Chapter 12
Renee walked out to the kitchen and began to fix dinner as Jesse would be back from work soon enough. She felt terrible. She’d been having Braxton Hicks for a few weeks. She was having an appointment once a week now. Jesse didn’t know she was now 39 weeks. He thought she was at 36 weeks. Today had been one of the worst days. The cramps had been so bad that she had barely been able to stand up. Every time she moved, she felt pain.
She started taking everything out and setting it on the table when she had a huge cramp shoot through her stomach and into her back. She gasped and grabbed the chair. It felt like she had peed on herself and she looked at the floor. There was a puddle on the floor. Had her water just broke? She was hurting and scared to move. The phone. She needed to get to the phone. She slowly moved around the table and to the counter where she had set the phone. She picked it up and dialed the number Jesse had programmed into it.
“Hello?” Jesse answered.
“Water just broke,” Renee said, trying to control her breathing.
“Shit. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
Renee hung up the phone, dropping it on to the table. She slowly tried to make her way into the living room. Another contraction hit her and she grabbed on to the wall to steady herself. She finally made it into the bedroom and grabbed the little bag that she had thrown together to take to the hospital. She sat on the bed and laid back against the pillows. The contractions were hitting harder and faster now. Jesse’s job was roughly twenty minutes away. She didn’t even know how far away the hospital was. Would she make it in time?
Jesse came running into the bedroom and grabbed the bag off the bed. He then took her hand and she stood up. She cried out in pain as another contraction hit. She leaned against Jesse’s chest and he rubbed his hands up and down her back, slightly rubbing her back through the contraction. She tried to control her breathing through it.
“Isn’t it too early for labor?” Jesse asked.
“No. People go into premature labor all the time. I’m nine months. It’s not premature. We need to go. I don’t know how far the hospital is,” Renee said in between her breathing.
“It’s at least thirty minutes away. How long have you been in labor?” Jesse asked as he started walking her out of the bedroom.
“I don’t know. I’ve been feeling bad all day. The cramps have been hitting since nine am, I guess. They have been steadily getting worse until my water broke. I called you immediately after it happened.”
“Damn, Renee. You have been in labor all day. You should have called me earlier. I’m going to have to fly down the road and hope I make it,” Jesse said as he slung the bag over his shoulder.
He bent down and put his arm behind her knees and picked her up in his arms. She cried out in pain as another contraction hit. She buried her face in his neck. Jesse reached out and opened the door and yanked it shut behind him. He didn’t even bother locking it. He ran out to the car and set her down. Once he had her in the car, he hooked her seat belt and ran around to his side. He got in and hooked his seat belt and hauled ass to the hospital.
He was going at least a hundred miles an hour and a cop got behind him. He cursed and pulled over. Once the cop got up to the window and saw Renee grabbing her stomach and crying in the passenger seat, he escorted them to the hospital. He called into dispatch to let them know that they were on the way. A nurse came out with a wheelchair and got Renee onto it. They stopped Jesse and made him fill out forms while they got Renee into the room.
Jesse was not happy about having to fill out the forms while Renee was in the room alone. He quickly filled them out and had the nurse take him into the room. Renee had already been put into a gown and prepped for delivery. The doctor was on the way into the room as he was being escorted in. There was a nurse sitting in front of Renee and telling her to push. Jesse walked over to her and she held out her hand to him.
He was surprised but happy about her reaching out to him. He took her hand and smiled at her. He pushed her hair off her face and squeezed her hand as she squeezed his. The doctor took over the nurse’s place and told Renee to push one final time. Renee sat up and bore down. She fell back against the pillows and Jesse heard the baby cry. He looked down and saw the doctor had the baby in his hands.
The nurse took him and cleaned him up. Once they had done everything they needed to do, they brought him over and laid him on Renee’s chest. She burst into tears as she looked at Christian. He was beautiful. He had a head full of blonde hair and bright green eyes, just like Kevin’s. Renee prayed that Jesse wouldn’t connect the two since he had dark hair and gray-blue eyes. She had red-gold hair and hazel eyes.
Jesse didn’t seem to notice. He had a huge grin on his face as he looked at Christian. Renee couldn’t help but notice how he looked like a completely different person than the one she had known for the past nine months. Although he had been nicer the past few months, she still hadn’t been able to get past the fact that he had abused her. But, here and now, he just looked like a brand new father beaming with pride over his son.
Jesse looked at Renee and was surprised when he found she was looking at him, too. There was a soft look on her face, one he had never seen before when she looked at him. It had been his hope that he could win her over if he was nicer to her but it hadn’t worked so far. Maybe now she was starting to see him in a different light? He would continue to treat her good and hopefully, she would come around.
He was going to be a good father, something his own had never been. He wanted Christian to know that he was loved and that he would never have to worry about anything. He wouldn’t hit Renee or do anything to her to make her leave. Since he had been nicer to her, she had come around a little bit more each day. Now that she had the baby, maybe it would be even more because he could show her what he was like as a father as well as a man in a relationship.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Thank you. You have made me very happy.”
He kissed her lips and to his surprise, she kissed him back. It was just a soft kiss but he would take it. It was an improvement. He picked Christian up and held him in his arms. He touched his tiny little hand and was amazed at how small he was. He didn’t know you could possibly love another person like this. He was going to do all of the things with him that his own father had never done.
“You will always be loved and protected, little man. I’m going to make sure of it,” Jesse whispered to Christian.
“Are you going to breastfeed or bottle-feed?” a nurse asked Renee.
“Breastfeed,” Renee responded.
“It is best to try to breastfeed immediately after the baby is born,” the nurse responded.
“Okay,” Renee said.
The nurse helped Renee sit up. Jesse reluctantly handed Christian back to Renee. The nurse showed Renee how to hold Christian in several different positions to breastfeed. She showed her how to get him to latch on and what to do to get him to break from latching on. Jesse watched as Renee lowered the hospital gown to expose one of her breasts and put Christian up to it.
To his surprise, Christian did latch on and began to suck. He watched as Renee breastfed their baby. It was a truly amazing sight to see a mother not only give life to her baby but to also feed her baby. A woman was a truly amazing creature. His own mother hadn’t been much of a mother. She had never really done anything with them. So, to see Renee do what she was doing, was incredible to Jesse.
It hit Jesse that he liked Renee. He didn’t just want her for sex. He liked her for the spunk, the fire she possessed, but he realized over the past few months that he had actually come to really like her. He actually wanted to be with her, not just keep her because he had kidnapped her. He wanted to build an actual future with her. Jesse had never liked a woman enough to want to have a future with her. Was he falling in love with this woman? That thought terrified him.