The Miracle Man

by Sharon Sala

  Lane stopped in midstride and turned. The look on his face was colder than the ground on which he was walking.

  “What do you mean...considering the facts?”

  Dan shrugged. “She was already having pains five minutes apart when she called for an ambulance. If you hurry, you just might get to kiss her goodbye before the chopper lifts off.”

  Lane was already running up the hill.

  Chapter 17

  Lane was coming through the trees below the house when the chopper set down in the backyard where the garden had been. He shoved the tractor into high gear and spun up the slippery slope and into the yard just as they carried Toni out the back door.

  Running on legs that felt like rubber, he made it around the house and caught the stretcher just as the flight crew was about to lift it into the belly of the aircraft.

  “Wait!” he shouted, and felt the air being sucked out of his body by the impact of the spinning rotor above their heads.

  “Mister, there isn’t any time left to wait,” the paramedic shouted. “And there’s no room for passengers.”

  Lane looked down into Toni’s face, expecting to see fear, even accusations of abandonment flowing from her lips. She was gritting her teeth, but she was smiling through tears.

  “Race you,” she said, trying to laugh at the fact that she was going to beat him to the hospital by nearly an hour, and then caught her breath upon another pain.

  “This is it, buddy. Kiss her bye-bye. We're gone.”

  Lane grabbed the man by the arm, pinning him to the spot with the intensity of his gaze as well as his brute strength.

  “If it comes down to it,” Lane shouted, “you tell that doctor to save my wife. No matter what else happens, you save her...for me.”

  Toni’s pulse rocketed on a pain and a joy, all at the same time. Save her for me. No matter what.

  And then his mouth was on her lips, and he swallowed her moan of pain and wanted to scream. When they pushed him away and the helicopter lifted off, he felt incomplete, bereft. Everything that mattered to him in this world was out of his hands and swiftly moving out of his sight.

  Seconds later she was gone, and Lane was running back into the house for dry clothes and the keys to his car, scattering Hatfields in his wake like chickens.

  * * *

  “Here comes another one, Toni. Now push.”

  Dr. Cross’s order came on the heels of a pain that had lifted Toni off of the bed. She hadn’t needed his warning that the pain was on its way. She’d felt it coming a long time before he had.

  “I'm pushing,” she groaned, and gripped the sides of the bed to brace herself.

  “More. More. Just a little bit more,” he urged.

  “No more,” she said hoarsely, then shuddered and moaned and fell back onto the bed, weak and spent.

  Time, for Toni, had ceased upon her arrival at the Knoxville hospital. There were no seconds ticking, minutes passing or hours flowing in the birthing room, only wave after mind-bending wave of pain that seemed to have no end. No matter how hard she’d tried during the past hour, the baby hadn’t budged. She could tell by the expression on Dr. Cross’s face that he was beginning to be concerned. And while she couldn’t read the monitors to which she was hooked up, even she knew when the numbers began to fall.

  “We're losing pressure, Doctor.”

  The nurse’s whisper was soft, but Toni heard the warning, anyway. She moaned weakly as she felt the arrival of another wave of pain, then lifted herself onto her elbows and bit her lip to keep from screaming. There was no energy left in her to react to the pain, only what it took to survive the next spasm.

  “This is it, girl,” Dr. Cross urged, and pressed his hand in the middle of Toni’s abdomen. “Come on, honey. You can do it.”

  It was the tiny blip registering a fading pulse and a waning heartbeat that gave her the impetus to give it one last try. She’d done the unforgivable in order to bear this child; she would do the impossible to keep it.

  She gritted her teeth, braced herself and closed her eyes, concentrating on the contraction and the pressure, trying to follow it with her body. She would have this baby or die trying. Lane flashed into her mind with the thought, and in that moment, Toni knew that she couldn’t afford to die. He would never forgive her.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned, and let herself go with the pain.

  She never even heard the doctor’s shout of approval, or her baby’s first cry. She was out of hearing distance, lost in the blackness between unconsciousness and exhaustion.

  And then she felt a weight upon her belly and instinctively clutched it in her arms. She opened her eyes and looked down just as the baby’s head turned. Their eyes met, and for a fraction of a second, Toni swore that recognition passed between them...mother to child.

  “Well, hello, sweet baby,” she whispered, and ran her finger across the tiny face, feature by feature, unwilling to wait for the nurse to even clean the infant up. She’d waited entirely too long as it was to meet this child.

  “It’s a girl,” the doctor said.

  “Is she perfect?” Toni asked, cradling the tiny head within the palms of her hands as the doctor did a quick inspection.

  Dr. Cross grinned. “Now if I say she’s not, will you give me a head start before you take off my head?” And then he relented. “From the looks of things, I would say so.” He lifted her from Toni’s arms. “She needs to take a little trip, to get weighed in, blood-typed and such. And you need a breather, too. By the time you're both changed, you can have one hell of a conversation for all I care.”

  Toni frowned when the baby was lifted from her arms. “Do you promise to bring her right back?”

  “I swear,” he said. “But first things first.”

