A Little More Than Convenient

|Trent Remington|
Within a few minutes, the nurses had Carmen wheeled to a room, and onto a bed. She was wincing in pain over and over again and I felt terrible because there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it. There were five nurses, plus a doctor in the room with us. Evidently, Carmen was in labor and since it was premature, they were worried. She was hooked up to an IV and everything.
“Carmen, you’re already nine and a half centimeters dilated! Why didn’t you come into the hospital earlier?” Dr. Weitz asked her.
“I...couldn’t come...in,” she retorted through gritted teeth.
“Hmm,” he said, “I figure that you’ll be ready to push in a few minutes, actually.” Then he shook his head.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’ve never seen such a short labor. Especially a premature one.” Then, he switched his gaze to Carmen. “Have you been very stressed lately?”
She nodded.
“Walking any?”
She shook her head.
He furrowed his brows. “Huh, is that right? What about sex?”
I could have swore I saw her blush. She nodded.
“A lot?”
She nodded again.
“Multiple partners?”
She nodded a third time.
I felt my blood start to boil. Sure, she’d been living with Christian for almost six months, so it only made sense that she had slept with him. But it still made me angry and insanely jealous.
“Carmen, it looks like there’s been some struggle. Have you by any chance...been raped?” Dr. Weitz asked hesitantly.
“Y-yes,” she replied.
My ears perked up.
She’d been raped? But when? And by who...?
“Just once?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. 
 “N-no,” she replied, “Maybe...,” she trailed off, “ten or eleven times.”
Dr. Weitz frowned. “How long has this been going on?”
“S-since January,” she replied.
January...that’s when she’d left me for Christian.
Holy shit.
No fucking way.
Mentally, I swore that if he had been the stupid mother fucker who did it, I’d murder him.
“Since January, huh? Carmen, I know this really isn’t any of my business, but you do know that that type of strain could have caused the premature labor, right?”
“Y-yes,” she replied. I saw a tear make its way down her face.
Man, did I feel bad for her.
“Okay...,” Dr. Weitz trailed off, “So, this happened ten to eleven times, correct?”
“That’s right,” she replied.
“Did you actually sleep with this man, though?” He asked.
“Well,” she replied, “not exactly. I just kind of laid there and let him, uh...do everything. I didn’t really go along with it.”
“When was the last time you slept with the others?”
“It was just one,” she almost snapped, “and that ended in January.”
Oh yeah, that was me.
“And which one of them is the father?”
“The more recent one,” I heard myself answer for her. I didn’t want to hear her say that I wasn’t the baby’s father.
She frowned at me. Who knows why? Hormones, maybe.
Carmen groaned again.
The doctor looked her over again. “Well, well, well, Carmen. You’re ready to push.”
“What?!” she squeaked.
“Come on, Carmen! You’ve got to push, the baby’s going to be here soon!” Dr. Weitz instructed.
“It hurts!” she cried.
“Here,” I said, trying to appease her, “squeeze my hand.”
She grabbed onto it and grasped it tightly.
“Ugh!” she yelled, squeezing my hand tighter.
I almost screamed, too.
“It’ll hurt worse if you scream,” a nurse with a sickeningly sweet voice said.
“Shut up!” Carmen screeched at her, “I want drugs!”
“It’s too late,” Dr. Weitz said, “there’s not enough time. Now, push!”
“Ahh!” Carmen wailed. “I freaking hate you!”
I don’t know who she was talking to. Maybe the baby, maybe Christian, the doctor, the nurses? Life in general. Hell, I don’t know. But I did know that she was freaking me out with that loud mouth of hers.
The doctor’s eyes widened as he reacted quickly to something. “The baby’s crowning! Come on, Carmen two more pushes!”
“Holy mother of God!” she bellowed, scrunching my hand as if it were a marshmallow. I watched it turn a dark purple, but didn’t say anything. I merely bit my lip.
“The baby’s almost out, Carmen. Just one more good push and we’re done.” Dr. Weitz said, smiling.
