Our Future is Unlimited...

Chapter 15

ELPHABA:

About a week after Fiyero surprises me with the nursery, Leona comes over to check on me.

"Everything is as it should be," she tells us. "This baby should be arriving very soon."

"How soon?" Fiyero asks her, gripping my shoulder as I smooth my hand over my enormous stomach.

"Oh, maybe within the next week." Leona says. "But I wouldn't worry. It will happen when it happens."

His face pales.

Sweet Oz, he's clearly terrified. He's probably going to be following me everywhere now until this baby comes!

I think Leona senses this, because she quickly adds, "But you shouldn't worry. You just send for me when you need to."

"So, you can go back to work," I say to my husband after she leaves.

"How am I going to even focus on that now?" He gripes, following me as I go to the stove and fix a pot of stew for our lunch.

"Fiyero, you can't keep worrying so much about me."

"Aren't I supposed to? You're about to have our baby."

I sigh. "Not for another week."

I reach for his hand as we sit at the table. "Please, Yero. I'll be fine. If anything happens any time, I'll send for you. Karina is here with me almost every day anyways!"

His shoulders relax. "I guess you're right," he agrees.

"You know I'm always right!" I tease him, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

He glares at me in mock annoyance. "Don't rub it in."

Over the next few days, Fiyero is true to his word as I am to mine.

Karina stops in around the middle of each afternoon, and we'll sit together and talk or she'll make tea and leave me to rest on the sofa while she picks up around the house.

There hasn't been much for her to do, though; I've been doing most of the tidying myself long before she even arrives. Everything's just so cluttered, and I want it all to be perfect!

I guess this is that 'nesting' feeling Leona mentioned.

So Karina and I sit together and have tea and discuss things on most days.

One day I ask about her nephews.

"They're wonderful!" she gushes. "My sister brought them for dinner last night. Actually, they asked about you, too!"

"Really?"

"Of course. They still talk about how much fun they had, making all those cookies!"

We laugh. It seems like such a long time ago I met Jonah and Gilbert; I miss their sweet little faces.

"Maybe you can bring them by tomorrow," I suggest. "It'd be so wonderful seeing them again...and it might help to have some extra practice before this one get here."

"If you're sure," Karina shrugs, nodding. "They're still quite a handful, and I wouldn't want you to get worked up so soon."

I shake my head, feeling a swift kick beneath my ribs. I take Karina's hand and put it atop my abdomen for her to feel.

She looks at me in awe, and laughs softly.

"I think we'll be just fine," I smile.

...

KARINA:

 The boys are so excited to see Elphaba again today. My sister had said they were jumping around the house all morning refusing to eat their breakfast.

That is until all their jumping around made them hungry.

"Are we going to make cookies again, Aunt Karina?" Gilbert asks me as we make our way down the road.

"We'll see, sweetie," I tell him gently. "If Miss Elphaba says it's alright. Remember I told you she's expecting a baby?"

"And it's why her tummy's gonna be big?" Jonah says, recalling my explanation to them about her condition.

I nod, smiling. "That's right. And it's very hard work for a mama to carry a baby inside her, so it makes her very tired."

We walk uphill and around the bend, coming up alongside the river. When Gilbert sees Elphaba and Fiyero's house, he runs ahead of us.

As Jonah and I take out time, his little brother jumps up to try and see in the windows.

"Gilbert!" I call as we reach the beginning of their yard. "Gilbert, you shouldn't do that, it's bad manners."

"But Aunt Karina, she looks hurt!" he looks up at me frightened.

"What?"

I feel around and find my key, quickly unlocking and opening the door.

"Elphaba!"

She is on her knees, her head and upper body draped in the center of the couch, cradling her belly with one free arm. She looks up at us, her face grimaced.

"Guess who decided to pay an early visit?" she smiled nervously.

Oh, dear...