Waiting All Along

"I think my water just broke!" Grace screamed while she took her time climbing down the steps of her and Paul's new home. They decided to leave the apartment on Paul's request the day that she decided she would marry him. They went house shopping she fell in love with this one, built in the suburb, there was adequate space surrounding the house to fit a football field, their nearest neighbor was far away.

She wobbled her way down the stairs knowing it would be crazy to holler to either Josh or Paul because they were all the way on the other side of this house and she was already so close to the door. She went right to the closet where they had a neatly packed bag inside arranged just in case of an emergency like this one. She felt the starting of a contraction and held herself immobile while she breathed through it, and even though she took calm even breaths, when the contraction passed she sighed relief. She dragged herself out the door with the overnight bag and didn't even close it back. When she got in the car, she exhaled in relief.

'At least this one hurdle is complete" she thought.

She picked up the Onstar phone and punched in the number for her husband, she forced a smile on her face because she knew he would be able to hear the smile in her voice. She wondered then if the pain she was feeling was anything she should smile about, but ignored the negativity her mind spewed while she listen to the phone ringing, finally he answered.

"Hello?" the smile was evident in his voice as well, Josh's voice could be heard in the background and from the sound out of it so were some other persons.

"Hey honey, can I borrow you for a sec?" she asked politely but feeling anything but, then another contraction made its ascent, the smile she had on dropped then and her facial features contorted to show that she was feeling some real pain.

"Oh baby couldn't it wait until the game's done, it's almost half ..." he started protesting, but she cut him off

"Now listen to me white boy, you're gonna haul you ass, to this fucking car and your gonna drive me to the damn hospital, if you're not here in 30 seconds I swear I'm gonna start this car and drive it right into the lake since obviously we're just a bother to your life." She hissed as the contraction held her in its grasp when it let go and she felt normal again, she started talking back to Paul, "sorry about that honey," she said but no response, "honey? You there?"

She looked up to see Paul racing from the house, his favourite team jersey on, a shorts and he was holding his sneakers in his hand, while running towards the car. To him her threat sounded sincere and after he heard her say she'd drive herself into the lake he dropped the phone and ran, because he didn't know whether she meant 30 seconds from the start of the call or from the issued threat or the time when they would hang up. He really didn't want to know, so he moved his ass and got to her.

She looked at him incredulously, "I was only kidding you know?" she asked. "but since you're here, my water broke and you need to get me to the hospital."

He stared at her incredulously, the tone in her voice before was one that he'd heard only when she meant to do what she said, but to be out here now and see her smiling at him was another thing.

"You can't just threaten to take my life away and be smiling with me." He said finally moving hurriedly to open the door to the driver's side.

"Oh come on," she said shrugging now, all the while timing her contractions, it's been almost three minutes since the last one, "I didn't threaten you." She finished as he put the car into drive.

"Yes you did." He replied trying to adopt the calm that she had, even though on the inside he was bubbling over with anxiety but she spoke so calmly he didn't want to be the anxious first time dad, afterall, this was their second child together. "You threatening to take your life is as good a threat as any."

He glanced at her, to see a huge smile on her face once his words were spoken. She was aware of how much he loved her because she saw it there in his eyes that he would give his life for her.

Her smile began to falter suddenly, she looked at her watch, six minutes, her face contorted as she braced herself for the onslaught of the pain. His heart accelerated then to a hundred beats per minute as he watched his wife as the pain rocked her body and he was unable to do anything but drive.

When he got to the hospital, she was rushed to the emergency room, while they were ushering her in, the doctor advised him to get his shoes on, which he doubled back to do in haste, in the short time that he left her to return they advised him that she had passed out and was having some complications, trying to stabilize her while preparing her for a c-section. He stood at the back of the private room conversing with the doctor, when he heard it.

His head whirled around to his wife, then back to the doctor, who needed no prompt then that he should do something, her heart rate monitor flat lined, he ran over and began barking orders to the nurses in the room, while the call for a cardiologist went out.

Grace in her semi conscious could hear the busy chatter around her, slowly she felt herself begin to rise, she looked around the room and spotted Paul immediately he was extremely pale as he gazed at her in horror, she looked down and realized that her spirit had been separated from her body, she looked down at her lifeless face as she rose, then she looked to her stomach where her unborn baby was still nestled in her body as doctors tried frantically to remove the her. She noticed too that the baby's spirit was split, it was half way out of her daughter's body and half way in. The baby then stretched an arm to her, she knew her daughter wanted to go with her, but she couldn't let that happen. Her surroundings began to blur, until it was no more and she was nowhere, it was white and extended as far as the eye could see in all directions, she turned around several times. Was it possible that this was it? She asked herself. She sat for a second trying to figure out what her next move would be, but even a few seconds sitting felt like eternity in a place like this.

