This Bitch Just Blew Me Away

“I’m starving,” Lizzy said and looked up at Austin from where she was laying with him on their sofa. He looked down at her and smiled a little bit. She was into her eighth month of pregnancy now, and they’d considered themselves a couple for two months.

“We just had dinner,” he said and laughed to himself. She looked up at him with her bottom lip stuck out and he rolled his eyes.

“That was hours ago, Austin. I’m hungry,” she pouted. He leaned down and kissed her head gently.

“Lizzy, you can’t be hungry,” he said. She frowned at him with annoyance.

“Are you going to get me some ice cream or not?” she asked then. He laughed out loud and ran his hand over her back.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that you wanted some ice cream, honey?” he asked.

“You should have gotten the point,” she said and rolled her eyes. He laughed again and started to move under her. She sat up straight and he got up from the sofa and looked down at her. “We don’t have any in the house…” she said then. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“Why not?”

“Because I ate the last of it, stop being such a jerk and go get your pregnant girlfriend some cookie ice cream!” she said and stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed and bent at the hips to kiss her again before he left the house. She smiled to herself and made herself comfortable on the sofa and flipped through the television channels trying to find something decent to watch.

After a few minutes she gave up on TV and went into the kitchen to find something to drink. As she looked in the refrigerator she had a sudden sharp tightening pain in her abdomen and she tightened her grip on the door for balance as the pain worsened. She’d started having contractions a couple weeks before, and the doctor told her it was completely normal to have pains starting around seven months of pregnancy. Finally it let up and she sighed as she reached for the bottle of milk. She set it on the counter top and got a glass from the cupboard as another pain tightened in her abdomen and she whined from the pain.

“Come on baby, stop hurting mommy, you only have to stay in there for one more month,” she said and placed a hand on her belly. The baby kicked once and then she felt a sudden rush of fluid in her pants and the pain worsened. “Oh my god…” she cried as she looked down to see the puddle of fluid on the ground by her feet. She started taking deep gasps for air as panic filled her body and she hurried to pick up the house phone and dialed Austin’s cell phone. He answered on the third ring.

“Hey baby, what else do you…?”

“Forget the ice cream; my water just broke…” she said frantically. “I have to get to the hospital…”

“Are you okay? I’m on my way back to the house…just…just be calm,” he said with his own panic showing in his voice.

“No I’m not okay! I’m having a baby!” she cried as another contraction spread through her body and she whined from the pain. “Oh my god…oh my god,” she cried.

“Its okay baby, its okay I’m coming right now, I’ll be there in just a minute. Take deep breaths,” he said and hung up the phone. Lizzy dropped the receiver of the house phone to the ground as she gripped the counter top and pain rushed through her for a moment. Austin burst through the front door just as the contraction passed.

“I’m in the kitchen!” she called and tried to compose herself. He rushed into the kitchen and she took his hand. He led her to the car and helped her up into his SUV.

“Okay, are you ready?” he asked as she adjusted herself in the car.

“Just take me to the hospital!” she screamed and he nodded and got into the car and sped out of the drive way onto the main street and toward the hospital. “Slow down, don’t kill us on the way!” she cried as she noticed that the car was moving at 80 MPH on a city street. “It’s a baby; I’m not going to die.”

“Well…I’ve never done this before,” he said as he slowed the car a little bit.

“Me either, but I still don’t want…ow…oh god ow ow ow…” she cried as another contraction came. Austin tried to get to the hospital quickly then and calm her as the labor proceeded. Once he finally pulled into the parking lot things seemed to move quickly until she was dressed in a hospital gown with monitors strapped to her stomach in the labor and delivery ward.

About an hour into her labor Joe walked into the room and looked her over. “Well you look lovely, darling,” he said and grinned. She shot him a dirty look.

“Fuck you, who invited you,” she said with annoyance. He faked a pout before hugging her and kissing her cheek.

“Daddy invited me,” Blower said. Lizzy glared at Austin and he shrugged.

“He asked where we were,” he said in his defense. Lizzy continued to glare and a contraction passed through her body and she screamed.

“Okie dokie! Let’s just check you out!” Lizzy’s Doctor said as she walked into the room cheerfully. Lizzy glared at her and took deep breaths to try and calm the pain in her body. The doctor checked her dilation and smiled. “Well you’ve progressed very quickly, you’re at 7 cm now, would you like an epidural?”
“No,” Lizzy said. “I just want to get the baby out already!” she cried.

“Okay, well I’ll be back to check on you in a little while,” Dr. Smith said with a smile and she left the room.

“Why don’t you have the epidural, baby? You’re probably in a lot of pain,” Austin said and took hold of her hand.

“Because I want to just have my baby,” she said and squeezed his hand a little bit. Blower looked at them. They had never really come out about their relationship.

“Are you too, like, an item?” he asked, feeling proud of himself for introducing them to each other. Lizzy looked at him and blinked her eyes a few times and then looked at Austin.

“We are a couple, yes,” Austin said. “But that’s not important now.”

“It is important! You are going to have a baby,” Blower said with happiness. “I think it’s really noble of you to step up for her baby, Steener.”

“Go to hell,” Austin said with irritation. Blower pouted.

