Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (50 page)

“He is the most relaxed person I know.
Call him
.”

“Oh right. Of course.” Sean hit a button on
his dash and instructed the computer to call.

“Hello?” Marcus answered lazily over the
car’s speakers.

“Hi Marcus, this is Sean.”

“Sean, I am almost finished. I literally have
been working on your…”

“No Marcus, not why I’m calling.”

“Oh. What’s up? Need the latest? Kim in New
York was saying—”

“Marcus, shut up and head to the hospital,”
Krista yelled.

“Krista? Hey sexy, how are things going with
your waist line?”

“I’m about to lose a few pounds, actually. I
need…”

The pain came out of
nowhere.
She let
out a moan as her world went a bad kind of sparkly.

“What’s going on?” Marcus asked quickly and
loudly.

“She’s in labor and she has asked for you.
Says you’re the most relaxed person she knows. Can you
stay
the most relaxed person she knows?”

Was that a hint of steel in his words?

“Oh my gosh. I am strangely excited.” Marcus
sounded like a little boy.

“But can you stay calm?” Sean asked with an
edge. Yes, definitely steel.

“Life is but a breeze. Krista, make sure that
young stud of yours doesn’t scare the hospital staff. I’ll see you
in twenty. Hospital, right?”

“Yeah, see you there,” Sean said as Krista
looked out the window.

“Probably should invite Ben, now. But no one
gets to see my
vajayjay
unless it’s you or they have one of
their own.”

“Noted.” Sean barely suppressed the laughter
in his voice.

Being admitted to the hospital was torture.
Krista had to answer questions and fill out a form, all while being
racked with pain every five minutes. Then they gave her an exam to
make sure she was far enough along to be admitted. She was three
centimeters by that point. She had to get to ten. This pain, which
was the worse she had ever experienced, was nothing compared to
what it would become.

She was no hero. Decision made—epidural,
please.

She had often wanted to punch mother nature
in the vagina for making pregnancy such a pain in the ass. Feeling
sick, feeling immobile, random fears, terrible acid reflux,
restless leg where her feet felt like they had ants and needed to
stay moving when she was trying to sleep—all that was terrible
stuff to endure. But labor? Millions of years of evolution and it
still hurt this much?
Really?!

They got to the room and the nurse got Krista
all situated. She was hit by a harder contraction and life stopped
to gather around the pain. Sean got in her face and started
coaching her through it.

Back when they were in the labor and
breathing class, Krista decided she would be highly irritated if
someone got in her face while she was trying to work through pain.
That was before she knew how much pain they were talking about. Now
she was happy to have something else to distract her, even if it
was a ridiculously charged, over-the-top positive,
ü
ber gung-ho Sean.

At least she got to look at a crazy handsome
face. Could definitely be worse!

As the pain subsided and her claws relaxed
back into hands, she noticed Kate and Jasmine in the corner with a
terrified looking Ben. Maybe having him come along wasn’t the best
idea after all. Ben had a girlfriend, but they weren’t serious. She
had a feeling Ben wouldn’t look at his woman the same after
this.

Good thing gay wasn’t a choice, because if it
were, he would sprint toward Marcus’s side of the yard.

“Hey, guys,” Krista said as she was eased
back into the bed by the nurse.

“Hey, Kris, how about those drugs?” Kate
asked. Her eyes looked slightly wild. Jasmine also looked on
edge.

Krista let the realization tug the corners of
her mouth into a smile. “Nervous for the future, girls?”

Both smirked, but didn’t relax.

Cassie walked in next, the size of a trailer.
In a few more months she, too, would be the size of a house. It had
taken her four months to get pregnant, so she was always a few
steps behind Krista. As her smile turned into alarm, it probably
wasn’t a good thing.

“Does it hurt?” Cassie asked in a small
voice.

World’s dumbest question, yes, but that’s
what happens when a girl realizes what she is heading for. She
needs the obvious voiced, sometimes repeatedly, as the brain tries
to hold onto the bliss of ignorance.

