Ch 6- Birth

Patsy hadn't been out in forever and was surprised to feel the baby dancing within her even before she hit the dance floor herself. The room was crowded and her belly rested flesh against Eddy's back as they walked.

"Well look at this one; she's already hipper than Saffy isn't she?" Eddy giggled.

The baby's kicking gave Patsy a rare moment of hesitancy. Perhaps, if she were big enough to hear so well, then maybe it was a bad idea to have her stuffed into a mini dress and out at a club. Not used to such a confined space, the baby bounced and kicked, making her mother tremendously uncomfortable with every little punch and more than that, self-conscious. Bubble followed behind Patsy and Eddy, dressed in an obnoxious get up that mocked Patsy's outfit and state, an enormous pillow stuffed up under her dress, and a baby doll in her arms.

"Er look at this one, huge isn't she old girl?" Bubble muttered, gesturing to Patsy.

"Don't listen to her darling we're here to have fun, all right? It's the place TO BE SEEN." Eddy chuckled, taking a glass of something alcoholic off a passing tray and chugging it down.

Patsy was hesitant and looked around carefully, having never been clubbing so sober before. Normally she dragged Eddy around, encouraging her to partake in some of the wildest things imaginable but tonight their routine was switched. Eddy pulled Patsy about, ignoring her elongated moment of pause and the fact that her stomach kept hitting passers by.

"Come on darling let's dance. It's what we came to do!"

Patsy watched as Eddy pulled her onto the dance floor. She'd not been thinking right, or considering herself for what she was in that moment: a fat, pregnant whale.

"Eds who's going to want to dance with me with…"

"Well I'll dance with you, I'll dance with you darling!" Eddy cried.

Patsy, Eddy and Bubble had a surprisingly easy time fitting in on the dance floor, at least at first. Eddy, of course tripped on someone's shoe within a few minutes and started freefalling across the floor in her obnoxious six-inch heals, catching herself over and over again.

"I don't get it, this is a weird dance Eds." Patsy observed, trying to follow her friend in her falling.

Eddy grabbed Patsy's wrists, straightening herself up and taking a deep breath before starting to dance again. Eddy practically tripped over herself as she stood, Patsy more stable in her dancing now than she. Bubble stood to their side, slow dancing with the nude baby doll. They continued to dance and soon both friends had their wits about them, of course not realizing, as usual, that they were being discussed by practically everyone around them. Eddy was considered the mess, and Patsy (for the first time in her life) the fat one.

Suddenly, Patsy winced when a sharp pain ripped through her core. But she ignored it thinking that it was simply a pulled muscle and carried on dancing. Her heart picked up rapid speed over the next few minutes as the pain became more intense and she felt something inside just rip right through her.

"Oooow." She groaned audibly, but no one heard.

'Alright. It's all right you're alright.' She thought.

Patsy took a deep breath, deciding that all of this was nothing. She wasn't ready for it to be anything and moreover she'd begun to enjoy the party, despite not being totally trashed for once. She continued dancing, wincing every few minutes as the pain grew closer. Deep inside she knew this was it but wouldn't allow herself to accept it. Instead, Patsy crossed her legs, continuing to try to dance.

"Oooohoooh!" She murmured a sudden gush of water rolling down her legs, soaking the floor below.

"It's Niagara falls!" Bubble shouted.

"Shut up!" Patsy cried, holding her belly. "Eds…"

Suddenly, Eddy began to slip again and Patsy, bearing through the pain she was feeling, followed her a second time, thinking her friend's clumsiness was just part of the dance. Patsy bit her lip, not wanting to leave despite the fact that her water had broken and her pain was rapidly getting worse.

"Eds… Eddy!" Patsy said, trying to call her friend to attention. "Eddy!"

By this time, Eddy (who was now slipping and sliding in the fluid from Patsy's water) was immersed in the beat of the new song despite the fact that she was falling. Patsy's baby was also happily enjoying the song, not seeming to notice the pain that had overtaken her normally strong mother and was starting to rock her little world to its core.

