Joy (Hell's Handlers MC 7)

IZZY

“Looks like you’ve finally made it to ten centimeters,” the nurse said as she aimed that perky grin Izzy’s way.

Fuck, if her legs weren’t numb as shit, she’d hop off the bed and slap that happiness right off that woman’s face. This nurse with her bubblegum pink scrubs, platinum blonde hair in a bouncy ponytail, and life-is-grand attitude couldn’t be farther from Izzy on the personality spectrum. And who the hell had that much energy at two in the morning?

Not women who’d been in labor for more than thirty hours. That was for fucking sure.

“About fucking time,” Izzy mumbled.

Nurse Sunshine’s mouth dropped open. What? She couldn’t honestly say she’d never heard a woman in labor cuss before. Izzy had just assumed swear words flew around in the place about as much as they did in Jig’s clubhouse.

Speak of Jig, the man deserved a medal. Maybe a monument. Or a month of daily blowjobs or something. She knew she’d been…testy during the pregnancy. Most of it had stemmed from fear of motherhood, not that she’d admit that out loud to anyone but Jig. The man had taken it all in stride. Her moods, her cravings, her frustration. No matter what she threw at him, it seemed to roll off his back.

He’d been exactly what she needed. Even when the guys teased him about her, he never wavered.

Good fucking man.

Actually, the best fucking man.

The man in question squeezed her hand. “Doing okay, babe?” he asked. “Any pain?”

Izzy shook her head. She’d tried, really gave it her all to have the baby without an epidural, but after twenty hours of labor, she’d caved. The contractions had been coming hard and fast for so long, but aside from that, things had progressed slowly. After watching her groan and grimace for hours, Jig finally convinced her to get the epidural, which allowed her a few hours of rest. “No pain, just feeling some pressure.”

“That’s because the baby is right there,” Nurse Sunshine said. “Doctor Nichols is on her way in.” As she spoke, she bustled around, draping the floor and area around Izzy with what she assumed would be used to keep the room from becoming a bloodbath. “So,” she continued, practically bouncing around the room. “On a scale of one to ten, how excited are you?”

Izzy scowled and shot Jig a death look. He just chuckled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. The tickle of his beard, so familiar and comforting, worked wonders to keep her from snapping at Nurse Sunshine. “I don’t know. Maybe a four.”

“What?” The nurse stopped dead in her tracks as she pushed a cart with a bulb syringe, blanket, and other birthing necessary items. But then she grinned again because nothing seemed to keep her lips down for long. “Pretty sure the baby won’t come out until you’re at least an eight.”

As she turned away to grab some more supplies, Izzy flipped the annoying woman off. A snort coming from the door had Izzy whipping her head around.

Shit! Had the doctor caught that?

Dr. Nicholas, a short and slender woman, probably somewhere in her fifties winked. Yep, she’d caught Izzy giving her nurse the middle finger.

Lovely.

“Great,” she murmured to Jig out one side of her mouth. “Now she’s probably gonna report me to CPS.” Beside her, Jig shook with silent laughter.

The traitor.

The next few moments were a whirlwind of medical staff setting up, adjusting her bed, and getting her legs into position. Jig held her right leg as he’d been instructed to and still somehow managed to hold her hand in a tight, reassuring grip. The pushing didn’t scare her, but she was completely terrified of that moment they’d place her child in her arms for the first time.

Her child.

Her and Jig’s child. For him, almost more than for the kid, she wanted to be a good mother. Izzy loved her ol’ man so goddammed much. Giving him the family he’d been robbed of earlier in his life had become extremely important to her no matter how scared she was of the tiny person about to bombard his or her way into their lives.

On her other side, a patient care assistant held her left leg.

“Would you like the mirror?” Nurse Sunshine asked as she began to pull an extendable mirror down from the ceiling.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The mirror. Would you like me to position it for you?”

Izzy blinked. “What for?”

The nurse gave her one of those are-you-stupid looks. “So, you can watch the baby being born.”

Was she for real? “So I can watch the baby come out of my cooch? All bloody and stretching me to shit? Do people do that?” She looked at Jig.

With a shrug, he said, “Don’t ask me. It’s your choice.”

“Well then fuck no, I don’t want to watch that. Jesus, it sounds horrifying.”

From a stool between Izzy’s spread legs, the doctor chuckled. “Okay, Izzy, I want you to take a deep breath and push as hard as you can. I’m going to count down from ten. When we get to zero, you relax. Got it?”