Memories Ch. 10 - The Finale

*I thought I would combine the last 3 chapters of this into 1 long one. Hopefully it makes sense. Like a lot of the rest of the story, it jumps around. It is titled "Memories", after all. ;)

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

*

Chris remembered being a nervous wreck in the weeks leading up to Larissa going into labor. He worried irrationally, maybe because of the previous miscarriage, that she would have the baby early, while he was doing some voice overwork. Or, even worse, the baby would be late and he would already be on his press tour promoting Star Trek. He was both relieved and scared shitless to be home with her when their first daughter did start coming.

"My back kind of hurts and I'm having some weird aches. I'm going to go soak in the bath for awhile," Larissa announced one morning, three days after her due date had passed.

"Do you want me to help you or get you anything?" Chris asked from the couch, turning towards the stairs. The odd, slight wince that had flashed across her face briefly hadn't gone unnoticed.

"No, I think I'm good," she began walking up the stairs slower than normal.

"Larissa?" he said her name with a disbelieving tone.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she insisted as she ascended the staircase.

Chris went back to reading the paper, but listened as she ran the water in the bath. He felt like his ears were pricked up like a dog's, listening for any strange sound or commotion. After 10 minutes of silence, he went to check on her. Chris gently knocked on the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Mmhmm," her voice was muffled not only from the door being closed, but from having a wet rag over her face as well.

"Everything alright?" he took a seat on the toilet. Larissa left the rag on her face.

"Yah. I just can't seem to get comfortable," she shifted in the tub.

"Well, you are 40 weeks pregnant. When have you ever been truly comfortable lately?"

"This feels...different," she spoke quietly. "Why don't we go for a walk?" she removed the rag from her face suddenly and looked at him.

"Are you sure? You don't want to soak longer?"

"No. Can you help me get out of the tub?" she laughed as she reached a hand out to him.

They walked around the neighborhood for a good hour. Chris noticed Larissa's grip on his hand would tighten ever so noticeably every now and then and her pace slowed slightly, but he said nothing.

"Chris?" she asked as they neared their house.

"Yah, babe?"

"Don't freak out, but I think I'm in labor."

"I think you are too,sweetheart," he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"How far apart are they now?"Larissa exhaled after another contraction had passed. "It seems like they're getting closer," she took several deep breaths.

"They are. They're getting real close to 5 minutes. You ready to go?"

Larissa nodded her head quickly. "Yah. I think so."

She had insisted on laboring as long as possible at home, so long as everything seemed to be going well. It was well into the evening, around 6 o'clock, when she finally decided it was time to head to the hospital. She had been pacing, rocking, hunching over, and everything else around the house for hours. There was a certain grace in it, but Chris hated seeing her in pain. Personally, he would have opted for the drugs.

Things slowed down for a bit at the hospital. He remembered Larissa saying that was one of the reasons she wanted to stay at home for as long as possible. That she had read that a lot of women actually labor for longer there or completely stall out. He hoped the latter wasn't happening. Maybe Larissa knew what she was doing after all.

They had checked how far she was dilated, of course, when they first arrived in triage at the hospital. The nurse tried to check several other times over the next hour after they had been put in a regular room. Larissa had refused each time, perfectly happy with not knowing or worrying about how close she was, growing increasingly agitated each time the nurse came in.

"I don't like this," she spoke quietly, trying not to let herself devolve into full blown hysterics.

"You can always get the epidural, sweetheart," Chris tried to reassure her.

She shook her head. "That's not what I mean. I can handle the pain. I don't like it here. I can't relax. I wish we had stayed at home. If that nurse comes in one more time, I'm going to lose it."

Chris stroked her hair and let her cry. After all, she deserved a good cry. She had been in labor for close to 12 hours. They had determined she was around 8cm dilated when she arrived. She had to be getting close, even though her contractions hadn't gotten any closer together for an hour.

Right on time, the nurse walked in 15 minutes later. Chris hopped up and approached her before she had a chance to do or say anything.

"Can I talk to you in the hallway for a minute..." he paused to look at her name tag, "Jean?"

"Sure," she nodded and followed him out of the room.

