The New Family Member
Road Trip
Tony’s POV
I packed the last couple of bags into the black Audi A4, which Noortje had gotten after her last car had broken down. This car was still going to work when Spud was born. We could easily fit a baby car seat in the back and there was enough space for luggage in the back. My car wasn’t as useful. It was a sports car, so it wasn’t fit for family use. Everything I was doing, I started thinking of what it would be like after Spud would be born.
Noortje and I had started clearing one of the guest rooms. With just under 2 months left to fix a baby room, we decided to start now. We brought all the furniture to a store space we had and started looking for baby furniture. Everything still had to be built, but most of it was bought already. We had a crib, a comfortable chair, a wardrobe, a changing table, and some shelves to hang up. But we first had to paint the walls before we could start with the furniture. Everything was going to be in earthy tones. However, I was going to ask somebody else to help me with the painting. Even though we had bought baby safe wall paint that was free of toxins and other harmful substances, I didn’t want to risk Noortje having troubles with fumes.
Speaking of Noortje, she was complaining again, “why the fuck did they ask us to bring so much with us! I swear to god, only one of these ten bags is ours.”
Yep. That’s right. Vic, Mike, Jaime, and crew members had asked us to bring stuff from home. The stuff mostly being food, but there also were some other products. But it was mainly food. They were going to pay us back, of course, all this stuff was pretty expensive. It was like we were a small supermarket.
“Let’s just think of it as a good deed since we aren’t on tour with everybody else anymore,” I smiled at her and started walking to the driver’s seat, “are you ready to go?”
“Yep… I gotta pee,” she turned back to the house and walked in as fast as she could. Maybe a better way to put it was that she waddled back inside. Her bump had been growing very fast and she looked beautiful. Soon we were going to have our own little Perry baby, well that was if the baby took my last name… It could also be an Ottlinger baby, or an Ottlinger-Perry baby. We hadn’t even discussed names yet. We had to do that soon!
Noortje came back walking out and got in the car, “I think I’ll be set for the next 5 minutes.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to make it that long?” I joked, “for emergencies we always have a random bucket in the backseat… Why do we have a bucket in the backseat?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. It could be useful though. I might get car sick; I haven’t been in the car much longer than 15 minutes since I got pregnant, so, I don’t know.”
“Let the random bucket be the new symbol of our relationship; weird and nobody knows what it’s doing.”
----
Noortje’s POV
Pregnancy had actually made me like dresses. They were so much more comfortable and easy to wear with a bump that trying to fit on jeans. Spud definitely stayed a lot more calm when I wore dresses. I guessed that jeans and other pants just somehow made Spud uncomfortable, like how he/she would kick whenever I pressed down on that specific part of my belly. Another advantage was that there was less pressure on my bladder and going to the bathroom was a lot easier.
I got out my phone and started secretly recording myself and Tony. We had been driving for 15 minutes now and we were somewhere on a highway. Tony knew the way, he had been to Los Angeles and back many times, while I had only done it a couple of times. I had no clue where we were.
“Tony,” I whined and pouted at the camera.
“Yes,” he returned in a similar voice.
“I’ve to go to the bathroom!”
“But we just left,” Tony argued, “can’t you wait a bit longer?”
“No, I’m about to burst!” And I was telling the truth. I was desperately trying to keep it in. It worked weirdly: I found be fine one second and the next I would have to run.
“I’m just kidding,” he rubbed my leg affectionately, “I know, I shouldn’t make jokes like that. We’ll stop at the next gas station or toilet stop.”
I stopped the recording and thanked him, “I was recording all of that. Now everybody will know how you are such a nice turtle to me.”
“Everybody already knows that I’m the best turtle in town.”
I posted the video to twitter and captioned it with what Tony had just said. The last video I had posted, the one of Tony filming Spud kicking me, had fans go crazy. Not only were they freaking out about that somebody was filming it (presumably my boyfriend), but they loved seeing Spud in action. It was nice knowing that people that were so important to me were so excited about Spud.
