath the plaster. Chris, who had been standing at her side while the medical saw cut through her cast, had pinched his nose and made a joke out of it so she wouldn't be completely horrified.
The skin on her left arm was patchy, the limb looking almost foreign to her and entirely unlike the image she recalled in her mind. While her leg would require physical therapy with a professional after the cast came off, her arm was a different story. The doctor had given her a list of helpful exercises to regain mobility in her arm and wrist, including, but not limited to: wrist curls, wrist extensions, finger extensions, and ball squeezes. She had been fitted with a removable splint, the straps attaching easily with Velcro, and was instructed to remove it for bathing and sleeping only.
The cast still covering her left leg and ankle was a nuisance, but she could make it a few more weeks, or even another full month, if that was the amount of time required to escape it. What mattered most, in her mind, was that the finish line was rapidly approaching, and as long as she could see it, she had hope. Her facial injuries had faded the month before, disappearing altogether a couple of weeks prior, and it had been a relief to look in the mirror and not have to see bruising or swelling anymore. The accident was still claiming one part of her body, but she had her face and arm back, and that was something to be thankful for.
She had tried to find out about the insurance on their rental SUV while last visiting Winnipeg to see what they could work out with the driver of the vehicle she had collided with, but Chris had kept her blind to it since their return home. He wanted to deal with the more pressing matters and leave her to concentrate on the pregnancy. That's the kind of man he was, and she was thankful she wouldn't have to dive headfirst into a mound of stress and could enjoy the little things, like feeling Renner's kicks and keeping a personal journal to track his growth as the days and months advanced. Visits to Dr. Womack were a regular, weekly occurrence, and she had become invested in Stephanie's progress in a more personal sense. Either that, or she was a great actress, but Stephanie liked to think her concern came from a genuine spot in her heart.
Stephanie's family had spent the better part of her pregnancy snapping pictures of her, at family gatherings and what not, to document her physical growth for their personal archives, but the time for professional shots had arrived. There was no telling when she would be pregnant again, so she felt an almost incessant need to capture the remaining days she would spend carrying her son. It was something she would want to remember forever, and since her arm cast had come off days before, she felt the time was right. Chris had done all of the detailed work, contacting a set of photographers whose work he had stumbled across online, until finally deciding on one woman he thought perfect for the job.
Brenda Furlong was a brunette, curly-topped woman, whose full midsection flashed itself often and unattractively through a set of ripples lining her snug-fitting shirt. Her oval eyes were a rich shade of brown, large and paired with a wide nose, set off by a thin-lipped mouth that made up for the vast overtaking of her more dominant features with its mousy appearance. She greeted Chris and Stephanie after being beckoned by the front desk receptionist, having been busy inside one of the many studios that made up the enormity of the building. Soft voices could be heard from all around, fellow photographers instructing their customers on how to pose as they snapped various shots from the adjacent studio rooms.
"Hi, I'm Brenda. It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said, first sticking her hand out for Chris to shake, followed by Stephanie's. She took notice of the splint on Stephanie's arm, and then her eyes traveled down to her pregnant belly and, finally, the cast on her leg. Chris would have preferred to wheel Stephanie in but, now that her arm was somewhat free of restraints, she had insisted on using her crutches to get around.
"It's great to meet you, too," Stephanie smiled.
"I believe I remember speaking with you over the phone," Brenda directed at Chris before turning back to Stephanie. "You're wanting to take some maternity shots, is that correct?"
"That's what I was hoping for," she replied. "My arm cast is removable, so I can take that off if I need to for the pictures, but I was hoping we could find a way to work around my leg so the cast doesn't show up in any shots."
"Of course we can. We'll find a way," Brenda promised, smiling sweetly as she reached out and brushed a hand over Stephanie's bulging belly. "When are you due?"
Stephanie flinched, which Chris took notice of and began rubbing her lower back, his fingertips drifting in smooth circles. They had recently had a discussion about how Stephanie despised it when people she didn't know took it upon themselves to touch her belly without asking permission. There was no other occasion in life when a perfect stranger would have felt entitled to touch her stomach out of the blue, so it didn't make sense to her that they would do it simply because she was pregnant. To deem it a pet-peeve would have been an understatement, but she bit her tongue to avoid being short with the woman and overlooked her annoyance for the good of the day running smoothly.
With a devout effort to separate her gritted teeth, she replied, "In April."
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"It's a boy," Stephanie answered, all signs of tension melting away, almost as if they hadn't existed to begin with. As adverse as she was to touching from strangers, she adored answering questions about her growing baby boy. He was her favorite subject, and she was certain he was Chris's preferred topic point, too. "We recently finished decorating his nursery, so I figured I might as well get my pictures taken before he makes his grand entrance."
