Chapter 36

Over a week later…


Niko rushed past the hospital’s automatic sliding doors and belted out his destination to the front desk workers. He was still dressed in his work attire; a dark blue suit and a clean white button-up shirt and was breathing heavily from his fast pace. He steered straight into panic mode when Clarissa phoned and notified him it was time.

He enters the elevator and gets to the maternity floor. Room 303 was all the way on the other end of the hall to where he was and it seemed like a journey. He felt like he couldn’t get there fast enough but when he finally did, he found Baylee sitting up looking at her phone with Clarissa and Sabrina sitting beside doing the same. The room was quiet and unlike what he expected. He thought Baylee would be screaming in pain and doctors would be surrounding her, but it was the opposite. It was like normal. She didn’t seem to be in any discomfort.

“How is everything?” He moves to her side and rests his hand on her head.

“Fine…” She glances at him and then back on her phone screen which had an article for first-time-moms on it.

“Now that you’re here, I’m going to get some coffee…” Clarissa excuses herself.

“I’ll come with.” Sabrina follows her out of the room.

Niko took a seat on the sofa across the bed and leaned forward with his fingers laced together. He looks around at the all white room and clears his throat. “What…” he scratches his head. “What’s happening? Is the baby coming today?”

She glances up seemingly a bit annoyed. “Didn’t my sister tell you?”

“Yeah… I mean she told me it was time… is it?”

“Well yeah…they said she’s healthy enough and took me off the medication. We’re just waiting now.”

He nods.

“I’m sorry,” she tilts her head to the side and squints. “did you want to leave?”

His brows connect. “What? No…”

“You just seem…”

He stands and approaches her side. “Look.” He takes her hand and covers his pounding heart. “I’m anxious, and I’m excited, and worried and everything all in one. I’ve been waiting by the phone…”

She pulls her hand away and clears her throat. They haven’t been in much contact. He had been getting all his updates from her sister and understood that it was best for him to just keep away.
Meanwhile, she thought her heart was getting stronger, able to shield any feelings she had for him, but the hurt was just as strong as it always was. She focuses back on her phone and does a great job of not giving him eye contact.

“Can I get you anything?” He asks.

She shakes her head.

“Are you in any pain?”

She shakes her head again.

Clarissa and Sabrina come back and the four wait around for over an hour before a doctor comes in and checks on her. No progress, but twenty minutes later and the pain was back.

She crumpled her bed sheet in her hands as the pain in her back came and went. Her sisters did their best to comfort her; rubbing her back and letting her squeeze the crap out of their hands. They gave her ice chips and talked her through the anguish.

Niko inserted his hands into his pocket and watched helplessly. He could hardly bear the sight of her like this. He wanted to do something. He wanted to comfort her but he knew that's not what she wanted at this time.

Another hour passed, and everything seemed to be going smoothly, that was until the baby’s heart rate monitor went off. Doctors and nurses rush in and announce that the baby’s heartbeat was dropping. They declare that an emergency C-section was necessary. Preparations began immediately. They wheeled Baylee out of there in no time. Niko followed but Sabrina and Clarissa had to stay behind.

They updated their husbands as they waited for eighteen long exhausting minutes. Then, Niko walks back into the room looking devastated.

“What happened?” Sabrina asks urgently.

Slowly, he narrows his eyes to her. He thought back about Baylee squeezing his hand as she was sliced open by doctors. She gazed at him with so much fear in her eyes. He tightens his fist around her hand and smiles warmly to reassure her. Then he looked beyond the curtain and watched as his daughter's limp body was pulled out of her stomach. She was detrimentally quiet. He didn’t know torture until that moment. His heart stopped.

Quickly they took his little girl and worked on her at the side trying to get her to breathe. He looks into Baylee’s petrified eyes “My baby…” Her lips tremble.

“Shhh…” He bends down and hugs her.

“No…” she tries to push him off with all her strength. “No... no no no…”

“Shhh…” He refuses to let her go. “It’s okay...it’s okay.”

“No Niko….” Her voice cracks and tears gush out of her eyes.

It was then that the squeaky cries of their baby girl penetrated their ears.

Baylee’s cries immediately stop. Relief washes over them like a title-wave.

Niko turns to look over the nurse’s shoulder, but only for a second did he get to see her tiny toes before she was taken away.

“Niko?” Clarissa calls and brings him back to the present.

He blinks and clears his throat. “The baby was taken to the NICU….”

“And Baylee…”

“She’s okay….”

“Thank god.” Sabrina and Clarissa hugged each other in relief.

“We didn’t get to hold her yet.” He admits. “I barely got a good look at her face before they took her.” He takes a seat and bows his head. He was scared. He has never been so scared.

It’s going to be okay.” Sabrina places her hand on his shoulder.

Before long, Baylee was brought back into the room. She was sore, laying flat on her back, in obvious discomfort and she was quiet. She turned her head to gaze at the window and didn’t want to be spoken to.

Minutes upon minutes drag on until a nurse enters and gives them the good news that their baby is stable and she would lead the way to where they can finally meet her.

They were all ecstatic.

Baylee was then assisted into a wheelchair and pushed to the NICU. Only the two were allowed to see the baby at a time so Niko and Baylee entered on their own. When they finally got sight of her, an immense concoction of feelings hit them.