Tony pulled over at the next gas station and we both got out. I immediately went to a bathroom and Tony leaned against the car while he was waiting for me. Some teenage girls noticed us and started whispering and went up to Tony. I would have come up to them and talked as well, if it weren’t for the fact that I really needed to go to the bathroom.
I quickly did my business and washed my hands before going back to Tony. When I got there I saw a couple more fans surrounding him and other people looking at him, wondering whether he was famous. Some girls saw me walk up and squealed. They each gave me careful hug, but I had to apologize to the other fans. I wasn’t allowed to stand up for so long. Tony, however, made sure to say hi to everybody and even went out to buy me a bar of chocolate before he got back into the car.
I gracefully took the chocolate from him, “oh my god, yes! Thank you so so much.”
“It’s just something to shut you up for the rest of the drive,” Tony joked and pulled back onto the highway.
“That’s mean,” I popped some of the chocolate in my mouth and also gave some to Tony.
The rest of the drive we laughed, sang along to horrible pop songs, ate the heavenly chocolate, and only had to stop 10 more times for me to go to the bathroom. Maybe 10 times was a lot, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t my fault that spud was making me have to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes. We eventually got to the venue an hour early; we purposely left early because Tony knew he was going to have to pull over a couple of times.
----
We were in the changing room with the others. They were all excited to see me and were surprised with how much the bump had grown over the months. I also got told that they loved the video of Spud kicking. It was nice to see my friends again and get to know how excited they were for me and Tony.
I was lying down on the couch, talking to Vic, when I got a pain in my lower abdomen. It caused me to groan out in pain, and immediately everybody’s attention was on me.
“Is everything ok?” Vic panicked.
I nodded, the pain now gone, “it’s just contractions, just not the real deal. I’ve been having them over the past month. Sometimes they are painful, sometimes they are not. Don’t worry.”
“Ok… if you say so. If you suddenly give birth halfway through the show, it will not be my fault.”
“I won’t give birth yet, it’s way too early for that.”
“Could be a premature birth,” Vic raised his hands in defense.
I rolled my eyes and Tony gave me a bottle of water. Drinking water always helped with the fake contractions I was having. Sometimes I’d be in a lot of pain, but sometimes it just felt like my muscles tensed. It was really weird, but the doctor had already told me before hand that these contractions were totally normal.
“Guys, you’re up in 10!” Jay walked in and smiled at me.
Everybody followed him out and went side stage. The tech’s equipped them with their instruments and I was left all by myself for a bit. Tony was getting some instructions and he then quickly jogged up to me. Only 2 minutes remaining. He gave me a quick kiss and I wished him luck. Time to go on.
They all ran on stage and the crowd went crazy. I watched them with a smile, but it quickly turned into a frown. There was another stabbing pain in my stomach, and I sat down on the floor.
----
Vic’s POV
I looked sidestage to see Noortje on the floor, clutching her stomach. She was drinking more water and I knew exactly that she was having more pains. I shot her a look, but she shook her head and waved it off. She was either trying to get me to stop worrying or she was actually ok, I did not know which one it was. A crew member came up to her and gave her a chair to sit on. Noortje happily accepted it and carefully sat down.
For the entire show she kept drinking more and more water, but I don’t think anybody else noticed. There was something wrong with her. Was she sure it wasn’t the first signs of premature labour? When she disappeared I freaked out slightly, and my singing sounded terrible. The fans probably didn’t care much but Jaime was looking at me weirdly. My voice, however, went back to normal when I saw her come back. She probably went to go to the bathroom.
After finishing the show and throwing out all our spare guitar picks to the crowd, I rushed over to Noortje. She stood up and went to give me a hug before realizing I was very sweaty, and decided to better not come close to me.
“Are you sure you’re fine?” I asked her.
Tony joined us, “what’s wrong?”
“I’ve been having some pains, but it’s not labour pains, trust me,” Noortje sighed and gave him a kiss.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you can go send me to a doctor, but I’m sure.”
“I’m getting the nurse that comes with us on tour. I don’t trust this,” I told them and went out to find the person that had helped us many times after we had fallen off stage or randomly walked into a wall when we were drunk.
