A Mighty Need

After some convincing, Audrey got Noel to finally go out and just have a few drinks with his mates. They now had, literally, mere days until she was due to pop and she felt he needed respite from all the sober living that he was doing alongside her. Because it was so close to her due date, it was hard to convince him, though. He didn’t want her being home alone if something happened. Austin was absent most evenings now, spending his free time with Lindsay, but Audrey didn’t want to tie her brother down to staying at home with her either. She wanted “her boys” to have some freedom in their lives. What made Noel feel okay with going out was Audrey calling up Paloma to see what she was doing and if she would want to come over for a few hours for a girls’ night.

Paloma did, indeed, come over. She arrived with Starbucks Frappuccino’s and her Blu-Ray copy of the Magic Mike sequel. Noel stole one look at the film’s cover and rolled his eyes.

“Don’t get her hormones too riled up. She’ll pop like Vesuvius.”

Paloma sank down on the couch beside Audrey and handed her the other Frappuccino before looking up at Noel with a coy smirk dangling on her lips. “If you’re gonna compare women to volcanoes it would make more sense to say we blow, not pop.”

“Oh, she blows alright,” Noel snickered, patting his back pockets to make sure he had his wallet on him.

“Don’t be naughty,” Paloma laughed.

Audrey caught his eye and gave him a withering look. “Have fun with the boys.”

“Any special occasion?”

“Yeah, actually,” Noel replied. “Rev, Blacky and a few other mates who I didn’t get to see last month on my birthday wanted to take me out tonight to make up for it.”

“It was like pulling teeth to get him to go out with them.”

“I just don’t want anything to happen here while I’m gone.”

“The only thing that might happen is we get so horny from watching Channing Tatum writhing around and dry-humping a stage that the three of us wind up having some kooky threesome when you get home later,” Paloma assured.

“It has been a while,” Audrey muttered, sheepishly.

Paloma patted Audrey’s shoulder. “Maybe the movie will inspire you to get back on the saddle at least once more before the baby comes and you’re too tired for anything else.”

Noel just shook his head and smiled as he approached the couch. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of Audrey’s head and kissed her. “I’ll call later to check on things here.”

“Don’t,” she insisted. “If anything goes down, we’ll call you. Otherwise, just have a nice time out, okay?”

Noel stood back up and looked down at her. “Alright, fine, if you say so.” He leaned back down very quickly and placed a succession of tiny kisses at the corner of her mouth which caused her to giggle a bit because his unshaven face tickled hers.

When Noel left the house, Paloma brought the straw from her Frappuccino to her lips and grinned. “That was well adorable.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“So, how many days now?”

“According to my doctor, it’s still June 19th, but the women in my family seem to go past their due date. I was born the day after my due date, my sister might’ve been right on the money, my brother Eddie was a full week late so my mom ended up getting induced, and Austin was about three or four days late. So, I’m expecting by the end of next week instead of the beginning.”

“The 19th is only four days away. Can you handle it?”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Audrey chuckled.

“Well, there’s ways to onset labor. I don’t know from personal experience or anything, just from what I’ve heard. Like, eat spicy foods, be more active…” Paloma trailed and wiggled her eyebrows. “Have sex.”

“It has been nearly a month again.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, the night of his birthday was the end of a month long dry spell. I just hadn’t been able to feel aroused. It has nothing to do with him, it’s been all me. I just, like, lost my libido. I feared it was going to happen and it did. I just feel so blah. And it’s like when I do get in the mood it’s when we can’t do anything about it or he’s out of the house for a bit. I get excited, thinking about how I can’t wait for him to get back so I can jump his bones, but then the mood just goes away and he comes home none the wiser and I feel bad.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. It’s not like he’s never gone without sex before. Like, in between relationships and stuff.”

Audrey pouted. “Yeah, but he’s in one, not out of one.”

“Well, should he ever complain, which I highly doubt, just tell him ‘tough titties’.”

Both women giggled as Audrey looked over at Paloma. “Before we watch the movie, should we order in? I’m hungry.”

