Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  "Oh? And what's the right answer?"

  "That you'll marry me and make me whole, Joe," he said on a reverent whisper.

  "And if I don't?" she asked, her voice breaking as joy like nothing she'd ever known before surged through her body.

  He shrugged even as he brushed his lips against hers. "Then I'll just have to stuff worms down your shirt until you say yes."

  "I'll just make you eat them," she pointed out, smiling even as more embarrassing tears streamed down her face.

  He chuckled softly against her mouth. "Marry me or I'll have my big brother beat you up."

  "He's a pushover," she felt obligated to point out.

  "Fine," he said, smiling. "Marry me and I'll finally get you that steak dinner I promised you."

  She pretended to think it over for a minute before asking, "Can I have an appetizer with it?"

  "Will you give me children?"

  "Maybe," she said coyly, trying not to grin hugely at the thought of having his babies.

  "Then mabye," he conceded slowly.

  "And dessert?"

  He sighed heavily as he pulled back to look in her eyes. "Will you put out at least five times a week if I do?"

  She nodded. "I'll put out twenty times a week if I can have ice cream with it."

  "Then you can have ice cream, you little gold digger," he said with a putout sigh.

  "Then my answer is yes," she said, not even caring that she was crying anymore as he leaned in and kissed her. She was happy, but more importantly she was his.

  Epilogue

  Four years later.......

  "He's going to kill her," Joe felt obligated to point out as they watched in fascination as Nathan's eyes darted from his butter knife to the latest harpy Alice tried to set him up with.

  "But it will entertain us and really that's all that matters," he said as Emily, their two year old rambunctious daughter, climbed onto his lap.

  Eric adjusted her on his lap so that she was sitting on his knee and close enough to steal his dessert without falling. He kept one hand pressed against his little girl's tummy as he returned his arm to lie across the back of Joe's chair. She shifted uncomfortably on the chair as she rubbed her large stomach.

  "Are you okay?" he asked for probably the hundredth time since he got off work and picked her and Emily up.

  "I'm fine," she said, giving him a tight smile.

  He moved his arm from the back of her chair to place his hand on her stomach. "Is he giving you problems?" he asked, rubbing his hand soothingly over her stomach, chuckling when his little boy decided to follow the moves with little kicks that his mother probably didn't appreciate.

  "He's just really active today," she said, pushing her plate of triple fudge cake towards Emily only to have it snatched up.

  Eric watched in amusement as his brother dug into the cake. "I need it more than she does," Nathan grumbled and Eric couldn't agree more. The woman was an annoying pain in the ass and Eric had to wonder where the hell his mother kept finding these women. Seriously, after all these years she should have run out of available annoying woman, but not yet.

  Of course he also knew that if their mother didn't have a strict no drinking policy when Emily was in the house that Nathan would probably be drunk off his ass by now.

  "What is it that you said you did again?" the woman, whom he didn't even bother learning her name, demanded suddenly.

  It wasn't until he looked away from his brother pouting that he realized that she was speaking to him. She was a beautiful woman, of course she had nothing on his Joe, but she was stuck up and rude in his opinion at least. She hadn't felt the need to acknowledge him or Joe with more than a murmured hello two hours ago. Instead she spent the entire time giving Nathan as much attitude as she could muster while their mother fretted around the kitchen nervously.

  "Drug lord," Eric answered, chuckling when Joe poked him in the ribs. Nathan smiled for the first time since this dinner from hell started and their mother even cracked a smile, but not the ice princess. She simply glared at him.

  "He's a paramedic for the city," his mother felt obligated to explain. "He's also a field supervisor," she said proudly, making him roll his eyes. The woman did love to brag.

  "But I'm still his boss," his beautiful wife pointed out teasingly.

  The woman shifted her eyes over to Joe and blinked as if she'd just realized his wife was there. How she could have missed Joe with that huge stomach he'd never know, but she looked genuinely surprised to see her. Then again most women took one look at his wife and easily dismissed her. They were all idiots. His wife was fucking hot and he knew it and so did most of the guys much to his horror.

  It was one thing being married to the hottest woman on earth, but it was quite another for other guys to notice as well. Even after four years of marriage it still pissed him off when he caught some asshole checking her out, not that he could blame them, but still......

  "She's a supervising dispatcher for the city," his mother said proudly as she sent Joe a fond smile.

