Chapter 22
"An Unexpected Detour"
A/N: Ah, finally, chapter 22! I really hope you guys enjoy this one, and as always, if you DO like, leave a review or add a fav, share it, all that good stuff. Reviews mean the world to me, and I love hearing from you all. Sorry its been a long minute between these chapters, writer's block is rough. Cheers!
Sakura's phone buzzed. When she looked at the call ID, It was Obito. She answered shakily, "Y-yes?"
"Get upstairs now." *click*
Oh no.
She looked at Ino with a grimace. "Thanks Ino, Obito just told me to get upstairs!"
Ino put a comforting hand on her back. "Hey, its not the end of the world. If Madara is as great a guy as you say, he's not going to ditch you in this. Go upstairs, I'll go grab lunch for myself, you have far more important things to do right now."
Sakura took a deep breath and sighed,"…Okay".
They parted ways outside the bathroom, and Sakura headed upstairs to Madara's office. Her feet felt heavy, and her heart was pounding. She felt on the verge of tears, but knew she had to hold them back so as not to draw attention to herself. When she reached the door she slowly opened it. Seeing Madara on the floor caused her to rush inside in a panic, slamming the door behind her.
"What happened?!"
Obito was still fanning Madara's face with a sheet of paper. "Oh well, you know…he was just so happy, he fainted."
"Don't lie, Obito! Is he mad?" She replied in a squeak.
Her assistant manager waved her over to them and she knelt down next to Madara. He was starting to come to, but not yet aware of Sakura's presence.
"Uhhhggg…Obtio?"
"Yup, right here man."
Madara's eyes opened slightly, staring straight at the ceiling. "I had a dream Sakura was pregnant."
Sakura accidentally let out a nervous laugh and Madara snapped back into reality. He sat straight up and stared at her. "Wait, this is real? This is happening?"
Sakura nodded slowly and began to cry with tears pouring down her face. Madara got up to his knees, pointing at her. "Oooooh no, you don't cry! I'm the one who needs to cry!"
Obito tried to put a positive spin on things with an interjection. "Hey, hey, its not so bad! You guys are a good team, right? You'll be great parents!"
Madara looked at him with a dead-pan stare. "What about me seems "fatherly" to you?"
Obito scratched his chin in thought for second. "Well…You'll balance each other out."
The phone rang on the main line and Madara flicked his eyes over to it, indicating to Obito that he didn't want to answer it, so he grunted and got off his knees and walked over, picking up the receiver with a click. "QualiMart, This is Obito speaking….Oh? He's not available right now, can I take a messa-…oh me too? Okay, what's this about? investigation? Why?"
Madara and Sakura's heads snapped up at Obito's words, Madara knew more about what that meant than she did, apparently, because his face went pale.
"Um, okay. Well that doesn't mean any-…okay, witnesses? Alright, what time do we have to be there? Tomorrow at 8am, got it. Alright. Thanks. Oh, before you go, who is heading this up? Zetsu…no no, not a problem, we'll be there." Obito set the receiver back slowly and looked at Madara, mating his paleness. "We have a big problem, Madara…Sakura."
Madara looked to the ground, as if he already knew. "They know, don't they?"
Obito sat down in Madara's chair and rubbed his hands down his face in exasperation, "That was Martin from HR. Friend of mine. He says they know about your relationship with Sakura and they also know I was aware of it. Zetsu has been busy…"
Sakura felt her stomach twist at the dejected look in Madara's face. He leaned his head back to rest it on the file cabinet behind him, "So what happens now?" He asked in a low tone.
"Corporate wants to meet with us, and Hashirama, whom they are aware also knew. He's in hot water too right now. Madara, we might all get fired tomorrow."
"I knew that the moment you said "Zetsu"." Replied Madara, running his hand through his hair. "Do they want Sakura there?"
"Yes."
Sakura didn't think she could feel worse until that punched her in the gut. "What's going to happen? I'm pregnant, and we'll all lose our jobs! I'm going to be a deadbeat mom with a partner who thinks drinking Crown Royal is as fancy as it gets!"
"Hey!" snapped Madara in indignation.
"Well I'm stressed too! My job's also at stake here dammit!" Obito exclaimed while waving his hands in the air dramatically.
Sakura buried her face in her hands, sobbing with all the endless nightmares of possibilities coming down the pike. Obito stopped at the sound and looked at Sakura, nudging Madara towards her, "Hey get in there, man".