“What should we order; Italian, Chinese, Indian? Ooh, I could go for some chicken tikka masala.”

“Honestly, anything sounds good right about now,” Audrey snickered unabashedly.



Audrey and Paloma’s girls’ night in together ended just after midnight. By the time Noel returned home, Audrey had already gone up to bed and was asleep. He had staggered in, a bit worse for wear, and tried his best to quietly undress and slip into bed beside her. She woke up mere minutes later, which he thought was his fault, so he apologized. She looked back at him, not realizing he had returned home and simply muttered she had to piss. When Audrey returned to bed a few minutes later, she laid down somewhat on her side, leaning on her pregnancy pillow with the bottom end between her knees. Noel leaned forward and kissed her forehead, watching her smile at the gesture in the dark of their room. The only light was from the slight neon glow from the digital clock at his bedside and from the street lamp across the road shining through their open bedroom windows.

Sometime after that, both fell asleep.

Audrey was up early that morning. She hadn’t been sleeping much most nights as of late. Constant bathroom trips during the night and their daughter trying to lurch around inside her room like a nocturnal deviant made it hard to enjoy slumber. Instead, Audrey spent most early mornings, while Noel still slept soundly, sitting at the desk in the office, writing away on her laptop. It had become awkward to be anywhere else with the laptop as it didn’t sit well, literally, on her lap anymore, so she had to sit upright with it on the desk instead, in a chair. She had been inspired lately by her pregnancy and the impending birth of her daughter to write little children’s tales here and there. Some she had shown Noel, which saw them spending one afternoon hashing out further story ideas. While she typed some of them out, he sat on the sofa kitty corner to the desk with a sketch pad and a package of colored pencils and drew out some “scenes” for these stories.

It went without saying that they were on their way to constructing the children’s book that they had previously mentioned doing together.

When she came downstairs after a couple of hours of typing and perusing the Internet in general, she waddled, much like a penguin, into the living room where she found Noel sitting solemnly on the couch. The TV was off and the room was utterly quiet except for the faint inhale and exhale of his breaths. Audrey didn’t notice his face at first or its expression as she smiled and took a seat beside him, wondering if he ate yet; and if not, was he hungry.

Giving his profile a proper look-see, she saw there was something grim and forlorn in his eyes and the downturn at the corners of his mouth. “You okay?”

He was running his thumb over the screen of his cell phone, which was turned off. “You remember Ember, right?” he finally spoke.

“Yeah,” Audrey nodded. “She’s the girl from the Teenage Cancer Trust event you did. We met her backstage and you two exchanged numbers.”

“Yeah.”

“How’s she doing? Are you still talking back and forth with her?”

“Yeah, I was.” Noel bit his lip. “She sent me a text a little over a week ago and I responded to it, but I hadn’t heard back from her since.” He turned his head and gave Audrey a look. Tears brimmed his eyes; daring him to let them fall. “Till this morning.”

“What’d she say?” Audrey sensed something was amiss as she brought a hand to the back of his neck and played gently with the bottom of his hair.

“She didn’t say anything. It was her mum. I just got off the phone with her before you came down here.”

“Alright,” Audrey tiptoed, verbally. “What did her mom say?”

Noel hesitated. He furrowed his brow and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them a few tears escaped down his cheeks and Audrey could more or less figure out what had happened. “She died a week ago. She was admitted into the hospital late last Tuesday and was gone the next day, during the night, in her sleep.”

“Oh…” Audrey wasn’t sure what to say to this, but she did feel a great amount of empathy over the situation and for how Noel was reacting to it.

“The funeral was this past Saturday and her mum said she would’ve called me sooner but she said it’s taken her a week to come to grips with her loss. She said she knew it was coming, and very quickly, but it was still a shock and just as hard to accept, no matter how prepared she thought she was. She found Ember’s mobile and went through her contacts to call people she thought Ember would want to know about what happened. She told me she doesn’t know what to do about Ember’s Facebook and Twitter pages. She doesn’t know her passwords for anything and doesn’t want to keep them up and running. I didn’t know what to tell her other than maybe contacting the staff of those sites and explaining the situation to see if they could help.”

