TWENTY: VIVIENNE RAE
MAY 27
CHLOE LAWSON
SHE STRETCHED BOTH ARMS TO her feet, holding a sensible pair of sandals that Wil lent her for the day. Just as she thought she might actually reach her foot and slip the shoe on, she came up too short—thanks to the basketball-shaped bump where her flat stomach used to be.
Eventually, she grew frustrated and let out a loud grunt, which could be heard all the way down the hall from their dorm. On the floor in front of a large mirror, applying her makeup, Wil snorted through a laugh.
"Having some trouble there, Juno?" she teased and Chloe replied with an elegant and efficient raise of her middle finger. Wil only laughed harder.
"Here," she said, rising from the floor and walking over to help. As she strapped the sandals around Chloe's surprisingly not swollen ankles, Chloe noticed the princess still hadn't changed into her white dress for the ceremony. She paraded around the room in a matching bra and panty set made of gray lace and not much else.
"You know we have to be at Main Hall in twenty minutes, right?" Chloe asked and Wil shrugged nonchalantly, causing Chloe to laugh. As she did, she felt a sharp pain shoot across her lower belly—almost like a period cramp but much, much worse. She inhaled sharp—the cramps were nothing new, she'd been feeling them all week now—and Wil made a face.
"You okay?"
Chloe nodded and after several deep breaths, the pain lessened. "Braxton Hicks," she said through a deep breath.
She'd spent much of her third trimester reading any and every book on childbirth. During that research, she read quite a bit about the false labor pains that many women experienced nearing their due dates. Levi showed her videos online of breathing techniques said to help (they were kicked out of their first childbirth class and hadn't had luck with any others) and for the most part, the breathing helped. But when a second cramp came moments later, breathing and tightening her fists did little to help.
"You sure?" Wil asked, still making that face. "You're..." She bit her lip while she calculated. "Forty-six weeks pregnant."
"Thirty..." Chloe corrected between sharp breaths. "...Eight." She took another deep breath and then told Wil, "...Carry the one."
Wil's eyes rolled up as she redid her calculations and then she nodded. "Regardless. The doctor said you should be prepared to go at any time and..." She looked at her wrist to check a watch she wasn't wearing. "...It's any time now."
Chloe shook her head and the cramp—rather, contraction—ended. "I'm fine," she insisted. "It's not time. I still have two weeks. We have to graduate today and I am not—" She took a seat and continued breathing. "I'm not missing graduation to have a baby."
Wil folded her arms over her bare chest and raised a brow. "Tell that to my little niece in there."
A knock on the door stopped Chloe from saying anything else and she was grateful for the distraction. Wil sauntered over, her tiny butt jiggling with each step, and opened it to see Levi and Damon there, dressed in suits and ties.
"Jesus, Diamond," chuckled Levi and Wil sped away from the door, desperate for anything to hide her half-nakedness. Had she not been in the middle of convincing her unborn daughter to stay unborn, Chloe probably would've laughed as Wil wrapped her satin bedsheet around her body and recollected herself.
Damon shut the door and leaned against it, every so often peeking over at Wil who tried to change into her dress while still wrapped in the sheet, and Levi walked over to Chloe.
He kissed her cheek and then took note of her strange stance and breathing patterns.
"You alright, sweetheart?"
She nodded but it was hardly convincing.
"She's in labor," Wil said casually, now dressed in the Alice + Olivia mini, and then poked two large emerald earrings in her ears. "And apparently bound to give birth in the middle of graduation."
"You're in labor?" Levi practically shouted. "Did your water break? Where's your bag? We have to go to the hospital!"
"I'm f—" Chloe was about to say but another contraction took her breath away from her. She cursed through it and Levi rubbed her back while she did.
"She's trying to say she's fine," said Wil, snatching the duffle bag from under the desk and tossing it to Damon at the door. He caught it easily. "But she's not. She's in labor. Now come on."
Damon peeked in the bag—full of extra clothes, toiletries, and other necessities for the hospital—then frowned at Wil.
"You're going to graduation?"
Wil cackled.
"Hell no. We're going to the hospital. It's baby time."
