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Detective Matt Ryan crossed the bullpen with a yawn. With baby Molly Anne teething, there really wasn't much sleep to be had. He reckoned he and Emma had gotten maybe three hours of sleep between them last night. Max.
He poorly disguised another yawn by raising his notebook to his face. Dropping the paper, he saw his colleague looking at him with an amused expression on his face. "Late night?" asked Nick with a grin from his desk.
The sandy-haired detective's eyes narrowed. "Just you wait."
Nick leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. "That's all we seem to be doing," he agreed amiably. "Waiting."
"Wasn't Allie due yesterday?" said Rhys looking up from the file in his hand.
"Two days ago actually," said Nick, turning to him. "She's on maternity leave though." Thank God, he muttered under his breath. When the baby hadn't arrived by its 13 June due date, Allie had been all for going to work until the baby decided to arrive.
He'd, of course, been against it, and it was only when she tried to put on her shoes, and was unable to, that she'd reluctantly agreed to stay home and wait. And wait. She'd looked rather petulant when he left her this morning, the pout on her face really not becoming her. He smirked at the memory.
"You're looking very relaxed for a man whose wife could go into labour at any point," said Duncan nonchalantly, holding a pen between his fingers.
Nick moved forward in his chair once again, patting his shirt pocket as he did so. The solid thunk of the plastic of his mobile could be heard. "The instant this phone rings, I'm outta here to do the hospital run. Nothing to worry about. "
Sergeant Wolfe stepped into the bullpen then and addressed them all. "Briefing in five minutes."
The team gathered up their various notes and files. Moving toward the meeting room, a phone rang. They all laughed when their usually calm workmate suddenly dashed back to his desk and snatched up the handset.
From his reaction, it wasn't the need for a hospital run as Nick spoke with the Coroner. "Not worried, my ass," scoffed Duncan with a grin.
Meanwhile, a disgruntled and exhausted Allie sat on the couch feeling like a beached whale. She was more than ready for this baby to be born. She was at the point where accomplishing even the very smallest of tasks was becoming near on impossible. It took her two minutes just to get to the toilet!
When Mia's school had called this morning with the news that all children were to stay home because of an accident last night that had knocked down several walls, she'd been faced with a little girl in her school uniform, ready and raring to go, most disappointed that she was going to be stuck at home.
After the fiftieth time Mia sang loudly that she was 'bored, bored, oh so bored', Allie had been ready to scream. Desperate times call for desperate measures and she rang her mother. When Desiree Kingston arrived at their door and saw Mia's rather boisterous behaviour, she grinned wryly. "You were just as bad yourself. I always contented myself in the knowledge that one day you'd have a daughter of your own to deal with."
Where before this comment would have set her off, in her 'advanced' age, the safety of their fledging relationship and no doubt in the ultimate tiredness and discomfort she was feeling, all Allie's response was a rare smile with her mother. "Thanks."
Hearing a knock on the door, Allie cursed inwardly. Of course, the instant she sat down, she'd have to get up.
Pushing off the couch, and finally upright, she waddled down the short hall. Opening the door, she found her friend standing there, Emma's hair wet. The six months old – teething – Molly was in her arms as the blonde haired woman stepped into the house. Removing her jacket, she looked at Allie's outfit – or the lack thereof – incredulously. "Aren't you cold?"
Allie snorted as she looked down at her very pregnant form. "It's like carrying your own pot boiler," she said with a point. It may have been raining and 9 degrees outside, but she was more than warm enough in a pair of tracky paints and a three quarter sleeve shirt.
Emma set Molly down on the carpet with a gumming toy, and then when the baby thankfully didn't cry, she ushered Allie toward a seat and headed into the kitchen herself to make the drinks. "You need to rest."
Allie stood behind a chair. "I've quite frankly had enough of resting," she said irritably, patting her swollen abdomen. "I'm more than happy for this baby to arrive."
