Sluggish was the only word to express how Luna had been feeling the last few days. She had been experiencing minimal abdominal cramping and had chalked it up to early-on Braxton Hicks contractions, which was normal at her point in her pregnancy. Luna was in her 30th week, her third week in her third trimester. Time had gone by so fast for them. She and Axel had only about a month to themselves as a married couple before discovering their pregnancy. Since then it had been a mix of firsts as husband and wife as well as firsts as parents-to-be.
After a solid night’s sleep, Luna had been awoken by a sharp cramp — one similar to her bad period cramps. Her eyebrows furrowed as her hand rubbed her bump, “Woah, you’re really preparing me for your birth, aren’t you?” she spoke aloud with a chuckle before opening her eyes. It was 10:45 in the morning, which was her new bright-and-early. Before pregnancy, her favorite thing to do was drink coffee and watch the sunrise, but fatigue was definitely a prominent symptom for Luna. Axel was gone at work and she was to herself to finish packing. With the new addition on the way, they had decided buying a house would be a bit better than a small apartment in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Their lease wasn’t set to end for another couple of months, but they thought slowly moving their things to their new home would be better on Luna (and the baby) than a big, quick, and stressful move. She rolled out of the nest of pregnancy pillows she had made and did her morning routine. The brunette was in a cute set of lingerie and decided to take a mirror pic to send to Axel. “Woke up missing you,” she messaged along with the photo.
Eventually Luna got dressed and made her way out to get to work on packing. Not much had gotten done due to the increasingly bad cramps, but thankfully her father was in town to help with the move. “How’re you doin’ in there, love?” her dad projected from the kitchen, the noises of dishes clanking as he packed echoed behind. The brunette was on her side, balled up as the cramp passed. “I’m… okay,” she replied with a strained voice. “You feeling those cramps again?” he asked. Luna sighed in relief as she relaxed from the intense cramp, “Yeah, they haven’t stopped.” She entered the information into her contraction app. It was now 1:20 in the afternoon and the cramps were 3 minutes in between, on average. That sent Luna’s anxiety through the roof. She debated on texting Axel and heading to the hospital, but she was afraid of showing up and just being sent home. She was afraid she was overreacting.
It was then 1:40 and Luna bolted towards the bathroom with the sudden urge to pee, but she didn’t make it in time. Her shorts were completely soaked and her legs were dripping. An insane amount of fluid left her body, except it wasn’t urine. Her water had broken.
She was frozen, her bare feet wading in amniotic fluid as she absorbed what had just happened. Once it clicked, her heart sank and her stomach was up in her throat. “Dad!” Luna screamed as she began to shake. With his mouth full, Mason Hayes ran to Luna, looking into her eyes and only seeing horror. “What? What’s wrong? What’s going on?” he quickly asked muffled through a mouth filled with food, looking her up and down. He finally noticed the fluid and it had clicked for him too. “Please tell me that’s pee,” Luna begged with scrunched brows, but both she and her dad knew what was going on. “Nope, no. C’mon, let’s go,” Mason sighed, his heart racing as he tried to help Luna out of the mess. “No! No, this isn’t happening! I’m 10 weeks early, this isn’t happening,” she spoke as if trying to convince herself that it was impossible. She attempted to wiggle herself out of her father’s grasp, but she failed. “Luna, I’m not doing this with you. This is happening. You need to get changed now or else you’re going with soaked shorts and an ambulance escort. Get ready, now,” he enforced. It’s what she needed in that moment and she was grateful for him being there. She knew if she were by herself, she’d still be too nervous to go. Although it took her a minute, the brunette followed her father’s instructions and rushed to her room to get a fresh pair of clothes while Mason grabbed a towel to clean up.
Just a few moments later, the two of them were out the door. “My water broke a few minutes ago. Please meet me at the hospital.” Luna texted Axel as they walked down the corridor to the elevator. “I knew I wasn’t crazy for packing the go bag yesterday lol,” she texted again, knowing her attempt at comedic relief would fall flat. The ride down was long and felt like forever, but her contraction probably contributed to that feeling. Her eyes were shut tight as she winced, her hands clutching the railing as she fell to a squat. “I’m so fucking scared,” she whispered to her father in the, thankfully, empty elevator. “I know,” he sighed, rubbing her mid-back. “It’ll be okay, Lulu,” her father assured softly. He was scared too. With his four children, they were all delivered within a week of their due dates, so this was all new territory for him.