"Listen," Chris turned towards her and spoke low, "I know you're just trying to do your job, but she really doesn't want checked or anything. She's not going to change her mind. Trust me," he chuckled. "Can you just give her some space? She was doing great until we got here. Now she's suddenly not making any progress. I think she's just feeling too pressured and it's stressing her out.

The nurse was obviously miffed,but gave in. "Alright, but I still have to come in and check hers and the baby's vitals every now and then."

Chris nodded his head in understanding. "Thank you. I really appreciate it and I know she will too."

"You know, it really won't belong once her contractions start increasing again, right?"

"Yah, I figured as much. Thanks," he gave a quick smile and re-joined Larissa.

Chris stood in awe a little over an hour later as the doctor held his first-born up for him and Larissa to see. He was vaguely aware of the warm liquid running down his face as their baby was placed on Larissa's chest. She was crying profusely too as their daughter let out her first cry.

"Hi, Emily," they spoke to the crying, angry baby as the nurses cleaned her off as best as they could.

"She's perfect," Chris spoke to Larissa, smoothing the hair away from her face. "You did so good." He was not only in awe of this new human being that had come into their lives, but of Larissa through the whole thing. She hadn't cried out or screamed once, even as she had pushed their child out. Never once did she complain about the pain. He knew she was a strong woman, but he gained a new respect for her that day.

***

Chris was nervous. He hadn't been on Ellen since the first Star Trek reboot was released. Normally, he didn't mind doing talk shows too much, at least the late night ones. 1) They filmed in the evening, so he was actually awake and coherent by then. 2) It was always males hosting, so he would just go in, shoot the shit, talk about whatever project he was promoting at the time, crack a few jokes and be done with it. Ellen was different, though.

Ellen, being a woman and whose audience was made up by a large percentage of women, liked to ask personal questions. She had managed to turn him red a few instances last time, which was no easy feat. Now that he was a family man, he was scared to death he would say something he shouldn't and piss Larissa off. After all, they tried to keep their personal life fairly private. Actors or not, some matters were just nobody else's business.

He heard his name at the end of Ellen's introduction and made his way on stage, putting on his best smile and waving.

"How's it goin'?" Ellen asked as they sat down. "It's been awhile."

"Yah, it has. What is it? 6 years, I think?"

"Something like that. You're a hard man to get a hold of," she teased. Chris laughed politely. "You've been a busy guy over the past few years, on camera and off."

"Yah, it's been a pretty crazy few years," he chuckled as he twisted his wedding band around his finger nervously. Chris didn't even realize he was doing it until Ellen pointed it out.

"How's your wife?" she pointed to his hand. "You're a family man now too, right? I think last time you were here you had just had your first baby? Now you just had your third?"

"Fourth, actually," he held up his fingers.

"Wow! Four?! Did you have a little boy or girl this time?"

"A boy. Evan," he smiled to himself, thinking about how much their newest, and last, child looked like Larissa.

"I think we've got a picture of them. Can we get that up here?" she pointed behind her. A picture of Larissa and the kids at the beach from a few weekends ago popped up on the big screen behind them. The audience "awwed" collectively.

"They're adorable!" Ellen exclaimed. "Are you sure your oldest daughter there is yours, though?" she teased. It really was amazing how much she looked like Chris.

"So tell us about your kids," she insisted.

"My wife is going to kill you, you know," Chris pointed at the picture. Larissa was wearing a bikini.

"Where do you think we got the picture?" Ellen smiled. "So how old are they now?" she pointed at the picture.

"Let's see, Emily is 5 now, Addy's 3, Jack is a year and a half old, and Evan is 6 months." Ellen just stared at him for a long second.

"Wow."

"What?" Chris laughed nervously.

"You have been busy." The audience laughed.

"Yah," he joined in their laughter. "But, I mean, you've seen my wife," he gestured toward the screen again. More laughter.

"I would get busy with that too," Ellen pointed and the audience laughed even harder. "I wanna know what her secret is, though. That is not the body of someone who has had four children, let alone a baby in the last year."

Chris laughed. "I know. I'm wondering the same thing. I'm starting to think she's an alien or something." Everyone laughed. "Seriously, though, she's been very into her fitness routine since having our last one. I don't know where she finds the energy or the time, though."

"So she stays home with the kids then?"