Emma nodded her head, but wisely declined from responding as Allie eased into a dining table chair. The instant she sat, there was another knock on the door. Groaning, she took a deep breath and gripped the table before her, preparing to rise. "I'll get it," admonished Emma, abandoning the mugs for now.
And of course the moment her mother left the room, Molly began to cry. "Oh shush," said Allie softly. "She'll be back in a minute."
Molly's cries doubled when Emma stepped back into the room, followed by Stella.
"Hey, you're back," said Allie to her neighbour as Emma scooped up her daughter and jostled her in her arms. "How was your trip?"
"It was good. Really good," smiled Stella from the doorway. "I see you've got company, so I won't keep you. I just wanted to come over and apologise for the hole that Baggy dug under the fence." She stepped into the room. "Thank Nick for fixing it for me, will you?"
Allie shook her head. "Georgie fixed it. Not Nick."
"Really?" said Stella. She laughed to herself. "Ha. Well, I'll be..." She stopped talking abruptly when she looked at her neighbour properly for the first time. "Are you pregnant?"
Allie had to laugh out loud. "What gave it away?" she said with a grin, rubbing the side of her distended belly as baby kicked up a storm.
"Nick and Mia happy?" asked Stella warmly as Molly's cries became whimpers.
Allie paused just a second. "Over the moon."
The distraction that Emma, Molly and Stella had provided her with had been welcome. But after they left, and with Mia still out with her grandmother, Allie now felt restless. She wanted to do something, but didn't know what. Her feet hurt, but she didn't want to sit. She thought she should probably eat, but couldn't bear the thought of food.
With her hands braced on her back, back pain flaring up once again, she tried to relieve her discomfort levels as she walked around the house. Stepping into the small room that would be the baby's bedroom, she looked the chest of drawers over aimlessly. Running one hand over the wooden cot rail, she smiled as she looked down at where Mia had insisted on placing her toy giraffe in the corner.
She gripped the rail for a different reason when a flash of pain ripped across her lower abdomen. "Oh, thank god," she muttered to herself when the pain passed. Let labour begin.
She'd been in labour with Mia for 29 hours, and so when this first contraction hit, she wasn't worried one iota. Leaving the bedroom, she headed for the lounge room. After half an hour of intermediate pain, confirming that she was in fact in labour, she reached for her phone and called Nick.
He answered instantly. "Where are you?"
"I'm at home." She could hear him moving about over the phone.
"Why are you still at home?" he asked in disbelief. "We need to get you to the hospital."
"Oh please," scoffed Allie. She stopped talking long enough to suck in a deep breath as she felt another contraction. "I was in labour with Mia for over a day," she continued slightly breathlessly. "Trust me, this is going to be a while."
She knew he'd given up on arguing with her when she heard a car starting and his last words. "I'll be home soon."
Pottering around the house as she waited for her husband to get home, she stopped every so often to grip the nearest surface and breathe through the pain. Moving to her bedroom, she stood in front of her bed, her hospital bag open before her. Looking through its contents, Allie was ill-prepared for when the pain suddenly started to come with alarming regularity. The level of pain fast approaching unbearable, she leaned forward and gripped the bedspread, gasping when she felt a sudden desire to push.
When she heard Nick step in the door and call out her name, the scream that came with the latest contraction drew him to her. Her head was bent, sweat pouring down her face as she rode out a contraction, but she heard his words. "Oh shit, Al."
Her waters broke. He was by her side in an instant, his hand on her back and one brushing her hair back. "We need to get you to the hospital."
"There's no tiiiiime." Her last word was drawn out as she felt yet another contraction, the cramps coming closer together now with barely any time in between. Rocking her body backward and forward, her jaw tightened as she yelled out in pain again. Reaching out and grabbing Nick's hand, Allie turned her tense face to his. "The baby's coming now."
And so it was.
Next chapter:
Mia arrives home to a surprise.