BRADLEY'S POV
"I'm gonna flip any second." I said as I took a sip of my beer. I watched Sienna run around in the bar with her big bump, serving people, making drinks, carrying heavy trays with drinks or dishes.
"She is definitely overdoing it." Payback said and I let out a scoff.
"To say the least." I said.
"The doctor told her to take it easy, and what does she do? She runs around like a teenager on a football field." I said and Hangman let out a chuckle. I looked over at Maddie who looked at her best friend with a concerned look. She looked over at me with the facial expression "what do we do?". I shrugged my shoulders, Sienna Mitchell weren't really known for taking orders. I watched her put down a tray with dishes and put a hand on her back.
"That's it." I said and put down the beer.
"Daddy Bradshaw to the rescue." Hangman joked and I sent him a glare. I walked over to Sienna who picked up the tray again.
"You want to go into preterm labour?" I asked and she looked up at me.
"What? I'm just carrying a tray with dishes." She said.
"No you are not, you are running around in here doing everything you shouldn't do. You know what the doctor said, if you don't take it easy you will either be put in bed rest or you will go into preterm labour." I said.
"I know you like to do things your way but that is my kid too." I said firmly.
"That I'm carrying, I know what I can handle." She said with an emotionless facial expression.
"No you don't. Not this time." I said and she rolled her eyes.
"Come and whine when you have a baby growing in your uterus." She said and walked away to the kitchen. I looked back at my friends with wide eyes and sighed.
"She is gonna get herself into preterm labour if she doesn't slow down." Maddie said and I leaned onto the bar counter.
"Tell me bout it." I sighed. Suddenly we heard a big shatter from the kitchen, it sounded like a thousand glasses had crashed. We both rushed into the kitchen to see Sienna bending down to clean up the shattered glasses that was everywhere.
"Get up." I said and grabbed her arm and gently helped her up
"I can do it myself." She said and I groaned
"Can you just shut up for a minute!?" I shouted and she looked quite shocked.
"You can't keep up with this anymore. You just can't." I said.
"I have to agree with Bradley, you are overdoing it, Sienna." Maddie said backing me up.
"We are going home." I said and she scoffed.
"I have a bar to run." She said.
"You have a bar that Maddie can run perfectly fine." I said firmly.
"Go home, Sienna. You need to start taking care of yourself." Maddie said and she just gave us both a disappointing glare.
"Let's go." I said and she shook her head but followed me back out. I went behind the bar and grabbed her bag and we walked out to the car. I helped her into the passenger seat before I sat down in the driver's seat and we took off.
We got home and she immediately walked into our bedroom and slammed the door. I honestly didn't care that she was mad at me, she would thank me when she had carried our baby to full term.
I put on a kettle of tea, chai, which was her favourite. I took out a piece of her favourite chocolate and put it all on a tray. I walked out to our patio and placed the tray on the table. I lit some candles and took out a blanket for her. I walked inside and knocked gently on our bedroom door before opening it.
"Babe?" I said as I walked in and I saw her laying on our bed with her back towards me.
"I know you are mad but I made us some tea out on the patio, can we please just talk?" I asked and she scoffed.
"Talk? Like we did at the bar? When you humiliated me in front of my best friend." She said and I sighed.
"I'm so sorry that I raised my voice at you in front of Maddie, I am. Can we please just have some tea?" I asked.
"I'm good, thanks." She said and I sighed.
"Alright, well, I guess I sleep on the couch tonight." I said.
"Goodnight, I love you." I said and closed the door. I walked out on the patio and sat down on the lounge chair. I poured myself a cup of tea and sighed. This pregnancy was nothing but straining. On both of us. And if I was feeling it, I couldn't even imagine what Sienna was feeling. I sighed loudly as I felt so guilty for yelling at her. She must be feeling everything I feel but a hundred times more and beyond.
"Such a dick." I mumbled.
"BRADLEY!" I heard Sienna scream from our bedroom and I hadn't moved so fast in my entire life. I rushed into the bedroom to see Sienna sit up in our bed, her dress and our bedsheet soaked making eyes go wide.