Their fragile little girl lay with tubes coming out of her. Her tiny chest moved a mile a minute struggling to keep up with the oxygen necessary. She was so small her diaper seemed to swallow her, and she was so frail her heart pumping looked as if it would rip open her chest. She has a dark head of hair, and a cute button nose, her eyes were closed so they didn’t know the color, but you can tell they were big, and her lashes thick.

Tears well up in Baylee’s eyes and fall out. Her baby looked so helpless and she did it to her.

“She looks like Lola…” Niko comments.

Baylee sniffles.

“She is beautiful…” he was in awe watching his daughter, examining every inch. His heart was breaking but he had faith. “We did this… I mean you did this, you brought this life into the world, and look how beautiful she is…”

“Look at her…” more tears build in her eyes. “She is helpless.”

“I see strength. I see your strength… she’s a fighter Baylee, just like her mom.”

She glances up at him in surprise.

He nods in confirmation. “What are we going to name her?”

“Anola.” She states with no hesitation. “I picked it out when I first found out she was a girl.”

“I like it.” He agrees.

~~~~~

Clarissa went home that night exhausted. She hadn’t been there much since Baylee went to the hospital and she really missed her kids, but they were sound asleep. It was after midnight already and as usual, Jacob had warm food waiting for her, but she was too drained to eat, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

She makes her way upstairs and instead of going to her room, she turns in the other direction and goes to Jacob’s. They were still sleeping separately on her insistence. She didn’t want the kids to catch them, but tonight she didn’t care.

When she opened his room door, he was sleeping peacefully on his back with an arm behind his head. It was a sight for sore eyes. She couldn’t wait to get under the blanket with him.
She takes off her clothes, tosses them, and puts on one of his shirts. She lets down her hair which has been in a messy bun all day and grazes her fingers through her sore scalp.

It was a relief that both her sister and Anola were doing well. She might finally get some rest.
She lifts the covers and enters the warmth near her gorgeous husband. “Hmm…” she moans as she stretches a hand on his chest. She slides her palms along the ridges of his abdomen and inches closer.

He wakes. “Clair…” He mumbles and hauls her onto his chest. He snaked his arm under her neck and around her back, squeezing her into a tight embrace. He kisses the top of her head and inhales deeply. “You okay?”

“Yeah...” She snuggles in closer.

“I thought you weren't coming home tonight.”

She kisses his shoulder gently. “Niko stayed with her.”

It was abnormal that she would come to him. He wanted to be happy about it and enjoy her presence but it worried him. Something must be bothering her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Mmm-hmm...it’s just been a long day…” She closes her eyes.

“I miss you…” he mumbles as his palms begin to slide up and down on her arm lovingly.

“Hmm…” She responds. His large firm hands felt so good. She bends her head back and kisses under his jaw causing his fingers to tighten around her.
His hooded eyes became trans like. He lowers his chin and plants his desperate mouth onto hers, coaxing her into a deep kiss. The mood quickly shifted from tired to intense. Fireworks were going off in them.

“Your lips are so sweet.” He mumbles as he takes a breath and maneuvers himself on top of her.
He pressed on her with harshness from the overwhelming urgency of his desire.
It turns into a steamy heavy-breaths session.
They pant and moan as their lips lock and intertwine. Their need for each other put them both in trance, completely focused on one another. Passion radiated from them like heat blazing from a forest fire.

Clarissa glides her palm along his back and grasps around his biceps. She remembered those strong arms and how she loved them around her. “Make love to me.” She pleads and slips her tongue in his mouth.

He growls and takes her lips even more harshly.
He starts roaming beneath her borrowed shirt, grasping onto her breast and teasing her nipple.

Her body jerks with desire. “Please…” she pants.

With his mouth still pinned to hers; almost giving her no breaths, he lowers his hand to her center. He slides his finger in her panty and pleasures her senseless. She moans and squirms uncontrollably and he was loving it. Then her back arched, and her head bent back as she orgasmed and he watched with low lustful eyes. He was so turned on he could explode. “That’s my girl.” He whispers and his hot gaze shifts. He pulls off her shirt and he begins kissing her neck, traveling down to her shoulders, her arms, her breast.

“Jacob…” she pants.

“Did you enjoy that, Baby?”

In her haze of his passion, her heavy breaths were the only response.

He smiles seeing her dazed eyes and lowers his attention. He gives the utmost importance and attention to her every curve, kissing her waist, hips, and gliding his tongue on her thighs. Then he sheds her panty and there it was, her tattoo, printed in her body and for his eyes only. He zones in on it and rubs his thumb before slowly, he lowers himself, and grazes his teeth on his name.

She inhales sharply.

He then turns his head and kisses her between her legs.

She squeals and reaches for his head... “Wait.” She protests

He knew her, many times he tried to please her this way, and she would stop him. She couldn’t handle it. It made her lose control, something she seldom let happen. He refused to be stopped this time though. He grabs her forearms and holds them down, holding her still and in place. Meanwhile, he uses his tongue expertly on her inner lips. She screams and pants his name until he makes her climax for the second time.

Instantly he rises, wipes his mouth, lowers his pants, and penetrates her core. He latched onto her mouth and thrust into her repeatedly. Before she could even come down from the first high, he delivered her to another. I love you.” He chants.

“I love you…”’ She recites.

He ravished her. He wanted to feel her, touch her, breathe her in.


~~~~