Run, Girl (If You Can)

Cameron was on a business trip so Jennica spent the better part of a week at Keeley's house when she wasn't in rehearsals. She had finally gotten a decent sized part Off-Broadway and was thrilled because once it was over they could start trying for a baby as well.

Keeley commented that it would be fun raising their kids together and her friend agreed wholeheartedly. She was grateful for the company. With Aaron at work most of the day and being on partial bedrest, she was bored out of her mind.

They had movie marathons, played board and card games, and simply sat around talking. It was really nice spending time with Jennica one-on-one again. Lately they had always been with their husbands when they got together.

Not that there was anything wrong with that. But sometimes you just needed girl time. If Valentina was free, this would be like the good old days when they all lived together. At least she had been able to come to the baby shower Jennica threw.

Their time as roommates seemed so long ago now but it hadn't even been a year since they went their separate ways. So much had changed since then.

"Do you feel ready to be a mom?" Jennica asked as they lay around on the couch eating ice cream straight out of the carton.

Did anyone? She had read as many books about babies, child development, and parenting as she possibly could but obviously reading about something was different than putting it into practice.

"As ready as I can be. Mostly I hope the delivery doesn't hurt too much…and that my babies aren't in the NICU for too long."

"I can't even imagine," her friend murmured. "You must be really stressed. We should have a destressing party."

Keeley laughed. Jennica had the strangest ideas sometimes. "What exactly would that entail?"

"You know, like an at-home spa day! Aromatherapy candles, homemade facial masks using recipes found online, painting each other's nails. I even have this awesome foot bath machine I can let you use once I clean it out. We can listen to relaxing music and everything."

She jumped to her feet. "We're doing this right now! Today is my day off anyway. I'll run home and get the stuff we need; you look up recipes while I'm gone!"

"O…kay?" she said but her friend was already gone.

She scrolled through her phone looking up different options. There were so many to choose from! Oatmeal, honey, and egg whites…yogurt, orange, and aloe…lemon and olive oil…strawberry, almond, and yogurt…

Eventually she settled on the oatmeal one because she had all of the ingredients on hand. Less than five minutes later, she found herself nodding off to the soothing feeling of Molly's purrs in her lap.

She woke up when the doorman called to announce that Jennica Singleton was back. She told him to send her on up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

When the elevator door opened, Jennica was carrying a surprising amount of stuff. She got to work setting up the foot bath and asked Keeley where her nail polish was, dashing up the stairs to the bathroom as soon as she knew.

Keeley couldn't really do much since she wasn't supposed to move around but she gave Jennica the mask recipe and told her where the ingredients were as her feet soaked. The water swirling around in the machine really did feel nice.

Jennica had brought two headbands to keep the hair out of their faces as they put on the masks. They applied the oatmeal mixture, which felt rather strange, everywhere but their mouths and eyes and let it sit for fifteen minutes as they got to work on their nails.

The aromatherapy candles and ambient music were already set up. Keeley felt herself slowly relax as the water, candles, and music did its work.

"Isn't this nice?" Jennica sighed happily as she set to work painting her nails turquoise.

Keeley sunk further into the couch. This was very nice indeed.

"You're the best, Jen. I needed this."

"Happy to help! Aaron's great and all but he never would have thought of something like this."

No, he would have sent his wife straight to a real spa for a special pregnancy massage. He had already done that a week earlier on the way home from a checkup. She couldn't deny that it did help her relax, if only for the rest of the day.

She rested her hands on her stomach as she let her swollen feet soak. The babies were moving around more and more lately. Like they sensed their mother's anxiety and were getting restless right along with her.

'I'm sorry babies,' she thought sadly. 'You shouldn't have to come into this world under threat.'

Her children deserved better than that. How long would they have to stay in hiding? When they were too little to remember anything it wouldn't really matter but what if it took too long for things to be safe? Would they even get to have normal childhoods?

Keeley closed her eyes for a moment and tried to empty her head of thoughts. She was supposed to be relaxing right now. She needed to relax for her babies' sake so they wouldn't come out too soon.

"What on earth is on your faces?" Aaron's confused voice sounded in her ears, making her eyes fly open.

"Homemade facials? Duh," Jennica said. "I'm helping your wife relax."

"Is that…oatmeal?"

"Among other things," Keeley muttered, embarrassed. "It actually feels kind of nice once you get past the weirdness."

"Interesting." He plopped down next to her and loosened his tie, leaning his head against the back of the couch. "Have you been up to this all day?"

"No, we've been doing this for less than an hour. We haven't really done much today."

She was beyond grateful that her friend was even here. It was so much less boring than spending her days alone on the couch. She almost wished Cameron wouldn't come back from his business trip a while longer.

Technically speaking, Aaron had the power to make that happen but she didn't want to abuse his position. Jennica missed her husband fiercely. It wouldn't be nice.

"Keeley, do you want me to paint your nails? I just finished with mine," she announced.

"Sure. We should probably wash this gunk off our faces first though. It'll mess up our nails if we try to do it later."

Jennica frowned. "Could you get my face for me? I didn't think of that when I started painting mine."

"Yeah, I can do that."