  Moments later the sounds of a baby’s loud cry could be heard down the hall in the nursery.

  “She’s fine,” the doctor cautioned. “It sounds like she just doesn’t like having her face washed.”

  Toni frowned and then started to cry.

  “Here now,” Dr. Cross said. “You're supposed to be happy.”

  “I've just had a baby, and I don’t know if my brother is alive or dead,” she said, and sobbed a little bit harder.

  “If you promise not to cry, I'll get you your answers. What do you say?”

  Toni hiccuped and closed her eyes. She was too tired to argue. “I promise. Especially if you can find my husband in the process.”

  “That might take some doing, but I'll give it my best shot,” the doctor said. Moments later she was alone except for the nurse who was quietly cleaning up.

  * * *

  Lane came off of the elevator on a run and met Dr. Cross coming down the hall. Their expressions were of mutual surprise.

  “Just the man I was sent to find,” Dr. Cross said with a grin.

  Lane grabbed the doctor by the shoulders and tried not to shout.

  “Where is my wife?”

  “Room 301. They haven’t moved her out of the birthing room yet, but...”

  Lane left him standing there.

  “As I was about to say, feel free to go in,” Dr. Cross muttered, then continued on his way.

  Lane was inside the room before it dawned on him that he hadn’t even asked the doctor what had happened. And then he saw Toni, rolled over on her side away from him, her shoulders shaking with sobs, and he felt the floor going out from under his feet.

  Oh, my God. Something bad happened. It was all he could think of to explain why she was crying.

  “I'm sorry, sir,” the nurse said. “She’s not ready for visitors. Please wait outside.”

  “Toni? Sweetheart,” he said, ignoring the nurse’s behest.

  Toni rolled over onto her back and held out her arms.

  “I didn’t think you would get here this soon.”

  He sat down on the side of the bed, and when her arms slid around his neck and she began sobbing against his chest, his heart froze. Breathing constricted until words became imposs
ible to form.

  “My God, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have left you if I had.”

  “Justin! How is Justin?”

  “It’s all my fault. Whatever happened, we'll get through it together. I love you, lady. With all my heart. Don’t give up on me now. I couldn’t make it without you in my life.”

  Toni tightened her hold around his neck. He wasn’t making sense, but it felt so good to be holding him that she almost didn’t care.

  “Lane, what happened? Did Justin...is he okay?” Her voice trembled as she waited anxiously for him to answer.

  “We can adopt a baby if you want. Hell, we can adopt ten. Just don’t send me away.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Toni sighed, and snuggled her nose a little deeper in the breadth of his chest. He smelled of after-shave and the starch that she’d used on his shirt and cold, fresh air, and she’d never been so glad to feel a man’s arms around her in her life.

  Her words finally penetrated. He leaned back enough to be able to see her face, then kissed the corner of each of her eyes before moving to her mouth.

  “I love you, Toni. I'm sorry I—”

  “Lane, listen to me!”

  He jerked. “What is it?”

  “How is my brother? Is he okay?”

  He leaned his forehead against her shoulder and sighed. “Oh, hell, I'm sorry,” he muttered. “Yes, honey. We got him out. His leg didn’t look good, but he’s alive.”

  “Thank God,” she said, and hugged him tight. “I knew that you could do it.”

  He cradled her face in his hands, searching for signs of despair that he could not see.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I need to sleep for a week, but I fear my sleeping days are over,” she said.

  “The baby...was it...did they have to...?”

  Toni’s eyes widened. Obviously he still didn’t know that she’d safely delivered their child. And then the door opened behind him.

  “See for yourself,” she said, and pointed toward the nurse who was entering with a wiggling bundle in her arms.

  Lane’s head turned toward the door. He stood, a look of wonder upon his face, then stared in disbelief at the baby.

  “You did it,” he muttered.

  “I suspect you helped,” the nurse said sweetly, eyeing the mass of man before her. “Hold out your arms.”

  Lane did as he was told, and then staggered backward, using Toni’s bed for a seat to avoid dropping them both onto the floor.

  “Oh, my God,” he whispered, and parted the tightly wrapped blanket.

  “Now you've done it,” the nurse admonished as the baby’s hands began to flail in the air. “This one’s a real live wire. She doesn’t like to be still.” She gave Toni a look of admiration. “And if she’d weighed a whit more than the ten pounds, two ounces that she came in at, she wouldn’t be here.”

  For Toni the details and what ifs were over. She was too lost in the joy on Lane’s face as the nurse walked out of the room.

  “Say hello to your daughter.”

  He turned to Toni with tears shimmering across his eyes and shook his head, unable to speak.

  The baby’s mouth pursed, and just when she would have puckered and yelped, Lane’s finger stroked the side of her cheek. Her mouth turned like a magnet toward the touch, instantly open in an instinctive search for sustenance.

  “Wrong parent,” Lane whispered, and bent down and kissed the baby’s soft cheek.

  Toni was moved to a fresh set of tears. “Do you want to name her?” she asked.

  He nodded, then lifted the baby close, cradling her in arms so big against a chest so broad that she was almost lost in the vast amount of space. He looked down at the woman who’d given him the world.

