It was 5 o'clock in the evening, and three days ago, Hanna and Caleb had moved into their brand-new New York apartment. Although it had taken a full 12 hours, most of the furniture was in the right places—give or take a few chairs—and everyone was adjusting well. Madelyn had squealed when she was brought into her new home with Hanna. Despite the fact Maddie had cried for two hours straight on the journey to New York after leaving her grandparents—she hadn't quite understood Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't be joining her—her face lit up the second Hanna walked into the sweet-smelling apartment. Immediately, the toddler jumped from her mom's arms and flew across the floors, skidding as she went. Hanna watched in amusement. It didn't take long for Maddie to get used to her surroundings, and once she had found her new bedroom, it was like Rosewood had never existed.
While Maddie, and secretly Caleb, were engrossed in the Dora the Explorer episode that was playing on the TV, Hanna couldn't help but stare at her husband. She was doing it a lot now: having sudden moments of realization. This time, it was realizing how hot Caleb actually was. With his chiseled jaw, his scruffy-in-the-perfect-way hair and his dreamy eyes, Hanna was surprised she didn't stare more often.
There were loud pitter-patters against the windows, and Maddie and Caleb simultaneously looked over.
"Rain, Mommy?" Maddie asked, looking to her mom for confirmation. Hanna nodded enthusiastically. Just in the past few months, Madelyn's speech had come on a long way. There were still times Hanna privately worried she would have to take her daughter to speech therapy, but then maddie proved how smart she really was. Caleb was always telling Hanna she worried too much, and Hanna was finally understanding she really did.
"You're such a smart girl, bug!" Caleb tickled Madelyn's belly, an outburst of giggles exploding from the toddler. Once again, Hanna was staring. But this time, it was at the father within Caleb. There was never a time Hanna had doubts about Caleb being a good dad, but there were no words to describe how he acted with his baby girl. It was like Caleb was made to be a dad.
"Right," Hanna suddenly announced, heaving herself up from the couch. As she steadied herself on the ground, she cradled her growing bump. "Who wants food?"
"Me!" Maddie exclaimed, jumping onto her feet. "Yummy food!"
"I can cook," Caleb suggested, also jumping onto his feet. He pulled up his Levi jeans and took a step closer to his wife. In a soothing, calming voice, he said, "You just sit down and relax, babe."
"I want to cook!" the blond groaned. She stomped her foot on the ground and pretended to be in a huff as Caleb smirked and strolled into the kitchen. Luckily, there was Maddie to cheer her up. The toddler believed her mom was genuinely upset and started tugging at her arm, wanting to be picked up. "Hey bug," Hanna strained as she picked up the toddler.
"Mama, smile!" Madelyn gave Hanna a big, cheesy grin—a grin Hanna couldn't help but burst out laughing out at. It showed Madelyn's tiny pearl-white teeth, and she began giggling. "Yay!"
"You're crazy, Mads," Hanna laughed. She bounced Maddie up and down on her hip, but stopped as she started stumbling backwards towards the couch. The previous day, Hanna had weight herself and was shocked to see she had already put on 20 pounds. No wonder she was struggling to carry a toddler too.
Meanwhile, Caleb was was standing in front of the refrigerator, trying to figure out whether Hanna would rather have meatloaf or lasagna. Lately, Caleb was sure she had been craving lasagna, but Hanna seemed to change her mind daily. In the end, he played it safe and went for the lasagna. He carefully pulled out the ingredients, mindful not to knock any of Hanna's precious jars of pickles. That was another craving. Since coming to New York three days ago, Hanna had been stocking up the fridge with dozens of pickle jars.
"Babe?" Hanna called from within the living room. She was now sitting on the couch, clutching her aching back.
"Yeah?"
"Can you bring me a bottle of water please?" And within seconds, Caleb was standing in front of his wife, handing her a glass of ice-cold water.