"Oh yah. That's kind of been the plan all along. Don't get me wrong: It was her idea. I don't, like, force her to be a stay at home parent or anything," the audience laughed. "It's the 21st century, not the 50's, right? Larissa loves it, though. She's the best mom. She's always doing stuff with the kids and taking them places. Again, I don't know where she finds the energy. It makes me tired just thinking about taking all of them out somewhere by myself." Everyone laughed.

"It puts a whole new perspective on the saying 'like herding cats'," Ellen chimed in.

"Yes," Chris chuckled. "But it's great. Never a dull moment at the Pine house," he smiled.

"Now, did you always want a lot of kids or was that more of your wife's idea?"

"Uhh..." he stalled. "To be honest, I never really gave it much thought until I met her." He knew he should have stopped talking there, but kept spewing word vomit for some reason.

"She was up front early on, like before we even got married, about wanting a lot of kids since she was an only child and hated it. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, so I came around to the idea of kids. It's not that I didn't want any before, I just never really thought about it."

"So you like being a dad now?"

"Oh my God! Absolutely! It took me awhile to come around to the idea of being a dad. Like, it was just hard and weird for me to imagine myself as one, you know? It has just been so fun, though. I love watching those kids grow up and learn new things. It's amazing, really. And they're so different from one another. Like, their personalities could not be more different. It's insane." The audience laughed a little.

"So is there one that acts more like you and one that acts more like your wife? Or are they all kind of their own person?"

"I would say maybe Emily acts the most like me? She's a little serious for a 5 year old."

"Well that just makes sense. She's the spitting image of you."

"Yah, she is, poor thing," Chris laughed. "As far as my wife, I'm leaning towards the baby just because he's a huge mama's boy and a little...emotional?"

"Did you just call your wife emotional on national television?"

"Well, you know," he shrugged. "We've had our moments in the past. Evan's a sweet little guy, though. He only lets me hold him for a few minutes, though, then it's right back to Larissa or he freaks out."

"Really? What does he do?"

"He gets very upset. Starts crying, holding his arms out toward her, trying to get away from me," he laughed.

"Aw, doesn't that kind of hurt your feelings, though?"

"Nah. He's just a baby. He needs his mom. I figure he'll come around eventually," Chris smiled. "Besides, I have three other kids hanging all over me and yacking my ear off as soon as I get home."

"That's adorable. So after you're gone a long time for a movie do they like gang up and tackle you as soon as you walk in the door?"

"Pretty much," Chris chuckled. "My poor wife tries to help, but there's only so much you can do when you're outnumbered."

"What does she do?"

"She's all 'Come on, guys. Give daddy some room to breath.' But you know how kids are," he smirked.

"I bet they really went nuts the times you were home this past year. You had several different movies come out, correct?"

"Yes, the past two years, actually, have been super crazy between actually shooting and promoting. I had the Star Trek sequel in '13, then Shadow Recruit, the Jack Ryan movie. Then I got to do some fun projects like Horrible Bosses 2 and Into the Woods."

"That's right. We get to hear you sing in the last one. Who knew Captain Kirk could sing, huh?" Ellen looked to the audience and they started clapping.

"Well, my wife did," Chris answered after the audience had quieted down. "She kind of coerced me into the audition for that."

"Really? You didn't want to do it or...?"

"No, it's not that. Up until then, I was insanely shy about singing in front of other people. I had done some in the past when I was doing theater, but that was different. Plus, as I'm sure you've seen, there's this little known actor in this movie as well named Meryl Streep? Or something like that," he waved his hand dismissively. The audience laughed.

"Not ringing a bell, no," Ellen shook her head and went along with his joke.

"You're critical of yourself enough as an actor, right? Then throw in singing, which you're horrified of doing in public, then throw in working with one of the most well-known actresses of all time?" Chris drug his hands down his face and made an expression of horror. "No pressure, right?"

Ellen laughed. "You sound terrific, though, from the clips I've seen. Matter of fact, I've got one right here. Let's watch it," she turned towards the screen behind them. Chris fidgeted and stared down at his hands in his lap as the clip rolled. After what felt like an eternity, it ended and the audience broke into a roar of applause.

"See?" Ellen gestured towards the crowd. "You're great." Chris put his hands up, palms pressed together in appreciation, and did a little bow in his seat as he mouthed "thank you".