I packed the last couple of bags into the black Audi A4, which Noortje had gotten after her last car had broken down. This car was still going to work when Spud was born. We could easily fit a baby car seat in the back and there was enough space for luggage in the back. My car wasn’t as useful. It was a sports car, so it wasn’t fit for family use. Everything I was doing, I started thinking of what it would be like after Spud would be born.
Noortje and I had started clearing one of the guest rooms. With just under 2 months left to fix a baby room, we decided to start now. We brought all the furniture to a store space we had and started looking for baby furniture. Everything still had to be built, but most of it was bought already. We had a crib, a comfortable chair, a wardrobe, a changing table, and some shelves to hang up. But we first had to paint the walls before we could start with the furniture. Everything was going to be in earthy tones. However, I was going to ask somebody else to help me with the painting. Even though we had bought baby safe wall paint that was free of toxins and other harmful substances, I didn’t want to risk Noortje having troubles with fumes.
Speaking of Noortje, she was complaining again, “why the fuck did they ask us to bring so much with us! I swear to god, only one of these ten bags is ours.”
Yep. That’s right. Vic, Mike, Jaime, and crew members had asked us to bring stuff from home. The stuff mostly being food, but there also were some other products. But it was mainly food. They were going to pay us back, of course, all this stuff was pretty expensive. It was like we were a small supermarket.
“Let’s just think of it as a good deed since we aren’t on tour with everybody else anymore,” I smiled at her and started walking to the driver’s seat, “are you ready to go?”
“Yep… I gotta pee,” she turned back to the house and walked in as fast as she could. Maybe a better way to put it was that she waddled back inside. Her bump had been growing very fast and she looked beautiful. Soon we were going to have our own little Perry baby, well that was if the baby took my last name… It could also be an Ottlinger baby, or an Ottlinger-Perry baby. We hadn’t even discussed names yet. We had to do that soon!
Noortje came back walking out and got in the car, “I think I’ll be set for the next 5 minutes.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to make it that long?” I joked, “for emergencies we always have a random bucket in the backseat… Why do we have a bucket in the backseat?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. It could be useful though. I might get car sick; I haven’t been in the car much longer than 15 minutes since I got pregnant, so, I don’t know.”
“Let the random bucket be the new symbol of our relationship; weird and nobody knows what it’s doing.”
----
Noortje’s POV
Pregnancy had actually made me like dresses. They were so much more comfortable and easy to wear with a bump that trying to fit on jeans. Spud definitely stayed a lot more calm when I wore dresses. I guessed that jeans and other pants just somehow made Spud uncomfortable, like how he/she would kick whenever I pressed down on that specific part of my belly. Another advantage was that there was less pressure on my bladder and going to the bathroom was a lot easier.
I got out my phone and started secretly recording myself and Tony. We had been driving for 15 minutes now and we were somewhere on a highway. Tony knew the way, he had been to Los Angeles and back many times, while I had only done it a couple of times. I had no clue where we were.
“Tony,” I whined and pouted at the camera.
“Yes,” he returned in a similar voice.
“I’ve to go to the bathroom!”
“But we just left,” Tony argued, “can’t you wait a bit longer?”
“No, I’m about to burst!” And I was telling the truth. I was desperately trying to keep it in. It worked weirdly: I found be fine one second and the next I would have to run.
“I’m just kidding,” he rubbed my leg affectionately, “I know, I shouldn’t make jokes like that. We’ll stop at the next gas station or toilet stop.”
I stopped the recording and thanked him, “I was recording all of that. Now everybody will know how you are such a nice turtle to me.”
“Everybody already knows that I’m the best turtle in town.”
I posted the video to twitter and captioned it with what Tony had just said. The last video I had posted, the one of Tony filming Spud kicking me, had fans go crazy. Not only were they freaking out about that somebody was filming it (presumably my boyfriend), but they loved seeing Spud in action. It was nice knowing that people that were so important to me were so excited about Spud.
Tony pulled over at the next gas station and we both got out. I immediately went to a bathroom and Tony leaned against the car while he was waiting for me. Some teenage girls noticed us and started whispering and went up to Tony. I would have come up to them and talked as well, if it weren’t for the fact that I really needed to go to the bathroom.
