Mending the Soul (37 page)

"She doesn't have to do that, I'm sure she has plans already." Jenna said, then yelled up to the kids that they needed to hurry up or else they'd be late.

As if on cue, a car horn was heard out in the driveway. Nicholas went out to say hi to his mom, while Jenna finished getting the kids ready for school. She shoved them out the door, and waved to Diane Tiller before heading back into the house to return to her chores.

Nicholas came in a few short minutes later to say good bye to his fiancée as he headed off to work. He gave her a long, passionate kiss and told her he would see her at lunch.

Just after he left, Jenna sat on the couch to catch her breath. She was having some minor pains in her stomach here and there since the middle of the night, but figured it was nothing major. The moment soon passed and Jenna was back up and working.

When the doorbell rang half an hour later, Jenna smirked. 'I knew he'd ask his mom to come back and help me. He is just too worried about me!' Jenna thought to herself as she opened the door. "I knew it!" Jenna said. "I told him not to bother you. I'm sure you have better things to do than help me get the housework done here." Jenna said as she hugged her future mother-in-law.

"Nonsense dear! I am more than happy to help. Besides, how often you and I get to spend time together without anyone else around. Now we can dish the serious dirt about what Nicholas was like as a kid." She chuckled.

Jenna thanked her for coming, and the two women got to work on washing the baby clothes and putting the finishing touches on the nursery. Jenna was thankful that she was so comfortable around Diane. Most women hate their mother-in-laws, but Jenna felt very close to Diane.

Diane felt the same, and was very grateful for everything that Jenna had done for Nicholas and Emma. The woman pretty much gave them their lives back. How could she not love someone who could do that?

Most of the morning was spent talking and laughing, but Diane didn't miss the little episodes when Jenna looked like she was in pain. Not wanting to pry, Diane didn't say anything at first. But when the moments became more and more frequent, Diane had to speak up.

"Ok, spill it. What's wrong? I can tell that you're in pain." She said to Jenna.

"Oh, it's nothing. I think I am just having some false labor pains." Jenna explained.

"What makes you think they are false labor? How long have you had them?" She asked.

"I woke up with them in the middle of the night. They started off really mild, but the past couple have been pretty intense."

"I can see that." Diane said, walking over to the phone. She picked it up and started dialing.

"Who are you calling?" Jenna asked, suddenly feeling a little panicked.

"Hello, Nicholas? I think you need to come and get Jenna. She's going into labor." Diane said calmly into the phone.

"What!?" Nicholas shouted into the phone.

"What!?" Jenna shouted at Diane.

Diane calmly finished the phone call, telling Nicholas to relax but he needed to get home to take Jenna to the hospital. She then grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from the tablet next to the phone then went to the living room. "Jenna, come sit with me." Diane called out.

Jenna waddled into the living room and plopped down on the couch. "Why did you call Nicholas? You're going to alarm him for no reason."

"Honey, I'm not alarming him for no reason. You really are going into labor. I've been glancing at the clock every time your face grimaced in pain, and it seems like you are getting contractions about every 10 minutes. We're getting down to the wire here." Diane pointed out.

Jenna finally relaxed a bit, knowing that Diane was right, but Jenna was just too afraid to admit it. They both watched the clock and wrote down every time that Jenna had a contraction. She was in the middle of a big one when Nicholas came bounding through the front door. He ran to the hall closet and grabbed the bag that they had packed for Jenna's hospital stay, then ran to the living room.

His face was beat red, and sweat was dripping from his forehead. "Are you ok baby?" He asked, placing a soft kiss on Jenna's forehead.

"I'm fine except that you just got sweat all over me!" She said in annoyance.

Diane laughed. "It's starting already!" Nicholas and Jenna looked at her confused. "I'm sure the words will get much worse, but just remember Nicholas, she doesn't mean any of it."

Nicholas nodded and helped Jenna from the couch. With Diane on one side of Jenna and Nicholas on the other, they walked Jenna out to the car, helping her the whole way out. They put Jenna in the back seat where she could lay a little more comfortably, then Nicholas and Diane got in the front seats.

Nicholas started patting his pockets frantically, looking for his keys, not remembering where he left them. Diane looked over and laughed, saying that it might be better if she drove.

"Why do you say that? I am perfectly capable mother!" Nicholas growled.

"I sincerely doubt that, especially when you can't even see that they keys are in the ignition and the truck is still on from when you came home." Diane said pointedly.

"Good point!" Nicholas said and got out of the driver's seat. Him and his mother switched seats, allowing her to drive them all to the hospital.

After arriving at the hospital, Jenna was brought up to her room, while Nicholas had to change into a set of scrubs. Diane left to get the kids from school and bring them back to the hospital so they could wait for their new baby brother or sister to be born.

When Nicholas finally got to Jenna's room, he was surprised to find her crying. "Baby, what's wrong?" He asked taking her hand.

"I don't want our baby to be born like this!" She wailed.

"Like what? In a hospital?" He asked, confused.

"No, as a bastard. We're not even married Nicholas!" She yelled.

"Jenna, this never bothered you before honey. I asked you if you wanted to get married before the baby was born and you said no. I thought you were fine with it." Nicholas said, trying to sound soothing.

"Well, I changed my mind, if that isn't obvious. But it's too late now." She said, crying even harder now.

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Nicholas told her. He ran down the corridor, pausing only briefly at the nurse's station to ask for directions. Finally he disappeared into the elevators.

Meanwhile, Jenna felt deserted. He had just left her. She knew that it was a bad idea to push Nicholas into getting married, and now she had lost him for good. Not only was she going to have to give birth alone, she was also going to have to raise the child alone. Despair set in and Jenna sobbed the whole time, getting angry though each contraction that she spent alone.

