45 minutes later...
Suitcase in hand, Skye rushed through the sliding doors of the large white building and up to the front desk. On shaky legs, her husband followed behind her. The nurse took one look at them, and her eyes went wide.
"Oh, dear! You look terrible! Let me get you a room right now." She glanced behind her. "We need a wheelchair over here!"
She handed Skye a clipboard full of paperwork before coming out in front of the desk to help. An attended dressed entirely in white ran out from the elevator, pushing an empty wheelchair. Sighing in relief Skye moved to sit down. They had just made it.
As she began to lower herself into the chair, however, the young man behind her spoke up. "Um, what do you think you're doing ma'am?"
"Sitting down. What does it look like?!"
"But this chair isn't for you!"
"Then who the heck is it for?"
"Him." She followed his pointing finger with her eyes, only to rest her gaze on a rather greenish-looking Jeffrey.
"Him? Why?"
The attendant looked at her as if she has just asked him what year it was. "Well, he's the one who's ill..."
Skye rolled her eyes and sat down in the chair, ignoring the yelps of the nurse. "He's not ill! He's carsick!"
Here, Jeffrey spoke up. "Well, anyone would be. Do you know that she drove all he way here in the emergency lane?! I thought we were going to be killed!"
She scoffed. "So what? That isn't important! What's important is the fact that I am in labor! My water broke a half hour ago, and this baby is coming, whether he's nauseous or not! So get me a room!"
The nurse swallowed thickly. "Yes, ma'am. I'll see what I can do."
Meanwhile...
Batty sighed as she glanced at her phone for what felt like the millionth time that morning. Still no word from Jeffery. Taking a deep breath, she looked up and smiled at the young man seated across front her. He smiled back, and something inside of her shivered in a really good way.
"Liz, babe, why so you keep checking your phone? Are you expecting a call from someone?"
She blinked. "Oh, no, not really. You know, I don't really go by Liz that much."
"Really, what do you go by, babe?"
She sighed. "I don't really go by 'babe' either. Everyone calls me Batty."
"Batty?" The blonde young man, whose music case read Dylan Hanson, chuckled. "No offense, babe, but I think Liz suits you much better."
She just smiled. "Well, you can call me whatever you like. Anything sounds wonderful when you say it."
Back at the hospital...
"Listen, Skye, what I told you about Batty - you know, about her having a date - well, you weren't supposed to -"
"Jeffrey, does this look like the time to be discussing my sister's love life?!" The blonde swatted at the nurse who was trying to help her undress. "Leave me alone, would you? I think I know how to take off my own clothes, thank you very much! And where the heck is that quack who calls himself a doctor?! Doesn't he care that I'm having a baby?"
The nurse, a tiny young wisp of a girl, blinked nervously. "I'm sure Dr. Stevenson is on his way, ma'am. But first births usually take a while and so he probably figured that -"
"Oh, shut up!" She flopped down on the bed and covered her face with her hands.
Jeffrey, sighing in exasperation, turned to the nurse and smile apologetically. "Sorry, she's a little up tight. Is there anyway you can leave us alone for a minute while she gets settled?"
Relieved, the young woman nodded. "I'll be back in ten minutes."
"Thanks." He waited until she had shut the door behind her, and then turned to his wife. "Skye..."
"What?"
"Do you think you could be a bit nicer? You just scared the poor girl out of her wits."
"I don't think she has any wits!"
"Skye!"
"What?" She sat up and looked at him.
He just sighed. "Look, all I'm asking is that you try to be a little less intense. Okay?"
"Fine. Will you just hand me that stupid gown? I might as well get comfortable since this is going to take a while."
"So, Liz, the day is all ours! What would you like to do with it?"
She smiled, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "Anything, so long as it's with you!"
"Well, I think that can be arranged. How about the waterfront?"
Unable to wipe the silly grin off of her face, she just nodded. Something inside of her just felt so alive!
"Hey, Jeffrey?"
"Yeah?"
"You know what I said about this taking a while?"
"Yeah..."
"Well I think I had better retract that statement. I think it's happening now!"
"Seriously?" He stared at her, eyes wide.
She, in turn rolled her eyes to the heavens and sighed. "No, just kidding. Of course I'm serious, you idiot! This is no time for jokes!"
