Chapter 1

Chapter: 1
During that first year, everything seemed to be in perfect honeymoon bliss. Mystique gave her two weeks notice two years after they got married. As a wedding gift, the company offered to build their dream home and fronted some of the costs. They sat down and drew out the specifications together. They purchased an acre and a half of land.
The house was two stories complete with basement and attic as extra storage space. They both agreed that there had to be a music studio in the basement of the house for Shawn’s use. An office upstairs for Mystique, now that she was starting her own clothing business with Deidra as they discussed in prior years. They opted to have two guest rooms with adjoining bathrooms upstairs. The living room would have a small pantry off to the side for snacks and cold drinks. A nice sized swimming pool would be included in the backyard and gated for safety purposes and along with a gazebo in the shade wit ha porch swing.. The master bedroom would have huge walk in closets on both sides of the room, would also have a Jacuzzi bathtub built in and across from the tub would be customized shower with dual showerheads and built in bench to sit down on those lazy days. There was a spare bedroom not too far down the hallway, which they hadn’t decided on what they were going to do with it.
She couldn’t believe the magnificent job the company managed to put together for them. In all of her years working at the company she had never seen one of the completed projects in actuality. Their dream home nearly brought her to tears. In the meantime, while the house was being built Mystique sold her home and took up residence with Shawn’s father.
***
Five years later Mystique is sitting in the nursery with Duce recalling that faithful night when Duce was born. The first contraction started around 8 p.m. when she woke. They weren’t too bad. She drummed her fingers on the nightstand before drifting back to sleep. The contraction seemed to get much stronger around 1 a.m. By this point Mystique was sitting up in her bed using the breathing techniques she had learned in Lamaze class. After an hour of good solid hard contractions, she determined it was time. She nudged Shawn. At first he didn’t budge.
“Shawn, you need to get up.”
“Huh…huh.”
“Are you awake?”
“What is it?”
“It’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To have the baby, knucklehead.”
“Time for baby good...good baby. Tell baby be good and lie down.”
“Shawn, get up.”
“Up, up, up, up. I’m up.”
“If you don’t get up you are going to be delivering this baby right here in this room.”
“What baby?”
“I swear sometimes I think it would be easier for me to drive myself. The baby we are having, come on Shawn.”
“We’re having a baby. You mean its time?”
“That’s what I have been trying to tell you for the last 10 minutes.”
By this time, Shawn rolls off the bed and hitting the floor hard. He was fully awake at this point but in a panic state, “Okay, Okay, let’s just stay calm. Um, um, what are we are supposed to do now? Come on think Shawn, think.”
“Go warm up the car.”
“Right, warm up the car because we are having…a…baby.”
Shawn feels woozy, with a loud...THUMP, Mystique watches as he staggers back and forth then drops to the floor, passing out. She peers over the bedside and looks down at him in pity. She picks up the phone and calls Deidra who answers on the first ring.
“Is everything okay Mystique?” Deidra answers the phone half sleep.
“Did you even let the phone ring?”
“This big man has fainted. Deidra, meet us at the hospital.”
“Are you sure you are going to be all right. You trust Shawn to do this?”
“He’ll be fine.”
“I’ll see you when you get there.”
Mystique hangs up the phone just as Shawn starts to revive, “Mystique, where are you? What happened?”
“I’m right here. You passed out. You were supposed to warm the car.”
“Right, warming up the car. Don’t you need me to help you to the car.”
“First things first, warm up the car and come back.”
Shawn rushes to get the car started thinking about the baby says thinking himself.
“The baby, the baby, I need to get you to the hospital. We’re having a baby.”
Unconsciously Shawn puts the car in gear and heads towards the hospital leaving Mystique in the house. Mystique realizes that Shawn is taking too long to return. She makes her way to the living room and looks out the window only to discover that Shawn has left the house. She opts to take a chance to drive herself to the hospital. She cursed her husband in his absentmindedness state of mind. She knew he wouldn’t do good under stressful situations.
Meanwhile Shawn arrives at the hospital, he rushes past the guard to the emergency front desk and declares very loudly, “My wife is having a baby.”
At which point the triage nurse asks, “Did you leave your wife in the car?”
Shawn then realizes that he left Mystique at home, “Nooo, I didn’t’ leave her in the car,” looking down at the floor in embarrassment.
“Then where is she?”
“Um, I kind of left her at home. Pretty stupid huh?”
The nurse replies, “You aren’t the first expectant father to do it and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Now, if you decided to have another child and you do this again then that could possibly be pretty stupid.” Then she laughs, “Would you like for us to send an ambulance to your address.”
Their conversation is interrupted when Shawn’s cell phone went off. The familiar tone assigned to his wife number, “Just a minute, this is her right now. Hello.”
Between her breathing techniques, she managed to get the words out, “Did you forget someone?”
“Yes honey,” Shawn says bashfully, “How are you feeling?”
“For the most part I’m doing okay with the exception of the contractions.”
“I’m going to have them send an ambulance.”
“Don’t, I’m already on my way.”
“You shouldn’t be driving in your condition.”
“No, you’re the one who shouldn’t be driving in your condition. Try to pull yourself together Mr. Houston I’ll be there shortly.”
Deidra finds Shawn standing patiently at the door, “Is there a reason why you are still in your pajamas?”
“You see, I figured that,” after a few second passed, “Oh, I don’t why. At least I did remember to put on my shoes.”
“Where’s Mystique?”
“She should be here any minute.”
“You left her?”
“Hmm, not exactly.”
“What exactly would you call it?”
“I got in the car but she forgot to get in?”
“Poor you,” Deidra pats him on the back, “You know we are never going to let you live this one down.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.”
Mystique pulls up and leaves the car idle outside. The guard brings a wheelchair outside a wheelchair when he sees her struggling to get out of the car, to assist her. Mystique spots Shawn, “The car needs to be moved, the keys are in the ignition, and the car is still running.”
“Shawn, go ahead and go up with Mystique. I’ll take care of the car,” Deidra offers.
Shawn accompanies Mystique to the birthing room where they prep Mystique. Deidra joins them about 20 minutes later. They are standing around watching the strength of the contractions on the monitor. Everything is going good, its time. Mystique is ready to give birth. Shawn’s curiosity got the better of him. He thought he would be able to handle what he was about to see. As he continued to watch, he began to hyperventilate as the baby’s head begins to crown.
“I can’t breathe, I can’t…”
The doctor asks the nurse to escort Mr. Houston out of the delivery room to the waiting room. Deidra steps in to coach Mystique. All in all the delivery went fine. Mystique gave birth to a healthy baby boy weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and 18 inches long. The nurses clean up the baby and gives him back to his mother. After all the excitement is over Shawn is escorted back to see Mystique and his newborn son.
“By the way they put me down as the father seeing as you couldn’t handle the duties.” Deidra says jokingly.
“Here meet your new son, Shawn Christian Houston Jr.” Mystique giving the baby to Shawn. While holding his son in one hand he dialed his father’s number from her room phone to announce the arrival of his new grandson.