What seemed like hours later, but in reality was only ten or fifteen minutes, Nicholas came bursting through the door again, but this time he was followed by another man in scrubs.

"You didn't leave me?" Jenna asked in wonderment, sounding like a little kid.

"What? No! Baby, this is Pastor Paul. He's going to marry us, right here and now. I explained the situation, and he said he'd perform the ceremony. I had to go to the chapel to find him." Nicholas explained.

The smile that spread across Jenna's face was priceless. If Nicholas could bring that smile to her face every day of the rest of her life, he would feel like the happiest man on earth.

The pastor, seeing that the time was right, started the ceremony. He made it very brief, and though they didn't have any rings to exchange, it made for the perfect wedding. Jenna grinned the whole way through the ceremony, even during her contractions.

Just as he pronounced them man and wife and told Nicholas to kiss the bride, the doctor came into the room. "It's time Ms. Chase." She said.

"Actually, that's Mrs. Tiller now." The pastor took the liberty of saying.

*****

Jenna thought the labor was never going to end. She pushed and pushed with all her might, and never felt like it was enough. Nicholas stood by her side the whole time, holding her hand and wiping the sweat from her brow. He was amazed at her strength, and took every insult that she threw at him like a champ.

Finally the doctor called out, "Come on Jenna, you can do it. Just one more good push. In three, two, one, go!"

Jenna closed her eyes and pushed with every ounce of strength that she had left, to be rewarded by the shrill cry of a baby. She slowly opened her eyes to see the doctor cuddling a mess of a baby. Nicholas kissed her forehead as they both let the tears fall from their eyes.

"Congratulations, it's a girl and she has all ten fingers and ten toes. Dad, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?" The doctor asked, looking at Nicholas.

Nicholas nodded and moved to the end of the bed to cut where the doctor had pointed to. He then rejoined his new wife at the head of the bed, where the doctor placed their newborn daughter.

"We haven't even picked out a name yet." Nicholas said softly as he looked at the two beautiful girls before him. He had such an indescribable feeling, of pride and of joy.

"I've been thinking about it, and Emma came up with the perfect name. Jasmine Elise Tiller." Jenna told him hopefully.

"That's what Emma wants?" Nicholas asked and saw Jenna nod her head. "Well, as long as you like it and Colby won't be too upset, that's fine with me." He said, smiling.

*****

A few hours later, Jenna was finally situated in a private room, feeding her new daughter for the first time. For an instant, the room was quiet. Too quiet. Then, as luck would have it, she heard two little voices carrying from down the hall, with a deep voice following not far behind.

"Mommy!" Both kids yelled as they threw open the door to Jenna's room.

"Hi guys! Come meet your new sister!" Jenna told them quietly.

Both kids slowly and quietly walked closer to the bed where Jenna held Jasmine.

"She's kind of ugly." Colby said when he got close enough.

"Yeah, she doesn't look like us at all." Emma said. "But I think we'll keep her anyways."

Jenna laughed, as did two others. Nicholas and Diane came into the room, and everyone took turns passing around the baby. Both kids even got the chance to hold her.

When the nurse came in to take the baby back to the nursery, Nicholas told everyone they had an announcement to make. "Just before Jenna gave birth, we got a preacher to come into the delivery room and marry us." He said excitedly. "Since you guys weren't there with us, I wanted you to be here to see this part of it." Nicholas took two small boxes out of his pockets. They had their rings picked out for a few weeks, even though they still weren't sure when they were going to get married.

Nicholas took Jenna's ring out of its box first and walked over to her. He took her left hand in his and looked into her eyes. "Baby, I know this wasn't exactly the wedding that you wanted, and truthfully, it wasn't how I imagined it either. But I know all that matters is that you are now my wife, and we are bound together for eternity." He paused. "You know, it seems like all of our romantic moments happen in a hospital." He said with a smile, thinking back to when he proposed. "Jenna, I don't know where I would be without you in my life. I was so lost for so long, and now I feel like I have found my way back to living again. I owe it all to you. You came and mended my soul, when I thought it was a lost cause. You have brought me more happiness than I ever thought possible, and I vow to spend the rest of my life making you as happy and as complete as you've made me." He said, then slid her ring onto her finger.

Tears cascaded from Jenna's eyes, and she used the hand that Nicholas wasn't holding to wipe them away. "Well, I don't have a speech planned, because this is kind of a surprise, so let me see if I can wing it." Jenna joked, trying to get herself to stop crying after hearing her husband's touching words. "Last year, I think that I had given up hope of finding my true love. I felt like my life was stuck in a rut and I wasn't sure how to get out of it. I didn't think I could ever trust a man again, let alone be so close to one, but Nicholas, you proved me wrong. I feel like my life truly began the moment that we met, and I realized that all the pain and grief I had been through was worth it if it brought me to you. I was headed for such a lonely and sad existence when you came and stole my heart. I vow to you that I will give you my heart forever, and as your wife, I will do everything I can to keep you happy." She said, then slid his ring onto his finger, still trying to wipe the tears from her face. Nicholas leaned over and kissed her tears away.

"And I vow to be a good daughter!" Emma said as she jumped up onto Jenna's bed and cuddled against her.

Colby walked over to the bed, trying to be strong and show no emotions. But the look in his eyes as his gaze met Nicholas's said more than words could say. He was asking for the approval and love from Nicholas that he never got from his biological father, and when Nicholas picked Colby up and hugged him, Nicholas offered Colby the world.

Diane looked on at the small family from the hospital room door. She had never been so touched in her life, as she realized that the family was such a perfect fit, and they all belonged together. At that moment, all was right in the world.