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She was lying upside down in their bed, not knowing what exactly to do or feel at that moment.
“Okay Redfield, you got this!” Jill said to herself. “It’s a fucking stick, it’s not gonna kill you. Change your life forever, yes, but it’s not gonna kill you.” Jill ranted to herself and held the stick in her hands.
“Are you okay?” Chris asked as he walked into their room. He laughed when he saw Jill lying upside down on their bed.
“No! I’m being defeated by a stick! A fucking stick!” Jill frowned. The two had been married for almost three years and had been talking about possibly having a kid for the past year.
“Okay, come on.” Chris walked over to the bed and picked Jill up and sat her in front of him. “Jill, it’s a stick. All you have to do is pee on it.”
“I know, I’m just…nervous,” Jill admitted. They had been trying for a baby for almost a year and Jill had already gotten eight negative tests. Yes, this upset her a little, but she knew things could be a lot worse.
“I just, I feel like maybe it’s just not the right time. I feel like if this one is negative, maybe we should stop actively trying, just let it happen if it happens.” Jill let out a long sigh before looking down at the test in her hand.
Jill was normally the positive one between the two, so seeing her so upset hurt Chris very badly.
“Hey,” Chris started, he grabbed Jill’s chin and brought her face up to meet his lips for a kiss, “If that’s what you want then that’s fine. If this one turns out negative then we can just let things happen on their own as you said.”
Jill looked up at Chris and smiled before kissing him again. “Okay, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Jill got up off the bed and took a deep breath before opening the bathroom door and going to take the test.
“I can’t just sit here and wait. You can watch it if you want, but I’m gonna go finish reading that report I need for my meeting tomorrow,” Jill said as she opened the bathroom door and put the test down on the bathroom sink.
Jill had already read the report she was referring to, but she couldn’t just sit there and look at the test and wait.
Those three minutes seemed like three hours, she was sitting at her desk just dozing off. It was only when Chris called her that she snapped back into reality.
“Jill!” Chris called out. Jill’s eyes widened and she ran to their bathroom. Chris turned around and looked at her. He looked up at her and smiled.
She knew what that meant.
“Really?” Jill asked, her voice muffled due to her hands being over her mouth. Chris couldn’t say anything, he just smiled at her.
“Chris…” Jill’s voice was just above a whisper. She couldn’t believe that she had her first positive pregnancy test.
“We’re gonna have a baby?” Jill questioned, still unable to wrap her head around what just happened. Chris cupped her face and his thumb ran over her cheekbone. “We are going to have a baby…!”
Those nine months just seemed to fly by. Jill was lucky and had a relatively easy pregnancy, with barely any morning sickness or nausea. Because of this, Jill didn’t stop working, she said she would take it kind of easy, but still wouldn’t stop until she had the baby.
She did stay home whenever she needed to though, but she didn’t like it. She would get super bored and a bored Jill was usually a bad Jill. She would mainly call Chris and tell him her water broke just to see what he would do.
“How long are you going to be out after you have the baby?” Rebecca spun around in her chair to look at Jill.
“10 weeks. I’m gonna be working from home. I'll still have cases, I just won’t physically be here and I’ll be doing more of the behind-the-scenes stuff because I’m one of the original 11 which is a huge perk in this matter,” Jill said with a small laugh.
“I still don’t see why you’re still working at 35 weeks pregnant. You were out on the field today after a BOW attack. I know you didn’t do anything you shouldn’t have, but you were walking and moving around a lot and I honestly thought you went into labor. I know you can still see your toes and you look like you’re barely 5 months pregnant, but I was still super worried.” Rebecca told Jill as they both started getting ready to leave work for the day.
“Honestly, me too. I was having bad braxton hicks contractions and thought I was gonna start having actual contractions after 45 minutes. I think I’m gonna stay home tomorrow and rest just to be safe, Fetus has been moving a lot since we got back.”
“Please do, I want a chunky niece or nephew that I won’t have to worry about breaking while holding them.” Rebecca laughed as they walked out of their shared office and down the hall to Chris’ office.
“Well, I’ll text you tomorrow. Night,” Rebecca said, waving off Jill. “Talk to you tomorrow. Night Becca,” Jill responded before opening Chris’ office door.
“You ready to go?” Jill asked after she closed the door.
“Just about, just submitting this report. Kid still active?” Chris asked as he turned his chair around and put his hand on Jill’s stomach.
