"Tobias!"
There was a chorus of cursing and shuffling from within tents before everyone in our group bursted out and came around to join me, including Tobias half-dressed and a gun in his hands. The panther like creature had disappeared with all of the commotion, which left me looking stupid and crazy.
"What is it, Tris?" He asked me warily, putting a hand on my shoulder. "What did you see?"
I turned and buried my face into his chest as the tears began to fall. His arms automatically spiralled around me, holding me to him the best that he can with my big baby bump. "It was like a big wild cat, big and black…" I choked out.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's gone now." I heard him switch his gun from one hand to the other and felt his free hand caress my hair. He started turning us around and heading back in the direction of our tent as he said, "Come on, let's get you back to bed."
I pulled back from him and looked him in the eyes. "You don't believe me, do you?"
He spluttered for a second. "What? Of course I do."
"No, you don't. None of you did." I pushed him away and he fell of balance slightly. As fast as I could, I waddled off back to the tent.
***PAGE BREAK***
I barely slept that night; Tobias tried talking to me a few times except I ignored him, just smelling the blanket that smelled like him. In the morning I still continued to disregard him. We continued to walk and because I wasn't paying any attention to Tobias we stopped less. By the time night had fallen, Tobias was looking pretty miserable.
I sat on the opposite side to him through dinner and when I stood up, he caught at my arm. "Tris, wait, can I talk to you for a minute?"
I shrugged. "Whatever." He followed behind me into the tent and watched silently as I took off my shoes and slid under the blanket, my stomach like a mountain under the blanket. "Well?" I questioned, waiting.
"Tris, I'm so sorry; I didn't believe you, nobody else did until they found some animal tracks in the dirt. They followed them and it did indeed lead them to a wild cat which was black. They shot it, it's dead now."
My eyes narrowed into slits. "And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
He sighed and came to sit beside me. "Well, you didn't really give me a chance, did you? I tried to but every time I came up to talk to you, you would start talking to somebody else or walk off." True, I thought.
Closing my eyes, I patted the ground beside me, asking him to lie with me. He untied his boots and crawled under with me. Automatically he reached his arms out to me but paused as he remembered my current emotions. I took the next move and with a fair bit of difficulty, got comfortable on my side beside him, with my head resting on his chest.
"Do you forgive me?" He whispered to me.
I nodded my head. "I miss you too much to ignore you longer than this." He kissed the top of my head lovingly and I sighed into his chest.
"Get some rest, you must be exhausted." I would have answered back except I was too far gone to reply.
***PAGE BREAK***
The next two weeks had been the same as any others. We rested just as much, if more, walked the same amount of distance, if less. With just one glance at my protruding stomach, people especially Tobias, were beginning to get more eager to get back faster.
We were walking in about the middle of the day when I got a bad cramp. I gritted my teeth against it, fighting through it and eventually it just passed. We continued walking for another half hour, a few more passed in that time. We stopped for lunch and I refused to eat stuff, despite Tobias' pleads.
"Come on, Tris, you have to eat something." He tried to persuade me. I shook my head, rubbing a hand over my swollen belly. "At least just take one bite." Again I shook my head. "Why aren't you going to eat anything?" I wanted to tell him about the cramps that I had gotten for about an hour now, but I didn't want to worry him. "Tris, tell me, you can tell me anything, you know that."
I remained silent for the rest of the lunch break and didn't eat anything even after Tobias tried so hard. The cramps died down for a while but as nightfall came closer, they became sharper and more painful. I was aware of Tobias always casting glances my way but I just tried to push them away.
Eventually we stopped for dinner and I knew I couldn't continue to ignore the pains that came through my stomach every hour or so. Tobias was already seated outside and I was getting changed into one of Tobias' shirts in the tent. When I waddled out, Tobias glanced up. I indicated for him to follow me; his footsteps could be heard coming from behind me.
I stopped with my back towards him and he circled his arms around me, resting his palms against my belly. "What's wrong?"
A lone tear fell as I began to explain in barely a whisper. "I think it's time, Tobias."
If I had have been facing him and watching his face, I knew he would have been frowning. "Time for what?"
Gently, I took one of his hands in mine and dragged it down to the just below my belly button. I turned in his arms so that I was facing him and so that he could see the tears that had fallen. "I've been having these cramps for a large proportion of the day but now they're becoming more painful." As if on cue, a sharp tightening pulling feeling came in my lower abdomen. I inhaled sharply and grasped Tobias' hand and squeezed until the contraction was over.
"But you're not due for another month, are you?"
I shook my head. "Tobias, I'm scared!" I cried.
He kissed the top of my head and tightened his grip around me. "I know, but it'll all be fine. We'll get my mother and Edith and they can help." I nodded my head against his chest.
"Could you go and get them?" He kissed me on the cheek once and walked off in the direction of the smoke that billowed from the campfire.
***PAGE BREAK***
"Ok, Tris, one more, big push, ok?" I nodded; sweat matting my hair and sticking it to my forehead. My hand clutched Tobias' and as I pushed and screamed, I squeezed it harder and harder until both of our knuckles were turning white. Suddenly I didn't need to push anymore and a crying sound filled the night. I slumped back against a bunch of blankets that had been piled up behind me. I was exhausted and wanted to sleep. It was way past two in the morning but I willed for my eyes to stay open so that I could see my baby.
"It's a boy!" Edith exclaimed, turning my smile even bigger.
I turned my face to Tobias who beamed down at me. He lowered his face to mine and whispered, "I love you." As he kissed my forehead, I closed my eyes, favouring the feel of his lips on my skin.
"I love you too."
A bundle of blue blankets was handed to me and inside them was our baby boy. He was perfect and had my blonde hair and his eyes were the shade of Tobias'. I kissed my son's forehead and glanced up at Tobias again. He smiled, "So you were right." He acknowledged.
"I told you, mother's intuition." I offered him our baby and I watched as he took the small child into his arms.
"He's beautiful, Tris, just like you." He said, gazing down at him lovingly. I saw him kiss the baby's forehead just as he had done to mine and I watched as he pulled away to stare at our son some more.
"He has your eyes." I told him, as from the corner of my eye, I saw Evelyn and Edith leave to give us some privacy.
"Mmm and your hair." I nodded, feeling my eyelids begin to droop closed. The same thoughts just continued to run through my head: I'm so tired, so very tired, very, very tired, so tired.
"Tris," I heard Tobias' voice somewhere beside me. I was already almost too far gone to care where it came from. "You should get some sleep." I nodded, ready to go to sleep until I thought about how I couldn't leave the baby. I shuffled up against the blankets, grunting a little at the pain that still hung around. "Tris, Tris, what are you doing?"
"The baby…" I mumbled sleepily.
He sighed. "Tris, I'll be right here with him. We'll be right here when you wake up, I promise." I nodded again, trying to dislodge a blanket from behind me to spread it over myself. With the baby in one arm, Tobias helped with the other and soon the blanket was over me comfortably.