Hanna smirked. She'd asked for an ordinary bottle, but of course, Caleb would bring her better. "Thanks," she mumbled. She took a long sip and let out a sigh happily when the aching began to dull.
Caleb's face turned to worry. "What's wrong? Are you in pain?"
"Not any more," Hanna replied, smiling up at her husband. She used her arm to nudge Caleb's legs out of her way and placed the glass of water on the wooden coffee table in front of her. "My back was aching, but it's fine now," she explained, noticing Caleb's face still full of worry. "I promise."
"Is that normal? You didn't have back pain with Maddie," Caleb rushed. He was ready to call 911 and get Hanna an ambulance. But by the chuckle Hanna let out, she clearly didn't think an ambulance was necessary.
"It's probably because I'm lugging an extra 20 pounds around. I never gained that much this early on with Maddie," Hanna laughed. Although the weight gain had been a bit of both shock and worry at first, Hanna wasn't too bothered. If it was 10 years ago, however, even putting on an extra, unwanted ounce was the end of the world for her.
"20?" Caleb spluttered. "Why didn't you tell me you weighed yourself?"
Hanna wrinkled her nose. "Um, maybe because it's a personal thing women like to do alone?"
"Fine," Caleb groaned. He wasn't in the mood for an argument with a hormonal, pregnant woman right now. He bent down and kissed Hanna's forehead before retracing his steps back into the kitchen.
There was a loud crackle outside and Hanna dashed to the nearest window, which ended up being the door leading out to the balcony. She cracked the door open slightly and stepped outside just a huge bolt of lightning struck through the sky. The ran was still pouring down, maybe even more so than before.
"Maddie, baby," Hanna called, poking her head around the door. Madelyn was sitting on the floor, playing with her dolls, and looked up. Holding her hands out, Hanna urged Maddie to join her outside. "Come here," she whispered, nodding her head. Being the naïve toddler she was, Maddie jumped up and ran onto the balcony.
"It's wet, Mama," Maddie announced, stretching her arm out to feel the raindrops. She giggled as Hanna gently tugged her arm back. All of a sudden, there was another roar that burst through the sky. Maddie screamed, Hanna jumped of fright. The toddler threw herself into her mother's arms, crying and whimpering.
"Baby," Hanna hushed. She hadn't realized thunder would scare Madelyn so much; she was usually good with loud noises. As she held the little blond in her arms, Hanna started heading back inside the apartment. She had wanted Maddie to watch the lighting strike through the sky again, but that didn't seem a very good idea.
"What's going on?" Caleb asked as his wife and whining daughter sat down on the couch. He had heard all of the commotion and came rushing out. "Why is Maddie crying?"
"I thought she might like the lighting, so I decided to take her out onto the balcony," Hanna said quietly. She held the back of her daughter's neck against her shoulder and rocked her back and forth. "Apparently Madelyn doesn't like thunder."
"Of course she doesn't!" Caleb exclaimed, laughing. "She's two, Han! No two-year-old will like thunder. It's too loud for them."
Hanna rolled her eyes, but continued to gently rock her daughter. Eventually, Maddie's cries ceased and she managed to calm herself down, but not after a warm cup of milk and a hug from her daddy.
Dinner ended up being an hour late, thanks to the thunder and lighting fiasco. Hanna had now made a mental note not to take Madelyn outside if it's stormy weather—although it bummed her out slightly.
Just as Hanna was about to dig into the meal that was sitting on a steaming plate in front of her—a meal that was making her stomach rumble just by the smell—her phone began to buzz. Hanna tried to ignore it, thinking the caller would just give up and call back later, but the phone continued to buzz and vibrate against the hard, marbled kitchen table.
Caleb was sitting opposite her, and urged her to pick it up. "Go on. Answer it. It's okay."
The blond smiled and scraped back her chair, grabbed the iPhone and wandered into the living room. "Hello?" she called.
"Hanna, hello," a familiar voice replied. "It's Marlee."
