Aideen

by L. A. Casey

  Alec shook his head. “Why do you three look like you’ve seen a ghost? It’s only piss—ew, why does it smell funny?”

  I looked down to the clear liquid that was puddled around my feet. I gasped when more of the liquid flowed down my legs. It was the oddest sensation of not being able to stop it.

  “Branna!” I called out again.

  I heard the toilet flush from down the hallway. “I’m comin’, just washing me hands, honey.”

  I took a few deep breaths then cried out when a sudden sharp cramping pain filled my mid-section. It was so painful and out of the blue that I slipped on the water that I stood in. I almost fell over, but Damien and Alec shot up from the sofa and each quickly grabbed one of my arms. They steadied me and tried to avoid standing in the water that was still dripping from me.

  I could feel it.

  “Oh, shit,” Alec whispered then turned his head and screamed, “Branna, it’s happening. Get your midwife ass in here!”

  I heard an excited squeal come from the hallway, then quick-paced footsteps. Branna entered my sitting room, looked at the brothers on either side of me then to the water on my legs and at my feet.

  A wide smile spread across her face. “Your water broke before your contractions started? That is brilliant, sweetheart.”

  “I just had a sharp pain right after they broke,” I explained. “It only lasted for a few seconds though, is that bad?”

  Branna shook her head. “Nope, usually contractions happen for a few hours, then your waters break, they intensify and bam, you’re a mammy.”

  I blinked as fear suddenly filled me. “Why didn’t I get the hours of contractions first? Why did my waters go first?”

  Branna chuckled and the brothers moved me out of the puddle I had created to a dry patch of floor. “Every labour is different, babe. You might a have a really quick labour, or you might be in labour until tomorrow or the next day. It all depends on how fast this little one wants to come out.”

  “You swear this is normal?” I asked, suddenly shaking. “I still have two weeks to go. Can I not have a home birth anymore, do I have to go to the hospital?”

  “Calm down, you don’t need to go anywhere unless I say so.” Branna placed her hands on my cheeks and smiled into my face. “Honey, you and the baby are fine. For about three in one hundred women their waters will break before they’re thirty-seven weeks along, and you’re at the thirty-eight week mark. Like I said, every pregnancy is different; there is no by-the-book way to have a baby. All of what I do is simply checkin’ on you and the baby throughout your labour. I follow the guidelines your body sets. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

  I nodded my head, and took a few breaths to try and calm myself.

  “I’m going to switch into midwife mode now, okay?” Branna smiled.

  I nodded and found myself smiling when Nico and Alec kissed my head in unison, followed by Damien who kissed my nose.

  “Let’s do this, Ado,” Alec said excitedly.

  I chuckled. “Can you call Kane and have him come home?”

  Alec kissed me once more. “I’m on it.”

  He moved away from me and jogged out of the room with his phone pressed to his ear. I looked at Branna when she moved over to the large bag she left here a few weeks ago. Since she was my assigned midwife, it made sense for her to leave it here since I rarely left my apartment.

  “Your liquid has a slight yellow tinge to it which is completely normal,” Branna informed me. “I can see you’re still leakin’, but not by much. That puddle over there was an obvious gush so there won’t be much left to leak out of you, but just to be safe I’ll bring you inside to change. I want to put a pad on you to keep track of the colour of the water, okay? I’m going to be jottin’ down notes on your form as I go along.”

  I nodded. “Okay, then what?”

  “Then I’ll check the baby’s heartbeat and we can have a chat.”

  Check the baby’s heartbeat and have a chat.

  “Got it.”

  Branna and Nico both held onto me as I left the sitting room and entered my bedroom. Nico and Damien left and shut the door so I could undress and change.

  “Can I shower?” I asked Branna.

  She shook her head. “Wait another hour. I just want to watch your water to make sure there is no colour change.”

  I nodded my head. “Can you go wet a cloth then so I can wash down my legs, please?”

