Thirty Six Weeks
And
Counting
(Week Thirty-eight)
"You have got to be kidding me." Eliot looked at Parker and Hardison.
"It just happened." Parker said quietly.
"It just happened? There's a Texas size hole in my wall." He looked at the two of them.
"Kenna said you needed the couch moved." Hardison informed him.
"Where were you trying to move it to, the next friggin' building?"
"We were just trying to help. We knew the two of you needed some time before the baby came and …oh just forget it; I'll fix your damn wall." Parker stormed out.
"She's been a titch touchy lately." Hardison informed him.
"Sorry to hear that but I have a huge hole in my wall. Through my wall Hardison. It is snowing in my dining room."
"I'll call somebody…"
"Yeah, you'll call somebody all right." He took a step forward and Hardison ran out the door. Kenna stood in the bedroom door way.
"They were just trying to help."
"Not you too Kenna Shane. I'm not in the mood." He looked at her, arms crossed over her ever growing breasts, his flannel shirt pulled tautly over her belly and her leggings hugging her thighs like a second skin.
"Hard day at the office Spencer?"
"Damn right. What do you want for dinner?" He stormed into the kitchen and grabbed an icepack from the freezer and put it on his elbow.
"Pizza, the Celtics and you." She came behind him and rubbed his shoulders. "Not necessarily in that order.
"The doctor said last week you should take it easy."
"The doctor said as long as I feel up to it sex is perfectly fine till my water breaks."
"And that's suppose to be a picture that makes me want to have my dick inside you?" He smiled.
"You are a bad man Eliot Spencer. I've carried your child inside me for nine long months and you won't give into this one little whim." He turned and took her in his arms.
"Baby I gave into your whim six times this week and it's only Tuesday." He kissed her. "If women don't hit their sexual peak till nearly forty I think you may kill me when you get there. If not before." He picked up his phone and pressed a button. "Hey Jack, it's Eliot Spencer, can you send me the usual and put it on Kenna's tab?" She shook her head. "Thanks, and send a special and a six pack to Hardison's…he's going to be working late tonight." Eliot hung up the phone. "You have forty-five minutes to curb your other appetite before the pizza gets here because you're not scaring that poor delivery boy again by answering the door in nothing but a sheet."
"Best tip he ever got." She said as she kneeled down in front of him.
"Oh, no you don't." He pulled her up. "In case you haven't noticed the huge gaping hole in the wall you are not taking my Johnson out of my jeans unless the temperature is above seventy degrees."
"You have gotten soft in your old age Eliot."
"You're not too old for a spanking Kenna."
"Promises…promises. " Kenna took his hand and lead him into the nice toasty warm bedroom to show him just how hot she could make a room.
o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/
Eliot and Kenna laid in bed with a pizza, a six pack and a gallon of orange soda, the basketball game on and neither one of them really paying attention who was winning. Kenna hadn't bothered to get dressed so she lay with the sheet pulled over her breasts and her head on Eliot's thigh.
"Did you ever think this is where we would end up?" She asked him.
"I never thought I'd be sharing a bed with you let alone eating pizza naked in one with you." He smiled.
"I mean it. When you left Kentucky…did you want this?"
"I wanted you. I wanted to make you see that family wasn't all bad. Then I started doing things a little left of honest and I figured that wasn't what you needed. I wanted to give you what your mama never could and when things went south I couldn't bring myself to ruin what little faith you had left in me so I never came back." Kenna looked at him.
"The night in the barn, when I asked you to take my virginity you were so hard to read. I didn't know if I screwed up our friendship or I scared the living hell out of you."
"The later I assure you." He ran his hand over her hair. "I couldn't believe you wanted me to be the first."
"I wanted you to be the only."
"I can't lie, I wanted that too." He looked at her. "I can live with being the first and being the last." She smiled. Turning she moved the pizza off the bed and settled between his legs with her back toward him. Kenna pulled the blanket up over them and she turned up the game. "Did I say something wrong?" He said. She shook her head.
"No Eliot…you said something right." She laid her hands on his that were resting on her belly and closed her eyes.
"Kenna what's wrong?" Kenna gripped his hands.
"Just a little some twinges."
"Kenna your gripping my hands a little harder than just a twinge."
"I'm fine." She whispered. Eliot held her close.
"Don't be afraid to tell me if something's not right Kenna." She nodded.
"I'm tired." She said softly.
"Why don't we go to bed?"
"Please don't leave." She rolled over on her side and snuggled against him. Eliot wasn't going anywhere.
"Do I have a choice?" He stroked her hair.
"Nope." That was the last thing she said before she fell asleep. Eliot closed his eyes. He had been letting his guard down a lot lately and he was thinking that it wasn't such a bad thing anymore.
o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o
"I fixed your wall, are you happy?" Parker stood up when Eliot came though the bedroom door the next morning.
"I would have been happier if you hadn't of put the hole in it in the first place." He ruffled her hair.
"SORRY!" She screeched.
"Inside voice Parker." Kenna said as she came out of the bedroom. She kissed Eliot on the cheek. "Doctors appointment in thirty minutes." Grabbing a cup she headed for the coffee pot. Parker squeaked and reached for the cup. "Oh no you don't. This is my one and only vice other than the man standing next to you so back off." Eliot's eyebrows rose. Parker twisted off her stool and stormed out the door.
"I think you pissed her off." Eliot told her.
