Countdown To Baby

“Uh, yeah.” Apparently grateful to have something useful to do, Rusty wielded the towel with more enthusiasm than finesse.

“Oh, my goodness,” Cecilia said a few moments later. “This baby is in a real hurry to get here.”

She suspected that Katie had been in labor longer than the hour or hour and a half she had admitted. Had the girl really been so eager to see the film, which Cecilia hadn’t even considered very good? Or had she been too young and inexperienced to recognize the signs as something more than the usual discomforts of late pregnancy?

“When was your last prenatal checkup, Katie?”

Katie was too busy to answer, her face contorted as she squeezed Geoff’s hands hard enough to make him wince a little. Cecilia gave him a quick smile of encouragement before looking to Rusty for an answer.

Rusty cleared his throat, his eyes darting nervously. “It’s been a few months. We don’t have insurance, see, and we couldn’t afford to go running to the doctor all the time. Everything was fine last time she went, so we thought it would be okay to wait.”

Cecilia bit back an exasperated sigh. Money couldn’t have been the only obstacle to prenatal care, since the clinic provided income-based services when lack of insurance was a factor. More likely they lacked transportation or time or simply the incentive to make the appointments. She had seen all too many deliveries complicated by lack of adequate prenatal care.

At least Katie seemed to be reasonably healthy. Her pulse was steady and strong, and she was already completely effaced and almost fully dilated, so the delivery should be relatively uncomplicated. Cecilia saw no signs of drug abuse or other health concerns—but, damn, she wished that ambulance would get here. Delivery in a theater aisle was bad enough. But doing so with absolutely no medical supplies available was even more difficult.

“Aah,” Katie cried out, her entire body contracting in pain. “It hurts, Miss Mendoza. And I need to push.”

Rusty blanched as pale as his white tennis shoes and began to sway. Cecilia gave Geoff a look before turning back to her duties.

“Rusty,” she heard Geoff say a bit sharply. “Stay with us, you hear? Katie needs you to be strong now.”

“I’ll—” Rusty cleared his squeaky voice, speaking a bit more clearly next time. “I’ll be strong,” he promised. “I won’t let you down, Katie.”

“Good man,” Geoff murmured, and then he smiled down at Katie again. “Just concentrate on holding that baby in your arms, okay? You’ve got a lot of help here.”

It didn’t surprise Cecilia in the least that both Rusty and Katie seemed to find reassurance in Geoff’s steady, confident manner. To be honest, she felt much the same way.

“You were absolutely amazing this evening.” Geoff gave Cecilia a dazzling smile as he spoke, making her heart beat a little faster in reaction.

“I was simply doing my job,” she demurred.

“No, it was more than that. You kept those kids calm, even when they were on the verge of panic. And considering the circumstances, you delivered that baby as easily as if you had all the clinic facilities at your disposal.”

Self-conscious about the praise Geoff had been heaping on her for the past hour, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It helped that the ambulance arrived before the baby did.”

“By all of ten minutes.”

She gave a brief, tired laugh. “True. But at least I had some professional assistance at the end.”

Snuggled beside her on her couch, Geoff kissed her forehead. “I still thought you were amazing.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “You were pretty cool and collected yourself. The way you talked so reassuringly to Katie and Rusty. The way you kept her focused on you when the contractions were so strong. You sounded like a professional doula—a trained birthing coach.”

Geoff chuckled. Lifting his right hand, he flexed the fingers a few times. “Let me tell you, that girl’s got a grip. My fingers are still numb.”

“You’re a very handy man to have around in an emergency.”

Dropping his hand to his knee, he turned his attention back to her. “So, do things like that happen to you often? How many babies have you delivered unexpectedly like that?”

“Counting this one?”

“Yes.”

“One.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “No kidding? That was the first time?”

“Contrary to what you see on television, babies aren’t often born in theaters or elevators or cabs or airplanes. I mean, sure, it happens—obviously—and I’ve known colleagues who made emergency deliveries before, but that was a first for me.”