Chapter 14

When the labor pains started Crystal thought it was something she'd eaten. Fortunately she was at the main offices for a meeting and her mother quickly diagnosed what was going on.

"I can't be in labor," Crystal said. "I've still got a month to go."

Her mother shook her head. "This baby has decided that the time is now. That's the trouble with being pregnant, you're at the mercy of the little one. Candace? Start calling the people on that list I gave you. I'm getting your sister to the hospital."

Carl met them in the lobby, and was soon joined by Crystal's doctor. Three hours later the doctor came out, smiling.

"Mid-day. How much better than early morning. Anyway, congratulations, you are the grandmother of a baby boy."

"When can we see them?"

"In about 20 minutes. Mother and baby are doing fine, I think we considered oxygen for the father when he started to hyperventilate."

Candace had been waiting with her phone. Now she sent out texts as fast as her thumbs could operate. When she finished, she gave a kind of goofy smile. "Okay, let's go see what Crys has been hiding from us."

Crystal looked tired, but she was smiling at the small bundle in her arms.

"You're lucky," her mother said at once. "I labored for at least 12 hours with you."

"Candace? Ever notice how with older women the labor always gets longer?"

Her sister nodded. "We have one woman in a firm we use, and she swears she labored for 39 hours straight with no drugs."

Crystal laughed. "The woman who invented the epidural should have a monument raised to her memory. Thank God for that."

"You would even have known she was in labor," Carl said. She was talking away, and the only time she stopped was when a contraction hit."

"Those last few minutes were pretty rough."

"May I see?" her mother asked, pointedly looking at the baby.

Crystal passed the baby around so her mother and sister could hold him. This, she thought, was the result of that one very passionate night in May. She had checked her temperature in the morning, and knew that the day was THE DAY. So after work she had insisted that she and Carl go "do something special". They'd gone to this place she knew about that wasn't too far from the Lodge.

Carl had been hesitant, but only until he was sure they were alone. Then, with a waterproof tarp as the bottom layer, and a blanket for comfort, and knowing it was just the two of them alone in the woods, he'd undressed her. It'd been even more fun than the time she'd done that during an off-site.

"I didn't mean to leave scratches on you," she said apologetically as they dressed.

Carl laughed. "It's a badge of honor I can't show. Obviously I was doing something right."

"Hmmm, I think we'd better check that, just to make sure."

"You mean... ?"

"It's a place I was told about, a bed and breakfast. It was highly recommended by some people at work."

They'd stayed up until long past midnight, and then awoke and made love before going down to breakfast. She snuggled against Carl on the drive back to town. She'd known, without a doubt, that she was getting pregnant that day, and two weeks later the EPT had confirmed it.

Now she held the results of an entire afternoon and evening devoted to mad, passionate love.

Crystal's sister and her mother came back into the room a few hours later. Crystal was out of bed and getting ready to go home. The baby was sleeping, and Crystal kept pausing to look at him.

"I still can't believe..."

"It's what women do," Candace said. "Congratulations. Now you'll worry about him for the rest of your life."

Crystal laughed and sat on the bed. "You know, this really makes me think about what I do for fun."

Candace dug a small paperback out of her purse. "Here, read this. I thought it was rather interesting, and it shed some light on things."

Crystal looked at it. "My First 500? What is this?"

"Oh, I remember that," her mother said. "She was one of the original members of the swing clubs in Southern California. The title is referring to the first 500 men she had sex with. I think there were 40 or so women, in there, too."

"And you think this might help?" Crystal looked doubtful.

"It put things in perspective," Candace said. She glanced at the door and lowered her voice. "Here's an exercise: how many men have you, you know, with? I was surprised at the number."

"So was I," their mother said. "Let's get together in a couple of days and talk. Okay? In the meantime, we have to get you checked out of here, and that takes some doing."

Crystal nodded. "I'm nearly ready."

Three days later the three of them got together at Carl and Crystal's apartment. First they checked on the baby, now named Ron, and paused while Crystal changed his diaper.

"I could show you how much better I am at that," her mother said, "but it's important that you get your self-confidence about it."

Crystal nodded absently. So far she hadn't stuck either Ron or herself. It was close, though.

"How are you doing with the nursing?"

"It wasn't quite as easy as people told me it would be," Crystal admitted. "However I seem to be getting the hang of it."

Candace nodded. "It took me a day or so. I was told how natural it was, but waking up for a 2 AM feeding just wasn't what I wanted. Still, I have to admit it was handy. I didn't start carrying bottles of formula around for a few months. And it went easier the second time."

"I looked at it as finally having a use for these things," their mother said. "I hauled these boobs around for years, and all they did was give me curves and something for the men to play with. Nursing actually made me feel like a complete woman."

"I leak a bit," Crystal said. "That's my current problem."

"Nursing pads," Candace said at once. "I had the same problem. Nursing pads will absorb the extra milk."

Crystal got them both coffee, then sat at the kitchen table, sighing. "It's still catching up with me."

"Have you been reading that book?" their mother asked.

Crystal nodded. "Yeah. She was quite ... busy. Some of those parties... !"

"Yeah, a dozen men, and three or four women in one night!" Her mother kind of smiled. "I thought I was busy with four men in one evening. That happened a couple of times at off-sites."

"But no women," Candace said. "None of us are attracted to women."

"It's making me really think about having another baby." Crystal took a sip of her coffee. ""That's part of it. Getting pregnant, that having sex with a dozen different guys in one week, that's been bothering me."

"Well, what we do for fun is how you get pregnant." Candace stared at the swirl of cream in her coffee. "It's the one time I wish I could be a man. You pop, and don't think any more about it. A woman, on the other hand, does have to think. Admittedly, the whole point of birth control is so a woman can have sex and not worry about making a baby, but..."

