Labor Day

Antonio adjusted his tie while Nicole slipped into her red heels. They were getting ready for the banquet that would be held to celebrate Pollock's promotion. It was the third of September on a Monday evening.

"Labor day," Antonio complained as he combed his hair—Nicole was in front of the bedroom mirror choosing earrings—"Everyone is having barbeques and what am I doing? I'll tell you what, I am going to a four hour long dinner to celebrate the success of a man who did nothing but insult and reprimand me."

Nicole held up one earring to her right ear and another to her left. "Which one?"

"I like the one on the right."

"I like the one on the left."

"Why do you bother asking me?"

"C'mon or we'll be late."

xxxx

Jess's struggle to get ready was no easier. Being eight months pregnant even the simplest of maneuvers was a hassle. She cursed under her breath as she put on the only shoes she had left that were suitable for the occasion and also still fit her. She was in no mood to go out that night. The desire to stay in was a new feeling. She had been out of work for two weeks and was bored out of her mind. Usually she looked for excuses to leave her apartment, but that night she was exhausted and more irritable than normal.

xxxx

After greeting everyone Nicole and Antonio found their table and sat had something on his mind that he was just waiting for a good time to mention—he never found a good time, so he broached the subject right then and there.

"What?" Nicole said after he told her what he'd been thinking. "I can't believe that you thought now would be the time to talk about this; here of all places."

"I know it's not the best time-"

"Damn right it's not."

"But now that I've said it, what do you think?"

"I think we will talk about this later, Antonio." Nicole's gaze went from him to the stage where a band of older adults were playing soft tunes.

Antonio rolled his eyes. "I know what that means."

"What what means?"

"You dismissed me and turned your attention elsewhere. That means your declining my offer to move in together."

"I turned my head because I don't think we should be discussing this now, but since you insist, no I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not? We love each other. We've been together for six months."

"Those aren't enough reasons, Antonio," her words were in a hushed tone when she saw Jess waddling across the room towards them. "We were starting to think you weren't coming."

"I almost didn't. My shoes barely fit. I'm tired. I weigh two thousand pounds. I suppose I should just be grateful I was able to fit through the door."

"Only a month and a half to go," Nicole said making light of Jess's attitude. She knew a bad mood—a constant bad mood—was part of pregnancy, especially in the last trimester.

"Where is Pollock anyway?"

"He's over there talking to the director," Antonio said.

xxxx

The dinner was over and the evening was coming to an end.

"That was the worst chicken I ever had in my life," Jess complained.

"I'm going to the men's room." Before he left, Antonio put his hand on Jess's stomach and spoke to her unborn child, "come out."

While Antonio was in the bathroom, Pollock made a speech and left.

Among everyone else Nicole got up and put on her coat. While Jess was trying to stand up she felt a sharp pain in her stomach.

"Oh," she let out a long breath until the pain passed.

"Is this what I think it is?" Nicole asked.

"It is if you think the baby's coming."

"He can't be. He's not due for another month."

"Six weeks to be exact."

Antonio came back to the table. "What's going on?" he asked when he saw the look on Nicole's face as she was trying to help Jess out of the chair.

"She's having the baby."

"Not right this second I'm not. Everyone just calm down."

Antonio didn't take Jess's advice on calming down when he began what would be forty-five minutes of panicking by pushing Nicole out of the way so he could pull Jess from the chair.

"Don't worry," he told her, "we will get you to the hospital and everything will be okay. Just don't panic."

"Antonio," Nicole said calmly, "the only person panicking here is you."

They made their way through the crowd and out to the parking lot.

"Whose car are we going to take?" Antonio said.

"Mine. It's bigger and I can lie down in the back."

On their way to her car Jess's contractions caused them to stop three times.

"This is unbelievable," Nicole said. "First babies are not supposed to come this fast."

Antonio was falling apart at the seams. It would be something they would all laugh at in the future, but at that point it was only a source of annoyance to Nicole.

They got to the car and she laid in back. Nicole took the passenger's seat and Antonio pulled out of the parking lot.

"What's the quickest way to the hospital?" Antonio, who had calmed down—just a little, asked over Jess's moaning.

"Take the freeway," Nicole told him.

Ten minutes later they were on the freeway, but it was anything but quicker.

"This was a great idea," Antonio said to Nicole as the car stood motionless.

"There must have been an accident or something," Nicole said.

"Why aren't we moving?" Jess asked. From her position in the back she couldn't see they were backed up for miles. But before she could receive an answer she received another painful contraction.

"Are you timing these?" Nicole asked him.

"Timing what?"

"The contractions!"

"I'm driving, Nicole."

"Actually you're not."

"Whose fault is that!"

"They're coming every five minutes," Jess interrupted the arguing.

"This cannot be happening," Nicole whispered to herself, she then resumed her normal voice. "These contractions are coming too fast. We have to pull over and call an ambulance."

"Look around, Nicole. There is no room to pull over, and no ambulance can get to us. Jess, until we get to the hospital try not to think about it, okay? Let's all talk about something else."

Nicole gave him a look that said she didn't think that was a good suggestion.

"What, you got a better idea? There's nothing we can do. All you are doing is freaking out and that isn't helping us or her."

"I'm freaking out? You haven't said one sentence that wasn't in a stutter since this whole thing started!"

"He's right," Jess agreed, again stopping the bickering. "Talk about something else."

Silence filled the air as they all thought of what in the world they could talk about that would take their minds off the situation at hand.

