||Happy Birthday||
She knows what the sensation is the second it starts. It some ways, it reminds her of the hellish days before her period, but she knows the pain, and the way it moves, is something more. It moves through her abdomen quickly, like a succession of gates being slammed shut. A hand flies to her stomach, and she can feel the tightening beneath her fingers.
She knows what the sensation is the second it starts, but she wills it not to be so. Her first instinct is not to call for help, or even to contact her husband, who'd gone to fetch dinner only a little earlier. No, her first instinct is to whisper to her baby not to do it. That it's too early, that she needs more time with the steroids.
Still gasping, and with panic now ripping through her, she leans back against the bed. She knows the monitor within her has already alerted the doctors, but she reaches for the call button immediately.
The second her fingers fall upon the button, she notices the figure looming in the doorway. She turns her head to face her husband, mouth gaping and tears now rushing down her face.
She knew what the sensation was the second it started, but only now did she feel the very spread through her.
It was too early.
She was going to let her baby down.
