ONWARD IMAGINES

I Wanna Have a Baby With You, Babe (part three) | Barley Lightfoot

im just in love with barley okay

/ / /

"Okay, Mom is on her way right now," he said. "She'll meet us at the hospital."

"Okay." You closed your eyes and breathed through your lips. "What if this isn't actually birth? What if it's just one of those false alarms? I'll feel so bad for waking everyone up for nothing..."

"No, no," he said. "Mom told us that it was a good thing to go to the hospital in case anything happened, remember? Even if it's just paranoia or us being worried. She'll be there."

You nodded and swallowed hard. "I just wish I knew what was real and what wasn't. This is so weird."

"Uh... oh! The book said that all you gotta do is  time your contractions," he said, turning onto the highway. You took in a deep breath; the hospital was only about ten minutes away. "So if they're five minutes apart, then you know you need to be in the hospital. Or something. Are you contracting yet?"

You shifted in discomfort. "Not yet. Wait..."

His eyes darted to you as you gripped his upper arm and groaned. "Okay, yeah, I'm contracting. Okay. It hurts."

"Check the time, check the time!"

You lifted up Barley's phone and turned the screen on. You groaned. "It's three thirty-two."

"Okay, in five minutes we will know for sure if you're giving birth. How are you feelin', baby? You okay?" 

You worked through breathing as the pain vanished in a slowly dissolving wave. "I'm okay."

He reached for your hand. His thumb made circles around the back of your hand. "I know it hurts, baby. Deep breaths."

You nodded. There were tears in your eyes, and you weren't sure if it was pain or fear of the unknown that was causing them. He lifted up your joined hands to wipe the tears away from your cheek with the back of his fingers. He offered a confident smile, a soft one full of love and care that made you feel a little better.

"If this is it," he said, "then that means that we get to bring our baby home even earlier than we thought. That's exciting, huh? In a few months, he'll say his first word. He'll be crawling and getting into things... he'll be trying all these new foods..."

"And in a few hours, maybe we'll be holding him," you whispered. 

"Yeah." His voice grew faint as he pulled into the hospital. He undid his seat belt and looked at you. "Maybe we will."

Your tear filled eyes met his and you undid your belt. The pain was starting to grow severe once again. You nodded. "Barley, it is time."

/ /

"We suspect that you'll start pushing anywhere within six hours," the nurse said, washing her hands at the sink after she checked you.

Barley helped you cover yourself back up with the thin sheet. He stroked your hair as you rubbed your stomach. "It'll take that long?"

"It doesn't happen as quickly as movies say," she said, smiling. "Just sit tight, I'll be around." 

"Thank you," you said. As she left the room, shutting the door behind her, you looked up at Barley. He sank back down in his stool and scooted close to you. His fingers intertwined with yours. "This baby business takes a little too long."

"What if there was a spell that gave you the ability to just grow your baby in half a second and birth it whenever you wanted? That'd be useful right now, huh?"