"EddyEddyEddy!" Patsy cried out, finally doubling over. At that moment, Eddie finally fell smack on the floor.

"Easy old girl!" Bubble burst, still holding the doll close.

"Eddy!" Patsy cried, beginning to panic as the pain wrapped tightly around her core.

"Oh! Darling look at that." Eddy cried. "Your water's broke!"

…

"Ooooh, oooh Eddy, Eddy! I can't there's no use, I'm going to have it right here!" Patsy cried, panicked as they rushed along the busy London streets. Eddy had Patsy's hand and was pulling her along in the dark, trying to hail a taxi as they ran. "Eds is there a loo I don't think I can wait!"

"Hold it in darling hold it in!" Eddy shouted as the two of them rushed along, Patsy pressing her knees together as they tried desperately to hail a cab.

"I can't Eddy, I can't it's coming out!"

At that moment a cab sped by, rushing through a puddle and spraying them head to toe with water.

"You should've had the baby before you left the house!" Bubble chastised.

….

"Eds, Eds don't leave me! Please…" Patsy cried, reaching for her friend's hand as she was put in a wheelchair.

It took long enough, but they finally got to the hospital. Patsy was nervous and didn't want to be there at all, let alone there and apart from Eddy. She'd been dreading this for months, and worse, this would lead to the part she was really terrified of: raising it… or loosing it. It was like a moment of truth. Patsy didn't usually let herself stand for those.

"It's alright, it's alright darling. I just have to check you in and I promise I'll be right there in a minute. Alright?"

"And you are?" One of the nurses asked, raising an eyebrow at the tender scene before her.

Eddy took a wheelchair of her own and sat in it as Patsy was taken away. She began to peal off her obnoxiously tall, now soaking wet, heals not noticing that the nurse looked her up and down, not knowing what to make of her. At first she'd thought they were lesbians, and at second glance had been sure that couldn't be it.

"I'm um… well I'm the auntie. But I'm paying for the house and the nappies and the hospital bill. I'm the closest thing you'll see to a baby daddy, that's what I am sweetheart…." She laughed, leaning back in the chair and causing it to begin rolling backward down the ramp that led up to the maternity ward. "Ahhhhhhh! Owww!" Eddy yelled, the chair hitting a wall hard.

….

Patsy lie still once the nurse put her in the bed and left her alone. She found herself anxious and sullen and secretly worried to death about what was to come in a way that was horribly uncharacteristic. She didn't know that she could fathom how she felt, let alone voice it, but whatever happened she didn't think she could stand to have this little girl and then have to let go. Something inside urged Patsy to speak to the baby, but she found she couldn't will herself to make the connection: not right then, instead she took a deep breath and focused on Bubble.

"W-what are you doing?" Patsy asked, looking down toward the end of the bed where Bubble was hiding behind the footboard and repeatedly coming up.

"Trying to scare it out of ya!"

Patsy paused then hissed, causing Bubble to jump.

"I'm here darling, I'm here!" Eddy cried, grabbing the doorway as she rushed into the room.

"Eds… I'm scared." Patsy confided, looking over at the heart monitor as Bubble fled the room.

"There's no reason to be scared darling you're used to doctors."

"And needles." Patsy said dryly.

"I'll be your midwife. Having a baby is sublime darling, you have all these drugs and you're waited on hand and foot, you won't feel a thing…"

…..

An Hour Later

"Push, push darling. Push!"

"Ahhhhhhhhh! Eds, Eds, Eds, it hurts too much, I can't! I can't!"

"Stop it what are you doing!" Saffy cried, rushing into Patsy's hospital room, her packed bag on her shoulder.

She'd arrived late on account of the heavy rain. It was there she found her mother encouraging Patsy to push… when she wasn't even close to being ready.

"I'm having a baby what does it look like?!" Patsy growled, Eddy rubbing her lower back.

"It's too soon! YOU'RE NOT FULLY DIALATED it could really hurt you if you push now!"

"Well of course it hurts darling." Eddy rolled her eyes.

"Hey you lied!" Patsy spat, Eddy rolled her eyes.