So she rose, and as she was rising she noticed that a figure come to stand in front of her, she waited until she was up right before she glanced up and there stood Adam Tate.

"I never thought you'd be here so soon." He said to her with a malicious smile.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, turning her back to walk away from him, "I have dead relatives that I actually liked and on my death day I get saddled with you?"

He strolled behind her, smiling at her predicament, "I know right, but I had to see you to talk to you."

"So am I dead or not?" she turned sharpely asking, he almost collided with her due to the abrupt stop.

"Well now, you are not but this is the common ground where the dead and living can converse, there are millions of people here now, this place has no beginning or end." He answered.

"People converse here? why didn't you just go to a medium if you needed to talk and besides, couldn't you have gotten one of your kids, why are you trying to make my life a living hell, even when I'm this close to the grave."

"I didn't want to talk with my children, I wanted you."

She just looked at him now, he looked exactly like she remembered, his green eyes piercing into her soul, his auburn hair cropped. His nose crocked and his mouth stubborn just like Paul's.

"Why'd you do it?" she asked out of nowhere, and he knew exactly what she spoke of. His gaze fell to the ground unable to look at her anymore. "Why would you do that to me when I really didn't know you? You never took the time to know me, why would you do that to your own son?"

"Your right, I never knew you and I never wanted to." He replied after several seconds of silence, his gaze finally rising he met her steady glare, "I knew your mother." He confessed, watching the shock move across her face, she said nothing and waited for him to continue. "I met her back when we were teens, I was smitten but Bernice wouldn't give me the time of day." He started pacing now as he remembered his life "I had money, cars, all the things that they said women wanted and she still wouldn't even say hi. What can I say when you've got it all and spoiled rotten, anything you want you could get and I never got her. I found out later just how racist she was. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you were the daughter of my woman, you could have very well been my daughter, why was it that my son could have it all, everything that I wanted and that I should have had." He exhaled, then coming to a stop, she shook his head, "Even in my old days I've been petty and childish and just plain stupid, I knew you had a child for my son, but my pride couldn't let me let it go enough to admit what I did was wrong and that the boy should have his father in his life. I've been to a couple of Josh's baseball matches and as a grandfather, I was extremely proud. How could one mistake have the ability to hurt so many people for so long?" He asked more to himself than her.

"Listen if you've brought me here to justify your petty jealousy, it's not going to work so you can just go to h..., well since your dead already then I won't say hell, but just leave the living alone and rest your ass in damn peace." Grace replied with an unsympathetic face.

"My my, you've definitely gotten more vocal, I like it. Just as feisty as Bernice. One of the reasons I loved her. Don't get me wrong I do or did love my wife and children ..." he was about to explain when she held up her hands.

"Please," she said, "no more explanations, I could careless about them."

"Your right, I had the ability to make right and I didn't when I could, which is why I made the sacrifice for you."

"What are you talking about now, do, do I even want to know?" she stuttered, a disbelieving smile on her face.

"You were going to die today," he states simply, that got her attention

"Why didn't I?"

"I did my inquiries, I'm still in limbo, I'm afraid to stand judgment and I intercepted before you left your body, as we speak both you and the baby should have been in limbo, but the baby's alive and she's the one holding a grounding your soul between the two planes, you see, death should have gotten both of you, and since it would have gotten only one, the contract is null until next time." He finished, he saw just how confused she was, "Look I've been there over a year now and I still won't pretend to know how everything works, but I do know there are loopholes and that I want my grandchildren to have their mother. Look you really have to be heading back, so bye." He said walking off and becoming transparent.

"Wait!" she shout startling even herself, he stopped in mid stride and turned around, "you'll not answer any questions about death for me will you?" he smiled and shook his head indicating no, she figured, "tell me this, do you think you helping me now will help you get a better judgment when you do decide to leave limbo?"

"I hope it will." He said fading away completely, in that same instant she felt herself forcefully being pushed back into her body, to the sounds of her crying daughter. She wondered just how long she had been gone, before she allowed the pain to seep through her consciousness she wondered if that little show from Adam was really or if she allowed her over active imagination to take hold of her.