"Okay."
"Okay?! Is that all you have to say?"
He shrugged. "What do you want me to say?"
"Who cares what you say, just get that stupid doctor in here. NOW!"
"So, 'Batty', how did you get that nickname? You seem fairly sane to me, babe."
She laughed, leaning back against the metal railing preventing her from falling into the water. "Well, my mom's name was Elizabeth, and she wanted to name me after herself, but Daddy said that there could only be one Elizabeth for him. I'm not sure why they picked Batty, instead of Beth, or Liz, or Eliza, or..."
"Okay, moving on... ?"
She smiled, sheepishly. "Right, sorry. Anyways, somehow Batty just stuck. I remember being in 3rd grade when I first learned about the true definition of the word. I was mortified." She laughed at the memory. "I didn't speak to my dad for a week, I was so mad at him for naming me that."
Dylan grinned, and placing his hands on her shoulders, slowly slid her closer to himself. Lowering his mouth to her ear, he whispered ever so softly. "Well, Whatever your name is, I'm glad your here with me."
And as his lips touched hers in the briefest of kisses, she had to agree with him. Why would she ever want to be anyone else?
A gray-haired, middle-aged, pot-bellied man with a mustache strode into the room, his white coat a-flutter. "So, Mrs. Penderwick... I hear that you think it's time."
"Doctor."
"I'm sorry?"
"Dr. Penderwick, not Mrs. Penderwick. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"Right. Well, Dr Penderwick, you think it's time, do you?"
"Well, duh! Don't you think I know what's happening with my own body?"
"Now, now, Mrs -"
"DOCTOR!"
"DOCTOR Penderwick. I earnestly believe that you think the baby is coming right now, but this is your first labor and sometimes we can't really know what something is or isn't -"
"Get out."
"What?"
"I said GET OUT! I don't want you in the room. You're fired."
At this Jeffrey, now very white in the face indeed, spoke up. "Skye, don't you think you're overreacting? We really can't do this without the doctor."
"We can and we will. Now GET OUT!"
Dr. Stevenson was out of the room before she finished the sentence.
For a few seconds, Jeffrey and the nurses just stared at the closed door in absolute horror. What had she just done? And then they were brought back to reality by the sound screaming.
Jeffrey was having a hard time. Try as hard as he might to ignore it, the fact remained that he was very squeamish by nature, and the sight of the woman he loved more than life itself in so much anguish had him reeling. During a particularly loud bought of contractions he had suddenly grown lightheaded and had been forced to sit down and but his head between his knees so as not to pass out - from HER pain!
That's where he was now, sitting in a chair, breathing in and out, and trying to tune out the sounds of his wife's torture. He was just contemplating the idea of putting in his headphones, when he heard his name.
"Jeffrey." The blonde's eyes were steely and her voice had a rough edge to it. "Get over here. Now."
"Skye, I really won't be much help to you if I'm -"
"No. I said get over here now, Jeffery Penderwick, and I meant it. It's your fault that I'm going through this, and you are darn well going to be a part of the pain. Got it?" He nodded, and slid his chair up to the side of the bed. "Good. Now will somebody please get me that damn epidural?!"
"Dylan, let's do something really crazy!" Batty exclaimed pumping her swing higher and enjoying the way her dark curls tangled with the breeze. There was something so freeing about the feeling.
The young man laughed. "Okay. I have just the thing!"
"Do something, nurse!"
"What am I supposed to do?"
"How the heck should I know, I'm just the father! You're the one whose trained!"
Skye, watching the scene unfold from her bed, chuckled. This was wonderful. Ever since the epidural had kicked in, she had been having a grand time. She couldn't feel a thing below her waist, and so she just got to sit back and watch as the event occurred. Sit back and watch as her husband and the nurses, both beside themselves with stress, yelled each other's heads off.
"Skye! Will you please stop laughing! This is serious!"
She smiled, trying - and failing - to hold back her giggles. "It's not serious to me. I can't feel a thing! Gosh, isn't medicine wonderful?"
"Skye! You don't get it! You kick the doctor - the only man who had any idea what to do - out of the room!"
"Calm down, Jeffrey! Nurse Julia has done this thousands of times, aren't I right?"
