Mom woke us up the following night as she burst into the room. "Kids! We've got five inches of snow on the ground, early for this time of year. Snow before Halloween; there's always a first, huh? There's more than enough snow out there to make a snowman! You still have two weeks or so to go before the baby is here, so I don't see any harm in having some fun, but not too much."
"Hey, Mom," I replied groggily. I suddenly panicked at the prospect of which position Eric and I were in and what body parts were showing. That died quickly when the blanket was thrown up and over my head, covering the both of us completely.
I heard Eric's thoughts: 'I don't do snowmen, and I am far from a kid.' I couldn't help but agree with him, about the kid part.
"Ah, Mr. Northman and Ms. Byers, you will soon discover the magic of being parents and building your first snowman with your child. And yes, you two are kids." She laughed as she threw open the curtains. Eric growled surly under the covers. "Now, y'all get up and come down for breakfast. Since you both are no longer children, I guess I'll put the hot chocolate and popcorn and movies away. It's a good thing I didn't start a fire." Even though I couldn't see the expression on Mom's face, I knew she had a big smile.
When she left I looked at Eric before tossing the covers off our heads. "We don't eat popcorn or drink hot chocolate, do we?"
"If you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. The fire sounds enticing, though. Is Frannie working tonight?"
"Oh, there's my romantic vampire," I snickered. "But you know, I don't even have an appetite, for blood, I mean."
He leaned in and kissed my cheek, rubbing my belly gently. "Think maybe you'd allow me the honor of taking you for a walk, minus the snowman? Get away from the queen for a while?"
"Sneak out?! Are you crazy? Oh, god yes!" We both laughed.
"Try it, but I'll find you and put the both of you on restriction," Frannie said from down the hall.
By the time Eric and I took our shower, dressed and headed downstairs, I was suddenly tired, exhausted, really. I wasn't hurting, but it took everything I had to put one foot in front of the other. I attributed it to not getting enough to feed.
We met Mom in the hallway with my hourly meal behind her. He was younger than the others had been, but he was no less willing to let me feed. "Go on, honey, eat," she prompted. "Get comfortable in the living room by the fire." She shrugged her shoulders. "Even kids like fires, right? I'll be right back." She winked and grinned at us as she walked away.
When I got settled in and his neck was inches from my mouth, a wave of intense hunger surged through me. I quickly pierced the vein and felt the hot, fresh metallic liquid cascade over my tongue and down my throat. I had been gentle and respectful with my meals before, always knowing when enough was enough. But then I realized I wanted more, needed more. My mind completely shut down as I concentrated only on feeding.
"Connee! As your Maker I command you! Back off!"
Without the ability to control myself, my fangs retracted from the neck of my Meals on Wheels. I looked at Mom confused, lost. I could feel an abnormally large amount of blood around my mouth that dripped from my chin. Eric's long arm wrapped around my shoulders from behind and pulled me back, so hard that we ended up on the floor, me on my back with Eric straddling me, my wrists flush against the carpet with his strong hands.
"You can't take orders very well, can you?" Eric growled.
In the background I could hear Mom speak to the boy then curse. "You've taken too much. I've got to get some more in him. I'm taking him downstairs." When I was finally able to focus, she had him cradled in her arms and turned away. "Eric, please make sure she has some meat in the fridge." And then she was gone.
"Eric, I—"
"Oh, don't even start," he grumbled as he stood, extended an arm and helped me up.
I felt dizzy and light on my feet. "Did I drain him?" The thought terrified me.
"No, but after you eat again you have a mess to clean up," he replied as he cocked his head toward the couch.
"Oh, hell."
When we returned to the living room half an hour later I was fully satisfied then, but something told me I'd be hungry again later. Eric never warned me that eating as a vampire was like Chinese food: You're always hungry an hour later. But what really caught my attention was the amount of blood I'd left on the couch and carpet. If I wasn't already nauseous I would have been by the site.
"Check in the hall closet for the steamer and things you'll need to clean up, if you will, Eric," Mom's voice came from below.
"Yes, Mom, of course," I replied before I heard the name she addressed. I looked at him and he was angry, though his eyes didn't convey much of it.
If only he knew how hard it was for me not to say that two-letter phrase. The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed twice, and I knew there would be more. "Pick out a movie while I clean up your mess."
I turned to the cabinet that held the DVDs and one thing was clear, Mom was an avid movie watcher. The first one I saw was still unwrapped, so I picked it up and read it. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, a classic. Although it was a movie I had seen many times, I'd always watched it alone. It would suffice.
Without paying attention to what Eric as doing, I heard the clock make its last chime in the hallway. Eric walked past me with the steamer in his hand to take back to the hall closet. I looked at my watch. It was exactly seven. Five. Five chimes had passed since the first two started. He was done? I turned back around and the couch, including the carpet in front of it, was completely clean, leaving not one trace of the gore I'd left behind.