Madara grabbed Sakura in a tight embrace, pinning her to him bringing his mouth to her ear. "Hey, now. Don't do that, no matter what happens I'm going to take care of us. You're not doing this by yourself."
Obito chimed in, "Aw, that's so nice of you to say-"
"I DIDN'T MEAN YOU!"
"Oh…well, carry on then…"
—
Its astonishing how slow corporate is when you need something. Its equally astonishing how freaking fast they can be to respond to allegations of misconduct by a manager. A manager hated by the CFO and her brat. Madara didn't expect a slap on the wrist, and when he started got ready the next morning for the meeting at the corporate office, he prepared for the worst.
He buttoned his black long sleeve shirt and fixed the collar, taking a quick look in the mirror. Satisfied, he walked over to his nightstand and grabbed his watch, fastening it on his left wrist and walking out of his room. Sakura was in the living room, talking to Ino on her cell. He rolled his eyes and stepped into the kitchen to grab his coffee. She's talking to Ino more than ME lately. He could hear her side of the conversation and leaned over the counter, resting on his elbows and sipping his hot beverage.
"I don't know what's going to happen, Ino. Its worse if Madara loses his job. Even if I kept mine wouldn't really be better, I make minimum wage!"
"Yeah, but it would be SOMETHING," Thought Madara, replying to the conversation in his head.
"Yes, well, I'm sure we'll know after the meeting. No, Madara isn't going to skip town!"
"Yeah I'm too old to jump on moving trains anymore." He thought, smiling to himself.
Sakura tilted her head back and yawned loudly. "Hey Ino, I have to go love, I'll call you after we get back….-Okay okay, I'll call you from the car- ALRIGHT, I'll call you as soon as I walk out of the conference room door-…No I'm not putting you on speaker at the meeting! BYE!" She ended the phone call and threw her phone in her purse, grunting loudly in exasperation. She glanced over towards the kitchen and noticed Madara standing there with a smirk on his face.
"How long have you been standing there?" She asked in surprise.
"Long enough to know Ino thinks I'm already a lost cause and flight risk."
Sakura snickered, getting up from the couch with an "oof!" and walking over to lean on the counter opposite Madara. "Ino likes to explore all the possibilities, you know?"
Madara raised an eyebrow in skepticism,"Seems like that was her first guess." He looked down at his watch and put his coffee down. "We have to leave. Its a forty-minute drive and traffic is bad already because of the Memorial day weekend."
"Are we still picking up Obito?" asked Sakura, grabbing her purse and following Madara to the door.
"Yep, and apparently Rin too. Obito said she should go because she's due in a week." he waited for Sakura to step out of the house before shutting the front door and locking. When he pocketed the house key he looked up to see Sakura's face plastered in anxiety and concern.
"What's up? Why the face?" He asked.
Sakura sighed subconsciously put a hand to her abdomen. "I'm scared of that…you know, having a baby. I've always been told its so painful."
Madara put an arm around her shoulder and led her down the the steps to the truck. He opened the passenger door for her and waited for her to hop in the seat before shutting it and making his way to the driver's side.
"That's what an epidural is for, and don't you dare go reading pregnancy gone-wrong stories on the internet!"
"I wasn't!" Snapped Sakura indignantly.
"I know you, and you would!"
—
The drive to Obito's house was only about ten minutes, which surprised Sakura because she imagined Obito living much further away, even though she'd never been to his house before. When they pulled up, she was met with a quaint, dark blue little cottage-style home with a well-kept lawn and lots and LOTS of flowers. The front yard was full of brightly colored marigolds, roses, daisies and azaleas. It was a much different picture than Madara's front yard, which was basically a plain and hedge and grass.
Wind chimes clinked together as the morning breeze moved through them, and there were colorful flower pots dotting the walkway up to the porch, where a cute rustic iron bench sat next to the front door. Sakura thought Rin must be the one with the green thumb because Obito didn't seem the type to remember to water plants every day. In fact, if he were put in charge of the gardening, Sakura was certain even the few stubborn weeds in the yard would die.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Madara laying on the horn. A few seconds later the front door opened and out walked Obito, and following behind was Rin. Sakura was shocked to see how big Rin was. "She looks like she's carrying TWINS!" She thought.
Rin had a sort of duck waddle as she followed Obito to the truck. When Obito opened the door he had to help lift Rin into her seat. When she sat down she went "Whew! This truck is so high up!"