  Branna bobbed her head up and down and then headed out of my room and into the bathroom. She returned with a warm, wet washcloth. She helped me strip naked and took the cloth and washed the lower half of my body.

  I flushed. “I’m sorry you have to do this, I’m so embarrassed.”

  Branna snorted as she washed my thighs. “Babe, I help strangers do this on a daily basis at work. I’m happy to help you, you’re one of me best friends.”

  I got emotional. “I’m so happy you’re going to be deliverin’ her.”

  Branna stood up when she was finished and leaned in, wrapping her arms around me. “Me too, sweetie. It is an honour.”

  When she separated, she got me a knee-length baby-blue nightie. She got a pair of granny knickers from one of the many new packets I bought for after the baby was born. She also grabbed one of my large pads and placed it onto the knickers then helped me slip them on.

  I sighed. “I feel better knowing it will catch the water. It felt so weird when it just came out with no warnin’.”

  Branna smiled as we sat down on my bed. She asked me a few questions about my water breaking then she laid me back on my bed and went to get the little portable Doppler she had so she could check the baby’s heartbeat.

  When she returned to my room, Nico, Alec and Damien were hovering by the bedroom door looking in. I smiled at them and waved them in.

  “Come in. I’m decent.”

  They entered the room but quickly made a show of looking up at the ceiling when Branna lifted my nightie upwards until it sat under my breasts. I chuckled at them and said, “I have big knickers on, lads. All you will see is belly and leg if you look.”

  They hesitantly peeked at me then fully looked when they saw I had nothing private on show. Alec climbed onto the bed and sat next to me while the twins stood a metre or two away from the bed, watching me warily.

  “Where is Kane?” I asked Damien. “Is he on his way home?”

  He licked his lips and said, “He didn’t answer his phone, but we left text messages and voicemails. We’ll keep on trying until he picks up.”

  I frowned. “He is with Ryder, why don’t you try—”

  “Already did.” Nico cut me off. “He isn’t answering either. They’re both probably doing sets and their phones are on silent.”

  I blinked. “What if he misses the birth?”

  Branna chuckled. “Darlin’, this takes a while. Trust me, he will be here.”

  I nodded my head to Nico and said, “Did he take his injection this mornin’? I can’t remember if he did or not.”

  “He took it,” Alec confirmed. “He binned the needle in that yellow bucket on the kitchen counter when I came over.”

  I nodded my head and relaxed a little.

  I glanced at Nico. “Did you ring Bronagh?”

  “She and Keela are in town searching for a new bed since our base... broke.”

  I snorted. “You broke the base of your bed?”

  He shrugged, smirking. “It was bound to happen at some point. I’m actually surprised it lasted so many years of us having sex on it without caving in.”

  I laughed.

  My attention was brought to Branna when she squeezed some gel on my stomach. She turned on the little machine that found the baby’s heartbeat, then placed the Doppler onto the gel on my stomach and swirled it around.

  There was some static, then almost straight away there was a beautiful thudding sound.

  I smiled, and so did Branna.

  “The heartbeat is as
strong as ever.”

  “Is it just me,” Alec murmured, “or does the heartbeat sound scary similar to the beat of the song Jingle Bells?”

  We laughed and listened for a minute more before she put the machine to the side and wiped my belly free of gel. We chatted then for a few more minutes, until everything stopped when a pain struck.

  “Oh, shit,” I winced and hunched forward, gripping onto my stomach as if it would somehow help ease the pain.

  “Breathe,” Branna’s voice soothed. “Remember your breathing.”

  Right, my breathing.

  Big inhale, long exhale, big inhale, long exhale.

  I dropped my head back to my pillow when the pain eased. “Shit, that really hurts.”

  “That’s labour, darlin’.” Branna chuckled as she busied herself and grabbed different items from her bag, humming as she did so. There was a spring to her usual dragged step, and she looked happier than I’d seen her in a long time.

  I hoped it was because of the baby coming and not because I was in pain because that’s what the next four hours consisted of. Pain, pain, some laughter, and more fucking pain.