Audrey nodded, just listening as Noel talked.

“It’s not fair. I mean, I know she was sick and it was stage four cancer; there’s no stage five. It’s just not right, y’know? She was too young.”

“I know,” Audrey replied, rubbing her fingers more soothingly as the base of his neck.

“She was dying but she had this life to her that not even the best of us could ever wish to have. Maybe it was because she was at the end; kind of like a light bulb glows brightest before its fuse blows.” Noel brought set his phone down in his lap and brought his hands up to wipe his tears away. “She was an amazing kid; funny and sweet and she could actually draw really well, too. She emailed me some of her drawings. I think I’m gonna print them out and frame them.”

“That’s a wonderful idea.”

“Yeah,” Noel muttered lamely, staring across the room toward the front window. The curtains were open as the late June morning sunlight was struggling to shine in from behind the English clouds. “It’s just unfair,” he repeated. “Ember’s never going to grow up. She’s never going to finish school or go to university, have a career. Maybe she would’ve gotten married and had kids of her own; maybe not. We’ll never know now, will we? She could’ve had such a lovely life and done so much. There was such possibility but a stupid fucking disease had to take that from her.”

The tears began to fall again. Noel pulled his legs up onto the couch and brought his knees up to his chest. Resting his elbows on his knees, he covered his face with his hands to hide his silent crying. Audrey felt horrible. She wished she could say something to make him feel better. As much as a wordsmith as she could be, consoling someone in a time of grief had never been her strong suit. She never knew what to say or how to react, unless it was her own grief. She was sad as well about this loss, but not like Noel. He had struck up a sweet friendship with this girl and was now very visibly affected by her death.

“Maybe reincarnation is an actual thing,” Audrey offered. “Maybe Ember will be reborn into a new life, a better life, and get to have all those things this last one denied her. Maybe she will grow up and have a wonderful career and family of her own. Maybe she’ll see the world and do amazing things again someday in her new body.”

“That would be nice,” Noel assented. He sniffed.

“I’m not religious, and I know you aren’t either, but maybe it would be nice if we went to a church and lit a candle for her or something,” Audrey suggested, giving Noel’s shoulder a squeeze. “Is that something you’d want to do?”

Noel dragged his hands down his face and turned it to look at Audrey. As if she was a sheet of metal and he was a magnet, he leaned into to her and pressed his forehead to hers while giving a slight nod. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Was she buried or cremated, do you know? We could pay a visit to her grave so you could say goodbye.”

Noel shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I could call her mum back and ask.” He tried to smile. “I would like to say goodbye.”

“Do you want me to call her?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll do it.”

“Okay,” Audrey conceded, tilting her head and bringing Noel’s head down a bit so she could place a kiss to his forehead. “Let me go take a quick shower and get changed and then I’ll be ready when you are.”

“Alright.”

Audrey slowly pushed herself up to her feet and let a hand trail along Noel’s shoulder before she walked off toward the front hall.

“Audrey,” Noel called out.

“Hmm?” She turned around and looked back at him.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked curiously.

“For being just what I needed.”

Audrey grinned lovingly back at him. “I try.”



After Audrey’s shower and Noel had called Ember’s mother back to ask about Ember’s interment information for the sake of paying his respects, the expecting couple set out for nearby St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Islington where they each lit a candle for the teen. Afterward, they caught a cab that took them to the cemetery where Ember had been buried less than a week earlier. The grave was obvious with its fresh mound of dirt underneath a green tarp. Flower wreaths and potted flowers alike surrounded the grave, but there was no headstone; at least not yet. Those were usually added well after the fact. There was a wooden cross marker set at the top of the grave as a marker for temporary reasons that simply stated Ember’s name.

Noel cried again, as did Audrey this time. It was just incredibly sad.