“Extremely! This kid was kicking and moving a second ago. I’m telling you now, if fetus keeps this up I’m not gonna get any sleep tonight.”
“You gonna stay home tomorrow?” Chris asked as he felt how active their unborn child was.
“Probably, I’m so extremely tired, and little one is probably not going to sleep tonight.” Jill pouted.
Chris gave a soft laugh at Jill’s pouty face before he turned his laptop off and got his things ready to go.
“Well I’m ready to go so c’mon, maybe the kid will be calm by the time we get home,” Chris said as he opened his office door.
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Jill laughed. The drive from work to their house wasn’t too long, only 25 minutes, but during the drive home, Chris noticed Jill shifting in her seat every now and then.
“You okay?” Chris asked, you could hear the concern in his voice. “Yeah, I’m okay, kid just keeps pushing on my blather so now I need to pee.” Jill laughed as she reassured her husband.
When they finally got home, Chris got out of the car and went around to open Jill’s door. He stood behind the door and watched as Jill got up and then just stood there, typing something up on her phone.
“Jill, what are you working on? We just got home and you need to relax. Can you leave the email or whatever you're working on for tomorrow and come inside?” Chris asked. “I would, but my water just broke,” Jill said as she continued to look at her phone.
“Jill, are you being for real!?” Chris asked her. Since Jill would always prank him and say her water broke, he didn’t know if she was messing with him or not. “Deadass. Give me a minute to process and then I’m gonna go change and you can grab the hospital bags and food because they won’t let me eat.”
Not knowing if it was his training or seeing how calm his wife was, Chris had managed to stay calm and did everything Jill asked him to do while she changed.
“So, you’ve been having conversations and didn’t think to tell me?” Chris questioned as they got back to the car with everything Jill wanted and needed.
“I mean they weren’t bad so I kind of just let it happen. I honestly thought I just peed myself at first because I had just sneezed and this kid has been moving a lot and I already really had to pee.” Jill shrugged. Luckily her contractions still weren’t painful when she got to the hospital and since her water had already broken they went ahead and admitted her and got her into a room.
“So do you know what you’re having?” Jill’s nurse asked as she got her settled in her hospital bed. “No, we wanted some surprises in our life.” Jill chuckled as she watched her nurse put some monitors on her stomach.
“Well, I’ll make sure to put that in your chart. You were at four centimeters when you came in so I’ll be back to check how far along you are in half an hour, but if you think you feel anything I will check you right away. If you need anything just hit the call bottom and I’ll be here as fast as I can.”
Jill thanked her nurse before she left and then looked over at Chris with a nervous smile. “It’s happening. We’re gonna take an actual baby home by the end of the week!”
“And you said me making sure everything was ready last week was me being too controlling.” Chris teased.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Hey, you might want to let Piers know you won’t be there this week and fill him in on your cases.” Jill said after she grabbed her phone to text Rebecca and Claire.
Both Jill and Chris were able to relax and take a nap for about an hour before Jill started to feel uncomfortable.
A couple of hours after Jill was admitted, her contractions started to pick up which caused her to panic a little. The only position that made her comfortable and relaxed was sitting crisscrossed and leaning back on her hands while Chris rubbed her back. Her head rested on her shoulder as she did her best to keep her breathing steady.
“It’s like—it feels like that one time whenever I fell down that elevator shaft and landed on my knife.” Jill managed to say. Talking seemed to keep her mind off of everything and as much as she wanted some quiet time, she was making Chris talk to her about anything and everything to keep her mind off of the pain.
After a couple more hours of contractions and moving around to try to get somewhat comfortable, Jill had finally found some type of relief by laying on her side a specific way.
“Your kid won’t let me relax.” Jill groaned as she tried her best to close her eyes for at least 20 minutes. She had one hand on her bump and the other putting pressure on her lower back which was helping to relieve some pain.
“Now it’s just my kid?” Chris joked. “Fetus has been good up until now, so yes, now that the kid is misbehaving, it’s just your kid. God, I’m so ready to stop calling our baby ‘it’.” Jill chuckled and moved her hair out of her face.
“I’m getting sweaty and my hair is sticking to my forehead and it’s kind of pissing me off. Can you put my hair u-oh shit…!” Jill wasn’t able to finish her sentence before she got another bad contraction.
“Chris, I love you, but please don’t touch me right now. I know I asked you to put my hair up, but give me a second.” Jill said as sweetly as possible before she buried her head in one of her pillows.
