Third Degree

chapter twenty-one.

Thalia's POV

I groan as I continue to find a position and try to sleep, but every single position I lay in, is just as uncomfortable as the last one. I try to reposition, but only earn a groan from Nate, who had previously been sound asleep. He turns to face me and his eyes flutter open.

"What's wrong, Lia? Another nightmare?" He mumbles. I sigh and shake my head.

"No... I can't sleep and I'm not comfortable." I mumble as I readjust the pillows. Nate chuckles softly and sits up, crawling over me and laying behind me. I blush as he cuddles up to me and lets me adjust myself and within seconds I find the comfort that I had been looking for. His arm lays over my waist and gently rubs my belly.

"Better? You stopped wiggling around." He softly asks, his voice still lined with sleepiness. My body begins to relax in his hold and the tiny circles he's creating on the bump are hypnotic.

"Yeah..." I yawn. "Good night, Nate." I start to drift asleep and the last thing I hear is his voice.

"Sleep well, love."

He made it so easy for me to fall.

The next morning, I wake up to the smell of pancakes and coffee. I stretch and start the ever so changing morning routine. The only constant is the very first thing I do. I go pee.

Then, I shower, and sometime's I'll find little stains inside my sports bra, meaning I lactated during my sleep.

As I'm getting dressed, Nate knocks on the restroom door. "Yes?"

"Breakfast is ready." He calls out and I smile, quickly slipping on the rest of my clothes and opening the restroom door.

"Thank you so much! I'm starving." I slowly walk towards the kitchen, holding my lower back as I descend the stairs. Nate quickly follows and grabs my hand and replaces it with his other hand, helping me get down the stairs with a little more ease.

"Easy there, I might just start bringing you breakfast in bed." Nate chuckles as we get to the bottom of the stairs. I laugh and nod, breathing a little heavy. I hate this whole shortness of breath thing, it makes me so self conscious... More than when I remember I've got a planet for a stomach.

"That'd be," I pause for a breather, "Wonderful." I smile as I turn towards the kitchen and my eyes widen at the birthday balloons. My face heats up as I look at the table and see a glorious stack of pancakes with a bunch of my recent cravings, in their respective packaging, scattered around the table.

"Happy 18th birthday, Lia." Nate grins and wraps his arms around me. I hug him back and sniffle with happy tears.

"Thank you so so much." I laugh softly and wipe my eyes.

"Happy birthday!" I hear a small chorus of voices and I jolt, turning to look into the living room. I then realize that Jean and our other college friends are here as well as Lisa, Sean and my parents.

"Holy!" I gasp as people walk over and congratulate me. I hug everyone and thank them for coming to see me. Especially Jean, she always comes over as often as she possibly can, bringing me the class work and helping me with it when I don't attend class, due to the baby.

"Thank you all so much!" I grin as they stack the presents near the couch. My heart swells with happiness, but there's still something missing here. Or more like someone.. Grayson. Grayson's missing. And even though I'm happy with everyone being here and being supportive, I still want him. I want him to hold me, and I want him to know about the baby, who's now 34 weeks and 6 days into the 40 week term.

After getting over that.. pathetic moment, I was having everyone else eat cake while I ate the pancakes Nate made me. Then, I began to open presents.

Most of the presents consisted of things to help with the baby, like diapers and baby outfits, then there was the random gifts of money and fuzzy socks. But Nate's gift outdid everyone else's with how unbelievably thoughtful it was. 

I began by pulling a small, silver box out of the gift bag. I glance at him with a small smile before opening it and revealing a beautiful, rose gold necklace. The necklace had a beautiful, heart shaped pendant with the baby's name engraved on the back. 

"this is absolutely beautiful!" I smile as he offers to put it on me. After having it clipped on, I proceed to pull a photo album that doubled as a scrapbook.

The title read 'Watch Me Grow' and had a picture of my son's very first ultrasound on the front. My smile only widened as I opened it up and flipped through a couple pages. Nate made this scrapbook to track my son's growth, and he put descriptions of each picture at the bottom. My heart swells as I notice many blank spaces for future pictures.

After thanking him once more, I pull out the last gift. At first, I just see a box covered in newspaper, but as I unwrap the newspaper, my eyes only grow wider. It's my favorite limited edition perfume that I finished two weeks ago. How he got his hands on it is a mystery, but I'm more than thankful.

How much more 'amazing' does Nate have in store?