  It was excruciating.

  I had never felt anything like it before in my life, and there was no let-up to it either. I had some gas and sucked in air for pain relief, but even that only minimised it slightly by making me lightheaded.

  Through my pain I noticed Kane still wasn’t with me, and the more pain I felt, the more irritable I became about it. I needed him here, and he was nowhere to be found.

  Damien even left at one point to go looking for him at the gym, but he came back alone and told me the manager said they left a few hours ago.

  We had no clue where they were and all sorts of horrible things ran through my mind. Things like what if Big Phil somehow had him?

  I tried not to think about it as the contractions came faster, and lasted longer. The entire time Branna was monitoring the baby’s heartbeat, which always remained strong and steady like it was supposed to. She checked to see how far along I was dilated every thirty minutes to an hour, and during the last hour I went from five centimetres to ten. The brothers had set up the birthing pool Kane and I purchased weeks ago, in our bedroom, and Branna lit some candles and played soft, instrumental music.

  It really helped me relax, or relax as much as could.

  I was in the middle of pulling my nightie off my body and fanning myself as heat attacked every inch of my body. I was naked from the waist down, but I didn’t care. I had a comfortable sports bra on, but nothing else.

  I was too far gone with pain to even consider the brothers being uncomfortable. I didn’t care about them or anyone else; I just cared about myself and my own comfort.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuucccckkkk,” I all but snarled as I bent forward and placed my hands on my bed. I swayed from side to side and tried to focus on the music instead of the pain that stabbed me.

  “Branna,” I said in a very calm voice when the urge to get this baby out of my body occurred. “I need to push. I need to push right now.”

  Branna and the lads lead me to the birthing pool.

  “This is very different than what I imagined seeing Aideen’s private parts would be like,” Alec murmured from behind me as I eased myself down into the birthing pool.

  Nico choked on air. “You imagined that? Bro, she is our brother’s girl. The mother to our niece or nephew.”

  I looked up at them when I was settled on my knees and leaning on the pool’s side.

  Alec blinked. “I’ve imagined it since I first met her... should I be sorry about that? Because I’m not.”

  Nico shook his head. “I’m telling Kane you said that.”

  “You’ve always been a little snitch bitch!” Alec hissed.

  “Time and place, bro,” Damien grumbled. “Time and place.”

  I wanted to laugh at them; they sounded like arguing little boys, but I couldn’t because all I could focus on was the pain that consumed me.

  “Kane!” I cried as a mighty contraction tore through me. “Oh, please. I need him.”

  “Death!” Alec hissed. “That is what he has asked for by not answering his fucking phone!”

  Nico nodded in agreement then reached for my hand and grabbed ahold of it.

  “He will be here, Ado.”

  “When?” I screamed and squeezed Nico’s hand when the pain I felt intensified. “I’m goin’ to fuckin’ kill him if he isn’t already dead or worse.”

  Nico’s face turned red and his eyes almost bugged out of their sockets.

  “Ow,” he whimpered. “Ow. Ow. That hurts.”

  I let go of his hands and focused on Alec laughing at Nico as he shook out his hand and cradled it against his chest.

  “I can’t do this,” I panted.

  Branna looked up and locked her eyes on mine. “Babe, a few more minutes and you’ll be a mammy. You got this.”

  I didn’t have anything.

  I couldn’t fucking do it.

  “Make it stop,” I screamed as burning filled my vagina. “Help it stop. Damien!”

  “Oh Christ,” he whispered and scrambled closer to me, but full blown panic came over him and he could do nothing but move to the side and rub my hand.

  Alec took his place in front of me.

  “Take her mind off of it,” Nico whispered to him, but had his eyes locked between my legs.

  The way I was positioned was not ladylike at all.

  “Sons of Anarchy!” Alec suddenly shouted. “I’ll put on the show and you can-”

  “Shut. Up,” I growled as I stared at him. “And don’t move a bloody muscle. You’re me focus point.”

  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.