A/N: Well, we're almost done with this fic, which you all should've realised by now. Thank you for the continued support and lovely reviews. This is the penultimate chapter, just one more to go, so make the most of it, reader peops!
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1, etc.)
Chapter 28
"Hey, Macky?" Dick prodded her in the shoulder when he realised she really wasn't listening anymore.
"Huh?" she responded as her eyes fluttered open and she gazed up at him.
It wasn't all that late, but she had fallen asleep on him again and Mac hated that. It happened a lot lately, sometimes even in the middle of the day. She had tried so hard to stay active through this pregnancy, to not resort to sitting on her ass too long and eating whatever just because the weight gain wouldn't show whilst baby was in there. She was determined to act as normal as possible for as long as possible, but as time went on, it just became too much of a struggle.
Mac's due date had come and gone over a week ago. It was the middle of March and still baby seemed in no hurry to vacate. The doctor was talking about inducing labour before too long, and though Mac wasn't completely sold on the idea, she was also desperate for this to all be over. She could deal with being a mother, she had adjusted to that idea. She was even ready for the pain she knew was going to come when it came to pushing this kid out into the world. She read all the books and got all the information, but the waiting was killing her.
"I'm sorry" she murmured as she tried to pull herself up.
"So not necessary" Dick told her easily, though whether he meant the apology or the moving she wasn't sure, "You think a guy hates having a chick fall asleep with her head in his lap? So not a problem" he teased her.
Mac wanted to hit him, but she really couldn't be bothered. She laughed half-heartedly and let her eyes fall shut again, still lying all over her boyfriend. He was as good as gold and better with her, patient as anything most of the time. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but nobody was. He got pissed when she needed to go the bathroom every five minutes, when all he wanted to do was watch the movie, and her food cravings almost made him throw up a couple of times. Still, for the most part he was all that Mac needed, and she was so glad that if this was going to be her life that it was going to be with Dick.
"I was dreaming about High School" she admitted sleepily, "Only it was different... we were dating and... and Madison was the school mascot" she chuckled some as she recalled the sight of the other young woman in a parrot costume, running up and down the sidelines, whilst Wallace and his team mates shot three pointers.
"Dude, that should be like a movie!" Dick laughed too at the thought of his ex like that, "Y'know, we totally should've dated in High School. It'd be like the whole breaking down the class barriers crap, all Romeo and Juliet" he told her enthusiastically.
Mac popped one eye open and looked up at him with an amused smile on her lips.
"Dick, Romeo and Juliet died" she reminded him.
"Seriously?" he reacted with evident shock, "Huh. I guess I never finished that book"
It was tempting to tell him it was actually a play more than a novel, but Mac really didn't have the energy. It never really bothered her that Dick wasn't as up on these things as she was. He wasn't book-smart, and he wasn't exactly brimming over with good sense either, but he was a decent guy underneath all the shallow crap that he showed the world. Mac wasn't dumb, she knew he was always going to appreciate the female form, and he was never going to get past making dirty jokes at inappropriate moments sometimes, but that was just a part of who he was. When they were alone together, he treated her like a princess. He respected her and he loved her, that much Mac was totally clear on, and it was all she needed.
"Logan and Veronica are more like Romeo and Juliet" sighed Mac as she thought on it, "They have this whole epic drama thing. I don't think I could deal with that. I like simple and normal… our backwards-built relationship notwithstanding" she confirmed with a smile.
"Too true, babe" Dick agreed as he flipped off the TV that he was barely watching anyway and paid her full attention, "It's like we're all… what's that word? Like, unconventional?" he tried, earning himself a proud grin and a nod from his girlfriend, "And that's way better than being like everybody else"
"Agreed" said the girl well-known in Neptune High for the bright coloured streak in her hair, and a best friend who refused to reform.
She and Veronica were the epitome of 'I'm going to do my own thing' back then, and they certainly hadn't backed down as they grew older. Sure, they were poor girls making relationships with rich boys, but it clearly wasn't about the money for either of them. Besides, Mac had never been the type to wish that one day her prince would come and sweep her off her feet, and Veronica had let that dream fade long ago when Lily passed away. They were realists, they expected life to be hard sometimes, and it surely had been that. Of course things were working out pretty well now, considering all the upheaval they'd been through up to this point. Now all Mac wanted was to get this baby out of her so she could move on to the next stage of motherhood, the actual having of a child rather than lugging it around inside her. Nine months was the deal, it should be done now, but over a week later, she was really struggling.