Warm from the mid June heat, feeling a bit depressed and also hungry from having not eaten, Noel and Audrey returned home toward Highgate where they stopped into the local Pizza Express for a late lunch and early dinner. They walked home, with Noel’s hand on the small of Audrey’s back, giving it a gentle rub when she began to complain that it ached from walking around most likely. They spent the rest of the evening, lounging around, with Audrey once more writing upstairs in the office and Noel joining her with his sketch book and colored pencils again.

Audrey had to stop what she was typing frequently when she found her back ache increasing. She didn’t say anything about it to Noel, just assuming she had been sitting too long in one position, so she stood up and walked around a bit. She went downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat; snacking on leftover Chana masala from the night before with Paloma. She washed it down with a full glass of milk to mute the spicy flavor on her tongue. Noel joined her shortly thereafter, grabbing a bowl of Coco Pops for himself. Afterward, they stood at the kitchen counter, generally feeling more upbeat, where their moods where concerned. They chatted about minor things and about the baby; their plans for the coming week for when she arrived.

When Audrey’s back began to ache again, her hand instinctively went to it and rubbed generously. Noel took note and replaced her hand with his. He pulled her close and kissed her softly. She smiled as the tip of his nose brushed her cheek. She enjoyed the feel of his warm breath against her lips as he pulled back slightly. He began to drag his lips along the curve of her jaw up to her ear. Audrey closed her eyes and fumbled to take his hand in hers.

“Do you want to go upstairs?”

“To sleep? Are you tired?” he asked, whispering into her ear.

“Not to sleep.” She turned her head and caught his eye. “The complete opposite of sleep.”

“You sure?”

Audrey raised an eyebrow at him. “This isn’t something you should be questioning right now. Take advantage of this opportunity while we still can and while the mood has struck me again.”

She snickered at him and he wasted no time. He gripped her hands and led her out of the kitchen and upstairs to their bedroom. After closing the door behind them, in case Austin came home, Noel turned and pressed his lips back against Audrey’s and began to help her out of her shirt as she did the same with him. He cupped a hand behind her head and continued to kiss her, pulling her close against him. Her stomach got in the way of fully enveloping her in his arms but that was alright. It was like a family hug, in a way, and that was more than okay with him.

Within moments, Noel stood naked before her and found himself slowly dropping to his knees to help pull her panties off. She sat down on the edge of the bed afterward and reached around to unhook her bra and slide it off.

“Music?”

Audrey shook her head at him. “No. Just us this time.”

“Okay.” Noel was still kneeling. He leaned forward and kissed her stomach and began to lower his face but Audrey grabbed his hair at the top of his head and made him look up at her. “What?”

“As wonderful as you are, don’t bother with that right now,” she muttered with a laugh in her voice. She removed her fingers from his mane and beckoned for him to join her on the bed. “Lay down.”

Noel didn’t have to be told twice. He got up off his knees and moved around to the side of the bed and sat down first before reclining back against the pillows. Audrey turned her body and got up on her knees, crawling up over his body before sinking down to sit in his lap. Nothing happened just yet; she just sat there unmoving for a moment. Her stomach hung low and he placed his hands at the sides, smoothing his thumbs around on her skin.

“You remind me of a Viking queen right now.”

“A Viking queen? Why?” Audrey smirked.

“You just look majestic, like you’re mentally preparing yourself to ride off into battle or to sing an opera. I should buy you one of those helmets with the horns.”

Audrey did her best to contain her giggle by biting her lips down together. “So, then; does that make you the poor, unsuspecting Scottish village I’m about to raid?”

“Unless you want to switch those roles and I’ll pillage and plunder your down under.”

Audrey laughed heartily at that. She leaned forward and slapped his stomach gently before lifting her rear up a bit to position herself on top of him. “That’s more of a pirate thing, isn’t it?”

Noel moved his hands to help guide himself inside her as she sank back down. He let out a pleased exhale and made a noncommittal grunt in regard to her question. He let his fingers move about then and the conversation about Vikings and pillaging was over; becoming so far from the foreground of their minds. Audrey was wincing slightly from the dull ache in her lower back and just wanted to replace it with a much better ache. She rolled her hips slowly; neither moving too quickly at first. They wanted to build a gradual pace since there had been no foreplay.

