“Lori? Is it contractions?” Lockie asked quietly.
Lori nodded.
“I’ll get Jack.”
Lockie ran off ahead, while Cyke and Duke helped Lori outside.
“Oof! Lockie, watch out,” Jack said, when she nearby banged into him.
“Lori’s having contractions.”
“What?”
Then Jack spotted his wife. With hardly a thought, he passed his box to Lockie (who took it to the kitchen), and took over from Cyke.
“The grocery truck - all the cars are parked in,” he suddenly realised as they walked through the front door.
“Something wrong?” asked Babsie, heading towards the house with a box of her own.
“Lori’s going into labour,” Jack informed her.
Babsie paused, looked around and came to the same conclusion they had only moments before. There was still a lot of boxes yet to unpack. Then a beautiful sight arrived, Xavier’s solar powered, temperature-changing rainbow spectrum convertible.
“Xavier! Don’t shut off the engine!” Babsie yelled.
Too late. Xavier didn’t hear her and got of out the car. He was about to lock it when he saw Jack and Lori headed towards him.
“Lori’s in labour. Can you get us to the hospital?” Jack asked.
Xavier looked around, noticed the truck parking in all the other cars, and nodded. The back door was opened, and Lori and Jack slid in. Xavier got back into the drivers’ seat and put his thumb over the ignition. His fingerprint was scanned, and the engine came on.
“Want the roof?” he asked.
“Yes please,” Jack replied.
Xavier pressed the button for the roof and zoomed off towards the hospital. They arrived in good time and Lori was rushed inside.
About three hours later, Jack walked out of the delivery room to where Xavier was waiting. He was holding a little bundle.
“It’s a girl,” he told him. “Elisa May.”
“Hello little Elisa,” Xavier greeted with a smile. “How’s Lori?”
“She’s doing fine.”
“Good. Hey I just realised… Elisa May was born in May!”
“So she was,” Jack laughed.
**********
“What are you doing?” Casey asked, watching Sandy pack her things. “You’re not going back to him are you? After what he did?”
“I… yes Casey, I am.”
“But why? He did it once, what’s there to say he won’t do it again?”
“Casey -”
“Sandy, I don’t want to see him hurt you again,” Casey replied, putting one hand on Sandy’s shoulder and the other on her bulging abdomen. “I just think… You’re pregnant, hun, I don’t think you’re thinking straight. You get very emotional -”
“Casey, I’m going home, and nothing you’re going to say will convince me otherwise.”
“But why? Why are to going back to that -”
“Because at the end of the day Casey,” Sandy interrupted, “I still love him.”