I quickly did my business and washed my hands before going back to Tony. When I got there I saw a couple more fans surrounding him and other people looking at him, wondering whether he was famous. Some girls saw me walk up and squealed. They each gave me careful hug, but I had to apologize to the other fans. I wasn’t allowed to stand up for so long. Tony, however, made sure to say hi to everybody and even went out to buy me a bar of chocolate before he got back into the car.
I gracefully took the chocolate from him, “oh my god, yes! Thank you so so much.”
“It’s just something to shut you up for the rest of the drive,” Tony joked and pulled back onto the highway.
“That’s mean,” I popped some of the chocolate in my mouth and also gave some to Tony.
The rest of the drive we laughed, sang along to horrible pop songs, ate the heavenly chocolate, and only had to stop 10 more times for me to go to the bathroom. Maybe 10 times was a lot, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t my fault that spud was making me have to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes. We eventually got to the venue an hour early; we purposely left early because Tony knew he was going to have to pull over a couple of times.
----
We were in the changing room with the others. They were all excited to see me and were surprised with how much the bump had grown over the months. I also got told that they loved the video of Spud kicking. It was nice to see my friends again and get to know how excited they were for me and Tony.
I was lying down on the couch, talking to Vic, when I got a pain in my lower abdomen. It caused me to groan out in pain, and immediately everybody’s attention was on me.
“Is everything ok?” Vic panicked.
I nodded, the pain now gone, “it’s just contractions, just not the real deal. I’ve been having them over the past month. Sometimes they are painful, sometimes they are not. Don’t worry.”
“Ok… if you say so. If you suddenly give birth halfway through the show, it will not be my fault.”
“I won’t give birth yet, it’s way too early for that.”
“Could be a premature birth,” Vic raised his hands in defense.
I rolled my eyes and Tony gave me a bottle of water. Drinking water always helped with the fake contractions I was having. Sometimes I’d be in a lot of pain, but sometimes it just felt like my muscles tensed. It was really weird, but the doctor had already told me before hand that these contractions were totally normal.
“Guys, you’re up in 10!” Jay walked in and smiled at me.
Everybody followed him out and went side stage. The tech’s equipped them with their instruments and I was left all by myself for a bit. Tony was getting some instructions and he then quickly jogged up to me. Only 2 minutes remaining. He gave me a quick kiss and I wished him luck. Time to go on.
They all ran on stage and the crowd went crazy. I watched them with a smile, but it quickly turned into a frown. There was another stabbing pain in my stomach, and I sat down on the floor.
----
Vic’s POV
I looked sidestage to see Noortje on the floor, clutching her stomach. She was drinking more water and I knew exactly that she was having more pains. I shot her a look, but she shook her head and waved it off. She was either trying to get me to stop worrying or she was actually ok, I did not know which one it was. A crew member came up to her and gave her a chair to sit on. Noortje happily accepted it and carefully sat down.
For the entire show she kept drinking more and more water, but I don’t think anybody else noticed. There was something wrong with her. Was she sure it wasn’t the first signs of premature labour? When she disappeared I freaked out slightly, and my singing sounded terrible. The fans probably didn’t care much but Jaime was looking at me weirdly. My voice, however, went back to normal when I saw her come back. She probably went to go to the bathroom.
After finishing the show and throwing out all our spare guitar picks to the crowd, I rushed over to Noortje. She stood up and went to give me a hug before realizing I was very sweaty, and decided to better not come close to me.
“Are you sure you’re fine?” I asked her.
Tony joined us, “what’s wrong?”
“I’ve been having some pains, but it’s not labour pains, trust me,” Noortje sighed and gave him a kiss.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you can go send me to a doctor, but I’m sure.”
“I’m getting the nurse that comes with us on tour. I don’t trust this,” I told them and went out to find the person that had helped us many times after we had fallen off stage or randomly walked into a wall when we were drunk.
Notes
oops, I'm so sorry. I forgot to post this... crap.
@Nickyvlxx
You still have one epilogue to go ;) but it's still in progress, so now you also have to wait patiently :P
Good luck with the ATL stories, by the way, I hope they don't bore you.
4/22/16