"Tommy, wake up," Kim whispered as she gently shook his shoulder and he just placed his arm over her. "Tommy please."
"What time is it?" Tommy asked as he rolled over to look at the clock and let out a moan as he saw it was one. "What's going on?"
"Can you get me some ice cream?" Kim asked as he looked over at her and then pushed himself out of bed.
"What kind?" Tommy asked as he was sure that whatever he brought up would be completely wrong.
"Strawberry," Kim said as Tommy nodded and then stumbled down the stairs. Her stomach then growled as she just shook her head. She hated to do this to him, but she couldn't take the stairs, not without him at this time of night.
"Every other night…" Tommy muttered to himself as he dug for the strawberry ice cream and made her a bowlful before he started digging around for a spoon. "…I hate these cravings."
"Thank you," Kim said as he barely nodded and crawled back into bed and turned away from her. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I'm just tired and I need to work half a day tomorrow," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded as she sniffled. "Baby don't."
"I'm sorry that I'm such a pain," Kim said as he turned back towards her and placed his hand on her belly.
"It's fine Kim, I just forget some days how much you're doing for me. Eat and get back to sleep," Tommy said as she just looked at the bowl and placed it on the nightstand before laying down and turning away from him. "I'm sorry."
"I'm just not hungry anymore," Kim said as Tommy wrapped both of his arms around her and kissed her on the neck.
"I'm sorry," Tommy whispered as she nodded but refused to talk to him as he closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "Kim, talk to me."
"It's just you don't have any of these cravings, you don't gain thirty pounds and have to buy all new clothes. Your feet don't swell and your back doesn't hurt all the time. I just don't think you understand it sometimes. These aren't things that I can help, Tommy!" Kim cried as he reached over and flicked back on the bedside light.
"I know and sometimes I do forget, I'm a guy…I don't think about those things as burdens. That's my child you're carrying, so it doesn't matter to me how much weight you gain or if your feet swell or if I have to get up in the middle of the night to get you ice cream. I love you and although I might not enjoy it I'll always do it, because you're doing more for me than I can ever repay," Tommy said as she looked over at him and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Now you can either eat that or go back to sleep, but I really do need to get back to sleep myself."
"Okay," Kim said as she sat up and reached for the ice cream. He had made her feel better although she was not sure how he did it.
"Morning," Tommy whispered into her hair as he heard her let out a groan. "You sleep okay?"
"He kicked all night," Kim said as she rubbed her side and he smiled over at her. He enjoyed feeling the baby kick, but he knew that Kim could only take so much of being kicked in the ribs."What do you want for breakfast?"
"Surprise me," Tommy said as he kissed her on the cheek and she pushed herself out of bed so that she could waddle down the stairs. "I'm a lucky man."
"Hey, remember my appointment is at two," Kim said as Tommy sat down at the table and nodded. He definitely would not forget that. He already had a substitute coming in at noon, so if he forgot the substitute being there would remind him.
"French toast, is there a special occasion?" Tommy asked as Kim shook her head no.
"It just sounded good and you said to surprise you," Kim said as Tommy smiled over at her and she sat down.
"Are you working any today?" Tommy asked as Kim nodded her head yes. "Do you really think they'll let you work?"
"Probably not, but Patrick still told me to come in," Kim said as Tommy looked over at her. He didn't really have a problem with Patrick; he just had to remind himself that she was not interested in him anymore.
"Why don't you just call in and take a day off Kim?" Tommy suggested as she shook her head no.
"I want to do something as long as I can, Tommy. I'm pretty sure Rocky will put me on bed rest soon and I don't want to be useless Tommy," Kim said with a sigh as he reached over and grabbed her hand.
"I know, but you do understand why he'd do it," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head yes. She had not been feeling well for awhile and every time he asked her how uncomfortable she was, it was always higher than what was normal.
"Yeah, I do, it's just that… I never really thought it would be like this. I wasn't that big of a baby when I was born," Kim said as Tommy looked over at her. "What's that look for?"
"I was," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him with a look that let him know he had better start explaining quickly. "My mom mentioned that I was a 9 pound baby a couple of times. That's part of the reason my birth mother and my mom knew each other so well. She was put on bed rest about six months into her pregnancy. When she found out about her death, she went to the tribe and Sam decided that it would be just as good for me to have them as my adoptive parents."
"You never thought to tell me before now that you were a big baby?" Kim asked as Tommy shook his head no. "So I could have a nine pound baby?"
"Hopefully it'll be somewhere between the two," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head as she cringed. "You okay?"
"I'm not sure," Kim muttered as he looked over at her. "I haven't had a pain like this before."
"You're not going to work today," Tommy said as she looked up at him and started to object before the pain hit again. "And neither am I, we're gonna go ahead and go in."
"Okay," Kim agreed as she closed her eyes and rested her hand on her stomach.
"Can you make it to the car? I'll call all of them on the way," Tommy said as Kim nodded as she bit down on her lower lip. "It's gonna be okay, I promise."
"Well, Kim, it looks like you are having some mild contractions," Rocky said as Kim and Tommy stared over at him. "The good news is, I can place you on a drip for a couple of hours and we can see if we can get them to stop. The bad news is that you'll be staying overnight and if I can send you home, you're going to be on bed rest. There will be no more going up stairs or down stairs. You will only get up to go to the bathroom."