"Really? You think." Kenna grabbed her bag off the coat rack. "You coming?"
"I know your kinda moody before your coffee but you just kinda hurt Parker's feelings."
"And I will deal with Parker when we get back." She grabbed the truck keys and threw them to him. "Let's go, we're going to be late."
"If we are does that mean I don't have to sit in the waiting room with twenty emotionally unstable women?" Kenna hit the down button.
"No, but it does mean you have to ride down an elevator and ride twenty minutes in a vehicle with an emotionally unstable woman that carries a knife and is going to push your eight pound baby out of her body so suck it up buttercup." Eliot almost thought the steps would be safer at this point.
"Did something happen between you going to sleep and you waking up this morning that put you in this foul ass mood or is it just my company." The elevator opened and Kenna got in. Eliot wasn't sure it was safe to go in the small car with Kenna at this moment. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"Just get in the elevator Eliot." He got in a pressed the first floor button. "I just don't feel…comfortable right now."
"Okay, but you can't take it out on me and Parker. Me, maybe but not Parker."
"I'm sorry." Kenna closed her eyes. "I promise I will apologize to her the minute we get back." She took a deep breath and it really was getting harder. Her back hurt and it seemed like she was more tired than she has ever been.
"It all be over in a few weeks."
"Then we won't get any sleep…ever." Eliot put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.
"Luckily I don't sleep much either." The door opened and they headed out to another doctor's appointment. Two more weeks and he cold kiss the uncomfortable chairs and the old magazines good-bye.
o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/
"Everything looks good Kenna. Your cervix is softening and she's turned nicely." Dr. Baker smiled at them. "Any complaints? Concerns?"
"The last few days I've been kind of cranky. Everything hurts and I have some twinges of pain now and then."
"It's normal. Just take it easy and get some rest." The older woman smiled. "Call me if you have any questions Kenna. I know this is a big change for you and even if you need to talk, just call." The doctor left the room.
"See, it's all normal." Eliot held her hand, it no real hurry to leave the quiet of the exam room.
"I just…it was like overnight I lost control. My breasts and back are killing me and I feel like I could sleep for a week." He had been reading more books on pregnancy than he cared to admit so he knew what to expect and he thought she would of too but Kenna was a different kind of woman. She and endured more in her lifetime than any one person should and this was just one more thing that made her stronger. She didn't know how to be weak.
"I know it's tough baby but you gotta listen to your body and if it tells you to slow down, you have to listen."
"Coming from the man who goes out looking for a fight for a living."
"Get dressed sassy mouth. You have an apology and lunch to get to."
"I hate you Eliot Spencer." He threw her jeans at her.
"Keep it up Kenna Shane and you'll be walkin' home."
o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o
"Have you seen Parker?" Hardison was sitting at the desk in Nate's apartment when Kenna and Eliot came back from the doctor.
"Haven't seen her since breakfast." He mumbled.
"Nate?"
"Client meeting."
"Did I piss you off too?" Hardison looked up from his file.
"What? Oh hey Kenna. Not that I know of. Try your apartment."
"Parker or Nate?" Kenna asked.
"Parker. She was having baby hippo withdrawal." Kenna nodded.
"Carry on." She told him and headed up stairs. Kenna found Parker on the day bed surrounded by stuffed animals. She was clinging to the big pink baby hippo that she had picked out especially for the baby shower. "Hey Parker." Kenna said softly.
"I'm sorry." She set down the hippo and started to leave.
"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for." Kenna touched the younger woman's arm. "I'm the one who should be sorry Parker. I woke up this morning and I was eight and a half months pregnant and felt it. I have gone through the last few months feeling fine and this morning the whole thing hit me like a ton of bricks and you just happened to be in the line of fire. You and Eliot."
"I did let the couch got through your wall."
"And you fixed it." Kenna smiled. "Just don't get between me and my coffee."
"I just read somewhere it's bad for the baby and…I guess I was just trying to help."
"I know, and thank you for that but its one cup, once a day."
"You know you can't drink or anything if you're going to breast feed." Parker added.
"Thank you Parker, I promise I will not drink and breast feed." Kenna smiled.
"I was just trying to be a friend."
"You are. You are a great friend. And you're going to make a great aunt." The baby kicked and Kenna took Parker's hand and put it where she was moving around.
"Is that really her? Is that Faith?" Parker's eyes got wide. Kenna couldn't believe she had gone this long without letting the younger woman feel the baby inside her.
"Yeah Parker that's Faith." Eliot stood at the door. Parker's eyes were as big as sauces as she felt his daughter move inside her mother. He wondered what life would have been like if Nate hadn't brought them together three years ago? How boring his life might have been without Parker in it. And without Parker, Kenna might not have come back into his life. Smiling he took the step into the baby's room.
"Can I have the honor of taking my three best girls to lunch?" At the sound of her father's voice the baby kicked Kenna harder, in turn kicking Parker's hand right off her belly.
"Oh, did you see that?" Parker looked at them. Kenna laughed and Eliot smiled.
"Her daddy does that too her." Kenna answered. "Lunch sounds good. As long as it doesn't have anything to do with rice I'm up for anything."
"Tacos?" Parker asked hopefully.
"Tacos it is." Eliot said as he lead the two women out the door. Yeah, Eliot decided, life would be pretty boring without Parker and really lonely without Kenna.