"We could talk about what I wanted to talk about earlier," Antonio brought up the only thing that could take his mind off everything.

"Don't you dare bring that up now," Nicole warned.

"What?" Jess asked.

Nicole sighed. Maybe he was right. If anything maybe Jess could convince him it was a bad idea. "Antonio thinks we should move in together."

"That's a great idea."

"Huh?"

Antonio gave Nicole a victorious smirk.

"Shut up," she told him.

"We've been together long enough to take this step."

"Just because we've been together "long enough" doesn't mean it's time. I am not ready. Moving in together is a big step. It's like…it's like getting married."

Antonio never got a chance to respond. The conversation came to a halt with another contraction and what Jess said after. "Uh guys? My water just broke. This baby is coming now."

Antonio weaved around the other cars. Horns were blowing and he was scratching other cars, but he kept going. He made it to the shoulder of the road and sped to the hospital.

He pulled into the ambulance bay of the emergency room. "I told you we'd get here quickly," he told Nicole.

"Too bad you didn't think of that an hour ago."

xxxx

While Antonio parked the car Jess was taken to the Labor and Delivery floor.

"Looks like you're going to have your baby on Labor Day—ironic," Rachel said. She was one of the nurses on the floor. She had brown hair and was very friendly.

"Hello," the doctor greeted Jess, "my name is Crystal. I will be bringing your…" she flipped open the chart to see the sex of the baby…"son into the world. But first I have to examine you."

"I am going to go see if Antonio has stopped twitching," Nicole said leaving Jess and the doctor alone.

"You said he wasn't due until mid October?" Crystal asked.

"Right."

"Well, I think he will be okay. He's small, so we might have to incubate him for a while before you can bring him home. The nicu attending will come down here to talk to you. He can answer all your questions."

xxxx

The chairs for expectant families and friends were just across the hall from the rooms. Nicole came back to wish her friend luck and then joined Antonio and the other anxious people who had loved ones in the same "condition" as Jess. There was an older woman—probably a grandma-to-be—Nicole thought. Next to the elderly woman was a younger woman who was assumed to be the sister or cousin of the woman admitted to the floor. They were two happy individuals and so was everyone else surrounding them. Nicole and Antonio were the only ones not smiling. It was a weird feeling for both of them.

Things became even more awkward when a doctor wheeled an incubator into Jess's room. Some of the families that saw it looked at each other sadly. Nicole was grateful no one saw her come out of that room or they might have directed those looks to her and Antonio.

Later Antonio relaxed and was almost back to normal. "I could marry you," he said. He spoke in a low tone, so no one around heard them. They were too busy with their joy and anxiety to want to listen anyway

"What?" Nicole was stunned at how he would pick the worst possible times to discuss commitment.

"You said moving in together was like saying we were getting married. I can live with that."

"You can live with that? You can live with that!" Nicole was in a whisper and still no one heard her.

There was uncomfortable silence between them.

"And anyway," Nicole said, "I own a house. I'm not moving, so you would have to move in with me."

"I can do that. It's not like I love the place I'm at now."

"Yeah, but you love the short distance it is from work."

Washington D.C. is a busy city filled with crime. Nicole wanted a quiet place to live, so she bought a house in a gated community in Maryland. The downfall, it was an hour to and from work every day and Antonio was known for hating long commutes.

"If you're saying you're ready to take this step I'm not going to let a little driving get in the way. If that's our biggest problem we make one hell of a great couple."

xxxx

While Nicole was thinking over Antonio's reasoning, Jess was seeing the face of the person she had felt moving inside her for several months.

"It's a boy!" Crystal said. She placed the small—smaller than average—newborn on Jess's stomach. She read Jess's discomfort and figured it was from fear of harming such a small child. "It's okay, you can touch him."

Jess shook her head. "No. You should get him in that incubator thing." It sounded like she was in a hurry to see her baby get what he needed, but that wasn't her intension at all.

The nicu nurse took the baby across the room to examine him. Jess looked on while the pediatrician—she never caught his name—pressed the stethoscope against his tiny chest and another nurse wiped him off. But all the stimuli didn't make him cry. He moved around a little, but mainly just lied motionless.

He was weighed and measured. "Three pounds, fifteen inches," one of the nurses said.

The thought crossed Jess's mind of what any other mother seeing that would be doing—crying, repeatedly asking is he all right? Why isn't he crying? But she wasn't doing any of those things. It wasn't that she wished the baby wouldn't be okay, but she wasn't wishing he would be either. At one point one of the doctors—and then one of the nurses—looked back at Jess and then at each other. They thought it odd she was so quiet too.

The doctor placed a clear tube down the fragile infant's throat. They put him in the incubator and wheeled him out of the room.

"I'm sure he'll be okay," Rachel gave Jess reassurance she didn't need.

When Nicole and Antonio saw the incubator taken into the elevator they left their seats and went into the room.

"How is he?" Nicole asked.

"I don't know," Jess answered noncommittally.

"The N.I.C.U. attending is going to give him a full work up in the nicu. He will come down here shortly to give you the baby's status," Crystal said.

The pediatrician came down and talked in length to Jess about ventilators and feeding tubes. He covered blood work and tests that had been and would be done.

"Right now he is stable," the doctor said, "if there are no complications you can take him home when he reaches six pounds."

"I know you're tired," Rachel said after they were alone again, "but I need you to sign the birth certificate." Then she asked the question Jess had been anticipating/dreading. "And I'll need the name of the father."

"Colin McNeil."