My Mom, My Love Ch. 06

My flight arrived on time, and I rushed from the plane to the luggage carousel to claim my baggage, of course, it took forever! I called the house several times, but no one answered. Dan's words ringing in my head, 'If she isn't better by the morning, I'm taking her to the hospital.' "Which hospital damn it!" I said aloud, people looking at me strangely.

I grabbed my luggage and headed towards the door, my stress level so high, I couldn't even think about calling Dan's cell or checking my messages. As the sliding doors opened, Arron came rushing to my side, "BO! Oh BO!" He was in tears.

I dropped my bags and held him next to me, he hugged me tightly, "Mom, mom's so sick, I just, we had to take her, I'm scared BO!" he was crying so hard, it made me start to cry.

"How did you get here?" I finally managed, trying to fight the tears.

"Dan, he's driving around again so we didn't have to park, he said he'd meet us here!"

"Ok, calm down. I'm home; everything is going to be all right." He looked at me, trying to smile. Dan's car rolled up in front of us and he got out, helping put the luggage in the trunk. I stood there staring at him, wondering about his relationship with my mother. He looked at me, his expression saying more than his words, but still speechless.

"Where is she?"

"Mercy General."

I wanted to punch him in the face and thank him all in the same notion. "Take me to see her." The ride was quiet. I saw a relief in Arron's face when I looked back at him. I consoled myself by thumbing my PDA, and seeing that I had several messages. I brought them up and listened, most of them from Otto and my dad, and then the one from mom. I drew a deep breath as I put the phone to my ear.

"Hello baby," her voice was so weak, "I wanted to let you know I was in the hospital, it was my choice that Dan took me. I'm very scared. I haven't felt this way in eleven years." she choked on her tears, making me do the same, "Please come straight to the hospital, Dan and Arron will be picking you up. I know you're tired and worried, but baby, I need you here with me. I love you so much," she was crying so hard. I knew she was going to make herself sick again, "Bowen, baby, we need to talk when you get home. It's very important. I love you."

I ended the call and put the phone on my knee, staring off into the distance. "What room is mom in?" it had been the first words I had said to him since I got in the car.

"What?" Dan looked over at me.

"What room is she in?"

"2407." he looked at me, "She won't tell me what's wrong, and neither will the doctors because I'm not family." he looked back at the road again, "But I don't understand why she won't tell me."

"Maybe it's something personal that she doesn't feel the need to tell you." I snapped, meaning, and not meaning, to.

"Well, if you find out, I would appreciate it if you let me know." he said gruffly.

Dan brought the car to a halt in front of the hospital doors and I jumped out, followed by Arron. We hurried to the elevator and to the second floor, finding our way down the halls to mom's room.

Arron led the way since he had already been there. We tried not to run over any of the nurses or the patients out in the hall, but my heart was desperate to see Angel for numerous reasons.

Arron suddenly stopped, straightening his shirt and taking off his ball cap. I looked at the room number on the closed door, and steadied myself. We eased open the door and crept inside.

She had a private room, which made me feel better about the situation as I looked around. We closed the door and quietly approached her bed. She was sleeping; I. V. hung over her, tube in her arm. My heart fell instantly when I saw her, my mind flashing back to the days when she was in the hospital last. I was thanking God that she wasn't beat up this time.

I heard Arron's voice, bringing me from my thoughts, "Mom, momma, Bowen's home, Momma." She stirred from her sleep as Arron repeated himself. She reached up to his face, caressing his cheek and smiled.

"You brought Bo with you? I didn't think he was due home until tomorrow."

Arron looked up at me, shrugging his shoulders; "Mom, it is tomorrow." he spoke to her ever so softly.

I approached the bed and reached for her hand, she turned to look at me, her lovely brown eyes so worn. All of my memories haunted me, "Hi mom, how are you feeling?" I knelt down, kissing her cheek.

"Oh Bowen, you're home. Oh baby." a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Yes Angel, I'm here."

She squeezed my hand, making my heart jolt, "Help me sit up a bit will you?" I slipped my hand behind her and helped her up while Arron eased the bed forward. She smiled thanking both of us.

"How are you doing mom?" Arron asked her, hoping she was better.

"I'm fine honey; just have a little stomach flu that may be with me a little while." She pushed his hair from his eyes, and pulled him over to hug him, "Can you give your brother and me a few minutes, I need to talk to him alone."

"It's ok mom, you can tell him, I won't tell Mr. Dan."

"No baby, I need to tell Bowen by himself. It's important, because, well, I just need to talk to him by himself. Okay?"

