December 19, 2000 Tampa, Florida

Chinese food really had seemed like a good idea at dinner time.

But now that she had spent the better part of the evening praying to the porcelain god, Tina was starting to rethink the decision. Hindsight, after all, was 20/20.

Tina truly believed that the person who coined the term ‘morning sickness’ was a man. It was just too convenient a phrase to think that pregnant women just got up in the morning, got sick and went on with their days happy to be able to serve their husbands. In reality it should have been called “24 Hour Death” as to better describe what it was like to experience it.

She never got sick in the morning, and very rarely during the day. Her worst time was late in the evening. She felt like her babies wanted her starving and sleep deprived. It never failed that she would just drift off to sleep when she would wake up nauseous.

The muscles in her chest screamed as she once again heaved into the toilet, not really feeling like she had much left. She knew if she tried to drink water, or eat anything it would just make it worse.

As her body and her baby punished her for every fried won ton, every chicken ball, every bite of fried rice she was oblivious to the fact that someone else had come into the room. It wasn’t until she felt the hair being pulled off her shoulders and away from her face that she realized she wasn’t alone.

Her body heaved again and she reached back, grabbing whatever was closest to her which turned out to be Nick’s calf.

“Shh,” he whispered soothingly, one hand rubbing her back while the other kept her hair away from the toilet bowl.

“Easy for you to say,” she groaned, nails digging into the flesh of his leg with every painful muscle spasm.

Slowly the heaves started to slow down and her stomach stopped dancing. Nick pulled away from her briefly and when he came back she felt a cold washcloth against her cheek. Taking it from him she wiped her mouth and moved to sit against the wall, not overly comfortable with having her face on the toilet seat for any longer than she had to.

“Are you okay?” Nick asked, getting down on the floor with her. Luckily the tiles were heated so she wasn’t too uncomfortable sitting on the floor in just her underwear and a tank top.

“No,” she answered honestly, letting him pull her between his legs so she was leaning against his body instead of the wall.

Curling up in his arms, she rested her head on his chest comfortably and felt him kiss the top of her hair, “You know I spend an awful lot of time holding your hair while you puke considering we’ve never even gotten drunk together.”

“I’ve never been drunk before,” she admitted, eyes closing as she breathed deeply to keep her stomach at bay.

“Eh,” he shrugged slightly, “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“How would you know? I’m the only legal drinker in this relationship,” she pointed out, slightly jealous that he got to have all the fun while she was stuck at home.

Nick chuckled slightly, “Baby, I’m legal everywhere else but America and in another month or so I’ll be legal here too.”

“Lucky you,” she replied dryly with a heavy sigh, “When you get drunk you only spend one night puking your guts out. I get to spend every night for at least the next three weeks throwing up.”

She could tell he was at a loss for words because it was rare for Nick to ever be completely silent. Instead of speaking and potentially digging himself an even deeper hole he just continued to stroke her hair until she had to pull away to be sick again.

When she’d finished he once again pulled her into his embrace, trying to soothe her sore body.

“We have elbows this week,” Nick suddenly spoke and she would have given him an odd look if it weren’t so dim in the room and it didn’t hurt so much to move her head.

“Elbows?” she wondered curiously.

“The book,” he clarified without being terribly specific, “Earlier today you said something to me about how I should have read the books that my parents got for me. After dinner I was skimming through that Expectant Father one and it said in week nine your baby gets elbows.”

“I just hope it takes a while for him to learn how to use them,” she groaned, dreading the feeling of trying to sleep with little hands and feet trying to escape her stomach. When she should have been thinking about how sweet and endearing it was of him to have picked up the book and made the effort she was instead focused on the fact that he was only acting that way because he wanted something. That something, of course, being her presence in his life.

She could tell he was a little defeated when she didn’t praise his efforts but wouldn’t give in to his pout.

“Do you want to try to get some sleep?” he asked since it had been a while since she’d last been sick.

Tina nodded her head and let him help her stand up. Groaning as her head spun she took a moment to quickly rinse her mouth of the offending aftertaste. She let Nick lead her back to bed and tuck her in before he went around to his side of the bed to get settled in.

“It’s going to be really hard for me,” she spoke into the dark room and felt him shift onto his side.

“Hard to sleep?” he wondered, his voice laden with concern.

“No,” she sighed and looked blankly towards the ceiling, “Hard for me to believe that you’re not just pretending to be nice right now.”

“I’m not,” he defended but she cut him short.

“You can say that all you want, but I’ve been through this with you before. You have told me so many times that you were going to ‘change’ but it’s never lasted. You take a break from touring, you come and stay with us and you’re an asshole for a day or two then you promise up and down that you’re going to be better and different and I always believed you at first. Sure enough though, as soon as you go back on tour it’s back to the same old Nick – the real Nick. The one that can’t control his temper, can’t be told he’s wrong, can’t stand to be threatened, and holds himself up on a pedestal that no one could possibly reach. You go from treating me like a Princess to treating me like dirt. I just can’t do that forever. You say you’ve changed now but it’s going to take a lot of time for me to really believe that.”

“Don’t you trust me?” he asked and she had to be honest.

“No, I don’t trust you because you always lie.”

This was thinking this would normally be where that real Nick reared his ugly head and tell her what a terrible person she was for thinking he could ever be dishonest, but the accusations never came and he just lay silently.

“I obviously can’t convince you one way or the other at this point,” he finally spoke, “You’re just going to have to give me some time and let me show you that I can change. Baby, I want to change. I know I can be a prick sometimes but that’s just who I am, and you know that. I’m really, sincerely, going to try and tone it down because I know what hurts your feelings now.”

“We’ll see,” she whispered, rolling onto her side to face away from him. What she really wanted to say was that he knew what hurt her feelings three years ago, but it had never stopped him from hurting them.

She felt him spoon up behind her then felt his lips on her neck, “So this bed rest thing...” he began, “You can still have sex right?”

“Are you serious?”

“What?” he questioned innocently, dropping another kiss near her shoulder, “It’s a legitimate question.”

“If I’m not allowed to walk around the house why would I be able to have sex?” she asked rhetorically, shaking her head at the fact he hadn’t worked that out on his own.

“So that’s a no?”

Nodding, she reached back to pat his leg, “Sorry, that’s a no.”

“Wow,” he let out a heavy breath, “Seven months?”

“Seven months, but probably more like nine,” she confirmed.

“How far away is that exactly?” he asked.

Recalling her due date she turned back to him slightly, “July 23rd or so. Plus six weeks after birth.”

She was sure if she could see the look on his face in the dark, it would be one of shock, “That’s a really long time from now.”

Laughing, she nodded and snuggled back down into the pillow, “Hope you asked Santa for porn.”

“Of course I did, I just didn't think I was going to need it so soon,” he answered, laying his head down on his own pillow so they could grab a few hours of precious sleep before Parker got up for the day.