When they got to the ground level, she was fresh out of a contraction and ready to get into the car and go. The two of them practically bolted to her car, her dad opting to drive as Luna tried, but failed, to relax in the passenger seat. Although the hospital was only a couple of miles away, that meant at least 20 minutes in the car, and they somehow got there in that amount of time. Her dad pulled up to the valet in front of the labor & delivery wing and Luna was instantly transferred from the car to a wheelchair. As she was wheeled in, a massive contraction came along that made her feel like she was going to pass out. As they approached the check in, she let out with a loud wince followed by an equally as loud groan and threw her head back. “I need to see Dr. Chastine now. I’m 30 weeks and my water broke like 30 minutes ago,” she spoke through gritted teeth as she rubbed her stomach. After a bit of exchanging information, Luna found herself in a hospital gown in a delivery room.
Luna was in and out of consciousness, but the sound of gloves being taken off jolted her to full consciousness. “Alright, you’re about 5 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. Since your water has already broken, you’ll be having your baby today. I’ll be back in a few hours when you’re ready to push. Until then, these nurses will take excellent care of you, Mrs. Teller,” the doctor announced before she left the room. A look of panic rushed back to Luna’s face as she searched the room. “Where’s Axel?” Luna anxiously inquired aloud with wide eyes.
Axel had been at work for what felt like hours. He’d gone in early, knowing there were deadlines that needed to be met, and they were all already falling behind. It didn’t help that while trying to work, he often found his mind drifting off to Luna, wondering how she was getting on when he wasn’t there. He couldn’t help it, he was nervous all the time. The last time, he’d never got as far as this, so even though it was really exciting that things were going well, he was still scared to death of all of the things that could go wrong at any moment.
He was in between recordings when he looked at his phone and saw the picture she had sent him. A smile spread over his face as he wished he was at home with her. They were in the middle of packing to move into the new house and he felt guilty that the job had been left to Luna and Mason. But, he was under contract and a lot of pressure from the record company to get this album done and ready to go by the end of the following month. Tapping back a quick reply, “Missing you both too, can’t wait to get home.” he put his phone back in his pocket and carried on with work.
It was a few hours later, and Axel had finally found his groove and was really making some progress after having a good solid hour of just being stuck and going around in circles. He’d had his phone in the other room and hadn’t noticed it was missing. It wasn’t until he got up to go to the bathroom that he realised that it wasn’t in his pocket and went looking for it. Popping his head into the meeting room, and saw H and a couple of members of his band sitting in there. “Have you guys seen my phone?” He asked, scanning the room. “Oh, yeah. It’s over on the table, it’s been going off like crazy.” A told him, which made his blood run cold for a second. Quickly he walked over and picked it up, seeing a bunch of messages from Luna and missed calls from Mason.
If his heart beat any faster, Axel would’ve sworn it would stop. H and A just stared at him, quickly picking up on the fact that something was wrong. “What is it, mate?” They asked, and Axel finally found the ability to move from the spot where he was standing. “Uh, fuck, um, the baby, it’s coming now. Luna’s on her way to the hospital. But, it’s too early, There’s still ten weeks to go.” He wasn’t really talking to them, he was just trying to make sense of everything in his head. Everything had been fine, why would this be happening now. H noticed the lack of moment and walked over to Axel. “Mate, do you need to go? Do you want me to drive you? I think I should.” Axel looked up at him, confusion all over his face. H just put a hand on his shoulder and guided him out of the room, instructing everyone that they had to go and they didn’t know when or if they would be back. H lead Axel out to the parking lot and to his car.
The drive to the hospital was a bit of a blur, he didn’t remember much of it, but as soon as H stopped the car, Axel was running into the hospital. Going straight up to the reception desk, he asked where he needed to go to find his wife. H appeared just in time to follow him to the right floor. How Axel managed to navigate the hospital in the state he was in he didn’t know, but he knew he had to get to Luna and quickly.
It was hard not to panic, but he did his best as he finally found Luna and dropped to his knees on the floor beside her bed. “I’m here, I’m so sorry.” He panted, out of breath from running and trying not to panic. “I’m so sorry it took me so long, I didn’t have my phone even though I promised you I always would. I’m so sorry, are you okay? What’s happening?” He asked, reaching for Luna’s hand as he tried to catch his breath.
