Wednesday May 27th.
"Jesus." Chloe murmured to herself as she stood in front the mirror in the closet, turning to view her ever expanding figure from the side. "Thirty weeks down, ten to go." Having hung up the last item of clothing she walked back out into their bedroom. Wearing a charcoal grey figure hugging dress she felt good, it was a blessed relief to actually have a few new clothes that fitted her and it was even better that she hadn't had to venture into Zürich to get them. Internet shopping was godsend. She hadn't gone mad and ordered loads, with just under ten weeks left until her due date she didn't see the point in ordering too many new clothes so she'd stuck to what she classed as 'staple' items such as t-shirt dresses, vest tops, maternity skinny jeans, leggings and some new underwear that included slightly less than glamorous nursing bras. Heading out of the bedroom she meandered her way to Seb's home office, as she got close to the door she could hear him talking in his home language. He was on a Skype call to his parents who were still restricted to staying home in Germany but with Switzerland opening it's borders to its neighbours by mid June, she knew it wouldn't be long before he got to see them. He was already planning on having them coming to stay with a view to them possibly staying until after the birth of their son. He was determined that she wouldn't be alone whilst he was away racing and as it was uncertain if Brits could enter the country, having his parents here would give him peace of mind if her mum was unable to travel. At least she'd have someone with her if she went into labour early or late and she tried to take comfort from that thought even though she was petrified that she could end up giving birth without Seb by her side. She stopped at the door for a moment and listened to him chatting away and laughing, it soon became clear that this was something of a family video call as she could hear a few different voices. Poking her head around the door she felt the usual burst of butterflies as she caught sight of him; whatever they were talking about was obviously amusing and he was talking animatedly while smiling broadly, then he looked up from his laptop and his sparkling blue eyes met hers. He gestured for her to come in and she obeyed him, noting how he'd immediately switched to English for her benefit.
"Come, you can say hi to everyone." He pointed to the laptop's screen and then patted his thigh, indicating for her to come and sit on his lap.
"I can't sit on your lap, look at the size of me!" She felt that she'd be too heavy for him.
"Don't be silly, come on." He wheeled the chair back to give her space to sit.
"I'm carrying just over a kilo of baby plus whatever else in weight I've put on." She complained as she stopped in front of him.
"And you look even more beautiful for it, now sit." He patted his thigh again so she did as he asked and sat herself down on his lap. On the screen in front of her was an image of herself and four other faces; Heike and Norbert in a second mini screen and Stefanie and Fabian in two more, all of whom were waving apart from Heike who was blowing her kisses. Feeling a bit camera shy, Chloe waved timidly at the screen; she could feel Seb's hand on her waist (or what was left of her waist as her body expanded to accommodate their growing baby) as he slipped an arm loosely around her and kissed her cheek.
"Hallo Chloe! How are you?" Heike could be seen leaning in closer the camera. "How is our...." She paused for a second, looking thoughtful. "....enkel?"
"Grandson." Seb whispered in her ear to translate for her.
"Hi Heike, I'm good thanks, really good and he's doing really well." She rubbed her belly. "How are you both? Hopefully it won't be long before we get to see you."
"We are well, we are safe and that makes us very happy. To see you makes us more so and this...." She pointed towards the camera, as if she was pointing at Chloe, and then patted her tummy. ".....you look beautiful and so.......gesund." She patted her cheeks. "Glühend."
"Healthy and glowing." Seb whispered as he placed his hand on her very round belly. "And sexy as hell." He added, letting his lips brush against her ear.
"Aw thank you Heike, I feel like I'm the size of a house!" She replied as his lips and warm breath made her shiver and sent little tingles shooting down her spine. Was he trying to make her blush on purpose?
"Hey come on bro, leave the girl alone! We don't want to see your PDA's!" Fabian yelled, covering his eyes.
"I don't know how you've managed to put up with him! You deserve a medal!" Stefanie joined in. "He must be driving you crazy!"
