A Christmas to Remember

Antsy, that’s what you could call her at the moment. As she paces the long narrow hallway, her slim fingers work against one another.

He was due to be home any minute now, her heart beats faster as the hands strike 12:00am. It was now Christmas, and he still wasn’t home.

She gives up on pacing and made her way to the living room, plopping her small frame onto the sofa. Grabbing an unknown book of the coffee table, she flips to a page slowly creasing the edges. Moving to the third corner, she hears the door slowly rattle. The subtle noise caused her to throw the book behind her as she made it to the oak door.

She yanks the nob toward her, on the other side reveals a tall body cladded with a ratty pair of skinny jeans and wrinkled Glamour Kills t-shirt. He wore small bags under his eyes, with a hint of stubble around his jawline. His eyes shine of sleepiness, but a smile on his face.

She wastes no time lunging forward into his grasp, the scent of Old Spice hit her. He holds a firm grasp on her waist as she snuggles her head into the crook of his shoulder.

He lets out a low chuckle from her enthusiasm. “Hey baby,”

The sound of his voice made his knees go weak. It all hits her how much she’d missed him while he was away on tour. Hearing him on the phone wasn’t the same, he wasn’t there.

“Don’t ever leave me again.” She whispers into him, tears started to escape her dark brown eyes. Slowly he pulls her away from him, but still holding her.

“Don’t cry baby,” he coos pulling them to the sofa. He pulls her down onto his lap; she wraps her arms around his neck. “I’m here now.” She shakes her head letting her body tremble against his. He starts to rub small circles on her back calming her down. “Come on Ember, let’s make the most of the time we have together. Besides, it’s Christmas no one should be crying on Christmas.”

She looks up, their eyes meet briefly. He leans down planting a sweet kiss on her lips. “I hate you
Alexander William Gaskarth.” She says leaning back onto his chest. “This is what you do to me.”

She feels his chest vibrate from laughing. “But if I remember correctly, you love me.”

“Do not,” She juts out her bottom lip.

“Do too,” He sings taping her nose.

“Fine,” She sighs in defeat. “I do love your stinky little self.”

His mouth gapes open, pretending to be offended. “Stinky? I smell fantabulous!”

She laughs shaking her head. “Yeah, not showering for months on week living with a bunch of grown men can really make you smell fantabulous.”

“Whatever, don’t get smart with me missy.” He says setting her next to him. “I have a present for you.”
He gets up heading to the suitcase sitting by the opened door. He unzips the smaller compartment pulling out a small box. He walks over to her, handing her the small velvety box.

“What is this?” She asks sitting up right. Sitting next to her, he placed one hand on her knee.

“Open it,” He instructed, she nodded opening the small box.

“W-What— Alex.” She stutters looking up at him. He smiles taking the box from her hand; Alex pulls out a ring slipping it on her finger.

“This is a promise ring.” She stares down at the ring in awe. “This represents our love,” he kisses her hand. “And that you’re mine,” he kisses the ring. “And that one day, I’ll make you mine, forever.”
She crashes her lips onto his, closing the space between them. They share a moment of a long passionate kiss before breaking apart.

“God I’ve missed that.” Alex mumbles stroking her hair. Ember leans back against the cushion, she nervously bites her lip fumbling with her hands. It was her turn to give her present to Alex, but there was a part of her that was unsure.

Ember gets up grabbing his present behind the tree, a devious smile on her face. “Ready?”
“What is it?” He asks taking the largely wrapped object from her grasp.

She jokingly rolls her eyes, nudging his arm. “Oh I don’t know, it’s kinda hard for me to see through this wrapping paper.” She lightly teases.

“Just tell me what it is!” He shakes the object, putting his ear against the paper.

“Or maybe you can open it and see yourself!” She says in a duh tone, letting out a laugh.

“Fine,” He huffs ripping off the green and red wrapping. Seeing the corner of the present he stops.

“Tell me you didn’t.” He says. “It can’t be.” He rips off the rest of the wrapping. “Oh my god! You did!”

“I did?” she questions rhetorically. His eyes glisten in awe at the Blink-182 and The Beatles vinyl CD.

“Holy fuck!” He gasps pulling her on top of him, developing her into a bear hug. She smiles at his reaction, the kind you’d get from a little kid on Christmas day. “I love you!”

“Love you too,” She kisses him, wrapping an arm around his neck.

Then she remembered.

She starts to bite her lip, staring at the blank wall. She started to zone out when Alex caught he gaze.

“Babe?” he shakes her body lightly. She doesn’t respond immediately. “Babe? You okay?”
She looks down at him nodding. “Y-yeah,”

“You’re lying,” he accuses her, shifting her so she was now looking straight at him.

“Well there’s another part to your present…” His eyebrow furrow together confused.

“There’s more?” He asks.

She nods resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m kinda scared of telling you what it is.”

He laughs, “You did great with the first two presents, and I don’t think you can fuck it up.”

“You sure?” She questions.

He nods stroking her hair once again. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay then,” she sighs. “You’re gonna be a dad in 9 months! Merry Christmas!”



Months and months later* Dec. 23 to be exact of next year

Rolling out of the bed, she waddles to the bathroom. A sharp pain on her side kept her awake all night, the feeling she needed to pee every ten minutes. Reaching for the light, the bulb flickers on, she feels a slight rush run through her frame. Before she knew it, she was standing in a pool of clear liquid.