"Isn't that a little bit extreme?" Kim asked as Rocky shook his head no. "Okay."
"You can cook for yourself, but I don't really want you on your feet Kim," Rocky said as Kim nodded. "Tommy, you will have to be on call 24/7, your principal will just have to deal with your phone being on at all times."
"That's fine," Tommy said as Rocky let out a sigh. "You okay?"
"Yeah, Ish hasn't been feeling to hot this week," Rocky said as Kim and Tommy exchanged a glance. "She's not pregnant, trust me, she's not."
"How can you be so sure?" Kim asked as Rocky let out another sigh. None of their friends knew about the problems that they had been having and he had hoped to keep it that way.
"We actually have an appointment with a specialist next week," Rocky said as Kim and Tommy stared at him. For all they had known the two of them hadn't even been trying for kids. "She's had a couple of early term miscarriages and we've just had a hard time."
"Rocky, I didn't know, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…" Kim trailed off as Rocky managed a smile.
"You didn't know, now let's get you hooked up to that iv and get these contractions stopped," Rocky said as Kim nodded. She hated needles, but she knew that this must be done; she wanted the baby to be all right when she finally delivered, which would be three months from now, when the baby was ready. "I know this is a funny question, but has the baby been more or less active lately?"
"More, I can barely sleep at night. He tosses and turns and kicks and punches, why do you ask?" Kim asked as Rocky smiled.
"Just wondering, it seems like the baby has enough room to move still, so hopefully we'll be able to get these to go away in a couple of hours. It wouldn't surprise me if this is just a delayed reaction to the stress that you've been under for the last few days," Rocky said as Kim just nodded. "I'll be back to check on you in about an hour. If it gets worse, don't hesitate to call a nurse. They'll come get me if they think it's bad enough."
"Okay," Tommy said as Rocky turned to leave the room. The two of them sat in silence for a few moments as they contemplated what just happened.
"Why didn't they tell us?" Kim asked as Tommy just shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't help but wonder the same thing as well, it wasn't like they would have made fun of them. All of them would have probably been as supportive as they could have been, considering what was going on.
"Maybe they didn't want all of us asking about it. It's got to be rough knowing that you're having problems and people like us weren't even trying and we got pregnant," Tommy said as Kim nodded as she reached over for his hand. "It'll be fine, I'm sure that Rocky has them lined up with the best."
"I know, I don't doubt it, it's just, I feel so bad for them," Kim said as she bit down on her lower lip.
"I don't think these are mild," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head.
"He keeps kicking," Kim said as Tommy reached over and put his hand on her belly.
"Why do you keep saying he?" Tommy asked as Kim looked over at him.
"I just think it's a boy. It really just feels like a boy," Kim said as Tommy shook his head.
"Do you want to talk about names?" Tommy asked as Kim shrugged. She honestly didn't have a preference so far. "You know that Sam will have to give the baby its spirit."
"What were you again?" Kim asked as Tommy looked over at her.
"I'm a falcon and Sam has mentioned a crane a couple of times, seems to think that she'll be important in my life," Tommy said as Kim laughed. "It is a little bit of an odd coincidence, but what can I do about it?"
"Yeah, you're right, names…" Kim trailed off as she reached over and grabbed a book off the night stand. "Do you have any preference?"
"I don't really want a junior," Tommy said as Kim nodded. There only needed to be one Tommy Oliver if they could help it. Otherwise the kid would have one hell of a name to live up to. "And my family has some scary names."
"So does mine and if we were to name him after one of our friends, it would be too confusing," Kim said as Tommy nodded. "I like Andy though."
"For a boy or a girl?" Tommy asked as Kim looked over at him.
"Both, with a 'y' for a boy and with an 'ie' for a girl," Kim said as Tommy nodded. He didn't see a problem with that. "You choose the middle name."
"Mark or Melanie," Tommy said as Kim nodded. "That was easy enough."
"You've got to start working on the nursery," Kim said as Tommy just stared at her. "The baby will be here soon enough and I won't be able to help you much now."
"This isn't going to be fun," Tommy said as Kim glared over at him. "I'm not the decorating type. My mom and Hayley decorated most of my house. I just painted the walls."
"Great," Kim said as she smiled over at him. "I'll call your mom then. I'm sure she'll be willing to help."
"Of course. She's been wanting grandkids since we started dating freshman year. It about killed her when she found out we'd broken up," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head. "I guess that she always thought that you'd be her daughter-in-law. It wasn't that she didn't like Kat, it was just that she had this idea in her mind that we'd be together."
"You didn't date anyone else?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head that he had. "Who?"
"Hayley, for a little while, a couple of girls in college, Alison; she's an English teacher at the high school, but that's about it and none of them were serious," Tommy said as Kim nodded. She had a similar history, but she could tell her already knew that.
"I should have known," Kim said as Tommy smiled and she let out a yawn.
"Sleep, it'll help," Tommy said as Kim nodded and snuggled down in her bed. AS hard as it was for her to sleep without him now, she was absolutely exhausted. She didn't think that she would feel like this so soon, but it almost seemed that he expected it. She, however, didn't think for long as she drifted off to sleep.