This is the third chapter of my story of Amelia and Alex. If you have just stumbled across this story cycle for the first time, please read Parts 1 and 2 first.
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"Alex, can you take time off next week? I've a long session booked at the clinic and it'd be useful if you came along. Save me having to repeat myself after, if you hear it too."
"Sure, what day?"
We were pretty certain we knew when Amelia had conceived, sometime during those weeks she went surfing. That made sense, our passion rode high during those days, what with the long ocean waves and the moving encounter with the old woman, her blindness and delicate touch. Sam too, and me. Amelia's men.
Amelia was always well tuned to what her body told her, she had to be; but somehow, I don't know, after those days she was even more focused and intense. Nights especially, she craved closeness and touch, and often during the night I would wake and find her head on my chest, her ear over my heart, and her hands cupping my soft cock and balls. She'd be fast asleep, but every now and then her arms and upper body would twitch and she'd sigh and shift in the bed. I was afraid to move, for fear of waking her. Her legs and feet were always still, but I would reach down to make sure they were warm.
I often asked myself, as she slept, "can we do this, Amelia?" I wasn't sure. A child? I sure as hell didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I hoped someone did, because Amelia hadn't done this before, either. She'd bluff her way through if she had to, I knew that, but good advice would be handy.
As it turned out, Mary the clinic nurse was a no nonsense midwife who didn't put up with precious women.
"Right, you girls are all here for one thing. You gotta learn that a baby is full of shit and piss and vomit, you're gonna get it all over you. Some days, you gonna be the same. Who here gets morning sickness? You got a head start, if you do."
"Tell me about it," one woman said, "I call it travel sickness. Every time I get up and move about, my gut churns. Jesus, it's terrible."
Amelia was lucky. Other than a few mornings, she had avoided sickness, and she was coming up for twelve weeks, a little extra roundness starting to show in her belly.
"You just won't believe what mix of foods some of you girls are going to crave," Mary added. "I've seen it all. I sure wouldn't eat some of it!"
"And you, honey," she said, looking at Amelia, "you got some extra things to look out for. When we're done here, I'll introduce you to Kara. She knows what she's talking about. We'll look after you."
Just from the way she spoke to these women, who would be her girls for the next six or seven months, I sensed a big heart behind Mary's big breasts.
"And I see you've brought someone along who had something to do with you being here." Mary looked at me, and why did I sense that her jury was out when it came to me? Perhaps she waited a while to get a measure of all the men who came along to her clinics. At least I was there.
"No, Alex is good, he does just fine." Amelia quickly jumped to my defence. "He does his best, anyway."
Ah me, the way Amelia looks at me when she teases me, when she says she loves me in her round-about way.
"We'll see," said Mary. And she winked at me, a laugh in her eyes, and I knew I'd taken my first step with her. The first of many, I thought, but who better to walk steps for. My Amelia.
Even as I thought that thought, I looked across at Amelia. Fuck me, there's her eyebrow, ever so slightly raised - your Amelia, Alex? I don't think so! She always knows what I'm thinking. I raised my brow in return. She smiled at my response, laugh lines spreading from her eyes. Even when she's tense, Amelia's eyes soften and she's beautiful.
So now I have to cope with two tough women. Three tough women later on, because I knew Amelia's mum Carolyn would come out from England to help. And knowing my luck the next nurse or therapist, whoever she was, Kara, would also take no prisoners. I was starting to feel superfluous here, seriously unqualified. What is it about women, that sometimes they don't need men?
Ah, so that's why Mary said Kara would know what she was talking about. The therapist moved into the room in her own wheelchair, her face framed by a mane of russet red hair, twisted high on her head in a coil. She reached across to Amelia, touching her arm in greeting.
"Hi, I'm Kara. You must be Amelia."
"Hello, yes, that's me. The pregnant Amelia. That one." As if to say, there are many more Amelias, but just this one, the pregnant one, here today.
Kara turned to me, her green eyes startling in their intensity.
"Hello, I'm Alex," I said, introducing myself. "I'm with Amelia." That was unnecessary; but then, at this point, so was I.
Kara quickly got down to business, and I learned about autonomic dysreflexia for the first time. Fuck, I didn't like any of those words and what they meant. I paid attention, I really did. In my way of trying to understand it all, I reduced it to mean jumbled reflexes with no feedback mechanism, where an irritation below the point of spinal damage could trigger a nervous response that the brain couldn't control. Amelia would have no control if something went wrong? Life threatening? Fuck that.
Driving back home, she was quiet.
"Did you know about the autonomic dysreflexia thing?" I asked, worried about her response.
"Yes. It's something they told me about, back in the spinal unit. The thought of being pregnant, and possible complications, was light year's away from me back then. But they told me what to watch out for, as it can happen any time. Kara's just reinforced it, how it's a risk for a pregnant woman like me."
Amelia turned to me. "It's OK, I can handle it. You know about it now, too. But for fuck's sake, you're not to treat me like I'm a broken doll. I'm not. Plenty of women get complications through a pregnancy. This is just a special one, for when you've got a fucked up spine like mine."
"There's a big risk, though, isn't there, of shit going seriously wrong?"
"Yes. Yes, there is. It's a risk." Amelia reached over and ran her fingers down my cheek, touching them to my lips. "It's why I had to be sure."
"Sure of what?"