Todd and Marty Ch. 03

He reached into his shirt, withdrawing a long silver chain. There on the chain, a cross glinted in the sunlight. "Remember this?" Todd said, watching for Marty's reaction. It was the cross Marty had given him in Ireland, when he had come to tell her that her little patient, nine-year-old Paloma was dying of Aids and that she needed to get back to the states right away to be at the little girl's side. Thankfully Marty had made it back to the states in time to say goodbye to the precious little girl thanks to Todd. Paloma had died clutching the magical pony called a Pucca that Marty had brought to her from Ireland. Marty and that sweet little girl had given Todd so much courage to do wonderful things. Sadly though, Todd had been mistaken for Patrick, Marty's husband, and he was shot in the back that night. He nearly died. It had taken him a year to return to Blair and Starr...

"You said that this was for courage," said Todd as he held up the cross. "And I am going to need all the courage I can get, Marty...."

"I want to change.... but it's not going to be easy," Todd spoke. "I don't know if I can do it... I don't know if I have the courage."

Marty's eyes lit up. "You still have that?!" she asked in amazement.

"Yes it is for courage. I know it won't be easy... but I believe that you do have the courage within you, Todd. I've seen another side of you that you don't show often and I know it's there," she said softly.

"I would never get rid of a gift from you, Marty. That cross really meant a lot to me. Even though Blair hated that I would wear it, knowing it had came from you," Todd explained.

"I was thinking, if our baby turns out to be a little girl, would you like to call her Paloma after our little friend we lost all those years ago?" suggested Todd.

"Todd, that is a beautiful suggestion," Marty said softly, as she rested her hand atop his.

"I think it would be the most perfect way to honor our friend," she said softly. "That will be our baby's name if it's a girl."

Todd grinned as he gazed at Marty. They had a beautiful picnic in the park, and they lingered there until it began to get dark. After that, they walked back to Todd's place. "I had a wonderful time today," he said to her as he was cleaning out the picnic basket. Todd then noticed his answering machine was beeping. It was his lawyer, proposing possible supervised visits after having heard for Blair's attorney. Todd turned to Marty after he heard the news, swinging her around in his arms with happiness as he was very eager to see his kids.

*~*

The closer Marty was getting to her due date, the more excited she was becoming. Soon they'd be bringing home a beautiful baby together, plus she knew that today was the day Todd would be getting to see his boys and that had to make him very happy.

It appeared that most of Todd's life was finally coming together now. He would soon be spending much-awaited time with his two boys, Sammy and Jack. It had been three LONG months since he had seen them, and he missed them very much. Also, Marty was about a week away from her due date now, so their baby would soon be making an appearance. They still didn't know if they were expecting a boy or a girl, because the baby hadn't cooperated during the ultrasounds. Todd had only laughed, telling Marty that the baby wanted his or her parents to have a pleasant surprise. Todd knew that if he could mend his relationship with his daughter Starr, then life would be almost perfect.

The past three months, Todd had been on his best behavior. There had been no kidnappings, crimes or anything of the sort for him. He spent a great deal of his time at The Sun, working on his newspaper or with Marty, preparing for their little one. The pregnancy had been a rather hard one for her, so the two of them hadn't been allowed to be intimate for well over two months now per doctor's orders. Todd had been driven crazy with desire because he wanted Marty so badly, but he understood the importance of keeping their unborn baby healthy.

Today Todd was in the backyard putting up a trampoline with a net for the boys. He now had everything ready for their visit. He went into the house to see if Marty was prepared yet to go with him to pick them up. "Hey there," he said, slipping his arms around her from behind and kissing her softly on the neck after sweeping her long hair aside. Tenderly his lips moved against the soft flesh of Marty's throat with caressing kisses.

"Hey," Marty said, a smile spreading across her face as she felt his lips on her neck. She had been so incredibly happy these past few months together.

"What time do we have to go pick up the boys?" she inquired. She was sure Todd would have been running for the door if were time to pick up Jack and Sam already.

"Now actually," Todd said when Marty asked when it would be time to pick up Jack and Sammy. "I got the trampoline all set up for them, then realized that time had gotten away from me. We better hurry over there. Blair will turn into a barracuda if I'm even a couple of minutes late."