“Well excuse me for complimenting your character,” he said.

“I didn’t think you even knew what noble meant,” Austin said. Lizzy laughed at that one and then a contraction hit and her laughter was brought to a halt.

“Oh fuck,” she cried. “Austin…I really hope…you never want…children of your own…” she cried. He laughed and kissed her head.

“You’re doing really good baby,” he promised.

Fourteen hours after being admitted to the hospital, Lizzy’s contractions were less than a full minute apart. Austin was trying his hardest to support her and calm her as the labor was progressing. “Austin, can you do me a favor…and call my mother please?” she breathed as one contraction led into another. “She doesn’t know I’m pregnant, but I want her to know the baby is…coming now. Her number is in my phone.” He nodded and found her phone in her purse and scrolled through her contacts until he found her mother’s phone number.

“Blower, take care of her, I’m going to step out of the room,” he said. Blower nodded and sat next to Lizzy. Austin went into the hall way and hit the send button. There were a couple rings and then a sleepy female voice answered.

“Can I help you?” the voice snapped.

“Yea, is this Lizzy Marshel’s mother?” he asked.

“Who is this? Is Elizabeth alright?”

“Yea, yea, she’s fine. This is her boyfriend,” Austin said and looked into the room to see Lizzy’s face scrunched into a painful expression. “She wanted me to call you, she’s about to have a baby and she wanted you to know.”

“A baby?! She never even told me she was…she was expecting… You’re the father?! Did she get married without telling m…”

“Whoa no no, we aren’t married…” Austin said.

“So you got my daughter pregnant and you don’t have the gull to marry her?!”

“I have a feeling I know why she never told you about the baby,” Austin snapped then. Lizzy’s mother gasped harshly.

“How dare you insult me that way?! I always hoped that my daughter wouldn’t be involved with such a low class man, that wouldn’t even marry before sleeping with her.”

“I’d marry Lizzy in a heartbeat,” he snapped. “But there are things that are keeping that from happening.”

“Don’t you dare try and say that my Elizabeth is deciding not to marry.”

“Look, I’ve done my part, you are about to be the grandmother to a little girl. You can discuss everything with Lizzy when you talk to her again,” Austin said and hung up. He walked back into the room then and went to Lizzy’s side and took her hand. “I love you,” he said and kissed her hand. She smiled softly before grinding her teeth in another painful expression.

“Where you able…to…talk to my mother?” she asked.

“Yes, she was happy for you,” he lied and kissed her head. She smiled and then her doctor walked back into the room and checked her cervix again.

“Okay, you are officially at 10, let’s get this show on the road, and have a baby,” the doctor said with a smile and looked at Austin and Blower. “So who is the lucky father?” she asked. Blower looked at Austin and slapped his hand on his shoulder.

“Good luck man,” he said and stepped out of the room as several nurses filed in.

“Okay, you need to get suited up,” the doctor said to Austin and the nurses assisted him. “Alrighty, what I need from you Lizzy is deep breaths and for you to bear down with all your strength for as long as you can.”

“Alright,” Lizzy said and nodded. A minute later Austin took hold of her hand as a nurse pulled her hair up for her and two more took hold of her legs and held them as far back and apart as they could manage.

“Okay Lizzy, deep breath and push as hard as you can,” the doctor instructed and Lizzy complied best she could until pain tore through her and she screamed out loud and stopped pushing. It was like a pain she’d never felt before in her life and tear fell involuntarily from her eyes as she tried with all her strength to push her baby from her body.

“You’re doing so good darling, so good,” Austin said and held onto her hand while she continued with the baby. Then suddenly, after 15 hours of labor and 20 minutes of pushing, everything in Lizzy’s life seemed irrelevant other than a loud shrill cry that filled the room. The tears that had been from pain turned to tears of relief and joy as her daughter’s cry surrounded her. Even her nurses seemed to have tears in their eyes as Austin was offered to cut the baby’s umbilical cord.

Although hesitant, he accepted the invitation and he followed instructions in cutting the little girl’s cord. Even knowing that she wasn’t his flesh and blood, he didn’t care, he was looking down on his daughter. The doctor placed the baby on Lizzy’s chest and Lizzy cried as she rocked her baby very softly to calm her. It was soon after that the baby was taken from the room for a series of procedure tests and weighing and measuring and cleaning. Once her placenta we detached Lizzy was taken to post partum where Austin and Blower joined her again. Then within a few moments the baby was brought in and placed gently into Lizzy’s arms.

“She’s beautiful,” Blower smiled as he looked down at the baby in Lizzy’s arms.

“She is beautiful,” Lizzy agreed and very gently pushed some of the baby’s dark brown hair from her face. “Do you want to hold her, Austin?” she asked and looked up at her boyfriend. She handed him the baby then and watched as he looked at her.

“What should we call her?” he asked as he looked down at the baby.

“Ashlyn. Ashlyn Morgan, and if you want to give her your name…you can,” Lizzy said.

“I’d love to give her my name,” he said and looked at Lizzy with a smile and back at the sleeping baby in his arms. “She’s my girl, of course I want to give her my name. She’s always going to be my baby.”