rejazzz: Thank you. Here's more

katydid13: I know they weren't routine but for the sake of the story moving forward, this hospital has one. Hope you're still enjoying. Thank you for the review

ooOoo

For years and years you can drift along, and write another verse to an endless song. Wait one more day till the time is right, hoping that you'll both see the light… you won't see the light

Buying Time- Great Big Sea

ooOoo

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but as much as I loved Craig, I didn't think I had it in me to move in with him quite yet. In fact, when he went back to New York, wouldn't you know it, I didn't go. I stayed behind in Bonavista. He was in talks with the New York Rangers for the upcoming season as their General Manager, who was I to get in his way? Who was I to mess up his life?

Five months into my pregnancy, I wanted nothing more than for Craig to come back. For three main reasons. One, I was lonely. Two, I hadn't had any sex in five months. And three, I was irritated beyond belief. I was spending almost every day with Marcie and the kids, and every one of them seemed to babble on and on about nothing in particular and think it was the most interesting thing they'd ever said. If I couldn't handle them at ages five, four, two, and four months (the ones who were home during the day), how was I going to handle my own baby?

"Auntie Viv?" Debbie tugged on my pant leg one day as I sat on the couch with a couple of balls of yarn and knitting needles in my lap. I'd been commissioned to knit a few sweaters for some of the less fortunate kids at the school. I don't mind doing it, every child deserves a warm sweater, especially during the cold winter months.

"Yes sweetheart?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Debbie," I answered.

She kissed my cheek, and just as she did, nausea swept over me. Putting down my knitting, I bolted for the bathroom and nearly slammed the door behind me. I ended up hunched over the toilet for a good couple of minutes, but nothing came.

Was that normal?

God Craig, why aren't you here?

I know, I know. I should've gone with him when I had the chance, but I didn't, and now I'm paying for it. I want him to be here. I want him to be here when I have the baby, his son.

Okay, I don't quite know if it's a boy, but Mom reckons it is. Same with Marcie. The consensus is that if I'm carrying forward, it must be a boy, because Marcie says she carried forward with Charlie, and my Mom says it was the same with Gary. I have just a little bump right now, so I'm not sure yet.

I emerged from the bathroom with my hand on my stomach. Stating that I needed to go home, I put on my coat and walked back, to find my mother waiting for me in the doorway. She put her arm around my shoulder and led me inside.

"What's the matter, love?"

I sat down on the couch and put my head in my hands. "I can't do it!"

"You can't do what?"

"I can't have this baby, Mom!" I wailed.

"Well it's a little late for that, isn't it?" she answered. "If you didn't want a baby ye shouldn't have had sex."

"It just happened, Mom. It's not as though we were planning this…"

"That's what condoms are for," she pointed out. "You know how to use one. Why didn't you?"

"Excuse me for riding on a high and jumping into bed!"

"That's no excuse!" she told me. "You're my daughter, Vivianne, and I love you very very much, but I will not stand for this type of behaviour," she was turning a slight shade of red. "I won't have you abandon this child simply because you might be raising him on your own."

"For the last time, Mother, I am not going to be raising him on my own!" I stood up and pulled my shirt down to make sure I was covered. "And another thing, why do you keep calling the baby 'him'? I don't know if it's a boy, and neither do you!"

"We can't very well call him 'it'!"

"And I agree with you, Mom, but why not just say 'Pumpkin'?" I asked. Much better than saying 'it' and using something different from 'shrimp', because he was too big to be called a shrimp anymore. Did I just call the baby 'him'? Stop it!

"Fine, Pumpkin it is," she consented. "What about the father?"

"He has a name, Mom, and his name is Craig."

"Where is he now?"

"In New York, I told you that," I answered. "He went back for work. Signing a deal to be GM for the New York Rangers. Didn't need me down there, did he?"

"You're having his baby, of course he needs you…"

"No he doesn't," I repeated.

"Yes he does!" she gripped my forearms and nearly shook me. "Don't be so stubborn, Viv. You love him, you've told me that many times before. Granted, you're pregnant, it's dangerous for you to fly, but if you weren't, I'd stick you on that plane myself!"

"I'm not a child!"

"Then stop acting like one!" she was very close to losing it. Whatever 'it' was. "You should've gone with him to New York. You'd have a very happy and productive life there. I don't understand why you're so hesitant…"

I shook my head and threw up my hands. "Forget it, I'm done arguing with you. I'm going for a walk…"

I quickly threw on my jacket and opened the front door, slamming it shut before she could say another word.

Once I'd walked a fair amount, I stopped to find someone standing outside their car, just waiting, leaning against the driver's side door.

Almost frozen in place, I watched wide eyed and mouth gaping as he started toward me. He had a huge smile on his face, his pace quickening as he came nearer.

I almost jumped into his arms as he embraced me tightly.

"You're here…" I breathed against his shoulder. "You're actually here…"

"I know," he whispered in my ear. "I know."

"It's been almost three months," I set myself down. "Look, put your hand here…"

I grabbed said hand and led it inside my jacket, laying it to rest on my belly.

"Feel that?" I moved his hand across my stomach. "Feel that little bump? That's our baby…"

"That's our baby in there?" he asked, almost in awe.

"That's our baby," I repeated. "And it's been too long since I've been kissed."

Grinning, he obliged.

"That's what I thought," I chuckled. "So then, Craig, you need to tell me about this job of yours."

"Better still," he opened the passenger side door. "Why don't I show you?"

My mouth dropped open. Go to New York now? Everything for the baby was here… the hospital, my doctor, my mother (who'd been an enormous support), Bane and Marcie… everything I knew was here. Of course, that was me, wasn't it? Go on off at any time and try something new. Let's face it, if I hadn't taken a risk I never would've met Craig.

"I haven't packed…" I protested.

"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" he smiled. That crooked smile of his, I couldn't resist, and he knew that.

"I can't afford anything in New York."

"But that's the beauty of it," he answered. "I've got more than enough."

"That's not fair to you though."

"I have no problem with you wanting to work, Viv," he assured me, understanding my meaning. "But until that baby is born, you really should take it easy."

"And a move to New York is less strenuous?"

"I know what you mean, but you don't have to worry. I've got a nice three bedroom in Brooklyn."

I blinked. "Say what?" I couldn't believe it. Brooklyn was expensive; less so than Manhattan, I knew that, but how could we afford it?

"Brooklyn. Three bedrooms. You and me…" Good, at that moment it was probably a good idea to speak to me in sentences that contained no more than two words, because that's all that would get through.

"What's the third bedroom for?"

"It's meant to be a playroom, in a manner of speaking," he answered. "But you never know, could be a guest bedroom."

I shook my head in shock. "Holy shit!" I muttered under my breath.

"Come with me…" he asked. "Please, Viv, come with me…"

I was still so shocked I only said one word.

"Yes…"