"It was supposed to keep pregnant women out of it," Joked Madara, waiting for everyone to buckle in,
"Well that didn't work out for you, did it?" Snickered Obito from the backseat. Madara nodded in silent agreement as he shifted into drive and took off down the street, headed for the freeway. He heard Rin groan slightly behind him and glanced at her in the review mirror. "You okay back there?"
"Its just braxton hicks contractions. They come before the real deal, but they hurt just the same." Said Obito, handing Rin a bottle of water. "She's not due for a week, and as long as they are more than 5-7 minutes apart she should be okay until then."
Sakura also looked at Rin in the rearview and took note of the pained look on her face, even though Obito was trying to comfort her, she could tell it wasn't doing much to assuage the pre-labor pains. She felt the anxiety about childbirth creeping back to the forefront of her mind and started staring out the window to try to distract herself.
The traffic was horrendous. Construction on the major freeways had caused a complete standstill on the road. With no way to get to a freeway exit, and cars going from a slow crawl to a complete stop, they were stuck. Madara could see all the way down the freeway from where they were uphill, and there was no movement for miles. Sighing in frustration he threw the truck into park, reclined his seat and folded his hands behind his head.
Get comfortable, we're probably not going to be moving for at least an hour or more. Good thing we left at 5am."
The occupants of the truck all jumped at the very sudden and very loud groan that came roaring out of Rin's mouth. She lurched forward, grabbing at the door handle with one hand and gripping Obito's arm with the force of a thousand clamps.
Sakura turned in her seat to look back, concern painted on her face. "What's going on? What's happening?!"
Rin could barely talk below a "yelling" volume, but Sakura could make out her words.
"MY…..W-WATER….B-BROKE!"
The words reached Madara's ears and he too spun around, "IN MY TRUCK?!" He yelled. His concern had quite immediately shifted to condition his rear seats.
Obito turned Rin towards him, "Your water broke?! B-but the book says that's not supposed to happen for another week!" He stammered, digging the pregnancy book from his the bag and flipping though it in a panic. Rin, oddly calm leaned over to him.
"Oh? Let me see,"
Obito went to hand the book over to her and she grabbed it her hand, lifting it and throwing it out the window. She turned to look back to Obito with a death glare mixed with agony, "MY WATER JUST BROKE YOU DUMBASS!"
Another wave of pain hit her and she began groaning loudly, clutching her swollen abdomen. "This baby is coming NOW!" She screamed, pain and fear etched on her face.
Madara jumped to the back, which was quite roomy for the three of them, while Sakura stayed in the front passenger seat, looking on in horror.
Madara squashed Obito against the seat as he squeezed in, "No! NO! NO! This kid can't come now, get him on a later flight!"
"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS MADARA!" Shouted Obito from his squished position against the seat. "You have to do something!"
Madara looked down at Obito with wide eyes, "What the hell am I supposed to do?!"
Obito pushed with his elbow to force Madara to the side, and grabbed his peacoat with his right hand to pull himself up.
Sakura chimed in from the front, "You were a police officer! You had training in emergency child delivery!"
"THAT'S NOT HAPPENING IN MY FUCKING TRUCK!" Shouted Madara, but his shouts were drowned out by Rin, who was enduring a stronger, more rapid series of contractions.
Obito protested,"B-But I don't wanna see Madara down there! Looking at…stuff….!"
Madara echoed the protest, "I don't WANT to see that!"
Sakura walked both of them across the head and jabbed a finger in Madara's chest, "You're doing this, I DON'T CARE IF IT HAPPENS IN YOUR TRUCK, YOU GET DOWN THERE AND DELIVER THAT BABY DAMMIT!" There was a shocked silence, Madara and Obito sat stock still, thoroughly afraid of the pink haired she-beast that just chastised them. A bead of sweat found its way down Madara's face. Yes, he'd received the training as a cop to deliver a baby in an emergency, but he never had to use that training. Obito could only remember what one chapter of the book had said about delivery outside of a hospital setting. He hadn't paid much attention to that because Rin was supposed to be IN THE DAMN HOSPITAL. He quickly pulled from his memory for instructions.
"Okay, okay, nobody panic. Sakura, call an ambulance to meet us here while this goes down." He stammered his instructions in a wobbly voice. Sakura grabbed her phone and quickly dialed the emergency number while those in the back continued.
"Um, okay we need a large towel, or a big jacket to wrap the baby in!" he said, looking around the truck. "Madara there's no towels in here. We'll need your coat!"
"THE HELL YOU DO!" piped Madara, defensively drawing his prized peacoat tighter around him. "FUCK THAT BULLSHIT!"
