Chapter Seven – One More Hit

Elizabeth sat in her home office just starring at her laptop sitting on her desk. She decided not to turn the lights on. The light from the screen was enough for her. She was tired from the day. Telling people about her pregnancy was taking a lot out of her. The only person who really took it hard was Jason. She figured he liked being the baby secretly. She was just going to let Henry handle it. Maybe this would bring them even closer. Let them have some father-son bonding.

Her laptop dinged a little bringing her out of her thoughts. A new email popped up on her screen. When she realized who it was from she couldn't move. Henry's family. They totally slipped her mind. They were going to have to be informed also. She let out a big breath and leaned back in the chair. She placed her hand on her still flat stomach and smiled to herself thinking about the beautiful child that was growing inside of her.

She opened the email and her jaw instantly dropped. She just starred at the sentence saying that they were coming for a visit next Friday. At least they will have a week to get prepared.

Henry had come downstairs looking for her. He was surprised she wasn't in bed yet. He wanted to make sure their sons reaction didn't upset her. He knew she wasn't too hurt but with everything else she had on her shoulders, he wanted to support her even more. He wanted telling everyone about this beautiful miracle to go as smoothly as possible and to be over with. He saw the laptop light coming from their home office. He walked into their office and smiled seeing his beautiful wife sitting there. She still took his breath away. She was absolutely beautiful no matter where she was or what she was wearing. She could be wearing sweatpants and his shirt with no make-up on and she would still be the women of his dreams. She was even more beautiful now with pregnancy glow.

He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. He leaned down and kissed her tenderly on her lips. He knelt down next to her and placed his hand on top of hers laying on her stomach. He just smiled widely at her.

"What?" Elizabeth asked smiling back.

"Your so beautiful! I had to come check on you. Are you okay?"

"Yes, babe I'm just fine. Well that was until I got an email from your sister." She nodded her head towards the computer.

"Maureen?" Henry asked looking at the email on her computer. He quickly read over her email. "Friday? What!"

"Yup they are coming on Friday. I am not ready to tell your family about this baby. What if they find out in the news first? Another thing for your sister to hate me about. She is going to be pissed if they are the last to know." Elizabeth's happy, peaceful expression turned to stress. This news was harder to get out then when they had to do it the other three times. She wanted things to go back to normal and the entire world didn't know yet. She got up and started to pace around the room. She could feel the anxiety and panic for what is to come rising fast.

She hadn't had a panic attack in days. Even with everything that was going on, surprisingly she was at peace. Knowing that the news was going to come out and that most of her kids were okay with this made it easier for her to deal with. On top of it all, Nadine was taking care of things at work and how to get this news out to the press. But now having to tell Henry's family, her anxiety level was going through the roof. There was something about his family that made telling wonderful life changes hard. Even though they all got a long and they all come to accept Elizabeth as part of the family, going to see them only happened on the holidays.

"Babe. You need to relax." Henry said softly coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. He lightly squeezed her letting her know he was right there for her. She had had enough to deal with for today and his sister could wait. He just wanted to get her into bed and completely relaxed. "Come on. Let's go to bed. I will give you a light massage."

She resisted a little. She just wanted to deal with his sister and get it out of the way. She was going to be up all night worried about it. She could hear his sister's disapproval with them having another child.

"How could you bring another child into this world? You work all the time as it is. Will you even have time for this baby? Aren't you too old to have more kids? Were you guys not using protection?" All the possible questions and statements she thought Maureen would fire at her crossed her mind.

"God your sister is going to hate me!" She whispered as tears started to fall. Her breathing jumped to a rapped pace.

Maureen and Elizabeth never seemed to get along. Elizabeth always felt like she was stealing Henry away from them. Even thought they were civil to each other, she could feel the anger everytime they were in a room together. Maureen was the only one in Henry's family that she ever felt dislike from.

"Was she going to have time for this baby? Was she going to be able to protect him or her?" The fear of those thoughts quickly rising. All of a sudden she was back in Iran on the floor. She knelt down on the floor as if she was living the scenes she was seeing from Iran. Not knowing so, Henry holding her was as if Fred was on top of her. Her tears flowing even stronger as she sobbed. Her breathing going a mile a minute.

Henry realized what was going on a second after she went to the floor. He moved in front of her and placed his arms on her shoulders.

"Baby, it's okay. Sweetheart! You're at home and safe." He tried to pull her out of it. He didn't want her to ride this one out. "Elizabeth…honey."

Elizabeth slowly came out of her flashback and just looked at Henry blankly. Tears still streaming down her face. "Henry, I can't do this anymore." She whispered looking down at the floor. She was so tired and seeing that little boy, it just broke her heart over and over again. She leaned into his embrace wishing to escape from the world.

"It's okay babe. I am right here. I love you." Henry whispered in her ear as he rubbed his hand up and down her back. He held her as tight as possible.

She pulled back from his embrace and looked into his eyes. She wanted to stop thinking all together. She grabbed his face with both of her hands and kissed him hard. She was determined to stop thinking. She demanded entrance with her tongue as she kissed him extra hard. Anything to get her mind off of what was going on around them. Her mood quickly went from panic and stress to passion and love for her husband. Those pregnancy hormones were starting.