"Holy shit," I muttered as he walked past me again, standing a foot from me.
"You should know by now that five minutes is the quickest I ever do anything," he purred, an evil grin on his lips. But then he smacked my ass hard. "That was for putting your mother through that."
I nodded in total agreement. "Am I forgiven?"
His body crashed into mine, sending us both against the wall in the hallway. His lips were melded with mine before the look of surprise disappeared from my face. It grew hot between us, as it always did when we kissed. I wished, prayed we would never lose that.
"No," he said after he pulled away and went back to the living room.
Walking into the room I couldn't help but smile when I saw Eric just standing up after placing a thick, plush blanket and pillows in front of the fireplace facing the entertainment unit. After what I had just done he still forgave me and does something touching like that. I didn't know what to say. What could I say after what I had just done? I heard myself say, "Eric, please, please don't ever let me do that again. Please?"
"Con, I am not angry with you," he replied as he led me to the blanket and carefully helped me down. Lying halfway on his back, he pulled me against him and held me tight. "Your mother and I both understand what you are going through."
"Still, it's no excuse."
"Don't ask me how many times I've used that command on Pam," he snickered.
"Right," I said. "I get your point."
"Wow! Great job, Eric. Thank you," Mom said as she came into the room. Standing over us, looking at us amused she said, "I never thought I'd see my baby snuggling with her man. My baby's grown up!" She tried to make her voice crack like she was avoiding crying, but it failed miserably.
"Mom, for pete's sake!" I fussed.
"Oh! 'Taming of the Shrew," Mom exclaimed as she bent down, took the DVD from my hand and started to unwrap it. "It's a great movie. I got this for you, shortly after you and Eric got here, to the house, considering the content of the movie and your relationship, and all."
Hell, I wish I were in Louisiana right now, I heard Eric.
"You, Mr. Northman, are practically my son-in-law. We are all adults. A mother is allowed to tease her only child with her boyfriend." She turned away and within seconds the movie started. "You two kids have fun. I have to check on Lewis."
I was too embarrassed to fuss at her before she left. I just buried my face in Eric's chest and laughed. The odd thing was he wasn't laughing, and he should have been. I picked my head up and looked over his face. He was sad. "What is it? She was just teasing us. You know her sense of humor."
"You are very lucky." There was so much pain in those four little words.
My heart broke for him remembering him tell me the story of how his parents died. "Baby," I started, taking his face in my hands. "I can't even imagine what you've gone through. I, too, lost my mother. Yes, I am lucky in that she's back in my life. But Eric, love, don't you ever think for one minute she's not up there looking down on her son and smiling. She's smiling because her son is finally happy, and she is about to have a grandson." I ran my fingers through his hair and tried to smile reassuringly. "She watches over you, just as my mother watched over me when I was a child. I never knew it, never saw her, but she was there with me. Believe that. You have to believe that. Can you do that for me?"
His eyes had become blood red as he tried to hold back his tears, but then they streamed from all four corners.
"Eric Northman, if you get those tears on my blanket you're cleaning that up, too!" Frannie must have been at the top of the stairs listening in. Her voice shook as if she'd been crying as well.
Eric blinked a few more times before his whole body shook. I was expecting to be covered in his tears, but instead he laughed. He laughed long and hard, shaking his head. When he got control of himself he turned towards the hallway and replied playfully, "I understand I am your guest, Queen, but is nothing of ours scared in this house?"
"Eric!"
"No Sir." Then the door closed and it was quiet again.
"She likes you, you know."
"I am fond of her, as well. Stay put. I'll be right back." And right back he was, within seconds. He handed me a plate of the leftover steak and a TruBlood then sat down beside me. "Here's your popcorn and hot chocolate." As I ate, he said, "'Taming of the Shrew,' huh? You would like that," he snickered. I promptly opened my mouth after leaving a bit of meat and had taken a sip of blood. His face contorted. "And it seems I forget you like, and need to be tamed at times."
After I swallowed I told him, "Yeah, and you were the lucky one that got that chance. Now, I love you, truly, with all my heart, but shut up because the movie is starting."
"Thank you. And I love you, too."
We kissed then settled down to watch the movie. Near the end of the movie, I was enthralled at Kate's words and had never realized the power of the them, how much they meant to me, especially since Eric had been in my life.
"Thy husbandis thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee...
... To painful labor both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience-
Too little payment for so great a debt...
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is forward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord? ...
... When they are bound to serve, love, and obey."
"Oh, my god, are you crying?" Eric asked amused, looking me over.
Wiping the tear from under my eye, I replied bashfully, "Nooooo."
