Inevitably Yours

QUINN

“I can’t do it again. Can’t we just take him out now?” I whined. The short stint of steroids the doctor gave me seemed to help for all of five days. Then, it was back to this agonizing itching. Half my body was red and raw, with little relief in sight. All the over-the-counter options were useful for about an hour at a time. I had taken three oatmeal baths a day for weeks now; just the smell was making me sick.

“Okay, then, how about the cream?” Michael offered. I paced in front of the couch while he sat there desperately trying to help me. He just didn’t understand that I was overwhelmed at this point. My clothes felt like sandpaper; no matter how much I scratched or rubbed, the feeling didn’t go away. s*x was entirely off the table because even his touch wasn’t always soothing. I was utterly miserable.

“I can only put it on twice a day, and I did already,” I reminded him.

“What about the cold cucumbers?” he asked.

“Judy isn’t back from the grocery store. Arghhhh,” I g*****d, rubbing my palms over my chest. The rash had spread a bit more, now going below my knees onto my shins and crawling up the sides and tops of my breasts.

“What can I do?” Michael asked. I could tell he was scrambling, desperate to make this better in any way he could.

“I don’t know….” I started to cry. I stopped, covering my face with my hands. This was awful, and having a pup was supposed to be amazing. We surmised this had to do with my fae b***d, but that didn’t provide a solution. In my desperation, I even called my mom to see if she or any other women in our family had ever dealt with these issues. She was happy to talk to me but didn’t have any answers for me.

“I guess this would be a really bad time to tell you Nic planned a baby shower, and it starts in an hour,” Michael said, biting his l*p.

“Yea, a very bad time!” I grumbled.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

MICHAEL

Quinn was barely hanging in there, and I was right there with her. I don’t know how she did it, but every time she stepped downstairs, she hid her discomfort and agitation, going about being Luna well. But when she hit the privacy of our floor, I could see the wall crumble. I wished I could take it away for her, but I couldn’t.

I had gone back and forth about telling her about the baby shower. Nic and Andrea went to a lot of trouble to put it together, and we still needed plenty of things for the baby. All my focus had been on keeping Quinn from snapping with this new problem that we hadn’t been able to finish getting together all the baby stuff.

The shower distracted her enough for a few hours where I could relax. Her parents even sent a gift which I was not thrilled to accept. It was a nice car seat and travel system that Quinn was over the moon about, so I decided to let it pass. Seeing her happy was all I wanted.

In the following days I spent my time going between Alpha duties and Quinn. Jacqueline and Andrea were helping far more than I would have liked, trying to give me as much time with Quinn as possible. Quinn and I were able to put all the gifts away and make the nursery completely ready for a pup.

While the final weeks of her pregnancy had been difficult, to say the least, I was not prepared for what we believed to be our last doctor’s visit before the due date.

“Well, he just looks cozy in there,” the doctor said after an ultrasound.

“Yea, the little terrorist,” Quinn silently grumbled. I had to hold back the laugh. She loved the pup and was over the pregnancy complications.

“So, how does this work then?” I asked, expecting us to talk about the delivery.

“Well, he looks comfortable, so we will just leave him in there until he is ready,” the doctor said happily. Quinn’s head snapped up.

“Wait, no, back up!” she started. “Until he is ready?”

“Due dates are just approximates of when the baby comes to full term and should have no development left that benefits growing inside the womb,” the doctor explained.

“So get him out,” Quinn said.

“Well, it isn’t that simple. We want to leave him in there because every day inside of you makes him stronger,” the doctor said. “It isn’t uncommon for the pregnancy to go beyond term; we actually strive for it.”

“So she is just supposed to continue like this?” I snapped. I had endeavored to be the calm and collected one as Quinn dealt with this for weeks. I knew having a goalpost made the suffering easier; this was going to break her.

“I’m sorry, but if the pup isn’t ready to come out, then my medical opinion is to leave him in even with the Luna’s discomfort,” the doctor said.

“Discomfort? That is utter s**t. This goes so far beyond that! Her skin is no better than when you diagnosed it! Can you even imagine what it is like to walk around like that for weeks on end?” I exploded. I could feel a fraction of Quinn’s discomfort through our bond. It was grating on my nerves, so I could only imagine what it was doing to her.

“M,” Quinn said next to me. I looked at her only to find her shaking her head. I pulled my anger back in. Quinn looked at her doctor. “Is there anything we can do to encourage the labor to start? I’ll do anything at this point.”

“Sure, I can give you a few things that might help it along. I should clarify that we won’t just leave your pup inside of you indefinitely. At most, I wouldn’t want to leave him in there more than two weeks past your due date. But I’ll have you come back every two days to check on our progress if that is okay for you?”

“Yea,” I answered. “And if labor still hasn’t started by that two-week mark?”

“Then we will induce her. She is very young and healthy, so we can use the balloon method before resorting to drugs, I think,” she smiled.

“Thanks,” Quinn said.

When we left the office, I looked over the list the doctor gave us. The first thing was s*x. I looked at Quinn skeptically as she had already read it. “I don’t know how much of that I can survive,” she sighed. Too much movement made the feelings worse for her.

“How about some ice cream?” I suggested, hoping to distract her a little.

