At exactly five pm, after many bouts of nausea, sweats, and downright demon behavior, I finally felt like I needed to push.
Drew stepped out for just a second to tell our waiting party that it was time. I knew as soon as he came back that Dawson was there. I could tell by the look on his face. Damnit. I didn’t want him there. Why couldn’t he just wait and see if Drew was the father before he flew all the way there.
“Is Lauren with him?” I asked, Drew.
“With who?” he asked, trying to feign ignorance. I gave him a look.
“Yes, she and Star both are here,” he answered.
“Star’s here?” I was so excited that Star was there.
Dawson, not so much, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about Lauren being there. I mean, I forgave her, and I was glad that she was with Dawson, but I still felt a little betrayed. I wasn’t about to let it ruin my day. I was finally going to meet this baby that I had been waiting months for. I couldn’t wait.
I pushed for forty five minutes, and it just wasn’t happening. The baby would crown and that was it. He wasn’t coming out. I would have said at that moment he was no doubt Drew’s baby, being was stubborn as his daddy. Doctor Long explained that he wasn’t going to let me go much longer. He was going to have the operating room setup for a C-section. I didn’t want that. I wanted him to be born natural, and although I didn’t think I had one more push in me. I tried. I tried like hell, over and over until his head was finally out. Drew never left my side and my mother was the best birthing coach ever. Had it not been for her I’m sure I would have passed out at least ten times from hyperventilating.
Finally, at seven twelve in the evening, baby Nicholas was born. He came out screaming, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was no wonder he had such a hard time coming into the world. He weighed in at nine pounds, seven ounces and was twenty two inches long. He was a big boy.
Drew was the proudest papa ever, although after they laid him on my stomach I was scared. I swear he looked just like Dawson. Drew wasn’t seeing it. He was seeing his son, and that was it. His hands were as bloody as the baby. He couldn’t keep his hands off of him. He kissed me and told me that he loved me at least ten times before they took baby Nick to clean him up. Drew washed his hands and went out to give the good news.
“Drew,” I called for him before he got out.
He was by my side, kissing me again in a split second. I couldn’t help but laugh at him.
“I want to see Star,” I said.
“You’ve got it, baby,” he said with another kiss.
My mom went out, just as proud, with him. Star came in alone with a big smile about ten minutes later.
“I can’t believe you’re here, Star,” I said as she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” she said, walking over to the baby. The nurse held him up so that she could see him. She looked straight back to me.
Damnit, she saw it too.
“He’s just lucky I was going to be here in a couple of days anyway for the swap meet,” she teased, coming back to me.
“How are you?” I asked.
“Me? How are you? You’re the one that just gave birth to a football player.”
“He is a little football player,” I said, smiling down at him as the nurse placed him swaddled in a blanket back in my arms. I loved him already.
“How’s Dawson been?” I asked not taking my eyes from my bundle of joy.
“He’s been good. I have told you before. Things tend to work themselves out.”
“Yes, you have. I still can’t believe him and Lauren though. It’s so hard to picture the two of them together.”
Star didn’t know what to say. They were both her friends as much as I was. I respected her for that, and knew that she would stay loyal to both sides. That’s just how Starlight was.
Drew came in, still smiling, of course. He kissed me, and then took the baby from my arms. He held him like he had done it a million times before. Celeste and Alicia came in next. They made as big of a fuss over him as my mom and Drew.
Everyone had been in except for Dawson and Lauren, and once Drew, and I were alone again, I brought it up.
“Drew, you have to let him see him,” I said “I know. I was just hoping to wait until we got the test results back.”
“That could be two or three days.”
“Not when you just donated a quarter of a million dollars to the hospital,” he grinned.
“Drew, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything, just wrote a check and let them swab the inside of my jaw.”
“There’re doing it now?”
“Yup, four hours, tops,” he said, staring down at sleeping Nicholas. “There is no way I was going to wait for two or three days. I want this behind us, today.”
“Drew,” I started to say. He stopped me.
“Don’t, Morgan. We’re not even going to discuss it.”
I could tell that he was scared shitless that baby Nick was going to be Dawson’s and not his.