"Come on, Mom wanted you to eat again before we go to bed. We have about two hours." He put out his hand for mine and I took it, carefully allowing him to pull me up. He put his hand in the small of my back while taking a firm hold of my upper arm. Taking a step, I got a sharp, intense pain in my lower abdomen, moaned loudly and bent over. "Con, what is it?" he asked alarmed.
"My stomach ... the baby."
"Queen! We need you in here!"
Mom rushed into the room to my side. "Oh, shit," I heard her say. Turning to look at her, the expression on her face was full of dismay and fear.
Then I felt something wet and warm drip down my thighs. Reaching down to the crotch of my sundress I felt at the moisture. I gasped at the blood on my fingertips. "What? No, no."
"Eric, please carry her to my patient's room," Frannie told him, but he didn't seem to hear her. He kept staring at my fingers, his eyes wider than I'd ever seen them. "NOW!"
He finally picked me up, with no protest from me, and carried me down to the basement, following Mom's lead. I didn't think I'd been so scared in my life. "What's going on? Why am I bleeding?"
Mom didn't answer me. "Here, please," she said, patting a gyno table. Eric tenderly lay me down and naturally I placed my feet in the stirrups. "I'm pretty sure you're in labor, but I want to get a heart monitor on the baby and an ultrasound."
"I'll be right outside—"
"No, no, Eric, please stay," I begged.
He looked at me embarrassed. "It's fine, Eric, as long as you stay out of the way," Frannie answered.
I watched Eric step away and lean against the wall then Mom lifted the skirt up below my breasts and covered me with a thin sheet. She unbuttoned the top of the dress to expose my breasts and hurriedly placed the nodes around my left breast. With the million wires attached to me I felt more like TV than a patient.
Mom rushed around the table grabbing instruments I'd never seen before, talking to someone on the phone, ordering others to come immediately to the house, ending with the comment, "It's going to be a long day." When she hung up the phone, she sat on the stool by a monitor and turned it on. Instantly there was a fast heartbeat, faster than it'd been before, faster than it should have been, I thought. I looked over Mom's face and didn't like her expression. "Mom, why is the baby's heart beat so fast?" I asked in a panic, which Eric must have felt because he came and stood above my head. I reached my arms up for his hands; they were already reaching out for mine. Our fingers intertwined, and I held onto him for dear life. He bent down and kissed my forehead. I tried to smile, but failed. Looking back at Mom, I asked again, "Mom, what's going on?" She didn't reply. "Say something!"
All she did was dive in between my legs. Peering up behind the sheet, she said, "I'm going to have to do a pelvic exam to see how dilated you are." She paused a moment. "Connee, Eric, I may need to do a C-section."
"What's that?" Eric asked with fear in his voice. Mom explained the procedure, but all I heard was that I was going to die. A single tear fell from my eye down to my ear. Eric let go of one of my hands and wiped it away. "Sweetheart, you can do this. There's nothing to worry about."
"Take a deep breath, honey," Mom told me. I did, and gasped as she slid a few fingers inside me. "You have to relax."
"I can't."
"Connee, look at me," Eric said softly. I tilted my head back, he kissed my nose. "Remember the night we danced, the second time? I don't think I've told you this enough, but you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."
"Thing?" I asked then moaned when Mom hit something she shouldn't have.
"Shut up. When we were circling the dance floor, your face was so light and soft; you were breath taking, if I were human. You have only gotten more beautiful to me. You excite me, Connee Byers. I don't deserve you."
"Yes, you do." I sighed, trying to add some lightness in the dyer predicament I was in.
"Oh, cocky, are you?" he grinned.
"We deserve each ... oh, damn, Mom!" I exclaimed in pain.
"I'm sorry," she replied, still between my knees. "It looks like the bleeding has stopped, Connee." I heard footsteps come into the room. "Well, that's it for now. Take a deep breath again. I'm going to remove my fingers." I moaned as she did, and only then relaxed. Removing her surgical glove, she stood beside me and looked at both me and Eric. "You are only three centimeters. The bleeding was caused by a small tear ... You have a ways to go before the baby is here. It's almost light, so my attendees will be here with you while you sleep."
"No, no! You can't leave me! What if—"
"Honey, you're still new so you'll sleep through the day. The good thing is that if you need the C-section during that time you'll still be asleep, if it happens today, that's what I'm hoping, anyway. I wouldn't want to chance giving you an anesthetic. And even if they can't wake me, which I doubt, Dr. Carlisle will be here for the operation. I'm going to go out and talk to my attendees to let them know what's going on." She put the stirrups back down and pulled out the end platform, telling me to relax my legs.
When she and the others left the room, I started to really cry. Eric bent down and let me bury my face in his neck, talking to me softly, although I didn't hear what he said. Did it really matter?