  "Oh," the woman said, not sounding too impressed. Not that he was a snob or anything, but he really didn't think a woman who worked at the mall customer service counter had any business looking down her nose at anyone.

  "Grandma?" Emily said, drawing his mother's attention.

  "Yes, pumpkin?" she asked, giving Emily the smile reserved solely for her.

  Emily pointed accusingly at Nathan. "He took my cake," she said, pouting.

  "Nathan Parish!" their mother said in shocked outrage as she reached over and took back the half eaten slice of cake and placed it in front of Emily, who happily attacked the frosting.

  "Tattletale," Nathan grumbled even as he sent his niece a wink that made her giggle.

  "Alice? I'm not trying to be rude or anything," the woman started and he seriously doubted that. She'd been incredibly rude throughout the entire meal. "But, I think you have a leak or something," the woman said, gesturing to the floor as she stood up and walked away from the table.

  "What?" Alice asked, looking confused as she peered down at the floor.

  "Not a leak," Joe said, gasping. "My water just broke."

  "Shit," Nathan gasped as Eric stood up and passed his daughter over to him.

  "Let's get you to the couch, Joe," Eric said calmly as he reached down and scooped her up into his arms.

  "I don't think you should be doing that," the woman pointed out. "You could hurt the baby!"

  He sent his mother a glare for inviting the woman as he walked towards the living room. A talk was long overdue about the woman's unwanted dating services. Judging by her reluctant nod she knew what was coming.

  "More cake?" Emily asked sweetly.

  "You sure can," he heard Nathan say as he walked into the living room.

  He wasn't too surprised when his brother walked in a minute later, talking on the phone while he handed Eric a pile of white towels and blankets.

  "Is that 911?" Eric asked.

  When Nathan nodded Eric held out his hand and took the phone. Nathan quickly sat down by Joe's side and put his arm around her as he offered her his hand to squeeze. That actually surprised Eric since the last time the man did that Joe ended up breaking three of his fingers during a rather nasty contraction.

  "What's the address?" he heard Roger, a dispatcher of two years ask.

  "Hey, Roger, it's Eric."

  Roger chuckled. "Let me guess, Joe's the one ready to burst?"

  "Oh yeah," he said, watching as his wife squeezed Nathan's hand as she bit back a scream. Nathan didn't fare so well. He dropped to his knees on the floor, whimpering but he never pulled his hand away.

  "Only give her two fingers so she doesn't break your damn hand," he said in exasperation as his brother struggled through another contraction.

  With a sigh of relief his brother pulled his hand away and offered only two fingers. Joe grabbed onto his hand as she bit back another scream. He didn't need to look to know that his little boy w
as going to be making his appearance soon. This was her second child and that usually meant a quicker delivery and judging by the space between her screams it was going to be real soon.

  "What's the address?" Roger asked.

  "458 Cranberry Road," he answered.

  "Okay, I'm sending them now. Good luck, Eric."

  "Thanks," he said before hanging up.

  He placed the phone on the coffee table and knelt in front of Joe. "Baby, I think we should get you set up on the floor. What do you think?" he suggested, brushing her beautiful long hair out of her face.

  "I think," she said, glaring at him with murderous intent, "that if you or that damn battering ram you have the nerve to call a dick ever comes near me again so help me I will-Aaaaaaggggghhhhh!" she broke off her beautiful words of love to scream.

  "Time to get you on the floor," he said, ignoring Nathan's amused chuckles as he gently helped Joe lie on the freshly polished floor.

  "Get behind her and let her sit back against you," he said, thankful that Nathan did what he asked without complaint.

  "Um, what are you doing?" the woman he'd forgotten about suddenly demanded.

  "Dinner appears to be over. You might want to leave before this gets messy," he said, not bothering to take his eyes off his wife as he carefully pushed up the soft flowery cotton maternity dress that she hated so much.

  "I don't think you should be doing that," the woman said, ignoring his polite way of telling her to get the fuck out.

  "It's fine. I really need you to go now," he said as he gently gripped Joe's wet pink panties and pulled them off. When he saw what was waiting for him he nearly groaned.

  "Look, you shouldn't be doing that. I'm going to call an ambulance for her," the stubborn woman said, obviously refusing to leave.

