THE RETURN

Chapter 85

Elliot never knew he could drive Manhattan Sunday midday traffic one handed. But he was Olivia's touch stone and each time he barely shifted his hand in her hold, she gripped tighter. Her contractions were still about six minutes apart, her pain described as a four, bad but not too bad yet. And as much as she didn't believe lamaze was going to help her, it actually was. Her breathing was deep, rhythmatic, purposeful, her focal point was the joining of their hands in her lap and as odd as it sounded, she was at peace.

Peace with knowing that it was going to get worse, that it was going to get more painful, that she was hopefully going to push something the size of watermelon out of something the size of a lemon. She was at peace because as long as Elliot was beside her, she could do this. And he was. He was beside her the entire time. Even through the whole drive, his timer on his phone went off every five minutes to prepare her for another contraction and every time she had one, he let her grip his hand tighter, let her sink her nails into his forearm, listened to her breathe deeply and whispered encouraging words to her.

"You're doing so good, baby," he said as they hit a red light.

She smiled only slightly. She definitely wouldn't be doing so good if it wasn't for him, that much she knew. "Please tell me we're almost there."

Manhattan traffic was ridiculous, especially on Sundays and that nice day in April seemed to be way too busy. Which was not helpful when they were both equally as anxious to get to the hospital. She wanted to put her silk gown on, wanted Elliot's arms wrapped back around her, wanted to move around. He wanted to rub those deep, slow circles on her lower back, wanted to help her in any way he possibly could. And if the cars on the road didn't get the fuck out of the way, he was going to call Fin for a police escort, he was not playing.

"Do you want me to call Fin? We can get some lights."

"What are lights going to do for us right now? It's stop and go. They won't even be able to get to us."

Well, that was the truth. He clicked his GPS on his phone, said, "We're three miles out." Three miles could take forever in the traffic they were stuck in but it was at least comforting to know that they were in fact almost there.

"Okay, that's not too bad."

And when the timer went off to prepare her for another contraction, she held his hand tighter, breathed deeply, listened to the sound of his voice, and looked forward to being in his arms again.

EO

He didn't even bother asking if he should drop her off in front or park. There was absolutely no way either one of them were losing sight of one another. The closest parking spot was a little walk from the entrance but she assured him that she wanted to stay next to him the whole time. They kept their pace slow, stopped the one time she needed to stop to once more lean her body into his and when his hands wrapped around her belly in the middle of the parking lot, she sighed in relief.

"All this touching is helping," she said on an exhale. It was. It was keeping her calm, keeping her connected to him, to Hannah, and although the pain wasn't excruciating yet, she knew it was going to help her when it was.

"Good. Let's get you in your room and take some layers off. Get you some more skin to skin. Okay?" He would strip down to nothing, if that's what she wanted him to do. Although, that probably wouldn't be the best idea with medical staff moving in and out of the room but if that's what she wanted, that's what he would give her. He wanted this to be perfect, as perfect as a labor could be, because Olivia was the most perfect, whole person he had ever met and she deserved everything to go the way she wanted it to go. And he was willing to do anything to make that happen