Finally, one question that has been bugging you all, will be answered in this chapter…


Michael's POV...

I arrived home from work quite late. I'm absolutely exhausted so I'm going to go straight to bed. At least I can get a few hours sleep before class tomorrow morning.

It's such a vicious cycle.

I walked into the bedroom and was surprised to see Holly still awake; she's sitting up in bed. Damn. I was hoping she'd be asleep so I could just sleep too.

"Michael?" her voice rasped as she said it.

"What is it?" I rushed to her side.

"Uh, something doesn't feel right...Ow!...Nope, definitely not right...Oooh! Make it stop!"

"What is it? Is it contractions? Is the baby coming?" My heart has permanently set up camp in my throat.

"No. It can't be. It just can't be! We're not ready! It shouldn't be here for another few weeks! It's too early!"

She's starting to get hysterical now. Just the kind of mood she's worst in.

"Come on, I think we should get to the hospital."

I helped her out of bed and we hobbled out to hail a cab. Something that's not that difficult to do at this time of night, when you live in New York City.

Not long after and we were sitting in the emergency ward. Well, Holly is sitting, rather uncomfortably, and I was pacing.

"I'm going to call my parents. Let them know what's going on, ok?"

"Can you call my parents too?"

"Sure."

"But, Michael?"

"Yeah?" I stopped and turned to her.

"Don't be too long. I'm scared."

I grabbed her hand. "I'll just be at that pay phone, ok? You can see it from here, and if they take you into a room I'll come running back."

I let go of her hand and called both our parents. Her's said they'd come up in the morning and mine said they'd be here as soon as possible.

I got back to Holly and she was crippled with pain.

"Oh, it hurts so much, Michael!"

"It'll all be over soon," I told her, sitting beside her and taking her hand again.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, a doctor came and took her into an exam room.

"I'm sorry," the doctor said, causing my heart to skip a beat. "But the baby's not ready to come out yet."

"What do you mean?" I asked, glad that at least he hadn't told me that there was a complication with the baby, like it wasn't going to live or something.

"What she's suffering from is called Braxton Hicks contractions. They can often be confused with labour pains, and can sometimes be really painful. It's also called false labour. But believe me, she won't have the baby just yet. The pain should stop soon."

"Oh. Um, ok. Thanks," I said, feeling stupid.

We left the hospital as soon as Holly felt good enough to, and ran into mom and dad, who were running in as we were coming out.

"What's happening?" mom asked.

"False alarm. No baby," I told them.

"Oh," mom looked disappointed.

"Sorry to make you rush out here for nothing," Holly told them. I don't know whether or not she'd disappointed or relieved that the baby didn't come.

"No problem, honey," mom said, smiling at her and patting her gently on the shoulder.

Mom and dad have only met Holly a couple of times, and I know mom would have preferred me ending up with Mia than her, but she's never said anything bad about Holly. I think she likes her. I hope she does since I'm kind of stuck with her either way.

"We're just going to go home, it's been a long night," I told them, suddenly feeling just how long the night had been.

"Ok, we'll go home too then."

Holly and I got a cab back to our apartment and mom and dad got one to theirs.

When we got home, I called Holly's parents and told them not to come.

Then Holly and I collapsed into bed.

I'd already decided last night that I'll skip classes today; I'd never be able to keep my eyes open.

Holly and I are eating lunch now, or brunch I suppose since we slept through breakfast. "So are you happy or upset that the baby didn't come last night?" I asked her.

"I dunno. I mean, I guess if it'd come last night it'd all be over with now. But then we'd have a baby to look after. So this way we still get a few weeks to prepare for it and not have to deal with it. But then that means I still have the birth to go through with..."

"Yeah...I get what you mean. At least this way we still have time."

An hour later she wasn't in such a good mood about not having had it already.

To make matters worse, she dropped a fork and had real trouble bending down to pick it up.

After watching her struggle humorously for a good minute, I bent down to give her a hand.

"Urgh!" she cried, collapsing onto the couch. "I'm so sick of being fat and pregnant! I wish I had had it last night! At least then I could be relaxing in the hospital!"

I highly doubt either of us will ever be relaxing once the baby comes. Not for a good while anyway.

"Not too much longer," I said calmly.

"Easy for you to say! You know, if this was actually your baby it'd be a lot easier to deal with. It'd never give me false labour or make me too fat to pick up a damn fork!"

My heart stopped beating completely.