Please note that I have no personal history with pregnancy. Researching this stuff is sort of limited on my part. Enjoy.
The saying time flies when you're having fun often confused Lucy. To her, time was just time, you don't loose time and you don't gain time. Everyone had the same amount of time, it's how you use it that is key. At least that is what she thought.
In the dreary morning on a Wednesday, a month since Lucy had gotten back in the WWE, she was worried. The baby was doing fine, it was the reception to the baby that everyone was worried about. Lucy couldn't sleep, Joe was fast asleep and his phone was on the nightstand next to the table. Blinking at the brightness when she activated it, Lucy knew that Joe wasn't an avid Twitter guy, not like Colby was. But still, people could comment on stuff.
Well his recent Twitter pic was of Lucy. Lucy was engrossed in writing, and reading that manuscript of her Mom's. The table was spread with papers everywhere, Lucy had the mechanical pencil in her mouth, she was dead to the world. Her stomach, large for four months, was poking out from under the shirt she was wearing.
"She looks like a cow." Someone said, a comment that is.
Words like fat, ugly, retarded...they were so harsh on her. She didn't understand why, she never did anything to anyone that would warrant such hate from people.
I wonder why Roman shacked up with that bitch. She's ugly.
Tears fell down her face, her hand going to her stomach as comments about the baby started rolling in.
I bet it'll be retarded, too. Just like it's mother.
Words hurt, but when that fear was already imbedded into Lucy's head, the fear that her child may be autistic, that she wasn't beautiful enough, that she was fat...add to it the hormones of being pregnant. She just didn't know how to cope. Dropping the phone on the bed she bit her finger, a way for her to stay quiet, to be present enough to not try to wake Joe up. Since becoming pregnant, he'd stayed with her a lot more, it was getting to the point where she and Colby had to force him to leave her. But now, she didn't want to wake him from a well needed sleep.
But Joe knew the moment he felt her moving around that Lucy wasn't asleep. He'd gotten used to her having to get up in the middle of the night if she wakes up. The woman lived off less sleep that he did and when he felt her shaking, not from being cold but from crying, he knew something upset her.
"Babygirl, what is it?" He pressed his face into her hair. "Come on, you can tell me."
"I think it was a bad idea that we told the fans about us." She said, her voice shaking.
Pushing her hair off her shoulder, Joe kissed her flesh, making her shiver. He knew how sensitive she was to his touch. She always told him that it was something that tells her his touch was right, it was appropriate. He also knew how she felt about his facial hair. The scratchy feeling of his chin always made her toes curl, like little shots of electricity zapping down to the soles of her feet and to her finger tips.
"Why do you say that, Babygirl?" He asked, his voice rumbling against her skin.
"I read some of the stuff they say about me, about the baby."
"I'd ignore them if I were you." He adviced, nipping at her skin on her shoulder. "I'd worry about me."
"Why? You don't scare me, Samoan." She turned to look at him.
"You better be. You woke me up. What's up, can't sleep?" He asked, making her turn so that she was facing him.
"I think it's insomnia." She answered not meeting his gaze.
"Don't do that, Babygirl." He said, making her look at him. "You know you can trust me. You can tell me anything."
"I can't decide if I should stay or if I should go. My contract is coming to an end soon and...I...don't know if I should stay on the road with you or go do the one thing that I am comfortable with."
He smiled. "I will support you, it's your choice, Lucy. You come first, you and the baby come before my career."
"I still want to advocate for the autism awareness stuff, that I can handle. I'm just not sure I can handle being on the road and being a mom at the same time." She reached up and began playing with his hair. She liked twirling it around her finger and watching it curl in response. "And the idea of not being with you hurts."
"I think that's why you can't sleep. You're worrying yourself sick, Lucy." He said before kissing her forehead.
Joe knew this was hard for her. As much as he would love for her to go on the road he knew there was his child that he was going to have to worry about. Her Maternity leave would be coming up in a month, when her contract was up at the beginning of August. She would have to decide to go back to work after the baby was born. But would she? Would she come back on the road, with a baby in tow no less, or would she rather the child to grow up around his family back in Florida?
"Sleep, Babygirl. We have to go to the doctor later today to see how our baby is doing."
They've been so busy with appearances, interviews and shows that it was hard to time a wellness exam for the baby. Lucy was already taking prenatal vitamins, and making sure that she was eating the right things and exercising the right amount to keep swollen ankles in check. Her breasts, she joked, were starting to get bigger. She'd never really taken interest in her breasts, they were there since she got them. Now they were tinder to the touch, and Joe seemed to forget it sometimes.
When the doctor's appointment came around, Colby and Jon were bored out of their minds so Joe suggested that they come along to the appointment with him and Lucy. Trinity and Ariane had treated Sophia and Nessa to a shopping spree, although Lucy suspected it had something to do with the baby. Nevertheless, The Shield were able to come join in on the sonogram of the infant, but it would forever be a shock for them.
Colby like usual was filming the event on his phone. Jon was unusually quiet, usually he was cracking a joke about something to Lucy, trying to get her to laugh. But today he was a bit sullen. Was it because he didn't want to be there, no that wasn't it and Lucy wanted to ask but she thought it would be too much of a personal question. Joe on the other hand was always right there, holding her hand and telling her everything was going to be okay.
