Roxanne

“Hey, Mom, get up!” Slash’s voice called to me eight months later. Groaning I opened my eyes and the sunlight flooded.

“I’m not a mom. Stop calling me that.” I said as I rolled out of bed with great difficultly.

“You’re not a mom yet.” Duff corrected as Izzy let out a laugh.

“Oh shut up Duff, and get you and your friends the hell out of my room when I’m gonna change.” I told him as I picked up a pair of maternity pants. “My God I can’t wait until I can wear normal clothes again.” I said to no-one in particular.

“Fine, we’ll get out.” Duff said as him and the rest of the band left the room. Shaking my head I changed into the over sized pants and a t-shirt before walking out of the room.

“So when are you due again?” Axl asked, as I held back a groan. It had been the same question every day since I had told him.

“Any day now.” Duff answered for me as his arm slid around my waist. Izzy and Steven
shared a grin while Slash let out a chuckle. “I think Uncle Axl is getting a little excited.” Duff added after a moment.

“I don’t think I’m getting that excited, not compared to Dad.” Axl replied with a smirk, I shook my head as I sat down in a nearby chair.

“I still can’t believe Rox is pregnant and it’s been eight months already.” Izzy said shaking his head, I smiled as I felt a kick from my stomach; the baby had been doing that a lot lately, my hand travelled down and rested on my stomach.

“Is the baby kicking again?” Steven asked noting the way my hand travelled down and the tightness of my face.

“Yeah, I guess that means any day now.” I replied taking a deep breath.

“You think it’s safe that we perform tonight?” Duff asked worriedly, out of the corner of my eye I saw Axl roll his eyes and beside him Slash shook his head. Meet the typical Duff since I had told him, always worrying about anything and everything possible.

“Duff, I’m fine, you can perform tonight.” I told him, sighing.

“We should head down to the stage now.” Izzy said as he looked at the clock, Axl nodded his head in agreement. Without a word I stood up then we began walking down to the stage. To me it was extremely hard to walk down to the stage; in fact I didn’t really walk more like waddled. Behind the stage the guys talked and Steven and Slash had a few beers, the others had agreed to stop drinking until I had the child, well Duff didn’t have a choice but both Axl and Izzy had agreed to it as well.

“Well, babe I’ll see you after the show.” Duff said to me as he strapped on his bass and kissed my cheek, right after he said that I felt a sharp pain my stomach.

“Duff, you can’t go on stage,” I told him quietly as another sharp pain invaded; he chuckled softly as he brushed a strand of hair out of my face.

“Rox, I know you don’t want me to go and perform but I have to, it’s my job.” He explained as he took a step away from me, I bit my lip and took a breath.

“Duff that’s not what I meant, you can’t go on stage tonight.” I repeated as more sharp pains arrived.

“You mean.” He started, looking at me who nodded. “Shit.” He swore as he peeled off his bass. “Axl!” He roared across the stage. Axl took one look at him, threw his mic on the stage and ran off.

“Is she?” He asked looking at Duff who nodded his head. “You tell Izzy and Steven and take her to the van while I find Slash and make up some excuse to why we can’t perform tonight.” He said, Duff nodded again as I took a deep breath.

“’C’mon Rox, let’s go. You can hang on a little bit longer.” He said to me as we started walking towards the van, every step was a massive effort. I had taken maybe three or four steps before my water broke, Izzy and Steven were both walking by when that happened.
“Are you fucking serious?” Steven swore when he saw me as he walked up to me and took up position on the other side of me to help me walk as Izzy ran off presumably to get the van.

“Yeah I know isn’t this the best time for shit like this to happen, five minutes before we’re supposed to go on stage for a show?” Duff asked with a laugh.

“I know, talk about perfect timing.” Steven agreed I rolled my eyes as the pain in my stomach worsened. It took us maybe a minute or two longer to get to the van then within the next thirty seconds both Axl and Slash joined us and then we sped off.
“Jesus fucking Christ Izzy, I don’t think you’re going fast enough.” Steven said as we whipped around a corner and he smacked his head on the window. Izzy didn’t answer instead he ran a red and a nearby cop car turned on the sirens.

“Are you kidding me? We don’t need it right now!” Duff swore as Izzy slowed down and pulled over.

“Well what d’ya want me to do? I can’t keep going or else the cops will call back up and then we’re really fucked.” Izzy snapped back as he rolled down his window.

“Is there a problem officer?” Izzy asked as the officer walked up to the car and shined her flashlight in his eyes, from beside him Axl rolled his eyes.

“A problem? This car was doing nearly twice the speed limit; you tell me what the problem is.” The officer replied, from beside Duff, Slash let out a chuckle earning him a jab in the ribs.

“Well, we actually do have an explanation for that, you see one of our girlfriends is pregnant and her water broke so we’re driving her to the hospital.” Izzy replied as he licked his lips again. The police officer swung her flashlight around until it landed on me; she stared at me for a minute until she turned it off.

“I’ll give you guys an escort.” The officer said as she began to walk back to her cruiser.

“How you doing Rox?” Duff asked me. I didn’t answer instead I managed to gulp in another breath as the pain became worse than I thought possible. The cruiser’s sirens turned on and it zoomed by us.

“Finally god dammit.” Izzy said as he stepped on it. We got to the hospital within the next two minutes and of course with our luck there were no parking spots left.

“Fuck, well what are we going to do now?” Slash asked from where he was sitting

“I’ll take her in while you guys look for a parking space.” Duff said, no-one argued with him, he threw open the door and got out before he helped me out. We walked or at least Duff did while I got dragged along. “Hang on for a few more minutes.” He told me as we walked into the hospital and up to the front desk. They took one look at me, shoved me in a wheelchair and zoomed me off to a room.