"NO! It could break the baby's neck and rip you in half if you're not ready!" stop it!"

"And I suppose you've had a baby then miss know it all." Eddy mocked.

"No one would breed with her!" Patsy reminded as Eddy continued to rub her back.

"STOP pushing! That's why labor exists! So your body will know when its time to push!"

"Urrrrrgggg!" Patsy started to scream, causing Edina and her daughter to jump.

"Stop it, you'll scare the baby!" Bubble barked, cradling her doll in her arms.

"Aren't babies supposed to be born in a sterile environment?" Patsy questioned.

"Yes." Saffy sighed.

"THEN GET OUT OF HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH TROLL FROM HELL AHHHhhuuuugh!"

"Fine! Turn yourself inside out for all I care, break your daughter's neck! You won't have me to blame for it anymore!"

Saffy sighed; dropping the Louis Vuitton bag met for Patsy's baby and turned on her heals, heading out into the waiting room. Patsy and Eddy stopped for a minute, realizing they really needed her and knew nothing about this.

"Saffy!" They called.

…..

"W-what are you doing here?" Saffy asked, raising her unmanicured eyebrow when she found Bo and Marshall in the waiting room reading pregnancy magazines.

"We couldn't miss the blessed event!" Bo burst, her candor making Saffy a little uneasy.

"Oh my… what the bloody hell are you two doing here?" Eddy asked, following her daughter into the waiting room.

"Don't you dare Bo!" Marshall charged.

"We're here so Marshall can donate his sperm."

"BO!"

"Good god just what everybody wants…" Eddy muttered and Saffy covered her face in embarrassment.

"Just because I can't have children." Bo began.

"Thank god for the small things…" Eddy continued under her breath. "Doesn't mean that Marshall shouldn't know the joy of having a second

family!"

"Mum, weren't we going to the cafeteria?" Saffy asked, wanting a way quickly.

"Yes darling, yes, yes."

Mother and daughter hurried away and went back to Patsy's room where they were surprised to find Bubble at her side, dutifully helping her through a contraction, both needing a break from Patsy's yelling they retired to the cafeteria for real.

…..

"I-it brings back a lot of memories you know, darling?" Eddy smiled, squeezing Saffy's hand as they walked down the hall, finishing their frozen yogurt.

"Yeah?"

"Yes darling of course."

"Mum… you always talk about… well Patsy always says…" Saffy bit her lip. She'd never asked before, too afraid to do it.

"Grrrrahhhhhhhhhh! Eddy!" Patsy cried.

Eddy pat her daughter's hand and rushed away to Patsy's side, giving Saffy an answer to her question without having said a word.

"Eddy, Eddy I need drugs Eddy!" Patsy growled, grabbing her friend's jacket harshly when she got close enough.

"Darling, darling they've given you everything they can."

"Arrrrrrrggggg! Ahhhhhh!" She took a deep breath.

"None of the drugs work anymore darling you've gone too far!" Eddy reminded.

"Give me heroin!" She barked at a nurse who was tending to her IV.

"Oh come on Pats you know it won't do anything." Eddy shrugged, sitting down and going back to her magazine.

"Miss Stone anything stronger will stop your heart." The nurse explained.

"Nonsense it's always started back up again!"

"She's right." Saffy indicated, coming back in the room.

The nurse gave a frustrated sigh. "You may be able to withstand anything, but your baby cannot. "If you have anything more she could have serious complications: like brain defect, withdrawal, it could even stop her heart."

"Ha!" Patsy gasped, her own heart skipping a beat at the thought.

"I'm going to go call dad and tell him where I am." The teen announced, crossing her arms and following the nurse out of the room.

Patsy sat up, frantic now even though her contraction was over. Eddy paused, watching her friend cup her side in her hand as she watched the heart monitor blip peacefully at her side.

"You're alright, Patsy everything's going to be fine."

"But…"

"Her heart's normal right now."

"But she said…"

…..

"Push, push Pats I was wrong before now's the right time." Eddy whispered.