Hanna nodded to herself. Marlee was her new soon-to-be boss when she started her new job in three days time. "Hey. Sorry I couldn't answer before, I was busy."
"No, it's fine. I'm sorry for calling so late in the day," Marlee said, laughing. The laughing abruptly stopped, and Marlee's voice turned serious. "Hanna," she mumbled quietly. "There's been some bad news."
"There has?"
Hanna heard Marlee take a deep breath in down the phone. "We've had to cancel the movie."
"What?!" Hanna exploded. There was no way they would cancel the movie. Hanna was convinced this was some kind of unfunny, practical joke the crew played on new-comers.
"I won't bore you with the details. But basically, we don't have enough money to finish it, so there's no point even starting. It'd be a waste of everyone's time," Marlee explained briefly. Anyone could have heard the sadness it her voice; this was no joke.
"So it's canceled? Just like that?"
"I'm so, so sorry, Hanna." As she sat in her trailer, Marlee wiped her nose with a tissue she found on the side. No one was more devastated about the movie than she was. Marlee had been confident it was going to be a huge hit, and had been so excited. "None of us saw this coming," she continued. "I'm so sorry you've had to lose your job over this."
Hanna was shocked. No, shocked was an understatement. "I—I…" she trailed off, not knowing what to reply. What was someone supposed to do when they found out they would no longer be having the job they had been dreaming about for the past three months? Hanna was stumped.
"I can look around and show people the work you sent me," Marlee suggested, her voice perking up ever so slightly. "It's amazing, so I'm sure you'd be hired in an instant."
"No, it's okay," Hanna humbly replied. She rested one leg on the arm of the couch and sat on it, rubbing her fingers in circles on her belly. "You've probably got enough on your plate without the added stress of finding me another job."
"Once again, I'm sorry, Hanna."
Just moments later, Hanna was droopily shuffling back into the kitchen. Caleb was busy feeding Maddie spoonfuls of lasagna, which she was galloping down every minute, but stopped when Hanna entered. The rain was still splattering hard against the windows, raindrops racing to the windowsill.
"Who was it?" he asked as Hanna slumped onto a chair. The hard back of the chair was digging into her spine and she moved around uncomfortably, sighing and tutting.
"Marlee," she puffed, grabbing a nearby cushion and shoving it behind her. "There's not going to be a movie."
"You're kidding," Caleb gasped. Hanna shook her head as she played around with the food sat in front of her. Her face was long, her eyes watering. The job had felt like a dream: it payed well, it was in her favorite city in the world. Hanna had been ecstatic. "What the hell happened?"
"There wasn't enough money or something." Hanna shrugged as if she didn't care about the details, which she didn't. It was selfish, but all Hanna cared about was her job in the matter. She looked up, her eyes full of desperation. "Caleb, what am I going to do?" she cried.
Caleb jumped from his seat and hurried over to the blond, dropping Maddie's spoon as he went. "Hey, hey, hey," he said softly, wrapping his muscular arms around Hanna. "It's okay, babe. There'll be other jobs."
"But what if there's not?" Hanna exclaimed, saliva spitting out of her mouth. There were now mascara-stained tears rolling down her cheeks, more falling every time she blinked. "What if there's never another job like that? That was one of a kind, Caleb. One of a kind!"
Hanna seemed utterly distraught and Caleb didn't know what to do. He knew he should comfort her, but it seemed Hanna was trying to wriggle out of the hug Caleb was attempting to give her. The rain seemed endless, and it was just adding to the depressive mood Hanna was in. Even Maddie was now upset. She was getting no attention from anybody, and she was not enjoying it. The toddler let out a loud faux-cry as Caleb kissed his wife's forehead.
"Maddie, shush," Caleb hissed. He knew all of the tricks in the book: Maddie liked to cry when she wanted attention, she liked to hit when she wanted someone to play with her, and she liked to tug on legs when she wanted to be picked up. "Eat the bread," Caleb said, pointing to the crusty pice of garlic bread that was sitting in front of her. Maddie frowned, looked at the bread, and then stuffed it in her mouth.