"Honestly?" Chloe turned just enough to face her husband who was now waiting to hear her reply while jokingly raising a brow in warning to her. "It's been great having the time at home together and I'll miss him terribly when the time comes for him to get back to racing. If anything, I've probably driven him crazy with my hormonal outbursts, I literally cry at anything and have done for ages. He'll be glad to get out of the house."
"I've loved every minute with you, every up and every down, you know I'll miss you like crazy when I have to leave." He replied, breaking into a smile as she rewarded his words with a kiss.
She couldn't resist letting her tongue brush lightly over his lips. If he was going to make her blush, then two could play at that game. She felt him shiver beneath her and she playfully nibbled on his bottom lip before parting their lips, almost forgetting his family on the laptop screen in front of them.
"Jeez you're both as bad as each other!" Fabian joked as Seb's cheeks flushed a lovely shade of pink, though his pupils had dilated and darkened his eyes with lust.
Success!! One all darling husband!!
"What time is your checkup with Doctor Christen?" Stefanie asked, moving things along rather swiftly.
Seb went to check his watch, encircling his wife in his arms at the same time. "About ninety minutes time."
"I must see baby pictures!" Heike called excitedly in reference to the 4D scan they were going to have.
"I'll ask Gabriel to email a video to me and I'll send it on to you." Seb replied to his mother.
"Best I start getting ready then." Chloe wanted to get changed before they left and put a little makeup on, she didn't want to be wearing a dress for her checkup. Placing a kiss on Seb's cheek, she got up from his lap and said goodbye to his family. Her nervous excitement was starting to build at the prospect of having her first look at her little boy.
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"Sorry about that." She sighed as she got back into the car and went to put her seatbelt on.
"Don't pee anymore, don't forget you need a full bladder for the scan." Seb reminded her. He couldn't be annoyed with her, he knew that L.J was putting pressure on his mother's bladder which meant more frequent trips to the toilet for her and having to stop at service stations when they were out in the car.
"Don't worry, the way things are going I'll probably need to go again in two minutes."
"Are you excited to see what he looks like?" Seb turned out of the exit and rejoined the section of motorway, they weren't far from Zürich now.
"Yeah I'm excited but in a way I'm also kind of nervous." She put her hand on his thigh, ready for him to take hold of it like he always did when they were in the car.
"Why are you nervous?" He was a bit surprised to hear that.
"I don't know, I just am." She shifted in her seat. "My bloody back.....I swear he's moved and sitting on a nerve or something."
"Think of the scan as a kind of video call, like we're Skyping L.J for a virtual meeting." He glanced across at her. "Does your back hurt that bad?"
"It's uncomfortable, I should have brought a pillow or a cushion. Did you remember the masks?"
"I did." He nodded. The thought of having to go through today's appointment wearing protective masks kind of took the shine off things but unfortunately it was a necessary precaution in today's uncertain times.
"Will you run me a bath when we get back?" She asked knowing that the warm water would relax her muscles.
"Can I join you in it?" He asked hopefully as he slipped his fingers between hers to take her hand.
"Ok, you can massage my shoulders while we're in there."
"I'd rather massage something else." He shot her a wry grin.
"Those are out of bounds, I feel like I've got two heavy, painful boulders in my bra right now." She took a quick look down the front of her top, her breasts felt tender and to her, they looked ginormous.
"So I've got to run you a bath and massage your shoulders? What's in it for me?" He asked cheekily.
"A happy and hugely grateful wife." She smiled.
"Happy wife, happy life. You could always massage my dick." He moved her hand between his legs, making her lean to the left a bit.
"That had some love last night." She giggled while giving him a light squeeze.
"That was hours ago." He pointed out, thinking back to last night's spooning session.
"You know.....I've never known anyone with such a voracious sexual appetite until I met you." Feeling him starting to firm up in his shorts she moved her hand back to his thigh with his hand still holding on to hers.
"Voracious?" He shot her another quick glance before deciding to overtake the slower car in front of them. "I like the sound of that word."
"You know what it means, right?"
"Hey! My English isn't that bad!" He exclaimed, trying to sound hurt.
"You didn't know what a chav was." She said teasingly.
"That was ages ago!" He pointed out, still getting little thrills at what she remembered after her memory had been temporarily wiped by the shooting. "And I don't know all the slang terms you use in England."
