Who's Fault?

Chapter Twenty-Three

My eyes snapped open, "MAAAX!"

He rushed right over to me, "What?! What is it?!"

"My water just broke!"

For a second, there was panic in his eyes. But when he saw me reacting negatively to it, he masked it. "Okay. Stay here for right now. I'll get everything into the car and start it, call the OB while I'm doing it, and I'll come back up to get you, alright?"

I nodded quickly, but silently. I was freaking out. I'm gonna have a baby. I'm gonna be a mom! Those were the two thoughts that continuously ran through my head as I sat there terrified.

I counted the seconds it took Max to do what he said until he made it back to me. "You ready to get up?" I only stared at him, I couldn't force any words out. He took that as a yes anyway and slowly helped me up.

Max supported me as we made our way down the stairs, but I had to stop midway for a couple minutes when a contraction started and all I could do was lean on Max and groan in pain. After it passed, we continued our way down the stairs and to the car. He helped me in and rushed to the driver's side of the car.

A few minutes into the drive, another contraction hit, I reacted with a groan, similarly to how I did on the stairs at home, "You okay?" Max asked.

"No. Keep driving," I told him, my eyes closed. I was focused on getting through the pain.

Max spoke again, "seven minutes."

"What?"

"It was seven minutes between the stairs and just now."

"Oh good! You're keeping track!" I meant it seriously, at least I thought I did. However, the way it came out sounded sarcastic.

Even after the pain passed, I kept my eyes closed. I was exhausted and trying not to let the panic consume me at the same time. I was consciously making sure to take deep, even breaths and was repeating the words you can do this in my head, though I wasn't sure I believed it. Every minute or so I could feel Max glancing at me, "Max, if you don't keep your eyes on the road and drive like you usually do, I swear to God I'm going to kill you."

Max was a good driver, he just drove fast. At the moment though, it felt like he was barely driving the speed limit. I knew if he kept glancing at me, he would eventually get distracted and something bad could happen. The goal was to get to the hospital as quickly as possible without getting in a car accident and being injured.

It was a twenty minute drive to the hospital, but it felt like so much longer than that. I was falling asleep as we made our way there. I think my brain and body were so tired from all the stress I was under. The baby didn't seem to want me to rest though because the minute I fell asleep, another contraction hit. They didn't even last a minute, but it was nowhere close to feeling pleasant. The pain was extremely similar, if not identical, to what I thought were intensified Braxton Hicks contractions I felt the earlier in the day; those had seemed more noticeable and didn't go away as quickly if I moved. Maybe what I started feeling were real contractions, and I just didn't know.

This time, Max grabbed my hand to show his support and continued driving. I held tightly to him as I waited for the pain to subside. When it did, Max didn't say anything.

I loosened my grip on his hand, then asked "how long this time?"

"Still seven minutes." He replied shortly. His hand left mine only for a few seconds to turn the music on, then he returned it. My song was playing and I hummed along. In the middle of the second time it played, the pain started again. I made a sound of discomfort and gripped Max's hand a little tighter until it went away again.