"I'm being stupid," Hanna sighed. She sniffed and wiped her nose dry, then wiped her chin as she felt a tear drop onto her neck. She was wearing a halter dress, but her shoulders were bare. "It was just a job."
"You're not being stupid, babe," Caleb promised. He laid a gentle finger on Hanna's chin and carefully moved it around to meet his. With their faces just inches apart, Caleb whispered, "It'll be okay," before slowly pressing his lips against Hanna's.
The mood had improved—partly because of the rain easing off and partly because Hanna had stopped crying—and Hanna and Caleb were now quietly sitting side by side in bed. Caleb was reading a men's magazine Hanna had forced upon him, while Hanna flicked through this month's Elle. The bedroom was almost silent, just the faint tick, tick, tick of the clock hanging above the bed.
"You're job starts on Monday," Hanna suddenly announced. Caleb was fully aware of this fact, but politely nodded in reply. Hanna dropped her magazine onto her stomach and turned her head towards her husband. "Are you nervous?"
Caleb sighed to himself: this wasn't the right time to have a job conversation with Hanna when Hanna had just lost her own job. But the blond stared at him until he answered. "Not really," he murmured. And it was true. Caleb wasn't a man to get nervous at things like new jobs; he just got on and did it. The last time Caleb could recall being nervous was when Hanna told him her water had broken.
It was a warm September's morning, and Hanna intertwined her fingers with Caleb's as they wandered down the dusty park's trail. Hanna wobbled as a pain ripped through her huge, swollen belly, and she had to stop to steady herself. Luckily, Caleb was there to grab onto her arm.
"You okay?" he asked, raising his left eyebrow. Hanna nodded. She was sure these were just those stupid, fake Braxton Hicks contractions. She'd had them nearly everyday since hitting the seventh month milestone. As Hanna tugged on Caleb's hand to keep moving—she had read in one her her thousands of baby books that walking was a good way to induce labor—Caleb looked at his wife, worried. She'd been acting odd all morning, and kept having to stop to take a breath. Hanna had assured him it was just because she was carrying extra weight and found it hard to waddle around, but Caleb wasn't convinced.
"Come on." Hanna looked at her husband as if to ask, are you coming or not? It didn't look like he was. Hanna and Caleb's recently-bought, twelve-week-old puppy, Bella, ran circles around Caleb's legs as she gave a not-so-subtle indication she wanted to carry on, just like Hanna did.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Caleb asked, hopping from one foot to the other.
Hanna rolled her eyes, but a small smirk turned up the corners of her mouth. She had adored how caring and worrisome Caleb had been throughout this pregnancy. "I'm fine! Now let's go!"
Reluctantly, Caleb started moving. Bella let out a small yap of delight and ran off, only stopping when the leash started to restrict her. Hanna clasped the brunette's hand again, and started gently swinging to back and the forth. The birds in the trees above chirped away happily, enjoying the warm, Pennsylvanian sun that was beating down.
The summer had been a struggle for Hanna. It had been hot, even more hot than usual. The sun seemed to arise, without a doubt, bright and early each day, and the temperatures rose throughout the morning. By lunchtime, it would reach it's peak…but stay there. Hanna had ended up starting a summer routine: she would wake up when Caleb would be getting ready for work, eat breakfast that normally consisted of left-over sweet potato fries—much to Caleb's disgust—and then lounge around the pool all day until Caleb came home. The baby didn't like the sun half as much as Hanna did, and would constantly be moving around and making Hanna's back ache.
Taking a gentle stroll through the park was relaxing, and was helping the non-stop backache Hanna had been experiencing for hours now to finally ebb away. Every so often, Caleb would glance over at his wife, making sure she was okay. Sure enough, there was always a small smile on Hanna's face every time he looked.