"What would you call a chav in German then?"
"We don't really have a name for them, everyone has their own opinions ranging from hurensohn to fotze to Schwanzlutscher."
"And what would those be in English?"
"Hurensohn is son of a bitch, fotze is cunt and schwanzlutscher is cocksucker." He laughed thinking it was comical to be teaching his wife these new words.
"I can see I'll have to start learning more German."
"You know I'll be more than happy to teach you while I've still got a few more weeks at home." He didn't need to look at her to know her smile had faded at the mention of him not having many weeks left at home and he fell quiet; with a confirmed European calendar due to be released to the drivers this weekend and then to the media early next week, he didn't want to say anything on the subject until he knew where he'd be racing and when. While Chloe wasn't ready for him to quit F1 it seemed she wasn't ready for him to go back to racing either.
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"Can you tell if he's laying on a nerve? Only my back has been quite painful for a few days now." She looked from her round belly where Gabriel was gliding the ultrasound probe around to the screen that was still blank.
"I'm afraid not but I can tell you that he looks completely fine and exactly where we'd want him to be, growth wise at just under forty-two centimetres. You've got nearly one and a half kilos of baby in there now. Are you ready to see him?" Gabriel looked at the expectant eyes of Chloe and Seb, the rest of their faces were covered by the masks they'd been required to wear like he had himself.
"Yeah, we're ready." Chloe nodded and briefly looked towards Seb, their eyes met as the screen in front of them came to life. For a few seconds she had a moment where she was too afraid to look and she watched as his eyes settled on the screen and widened before twinkling with joy.
"He's beautiful." His voice fell to a hushed tone as he saw his son's face for the very first time. The love he felt was instantaneous, nothing could have prepared him for this moment. Even though he'd been to 4D scans with Hannah nothing had prepared him for his first look at his son. Feeling emotional, he sat back in his chair as his wife finally turned her head to look at the screen. He heard her gasp and felt her hand tighten it's hold on his.
"Oh my...." She was immediately choked up with emotion; L.J already had chubby little cheeks, the perfectly plump lips of his father and the cutest little nose. He definitely looked like Seb, in her mind there was no doubt about it. There he was on the screen, her own flesh and blood, the start of her very own family, the little boy who'd miraculously survived an horrific ordeal before he was even born, the perfect creation of herself and her husband. Now she could put a face to the name and she couldn't wait to meet him for real and hold him in her arms. The screen blurred as her eyes overflowed with happy tears; already she loved him so much, it was different kind of love, an indescribable kind, one that came from a far deeper place. She was so overcome that she couldn't speak.
"I knew you'd cry mamma." Seb let go of her hand to try and wipe her tears away, he wanted to kiss her so badly that it made the masks feel more like a barrier between them than protection against an invisible enemy.
Gabriel kept quiet to let them share this precious moment, he could see how deeply in love these two were and felt it was silly making them wear masks but unfortunately protocol had to be followed. He looked back to the screen where L.J could be seen yawning and bringing his hand up to his face and then glanced to where Seb's phone was connected to the computer in order for the video to be transferred over.
"It's so clear, did you see him yawn?" Seb asked as Chloe continued to wipe her eyes.
"Yeah." She croaked in reply, still too choked up to speak.
"Oh Chloe, he's so perfect." He could feel his own voice wobble as her happy tears threatened to start him off too. It was never lost on him just how lucky he was and how things could have been very different for both of them. "He's just so perfect." More than ever now, he wanted to be there by her side when their son entered the world.
"Just like his daddy." She looked from the screen to Seb looking glassy eyed, his eyes showing pure emotion, pride and love for the little face on the screen.
"I can't believe he's ours.....I love him so much already." He swallowed as his emotions got the better of him.
"You might need this." Gabriel passed a sheet of tissue over to him, he knew it wouldn't be long before they'd both got tearful. "I'll start printing some images off and transfer the video to your phone."
"Thanks." He took the tissue and quickly wiped his eyes.
