Home Is Where Your Heart Is

“It’s a boy,” Melissa announced as she’d successfully delivered the baby and clamped off the umbilical cord.

“He’s beautiful,” Dorrie smiled softly as she glanced over at the screaming baby when they were cleaning him off.

After having cleaned the baby off, Melissa wrapped the boy in a baby blue blanket to keep him warm. “Say hi to mummy,” she smiled as she rounded the bed and handed him to the exhausted Sophia who was still trying to recover from the surprise delivery.

Gently holding the baby in her arms, Sophia tried to wrap her mind around the fact that she was actually a mother. She had a son! Two hours earlier she hadn’t even known she was pregnant and babies sure as heck weren’t in her plans for at least a few years.

Looking down at the now quiet baby in her arms, she carefully ran her finger down his soft cheek and took in his features.

“He’s beautiful,” Dorrie repeated as she watched her young friend bond with the baby she hadn’t known she was expecting.

“No,” Sophia shook her head slightly. “He’s perfect.”

“Sophia,” Melissa interrupted softly. “We’ve cleaned you up and your delivery was textbook, despite the quite proceedings there wasn't any tearing. But I do have to take your son for a short while,” she said. “We need to measure him and run some tests to make sure that he’s healthy, that there’s nothing wrong with him.”

“Okay,” Sophia nodded slowly before she gently placed a tiny kiss on the baby’s forehead before handing him back over to the doctor.

“She’s where?!” Vero exclaimed loudly as she talked to the nurse at the admit desk. “Are you sure that this is Sop…?”

“Sophia Walker, born 1986 in Detroit, but from St Louis, yes,” the nurse interrupted. “We only have one Sophia Walker admitted at the entire hospital, and she’s up in the maternity ward.”

“Okay, thanks,” Vero smiled rightly before grabbing her fiancé and his friend, dragging them towards the elevators.

“What did she say?” Max asked anxiously.

“Nothing,” Vero stated frankly “She just confirmed Sophia was here, she didn’t and probably couldn’t say anything about what’s wrong with her.”

“So where is she?” Max pushed as they entered the elevator and Vero pressed the button for the 3rd floor. “She’s at the maternity ward,” she whispered softly.

“Why would she be there?” Max questioned and for a moment, Vero was thankful for the little things in life, like when men were dumb enough to not see the obvious.

“I have no idea,” Vero shrugged as she sent a look to Marc-André that clearly said ‘don’t you dare say a word’. “We’ll talk to someone when we get there,” she decided.

Stepping out of the elevator, the three of them walked through the glass doors and into the fluffy world that apparently was the maternity ward.

Immediately taking charge, Vero stalked over to the nurses’ station, Marc and Max following closely behind, all of them feeling immensely uncomfortable in such a fluffy environment.

“Yes?” an older, quite angry looking nurse stated as she saw them standing there, looking uncomfortable.

“Sophia Walker,” Vero stated.

“She’s in delivery room 4,” the nurse stated before she sent them a disapproving look and turned away from them.

“Delivery room?!” Marc-André exclaimed surprised just as a doctor came down the corridor and walked over to them.

“Are you here for Sophia Walker?” the doctor carefully asked as she approached them.

“Yes, she’s my best friend,” Vero jumped in. “And this is her boyfriend,” she informed as she – by his tie – pulled Max forwards.

“I'm going to have to talk to you,” the woman said slowly as she motioned for them to follow her to a quiet part of the entrance hall to the ward. “I'm Dr Melissa Barringer,” she introduced herself.

“What’s wrong with my girlfriend?” Max asked, feeling very confused about what was happening.

“This is going to sound crazy,” Melissa began as she looked at the three persons before her, feeling a bit intimidated by all the hockey talent standing in front of her. “But Sophia had been in labor all day.”

“How?” Vero interrupted. “I mean, she’s not pregnant.”

“She was pregnant,” Melissa corrected her. “About 30minutes ago, I delivered a beautiful baby boy who is almost full-term,” she smiled. “She has been pregnant for over 8months, she just haven't been showing, not having any of the regular signs of pregnancy,” she informed them slowly.

