He began to panic and started to sing, “I love you, you love me. We’re a happy family-”
“Alec!” Nico snapped. “Barney songs? Really?”
Alec placed his hands on the side of his head and he whimpered, “I don’t know what to do!”
“Just do what Aideen asks,” Branna said in a calm voice as she dabbed a cool damp cloth over my forehead.
Alec looked at Branna then to me then to Nico. “I take it back. I don’t want babies, not ever.”
“Bronagh is already pregnant,” Dominic cried into his hands. “It’s too late to pull out.”
“I’m never ever having sex ever again,” Damien whispered.
For God’s sake.
“Stop pushing?” Alec then suggested. “Squeeze your cheeks together and keep that little Slater up there until Kane gets here.”
Branna and Nico looked at Alec who was demonstrating to me what I had to do with my arse cheeks. I didn’t want to copy him because he looked constipated and it freaked me out.
“It doesn’t work like that, Alec,” Branna said then refocused on me and smiled. “Honey, you’re doing beautifully.”
“She can’t do beautifully because Kane isn’t here!” Alec stated for a second time. “He needs to be here for this.”
Branna laughed. “Tell the baby that.”
Alec did just that. The bloody freak of nature kneeled down next to the pool, cupped his hands at the sides of his mouth and shouted, “Stop your journey down the vaginal canal, we’re not ready for you yet. Your daddy is at the gym pumping iron, have some respect and wait for him!”
Dominic pulled Alec away from my most private body part and smacked him on the nose. “Stop it.”
Alec jumped with fright and silently lifted his fingers to his nose while he stared at his brother with wide eyes.
“I can’t believe you just did that to me.”
Nico shook his head, chewing on his inner cheek probably so he wouldn’t smile. Branna rubbed Alec’s shoulder, smiling before she looked back to me and winked.
“Aideen?!”
Oh, thank God.
Branna smiled wide. “In the bedroom!”
Seconds passed by, then Kane and Ryder burst into the bedroom. I didn’t look up. Instead, I lowered my head and screamed as pain swam around my abdomen.
“Strip down and get into the pool with her, she needs you,” Branna ordered Kane.
“Where the fuck have you been?” I screamed as I pushed.
I ignored everything and picked up the two balls Branna had given me earlier and continued to squeeze and release them in my hands, focusing all the pain I felt into the objects.
And breathing, I really needed to remember my breathing.
I heard mindless chatter and sounds of items hitting my bedroom floor, then I heard water splashing, as ripples of water knocked against me.
Kane was in the pool.
I felt a hand pressed against my back, then multiple kisses to my shoulder.
“I’m here, babydoll.”
I began to cry, the relief of having him here hit me like a bomb. I was terrified he would miss the baby being born.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered and kissed the side of my head. “I’m so sorry.”
I turned my head to him, pressing it to the side of his face. “I can’t do this.”
Kane smiled. “What are you talking about? You’re doing it, and you’re doing it fucking awesomely.”
“Hell yeah she is,” Branna agreed.
Kane interlocked his hands with mine and didn’t make a sound when I squeezed him with every ounce of energy I had.
“God, it hurts!” I cried out and held our conjoined hands under my stomach.
“Spread your legs as wide as you can, honey, and as soon as you get another contraction you bear down and push, okay?”
I nodded to Branna and gripped Kane’s hands as Branna instructed me to move our affixed hands under my thighs as I pushed. It didn’t take long for a contraction to hit, and when it did, I did what Branna had said and I pushed. Contractions were painful and just utterly horrid, but pushing?
Pushing. Hurt. Like. Hell.
I screamed as loud as I ever had in my life when burning ripped through my vagina. “Ahhhhhhh!” I roared until my contraction faded, but even then the burning lingered.
“Branna,” I cried and squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s burnin’.”
I felt the cloth against my head.
“Push through that sting, do you hear me? You push through it with everythin’ you’ve got.”
I did just that. For thirty more minutes I pushed like hell through the burning sting until I thought I would collapse from exhaustion.
“She’s crownin’, that means the head is almost out, Kane,” Branna whispered. “You’re about to deliver your baby.”
Fear struck me.
“Branna, help him,” I pleaded, terrified Kane might let the baby fall by mistake.
“I’m ready,” he breathed. “I’ve got this, babydoll, trust me. Push as hard as you can one more time.”
Ryder and his brothers hunkered down in front of me and they each grabbed my hands, arms and legs, letting me use them as leverage.
“Let’s do this, Ado.” Alec smiled.
I nodded my head, then I sucked in a huge breath and with all my might, I bore down and pushed like my life depended on it.
“Good girl, babydoll,” Kane cheered. “Keep pushing... keep pushing.”
“The head is fully out,” Branna whooped a few seconds later.
More burning pain flooded my vagina and I screamed, but quickly inhaled and exhaled through the pain.
Nico moved to the side to get a better view and laughed. “Nothing but dark hair, a true Slater.” He tried to high five Damien who pointed at his own mop of white hair causing Nico to wince and say, “My bad, bro.”
I screamed loudly once more as increasing pressure mounted at my entrance, intensifying the burning.
Kane was laughing as he said, “Shoulders are out... chest... torso... butt... legs... and toes. You did it, baby.”
I slumped forward as I felt the baby leave me.
“It’s a... boy!” Kane suddenly announced. “It’s definitely a boy.”
I gasped and tried to look down between my legs, but the water was clouded with blood. “Are you sure?”
Branna carefully sat me back and leaned over into the pool and lifted my leg so Kane could wind the umbilical cord under so I didn’t hurt myself or the baby. I turned my head and burst into tears as I looked at Kane who had our baby scooped up in his big arms. I was smiling and weeping until I noticed something.
The baby wasn’t crying.
“Branna,” I said. “Why isn’t he cryin’?”
“It’s normal, give him a second,” Branna said then reached over and took the baby from Kane without asking.
He still wasn’t crying.
Five-seconds of nothing passed and it felt like a lifetime.
“Oh, please,” I screamed as panic struck. “Please make him cry.”
Kane grabbed hold of my shoulders as I tried to stand up. I shoved him away from me and tried to make it closer to Branna. She couldn’t move very far because the baby’s umbilical cord was still attached to me.
“Come on, baby boy,” Branna cooed to the baby as she rubbed him roughly with one of our baby towels. She continued this while I wailed and Kane hugged me from behind.
Alec had his hands on either side of his head, Nico and Damien were both chewing on their nails, and Ryder was just staring at the baby and Branna.
Time was frozen until... magic.
The loudest wail you could imagine from a newborn filled my apartment, and it was the best sound I had ever heard in my entire life.
I cried harder with relief that the baby was alive, and Kane, who was shaking behind me, whimpered lightly and pressed his face into the back of my hair.
“You little brat,” Branna tearfully laughed as she finished wiping the baby’s face. “Givin’ your mammy and daddy a fright like that.”
“Your fuckin’ uncles, too,” Alec stated and bent forward, placing his hands on his knees, panting like he just ran a marathon.