Jill reached her hands out to grab another pillow to put under her hip but couldn’t find it, lucky for her, she had an amazing husband who was there to help her get comfortable.
After another couple of hours, Jill’s contractions started to get worse and were now starting to kick her ass to the point where she started crying. Even though she felt like she was dying, Jill was still extremely stubborn and was refusing the epidural even though she had been in labor for a total of 30 now.
She was doing everything she could to not get an epidural, but after a very scary drop in her baby’s blood pressure and her developing a high fever, she was rushed into an emergency c-section.
“Okay, I don’t want to scare either of you, but I am letting you know baby is not gonna cry once they come out. From what we can see right now, the cord is around the neck. We’re gonna rush baby back so you guys won’t get to see your baby for a little bit, but I promise everything else looks perfect!”
Chris looked over at Jill and saw her close her eyes to hold back tears. Even though the doctor promised that ‘everything else looks perfect’, she was still scared.
Her child wasn’t breathing. How could things still be considered perfect?!
Both of their hearts broke when they saw their baby being rushed away and they didn’t hear anything.
No cries, not even a whimper. Just a blue, little baby that was barely moving.
“I know you’re scared, but your baby has steady vital signs right now so I need you to focus on that. There is a heartbeat and your baby IS still alive.” One of the nurses came back after a couple of minutes and looked down at Jill.
“Your baby is already getting color back, I promise everything will be okay. Once you’re in recovery I promise I will give you an update.”
Jill just lied there and silently bawled her eyes out as she was getting stitched up. She and Chris wanted this more than anything, they wanted a baby more than anything, but now their little one was struggling to hold on to his life that had just started.
Chris was barely keeping it together, he let a few tears slip out here and there, but he knew he had to keep it together for the both of them so he just sat next to Jill and stroked her head and kissed her occasionally.
“Can you just put me out? Can you put me out please?” Jill begged as she started shaking.
“I can’t since we’re already almost done here, but they can give you something when you get to recovery.”
Jill looked up at Chris, she was looking at him for comfort while also trying to comfort him because she knew this was just as hard on him as it was on her.
Once Jill was stitched up and taken to her recovery room, her nurse came to help her relax and get as comfortable as possible.
“I know it’s extremely hard to relax right now so I’m just going to give you something to get your blood pressure down and it will knock you out within the hour. I’m going to go check on your baby and see if I can get an update. If you need or want anything just let me know,” Jill’s nurse said in a soft voice.
After Jill’s nurse had checked on her baby and given both Chris and Jill an update, Jill fell asleep.
Chris stepped out once he knew Jill was out cold and went to his car to just let himself feel all his emotions and to let Rebecca and Claire know what was going on.
After a while, Chris got himself together as best as he could and went back up to Jill’s room and sat next to her, holding her hand and watching her, making sure that she wasn’t having a nightmare.
Once she woke up, she had a breakdown, she cried and cried and held onto Chris for dear life before her nurse had to give her more medication because her blood pressure had spiked again. The medication calmed her down and put her to sleep again.
Once she woke up again, Jill sat in her hospital bed, biting at her fingers. They still weren’t allowed to see their baby because they still had him under close observation in the NICU. It had been six hours since her surgery and they still hadn’t gotten an update since the first one, six hours ago.
After sitting in silence for 3 more hours, Jill just started crying again. Chris got up from his chair and went to hug her.
“Hey, everything is gonna be okay. We’re gonna see the baby soon.” He reassured her.
“I know, I’m just so frustrated! I just wanted to come in, have my baby, and be happy. I wanted to just have that moment of our child being put on my chest and all the tears of joy, but instead, we’re both crying tears of sorrow, and our baby almost died! We still don’t even know if we have a son or a daughter. I’m so exhausted and frustrated!”
Jill was just so over everything at this point. Her body had worked so hard and she didn’t feel like the work she and her body had done over the past nine months paid off.
“I know you’re upset and frustrated, but right now all we can do is hope for the best. Your nurse said the baby was okay. Hopefully, we will get to see for ourselves soon.”
“Have you talked to Claire and Rebecca?” Jill asked as she wrapped herself in Chris’ arms. “I told them that little one was here and there were complications, but everyone is alive. Claire said to let her know if we need anything and Rebecca said to take our time with updates and just to focus on us right now.”
Both Chris and Jill sat in that quiet room for what felt like forever, but after a total of 13 hours, their child was finally brought to them. Both Jill and Chris immediately started crying as they saw and heard their baby cry for the first time.