“Alex!” she cries grasping the counter. “Alex, get your ass out of bed!”

A moment later, he appears by the door looking disheveled. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I think it’s time,” She says looking down. Her pants were soaked, and the pain started to deepen.

“You mean—“ He started but she cut him off by grabbing the color of his shirt.

“Hospital—now,” she growled into his face.

He backed away nodding his head. “Okay-okay think, we’ve been planning for this. We need, we need the hospital bag!” He starts to run into their room.

“It’s already in the car!” She yells to him slowly walking out.

“Right!” He paces back and forth. “Let me get my keys,” He starts to run out the room into the dark hallway. She follows him out grabbing her coat on the way.

She can hear the front door slam, a moment later Alex reappears with a strange look on his face. “I think you forgot something.” She says.

He nods his head towards his jacket. “Yeah, thanks.”

She rolls her eyes as he walks out the door, this time he didn’t make it that far out. “Alex! You kinda need me for this delivery to happen!”

“Oh,” He walks back in helping her out the door.

As they drove to the hospital, she yells in pain clenching her side, “Step on the gas pedal goddamn it!”

He obliges speeding down the main road. 20 minutes later Ember was rushed into the waiting room and into a wheel chair.

“Alright, we’ve got a room ready for you.” The nurse informs them, pushing Ember to her room. “Now, get dress into this gown and the doctor will be with you momentarily.”

She nods having the lost for words, Alex helps her into the gown then onto the bed. She rolls her side letting out a groan, the color from her face has faded. Small beads of sweat fall from her head.

“It’s gonna be okay.” Alex sits in a chair next to her holding her hand.

As she her breaths became shallower, the doctor walks in with another nurse. “Hello, good to see you two again.” She smiles standing before the bed. “How are you doing Ember?”

“I feel like shit!”

Dr. Nickelson smiles walking to the sink washing her hands, the nurse hands her a pair of latex gloves.

“Well I’m sure you do, now I’m going to check to see how far you’re dilated. If you don’t mind, raise your legs for me.” Ember closes her eyes, feeling the pain increase. “Well Ember, it seems to be that you’re 4cm’s far, you have a little ways to go.”

“Would you like to have an epidural?” The nurse asks setting up some equipment in the corner.
“Drug me the fuck up!” She snarls unintentionally.

Alex gives them an apologetic smile. “Sorry she’s never cussed this much, I think it’s the labor that’s causing this.” The two nod, having no reaction. “And yes, she’d love and epidural.”

“Great,” The nurse said taking out two needles. “I need you Ember to lay on your side, either side your choice.” Ember slowly turns to her side with the help of Alex. The nurse hikes up her gown revealing her back. “Alright, you’re going to feel a sharp pain, hold his hand or the side bar for support.”

She rubs something cold onto her back before Ember feels a thin sharp needle enter her back. She lets out a yelp clenching onto the side for support.

“You’re doing good, one more and the epidural will kick in.” Another needle enters her back, she holds back from jerking her body backwards. “All done, just hang tight, your contractions will get closer together and the pain should subside. Before you know it, you’ll be able to start pushing. If you need anything, hit the red button above and we’ll be in here in a zip.” She smiles sweetly waling out the door.

Alex scoot his chair closer rubbing her inner arm, “How you feeling?”

“Better than earlier,” she replies weakly. “Thanks for being so understanding, the pain was killing me.”

“No problem baby, it’s my job.” He kisses her forehead sweetly. “And I should be thanking you.”

“Why?” She asks.

“Cause you’re bringing a beautiful baby into this world and having to go through the pain. I love you for that.”

“Love you too, and don’t thank me, we created this baby together.”

&&&&

“Deep breaths Ember,” The doctor instructed. “Now let’s try this again, 1—2—3—“ Ember clenches her teeth pushing to every count, the blood from Alex’s hand was drained. “Big push, one more you can do it.”

The eager look on Alex’s face caused her to put all her energy into the last push, he wanted the baby to be here as bad as she did.

“Come on baby, you can do it.” He encourages her.

Giving it her all, she gave it one last push. The room turned quite except the sound of a loud cry, a little baby laid in Dr. Nickelson’s arms.

“Oh my god, we did it!” She gasped letting her head fall back onto the pillow. She finally can let a sigh of relief knowing this was all over.

“No, you did it.” He smiles kissing her, “Great job!”

The nurse took the baby away to get examined. Minutes later, she returned with a baby all bundled up.

“It’s a baby girl, weighing in at 7.5 lbs.” the nurse hands the baby over into Ember’s arms.

She slowly caresses the baby face before her, moving the blanket to expose her face. “She’s beautiful,” she whispers.

“She is,” Alex agrees leaning in. “What are we gonna name her?”

Ember takes the time and observes the fragile bundle, “Brooklyn- Brooklyn Noel Gaskarth, what do you think?”

“I love it,” he kisses her small forehead them hers. “She’s beautiful,”

The nurse walks back in with a smile on her face. “Congratulation’s you guys,” she pull out her phone and whispers the next part. “Look at the time,”

1:38 am, December 25—Christmas.