And she's a beauty. Ronnie, you have a baby daughter."
Donna, Vern, and Gladys cheered and applauded. Tiel sniffed back tears as she watched Doc tilt the infant's head down to help clear her breathing passages since they had no aspirator. Thankfully, she began crying immediately. A wide grin of relief split his austere face.
Tiel wasn't allowed to marvel for long because Doc was passing the infant to her. The newborn was so slippery she feared dropping her. But she managed to cradle her and get a towel around her. "Lay her on her mother's tummy."
Tiel did as Doc instructed.
Sabra stared at her bawling newborn with wonderment and asked in a fearful whisper, "Is she all right?"
"Her lungs certainly seem to be," Tiel said, laughing.
She ran a quick inventory. "All fingers and toes accounted for. Looks like her hair is going to be light like yours."
"Ronnie, can you see her?" Sabra called to him.
"Yeah." The boy was dividing his glance between her and the Mexicans, who seemed totally disenchanted by the wonders of birth.
"She's beautiful. Well, I mean she will be when she's all cleaned up. How're you?"
"Perfect," Sabra replied.
But she wasn't. Blood had quickly saturated the pads beneath her. Doc tried to stanch it with sanitary napkins.
"Ask Gladys to bring me some more of those. I'm afraid we're going to need them."
Tiel summoned over Gladys and gave her the assignment.
She was back in half a minute with another box of pads. "Did you get that man tied up?" Tiel asked.
"Vern's still working on him, but he won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
While Doc continued to work on Sabra, Tiel tried to distract her. "What are you going to name your daughter?"
Sabra was inspecting the infant with blatant adoration and unqualified love. "We decided on Katherine. I like the classic names."
"So do I. And I think Katherine is going to suit her."
Suddenly Sabra's face contorted with pain. "What's happening?"
"It's the placenta," Doc explained. "Where Katherine's been living the past nine months. Your uterus contracts to expel it just like it did to get Katherine on her way. It'll hurt a little, but nothing like having the baby. Once it's out, we'll clean you up and then let you rest. How does that sound?"
To Tiel he said, "Get one of those garbage sacks ready, please. I'll need to save this. It'll be examined later."
She did as asked and again distracted Sabra by talking about the baby. In a short time, Doc had the afterbirth wrapped up and out of sight, but still tethered to the baby by the cord. Tiel wanted to ask why he hadn't cut it yet, but he was busy.
A good five minutes later, he peeled off the bloody gloves, picked up the blood-pressure cuff, and wrapped it around Sabra's biceps. "How're you doing?"
"Good," she said, but her eye sockets were sunken and shadowed. Her smile was wan. "How's Ronnie holding up?"
"You should talk him into ending this, Sabra," Tiel sai
d gently.
"I can't. Now that I've got Katherine, I can't risk my Daddy placing her up for adoption."
"He can't do that without your consent."
"He can do anything."