It was a horrible day. Overcast and grey but boiling hot at the same time and Riley couldn't sit in the house alone any longer. Her due date was five days away and if she wasn't obsessing about being a bad mother, she was freaking out about how much pain she'd be in during labour. Shane was on the road again and for once she was thankful, for the past three weeks things had been weird, especially with Riley walking around with this notion of what to do next in her head.
"I bet you can't wait for it to be over." the sales girl said when Riley stopped to buy new shoes.
She forced a smile, unable to not think about the pain she would have to go through first, a pain that Sydney had told her was 'beyond all words'.
"I can't wait to drink coffee again."
"When are you due?"
"Thursday."
The sales girl smiled again and wished Riley good luck. Riley wished for a quick labour, but then after that there would be the messiness of telling Shane she wasn't staying, oh god that would mean divorce. Alice would be thrilled, it wasn't her fault not that it stopped Riley from blaming her. There was a sharp twinge in her back that made her catch her breath and the baby gave a kick. Time to go home.
By eight the twinges where still coming and Riley was sitting in the kitchen with a hot water bottle behind her trying to ignore it. She kept looking at the fridge with the ultrasounds stuck next to each other, soon it would be more then a black and white image, something she couldn't believe. Her back gave another sharp twinge and Riley groaned, this defiantly wasn't normal. She decided to call Sydney who was in the middle of roping her brood into bed.
"Sorry Riley, what did you say?" she asked as one of the children gave a loud scream in the background. "Hold on. Flynn! Flynn! Stop poking Francine! Go on."
"I've been getting back pain all day and it's getting worse. Is that normal?"
"When are you due again?"
"Thursday."
"Maybe you should go the hospital. But then again it might be strain."
"Thanks for clearing that up." riley said rolling her eyes.
"Well I don't know. I'm not a nurse and I never had it. Go to bed and if it gets worse call a Doctor."
Riley hung up on Sydney and called Shane's cell, which was off. What a lot of use that would have been if she'd really needed him, not that he hadn't been there for her before. So it was going to end, but he had married her, given her a house and anything she wanted. He hadn't neglected her and he'd made her feel welcome. Of course she'd gone and screwed it all up by falling in love with him and it was going to break her heart to leave him, but she had to. It was then, when Riley got up out of the chair to go to bed that her waters broke and she screamed in surprise.
Shane shook his cell phone and frowned. What was the point in having a phone if the battery was just going to die.
"The planes are all still grounded." someone said from behind him. "And they won't tell us why or when they'll be in the air again."
There was a collective groan from everyone, but Shane didn't notice. He wanted to call home, scrap that he needed to call home. Ever since the night Riley was sick and he actually said he loved her out loud, he'd been torn between keeping it to himself and working up the courage to tell her. But that could cause all sorts of troubles. Still he really needed to talk to her. Badly.