Redemption (The Bet) (5 page)

He
r head bobbed enthusiastically between his legs and suddenly Nicholas wanted his dick appearing and disappearing in another hole. As if attuned to his thoughts, Emilie released him with a loud smack of her lips and straddled him. With all the expertise of a seasoned pro she impaled herself on his rock hard dick and began to ride him.

Nicholas's ey
es closed completely now and as he was wont to do for the past ten years, he fantasied about one woman while he reaped the benefits of her hired doppelganger.

-
Flashback
-

Eyes feeling gritty, Ellie knew it was time to put the psych book away. No amount of studying was worth being sleep deprived. Besides, she knew the material. Two weeks of intensive cramming for tomorrow's midterm had been more than enough time to learn the psychoanalyst, behaviorist and cognitive theories of the personality developments. Anymore of Freud's premises and she'd no doubt start pulling out her hair. All she had to do now was learn to relax and get a good night's sleep to ensure a passing grade in her amateur psych class.

Struggling to stand Ellie scooted out of her chair at the dining table and headed to the kitchen, protruding stomach and all. She took her water bottle out of the refrigerator and while she drank her eyes caught sight of the clock above the microwave. She was mildly surprised to see it was nearing 2 A.M. she’d been going at it since seven and with her body in desperate need of some rest, Ellie knew it was time to call it a night. Waddling back to the dining table she began to organize the mountain of books scattered all over the place.

Among the mess, her silver spiral Five-Star notebook lay open, her chicken scratch writing littering nearly every corner of the pages. Though it probably would've taken linguist years to figure out exact
ly what her notes consisted of Ellie was very proud of the fact that her notebook was organized. Notes were highlighted in fruity scented colors, each subject with its own color. It'd become her little fixation---these scented markers, a fixation Ellie was chalking up to pregnancy and hormones gone awry.

A small smile pulled at her lips as she picked the notebook and brought it to her nose. There was elation that came with the sudden flood of artificially scented fruits and Ellie closed her eyes content to bask in the aromas.

"I'm going to pretend that this is not the weirdest thing I've seen all week and just not ask." Gabe's crabby voice pulled Ellie from her highlighter high and she had the good grace to turn pink. She snapped the notebook shut and lowered it to the table.

"What crawled up your butt?" Ellie
inquired watching Gabe pour himself a glass of milk. She smiled sweetly at him when he shot her a glare from the glass rim.

"Being pregnant is the worst thing ever." He sounded like a petulant child and knowing that he did, made Gabe want to hit something. This was the main reason why Ronnie had kicked him out of bed. There could only be one grumpy person in their bedroom and as far as Ronnie was concerned that right did not belong to Gabe.

So Ronnie kicked him out of bed to find comfort with the couch. It was with pillow in hand that Gabe had trudged down to the kitchen to find something to help him fall asleep.

"I have no sympathy for you," Ellie said, maneuvering around the table in the attempt to organize her books. "Ronnie on the other I sympathize with implicitly. Be happy that you're not the one carrying around a watermelon sized cargo everywhere with you."

"I'm suffering too." He indignantly rebutted. "No sex, crabby girlfriend, weird cravings, and the mood swings!"

Ellie scrunched up her nose and tried not to laugh. "Okay first of all, Ew to
the sex thing. That's an image no child should
ever
have of their parents. It's just.... Ew." She closed her eyes and shuddered, laughing when Gabe threw an abandoned bottle cap at her. "Secondly, Gabe, you need to stop being such an ass and just 
be
 there for Ronnie. It's not easy going through a pregnancy without having someone there to help you…" She quieted and Gabe wanted to kick himself for conjuring up thoughts on her recent breakup.

"Ellie…
" It'd been almost nine months since she’d come home that fateful night crying and shattered. But Gabe had hoped that Ellie would've been over the breakup by now.

It was bad enough that
she had to be reminded on a daily basis of how much Nicholas' presence had affected her life with the twins on their way, but now Sophie's mournful cries of wanting him back did not help at all.