“How is that even possible?” Max demanded to know.

“We don’t know,” Melissa said honestly. “It’s rare, but it does happen to a few women every year,” she continued. “Somehow their bodies take to the pregnancy differently, there’s nothing wrong we just don’t notice it and by most odds, it’s a once in a lifetime thing,” she explained.

“Can we see her?” Vero asked.

“Of course you can,” Melissa smiled. “I’ll take you to her. She’s understandably a bit tired, but when I was in there she was awake and your other friend, Dorrie is in there with her,” she told them.

“Thank you,” Vero smiled widely as she quickly followed the doctor and disappeared through one of them many doors in the hall.

“Aren’t you going to go in there?” Marc asked skeptically as he turned towards his friend who wasn't moving.

“She was pregnant,” Max commented evenly. “She was pregnant and I didn’t know about it.”

“Well, neither did she,” Marc pointed out as he observed his friend, wondering what was really going on inside of that head of his.

Knocking softly on the door, Vero entered the room quietly and smiled widely as she saw Dorrie sitting in a visitor’s chair by the bed. “Hi,” she said softly as both of them looked up and saw her, Dorrie quickly getting up from the chair.

“I’ll be right back,” Dorrie said as she leaned over Sophia, gently patting her arm before quickly and quietly leaving the room.

Walking further into the room, very wrapped Sophia in a close hug before sitting down in the now vacant chair. “How are you feeling?” she asked softly.

“Like someone ripped my insides out,” Sophia joked. “And quite honestly, that is pretty much what happened.”

“You were pregnant,” Vero said amazed as she looked at her friend.

“Yeah, and I wasn't even showing,” Sophia half smiled.

“Is he..?” Vero trailed off, not really knowing what happened.

“He’s fine,” Sophia said quickly. “They’re just checking to see that everything is okay since…well, since I didn’t know about his till now,” she smiled embarrassed. “But apparently the first tests were all fine.”

“That’s great,” Vero smiled. “What did he look like?” she asked curiously.

“He’s adorable,” Sophia smiled softly. “He was just so tiny. He was just over 19 inches and weight almost 7lb,” she revealed. “And he had a lot of hair. Dark hair.”

“Really?” Vero asked smiling.

“Yeah, he pretty much had his own hairstyle going already.”

“Well, it is in his genes,” Vero smiled cheekily, only to watch her friend’s face fall. “I'm sorry,” she backtracked quickly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sophia brushed off as she shifted slightly in the bed.

“He should be in here right now,” Vero state frankly as she got up from the chair and began walking towards the door.

“No, Vero, don’t!” Sophia called after her. But Vero didn’t listen as she closed the door behind her and Sophia fell back against the pillows in the bed, silently cursing her friend’s determination when she set her mind on something.

"Why the hell aren’t you in there with your girlfriend?!” Vero hissed angrily as she smacked Max around the back of the head. “She just pushed a person, albeit a very small person but still a whole person, out of somewhere that isn’t normally that size, and she’s in pain, a lot of pain and she’s all alone in there,” she ticked off as she punctuated every work by poking Max in the chest.

“Don’t hit me!” Max exclaimed annoyed. “And stop poking me,” he added as she swatted her hand away.

“Well, why aren’t you?” Vero demanded, still as angry.

“I can’t do this,” he stated, making it seem like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Do what?” Vero questioned as she tilted her head to the side, glaring at him.

“This!” Max exclaimed. “I'm not ready for this. I can’t be a dad, especially not now! Maybe never.”

“Well, tuff luck then buddy,” Vero stated, smiling condescendingly as she patted him on the shoulder. “You were apparently old enough to have sex, and that means you're old enough to be a dad!”

“No, I don’t want children yet! I'm too young for this,” Max argued. “I don’t want that responsibility yet!”

