I will love again

Valentine 2.2

Édouard sighed deeply:

"I am afraid, you weren't! But luckily nothing bad has happened yet and with a little luck, we can still stop those contractions! They were lucky, that you saw the signs and reacted so fast!"

Nathalie laid an arm around the younger woman and whispered:

"Yeah, thank you for being there for our daughter once again. If it hadn't been for the two of you, neither her nor myself were still alive!"

"Oh Nath! You have thanked me by far enough for that! No need, to start again. You would have done the exact same thing!"

"Well", the gynaecologist began, "if you would be so kind and give me a moment on my own, because at my age, there are always things, I tend to forget, I could write down all the things I need and then have one of my old colleagues bring it here. You can just go and continue with your party. I will come to join you soon, as I am sure, it will be at least two hours, until they will arrive, including the time, it will take, to write down my notes!"

"What about Leni? Should one of us go and tell her? I mean, she is most certainly waiting for you to come back, so, just to not get her worked up for nothing and for you not having to walk upstairs one extra time....", Marinette questioned, when Nathalie didn't even let her finish, as she suggested:

"I think, Gabriel would like to go and tell her, right honey?"

The tall man, who still didn't like to show his tears in front of his children or grandchildren, nodded and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"You're right, my love, as always!"

So the doctor sat down at the assistant's desk, to start with his handwritten notes and Gabriel kissed his wife, before he walked up the stairs, leaving the two females on their own.

Marinette, being able to read Nathalie like nobody else, not even her husband sometimes, pulled her into the kitchen with her. There she took a bottle of whiskey out of the highest cupboard, where none of the younger children could even look into and placed it on the table. Shoving the chair, she as well had needed, to reach the booze, back beside Nathalie's again, she then gathered two glasses and poured each of them a good portion.

"Here! You certainly look, as if you could use some!", the half Chinese woman then said.

"Thank you!", Nathalie sighed and grabbed the drink to empty it in one go. With a grin her daughter in law refilled it, then set the bottle back down and closed it.

While the younger woman took just tiny zips, the older woman gulped this one down just as fast, then leaned back and closed her eyes fora moment.

"Will you tell me, what's bothering you, Nath?", Marinette now interrogated her.

Nathalie nodded and looked at her.

"I have a very bad feeling about the whole situation, Nette. My guts are telling me to just get my child into a hospital, where they can immediately get this baby into the world. I don't know, why, but I can't get rid of the feeling, that she will be born in less than a day. If not today, then certainly tomorrow. Call me crazy, but that's just how I feel right now!"

But her long time friend just took her hand and squeezed it tenderly.

"I would very much like to object you, but I think the very same. Even if it's still stoppable, I don't think, it will work. Don't ask me, why I think that. It's just....the way she looks and the way she....reacts, if...."

"If she's experiencing another contraction? Yeah, I noticed that too. I just wished, she would have said something sooner. When I imagine, that she even went to that examination yesterday totally on her own!", the concerned mother exclaimed. Her eyes wandered to the bottle, then to Marinette's hands.