"Ellie…
"Gabe called again unsure of what to say now.

"I'm alright
." She reassured. "Gabe I'm fine, really."

"I know." He pulled her to him as best as he could with the round belly in the way, and caressed Ellie's hair when she dropped her head against his chest. "I know you're fine. But it's okay if you aren't sometimes. Ron and I will love you even if you fall off the
 'fine' wagon. We'll always love you, Ellie." Ellie only wrapped her arms around Gabe's waist a little tighter and sniffed.

The very second she drew away
a pain unlike any other shot through her lower abdomen bringing her to her knees. She blindingly reached for Gabe’s hand while trying to breathe through the pain. "Gabe," She whispered, holding on with unbelievable strength. "Gabe!" she wailed as another bout of pain wrenched through her.

"
Ellie, what is it? Is it the babies? What's going on? Ellie!"

"Call…
call the ambulance!" Ellie managed to gasp, hand falling to her stomach as pain laced up from the tips of her toes, up her legs and fired off canon sized blasts in her lower abdomen. On her hands and knees now, she groaned as contractions wracked her body.

Gabe returned in a beat and was instantly at her side. “
They're on their way, Ellie. They're on their way baby, hold on…oh God!" He caught sight of the blood reddening Ellie's pajama bottoms. Gabe paled, breaking out in a cold sweat.

It took this exact moment for his fucking anxiety attack to happen? Now? Gabe's mind was in a rage as he desperately
attempted to calm himself down. "Fuck…RONNIE!"

Footsteps were heard, and Gabe wanted to yell at his girlfriend not to run
---it wouldn't do to prematurely induce her own labor now. It'd just be his luck if Ronnie did follow Ellie into labor! God! There was so much fucking blood!

"Gabe…
Oh God, Ellie." Refusing to panic, Ronnie appraised the situation before making a quick dash for dish towels and the roll of paper towel on the kitchen table. Handing the paper towel to Gabe, she slipped the dish towel over the pool of blood between Ellie's parted legs. "Hey sweetheart it's okay. It's alright, Ellie. Everything's going to be okay. Just relax and breathe. That's it sweetie just like that." when she looked up Ronnie met Gabe's ashen face and the grim expression on her face was mirrored back at her. "Gabe did you call the ambulance?"

"They're on their way." No sooner had he finished the sentence, they heard the familiar wails of sirens. Relief should've pooled in their veins, but Gabe and Ronnie did no
t allow themselves the luxury, they weren’t out of the woods yet.

"I'll go open the door for them...." Gabe stood on wobbly legs, the jellyfish effect causing him to
stumble. But once he found his footing, he hastened to the foyer. He led the two EMT’s to the kitchen and watched as they maneuvered a pale Ellie on the stretcher.

Face
contorted in pain, Ellie held onto Ronnie's hand as they carried her away. "Don't leave me." She sounded so much like a child in that moment that it brought tears to Ronnie's eyes.

"Never." Ronnie replied emphatically walking
alongside the stretcher as the EMT's questioned her on Ellie's contractions, then her age, date of birth and so on. Ronnie answered as best as she could until Gabe returned.   

"You ride with her
, Ron. I'll take the car and follow with Sophie." Humbled in being given the opportunity to stay by Ellie's side through this difficult situation Ronnie fell even more in love with her raven haired lover. With a shared kiss goodbye, they separated. Ronnie hopped in with Ellie in the ambulance and Gabe ran to the ridgeline.

~*~*~*~

By the time they made it to the hospital and she was admitted, Ellie had lost a copious amount of blood and was going into shock. The situation went from bad to worse when it was discovered that the twins’ heart rates was dropping. With a caesarean inevitable, Gabe, Ronnie and a sleeping Sophie waited in limbo for news to come.

Two
hours later, a nurse emerged from the O.R to report that the twins had been safely delivered. Fraternal, the girl weighing in at six pounds five ounces was older by a few minutes than the boy who weighed an ounce less than his sister.

