Chapter 133

She cut a glance at Richie as the car pulled up to the arena, her temper doing its normal zing zip zap.  She stared down at the plethora of pamphlets, booklets, mimeograph sheets, prescriptions and orders written out painstaking by a doctor that had to be old enough to be her freaking granddad if she had one.   Bad enough he'd made sure they got to bed early the night before, but that hadn't been the end of of it. He'd been first up and had her in the car before freaking daybreak, then he'd had the car stop surprisingly in a medical complex  surprising her with a nice little doctor's visit.


Yeah, that was all bad, but the nurses  giving her odd looks as he escorted her in,  had tipped the scales. Their look screamed the question what poor animal had Richie tried to rescue this time. The only saving grace had been Richie's slight flush as they’d finally been ushered back BEFORE they'd even filled out the paperwork you normally had to do in a doctor's office. Seems he really did "KNOW people," and had garnered her a very private visit. How nice he didn’t have to yet admit to who she was.

The doctor had been very considerate, listening to their complete story, before he ran a second set of blood tests to verify what they already knew. She was indeed pregnant. He’d spent more time telling them all the things to do than he’d actually spent checking her out. And with each word she’d felt more trapped in that tiny little room. When they’d finally finished, she’d skedaddled like the devil himself was following her, Richie trailing behind with the damned goofiest grin on record plastered on his face as he looked through each and every piece of paper before handing it to her. You’d think he’d never been around anyone pregnant before, but he had right? He [i]DID[/i] have a daughter afterall.

All of that had been bad enough, but she’d had to go through two solid days of nothing but baby talk, with very little loving in the interim and it had left her oddly out of sorts for a woman who up until a couple months ago had basically lived life without a real man to call her own, and when they simply pulled up to the arena, she couldn’t stop the stupid little sigh that escaped.

Stupid her, she'd actually thought they'd have a little alone time, but with one glance at her watch she'd realized that all they had time for was getting into the arena and maybe not getting the stink eye for their efforts.


Richie glanced over at Bri and knew she was gonna explode any moment but there had been no way around her going to the doctor. Carly had ordered it there for he was doing it . He was already in the doghouse with her friend and if it meant being in the doghouse with Bri then so be it. But other than giving him her version of the stink eye all day he was on top of world . He hadn't experienced really much with Heather, between his touring and her working it was hard to meet for the doctor's appointments and this time it was gonna be different.
  
    He hopped out of the car and started to go open her door but she was already out the car and down the ramp.   He sighed as he followed her down the ramp and into the back door.  The smile he had was a permanent fixture on his face as he relived what the doctor had said . Once a month as long everything was okay and next month they would hear the heartbeat and that was one appointment he did not and would not miss.
  
They entered the dressing room and she plopped down on the couch  the papers tossed to the table to the side.  He stopped to talk to her, he only had a moment before he had to go out for rehearsal . " Bri baby? Talk to me, " he asked bending down , resting his hand on her crossed leg.

She heard the worry in his voice and sighed, "What do you want to talk about Rich?"  She glanced up at his face with that new semi-permanent smile and  felt her own smile trying to break free. The idea of having to fly in once a month to see a doctor was keeping the smile back however. "I swear you act like you've never been through this before."


"I haven't Bri," Richie admitted " I was on tour most of Heather's pregnancy and she was working it was hard to meet for the appointments. " He glanced up, his best woebegone puppy look in place. "Besides, she really didn't seem like she cared if I was there or not."


Her eyes widened slightly, "But you'll be on tour for most of this one too."   She hushed for a moment, as it finally sank in. This time was different. Not only was it a first time for her, but damned if it wasn't almost a first time for him too. "Ohhhhh, so all this stuff with the measuring and seeing the heartbeat and all
that, you never got to do?"


Richie shook his head "No darlin' I didn't " his voice  filled with regret.  "Don't ya see that is why all this is so important to me?"


She leaned against him then and sighed, "Then I'll try to not be a grouch, but you know how I feel about doctors. So don't spring the next visit on me like a present okay? And, God don't wake up all chipper when you don't usually and ..."   She trailed off, she wasn't about to whine about the lack of sex the last two days. Between his cold and the concerts and having to get to Mohegan she had no room to complain.


Richie wrapped his arms around her then leaned in to nuzzle her neck. " I know it ain't been easy. You know when the next appointment is so no more surprises I promise. As for... " he couldn't stop the sly smirk, "bet you're girls on the board thought we got lucky every night. Damn honey, we're just so fucking tired then when a bug hits we all get it no matter how much we try and distance ourselves. Getting lucky becomes so low on the list sometimes. " He slowly stroked her hair.  "Just think we got a big break coming up so if you can hang in there we'll have lots of alone time. Promise. "

     She shivered as his hand brushed through her hair. "I never thought it was easy on you, hell sometimes even in videos it  looked like tired was beating you. I just hope....."  She took a deep breath and continued, "I Just hope that the added stress of me and a new baby won't make it worse."


Richie pulled back cupping her face between his large hands. " Baby I can say one thing you and the baby ain't even close in being. stressful."


She tilted her head to press a kiss against his palm. "I think you're fibbing at least a little."


"I swear I ain't lying. " Richie gazed at her. " You and the baby is what keeps me  going when I feel like shit  or its a bad night. "


"And here I thought it was all that gum you chew."  Leaning forward she kissed his chin quickly, "How you manage to sing and not choke or spit it out in Jon's face still eludes me."

Richie laughed, "Now that takes years of practice but there is a time or two Jon got it."


She shook her head, imagining the look on Jon's face. "That had to be a sight to see."

     "Only you would want to see Jonny boy pissed off " Richie grinned shaking his head

     She shifted suddenly and curled up into his lap with a happy sigh, "It's my mission in life to take him down a peg or three."
  
    She couldn't resist the heat of the man sitting there, not caring which crew member or band mate wandered by, her hand slowly moving to inch up under his shirt. "Almost forgotten  what you felt like, you just keep getting slim and sexy and I'll start getting all waddley."


He chuckled, " To me you'll always be sexy no matter what you look like.  Besides all waddley is cute. " He dipped down placing a sweet kiss on her lips lingering a bit to suck on the bottom lip.


"So says the man that's never been around melon sized wives in the heat of summer."  Her fingers brushed over the light fur on his tummy, her eyes closing as she dozed contentedly. Worries over their travel plans, and the last three months of her pregnancy were pushed to the back of her brain. He'd fix it somehow, she knew it.

Richie glanced down at his sleeping beauty lovingly.  He would see her through all her worries and fears . They all knew their schedule clear through to 2011, it made it easier to pencil in appointments. He was gonna be there no matter what. He chuckled to himself The Diaper Tour who would have thought and he was happy to be part of it . He rested his hand on her still flat tummy.  It couldn't get any more perfect than this.