"My water broke." She said.
"I can see that." I said. I rushed over to her and helped her up.
"We need to put the sheets in the washing machine." She said.
"Don't think bout that right now, we need to go to the hospital." I said.
"We don't have a hospital bag prepared." She said completely freaking out.
"I'll call Maddie on the way." I said.
"I need to change my dress." She said and I nodded. She quickly got changed and I could see she was in pain. I hurried out to the kitchen and grabbed her water bottle, I knew we had a few things for the baby, I quickly threw it into a bag and walked back into the bedroom and helped her out to the car. I closed the door to the passenger seat and rushed over to the driver's seat and had barely time to close the door before we took off.
"Maddie." I said as she picked up.
"Sienna has gone into labour." I said and she gasped.
"I told you!" She exclaimed.
"We have literally nothing prepared." I said.
"Ooon it!" She said and I smiled softly.
"Thank you." I said.
"I'll run to the store immediately." She said.
"See you later." I said and hung up. I pressed down the gas and speeded to the hospital.
"Bradley, this is not a super hornet." Sienna said and I looked over at her, seeing she was fighting the pain.
"I wish it was." I mumbled.
"Shit, you have to call my dad." She said as she winced in pain.
"On it." I said and quickly dialled Maverick's number.
"Hey." He said happily.
"Maverick, Sienna is in labour. We are on our way to the hospital." I said.
"What!?" He exclaimed.
"Her water broke around ten minutes ago." I said.
"Has it only been ten minutes!?" She exclaimed.
"But.... What.... She's only 29 weeks along." He said.
"Yep, but your daughter here thought it was a good idea to work like a goddamn boxer, so she is in preterm labour." I said as I turned into the hospital parking lot.
"I'm on my way." He said and we hung up. I parked the car as close as I could. I got out and jogged over to her side. I opened the door and helped her out. We slowly but surely made it into the ER.
"Hi, my girlfriend is in labour." I said at the nurse's desk and she looked at Sienna fighting the pain.
"I can see that." She said.
"She is 29 weeks along." I said and her eyes widened, looking at us with a concerned look. She picked up the phone quickly and made a call.
"Come with me." She said and helped us to a gurney. Two minutes later two doctors in pink scrubs came jogging.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Elena Field." One of them said with a smile.
"I hear you are in preterm labour." She said.
"This is Dr. Lucy Adams." She said introducing the much younger doctor.
"What's your name, mama?" Dr. Field asked as she walked up to Sienna's head.
"Sienna Mitchell." Sienna said.
"Okay, Sienna. And I assume this is the baby's father." She said and looked over at me with a comforting smile.
"Yes, Bradley Bradshaw." I said and she nodded.
"Amazing." She said.
"So, Sienna, we are gonna move you up to the maternity ward and give you a proper exam so we know what is going on." She said and looked calmly and comforting at Sienna.
They rolled her up to the maternity ward, I stayed by her head all of the time. Everything went so fast. All I felt was fear. Fear that Sienna was going to suffer complications, fear that our son wasn't going to make it. Everyone knows that preterm babies have a lower chance of survival or will suffer long term complications.
"Okay, Sienna. You ready?" Dr. Field asked and Sienna nodded. I took her hand and sat down next to her head. I dried off a tear from her cheek and kissed it.
"You are doing amazing." I whispered and Sienna smiled softly.
"You are definitely in labour, Sienna." Dr. Field said and I felt my heart racing.
"Since you are only 29 weeks pregnant, we are going to give you steroid injections to help your baby's lungs develop and magnesium sulphate to protect his brain development." She said and Sienna nodded.
"Okay." She said with a comforting smile.
"With preterm labour it all can go down very fast, much faster than a full term labour. You are already 6cm dilated so it won't be long until it's time to push." She said and got out the ultrasound. She put some of that gel on Sienna's stomach and put the wand on it. She looked at the picture and smiled softly.
"Look at that, your son is doing fine. Strong heartbeat." She said and I took a breath of relief. Sienna looked at the ultrasound and more tears ran down her cheek.
"I know this is very scary, Sienna. But we will be here every step of the way." She said and Sienna nodded.