  Eric liked to think he was a patient man, but his wife was in pain and from the looks of it his son was crowing and ready to make his appearance. "Look, sweetheart, this is a family moment and you're not family so you can either haul your ass out of here or I can throw you out. It's your choice," he snapped, moving to do just that.

  "Fine, you didn't have to be so rude about it," she snapped, placing her phone in her purse and she practically stormed out of the house. "Don't bother calling me," she bit out, probably to Nathan, he decided as he placed a towel on the floor between Joe's legs.

  "Where the hell does she keep finding women like that?" Joe bit out tightly between panting.

  "I don't know, but I really wish she'd stop looking," Nathan grumbled.

  "You know what you have to do if you want that to happen," Eric said conversationally as he placed his hands between his wife's legs.

  "Not until I find the one," Nathan grumbled and Eric just barely stopped himself from bitch slapping his brother upside the head.

  The man wanted the perfect woman and he didn't realize that Eric already had her. He was too damn picky and stubborn to realize that any of the dozen or so women he'd dated in the last five years would have made him a very happy man. It was a mistake that he was afraid was going to cost him.

  "Anyone home?" a familiar voice called from the front door.

  "Come on in!" he yelled.

  "Oh god," Joe muttered and he knew she was going to be embarrassed to have the guys from work witness this, but there really was no choice in the matter. Their little guy was coming whether she was ready or not.

  He heard people piling into the living room, more than he should have and risked a glance back and had to laugh. It seemed all the guys on duty decided to come help, even Teddy. That didn't surprise him as much as it would have a few years ago.

  After the accident Teddy become more somber and serious at work. For a while people were placing bets on how long it would take the old Teddy to come back. So far no one had won that bet.

  It was one of the good things that had come as a result of the senseless tragedy. Almost overnight every ambulance service in the county changed their ride along time. The company that Greg had worked for changed the time from two days to a week. Not that it mattered since the company went out of business. It probably didn't help that the third rider in that accident had sued and won, pushing the company into bankruptcy.

  "Hey, Joe," Teddy said as he knelt beside Eric.

  "Hey, Teddy," Joe nearly cried.

  "Getting ready to have another beautiful baby I see," Teddy said as he pulled open an OB kit, a birthing kit every ambulance carried for such an occasion.

  Joe nodded weakly as Nathan used a towel to wipe sweat off her face. She looked so damn beautiful. All he wanted to do was take her into his arms and tell her how much he loved her, but he knew she'd kick his ass if he let anyone else do this.

  "I need you to push now, Joe," he said, accepting the sanitized towel Teddy handed him.

  "And I need to kick your ass for doing this to me!" she snapped even as she pushed.

  Nathan grunted in pain as she squeezed his hand. Teddy reached over and took Joe's free hand into his, manfully taking the abuse that she dished out as she began push.

  "Suction," Eric said when the head popped out. Teddy thankfully was ready and handed him the rubber bulb. He quickly cleared out his son's airway before handing the bulb back.

  "Push," he said, gently holding his son's head as he slowly came out.

  "You push, you bastard!" she yelled, earning several nervous chuckles from the guys.

  "Oh, you're all here!" he heard his mother say. "Why don't some of you boys come help me make coffee and cut some cake," his mother thankfully suggested. He knew the guys were anxious for Joe, but he really didn't need witnesses when she went for his balls.

  "Yes, ma'am," he heard Jeff say.

  "Here we go," Eric said as the baby's shoulders cleared. He caught hold of his wiggling son as Teddy swooped in and wrapped the screaming infant up in a swaddle.

  He smiled down at his son as Teddy quickly moved to tie off the cord and cut it. Jonathan, a fire fighter and part time EMT moved in to help wipe the baby down. Not once did his baby stop screaming and Eric couldn't have been prouder. He didn't think it was possible to be happier than he was at that moment. Of course Joe just had to go and wreck his moment of bliss.

  "You are so buying me a steak dinner for this," she bit out.

  His eyes shot to his brother who simply shook his head with pity. "Little gold digger," they both grumbled, earning a killing glare from the woman he absolutely adored.

  Life really couldn't get any better, he decided as he placed his screaming child in Joe's arms and leaned over to kiss her, narrowly missing her shot to his balls.

  "I love you, you little gold digger," he whispered against her lips.

  The End.......