I felt like crying. I feared that my hand was just about broken.
“Sweet! Baby! Jesus! You stupid kid, get the hell out of my uterus!” Carmen screamed, squashing my fingers.
“Ahh! Damn it!” I yelled in pain, “Get out of there!”
Two of the nurses began to laugh. Carmen shot them an absolutely evil laughed. They shut up quickly.
And then, there was a seriously loud bawling that entered the room. I looked up. In the doctor’s hands was a baby. It was red, covered with afterbirth, and had a full head of dark, dark brown hair.
“It’s a girl!” the doctor declared. Then, he shook his head. “Loudest preemie I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been a doctor for sixteen years. I figured her lungs wouldn’t be developed fully yet and that she wouldn’t be breathing on her own. I guess I stand corrected.”
I looked over at Carmen. There were a few absent tears rolling down her cheeks. I felt like crying myself by the flood of emotion that was overcoming me.
“Should I cut the cord or-” the doctor asked.
“Trent?” she asked me, pleadingly.
I nodded, although it didn’t seem right. Since the baby wasn’t mine, I should not have been the one cutting the cord. But I would do anything to make Carmen happy.
I cut the cord with shaking hands the baby looked at me with big brown eyes. I could have swore she smiled at me. I felt a huge pang of jealousy. Christian, a horribly evil man had the love of my life and her daughter. It was almost as if my life had been ripped out from under me.
One of the nurses wiped the baby off and put a blanket around her, and finally laid her in Carmen’s arms.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Dr. Weitz said. “We’ll give you a few minutes to think of a name and to meet your baby.”
Carmen barely noticed them as she stared down at the beautiful baby girl swaddled in her arms. I must admit, Carmen left her mark on that baby. Her baby was the spitting image of her. I didn’t see any of Christian in her, though. Lucky kid, she was.
“So,” I said, “have you thought about names?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ve been too busy.”
“Busy doing what?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
So, I kept talking. “That guy you were talking about, the one who’s been raping you, it’s Christian, isn’t it?”
Her face crumbled and she nodded. “I-I just felt so dirty, so cheap and disgusting. I didn’t want to sleep with him, but I didn’t want him to hurt me, either. I couldn’t let him hurt the baby. But, I guess he did anyway.”
I rubbed her arm, trying to calm her down. “He’s not going to hurt you anymore. Or his daughter either.” I tried to contain my envy.
“Is he going to go to jail?” she asked with an odd expression her face.
I nodded. “If we can prove that he raped you as many times as he said, which shouldn’t be hard, considering they can do a rape test, there’s no doubt he’ll go to jail.”
“But what about his friends?” she asked.
“There’s not much they can do about rape or murder,” I replied, “besides, I can hire the best damn lawyer in the world if I have to. I swear Carmen, he’ll never hurt you again.”
Her face fell.
I could understand why. The father of her child was an evil rapist. Anyone would be upset, wouldn’t they? I decided to keep talking. “I talked to Lizzie right before you called me.”
“Really?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes, she brought over your diary thing. She wanted me to read it.”
“My letters to the baby?” she asked, her eyes widening.
I nodded. “I read them, too. I hope that’s okay.”
She looked down at the baby again, who was falling asleep. “It’s fine.”
I sighed. “Carmen, I want you to know something.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I still love you. With everything in me. Please come back to me.”
Her face crumbled again. She began to sob uncontrollably.
“Carmen, are you okay?” I asked.
She tried to wipe them away. “I’m sorry. Look, Trent, I’ve been lying to you.” I furrowed my eyebrows at her. “Really? What about?”
She nodded. “Do you remember what the last letter said?”
“Yeah,” I replied, “how come?”
“It said that I lied to a horrendous degree and that I loved you. But that’s not what I lied about.”
“Then what did you lie to me about?” I asked, getting frustrated.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but Christian made me. I-”
“Just tell me, damn it!” I exclaimed.
She exhaled deeply and said, “Trent, I lied about the baby’s paternity. She’s not Christian’s baby.”