"You must be so excited," Brenda beamed, and something in her demeanor told Stephanie she was a fellow mother. They were all standing near the front entrance, and when a young couple tried to come in behind them, they all moved aside to allow walking room.
"We are," Stephanie answered.
"We couldn't be more thrilled," Chris added, kissing the tender spot just behind Stephanie's right ear. She shivered against his body and he smiled, loving the effect her was able to have on her with a single kiss. Contrary to what outsiders might have assumed, their sex lives hadn't slowed any due to the accident or her pregnancy. They had simply found more creative ways to be together, which only served to spice their love lives up to the max.
"Shall we head back?" Brenda signaled, pointing towards the hallway that would lead them to her designated studio.
"Let's do it," Chris said, sliding his hand to Stephanie's backside when Brenda turned around and giving her a discreet squeeze. Stephanie swatted his hand away, trying to stave off a smirk, and started off behind Brenda with the help of her crutches.
The big photo shoot was underway.
Trish grunted, squinting in concentration as a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead and over her eyelid, forcing her eye closed. Her palms were planted firmly on the yoga mat below and she was positioned in an arm balance, legs outstretched in front of her with flexed feet, while she supported her body weight solely with the use of her arms. Paul was on the floor with Elisabeth, keeping her occupied with a colorful set of building blocks. She was content to build the tallest structure she could, after which she would absently swipe it to the ground and giggle in the face of such destruction before beginning the process all over again.
Paul was always kept on his toes with his child, but he couldn't deny himself a chance to admire the impressive physique on his wife, and he found himself sneaking glances at her in between helping Elisabeth construct massive buildings. Lately, Vince had been giving him orders to show up at the NXT tapings in Winter Park, Florida, which was all well and good, but it was just another commitment to take him away from his family. He was grateful to Vince for entrusting him with such a responsibility, but he couldn't help but wonder why he was being chosen so often for outside business tasks. The thought crossed his mind a time or two that Vince was using him to fill the void Shane left behind when he resigned from the company three years before, but there was no way to confirm it.
When he broke away from his thoughts, Trish had soundlessly lowered herself back to the ground after her Firefly Pose and was in the midst of a Wheel Pose back bend, breathing rhythmically in and out. Her breathing was methodical, and he didn't want to interrupt, but if there was anyone who could shed some light on his situation, it would be Trish. She was the most intuitive woman he knew. "Why do you think Vince is asking so much of me all of the sudden?"
Trish exhaled loudly and through pursed lips and turned a tense eye on him, annoyed by his interruption. "Can we talk later?"
"I need you now, though."
"I'm...busy," she panted, facing forward once more and holding her pose. Paul sighed and lowered his body even further onto the floor, so he was positioned on his left side. With his elbow digging into the carpet, he balanced his head in his left hand and watched Elisabeth play, kissing her cheek when she crawled over periodically and poked him in the chin.
"Mommy has no time for me, Eli," he sulked, drawing an imaginary line with his forefinger from his eye and all the way down his cheek to signify a tear. Elisabeth stopped in her tracks, holding a block in both hands and suckling her pacifier as she tried to read him. "At least you still love me, right?"
Elisabeth dropped the block to the floor with a light thud and crawled into Paul's lap. He picked her up the remainder of the way and stood her up, her tiny feet on each of his thighs, as he held her hands for balance. She leaned in, resting her forehead against his cheek, and Paul rubbed his thumbs over her fingers, too wrapped up in his daughter to notice Trish until she was at his side. Her face glistened with a light coat of sweat, and she pushed her headband further into her loose hair, snapping the shoulder straps of her tank top as she readjusted it.
"Now you're making me mad," she said, pointing an accusatory finger in Paul's face, though he recognized her playfulness.
"What did I do?" he asked, putting on his best show of innocence. Trish wasn't buying it a single bit.
"I wasn't trying to ignore you, but I take my yoga very seriously and you know that," she replied. "I don't like you implying that I don't love you, even if it's only a joke. How many times do I have to make it clear how in love with you I am?"
"You made it pretty clear last night," he chuckled, his laughter screeching to a stop when she narrowed her eyes at him.
"How about you stop making crude jokes in front of our daughter," she suggested, lips turning up in a smile as her eyes brimmed with unheard laughter. "Last night really was amazing, though, wasn't it?"