“Do I look that bad?” Krista asked, eyeing
everyone.

Sean stepped to her side quickly. “You look
absolutely beautiful, Krista.
Radiant
.”

“And like shit hurts,” Kate said dryly. Ben’s
bobbed up and down.

“Yes, shit does hurt.”

They passed a while talking, sporadic
laughter, and intervals of pain. Sean was the ring leader. When it
was time for Krista to focus on breathing, or moaning, or anything
but the agonizing pain of her body being ripped apart from the
inside out, everyone was to lend support. When she was supposed to
be distracted so she wasn’t worried about the pain to come, Sean
had endless chatter. It was like he was throwing a party.

The dude with the medicine machine came to
give her the epidural and Ben went running. Half way through trying
to get it set up, another contraction came on. Krista whimpered and
everything stopped. The nurse braced her, Sean put his hand on her
knee, and another crash of torture smothered her.

The nurse said, “Pretty soon you’ll be
flying, Krista. No sweat.”

Once the tube was in place, Krista had
another contraction that stopped conversation, and she was
strategically placed on her side so the drug would take effect and
not mess up the tube that was to remain inside her lower back.
Things got better. She felt the pain subside fairly quickly and
could breath, pain free, again.

That was when Marcus entered the
building.

“What’d I miss? Hey honey!” He was carrying a
giant bouquet of roses. “You look
awful
!”

“She looks beautiful,” Sean said from his
lounge chair next to Krista’s bed.

Marcus laughed and said, “Protective to the
last, huh, young stud? Well, who wants to hear the latest
gossip?”

This is how they spent the next two hours
until the doctor came in to check her, noted her at five
centimeters, and chased everyone away. Krista needed to rest, she
said. There was a long way to go yet. She should turn off the
lights and try to sleep. Everyone could come back when the show
began.

Right before everyone left, life was serene.
Sean was doting on her, her friends were treating her with goddess
status, and she had a portly, jubilant nurse in and out asking if
she needed anything. Oh yeah, and she couldn’t feel her legs.

Chapter Thirty-Six

As she and Sean tried to close their eyes,
she on her side in her hospital bed, him on his lounge chair that
looked super uncomfortable, Krista started noticing that her legs
weren’t as numb as before. Feeling slowly started to creep back
in.. This meant, of course, she was starting to feel the
contractions raise their ugly head and give her a jagged toothed
smile.

Right now, that head was dull and blunt. It
was banging around below her stomach somewhere. But she got worried
immediately. She looked around for the nurse call remote and Sean
jumped up as if on springs.

“What’s up? What do you need? I love you very
much, baby. So, so much.”

“Um…just need the nurse call button pushed. I
think the epidural is wearing off.”

Krista took a moment to think that it must be
nice to be really excited and awaiting the birth without actually
having to deal with the tubes in your back and arms, the pain, the
huge belly—she was crabby. She did need to get some sleep.

Sean pushed the button, his eyes looking at
Krista with tender devotion. The nurse came in and looked askew
when Krista told her what was happening. Apparently it wasn’t an
everyday occurrence.

Krista was switched to her other side, which
was weird because she had just come back from that side—apparently
the medicine just flowed out of the tube wherever gravity takes it.
It was necessary, then, to awkwardly move from one side to the
other— awkwardly because numb legs are dead weight and moving them
is then not the easiest thing in the world.

They settled down again, Sean content that
the problem was fixed. But it wasn’t. The numbness receded, leaving
surges of dull, creeping pain in its wake. Finally, Krista started
reaching for the remote again. She could see the direction this
operation was headed.

“What’s up, Krista?” Sean said as he bounded
up again.

“Sean, you’re supposed to be resting.”

“I’m not the one who needs it, Krista. What
do you need? Do you want some ice chips? Are you hungry? You can
have some chicken broth, I think.”

“I need the nurse again. This stuff is
wearing off and it’s starting to hurt.”

Sean pushed the button and walked to the door
to look outside. He came back into the room, followed by the nurse.
This time, her confusion was evident. She went to look at the
machine, looked at the tubes to make sure all was in place, then
put her hands on her hips and tilted her head.

