Page 29 of Dom 4
Shona was in labor and Tone was about to be on maternity leave. I’d concluded those bullets wasn’t because of Stone, and since it wasn’t any of our Opps, I still had to be on high alert. For the first time in a long time, the King wanted to leave for a long time, and I couldn’t fuckin’ wait until we were out the country.
I had already said I was gon’ slide out and give them their moment and let him call me later, but before I could hit the doors Tone called me. His voice was low, but steady enough to let me know pride wasn’t in the way right now by a long shot.
“Bro, I need you to stay with me. I’m in room 460, Labor and Delivery… just get up here.”
He didn’t say please, nor did he beg and he didn’t have to because outside of anything Royal, we were family. I took the private elevator up to the labor floor. I hated hospitals because they just had a smell that stuck to your clothes just like the fresh stench of blood did. The nurses at the desk looked at me longer than they should’ve been looking because they recognized me like they always did but nobody said a word because they felt the energy and didn’t want none of it. Right now, wasn’t the time.
When I stepped inside the room, Shona was already in bed with her legs open and her feet in the stirrups getting checked. I didn’t look nowhere my eyes didn’t need to be. Her face was damp with sweat. She was breathing in short, slow pulls through her nose like she was trying to stay calm herself. The monitor next to her showed her contractions spiking harder and faster and I only knew this by listening to what the nurses were saying.
Tone stood beside her bed holding her hand with both of his like he was scared she’d get up and haul ass if he let go. His chains were tucked inside his shirt because he didn’t want nothing in the way or give her shit else, she could latch on to. He looked at me quick as hell with relief on his face before he turned back to her strong again.
“She eight centimeters already,” he mumbled. “It’s go time man we got here right on time.”
I nodded and stayed by the wall, close enough but not in the way. I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was supposed to do here, so I just stayed present and sometimes that was enough. The next contraction hit and Shona’s whole body tightened. She closed her eyes, clenched her jaws, and gripped Tone’s hand like she was trying to take him with her to the Lord.
Tone leaned in close, using a soft voice, softer than I’d ever heard from him. “I’m right here, baby. Squeeze if you need to. Go ‘head, take it out on me, it’s alright.”
She squeezed harder and Tone winced but kept that shit silent until she hit the highest pain point and next thing I knew, “OKAYYYY SHIT! Alright, alright, damn girl… aye watch the bone, watch the bone, the bone is connected to ME.”
She didn’t even laugh, she just breathed through another one, but I damn sure almost laughed because Tone was trying to act like his hand wasn’t breaking in half.
“You good?” I asked him.
“No,” he whispered with sweat on his forehead. “But yeah… but no.”
I smirked. “Uh-huh.”
The doctor came in, checked her again and nodded like this was just another casual day. “She’s progressing fast. When she feels pressure low, we’ll start pushing.”
Another contraction hit and Shona gripped Tone’s shirt this time. “If you ever get me pregnant again,” she hissed at him through her teeth, “I will kill you!”
“I know,” Tone said kissing her forehead. “You gon’ kill me. We talked about that, but breathe, baby.”
He wasn’t even panicking no more because he was locked in and a few minutes later it was time. The doctor got into position and the nurses stood around. Tone stayed at Shona’s shoulder, and I stayed half behind the curtain near her head but angled just enough to see without seeing everything. Respect was respect, even in our world.
The doctor said, “Push.”
Shona grabbed the rails and pushed with everything she had as she gritted her teeth with her eyes squeezed shut. Tone whispered in her ear while rubbing her back with one hand while letting her crush the other.
“You got it, mama. You got it. You stronger than every muhfucka in this building. Come on, push that baby out.”
There was another push, and it was a harder one this time. Shona let out a sound that didn’t even sound human.
The doctor then said,“There’s the head.”
After that Tone fainted like some slow-motion matrix type of shit. One second, he was standing upright and the next he was sliding down the wall like his bones were melting. I rushed to his side.
“Tone!” I stepped forward but had to catch myself because the second the doctor saidhead, my own stomach went againstme forming into a knot I didn’t know I had. I tried to swallow it down, but my whole body started to heat up quick as hell. I hit the bathroom and threw up straight into the sink becauseI wasn’t built for seeing no baby’s head pop out.
I hurriedly splashed water on my face and looked in the mirror. That shit did not help. I came back out just as Tone was crawling back up the side of Shona’s bed trying to pretend like he didn’t just hit the floor. His eyes were glossy, and he kept blinking trying to come back to reality.
“I’m good,” he groaned. “I’m good… we back. We in this shit.”
“Nigga, if you pass out again, I’m just gon’ leave you where you fall,” I told him.
The doctor said, “Okay Shona, one more push. Bring your baby home.”
Shona didn’t scream this time, instead she gritted her teeth and held Tone’s hand then she pushed and, in that moment, it seemed like everything in the room changed when a cry broke out in the air. It was so small, so new, and yet so loud it touched something inside my chest. The nurses moved fast with the towels, the suctions, the cords and clamps and all kinds of shit. Tone’s eyes filled with tears before he could stop them. Shona laid back shaking and breathing like someone who had just fought the hardest battle of her life and won.