Audrey placed her hands back to Noel’s stomach to brace herself as she moved with him. His own hands gripped her upper thighs and arched his back before thrusting upward into her as she ground down. She rolled her hips again and he parried with a swivel of his own that brought a purr from her throat. Her eyes were closed tight and she had her head tilted back a bit as their pace finally began to pick up some speed. Noel had his brow knitted together; focusing on the overall sensation he was feeling with her.

She moaned and it was guttural; which was enough to get him even more revved up. They rocked together for a little while longer until Audrey looked down at him and began to hunch forward. She needed to switch up positions so she slowed down her movements and signaled that she was getting up. She slid off him and he watched her with staggered breathing as she crawled up to the other side of the bed and got on her knees. Slapping his arm, she meant for him to follow suit. Noel sat up and knelt behind her as she leaned with her forearms down on a pillow with her ass in the air. Gripping her hips he positioned himself back inside her where he had been, just from a new angle.

Her face was buried into the pillows as Noel thrust in and out, deeper and hard than the next. Audrey panted and moaned, and occasionally muttered “yeah” a few times in a row. Noel hunched over her, dragging one hand up her spine and gripping her shoulder.

Before long, Audrey’s cries were getting higher pitched and Noel was sensing that familiar tingling. He thrust more quickly and emitted his own groans but held back from allowing himself to come. He was going to do what he could to see her to that place first, which was no easy task. He gave a few more swivels of his hips which he knew she always appreciated and brought his hand back from her shoulder and moved it around to assist in his ministrations.

That was what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

Audrey let out an elated yelp and her entire body began to shake. She arched her back up at the moment of her release and clenched herself tightly around him. With one more thrust and swivel, while finally focusing on his moment, Noel groaned happily as he came. A few aftershocks rocked through both their bodies as they hesitated to move an inch until their respective orgasms came to a halt.

Afterward, Noel lay down beside Audrey and she sank down and rolled onto her back. They linked their hands together and she laid her head down on his shoulder.

“My back doesn’t ache anymore, thanks to you,” she cooed.

“Glad I could be of service, Brunhilde.”

Audrey chuckled. “Okay,” she sighed. “Now, I’m sleepy.”

Noel turned his head and looked at her with a nod. “Me, too.” Placing a kiss on her nose, he added, “Goodnight?”

She closed her eyes, unintentionally. “Yeah.”



Around five hours later, it was only just after two-thirty in the morning and Audrey awoke with her back aching again. Her eyes opened long enough to spy the time on the bedside clock before closing them again and rolling onto her side. She placed her body pillow between her legs and listened to the sound of Noel snoring gently in his sleep. Focusing on her own breath, Audrey forced herself to ignore the aching and go back to sleep.

Probably no more than thirty minutes later, if that at all, Audrey’s eyes were opened wide as a sharp pain shot down from her lower back right down into her vagina as if someone had just stuck a long needle through her body. Her breathing hitched and she groaned a bit. Moving around, she tried to get comfortable. She was still sleepy and just wanted to go back to bed. But now her mind was starting to race when she considered what might be going on. The ache was back and steady, but the sharp pain had gone away. She turned her head to look at Noel then upward toward the ceiling. She was wide awake now and found herself looking over at the clock again which informed her it was 3:17 in the morning.

Audrey groaned; not out of pain but because it was still so early in the morning and she really just wanted to sleep.

Maybe it was a gas pain. She did finish off that Chana masala and Indian food did usually give her “gastric issues” a short time later. Letting out a sigh, Audrey rolled onto her back and pulled herself up into a sitting position. She sat there for a moment, staring into the darkness of the room, in the direction of their closet. Normally she would be staring at the bathroom door from her side of the bed, but after sex with Noel that had wound up on opposite sides. She was on his usual side and he was on hers.