The young nurse shook her head in panic. "Not without a doctor I haven't." One glance at Skye had her already pale face turning ghost-white. "Oh, god. I think you'd better push, Dr. Penderwick." Running over to the table, she grabbed a pair of latex gloves and shoved them at Jeffrey. "Get ready to catch!"
"I'm sorry, what?!"
"I legally can't hold the child until after it's born. So you're going to have to catch it."
"What?!"
"Just... Think of it as playing football!"
"I'm a musician! I don't play football!"
"You're going to today!"
Squeezing his eyes shut and holding his breath, Jeffrey Penderwick leaned down, and officially became a father as a small squirming beast slid into his gloved hands.
Skye, watching in absolute wonderment, raised her eyebrows as she watched his face go from green to white and back again. "Jeffrey, what's wrong?"
"Oh, boy."
"It's a boy?"
"Um..." He glanced down at the small being in his hands. "Yes! But that wasn't what I was talking about. Nurse Julia, could you get her file for me?"
"Jeffrey." Skye's voice was deadly calm. "What's going on?"
"Skye, I don't think we're quite done yet."
"What?"
"Did Dr. Stevenson ever mention the possibility of twins?"
"No, I told him we didn't want to know anything about - wait, WHAT now?!"
"Skye, I hate to be redundant, but you'd better start pushing... Again!"
Batty took one look at the man next to her and grinned. "Are you ready?"
He looked at her like he couldn't believe she was real. "Yeah, are you?"
"You bet. Let's do this!" And with that she jumped out of the plane.
Holding what had turned out to be his second son in his hands, Jeffery sat down on the chair and groaned. "Oh, God."
Skye, exhausted by this point, just stared at him. "What? Please tell me we're done..."
He just looked at her and shook his head slightly. Skye jolted upright. "What?! Jeffrey, how many children are we going to have?!"
He swallowed thickly. "What does the file say, Nurse Julia? And please don't sugar coat it. If I'm going to be the father of octuplets I'd like to know now."
She glanced down at the manilla folder wiped her hand across her sweaty forehead. "Thankfully for all of us, this should be the last one."
Suddenly, Skye screamed. "Um, yeah! It had better be, because that epidural just wore off!"
"That was awesome!" As about a gallon of adrenaline rushed to her brain, Batty threw back her head and waved at the plane overhead. She couldn't believe she had just done that! She had just parachuted out of a plane!
Busy untangling his parachute from a nearby bush, Dylan laughed. "I can't believe you just did that! I've never taken a girl skydiving on a first date before. I've never met one who was willing!"
"Yeah, well, I'm just the amazing."
He looked at her, eyes full of amazement. "Yeah, you are."
Suddenly, her phone buzzed in her pocket. Ignoring Dylan's quizzical looks, she answered it. As she listened to the frazzled man on the other end, a grin broke out over her face. "That's wonderful! We'll be right there!"
Trying very hard to control her breathing, Skye Penderwick, mother of three, glanced around the small hospital room. Some nurses were standing in the corner, bathing the babies and taking what appeared to be an awful lot of measurements. Nurse Julia had found herself in the nearest chair, suddenly fighting a sick headache.
Jeffrey, exhausted and scarred for life, had collapsed on the bed next to his wife, ignoring the orders not to crowd her. His brown hair was going every which way, and his shirt had wet patches of heaven only knows what all over it.
Smiling softly, she gently shook his shoulder. "Jeffrey." He opened his eyes slowly to look up at her. "We did it! We're parents!"
His eyes lit up tiredly as he rolled over onto his side. "No, Skye. You did it. You were amazing. You ARE amazing. Skye! I'm a dad!"
She laughed. "I know! I'm a mom! Jeffrey, we have three kids! Three!"
"I know. You always were efficient, weren't you?"
"Well, you know me..."
"Oh, yes, I do."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
And - just as he had hoped - she did so, very nicely indeed.
Well, there it is. I had a blast writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. The next one should be up soon! Thank you guys for all the reviews. I would love to answer them all, but I spent so much time writing this one, that do don't have time! I only have 2 minutes left on the meter and I got 20 reviews on the last chapter. You guys are seriously the best! Thanks!