“I’ll call the anesthesiologist. He’ll have
you fixed right up!” she said in her low, though comforting,
voice.

Krista loved nurses. When people were at
their worst, they always seemed at their best. Krista was careful
not to let her eyes get misty. Sean would flip if he saw her
crying.

Time grinded on. Apparently the medicine man
was in a C-section delivery and couldn’t come help until he was
done. While he was away, the beast of pain was raging against the
bonds of numbness. Numbness was slowly losing. It was only a matter
of time.

The nurse came to check on Krista a few more
times with updates about her tambourine man, the only one who could
make the onslaught of pain go away, and with each time she entered,
Krista was in worse and worse shape. Sean went from sidekick to
star of the show as she needed more and more encouragement to stay
calm.

Relax. Moan it out. Here we go. Moan it out.
You’re doing great. Almost there now. Almost. Good work, Krista. I
love you. You are doing so well.

When Sean called all the girls to come back
to the hospital, Krista was at nine centimeters and completely
without the help of the epidural. Bitch of it was, she still had
all the tubing and crap in her back. She still had to stay still,
stay on her side, but she got no benefits from it. Someone upstairs
was laughing their ass off at that one!

Krista was laying against the bed banisters,
clutching the metal bars with all her strength, moaning like a
banshee with tears in her eyes, when Kate and Jasmine walked in.
The pain was unimaginable. Krista didn’t realize anything could
hurt so much. Her brain registered it as suffering. Torture, maybe.
That much pain should only signify eminent death.

Krista could see the panic in Sean’s eyes as
he struggled for calm. He wasn’t taking this much better than she
was. He didn’t realize he would have to see her like this and he’d
only felt that helpless one other time in his life. It didn’t help
the situation. It was hard to see someone you loved in intense
pain. And Krista was suffering. She was not trying to hide it. She
wanted any kind of drug offered. She’d never smoked weed in her
life, but if someone offered, she definitely would have thought
about it!

Another contraction ripped through her body.
A dull, bone crunching pain, consuming her lower half. The class
she took wasn’t the Lamaze of her parents’ generation, but a new
way of coping. You breathed, then moaned. It was a guttural, deep
howl that came from the center of your being. You were supposed to
put all your misery and feeling into that primal groan. It was the
sound you made when you ate bad fish and your stomach was half an
hour away from purging. It was the sound you made sitting on the
toilet waiting to die, or just too drunk to function. It was the
international sound of misery.

“What the hell happened?” Kate said as the
contraction subsided.

They were coming about every minute and a
half now. It was getting close.

Krista just wanted it to be over.

“Drugs wore off,” she panted.

“We are going to get through this Krista,”
Sean said with more determination than he felt. “We took a class
for this. You can do it. Can I get you anything?”

“Pain meds.”

The nurse bustled in and shooed Kate and
Jasmine to the side. Marcus and Ben sauntered in after, followed by
Cassie. Ben took one look at Krista and stopped, his eyes round
like orbs.

“
What happened
?” Ben breathed.

“Krista, you look…are you okay?” Marcus
asked, all traces of relaxation or humor completely absent.

“Having a baby.”

“It looks like it hurts,” Cassie whined. She
realized she was next in line for the torture chamber.

Another contraction.

Pain blotted out Krista’s awareness. Sean was
in her face again, hand on her cheek, voice soothing as he went
through the breathing and moaning she was supposed to be doing. She
followed him, in too much pain to be embarrassed, eyes locked on
his. Her moan infused the thousand dull knives stabbing her lower
back and abdomen.

When it was over, the nurse checked her—which
meant sticking her fingers into a private place—and said they would
start to get ready.

Krista had been worried about the boys seeing
her hoo-haw. That was before. Now, as little people dressed like
clowns banged on her abdomen with mallets, Krista didn’t care if
she was butt-ass naked, legs spread wide, and one of the boys had a
camera. She just wanted the show to end. She didn’t care about the
details.