For a moment, Audrey thought that the ache was subsiding and going away and maybe it wasn’t gas anymore, so that she wouldn’t have to get up. But then, there was another sharp pain. On instinct, she placed her hand to her stomach and something just felt different to her. The baby felt lower than it had earlier in the evening.

Standing up, Audrey walked around the bed and over to the bathroom. She turned the light on and closed the door behind her so the glow wouldn’t disturb Noel as he slept. She ran the faucet and leaned forward to splash some water on her face before moving to the toilet to sit down, which was easier to do since she was still naked from before. When she was finished and wiped, she looked, as any normal person usually does and realized this definitely was not gas. She flushed the toilet and washed her hands and turned off the bathroom light before heading back into the bedroom just as another sharp pain hit.

“Noel,” she called out, hoping she had been loud enough for him to hear her. He stirred but didn’t wake. “Noel,” she repeated, moving closer to him. Sitting down beside his body, she gave his shoulder a nudge with her hand. “Noel, wake up.”

His blue eyes fluttered open and he looked around, trying to figure out why he was being woken up. “What?” he asked groggily.

“I’m having sharp pains,” she replied. “And I think I just had my bloody show.”

“You’re what?”

“My bloody show. It was in the books.” She placed her hands to her stomach as she felt another pain starting to rear its ugly head. Audrey turned away from him and hunched forward.

Noel registered what she was trying to say and sat up, pressing his chest against her back. “You okay?”

“I think I might be in labor.”

“You’re a few days early.”

“Yeah, well, perhaps the Indian food, walking and sex contributed.”

He listened to how her breath sounded unsteady. Lowering a hand between their bodies, he rubbed the small of her back and rested his chin on her shoulder. “How frequent is the pain?”

“I dunno…every ten to fifteen minutes or so now, give or take.” Audrey shrugged. “I haven’t been really paying attention.” Her mood wasn’t upset, though. She was starting to feel quite excited. “I need to call my mom and let her know. Her and my dad weren’t supposed to fly in until tomorrow. I don’t think they’ll be here on time now for the baby.”

“Do you want me to call instead? Take a shower and get dressed and we’ll see how things progress, okay?”

Audrey nodded. “Okay.”

She got back up and waddled to the bathroom again; once more turning on the light but not bothering to shut the door. Noel watched her for a few seconds before turning around to look at the time on the bedside clock and groaned a bit from the hour and tiredness. He stood up and looked for his jeans where he had left his phone in one of the pockets. After retrieving it, he scrolled through his contacts and brought up his future mother-in-law’s number and dialed the number. It was almost ten-thirty at night in Columbus, so there was a good chance they were still up.

The call went straight to voicemail, however, so Noel left a message about what was going on. He wasn’t sure how long of a day they would have ahead of them so Noel went into the bathroom to check on Audrey and see if he could sneak in a shower as well. Fortunately their shower stall was large enough where they both could fit comfortably. Audrey was in the midst of rinsing conditioner out of her hair when Noel slipped in behind her and grabbed for the shampoo. He told her he left a message with her mother and she winced in response as a new contraction began to rear its head. When she was finished, she stepped out so Noel could rinse off. He didn’t bother with any conditioner; simply wanting to cut down on time. They towel dried off side by side.

“Is Austin home, do you know?” Audrey wondered.

Noel shrugged. “I’ll go check. You get dressed.” His mind was beginning to race a million miles a minute as he walked out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

Audrey snickered. “Don’t you wanna get dressed first, too?”

Noel stopped, turned and looked at her, then down at himself. “Oh, right.”

After they got dressed (Noel in the jeans that had been lying on the floor and a fresh T-shirt from his closet, and Audrey in just pair of underwear and a loose knee-length dress, also from the closet), Noel went downstairs to the kitchen, and then down to the basement to see if Austin was home and in bed. The younger man was, so Noel approached the bed and kicked the side of it with his shin.

“Austin,” he called out. “Audrey’s having contractions.”

“Mmm…what time is it?”

“Baby time,” Noel replied anxiously. “Audrey’s labor has started.”