“Alright Mom and Dad, here is your healthy 5 pounds 8 ounces, 18.2 inches, baby boy.”
Jill let out a small laugh and wiped her tears before looking up at her husband. “We have a baby boy?” She whispered. “We have a son..!”
Chris said excitedly.
The nurse rolled the incubator closer to Jill so the baby could finally be put on his mother's chest. He stopped crying as soon as he was against her. Jill couldn’t help but cry more.
“We’re gonna go ahead and keep both of you here for about three days. We just want to make sure both of your vitals are stable and we want to keep an eye on your spleen because it looks a little inflamed. Other than that you are both perfect.” The nurse smiled and put a blanket over the infant to keep him warm.
“Do you guys have a name picked out?” The nurse asked as she made sure both Jill and the baby were settling in fine. Both Jill and Chris looked at each other and then down at their son.
“Archer Elliot,” Chris said proudly.
Archer was his dad’s name and Elliot was Jill’s twin brothers name who passed when he and Jill were in collage.
“That's a beautiful name. I will go ahead and bring a birth certificate whenever you’re ready to fill it out and if you want and or need anything else just let me know.” Both Jill and Chris thanked the nurse before socking up their baby boy.
“Awe, look at you, you’re so small…” Jill whispered with her eyes glued on her newfound love. “He looks too much like you.” Jill chuckled as she looked over at Chris.
Chris laughed in response before whipping Jill’s stray tears off of her cheeks.
It was true, although Archer had just been born, he was already a spitting image of his dad. The same nose, face shape, lips, and the same black hair, some red scattered here and there.
“I’m gonna be mad if he didn’t at least get my eye color.” Jill joked. She was already madly in love with this little boy and she wanted to hold him closer even though he was already skin-to-skin with her.
“Is it just me or does the love you have for him feel different, almost like it’s so strong that it hurts.” Jill looked over at Chris and then back down at their son.
“It’s not just you. My whole body hurts in a way.” Chris admitted to Jill.
Jill closed her eyes for a minute and just embraced her little boy. Chris quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture of the two before brushing some of Jill’s hair out of her face and kissing her forehead.
Jill and her little one ended up falling asleep soon after being reunited because they both had a very long past few days. Jill was giving birth to her son and her son was busy being born and fighting for his life.
Chris took this time to send an update to Rebecca and Claire. He also sent out an email to the team to let them know he and Jill would be out for a while and that Piers would be holding down the fort till he got back to work.
Chris also took this time to just admire Jill and their son. He knew his wife was amazing and strong, but after everything she had endured over the past couple of days, Chris had a new admiration for her. He just sat there and admired them for two hours before Jill had woken up from her nap.
“You are fucking amazing, Jill.” Chris smiled down at Jill and kissed her forehead before he caressed her temple.
“Can you help me sit up so I can pass him over so I can send a picture to Claire and Becca,” Jill said as she passed Archer over to his dad so he could place him in his bassinet and help her sit up before Chris couple pick Archer up again and sit next to Jill on the hospital bed.
Archer settled perfectly into his father's arms before letting out a yawn. Jill smiled and then took the picture and sent it to Claire and Rebecca.
“Oh, those are blue eyes,” Chris said after seeing his son open his eyes just for a second. “He’s so perfect, even if his eyes don’t stay blue, he’s still perfect. I mean, look at him.” Jill rested her head on Chris’ shoulder and leaned down to kiss Archer's head.
“He is most definitely perfect and very adorable,” Chris said softly before he leaned down to kiss Jill.
The two of them were extremely grateful that they were able to get a lot of help and advice from the nurses for the few days they were there, but they were so ready to go home so the day both Jill and Archer were to get discharged Chris and Jill were quick to get all their belongings together and themselves ready to go.
After Chris got all the bags in his car and Jill signed her discharge papers, Archer was put into his car seat and they were officially ready to go home.
“We have a baby. We have a whole baby,” Jill said as she looked down at Archer who was in his car seat. Though he was three days old, it had just hit her that she had a baby.
“Yes, we do, he’s been here for a few days now.” Chris chuckled as he leaned down to kiss Jill before fixing his son’s blanket.
“Are you ready to go?” Chris asked Jill. She looked back at Chris and smiled before looking back at their son.
“I’m so ready. I’m ready to go home as a family of three.”
Chris smiled and kissed her again before picking up Archer's car seat.
“Alright, then, let’s go.”