"Alright mom." he hung his head and pouted.

"Arron, there's some money in my purse, you can go down and get you something out of the cafeteria if you like."

"Here," I pulled a ten out of my wallet and handed it to him, "Go down and get us both something to drink, and maybe a candy bar or something, I haven't eaten yet today."

"I can spend it all?"

"You can keep what you don't spend." I added.

"COOL!"

"Arron, don't be gone too long, and don't get lost."

"I won't mom."

Mom sat quiet until she knew he was out of sight and looked at me, she took a deep breath as if she didn't know how to tell me what was wrong. I looked at her and swallowed hard, expecting the worst.

God, we had been though so much together, ever since I could remember, and her, even before I was born. How many times did I sit with her, those nights patching up her wounds, holding her ice, laying with her to protect her in my own way, and now, making love to her, caring for her as the woman I loved, lying with her at night, regretful when I left her side.

"Bowen." her soft voice brought me from my thoughts. I looked at her and sat on the side of the bed, holding her hand. She rubbed my arm, emotion-wreaking havoc inside her heart.

"Jeana, just tell me, I can see your upset, what happened?"

"Oh Bowen," she cried, trying to hold back the depths of her tears. I couldn't help but hold her, it had been too long since I had. Her tears flowed, wetting my shoulder of my shirt, I tired to comfort her, but just let her cry. When she finally calmed down and pulled away from me, I handed her a tissue and waited for her to gather herself again.

I tired to make light of the moment, "So, you have a stomach flu, Food poisoning, Or just a small virus?"

"Morning sickness."

"Yes, that would make you throw up, and make you dizzy and..." I stopped and looked at her, she nodded her head.

"Yes baby, morning sickness. Although mine seems to be lasting longer through the day because I haven't been resting and..."

I put my fingers to her lips, "Jeana, you're telling me, you're kidding right?" she shook her head no, looking at me scared, but happy in a sense.

"Bowen, we're pregnant. I mean, I'm pregnant."

I think I felt ever bit of life drain from me, and I wasn't sure if it was the sheer shock of her confession, or that I was, "Angel, I'm going to be..."

"A daddy." she whispered, smiling. Her voice turned desperate, "I'm sorry Bowen, I didn't even think about it, it had been so long, I didn't even know." She put her hand on her tummy, "Bo, I love you so much, and we were so perfect together, that I didn't even think anything about this happening. I was so happy with your love, and everything we had together, I didn't even realize this could happen to me again." she looked away, as if she were ashamed.

I sat there dumbfounded, trying to let it all sink in. After the talk with my own father, and the depth of the love I held for her in my own right, being away from her and everything else that had been going on since we first made love, it never dawned on me that this could have happened either. I took a deep breath, not knowing if I was trying to contain my happiness, or understand completely what was going on.

She stared out the window, talking, but not directly to me, "They asked me if it was possible, and I told them I didn't think so, but I didn't know. After we discussed the symptoms, they ran the tests. We counted back and guessed it to be about three months ago." She looked back at me, "After I had some time to think about it, I figured it happened after you got back from Chicago," she reached up and touched my cheek, "Bowen." She took a deep breath, "I know this is a little odd, especially under the circumstances, but maybe this is meant to be. After all, besides your father, you're the only man who has ever truly loved me."

I still didn't know what to say to her, I was still quite astonished. I put my hand on her belly and held it to her, not knowing what to do.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I wouldn't have found out if I didn't have a touch of food poisoning, that's why they kept me in the hospital. Just to make sure I was ok, especially this early in the pregnancy."

I ran my hand over her tummy, she lifted her gown, and let me touch her naked body. All of the thoughts I had about making love to her welled up inside of me as I ran my hand in a small circle of the little hump that was beginning to form. I wanted to show her how happy I was, but under the circumstances, it was impossible.

"Bowen, say something, Please?"

"I'm going to have to be careful how I make love to you for a while." I whispered, looking at her, she smiled. I took her in my arms and kissed her, God how I wanted to taste her lips. I had missed her so much. "Oh my Angel, I love you so much. I can't believe this is happening to us, I would have never thought it could."

"And all the preaching I did to you about safe sex, and look where I ended up." she giggled into my shoulder. She pulled away to look at me, I brushed her hair from her face. "Bowen, are you sure your ok with this, I mean, I need to know so I can..."

"Don't ever think that. I would never abandon my child, or my love." my voice strained against my words. I wasn't angry, but if she was thinking about ending the pregnancy because of the circumstances, I wasn't going to let that happen. The only thing that would end it is if her health was an issue, or it would cause the loss of both her and the baby.

