Southern Belle

Special Chapter

 As a reward for helping me in the Watty Awards, here is the special chapter! Thank you so much for your votes and constant support. I did not win, but that's okay! I had fun writing this story. :) Sorry if it's badly written. I just wanted to get the special chapter out since I promised this to you months ago!

Special Chapter

“I need a room, STAT.”

 The receptionist nodded, placing a blue folder in front of my husband.“Before we can admit her, we have to obtain some information from you. Please find a seat and fill out this paper work.”

Nick opened the folder and skimmed through the pages. With each turn of a page, his eyebrows furrowed even more. “There’s about twenty pages in here! She’s going to pop the sucker out by the time I finish these.” 

I groaned. “Hon, there’s only five pages.”

 He huffed back at me. “Five pages too many. Besides, I have guys hired to do these types of things. The Monroes don’t fill out their own paperwork.”

I pushed the folder towards his chest. “Just fill them out. It feels like a watermelon is trying to find its way out of a hole the size of a pea.”

My husband interlocked our hands and helped me waddle through the hallways of the crowded maternity ward. The walls were covered in a pale, somewhat sickly yellow. Women, who had bigger bumps located in between their hips, were dressed in pale white gowns and were slowly inching their way through the hallway. Within every minute, I noted that a new wailing sound echoed throughout the area. Every time that occurred, Nick would send me a sheepish smile and would grasp my hand tighter.

“Do you see an empty seat?” My voice cracked at the end of the sentence. Nick’s eyes trailed from my hunched shoulders to my puffed feet in the Ked sneakers. 

“Here,” he maneuvered me towards a random seat in front of a hospital room. We could hear the crying of an infant in the room. “Uhh,” he continued, scratching the back of his neck, “I’m not sure what to do now.”

I touched the folder. “Nick, the paper work. Do the paperwork.”

“Right,” he trailed off, “I forgot.” He paused, his eyes scanning the hallway for any other chairs. As he realized that I was sitting in the sole chair, he plopped down on the floor and immediately started scribbling away at the paper.

I sighed. I realized that this whole ‘father’ role was new to Nick, even though he had approximately nine months to prepare. When found out that we were expecting, approximately nine months after our marriage, I immediately became protective over the little nugget in me. Nick, on the other hand, wasn’t too keen on the idea at first. We were newly married, and he had told me (actually, he had yelled at me, first asking how we could have a child. I almost had to explain the whole scientific process) that he wanted to focus more time on his company and our marriage.

But, I knew the real reason. Nick’s father had died when he was younger, and the absence of a great father figure in his life had caused him to be concerned over whether his own parenting skills would be up to par.

“Belle,” he inquired, biting the top of the pen with his teeth, “who is our insurance carrier?”

“Parker’s Insurance.”

“And who’s our doctor?”

I glared at him, clutching my stomach as another contraction rolled through. “Do you honestly have no clue how to do this stuff? You run a multi-million dollar company, yet you are incapable of filling out some forms?”