“Sure,” she said with a tight smile. Her hand was rubbing over her stomach from under her shirt. This whole thing was made even more frustrating by how adorable she was pregnant. Her short frame looked so stupidly cute with her round, pregnant belly. She had such a hard time bending at this point that she either wore sandals or no shoes at all, the latter being her default. I wanted to love on her constantly but had to refrain from touching her too much, so she wasn’t flustered.

“What about some french fries to dip into the ice cream as well?” I offered. That caught her attention. I laughed as I put the car in gear and headed out of the parking lot. Potatoes always got her.

“Do we have time, though? You have that conference call?” she worried.

“They can wait. This is far more important,” I told her honestly. It was slightly irresponsible but I only cared about her currently. It was hard to focus on anything when she was suffering.

“The world doesn’t revolve around me, M. There are other things we have to take care of,” she scolded.

“My world revolves around you. And my world needs some crispy, salty french fries to dip in some cold, creamy ice cream. So that is what we are doing right now,” I rebutted.

She shook her head, still smiling at me. “I love you even if you mix up the words ‘need’ and ‘want’ frequently.”

–

My dad smacked me in the head with his training staff. “Ow,” I growled, rubbing the spot. I had lost one of my training swords, so I only held one.

“Focus, dummy,” he growled back.

“I can’t,” I confessed. “I can’t get my mind off Q.”

“The world is still spinning, son. She’s asleep, and you need to work out. You’re getting complacent,” he pointed out.

“Sorry,” I sighed. My dad stepped back and grabbed my other sword. He tossed it through the air to me.

“You left your mate asleep, safely in your bed. Her guard is sitting on your couch with your favorite little warrior. Your housekeeper is also running around on alert. You made sure to tell them all if she made any sound to link you. You can focus on this while she rests,” my dad said pointedly.

“I know,” I said. “I’m just struggling. Her due date was nine days ago. She is hanging on by a thread, and I can’t even ease it for her anymore.”

“Your pup will come when it’s time. For now, you need to practice,” my dad said, taking his stance again. I dropped into mine, trying to put all my energy into what I was presently doing.

It didn’t work because ninety seconds later, I was on my a*s. “No more. This is useless until Quinn is better,” I conceded. My dad shook his head and helped me to my feet.

“Have you at least updated your mother recently? Let her know what’s going on with her first grandpup?” my dad asked as we started to clean up.

“No….” I said, and he gave me a pointed look. “Look, she is the one who decided to stay away. Quinn’s trying to reconcile with her parents, but I am still pretty mad at Mom. She hasn’t even apologized.”

“Alright,” my dad said, throwing his hands up. “Your choice. Just remember, your mom has been through a lot. She deserves some patience just like we gave you for a while.”

“Noted,” I sighed. “I’m going to go back to Quinn. I’m too anxious being away from her.”

“I’ll be waiting for the call to come to meet my grandson,” my dad said in goodbye.

–

“I think it’s time,” the doctor smiled after checking Quinn. Her head popped up, trying to look over her belly fruitlessly.

“Like time, time?” she asked excitedly.

“Well, tomorrow. If you are both ready, I think we should induce labor tomorrow,” the doctor clarified. “The pup is larger than necessary to deliver and strong. We can get this ball rolling. After delivery, we can do another round of steroids to help with the PUPPPs while your body finishes cleaning itself out from the pregnancy.”

“We’re ready!” Quinn said before I could say anything. The doctor laughed.

“Okay then,” she smiled. “Tomorrow, I’ll have you come to my office at the hospital, and we will put the balloon in. Afterward, you’ll get checked into Labor and Delivery. I want you to walk around so you guys can go down to the cafeteria, get some dinner, walk around the halls. By the next morning, we should be pushing out a pup.”

Quinn was almost skipping on our way out to the car. I couldn’t help but share in her excitement. Our pup was coming, and relief was in sight for the PUPPPs.

“Alright, what do we need to do?” I asked when we got back to the packhouse.

“Clean and pack!” she smiled. “We need to make sure everything is ready to bring the pup home, and we have everything for the hospital. The paperwork says to expect to be there three to five days.”

“I guess I better assemble the rest of leadership and get everyone ready for us to be gone,” I concluded.

“I’ll pack the hospital bags,” Quinn smiled. This was the happiest I had seen her in weeks, and I was all for it. I yanked her flush to me and kissed her deeply. She matched my enthusiasm, giggling a little.

When Nic, Andrea, Jacqueline, Enrique, and Judy were all informed as to what was going on and set with their specific tasks, I returned to our floor to find Quinn waddling around the kitchen. I stood at the top of the stairs watching her for a second. It looked like she was cleaning out the fridge and making a list. The diaper bag, an overnight bag, and the car seat were sitting atop the kitchen table, ready to head to the hospital.

“What are you doing?” I finally asked her, joining her in the kitchen.

“Cleaning out the fridge and making a list. I will have Judy grab a few things from the store before we come home,” she answered. “I want to keep everything simple for the first couple of weeks so we can adjust to having a pup.”

She turned around, and I pulled her to me. She gave me a playfully frustrated look. “Blue, we’re about to have a pup,” I smiled down at her. She nodded slowly, but her smile was enormous.

“I know,” she whispered.