AT THE HOSPITAL, LEVI CHECKED Chloe in and they were assigned a room. There, Chloe changed into the gown and was thoroughly examined by a nurse who assured her she was six centimeters dilated and definitely in labor.
She groaned once the nurse left the room. She was so sure she'd be able to graduate with her class—to walk across the stage and receive her diploma—but then she remembered what her mom said about making plans.
"If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."
It was a Woody Allen quote but Vera liked to pretend she'd come up with it all on her own. Only after thinking about the quote did Chloe remember to call her mom. Unfortunately, her mom was stuck in the Mortal World and as a mortal, had no way of getting to her daughter there. That's when Chloe got thinking.
Wil and Damon had gone to the cafeteria downstairs to grab coffee and food and Chloe was making laps around the hospital room with Levi, breathing her way through the contractions which seemed to be never-ending.
"You know, out of all the talking we've done about the baby and how you and I fit together with her, we never talked about the where."
Levi's bushy brows pinched together. "What do you mean?"
Chloe pushed out a deep breath. "I mean, where we'll live after she's born. I don't think Damon's loft is suited for a newborn—I mean, there's only one bed there. What? Will she sleep on the pullout couch?"
"I kind of assumed we'd get a place for all of us together," Levi said casually, like they'd talked about moving in together a million times before and it was only a matter of time before he officially asked her. "A nice house with a yard where she can run around when she's big enough. And a fence because I'm sure any daughter of yours will be a wanderer."
With glassy eyes, Chloe looked up at him. "You want to move in together?"
"Of course I do," he answered like he'd never made a more certain decision. "I love you. I want to wake up next to you every morning and I want to walk down the hall where our daughter's room will be and—"
"You said our daughter."
He nodded and took her hands in his. "Well she is. And we are going to take our daughter to the Mortal World where we're going to live as a family. I don't know why I never brought it up before but I think we should move there."
"To the Mortal World?"
"It's your home. It's where you grew up. It's where your mom is. It's where you're safe. And I can make a home pretty much anywhere, as long as I have you and Baby Girl with me. What do you say?"
Chloe nodded and kissed him softly. She probably would've kissed him longer but another contraction began and she let out a guttural scream that shook the walls of the room. Afterwards, she yelled out,
"Why is this the way we bring new people into the world? This is a terrible system!"
"Keep breathing, sweetheart," he encouraged, coaxing her through the contraction. "You're doing great. Just keep breathing."
SEVEN HOURS OF LABOR LATER, Chloe laid in bed as Levi stood beside her and they gazed down into Chloe's arm where their healthy baby girl slept soundly. She was born at six thirty-two that evening and the entire experience was documented by Wil's iPhone. Damon stood in the corner of the room, a combination of curious and terrified, and waited until the umbilical cord was cut and Chloe was stitched up before he dared to leave it.
Measuring 8lbs 6oz and 20 inches, Baby Girl was the most perfect thing Chloe had ever laid eyes on. She spent the hours after the birth holding her daughter and admiring her mop of dark hair and her tiny nose which had the same slope as Chloe's.
She did it. She made that baby and every second longer she stared, the harder it became to believe.
Later that night, the family was moved to a maternity suite and there, Wil and Damon fell asleep on the sleeper couch across the room. But Chloe and Levi were wide awake. Tired as she was, she didn't want to miss a moment.
"We should probably give her a name, you know," Levi whispered. "We can't call her Baby Girl forever."
Chloe giggled quietly, remembering when she told him the same thing months ago. She stared down at the baby in her arms, mesmerized by every detail. She looked up at Levi and said,
"Evie."
That was the first time she'd said the name—the first time she'd even thought about it—but the moment she said it, she knew.
"Evie?" Levi asked and Chloe nodded.
"Vivienne Rae. Rae after her mom, and Evie after her dad."
Levi's face came alight with a smile and Chloe swore if somehow, she could live in that moment forever, she would've. She stretched to him and he bent down, kissing her.
"I love you so much, Chlo" he said and then glanced down to their sleeping baby. "And our little Evie." He kissed the top of her head and Chloe shut her eyes, melting into him as her heart stitched whole and her little family became complete.