Two more hours had passed before it was time for the baby to come and Patsy was hysterical, not only that, the baby's heart rate had dropped tremendously. She gripped Eddy's hand with her right and Saffy's with her left, grateful to not be alone, but unable to stop thinking of Simon.

'Who needs him?' Something in the back of her mind urged right at the moment she'd been informed that her daughter's head had entered the world.

She tried to justify it all, to vilify him with every ounce of energy she had left but found she could not. The normally cold woman found herself a bundle of emotions as she gave birth, most noticeably wishing her child's father were there with her, holding her hand not because she needed him but because she loved him.

"URRRRRGGGGG!" Patsy cried.

"There you are, there you are, just one more that's it, that's it darling ooh look at all that blonde hair she's got do you see? Look Saff."

"Don't you dare look!" Patsy barked.

"No thank you." Saffy had her head turned away, definitely not wanting to see Patsy in this state.

"Arrrrrrrrrghhhhh!" Patsy cried as the baby was finally born.

"Look darling, there she is! There she is!" Eddy cried. "It's baby Pats!"

"Baby Pats! You were serious?" Saffy had never been sure they'd been serious of the choice.

"It's a beautiful name!" Patsy cried, taking her baby in her arms.

All fell silent, save the baby's sobbing as Patsy first held the child (Eddy and Saffy looking on. All of them had been on edge about the baby's health, their breath taken away in awe by the act that she was there and alive and crying. It appeared that her heart trouble in the womb had passed her by.

"Oh my goodness Pats you did it!" Eddy cried.

"She's so cute!"

"She's going to be a model!" Eddy sighed.

"Is that a little smile?" Saffy cried.

"You haven't smiled yet, but we've been waiting darling." Eddy snapped.

But Patsy took one look at her scrunched up little face and started to cry, the enormity of what just happened finally taking its toll.

…..

"H-hi." She whispered

Several hours had passed and Patsy quietly marveled over the baby at her side. She gazed down in awe, wondering if she'd done the right thing after all. She took the back of her hand, and as gently as she could manage, ran it through the baby's hair, finding herself afraid to touch the tiny thing who'd been left in her embrace. The baby kept her eyes closed tight and sucked her pacifier faster at her mother's touch. For however uneasy Patsy was around the child, the child was used to her.

"What did a sweet little thing like you ever do to get a mummy like me?" She whispered so softly her words were barely audible.

Patsy knew she was awful and that she'd continue to be awful. She'd known she'd wanted it when she was pregnant but the moment it was born something in her heart changed and she was so overwhelmed by it she didn't think she could admit it: she was in love now, hooked in a way she hadn't known that love could exist.

'Who needs Simon?' She asked herself, now knowing the answer to the question.

Even so, she'd been moved to put his name on the birth certificate and had done so even after Eddy had urged her to put her down in he 'father' category. No one had ever given her the chance to know her father's name.. she could at least give her baby that.

Patsy sighed, placing her forehead against the baby's. Little Pats was her world now. In that instant, Patsy finally understood what had kicked in for Eddy eighteen years previous and why she'd kept Saffy, although she'd never admit that either. One moment she'd been scared to death and the next, as this little thing was placed in her embrace, her maternal instincts had kicked in so powerfully she could barely fathom it.

Eddy watched from a recliner on the other side of the room, holding a half asleep Saffy in her arms.

"Brings back a lot of memories darling." She whispered.

"Mum." She bit her lip, her eyes tearing up at the scene before her. "Why did you keep me?"

Eddy said nothing for a moment and simply gave her daughter a great big kiss on the forehead, wrapping her arms around her ribs in a way that caused the teen to smile without being able to help it. Saffy closed her eyes but Eddy continued to watch her friend.

"Because I couldn't let go."

"Patricia Annabella Lucille Victoria Edina Mary Jane Stone." Patsy began, placing her nose against the newborn's as she sighed. "I don't know how to love you because no one ever showed me the way. And so. I can't promise that this will be perfect, or there won't be a lot of big bumps … but know very much, on the hard days, that I love you and very much wanted you."