"C'mon" said Dick then, easing her up, "We gotta get you to bed already"
"Hmm" she said sleepily as she let him help her to her feet and half-carry her towards the bedroom, "You think I could just sleep until this baby wants to come out?" she groaned as he laid her down.
"Hey, I'm all for that plan, so long as I can sleep too" he agreed, "I remember when…" he began, stopping so suddenly that Mac opened her eyes and looked across at him, stood there at the foot of the bed still.
She knew from the expression of pain on his face what he was going to say. He remembered something from when Cassidy was a baby, that had to be what it was. Sometimes he just started to talk about him without even thinking of the consequences, like a reflex action that he couldn't help. Mac didn't mind, in her head she had almost managed to separate the kid Dick talked of as his brother, and the young man she had both loved and loathed.
"Come on" she gestured for him to come over and lay down beside her, putting a hand to his face as soon as he was there, "Tell me" she urged him, her nose practically touching his they were so close.
Dick swallowed down the lump in his throat, and took a deep breath before he began again.
"I remember when Beav was a baby" he smiled painfully, "Some nights it was like he just didn't know he was supposed to sleep, and he'd bawl like he was afraid of his own shadow or something, I dunno" he shook his head, "I used to hate it. I used to yell at him to shut up and then he'd just cry harder…"
Mac had tears in her eyes as saw those that were forming in Dick's own. People never saw this side of him. Few had an idea that beneath the bravado and all there was a very sweet guy that was so damaged by his past and his family. He hadn't behaved well and he knew it now, but as a kid he wasn't exactly set a good example by his parents, particularly his Dad. Then all that happened with his brother, a part of him blamed himself, Mac was sure, though he never really said it outloud. She knew what he feared now, and she didn't want him to be scared.
"It's okay" she promised him, her hand still at his face, making him look at her when he tried to shy away, "Listen to me, Dick" she urged him, "It's gonna be okay. You're older now, you know better. I know you wouldn't treat our baby that way, I know it"
Dick nodded that he agreed with her, because he so didn't want to be that guy. Of all people in the world, Dick Casablancas did not want to become a carbon copy of his useless, worthless father. At this point, that alone was probably his biggest fear of all.
"Y'know that night, the anniversary" he said shakily and Mac nodded, of course she remembered it, "I didn't even know what I was doin', I wasn't thinking about anything, but of all the girls I could've got with that night, I'm totally glad it was you"
"Me too" Mac nodded, "I wasn't so sure I was glad back then, but I am now" she smiled, leaning in to kiss his lips.
Mac woke up with a start but not completely sure what it was that had brought her out of sleep. She was dreaming, at least she thought she was, everything felt very vague as she hoisted herself up to a sitting position in the bed and let her eyes adjust to the lack of light. At first she fought to remember what she might have conjured up in her subconscious whilst she slept, but then gave it up as a bad job when nothing rushed to mind but panic. Something was wrong, she didn't feel so good, and she definitely needed to go to the bathroom.
Hoisting her legs over the side of the bed, she dropped to the carpet and padded along to the bathroom as quickly as she could manage in her current state of over-sized and sleepy. She certainly didn't have to worry about waking Dick up. The guy could sleep through a nuclear attack, she was certain of it.
It was as Mac reached the bathroom door that the pain struck her. Sharp and low in her abdomen, it felt like a knife being jammed in. She hung onto the door a moment, pushing herself into the middle of the room for fear of hitting herself on anything if she suddenly pitched over. She tried to breathe through it, but panic took her breath away until the pain suddenly subsided.
"This cannot be good" she whispered to herself, and then all at once there was a strange feeling like a release of pressure.
The whooshing sound got Mac's attention more than anything she was feeling and suddenly she was crouched on the tiled floor in a huge puddle. Maybe she hadn't needed the bathroom after all, at least not in the traditional sense.
"DICK!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, not convinced it would wake him but trying all the same.
She soon proved herself louder than falling objects, thunder storms, and the neighbours having a rave upstairs when Dick came running at the sound of his name being yelled in distress.
"Mac? Dude, what the hell is that smell...?" the blond was asking as he came hurrying to the bathroom door and then gasped in shock at the sight that met his bleary eyes.
Mac hadn't realised she was crying until that moment, when she tried to speak and her words came out as a strangled sob. This was scary, beyond scary in fact, as pain ripped through her body and her feet stuck to the floor when she tried to move them.
"Okay, gross" Dick admitted, mostly talking to himself, "but not the issue right now... Er, hospital, right?" he checked with Mac who nodded dumbly in response, before a shriek escaped as another contraction tore through her.