"I told you," he laughed. She brought a hand up and ran it over his sheared hair, letting her palm trail down the length of his face and come to a stop at his neck. Before she could lean in for a kiss, Paul was already coming to her, but their lips had only been pressed together for a span of a few seconds when Elisabeth took it upon herself to bring a hand to each of their cheeks and push them apart. She uttered garbled baby jargon from behind her pacifier and held their faces until each of her parents moved away from one another. "Hate to break it to you, kid, but if Mommy and I didn't do this kind of thing, you wouldn't be here right now."
"Would you quit it?" Trish slapped his leg, and he shrugged. "We have at least another few years until she's asking where babies come from, so let's not accelerate it."
Having left a glass of iced guava juice atop their dresser, Trish rose from the floor and dusted her palms on the thighs of her spandex pants. She crossed the room and took a sip from the glass, a couple dew drops falling to the carpet below as she drank from it. Paul's next question came abruptly and without warning, nearly making her spit her drink out altogether. "Are you pregnant yet?"
She choked the last bit of liquid down, eyes blinking rapidly as she spun around. "Sorry, what?"
"I just wanted to know if you were pregnant," Paul repeated. Elisabeth grew fussy the longer he restrained her, so Paul set her safely on the floor, and she crawled back to her awaiting blocks and got back to work. His eyes scoured her stomach, as if he could tell just by looking whether or not she was carrying their second child. "I thought maybe you would be by now."
"You're my husband, sweetie. If I were pregnant, which I don't think I am, but if I were, don't you think you would be the first person I'd tell?"
"I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part."
Trish puckered her lips, resting her back against the dresser's frame for support. "I know you want another baby, and it'll all work out, but you have to let it happen. We've been trying for one pretty hard, and when it's meant to happen, it will. Be patient."
"I'll try," Paul said. He reached out for the snagged bottom of Elisabeth's dress and pulled it back down over her diaper when a corner of it got caught. "Do you want to do something fun today?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know, but we have the day off, so I was thinking we could find something to occupy our time," Paul suggested. "It's cold outside, but we could go to a children's museum or an indoor park, maybe even the mall. There must be something in this town we could do."
"It's your hometown, so you would know better than I would about what there is to do here."
"If I find a place and call my parents to invite them along, would that work?"
"Go for it. If you'll watch Eli for a bit, I'll take a quick shower, and then I'll be ready to go."
"Thanks, sugar."
"Anything for you," she smiled. She turned her back and opened the top drawer of the dresser to select clean clothing to change into, but, as always, she never ceased to surprise Paul. Even when he thought she wasn't paying attention, it turned out she was. "About the Vince thing you mentioned earlier, I really think he just trusts you. He knows your strengths and your mind for the business, so he wants to make good use of you while he still can. You're an intelligent, well-spoken man and a perfect person to recruit the young guys and bring them up."
"So you don't think he's trying to make me take on the brunt of what used to be Shane's work?" Paul wondered. Trish mulled it over for a moment, going back to what type of boss Vince had been when she was still around. If there was one thing he wasn't known for, it was trying to replicate people of the past. Moving forward, he always attempted to create new people to help handle the company, and this time didn't appear to stray from the norm.
"I don't think Vince would want you to be a carbon-copy of Shane," Trish guessed. "I bet he just sees potential in you and knows you've got the ability to fill whatever void was left by anyone who resigned from the company within the last year or two. You're doing a really good job, and if he wants to entrust you with that responsibility, then let him. Don't you want to help create new stars and make sure the business is still going strong for whenever you're long gone? You've got to retire at some point."
"I know, you're right," Paul conceded, adding under his breath, "as usual."
"I'm a woman. We know these things," Trish winked, turning back to her clothing. "Back to the topic of babies, though, you know whose baby I can't wait to see?"
"Chris's and Steph's?"
"Yep," she smiled. "He's going to be ridiculously cute. I'm really excited for them, and Stephanie's getting so close to her due date. She sent me a picture from her phone yesterday. It was her and Chris, and he had his hand on her stomach. She's gotten so big, and it's really cool to see."
"I guess even our friends are in parenting mode. I'm just waiting to see how many they end up having, because once you start having kids, it becomes addictive pretty fast," Paul joked.
"It does," Trish laughed, pulling out a low-cut blouse as she nodded in agreement. "Very addictive."
After two hours, several outfit changes, and constant switching of backdrops and locations, the digital proofs were made available to Chris and Stephanie on a small computer inside the photography studio. They scoured each of the shots, Stephanie picking out her favorites while considering input from Chris. She selected the sizes she wanted the chosen pictures in, writing her order down on a sheet of paper she had been supplied by the studio. With a promise that the disk containing her photos would be ready in 3-4 days, Chris helped Stephanie out of her seat and they ventured off to the car, but not without thanking Brenda for her time and effort.