Gabe and Ronnie’s joy was fleeting as they discovered that Ellie was still in danger.

“The Doctors are doing all they can to stabilize her.” She was gone after that leaving Gabe and Ronnie in a perpetual limbo of worry. With the hours creeping by and still no news Gabe, on instinct decided to give Dina and Phillip a call.

Not trusting himself not to yell at them, Gabe did not tell them much, simply that they needed to get their asses here as soon as was possible.

While they waited for news, they haunted the halls like unsettled specters, refusing to leave. So they were given a room, a bed for Ronnie to recline on and one for Sophie to get the sleep she was being denied. Hospital food, still as deplorable as the last few times they had been there, tasted like gourmet sawdust. But Sophie loved the applesauce and so they allowed her to eat it. The waiting added to the agony of not knowing---worrying. The only uplifting thing was visiting the twins in the maternity ward. They were pink little bundles of flailing arms and legs, poking from the pink and blue blankets that were wrapped around their tiny little bodies. Sophie always managed to giggle a storm when Gabe pointed out her little brother and sister.

"My bwotha and sishta!" her little face remained glued to the glass panel, her chubby hands touching the window.

"Yeah, squirt, that's your little brother and sister. They need to sleep and you and I need to get back to Ronnie, okay?" Gabe saw that she wanted to protest, but seemed to think better of it. Sophie had been very good for them since they'd come to the hospital and he was glad that she continued her good behavior as they made their way out the maternity ward. Temper tantrums were not needed right now.

They found Ronnie napping when they entered the room with the T.V on the stand set to mute. Gabe dropped a small kiss on her forehead before taking Sophie to the solitary chair in the room. He sat with her on his lap and watched the images flashing across the television screen.

The hours ticked away at a snail’s pace, Ronnie awoke and they distracted themselves with a game of thumb wars, which Sophie got a kick out of it. News finally came in the wee hours of morning.

"We've managed to stop the bleeding and she is now in the process of receiving blood transfusions. While we've done all we can, there were serious complications and we fear that Ellie may no longer be able to bear children. This delivery put a great amount of stress on her body, and it's a miracle she's come out of it relatively unscathed."

Relatively unscathed? Ellie would be devastated to hear that she could no longer bear children.

"But she's okay? Can we see her?"

"Yes, she'll be all right. She just needs a few more hours to recuperate. Like I said, she's lost a great amount of blood and so we need to give her time to rest so that her body can replenish all the blood lost. Nancy, the night nurse on duty will come and get you when she is ready for visitors." He left once he was assured that they had no further questions for him.

~
*~*~*~

Dina and Phillip arrived around ten that morning, both
looking haggard. Although Phillip hid it far better than his wife, who appeared as though she'd shed buckets of tears in their long journey. Her navy blue pea-coat was open enough that Gabe saw the black cardigan she had on over the knee length skirt. She'd gathered her dark hair into a tight bun, the severity of it making her appear far older than she was.

There were age lines that hadn't been there before, mostly around her almond shaped eyes and her pale pink mouth. When she attempted a smile, the deep lines stood out more and as she approached Gabe was gripped with the strong urge to gather in her in his arms and comfort her as best as he could. It'd been close to
five years since he'd laid eyes on her. Seeing her now, Gabe wished he’d done more in keeping contact with them.

Dina and Phillip had been his best friends in high school, but more than that, they'd been the closest thing Gabe had to family. His mom had been a drunk who did just about anything for a pack of smokes and his dad walked out on them even before the Doctor cut the umbilical cord. There'd been nothing steady, loving or remotely homey in the trailer park he'd grown up in. Dina and Phillip had been Gabe's escape from his harsh reality.

Phillip had been their moral divining rod being raised in a family of Mormons and all and Dina, well Dina had been the buffer between them when the testosterone ran a little too high. Over all they'd been great together and even when Dina and Phillip started seeing each other, the dynamics of their relationship hadn't changed that much.