After three more unusually painful Braxton Hicks contractions in the park, Hanna decided it was time to ask Caleb to start walking home. Caleb immediately agreed, and even offered to buy cupcakes from Leon's Cupcakes.
As Caleb stood at the counter, opposite a petite red-haired waitress, Hanna felt another sharp twinge. This one, though, was more painful and she grabbed onto the nearby wooden beam. Whilst breathing in slowly and deeply, Hanna counted in her head how long it was lasting. She counted 24 Mississippi's, which was more than the previous ones added the pain subsided, Hanna realized these weren't practise contractions; they were the real thing.
"I got you your favorite," Caleb announced as he strides over to his wife. There was a big smile plastered to his face, and he had his strong arm stretched out, holding a pink box. Hanna gave a small, weak laugh and gently retrieved the cupcake from Caleb's hand.
"Thank you, babe," she mumbled, slowly opening up the box. There, sitting in the middle, was indeed Hanna's favorite flavor of cupcake. Hanna leaned forwards and pecked him on the lips, pulling away with a smile on her face. The couple wandered out of the small, cute shop in the center of Rosewood, and were hit by the warm air. Hanna was already uncomfortable enough and needed to get home…now.
Luckily the walk home from the cupcake store was a short one, and Hanna experienced no more contractions during that time. She burst through the door and let out a long, happy sigh when she felt the air conditioning breezing through the house. Thank God for the AC, Hanna thought to herself.
The blond began waddling over to the kitchen, ready to gulp down a ice-cold bottle of water. As she passed the door to the living room, Hanna felt something trickle down the inside of her thigh. She stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening with realization.
"B-babe!" she called out nervously, her hands beginning to tremble. Caleb came running, his socks sliding across the laminated floors. Hanna glanced down at the floor, where the beginning of a puddle was forming.
Caleb's jaw dropped. "W-what's that?"
Had those lamaze classes taught him nothing? "My water's broken!" Hanna exclaimed.
This was it. The baby was coming. And all Caleb did was stand there. Everything seemed to stop as he stared at his wife's terrified face.
But Caleb had decided that was a reasonable excuse to be nervous. He had just found out his baby was coming, that was a pretty big deal, right? Hanna was just as nervous, maybe even more so. But then again, Caleb could understand; he wasn't about to push a baby out of his vagina, whereas Hanna was.
As Hanna wrested her head against her husband's arm, she sighed. "This sucks."
"What? The job?"
She nodded, running her tongue over her pearly-white teeth in anger. "I can't believe I have no job now. What are we going to do? We can't afford this apartment without me having a decent job!"
Caleb was eager to change the topic of conversation. It was clear Hanna was too stressed, and that was bad for the baby. "Do you know what else is coming up soon?" he asked randomly. Hanna lifted up her head and looked at his like he was crazy. It was quite random, considering she was in the middle of an angry outburst.
"Did you hear anything I just said?" she spat rudely.
"Yes," Caleb said hastily. "But it's our anniversary in three weeks."
Hanna dropped her head, hitting Caleb's arm with quite a heavy force. "I know."
"So…what did you want me to get you?" he asked, twirling a strand of hair around his finger. Hanna shrugged, staying silent. "Roses? Chocolates?"
"Whatever," Hanna mumbled sleepily. Her eyes were drooping, and she was blinking slowly. Caleb gently caressed her arm, knowing she was about to fall sleep. He quietened his breathing and, as carefully as he could, reached over to switch off the bedside lamp. Hanna stayed leaning against her husband, finding his scent calming and relaxing. Before she knew it, Hanna was in a deep sleep.
A/N — I hope you like the flashback, although it wasn't very good. I seriously need some sort of writing tips.
anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter by leaving a review! and maybe even give me your vote on the gender of Rivers baby 2?
I'm sorry if some of Hanna's job loss isn't accurate or correct, but i don't work in the movie industry, so i had no idea how to write. i hope it's okay, though.