Christmas with the Best Man

She sensed more than heard him move to stand over her.

“What would that price be?” Still she hadn’t opened her eyes, preferring to soak in the deep sound of his voice. It was fun to be flirted with.

“A kiss would be a step in the right direction.”

Helena barely opened her eyes. “Do I dare take the chance of being caught in a lip lock with the boss just for a moment of rest?”

His lips curved slightly as he studied her closely. “I think you’ll find the kiss worth the danger.”

“And what happens if I agree and find myself further enslaved?” Being around Elijah was helping keep her mind sharp. And her heart unsure.

“I guess that’s a chance you’ll have to take.” He raised his chin as he tugged her up and into his arms. His lips found hers instantly. They were hot, enticing and sure. Her hands buried into his hair, urging him closer. His tongue dove into her mouth. She greeted him with enthusiasm. A few moments later he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. “I think the slave driver is in the perilous position of being enslaved and caught in a compromising position if we keep that up.”

She, who had been concerned about people knowing about her and Elijah, hadn’t given a moment’s thought to getting caught. When she was in his arms it was as if she forgot everything but what she was feeling.

“If I buy my own soda, will you share some of those chocolate ball things with me?”

Helena was breathing hard. She wanted to drag Elijah into a corner and have her way with him but she knew he was right. This wasn’t the place or the time. “If I must.”

Elijah grinned. “Sweetheart, I know what you mean.”

They spent the next few minutes discussing their morning. Helena had just shared one particularly interesting case when a nurse opened the door, a grim look on her face. “You two are needed. The paramedics are on their way with a homeless teen who’s in labor.”

A sick feeling bubbled in Helen’s middle as her chest tightened. These types of cases were the worst. She hated them above all others.

“Are you okay?” Elijah asked. He was studying her intently.

She’d let too much show. “I’m fine.”

“Then let’s go.” Elijah was on his feet and headed for the door before the nurse could shut it. He pitched his drink can in the trash on his way out.

Helena followed. The teen pregnancies reminded her too much of her past. Only her professional training banked her emotions. She had a job to do and she would do it. No matter how difficult it was.

At the unit desk, Elijah started issuing orders. “Notify Labor and Delivery and NICU.”

The ambulance siren filled the air. It suddenly stopped, indicating it was pulling up to the entrance of Emergency.

“Were they just next door?” Elijah muttered.

“Almost. Only a couple of blocks over,” the nurse said. “She’s close to crowning.”

Helena hurried toward the outside door behind a tech and ER nurse, with the sound of Elijah’s footsteps right behind her. She didn’t have time to let the spinning feeling in her middle take hold. Each member of the staff had a job to do and she wouldn’t let anyone down. She hurried through the door, a cold, damp wind hitting her in the face.

The paramedics were unloading a gurney from the rear of the ambulance. A thin fragile female lay on it. The girl looked as if she had been wearing the same clothes for weeks. The stench was almost breathtaking as Helena approached. From the girl’s weary look she must have been in labor for hours.

“My baby?” the girl murmured. That note of terror in her voice was one Helena remembered all too well.

Taking a fortifying breath to stabilize her emotions, Helena placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. In a calm, reassuring tone she said, “Your baby’s going to be just fine.” That might not be true but Helena knew from experience that was what her patient needed to believe. Something to harness the fear. “You’re both in good hands.”

Helena quickly assessed the girl’s appearance. Her lips were purple. Even from the light touch she had given her, Helena had felt the coolness of the girl’s body through her thin clothing. Pulling her stethoscope from around her neck, Helena inserted the ear tips and placed the bell over the girl’s heart. Her heart rate was weak and her respirations were rapid as she shivered uncontrollably. There was a rattle to her breathing. The teen had been in the cold for a long time. Not to even mention being malnourished.

With sad, scared eyes the girl stared at her. “Please help my baby.” Her face twisted into a grimace before she groaned as another contraction squeezed her middle.

“We’ll do everything we can.” Helena patted her shoulder again. She wished she could do more. Even with modern medicine, bad things still happened. At least Helena’s mother and father had been there for her when she’d lost her baby. This girl had no one but the strangers around her. She had so many things going against her.

Helena registered a few words of what Elijah was asking the paramedic as he went about listening to the baby through his stethoscope then doing a visual check.

They each had a patient barely hanging onto life.

Elijah gave her a clearly concerned look as he grabbed a corner handle of the gurney. “She’s crowning. Let’s get her inside or this baby will be born out here.”

They raced alongside the gurney as other staff members pushed their patient and her cargo into the building.

Another nurse met them in the hall with a question on her face. Before she could ask it Helena said, “Exam Two Six.”

The nurse ran down the hall and opened the glass doors wide. Seconds later they were pushing the patient into the room.

“I need an IV with glucose. CBC and panel. Get a warming blanket in here stat. Let’s get her clothes off.” Helena started giving orders in rapid succession. She checked the teen’s heart rate again. It was the same but it wouldn’t be if they didn’t get her body temperature up.

The girl groaned as another contraction came. She grabbed Helena’s forearm and squeezed. Fear and pain showed in her eyes.

Helena’s heart went out to the girl. “What’s your name?”

“Marcy,” she whispered.

“Marcy, can you tell me how far along you are?”

“Eight months, maybe. Not sure.”

That sick feeling had moved to Helena’s throat. The baby was nowhere near the size it should be. It would be tiny, she was afraid too tiny.

The nurse began taking Marcy’s blood pressure. The tech was in the process of putting more blankets across the girl’s lower half.

Helena picked up Marcy’s hand, pushing her fingertips to check her circulation at her nailbed. They were a dark blue. Marcy’s core temperature must be brought up or they would lose her.

“Marcy, is there anyone we can call for you?”

The girl lifted terrified eyes to Helena. “My parents put me out. I had no place to go.”

That look Helena recognized. It had been the same one she’d had when the pain had started and she’d realized she’d been losing the baby. Helena broke their gaze.

“I’ve tried to take care of my baby. If I can’t, please tell it I’m sorry,” Marcy murmured.

“Don’t worry you can tell him or her yourself.” Helena kept her voice soothing and reassuring as she worked.

Marcy went limp after the next contraction. In her weariness and depleted physical state, she was barely surviving.

The OB nurse and others around Helena were hooking her patient up to monitors. Two Labor and Delivery nurses had shown up and were strapping a fetal monitor around the girl’s distended belly. Soon the sound of the baby’s erratic heartbeats filled the room.

Helena let her training take over so she wouldn’t think of how much this young girl reminded her of herself

. She wanted to make it all right for Marcy but feared she couldn’t. Sometimes things just couldn’t be fixed. The guilt the girl felt was the same heaviness Helena had carried around for so long.

She glanced at Elijah, who was at the end of the stretcher, doing a physical exam of the baby. “We need to get her up to surgery ASAP. The cord is looped around the neck.”

Helena felt the panic raising. They could lose the baby. Or the mother. She couldn’t let that happen.

“Are you all right?” Elijah’s eyes narrowed.

She nodded and continued to hold his gaze. She nodded down at Marcy and shook her head, conveying the mother would never make it through surgery. “Can’t you get it off?”

“It may be too late.” Elijah sounded unsure.

She gave him a pleading look. He had to try. For the baby’s sake. For the mother. For Helena’s sanity. “Please try.”

Elijah nodded. “Where’s that OB doc? Do an overhead call!” To no one in particular he said in a louder voice, “Get a bed warmer in here stat.” Frustration surrounded his every word.

A tech arrived with the warming machine for the mother. Helena helped him place the blanket part over the girl’s chest, set the temperature and watched it inflate.