"Now that's not set to come out until around Christmas this year, correct?"

"Correct."

"Well it looks fantastic. We'll be right back with Chris Pine, everyone!"

***

"Chris, oh my God! You're awake!" he heard his wife's voice nearby. He blinked his eyes more, trying to focus. Larissa's face appeared above his as the fog slowly cleared.

"Larissa," he tried to speak, but his throat and mouth were beyond dry and nothing came out.

"Ssh. Here. Drink some water," she lifted a straw to his lips. The cool water felt good coating his throat.

"What happened?" he rasped.

"You were unconscious. You fell asleep and we couldn't wake you up, me and Addy. They brought you here in an ambulance."

Chris nodded that he understood as he took another big sip of water.

"I should probably tell the nurses you're awake. I'll be right back," she hurriedly left the room. His daughter, Addy, came into focus in her place.

"Hey, dad," she smiled at him. She looked more and more like her mother the older she got.

"Hey, Ad," he smiled back at her, though his dry lips pulled painfully.

"How are you feeling?"

"Thirsty," they both laughed a little. No one spoke for a minute as Chris downed the rest of his water.

"I'm glad you're ok," Addy squeezed his hand. "You gave us a scare."

"What's wrong with me, anyways?"

"They're not sure what exactly caused it, but they think you have hypotension."

"Hypotension?"

"Yah. That's why you passed out. Your blood pressure was too low."

"I know what hypotension is, "Chris lowered his eyes at his daughter.

"Sorry, Mr.Grouchy," she joked. Just then, Larissa returned with a doctor in tow.

"Hi there. I'm Dr.Alda," the man reached out his hand and shook Chris'. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok, I guess. Groggy. Thirsty."

Dr.Alda nodded his head. "That's to be expected," he smiled. "It seems you might have had a bout of hypotension. Your blood sugar was low as well. We're running some more labs to figure out if this was a one time occurrence or if there is an underlying issue we should know about."

"Thanks, doc," Chris shook his hand again.

"We'll let you know what we find out as soon as your bloodwork comes back. Until then, drink some water and get some rest...But no more passing out!" he joked,pointing at Chris. Everyone chuckled as the doctor made his way out.

"Addy?"

"Yah, dad?"

"Do you mind giving your mom and I a minute?"

"Sure," she smiled as she walked toward the door.

"You scared the shit out of me," tears threatened the corners of Larissa's eyes.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm ok now. I had the weirdest dream, though."

"Yah?"

"It wasn't really a dream, though. While I was out, it was like I was having flashbacks of our life."

"That sounds nice," Larissa beamed at him as she ran a hand through his graying hair.

"It was. It was weird, though, because I remember other bits and pieces. You trying to wake me up at home. I think I remember part of the ambulance ride. A nurse in the ER talking to me."

"What did you remember from our lives?" Larissa tried to change the subject, trying to get Chris to think of happy things and relax.

"Everything, really. When we first met," he squeezed her hand as they both smiled.

"Those were good times," she agreed.

"We've always had good times, haven't we?" he asked her hopefully.

"For the most part," she smiled, trying to alleviate his doubts. "What else did you dream of?"

"Remember the time I made you come to the set of Bottle Shock and meet Alan Rickman?"

Larissa laughed. "How could I forget?"

Chris rolled his eyes. "May he rest in peace...cheeky old bastard." They both laughed.

"What else?"

"When we got married. When you were expecting Emily. Do you remember how nervous I was?" They both chuckled.

"Of course. I'm just glad you got better with the rest."

"I remembered you being irritated with me for being gone away too long working, but you would never say anything."

"Chris," Larissa tried to interrupt, but he held up his hand.

"It's ok. I was gone too long too many times. And I'm sorry. I should have been home with you and the kids more."

"Oh, Chris, we've been over this a thousand times. It was your dream. And you fulfilled it. We knew what we were getting into. I knew what we were getting into. If I didn't love you, do you really think I would have stayed?" tears threatened to fall down her cheeks at any moment again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," Chris reached out to touch the side of her face and she let him, cradling her face against his hand.

"It's ok. I'm just a little emotional to begin with," she cried softly as Chris pulled her head down to his shoulder.