"I just mean, Bowen, if you don't wish to be a father, especially considering that I'm your mother and..."

"You are my love, my heart, you haven't been my mother for a long time Jeana. And now, it just proves that we were meant for each other this way."

"Bowen, I want you to be sure."

"I couldn't be surer baby." I kissed her again, running my hand back to her belly.

"What do we tell your brother and sister?" she brought my attention back to her eyes.

"We tell them they are going to have another member of the family soon, and if they ask who it belongs to, well, we just tell them that it is ours, I mean, ours as in family. No one needs to know how she became except for the two of us."

"She?" I just smiled. "So, would you like to tell your brother, or should I?"

"Tell me what?" Arron's voice rang from the doorway as he came to stand by the bed.

"Mom is going to be a mom again."

"Mom's going to be a mom again?" He wrinkled his nose.

"Yes, you are going to have a baby brother." she shyly grinned at him.

"OR sister." I interjected, looking at her. She just smiled.

"So that's the big secret, Jeana is pregnant?" Dan's voice echoed from the other side of the room as he entered.

I felt my hair stand on end, jealously seethe over my body. She squeezed my hand and looked at me. I knew that look, that was her 'I'll take care of things' look.

I gathered her up close to me on purpose and kissed her cheek, whispering in her ear, "I Love you Jeana, god how I love you. Thank you for the precious gift you have given me."

"I love you too my love." She held me close for a few moments and then nudged me away, "Baby, would you mind going down to the nurses station and seeing when they decided to do my sonogram, and if they are going to bring me some lunch today?"

"Yes Angel, mom, I'll take Arron down and see for you." I motioned to him as I got up. She mouthed 'I love you', and I slowly let my hand slip from her grasp.

While I was gone, she explained to Dan about the pregnancy, and that the father had been a close friend, and it was just a one night stand between them, but she doubted that he would ever care one way or another, and she didn't care if he knew or not.

She told Dan that she loved him as a friend, and hoped that he would stay in her life that way. But she felt no need to marry again, as she had us to help her, and care for her. If he wanted to be part of their life, that was fine. He seemed happy with that, and our love was safe.

I took a few extra days off to recover from the trip and bring Jeana home from the hospital. After her first day home, and I knew she was resting comfortable, I slipped into the bed with her, holding her close. We kissed and talked about the baby, looking at the sonogram pictures again. It was exciting to see the baby, knowing that it was growing inside of her and it was mine.

When I came home from work Friday morning, Arron had already left for school, and I wandered through the house as I always did, putting my things away and taking a shower. Angel lay in bed sleeping, waiting for me to return home.

We made love softly and quietly, making up for my time away and the few days she was sick. She told me not to worry about being with her, enjoy her that way as much as I could, because in a few months, there would be less horny spells, and then more, and a bigger tummy.

She laughed, knowing that I knew all of that, but it was different now, I was making love to her, with her carrying my child. And I was very over protective of her, so much more now than I had ever been. As we lay there, I slipped down to her belly and whispered to the stirring inside, she smiled, combing my hair away with her fingers, thanking me.

"Bowen, I love you."

"And I love you, and our little angel." kissing her lightly.

Arron and I talked again about mom having a new baby, and about me being the dad. I told him everything, because I felt he was mature enough to understand that I loved mom and him enough to take the place in their life as husband and father.

I'm not sure he understood that I was actually the cause of the baby's conception, and just thought that I was going to act like a dad, like I was with him. He liked the fact that I had taken over as the man of the house, because it meant that he had a dad to spend time with.

It was a big surprise when I told Angel the reason I went to Durango was to finalize the papers on the farm, and my new job. She was excited about the news and was glad that we were going to start over in such a lovely place.

We put the house on the market, and agreed to stay until school let out. When the end of May came, we had the movers take all of our things ahead of us, her car included. I was concerned for her because I knew she would have a hard time traveling since she was just weeks away from her due date. We stayed behind a few days at a hotel until I could put her and Arron on a plane, and drove my truck myself, with the last of our belongings to our new home in the mountains.

Aurora Rose Scott was born on the summer solstice, her eyes as bright as Angels, her hair as dark as mine. Mother and daughter are doing fine, as is daddy and big brother. I signed the birth certificate, after all, I am her father, and no one needs to know any different.

My wife, Jeana and I are expecting our second child next fall. Aurora will be two when Nichols Rowan arrives, and we couldn't be happier.