A roar erupted from Rin as she kicked out with her legs, almost knocking the wind from Obito's boss; a mad look in her eyes, "JUST PUNCH HIM AND TAKE THE JACKET OBITO!"
Defeated and grumbling, Madara shuffled off his coat and handed it to Obito with a shove. "There should be laws against this…"
Sakura looked at Madara with great concern on her face, watching as he squeezed hand sanitizer on to his palm and rubbed it in up to his elbow, still complaining about his coat. "Ive never had a pregnant woman threaten to punch me and take my coat, while her boyfriend demands I deliver a baby in my truck…"
Madara sensed her looking at him, and returned her gaze. For a second, neither could hear Obito's anxious rambling or Rin's screams, like time stood still around them. Both knew what the other was thinking, and therefore Madara smiled at her, saying, "You have me, and I have you, we got this."
As quick as the moment came, it passed, and the sounds of labor and anxiety once again filled their ears. Obito shifted over as much as he could to give Madara room. But when Madara had taken up portion in front of Rin, he suddenly became over-protective.
"Hey! Don't LOOK down there!" He shouted indignantly, trying to cover Madara's eyes with his hands.
"What the-…How do you expect me to deliver this kid, you moron!" snapped his boss, slapping his hands away from his face.
"THIS IS AN INVASION OF…OF, OF EVERYTHING!" retorted Obtio.
"Do you wanna do it?! I'm fine with that, I'll just step out of here and bum a cigarette from the dude in front of us!"
Rin's voice dragged them both back to the present situation. "HELLO! HAVING A BABY! JUST SHUT UP OBITO!"
Sakura watched in amazement, and a little horror, as right before her eyes, a baby was delivered. The ambulance arrived 30 minutes later, late for having had to battle through the traffic jam. People who were stuck in the same jam next to Madara's cheered as it became known down the line that a baby had been delivered in the back of a truck. News travels fast with so many in close proximity.
As Rin was strapped onto a gurney, ready to be loaded by paramedics into the ambulance, Sakura saw the new baby in Obito's arms. He had a look of awe on his face, as well as exhaustion. Rin was beyond tired, not even flinching when they placed an IV in her arm to start a drip. Madara's coat was wrapped around the baby in a tight bundle, and Obito refused to let the female paramedic taker her out of his arms, insisting that he would go with her.
Madara was leaning against the concrete center divide. He was slightly pale, and very quiet until he saw Rin and Obito pass him, then he piped up loudly, "You all better remember this moment when its time to name that kid!"
Sakura laughed at his demand and hopped out of the truck to go be with him. She suddenly just really needed to be in his arms right now. He had to get cleaned up, and having used some sanitary wipes and two bottles of water given to him from one of the EMT's, he didn't even look like he had just delivered a child (aside from his missing coat, that is.)
She leaned into his chest, soaking up the warmth of his body as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "I'm sorry about your favorite peacoat…" She said quietly. "Maybe we can have it clea-"
"Nope." Interrupted Madara firmly, "I can never, ever, wear that thing again. I'm also certain that the things I have seen today will haunt me for the rest of my life."
She laughed out loud at his words, even though she knew he was being deadly serious. Looking over at the long line of cars still stopped ahead, she remembered the whole reason they were there.
"What about the meeting?"
Madara rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Kaguya and her whiny brat can wait until tomorrow. I can only handle one horror story at a time."
"Is it really a horror story to deliver a baby? What do you think you'll feel about us when we have ours?" Sakura asked, subconsciously placing her hands on her lower abdomen.
The dark-haired manager smirked and drew her closer against him, "That's not going to be a horror story, because my truck's upholstery is already ruined, though, I would hope we get to a hospital on time. That and this is our child, and you're my fiancé."
Sakura's eyes popped open and she quickly glanced up at him, wide-eyed and shocked. "W-what? Fiancé?"
Madara gazed down at her with a look that told her there was no miscommunication or slip-up in his words. He leaned down and brought his face an inch form her own, his expression warm and his obsidian eyes glinting, "Yeah…how 'bout it?"
—
Author's Note: I waited a looooong time to do this chapter. Like I said, writer's block is horrifying and I hate it. So I took some time to myself and then came back to it. Writing stuff like this is hard to do without making it too sappy. I really hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review or a fav if you did. I'm moving this plot forward full throttle, and there's a lot to do before the end (but certainly nothing negative, all positive!). Till next time loves!
Cheers!