It was comfort at least to know that Dick was in some kind of control. He practically carried her out of the bathroom, the both of them still in their nightwear and not even caring as he got her to the elevator and down. They were in the car and ready to leave within moments, and then he stopped.
"Mac?" he said, turning to look at her beside him in the passenger seat, "It's gonna be okay" he promised as she met his eyes.
Through the pain and the panic she seemed to have no control over, Mac found a little calm in those words and the sincerity with which they were spoken. She nodded that she believed him and then immediately went back to concentrating on breathing through this. Thankfully the hospital wasn't far, and that was a good thing. Something suggested this baby had waited its time and wasn't prepared to waste a moment more.
It was a complete fluke how they found out. Weevil had been driving home from a date that had gone well, and pulled up at the lights beside a vehicle he recognised. The state of both Mac and Dick made it clear she had gone into labour, and it was without a moments pause that he had called up Veronica to let her know the news. He was sure she would want to know, what with Mac being her best girl friend, and Dick not having any support of his own but Logan. Weevil didn't care much for rich white boys, but so far Casablancas was proving himself where Mac was concerned. No doubt he was going to go to pieces when it came to the crunch and any support that could be there for both him and Mac was a good thing as far as Weevil was concerned.
Veronica came bolting into the hospital, in whatever clothes she could lay her hands on fastest, Logan on her heels in a similar state. They swung into the maternity ward, with panic written on their faces, gabbling to the nurse at the desk about their friends and how they were sure they were here.
"Are you family?" asked the nurse, and Logan was quick to answer.
"Yeah, Dick's my brother" he lied easily, after all they were that close these days, and in every sense but blood what he said was true.
"Alright, I'll go see what I can find out" she smiled in response and walked away.
"I hope Mac is okay" said Veronica as she leaned into Logan's embrace, "I know she was desperate to get that baby out already, but this is definitely not the fun part"
"She'll be fine" her boyfriend assured her, kissing the top of her head, "Women have been having baby's for thousands of years. Can't be that hard" he joked, almost wishing he hadn't when an expectant mother walked by, huffing and puffing under the strain.
Veronica turned her head away, trying not to laugh. She wouldn't change her boyfriend for the world, but sometimes Logan just didn't think when he made jokes.
"Oh God!" Mac wailed some as she tried to breathe through the pain and failed miserably to do so.
"It's okay, Cindy, you're doing fine" the doctor assured her as he looked beneath the sheet to where the baby was trying to make his or her entrance into the world, "We're almost there, now on the next contraction, I need you to push as hard as you can"
"I'm not sure I can" she panted, feeling sick, "It really hurts" she said, as if they hadn't already guessed that much.
The nurse stood by Dick nudged him with her elbow and got his attention, which so far had been fixed solely on Mac, though he was silent throughout.
"Give her some encouragement" she urged the freaked out father-to-be, "There's not much you can do for her now, but you can tell her how well she's doing"
Dick nodded dumbly, feeling stupid. He didn't know how to deal with this, he thought he did, but he really didn't. Everything in him was telling him to run away, every instinct made him want to bolt from this room and never come back, because it was all too serious and scary. He was out of his depth in the worst way and didn't know where to begin. Of course, one look at Mac glued him to the spot. He couldn't leave her, he loved her, and all he wanted to do was help her. All he needed to do was tell her how awesome she was and help her through this, then things would be better.
"C'mon, Mac" he said, gripping her hand tighter in his, "Babe, you are totally tougher than this" he assured her, encouraging her to look at him, "We have gotten through so much crap that life threw at us, okay? This is just one more thing, and when its done, you never have to do it again. It'll be cool, we'll have our kid and nothing ever has to hurt this bad again"
Mac smiled gratefully at his encouragement, and nodded her head, moments before the next contraction came. She squeezed Dick's hand so hard that he wanted to scream almost as loud as she did, as she pushed like her life depended on it. So it went on, with the doctor encouraging Mac to push through each wave of pain, and Dick assuring her he knew she could do it, he had complete faith in her.
"Last one, Cindy" the doctor told her, "Just one more effort"
"C'mon, babe, you totally got this" Dick encouraged her and with one final push there was a baby in the room, crying at the shock of being brought out into the real world so suddenly, "Dude, that was amazing" the proud new father enthused, as Mac fell back against the pillows in relief that it was finally over.
"Congratulations" said the nurse with a wide smile, lifting the baby to where both parents could see, "You have a son"
To Be Continued...