“So what?! I honestly don't give a damn!” Vero exclaimed. “The woman you’ve been together for almost a year, whom you claim to love!” she pointed out. “She’s in there, all alone, and she’s scared, probably more so than you and she’s not freaking out like this,” she stated, all the anxiety, the nerves, the excitement and the anger of the evening all rolled into one.

“And you're saying you’re too young!” she smiled disbelieving. “She’s years younger than you! You think that she’s ready for all of this?” she questioned. “Of course she’s not! But she needs you right now, she just gave birth to a baby!” she ranted. “You're baby! And you're not really helping by standing here and wallowing in self-pity for the nights of partying you're going to be missing out on because of this,” she continued ranting as a smile appeared on Marc-André’s lips as he watched them. His fiancé was on a roll!

“So be a man, and go in there!” she ordered loudly, staring straight at him.

Not knowing what to do, Max ran his fingers through his shaggy hair and sighed before shaking his head and starting to walk down the corridor, out of the hospital.

“He is coming back, right?” Vero asked nervously as she turned towards Marc who wrapped his arms around her.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I hope so,” he whispered against the side of her head, gently placing a kiss on her dark hair.

“He is so cute!” Dorrie gushed as she sank down in the chair by the bed and watched Sophia who was lying on her side, her legs pulled up as the baby was resting against her arm. “Has Max been here?” she asked softly.

“No, and I'm not expecting him,” Sophia sighed softly as she gently caressed the baby’s cheek. “He’s not ready to have a baby.”

“Are you?” Dorrie retorted as she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“No,” Sophia smiled. “But I don’t really have any other choice,” she pointed out as she looked up from the sleeping baby boy. “I'm not going to force him into anything he’s not ready for and have him resenting me for it later.”

“Sweetie,” Dorrie sighed softly.

“No,” Sophia shook her head. “I don’t…just, no,” she repeated.

“Did the doctor say when you could go home?” Dorrie asked softly, chancing the subject as she reached out and gently touched the small boy’s head.

“Tomorrow morning,” Sophia replied evenly. “They wanted to keep us here for a while, to make sure that everything is alright.”

“Understandable,” Dorrie nodded slightly. “Anyway, I was thinking, do you want to borrow some stuff from me and Mark? For the baby?” she asked. “I mean, you haven't really had time to…” she trailed off.

“That would be amazing,” Sophia said softly as she looked over at her friend. “Thank you,” she said honestly.

“You're welcome,” Dorrie smiled softly. “I’ll call Mark and tell him to search for the girls’ clothes and old baby things, maybe we’ll even get some stuff to,” she stated frankly. “Are you sure that you're okay?” she checked.

“Ask me in a few days,” Sophia smiled. “It hasn’t sunken in yet. And I need to call my mum, tell her that she’s suddenly a grandmother,” she noted. “That’s going to go over really well.”

“She’ll understand,” Dorrie smiled softly.

“I know,” Sophia nodded. “It’s just that I'm not really good at talking about me and my feeling with her and…well, she barely even knew that Max and I were dating till I announced that I was moving here to Pittsburgh.”

“How?” Dorrie asked, sounding both surprised and curious.

“I just didn’t tell her who he was, and no one really knew about it,” Sophia shrugged slightly. “Only days after I told her, just a few weeks before I moved here, some pictures of us appeared on this internet,” she admitted as she picked up the baby and rested him against her collarbone as she breathed in his scent. “She is literally going to freak out and then she’ll be on the next plane out here,” she smiled slightly.

“Would you, maybe, want to stay with Mark and me for a few days?” Dorrie asked carefully as she looked at the sleeping baby.

“I don’t want to impose, I’ll stay at a hotel,” Sophia blushed embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dorrie brushed off. “You’ll thank me for it later, when you're freaking out in the middle of the night and this little one won’t sleep,” she smirked knowingly.

“Thank you,” Sophia nibbled on her lower lip, the tone of her voice making her sound a lot younger than she actually was.

“You're welcome,” Dorrie smiled before she got up and after gently touching the baby’s head, she quietly left the room, silently praying that her friend would end up being alright.