Lie Tonight – Chapter 14
By MyNameIsCAL
It would be any day now that Max could go into labor. My nights were sleepless as I worried her water would break when I was asleep. I wanted to be ready and fully awake to rush her to the hospital. Maybe I was excited too. The doctor had offered to tell us its gender, but we wanted it to be a surprise.
Max walked around the apartment, her hand on her stomach. She dug through the fridge, looking for something she had probably already consumed yesterday. I walked over to her and she stood. I placed my hand on her stomach, feeling the baby give me a kick. She laughed and I leaned down to kiss her.
"So, Mr. Charming," she began with a smile. "Wanna take me to Iggy's restaurant?"
"You know, I'm starting to think we should just live there," I told her, taking her hand. "C'mon, let's go."
When we got there, I helped Max out of the car. Iggy shook his head as we walked in.
"Can I charge you double the price?" he asked.
"Of course you can," Max grinned. "You'd still be making us pay zero."
Iggy rolled his eyes. "I figured you'd come today. I made a whole batch of ice cream for you. Now after you have your baby, I hope you never want to eat ice cream again because I'm quite tired of making it. Now I know why restaurants just buy ice cream already made."
"Well, you're not like those other restaurants," Max replied.
Iggy seemed flattered now, or maybe he was just giving in before he dug himself into a deeper hole. Nudge came in a few minutes later, a large bag in hand.
"I started designing baby clothes," she said. "Wanna see them?"
"No, I do not want to see them," Iggy teased.
Nudge whacked him in the back of the head. "Not you."
He sniggered, placing the ice cream in front of Max. We watched as she pulled outfit after outfit from the bag. Iggy shook his head now. "She spends all night doing that. I swear I haven't seen her all this week except at the restaurant."
Nudge bickered back. "Well if you didn't go to sleep so early I'd see you!"
Iggy always found it amusing when Nudge got defensive. "Well, if I didn't have to serve breakfast at five in the morning or if you didn't work so late, I'd...now that I think about it, I don't see you ever."
Nudge grabbed her glass of water and dumped it on him. Iggy was howling with laughter now.
"Uhm, hey guys…"
Iggy and Nudge continued their half arguing, half amused banter and I watched, laughing at them.
"Fang!"
"Oh, yes, Max?"
"You gotta take me to the hospital."
Everyone fell silent.
"My water broke," Max finished.
Iggy closed the restaurant and sped towards the hospital.
"C'mon, Max, push," the doctor prompted.
Max clutched my hand, squeezing it as she screamed.
"Push!" The doctor repeated.
She was red in the face now.
And then all of sudden, you could hear crying. They wrapped the baby and placed it in Max's arms.
"Congratulations, you just gave birth to a healthy little baby boy," the doctor smiled.
"Hey, there," I said, and then added, "Ari."
Max smiled. "He's beautiful, Fang."
I smiled back. "He is."
The baby was taken to where they kept all the newborns. We all sat in Max's room now. I sat next to the bed, her hand in mine.
"Do you still want ice cream?" Iggy asked, not trying to hide his sarcasm.
Max grabbed one of the pillows from behind her and chucked it at him.
"Hey!" Iggy protested. "That's not fair. I can't see!"
"You knew it was coming," I remarked.
"Oh, Ig, just give it a rest already," Nudge rolled her eyes. "The whole time in the waiting room he wouldn't stop joking about hospital food."'
"I'm glad I don't' have to live with you," Max joked. "I think I would have killed Iggy by now."
"I almost did once, actually," Nudge said, obviously kidding. "He was snoring really loud and I tried using the pillow to silence him. But he wouldn't wake up, so I got mad and started to hit him, then I realized I should have just tried suffocating him in the first place."
"Hey, that's not nice!" Iggy exclaimed. "And besides, I always almost kill you all the time because I can't see. You know, you can't just sneak up on me when I'm cutting. One day I'll just…"
"Enough!" Max suddenly blurted out. "You two, I won't let you see Ari if you're going to be all violent."
They fell silent and then Iggy pointed at Max. "You started it."
"No, you started it," Nudge said.
"I hope your immaturity doesn't wear off on our son," I said, sniggering.
Max rolled her eyes, an exasperated look upon her face.
I don't know anything about child birth except for what I've seen on TV. So that was my attempt. You'll see more of baby Ari in the next chapter when the rest of the flock comes. I figured I'd put in some humor. If you follow my stories, I lack a light mood and often make things overly depressing.
Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be up soon. Probably only a few more left.