"But men have it luckier than we do," Crystal said. "I haven't done much for the last few months, just with Carl. But the thought has been on my mind."

"I wish I could give you an easy answer," their mother said. "I had my tubes tied after the two of you. You still might want to consider that, Candace. You, Crystal, though, well, you might want another."

Crystal smiled. "Easy now, I'm still getting over having Ron. It'll be a while before I consider another one."

In the next few weeks they had several milestones. She and Carl made love for the first time in several months. She was given permissions to access the system at work again, which meant that she could do some work. She welcomed it because it gave her something to do while Ron was down for a nap. And they took him up to the prison, about an hour's drive away, to see his mother.

Carl's mother was dressed in a light blue linen dress. There was no make-up on her face, and her hair wasn't styled at all. Both, Crystal assumed incorrectly, were privileges to be earned.

His mother ignored her appearance. Instead she cradled Ron in her arms. When she looked up she was smiling.

"Well done, Crystal, very well done indeed."

Crystal looked down, smiling and blushing. She liked getting praise about Ron from other women. It made her feel as if she had accomplished something. It had seemed like nine months, well, eight, actually, of just waiting, but the doctor had impressed on her after Ron was born that a lot of the things that she had done had aided in his development. She'd carried him, true, but she'd nurtured him as well, something she must never lose sight of.

"I was surprised when I went in to labor just after eight months," Crystal said. "I refused to believe it was actually happening."

"That's as it should be," Carol's mother said. "Are you two planning on having more?"

"It's ... possible," Crystal said. "I know I don't get a choice, but I'd like a girl."

"I would have too," his mother said. She sighed, then made goo-goo faces at Ron. "Not to be, though. And now it's too late."

We're going to wait at least a year," Carl said. "Perhaps two years. We have to keep in mind Crystal's health, too."

"I didn't have any problems," Crystal said, shooting a look at her husband.

""I see women who have babies too close together." Carl's mouth twisted. "They have all sorts of medical problems from then on. I don't want that to happen to her."

His mother nodded. "Good point. I've often felt pregnancy and childbirth really stress a woman's body, and from stress complications arise."

Crystal smiled at that. One of the things stressed in her first pre-natal class was that a woman's body was designed to bear and nurture children. If it was a stress, the human race, indeed all animals, would have died out millions of years before.

She kept her counsel, even on the ride home. She didn't want to get pregnant again right away. She thought a spacing of two or three years was about right for kids.

Doing work, even if it was minor things and maintenance, let her use her mind. Obviously earlier societies had had plenty for women to do, but times had changed. Now it was possible for a person tending a newborn to be totally bored. Some work helped her get ready for easing back into things.

The company had a couple of preferred daycare options. That included one that was only a block from the East offices. They welcomed Crystal and Ron with open arms, and tutored her on the fine are of using a breast pump. She'd visit every day at noon, but for the mid-afternoon feeding, and the one at mid-morning, she would leave a supply she'd extracted in bottles.

Ron had been born in January. Her first visit to the daycare was in mid-March, and she placed Ron in it a week later. It was surprising how much she missed him, even though he was so close. In two months she'd gotten used to him being only a few steps away. Still, it was a step toward the future.

Making love with Carl had been both nerve-wracking and cautious, but very satisfying. She hadn't had a period, but the doctor had told her that she should start again if she felt like it. When she'd expressed her worry—would she get pregnant again?—the doctor had assured her that things were all right. Besides, she added, if they used some protection...

Crystal had never cared that much for the feel of a condom, but she liked Carl's enthusiasm for it. Any protection was better than going bareback.

She used an EPT to make sure she hadn't started another one, and the doctor confirmed that they hadn't started one when Crystal took Ron in for a check-up. Just before she started work again full time, the doctor cleared her to start birth control.

"Your body changes as Carl gets older," she told Crystal. "We don't want the artificial hormones in the birth control to get into his system. It would in the first couple of months, mainly through your milk. But your body changes the milk to reflect his changing needs, and it's now safe for you."

"No more condoms?" Crystal joked.

"No more relying upon latex. The hormones your body produces when you're nursing, along with what we'll start you on, will keep you from ovulating." She smiled as she wrote the prescription. "I always thought of this as 'conception control', not 'birth control'. The former is more logical, the latter is more graphic."

"Marketing," Crystal said. "How many things do we choose these days based on marketing?"

"Too many. Anyway, there you go. Take these for a week before you engage in anything, give your system a chance to adapt a little."

She fudged on that, deciding that surely the doctor didn't mean she and Carl shouldn't, especially when they'd be using a condom. Or two. She'd forgotten the pleasure of multiple times in one evening.

They gave her a desk at the other end of the building from where she'd been before. The roof was still over the pool, but she could smell hardly any of the floral fragrance she associated with work. She found she was making love with Carl a little more often, now that she had started again, but that wasn't the big thing she got some assurance over.

Since Ron's birth she'd worked hard to lose the extra weight she'd gained during pregnancy. She also had this secret fear that childbirth had disfigured her in some way down there. That very first day back she stood in front of a mirror and examined that part of her. She knew this was something the average woman did not do. Most women tried very hard not to look at that part of themselves. There wasn't much to see, that much she'd learned before she'd gotten married. Most of a woman's sex was tucked between her legs and out of sight, and hair usually covered things as well. It was as if a woman's body helped conceal things. Crystal knew she'd been stretched open by Ron during labor, but she couldn't see any sight of that. She'd exercised as often as she dared, and that part of her looked nice and trim.