The customer service of the studio had been incredible, and, in addition, their lighting accentuated the professional makeup and hair job Stephanie had gotten before showing up that morning. Her hair was teased to add volume near the crown of her head, and the ends were curled inward, creating large, natural-looking waves. Since almost every outfit she had brought to change into was dressy, Stephanie left the studio in a t-shirt, loose pants, and a puffy jacket to maintain her comfort. Thankfully, Brenda had been patient with the amount of time it took for Stephanie to change due to her injuries, but Stephanie allowed Chris to help her each time, which sped the process immeasurably.
A bright smile was awaiting Chris when they got to the car and he checked Stephanie's expression. There was no greater satisfaction than making his bride-to-be happy, and he obeyed his sudden urge to kiss her, pressing his lips roughly to hers and stealing her breath away in the process. When he felt Stephanie losing her balance, Chris slipped his hands around her waist and held her in place, laughing against her lips when she dropped her crutches altogether. He hadn't checked the parking lot, but he was hoping they weren't giving some poor, innocent person a show.
They pulled away laughing, and Chris swooped in to kiss Stephanie's neck when she tipped her head back. "Let's get in the car before we do something together that gets us arrested."
"Good idea," Stephanie giggled. She felt a solid kick from inside her stomach, precisely where Chris's hand was pressed, and he experienced the thud right along with her. Over the course of the past few months, Chris had rested against her stomach all hours of the day to feel the baby kick, but no matter how many times he basked in the sensation, it never grew old. "He's telling you to stop your shenanigans and help me into the car."
He turned a pair of tender eyes on her, kissing the tip of her nose before directing his attention back to her stomach. "Let's go before our little man loses his patience," he chuckled. Chris helped Stephanie into her seat and opened the back door to replace her clothes and crutches in their designated spots. When they were back on the road, he took notice of the time and decided it would be a good opportunity to make a pit stop and grab some lunch. "Do you want to get something to eat, babe?"
"Yeah, I'm so hungry."
"I figured you would be," he acknowledged. "That photo shoot ran longer than we thought it would, but I can't wait to see your final pictures. You were stunning back there."
"Thanks," she answered shyly, twirling several lone strands of hair around her finger. "And, also, I don't know if I really ever thanked you for this, but I appreciate all of the work you put into Renner's nursery. It looks incredible, and I can't wait to invite my parents over so they can see it. My mom is going crazy at me for keeping it a surprise from her, but I wanted them to see the whole thing when it was finally finished."
"They won't believe their eyes."
"I bet they won't."
Chris pulled off at a small local restaurant, where Stephanie allowed him to take the reins and order for her when the waitress made her way over. They were left alone to wait for their food and Chris reached for Stephanie's left hand, turning it over in his own as he assessed the leftover damage. It was refreshing to see her arm out of the plaster cast but a little disheartening to find that there was a lot of swelling that still hadn't gone entirely down. He wanted her to be fully healed before the baby came, and time was running out.
"We're going to have to ice the hell out of your arm and hand," he said. "We need it to be healed by the time you get your leg cast off in a few weeks, and then you can put all of your focus into physiotherapy and getting used to walking on it again."
"I feel like it'll be extra hard walking on it now that I've got so much added weight," she said, patting her stomach. She smiled at her extended belly, rubbing it gently. "Besides meeting you, being pregnant has been the greatest thing that ever happened to me. There's something new every day and, at first, the baby was only someone we talked about, but it didn't seem completely real. Now, I can feel him moving and growing, and he's this little human being I'm carrying. It's the most amazing feeling, and I hope you feel it, too."
"I feel it a million times over," Chris solidified. "Taking time off from wrestling and my band was the smartest thing I did for us. I've been able to spend valuable time with you that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and it's almost like we've gotten to know each other all over again, if that makes any sense."
"It does."
"Yeah, you know, because we've changed so much over the years, and it feels like I got reacquainted with the side of you I never really saw anymore because I was traveling so much," he admitted. Stephanie smiled from across the table, biting her bottom lip as she waited for him to continue. "We've come so far since that first day on the road when you told me you were pregnant, and I'm proud of the work we put in. We could have given up on each other, but we didn't, and that's all that matters. Who would have guessed it?"
"Guessed what?" Stephanie asked, resting her chin in the palm of her free hand.
"That the innocent, brown-haired girl I met almost 14 years ago on my first day of work was going to become my wife and the mother of my child."
"I didn't. I assumed we would be casual friends at best, nothing more," she said. Stephanie took a sip of her water and lowered the glass to the table, adding, "I'm glad I was wrong."
Chris brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to each of the fragile knuckles on her hand. "Me too, gorgeous. I'm so damn glad you were wrong."