Page 25 of Royce
“Let him sleep for a minute. I’ll come back in and get him. Let me get y’all to the car first,” he said placing everything down by the door.
Nodding, I allowed him to help me up and escort us to his car. First of all, it was very cheesy. I understood his name being Royce but that didn’t mean he had to roll around in one. I wasplaced in the front seat in nothing but my damn gown. At least he was showing he cared because if it was Cojak, I feared he wouldn’t have been here to even give a fuck.
He carried CJ and my bag in one arm and the car seat and diaper bag in another. He was a man and there wasn’t shit I could take away from that. Suddenly, another contraction hit, and I was screaming out in pain. Something felt off this time around. It hurt more than it did with CJ. I was shedding tears but at the same time trying to keep my cool. However, it was beginning to get hard to do so.
“Roooyyyce,” I called out for him as soon as he opened the back door. We needed to go and fast.
“I’m moving as fast as I can, My Baby. Bear with a nigga,” he answered.
“It hurts. It hurts,” I cried.
“Fuck!” he shouted then slammed the door. He scurried around to the driver’s side and hopped in. He looked over at me gently cuffing my face. We made eye contact and for a brief moment, he wasn’t so scary. “I got you, aight?”
I nodded and he wiped away my tears before powering the car up and throwing it in reverse. He breezed through traffic breaking laws left and right. CJ was so excited about it, he woke up out his sleep and started yelling “Faster, faster.” He was enjoying himself while I was in excruciating pain.
He pressed a few buttons on his dashboard and a call was made. An elder woman’s voice came through the speakers cussing him out without hesitation.
“You said half an hour, Junior. It’s been longer than that and the family is ready to eat. Where are you?” she fussed.
“Taking my wife to the ER, Ma. She getting ready to have our daughter,” he voiced pulling into the ER parking lot.
“This is my daughter, not yours, not ours,” I corrected him.
“What?” she screamed.
“And stop lying to your mother, Roy…Aaaahhh!” A contraction hit as I was in the middle of correcting him.
“I can’t stay on the phone, Ma. I got to get her in here before she have my shawty in this car. I’ll hit you back later.” He disconnected the call and swerved in front of the entrance. “Aye, I need some help out here. My wife in labor!” he yelled.
Wife?I understood getting helped immediately, but he didn’t have to lie. I was in labor; they would move for me anyway.Just like that, the many doctors surrounded us, and I was escorted upstairs in a wheelchair with crazy ass behind me. He held CJ in his arms refusing to let him go or leave my side for that matter. I was placed in a room, changed, and admitted quicker than I ever been for any hospital visit.
“Where’s Chief Riggs?” he asked one of the nurses.
Who the hell is this man to ask for the chief? You had to be somebody to skip to the top of the chain of command.
“We’ll give him a call once we get her comfortable, Mr.…”
“Atkins. Royce Atkins. Thank you,” he answered.
I remained quiet and let him do the talking. They moved faster for him and actually listened. I was well aware of how they shut Black women down and tried to overlook our pain until it became a matter of life or death. He was my voice since I couldn’t be.
Tugging on his shirt, I spoke in a quivering tone. “It still hurts.”
“You did this shit before with him, right? Ain’t this what you go through?”
“It didn’t hurt this much,” I whispered.
“Aye, she in too much pain over here. Check her and my daughter out to see what the hell going on,” he ordered. The bass in his voice screamed boss ass nigga.
The nurse nodded and stepped over to my bedside with the ultrasound monitor. The cool gel was applied to my stomach andthe wand seconds after. Silent tears fell and Royce gently wiped them from my eyes. The pain was unbearable but his softness toward me was making it seem less sufferable. And still, my son sat in his arms just as content as he would be if it was Cojak. Hell, if I was being honest, he was more comfortable with Royce than his own father.
“Royce, call my cousin please? She won’t let me hear the end of it if she isn’t here.”
He dug in his pocket and handed over his phone. I quickly dialed Seri’s number and handed it back over to him. “What’s her name?” he inquired as he put the phone on speaker.
“The baby’s breech?” the nurse asked interrupting with an alerting tone. She had to be new or something because all the other nurses knew that already.
“Yeah. She has been for a while now. Is something wrong?” I asked in a concerning tone.