"I knew you'd cry too daddy." Chloe teased as she started to get a handle on her emotions. It felt like the scan was over far too quickly as Gabriel put the probe away and passed her some tissue to wipe the remaining gel from her bump. Thoughtfully, he'd left an image on the screen of L.J - the image he was printing off for them.
"Every little moment we share with him just reminds me how lucky I am to have you both in my life." He gushed, his voice breaking a little bit as he clutched on to her hand again.
"Your families are going to love the video, L.J has really behaved himself so we've got some great footage. He's been a little star." Gabriel passed Seb's phone to Chloe and Seb took it from her.
"I can't wait for them to see it." He stood up to put the phone in his back pocket and then helped Chloe to sit up and get to her feet. He watched fondly as she pulled her maternity jeans back up over her bump and re-adjusted her t-shirt.
"Do you do emails on your phone?" She asked as she rubbed her tummy and frowned at the mild cramp she was experiencing.
"No, What's App is about my limit." His gaze lowered to her bump as soon as he noticed her frown.
"Oh yeah, I forget you don't really do the technology thing, do you! I swear you think we're all stuck in the year nineteen eighty-six or something!"
"That's funny considering I wasn't born until eighty-seven." He shot back smugly.
"I think I'm having those growing pains again." She grimaced at the pain that felt like having a stitch from running.
"That's what you get for teasing me about not using technology." Seb remarked as Gabriel passed him an envelope with the prints in.
"At your stage of pregnancy, they'll be Braxton Hicks contractions, also known as false or practice contractions." Gabriel explained, wanting to reassure Chloe. Clearly it didn't work as he could see her furrowed brows.
"Practice contractions? Does that mean I could go into labour early?"
"No, not at all. They're just a normal part of being pregnant and nothing to worry about." He replied.
"So how will I know when it's false contractions or real ones? I don't want to go into labour if Seb's not around and leave it too late to call him."
"You'll definitely know when it's the real thing but the main differences between Braxton contractions and real ones are that Braxton contractions are irregular, infrequent and often very short cramps that usually get no worse than what you're feeling now. Labour contractions are more painful, quite regular and will get stronger, longer and closer together as time goes on. When the real thing begins, you'll definitely know. Relax and don't worry, everything will be fine." He knew from what he'd read in the press that Seb could possibly be away when she went into labour and that it was playing quite heavily on her mind. If it hadn't been for the pandemic then Seb would have had the whole of August to be with his wife and baby son, now it looked as if they'd be sharing short bouts of time together and Seb would potentially miss out on those early newborn weeks. He felt quite sorry for the couple, they hadn't had an easy ride since they'd been married and he really hoped that they could be together for the birth. If anyone deserved it, it was these two.
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"Hmm that's better." Seb whispered as he let his lips linger softly against his wife's. "There were so many times I wanted to kiss you earlier."
"Those masks were awful, what if we have to wear them when I'm in labour? I don't want L.J's first sight to be of his parents wearing masks."
"Stop letting your mind run away, you'll be giving birth at home where's there's no need for masks." He looked down at her belly, missing being able to get properly close to her.
"What if you miss the birth?" She squeaked, that was her biggest fear and she'd be heartbroken if it became reality.
"What did I just say?" He playfully tapped the end of her nose. "Stop thinking of worst case scenarios, I'll be here and if I am away then I've already got provisional plans in place to have a plane on standby. Britta will have her phone and mine when I'm in the garage and all you've got to do is call and I'll be on that plane as soon as I physically can. Labour can take hours so it's almost certain I can make it back in time."
"But what if you're in the car, on track? What if it's at the start of a race or halfway through?"
"Chloe, please stop overthinking things. All you need to know is that I will be here. Nothing will stop me from being here with you to see my son arriving into the world." He looked down at the scan photo that sat on his office desk beside where she was sitting. Behind her his phone was plugged into his laptop, ready to transfer the video across and send to both sets of parents. He picked the photo up and looked adoringly at it, tracing his fingers over the image. When the time came to pack for his return to Italy and then the first European race, this photo would be one of the first things to go into his rucksack. L.J's little face would be coming with him everywhere he went until he could come along for real.