“What? Oh…okay. What do you need me to do?” Austin asked groggily, sitting up and reaching for the bedside lamp.

“I don’t know,” Noel shrugged. “I left a message with your mum. Shit, I should call mine.”

Noel didn’t say anything else. He just distractedly walked out of Austin’s room and headed back upstairs for his phone. Audrey was standing in their bathroom again, this time applying a touch of makeup to her face and brushing through her hair. She caught a glimpse of Noel out the corner of her eye and stepped closer to the doorway.

“You’re like a chicken without a head, hon. Slow down. You’re gonna make me more nervous than I already am.”

He called his parents, waking them up and then decided to call Mike and let him know as well. While he took care of those phone calls, Audrey had finished making herself feel human and checked to make sure her hospital bag was all set to bring with them when it was definitely time. Her contractions were staying at about ten to twelve minutes apart, give or take but were getting a bit stronger each time, slowly but surely. They called her doctor to let him know so he could be prepared to meet them at the hospital when it was time. By five in the morning, Audrey’s contractions were coming every eight minutes or so. She was walking it off, moving from room to room downstairs while Noel and Austin nursed cups of coffee to wake themselves up a bit more. Audrey had a bottle of water in her hand because the books had all said to keep hydrated.

By five-fifteen, Audrey couldn’t stand the pain and discomfort anymore and wanted to go to the hospital. Austin called for a cab for all three of them and carried Audrey’s hospital bag as well so Noel could focus on taking care of Audrey. The cab arrived within ten minutes and they were soon on their way to the hospital.

It was a blur after that. They went up to the third floor maternity ward, but Austin stayed behind in the waiting room. Noel checked Audrey in and she was shown to an available delivery room where she changed into an old T-shirt instead of a hospital gown. By the time she was finally in bed and situated for however long labor would last, it was around six-thirty in the morning. The sun had already risen for the day and it was shining into the delivery room, telling them all it was going to be a beautiful day. However, it was too bright so Audrey had Noel close the blinds for her.

When the pain worsened and the contractions were at five minutes apart, Audrey was beginning to writhe on the bed. She rolled to one side, gripping the handle bars and barely opening her eyes to peak at Noel who had pulled a chair up to sit beside her. He took her hand and let her grip it tightly.

“How ya doing?” Noel reached his free hand out to brush some of her hair off her face.

“Like I’m starting to be ripped apart from the inside out,” she whined. “I changed my mind. I don’t want to have any more kids. I’ve had cramps before and they used to be horrible. That’s why I went with an IUD. But this feels a hell of a lot worse. It’s taking my breath away.”

Noel knitted his brow together and stood up. Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead. “You’re doing so well, though.”

“I want my epidural now.”

The nurse came in then to check and see how dilated Audrey was. She informed Audrey she was at 4 centimeters and when Audrey asked if that meant she could have the epidural, she was informed that was a yes. Noel left for a few minutes after that to check on Austin. His parents had shown up by then so he greeted them with hugs and kisses and updated them all on how far along Audrey was and that she’d received the epidural. He promised to keep them up to speed as frequently as he could, and then left them to return to Audrey who was now resting comfortably in bed.

The nurse brought them both ice lollies to eat while they waited for active labor to really begin. Audrey laughed how she couldn’t feel any pain now and it was wonderful. She also told Noel that it had been the pain talking before. She would, in fact, love to have more children. Noel assured her he knew she would but there was definitely no rush to start on number two anytime soon after the first one was born.

“Let’s give it about two years or so,” he suggested with a smirk. “Give ourselves some time to enjoy our little girl, one on one, and the early years of our marriage.”

“You got it, dude.” She smiled and gave him a thumbs up; channeling Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Michelle Tanner from Full House.

By nine-thirty, Audrey was feeling aggravated. She was only at seven centimeters then and was worried the epidural would wear off and she would have to push through all that pain. She didn’t have a high tolerance for physical pain, so she was getting quite nervous. At ten, however, her dilation had jumped to eight centimeters and her water had finally broken on its own. Nurses and her doctor were in an out of the room more frequently to check on her. Noel went to see his family one last time, letting him know it would be the last time he came out until after his daughter was born.