"I'm going to go and get the meds and I will be back in just a minute." She said and I nodded and she walked out.
"You are doing so well, babe." I said and kissed her hand. Another nurse hooked her up to an IV as well as put a device on her stomach to monitor our son's heartbeat.
"You thought of a name yet?" The nurse asked kindly, trying to distract Sienna from the fear and the pain.
"We have a few in mind." Sienna said and I smiled softly. Dr. Field came back a minute later and pushed the meds she talked about earlier. I looked at my beautiful girl who tried to breathe through the pain. And my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach every time I saw her wince or gasp for air.
I never left her side. I held her hand the entire time. I stroke away her hair, patted a wet won her forehead and kept my mouth shut because I know she would give me a tongue lashing if I was too chatty.
"It hurts, Bradley. It hurts." She cried.
"I know, sweetheart. I know. It will be over soon." I said trying to comfort her.
"Soon, we will meet our son. It will all be worth it in the end." I whispered as more tears rolled down her cheek.
"You got this." I said and Dr. Field walked in. She examined Sienna quickly.
"Alright, ready to meet your son?" Dr. Field asked me and my eyes widened.
"Is it time?" I asked and she smiled.
"10cm dilated." She said and I looked over at Sienna who looked relieved it was all going to be over soon.
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"He's here! He's here!" Dr. Field said and I could see an instant relief on Sienna.
"He's not crying." Sienna got out and I looked over at the backs of the doctors working on our son.
"Why is he not crying?!" She shouted and I felt my heart racing.
"Doctor!" I shouted.
"His oxygen level is low." I heard a nurse say and I looked over at Sienna as we were both panicking.
"He looks a little jaundice." The same nurse said. I dropped my head low as I held Sienna's hand tightly. I placed my other hand on her hair and stroked it gently.
And then we heard it...... our son crying.
"Thank you god." I said loudly and Sienna cried.
"His oxygen levels are a little low, we need to take him up to the NICU right now and sort this out, okay?" Dr. Field said and we nodded.
"You go with them." Sienna said and I looked at her confusingly.
"What?" I asked.
"You have to go with them, you have to make sure our son is okay." She said as she nodded.
"Go." She said and I nodded.
"Okay, okay." I said and got up from my seat. I kissed her deeply before I kissed her hand and followed the doctors up to the NICU. They told me to stay outside as they were taking care of him.
And then I saw him, for the first time, making my heart skip a beat and I almost gasped for air. It was the tiniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. He looked so small and fragile, so reddish. It was my son. Our son. I put my hand over my mouth as they put an oxygen mask over his tiny mouth.
Dr. Field walked out to me after what felt like forever but when I looked at the clock it had only been 30 minutes. It was the longest 30 minutes of my life.
"Hi, dad." Dr. Field said with a wide smile and I smiled back as I looked at my son.
"It looks scary when the oxygen mask and the feeding tube but he needs it." She said and I nodded.
"For how long?" I asked.
"Until his oxygen levels are up and grown properly." She said and I nodded.
"Can I see him? Like go in?" I asked and she smiled.
"Come." She said and opened the door. I walked into the room and up to the crib. My heart was racing.
"Sienna?" I asked.
"The nurse called me, she is doing well." Dr. Field said and I took a breath of relief. I looked down on our son. He was gorgeous.
"He is doing well." She said.
"He just needs a little push with his oxygen." She added and I smiled softly.
"When can I hold him?" I asked.
"Soon, we just need him to settle a bit first." She said and I nodded. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. He was so beautiful. He moved his little hand making me smile. And then he did something I didn't think was possible at 29 weeks. He opened his tiny eyes and looked up at me and my heart skipped a beat, I smiled widely and I could hear Dr. Field let out a chuckle.
"He knows who you are." She said and I smiled.
"Hi little man." I said.
"Can I touch him?" I asked.
"Very gently, no stroking." She said and I nodded. I put my finger on his hand and my heart skipped yet another beat.
"Hi." I said softly. He opened and closed his eyes and it made me smile.
"Omg." I whispered.
I was a dad.