Blue Lines(121)

“I’m not.”

“What are you doing then?” she asked, looking down at him.

He looked up and smiled, not answering her question because he wanted it to be a surprise. Looking back down at his phone, he took her hand and started to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out loud for her. When she squeezed his hand, he looked up to see her looking at him with appreciation in her eyes.

“You are amazing,” she said softly.

“So are you,” he answered before looking back down at his phone. He didn’t get through two pages before she started screaming again. He tried to read through it, hoping that it would calm her, but she started to pull at his hand and when he looked up at her, she was reaching for him.

“Hold me,” she cried, pulling him toward her. He quickly tucked his phone in his pocket. As he wrapped his arms around her torso, she buried her face in his neck and dug her nails into his back. She was breathing deeply.

“I think I need to push.”

“What?” he asked, pulling back to see her face.

She nodded. “Yup, I need to push.”

Letting him go, she lay back while Erik started to slam his hand against the call button. When the nurse came on the line, Erik said, “She wants to push!”

Looking down at Piper, he saw her squirming in the bed as she tried to grip something. When she reached up and took his hand, she pulled him down, resting her forehead against his. People were moving around them, but Erik couldn’t see them or what they were doing because of the position she had him in.

“Yeah, she is ready,” Erik heard the doctor say before Piper started to slam her fist against his back.

“Ah, fire, fire, I feel fire!” she yelled as she continued to beat him in the back.

“Piper, I need you to pull your legs up, honey; your baby is coming.”

Releasing Erik, Piper cried out as a nurse positioned Erik to hold one leg. Piper’s hand came up on his biceps as her other held the back of her thigh.

“All right, Piper, here comes a contraction, let’s push, ready, and one,” the doctor said, and everyone including Erik counted with him as Piper pushed her heart out. Erik knew this because he was pretty sure she was ripping his biceps off.

“Wow, Piper, you aren’t playing around,” the doctor said. “Great push. Take a breath and get ready for the next one.”

Erik looked back at Piper and could tell she was worn-out but when her eyes met his, he could see the fight in them. She wasn’t giving up.

With a smile on his face, he whispered, “You are so beautiful, and the strongest woman I know.”

Her eyes were full of tears as she slowly nodded.

“All right, Piper, let’s go again,” Dr. Richards said and Piper bore down, screaming out as everyone counted together. “There we go, give me your hand, baby.”

Piper let go of her thigh, giving the doctor her hand as he said, “That’s your baby; one more push, come on.”

Making the mistake of looking between Piper’s thighs, Erik let out a sound of distress before looking back at her face.

“He’s right there.”

She nodded, closing her eyes as she pulled in a lungful of air.

“Ready, here we go, and one,” Dr. Richards said, and before Erik and everyone else got to seven, a gurgling noise filled the room. Erik’s heart was racing but he swore it stopped when they placed a bloody, screaming mass on Piper’s belly. That damn itchy feeling in his eyes went nuts as tears gushed down his face and his eyes met the eyes of his son.

“It’s a boy!”

* * *

It felt like Piper was having an out-of-body experience.

Tears rushed from her face as she softy laid her hands on her screaming baby while trying to breathe around her happy sobs.

She had done it.

He was here and he was perfect. Moving her fingers along his little head, she took in every detail. Dark hair covered his head; his dark eyes were wide, looking right at her as his face turned red from his screaming. It was like he was looking into her soul as he shook from her sobs.

“Hi, little guy,” she whispered as she cried, “I’m your mommy.”

As a nurse started to wipe him down, Piper glanced over to see Erik completely white, with his mouth hanging open. She wanted to laugh but Dimitri was screaming his head off and she couldn’t stop looking at him. He was so beautiful.

“All right, Daddy, snip right here,” Dr. Richards said.

Piper watched as Erik looked at the doctor and then the umbilical cord before looking up at Piper. When a big bright grin came across his face, she couldn’t stop the sob that escaped her lips as he reached for the scissors and cut their son from her. When he appeared next to her, he laid his big hand on Dimitri’s back before kissing her temple.