"Let's get going," Todd urged, taking Marty's hand and leading her to the door. Once they were in the car and headed over to Blair's, Todd groaned as suddenly a heavy rain began to fall.

"Damn, it looks like a terrible thunderstorm," Todd cursed. "I can barely see the road in front of me." Suddenly thunder clashed, and a bolt of lightening hit a nearby tree.

Marty looked worried by the weather. "Maybe we should pull over and call them and say once this stops we'll come get the boys. I don't want any of us getting hurt," she spoke. "Nor do I want them to think you flaked out or are just late for no good reason."

Todd had no choice. He had to pull over. The rain was coming down in sheets and a huge tree limb lay over the road. He couldn't have driven anywhere if he had wanted to. "You're right, I should call Blair," Todd said, reaching for his cell phone. He then cursed, realizing that because of the storm, he could not get a signal. "Fuck!" Todd yelled. "What else can go wrong?!"

"Yeah, I'm sure everything will be fine...." Marty's voice trailed off as a contraction hit her.

"Todd," she gasped, doubled over slightly from the contraction. This couldn't be right, could it? Surely in the middle of this rainstorm their baby didn't want to appear!

Another bolt of lightening streaked the sky as Todd threw his cell phone aside. He just wanted to punch something, as he knew Blair would blame him for this, even though he had no control over a thunderstorm. He also thought of Jack and Sammy and how disappointed they both would be if he didn't show up.

He suddenly heard Marty's gasp and he looked over at her, seeing her clearly due to the lightening within the sky. "What is it?" he asked urgently, seeing her clutching her swollen middle as if she was in pain. Todd suddenly went white as he demanded, "Is it the baby?"

Marty nodded her head. "Contractions. Baby," she managed to get out. If her water broke right here she knew she'd be in even more trouble. What were they going to do? They couldn't even get any help.

Sudden images of Jack's birth came to Todd. He and Blair had been in Mexico, Blair had gone into labor, and Todd had delivered Jack right there in their motel room with absolutely no medical assistance. "This can't be happening again," Todd mumbled to himself. Even though he had delivered his son over 11 years ago, he didn't think he could handle this now in the middle of a thunderstorm while stranded here in his car.

"Marty, are we going to make it to the hospital?" Todd asked as he frantically tried to start the car. The doctor had said that once she went into labor, Todd had to get her to the hospital immediately. Twice she had nearly gone into preterm labor with this baby which had caused them both some pretty bad scares and the doctor had said that once labor began again, the baby would be coming fast.

The car sputtered, but refused to start. Todd started smacking the steering wheel, then realized his actions had to be upsetting Marty. He needed to calm down and think.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to Marty and said as calmly as he could, "I can't start the car."

Marty's eyes went wide. "I-I can't have this baby in a car in the thunderstorm! What are we going to do?" she asked as she began to panic. "Oh God, this is not going to be good!"

She couldn't even think. "Oh God, please don't let this be happening," Marty gasped. She willed the baby to stay put even though she knew that it would be coming pretty fast as the doctor had warned they needed to the hospital ASAP after she went into labor.

Seeing that expression on Marty's face, Todd knew he had seen that look before. Hadn't he seen that exact look right before Blair had given birth to Jack? It had been an experience Todd had never wanted to repeat.

"Marty, I really think that for your sake and the baby's, I should help you into the back seat, so you can lie down," Todd suggested, knowing that if he absolutely did have to start delivering this baby, it wasn't possibly happening up here in the front of his car, with the leather bucket seats.

"I know you're scared," Todd said soothingly as he tenderly caressed her cheek. "But I'm here, and I wouldn't let anything happen to you... or our baby. No matter what happens, I promise you, I'm going to handle it."

"I have my 'Courage,' remember?" Todd said as he held up his cross she had given him. He knew Marty was very religious, so those words would get through to her, even if nothing else would. "Our baby is just anxious to meet us, it would seem."

Before she could get anymore freaked out, Todd left the car, then went to her side to help her get settled into the back seat. It wasn't easy, cause the rain pounded down over both of them, making visibility bad. After Marty was lying down in the back seat, Todd too climbed in the back with her. He wasn't about to leave her side when she was in so much pain, even though he had thought about flagging down a car. With visibility being almost zero, no cars had even passed since he had stopped along the side of the road.

"Marty, are you okay?" Todd then asked, noticing she hadn't said anything to him in awhile.