And then the moment came.

At ten-forty, Audrey was fully dilated and ready to go. Every medical professional that needed to be in the room was manning their battle stations and battening down the hatches. Audrey’s legs were propped up in stirrups and it felt like the entire London population had courtside seats to her main event. Noel stood at her side, holding her hand as the doctor’s eventually told her to push. Because of the epidural, she felt no actual need to, but forced herself anyway. Noel stepped away off and on so he could look over the doctor’s shoulder and what a sight it was.

“I see the top of her head!” he exclaimed as if he had been expecting something entirely different. Noel just looked truly amazed.

Audrey was told to keep pushing, that she was getting closer, almost there. She took deep breaths which she held while she pushed. When she exhaled, she relaxed. Noel was at her left side again, with an arm around her shoulder and his opposite hand holding hers that was closest to him. She squeezed his hand incredibly tight but not enough so that it actually hurt him. While she felt no pain from the labor, she definitely felt the pressure from it. She could feel her child sliding, little by little, through the birth canal and it was the oddest fucking thing.

At 11:03, the doctor looked up at Audrey and smiled with his eyes as he spoke through his surgical mask to her. “It’s a girl!” he proclaimed, holding the newborn up and placing her immediately on Audrey’s chest with a small blanket around the baby’s back.

It seemed like it was so sudden. One minute, Audrey was pregnant, and the next her baby was in her arms. It was surreal. She looked down at the top of her child’s head an in a matter of seconds was crying happy tears. The doctor passed the surgical scissors off to Noel for him to cut the umbilical cord while the baby’s airway was cleaned out. She was beet red and so tiny and adorable and then she began to wail. It was the shakiest succession of cries and although it was wonderful to hear in the moment, Audrey and Noel both knew that in the coming months it would be a sound they might begin to dread.

Right now, though, it was the best sound in the world.

No song from any musician, dead or alive, could compare.

After the baby was moved off Audrey for a short bit to properly clean her up and swaddle her in a blanket with a pink cap on her head, she was returned to her mother who took her with eager arms. Noel was hunched over, his hand on the back of his child’s head and tears of his own were streaming like rivers down his face. He sniffled a little and smiled like a loon as the two of them spoke soothingly to their baby girl.

“Heya,” Audrey muttered as their daughter began to finally open her eyes at them. “I’m your mommy. This is your daddy. We’ve waited so long to meet you.”

“You’re going to be so spoiled,” Noel added with a laugh. “You got us properly wrapped around your finger, you little peanut.”

“Is there a name for your peanut?” their nurse asked.

“Oh, shit, yeah. We never settled on one, did we?” Noel grimaced.

Audrey shrugged and shook her head. “I told you; it’s up to you, not me.” She then lifted their daughter up carefully and handed her up to Noel who took her as if he was handling fine china.

Looking down at this little cliché bundle of joy, she stared back up at him with his blue eyes and little lips that were parted in an ‘O’ shape like she was trying to blow bubbles at him. She was completely silent, just watching him as he continued to watch her. “What if we scrapped all the previous ideas and suggestions and go with something completely different?”

“What were you thinking?” Audrey had her arm extended so that she could touch her daughter’s feet which were bundled in the blanket.

“Something special.”



About fifteen minutes later, Noel made his way to the waiting room and was greeted by the anxious faces of his parents and his and Audrey’s brothers.

“Well?” Diane demanded, jumping to her feet.

Noel beamed. “Both mother and daughter are doing well,” he began. “She was born at 11:03, she was seven pounds and six ounces, twenty inches long and she has blue eyes.”

Diane bit her bottom lip and slapped her eldest son on the arms. “What’s her name?”

“Oh, you wanted her name?” Noel toyed.

“Obviously,” Ray piped in.

“Her name is Ember Elizabeth Fielding and she’s the best thing ever.”