Joe was at the chair next to the exam table, there was an ultrasound machine in the room and it seems so small to her even as Colby and Jon stood at the door. The doctor came in, a nice older woman who reminded Lucy of a mother herself, the gentle kind one she remembered her mother being.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Ravi." The woman said, she was Indian, not Native American but from India. "Who are these gentlemen?"
"This is my boyfriend, Joe. That's Jon and the one with the phone is Colby. He's sort of the videographer for us. I'm Lucy Ferguson."
"I'm suspecting Joe is the father here?" Dr. Ravi asked.
She wasn't going to tell the doctor that it was a stupid question but...eh...she let it go. "Yeah, he is. Because we travel a lot with the WWE it's hard to get an appointment for a sonogram."
"Are you taking care of yourself in the mean time, vitamins and exercise and eating habits?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Lucy responded, watching the doctor prepare the machine in the room.
jon had never been in one of these things. Not that Colby did either and Phil would be waiting for them back at the hotel so that he could give them a lift to the next house show. Everyone would meet back there so that they could hear about the appointment. But right now Lucy was curious about the baby.
"Okay, lift your shirt and lower your pants, I'm going to tuck this towel in for you." Dr. Ravi said standing up.
The first pictures were hard for Lucy to see, or understand. It looked like a blob in there, a mass. It wasn't until the doctor started pointing out different body parts that Lucy figured out that it was a baby in there.
"Oh my..." The doctor said, startled as she adjusted the wand on Lucy's stomach.
"What?" The four people asksed.
"Well, they're definitely there."
"Wait, they?" Lucy asked, lifting her head up.
Phil never had this many people crammed in his bus. The Shield, Lucy, Nessa, Sophia, the dog Kevin, The Usos, Trinity, and him, it was a little stuffy now. But Lucy wanted this, she wanted family to be there, and since Phil was now her friend and confidant, he felt honored that she would want him to be there to learn about the baby.
"I always thought I was having a big baby, not that he isn't enough already." Lucy tried to joke, jabbing a thumb at Joe who was rubbing her feet on the couch.
"Funny, Babygirl. Very funny." Joe replied as he pushed his hands up her calf.
"But there is a reason for it. I'm about seventeen weeks along, which in a normal pregnancy I shouldn't be this big." She indicated to her stomach.
"So it is a big baby." Nessa said. "Is it healthy."
"They're doing just fine." Joe answered, smiling.
It was one word that seemed to be overlooked, Lucy thought as everyone else but The Shield congratulated the happy expecting couple.
"Wait..." Phil spoke up after everyone else. "You said they. They are okay. What the hell are you talking about?"
Colby was catching everyone reaction on his phone when he spoke up. "That's what we thought at first. It took us a while before we figured it out by looking at the pictures."
Jon handed the sonogram pictures to Nessa. "See, there's the head, an arm, another arm, a leg, there's an arm..."
"Twin! You're having twins?" She yelled at Lucy.
Jonathan and Joshue started speaking to Joe in their Samoan language and everyone started speaking at once. Sophia though saw it almost instantly, how Lucy ducked her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Stop, everyone..." She called out, her voice echoing off the walls of the bus. "You're freaking her out."
"Thanks, Sophia. I...I'm sorry. It was like a crash in on my brain or something." Lucy said, looking at Joe. "I can't wait for the kids when they're old enough to start calling Jon and Colby uncles."
Nessa laughed, wiping a tear from her face. "Yeah, that would be the day. I'm so happy for you two. I get to be an aunt as well, right?"
"Of course. If it hadn't been for you and your insistance i wouldn't have had the courage to approach Joe."
"We got a set of twin Cuzes on the way." Jonathan laughed. "We'll teach them the twin game for sure."
"Oh please don't, I get confused enough as it is with the both of you." Lucy groaned.
"I'm still proud of you, Lucy." Phil spoke up. "You've come a long way with everything going on."
"I know. But I think I've come to a decision about if I'm going to stay on the road or not. I've decided to not. It's not my place, the constant changing, my routines are all mixed up...being around so many people are starting to wear on my brain. I don't think I can handle it. I would like to still do autism awareness stuff, but...I don't think my place is in front of the cameras."
So there it was, her choice. Joe knew it was better for her. As he smoothed his hands over her calf, he smiled at her.
"But it doesn't mean I won't be coming on the road from time to time so that Joe can see his son and daughter."
"They're a boy and a girl? Well there goes the twin thing." Joshua said, rolling his eyes.
Lucy looked at Joe, her hand coming up to smooth back his hair. She was happy with him, happy for him. She knew this was his dream, but hers was always going to be writing. It was her passion, her dream. She would accept that about him and he accepted that about her.
Words meant the world to Lucy, even if speaking them were hard for her to do. This was her story, this was her place in the world, but she chose how the story was going to go.
But it wouldn't end just there. No, she decided that it would go on. It would go on for life until someone else told it for her.
I'm not sure if this was the best chapter nor do I believe it's the ending that I want. I'll have to think that one through to the end, so to speak. In the mean time, what do all of you think?
