“Aww, c’mon! I said I was... Hm?”
While I was laughing and bantering with Bellis, I felt a pang in my stomach all of a sudden.
A cramp? Is that what you’d call this?
I frowned at the unpleasant sensation.
“What’s the matter?” asked Stellaria, peering into my face with concern when she noticed I had abruptly stopped laughing.
“Uh, I don’t know... My stomach feels weird?”
“What?!” came the surprised cry of everyone present.
“I’m not sure if ‘weird’ is the right word for it, or...huh? Now it’s starting to hurt.”
As I was assailed by a squeezing pain, my face twisted into a grimace.
“I remember the same thing happening to Mimosa,” said Bellis. From the sound of it, this wasn’t too different from how things had gone before his wife had her baby.
Rohtas sobered up instantly. “I see. Then she might be ready to give birth.”
“You’ll be all right, Madam! Just stay calm,” Stellaria assured me.
“I’ll leave the madam to you, Stellaria,” said Rohtas. “I’m going to go call for a doctor.”
“I’ll go get Dahlia and Mimosa,” Bellis offered.
“Owww... Thanks, guys!”
Once the trio had figured out the situation, it didn’t take long for them to regain their usual composure. Each one of the three jumped right into their respective duties. A capable servant knew how to keep their cool even at the eleventh hour, and the smoothness of their reaction managed to keep me from panicking too. I appreciate it, guys!
“Hold on, Madam. Dahlia and Mimosa should be here soon.”
“Yeah, I know. Owww...”
As I remained rooted to the spot, doing my best to ride out the wave of pain, the first person to arrive on the scene was not who I was expecting: it was none other than Mr. Fisalis himself.
“Vi! I heard you’re having stomach pains! Are you okay?”
“Oh, you’re home, Cercis!”
“I was surprised to find no one around to greet me when I got back only for Rohtas to come in from the garden and tell me that a stomach cramp had you incapacitated out in the garden. I rushed here as fast as I could.”
“Sorry...”
“Rohtas is calling for a doctor as we speak, so hang in there just a little bit longer.”
“Okay.”
Mr. Fisalis gently lifted me up in his arms and carried me off to the manor.
✦ ✦ ✦
The pain continued to surge and ebb for a good long while after I was taken to my bedroom.
“You must be going into labor,” said Dahlia as she massaged my hips. “You’re far enough into your pregnancy that the timing seems right.”
“Really?”
“I can’t say for sure until the doctor confirms it, but that’s my best guess.”
Wow... So it won’t be long now before I finally meet my little one.
I was simultaneously filled with joy and the suspense of not knowing what lay in store for me, and the agony that assailed me was so overwhelming that I hardly had the time to sort out my own conflicted emotions. Talk about having my hands full!
Still, I somehow managed to keep myself calm until the doctor arrived.
Now that it’s come to this, all I can do is buckle down and prepare for the worst. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be—you can come on out whenever you want, kiddo! I thought, psyching myself back up again.
The doctor explained that soon, the intervals between my on-and-off bouts of pain—which would come and go almost like the tide—were going to start getting shorter and shorter.
I see. I’d better start counting the time between them, then. The last wave of pain just went away, so I wonder how long it’ll be before the next one comes?
I waited.
And waited.
Huh? It’s not coming.
Had having everyone’s eyes on me made me so nervous that I stopped feeling the pain?
“Huh...?”
“What’s wrong?” the doctor asked as she checked my pulse.
“The pain just stopped all of a sudden. What does that mean?”
“Oh, dearie me.”
As happy as I was that the pain had subsided and I was feeling good as new...I couldn’t help thinking this was a bit anticlimactic.
While I sat there stunned by this turn of events, the doctor eventually declared, “I believe this is what we call false labor.” She then asked me, “Do you have any recent memory of exerting yourself physically, or perhaps having a particularly hearty laugh?”
Exerting myself physically? A hearty laugh? Yep, that rings a bell. I’m probably in for a lecture if I tell her about the part where I tipped over, so I’ll keep that my little secret.
“Yeah. It was earlier this evening, out in the garden. I strained myself pretty hard trying to pull out a weed. And then I cracked up laughing when I saw Bellis covered in dirt.”
“Well, that would do it. The overexertion and the fit of laughter must have put an undue amount of stress on your stomach.”
“Whoopsie...”
From the sound of it, those hadn’t been full-fledged labor pains, but false contractions caused by those hysterics of mine...among other things.
“What’s the word?” Mr. Fisalis later asked Dahlia. “Is the baby on the way?”
“Not yet. It seems they weren’t actual contractions.”
“Damn...”
He seemed awfully disappointed to hear that it was a false alarm and our baby wasn’t ready to be born just yet. Sorry to get your hopes up!
Be sure to save the real deal for another day Daddy is around, okay, Bitsy (name TBD)?