Oh, God. Who else had Carmen slept with. Well, if she’d been with Christian at the time, I can’t say I blamed her. “Well, who’s the dad then?”
She bit her lip. Oh, how I missed that! “The baby was conceived on October 29.”
October 29...I thought back. That day was...Carmen and I’s wedding day. But, I’d been with her all that day. So that meant that...
I was the baby’s father.
The realization hit me like a pickup truck.
“Wh-why did you lie to me about it?” I asked.
She sighed. “The day that you got arrested, Christian told me that he’d have you sent to prison if I didn’t go to live with him. So, I told him about the baby and he told me to pass her off as his. I’m so freaking sorry, Trent. I-I loved you so much and it absolutely killed me to hurt you like that.”
A huge weight and wave of relief passed over me. “That stupid bastard,” I said, then I sighed, “as long as we’re okay now.” I stood up, leaned over her and pressed my forehead to hers. “I love you, Carmen.” Then I shifted my gaze to our daughter. “And I love this little girl, too.”
***
Three hours later, Carmen’s hospital room was almost completely full. Her parents, my parents, Lizzie and Stephen, Tara and Mark, Tristan, and Jessica and Ross were all in there with us. While everyone else was chattering excitedly, I was thinking about what we had decided to name our baby girl.
I’d been listening to the the music that was on my phone while Carmen attempted to sleep off the incredible labor that she’d just gone through. Eminem’s “Beautiful” had just switched to “My Maria.” I smiled at the memory of Carmen dancing to it in the kitchen.
I began to hum it, and when I reached the chorus, Carmen woke up and said, “My Maria,” and instantly I knew.
“That’s it!” I exclaimed.
“What?” she asked, clearly confused.
“That’s our baby’s name! Maria.”
Her face curled into a bright smile. “Our Maria.”
I nodded.
“And I know the perfect middle name, too,” she said.
“What’s that?” I asked her.
“Elizabeth,” she replied, “if it weren’t for Lizzie taking my book from Christian’s apartment and bringing it to you, well, we may not have been here today.”
“Maria Elizabeth,” I said, smiling.
“Maria Elizabeth Remington,” she corrected.
We both smiled, then I leaned over and pressed my lips to hers.
After I stopped spacing out, I looked up and saw a woman who looked almost exactly like Carmen’s mom, a teenage girl and a teenage boy, and a little girl who stood between them, holding both of their hands.
“Aunt Celia,” Carmen said, smiling.
The woman came toward her and hugged her, “Hello, Carmen. We just saw Maria and she is beautiful.” Then, she looked at me. “You must be Trent.”
I nodded and shook her hand.
“Trent, this is my mom’s younger sister, Celia Morasco.” She pointed to the teenagers and the little girl. “That’s my cousin, Torrie, her boyfriend, Blake, and their daughter, Audrey.”
Their daughter? Weren’t they a little young? Whatever, it wasn’t any of my business. I said hello to all of them.
While they spoke to everyone else, Jessica and Ross came up beside Carmen’s bed.
“Carmen Sanchez, I’m about to kill you,” Jessica said, “I haven’t spoken to you in six months. And now, here we are. You just had a baby and I’m getting married in August.” She shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “it’s a long story. But if it’s any consolation, you and Ross are the godparents.”
She smiled wryly. “Well,...I guess it makes it a little bit better.”
Carmen laughed. “I figured it would be.”
“And you’re my maid of honor, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Trent, you’re Ross’s best man,” Ross said.
“Still speaking in the third person, I see,” Carmen laughed.
He nodded. “Of course.”
I looked around. So, maybe everything happened in a weird way, and in the wrong order...but it was okay. Everything was going to be okay.
I leaned over and kissed Carmen one more time. “I love you,” I whispered, “and I want to marry you again. Just not out of convenience this time. This time, I want it to be for love.”
She smiled. “I love you, too. And you can bet your life on that.”
I grinned. “Let’s not go betting our life on anything just yet.”