"I'm scared...very scared," Marty said softly. "I trust you, but I'm just scared; we don't have anything here, Todd, if the baby comes. No tools, no care things, and nothing is sterile."

"I know, and to tell you the truth, I'm scared, too. But I've done this before, Marty. Blair and I were in Mexico when she went into labor with Jack and I delivered him myself right there in a motel room. We didn't have anything there either, not really. I wrapped Jack up in a towel...." Todd spoke as those memories came rushing back to him. As he was speaking, Todd was slowly inching up the hem of Marty's summer dress. He had to check to see if the baby was coming, but he really didn't want to do this. He wanted their child to be born in a hospital, with skilled doctors present to care for both her and the baby.

"I can do this again, Marty... if I have to. You and the baby are going to be okay," Todd promised. Because of the storm, it was nearly dark in the car. Only occasional lightening brought flashes of light to the car, making it possible for Todd to see. In a moment, he had Marty's dress pushed up and nearly gasped at what he saw. There was so much blood. There hadn't been this much blood when Jack was born, was there?

Marty's panties were soaked with blood, and Todd struggled to get them off. His hands trembled as he tossed them aside. His eyes widened, seeing the baby's head bulging and about to emerge. "Here we go again," he thought silently wondering if the three of them would make it through this night.

"Okay," Marty managed to get out although she was still terrified. She was nearly shaking and tried to calm down enough to let Todd do what he had to in the dark of the storm. She hated storms, and to her they usually seemed like bad omens. She just hoped this all wouldn't end in some sort of tragedy.

Todd got a sick feeling in his gut when he thought that it had been a night like this one during the Spring Fling, when he and his buddies Powell and Zach had gang raped Marty that fateful and horrible night. As the rain ran down the car windows in torrents, it reminded him of the fish tank in Kevin's dorm room on that night... and the glare of the lightening flashing upon it through the window. Pushing that ugly memory from his mind, Todd turned all his attention onto Marty and what was happening right now this very moment. Although she wasn't visibly pushing, the baby was right there, and it was starting to move down the birth canal all on it's own. It would probably only take a couple of pushes, and their child would be born. "Marty, listen to me," Todd said, making eye contact with her and staring deep into her eyes. "The baby is right there. If you just give a couple of strong pushes, the pain will all be over... and we can see our baby..."

"Okay," Marty said. "I can do that." That was easy right?

She did her best to push, so that the baby could continue it's way out. It hurt though... the pain as well as the contractions.

"That's it," Todd said, laughing softly in relief as Marty was pushing and the baby was coming out easily into his hands. The baby was quite small, so it emerged with only a couple of pushes, going into it's father's waiting hands. Thankfully this birth had been so much easier than Jack's had been and the tiny infant immediately began to cry as soon as it emerged. It was a blessed sound, for Todd knew that the baby's cry meant that the child was going to be alright. "Marty, we have our baby," Todd said happily, wrapping the tiny bundle up in his own shirt though it was slightly damp from the rain. It was better than nothing as Todd didn't want the newborn to get cold.

"Marty?" Todd then spoke, realizing Marty was swimming in and out of consciousness. There was an enormous amount of blood from the birth, and Todd was worried that perhaps Marty had begun to hemorrhage.

Marty could vaguely hear Todd's voice and the sound of a crying baby. Oh thank God, the baby was okay! Before she could form the words, she passed out completely and everything turned to black.

Todd laid the baby on Marty's chest, hoping it was warm enough. The infant continued to cry, reassuring Todd that despite the circumstances surrounding the birth, the newborn was going to be fine. Todd wasn't so sure about Marty. She had gone totally still. "Marty, ohhh God, I can't lose you... Noooooo," Todd said, a total wreck as he wrapped his arms around Marty and began to cry, using his own body heat to warm the newborn baby. Todd sobbed like a lost child, thinking that the woman he loved was dying right here in his arms.

Marty started to slowly fade back in...but just barely. Crying? The baby!

"Our baby," she gasped softly. Why did everything feel so fuzzy and strange? Was there something wrong with her? She couldn't tell.

Todd felt Marty's breath against his skin as she whispered to him. "Our baby's okay," he said to her. "I love you, Marty... I thought I was losing you...."

"Don't die, Marty... I cant live without you, I can't," Todd implored her.