  “Since the day that we met, you have given me joy. Constantly...without asking for anything in return. Would you care if I named her Joy?”

  Toni held out her arms for the baby. “Let me see if she looks like a Joy,” she teased. She ran her hands lightly over the baby’s head, loving the feel of soft hair and tender skin beneath her palm. “You look like a Joy. Do you feel like a Joy, little girl?”

  The baby squeaked and wiggled. Toni grinned. “She says yes, thank you, she believes that she does.”

  Lane grinned through tears. “My days are numbered,” he muttered, to hide his emotion. “I will be forever outvoted in a house full of women. What is a man to do?”

  “Love us?”

  Lane heard the uncertainty in her voice. Even now, after all they had been through together, she still doubted her ability to hold a man’s love.

  “I already do,” he said solemnly. “You should know that by now, Antonette. Don’t ever, and I mean ever, ask me that in such a doubting fashion again.”

  Toni sighed and lay back on the pillow, snuggling the baby closely against her side. She closed her eyes and thought of answered prayers and a future that she never thought she would have, and looked up to find Lane staring intently at her face.

  “Lane?”

  “What, sweetheart?”

  “I don’t know the words to thank you for all that you've done...for what you've given me.”

  Lane’s eyes narrowed until Toni could see only slits of blue fire.

  “I do,” he said quietly.

  Her eyes widened. Suddenly this conversation had a very familiar ring.

  “You could tell me that you love me. Just once. Just for fun.”

  Emotions overwhelmed her. Of what he had given and given without hope of return. “I love you.”

  Lane sighed. He was so certain she wouldn’t say it that he was already talking before her words sank in. “I'm not asking for much, you understand. It’s no more than a man has a right to expect from the woman he expects to spend the rest of his life with.”

  “I love you very much.”

  “I've told you countless times that I love you. You can’t...” He quit in the middle of a sentence. For a moment he couldn’t think past the wonder of what he’d just heard. And then she smiled and patted the bed beside her, and he lay his head in the bare space between baby and breast and let her love encompass them all.

  Toni threaded her fingers through his hair, loving the way the silky, dark strands parted at her touch.

  “I hope Joy has your hair and eyes,” she whispered, and felt his shoulders shaking beneath her hands.

  Lane lifted his head. “Say it again, Toni. Tell me you love me.”

  “Of course I love you,” she whispered. “I had to love the man before I would consider having his child. I just couldn’t believe that he would love me back.”

  Lane’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you telling me that you've been in love with me all along?”

  Toni smiled, and lifted the baby into her arms. “Lesson number one, little girl. Men are dense.”

  Lane laughed aloud. “But we float pretty damned good,” he said, reminding her of how they had met.

  Toni grinned in return. “With absolutely no sense of direction,” she added, her own reminder of how she’d saved him from the flood.

  “That’s what women are for,” Lane whispered, his mouth aiming for her lips. “To keep us on the straight and narrow...forever and ever, till death do us part. Remember?”

  The kiss was sweet, with a promise of years to come. When Lane broke the connection between them, he whispered one word that she instantly understood.

  “Deal?”

  Toni smiled. “Deal.”

  Epilogue

  The morning glory that hung over the front-porch roof swung back and forth in the easy breeze like small blue bells with no sound. Sunshine dappled the yard between the spaces of shade where children ran, shrieking with excitement as they searched out the brightly colored eggs hidden earlier. Baskets already overflowing with chocolate bunnies and yellow marshmallow chicks had to make room for the Easter eggs that were being found.

  It was Easter at the Monday homestead, and the H
atfields had come to dinner. But no one was eating. Those who weren’t watching the frivolity in action were busy snapping pictures of the event, trying desperately to capture the expression of joy on each child’s face when a new egg was discovered.

  And Toni was right in the middle of it all with her baby on one hip and a basket full of eggs on the other, while the persistent breeze molded the skirt of her white cotton dress to her body.

  “Smile for Daddy,” she said, and jiggled Joy into a wide, toothless smile while Lane aimed the camcorder in their direction.

  Lane watched it all through the camera’s eye, and he knew that if he lived to be a hundred, he would never see a more beautiful sight than what was before his eyes.

  Marriage and motherhood had made a beautiful woman out of a pretty lady. Her face creased constantly in smiles, and she was never still. She wouldn’t have changed a thing in her world if given the chance and he knew it. The knowledge that he held the hearts of two beautiful females in the palms of his hands was staggering. The baby adored him, and Toni’s love bound them all. He was a man twice blessed.

  “Uncle Lane, watch this.”

  In response to the shout, he turned, taking the eye of the camera with him, and found Bobby Hatfield centered within the frame, attempting to juggle three eggs.

  Bright pink, brilliant blue and grass green eggs went up, then down, then fell at the boy’s feet with a splat as he made a frantic grab for the last one and missed. Lane aimed the camera at the mess, then back up at the look of disgust on Bobby’s face.

  “You've got to have faster hands than that, boy,” Lane teased, then laughed when a couple of barn cats headed for the disaster, already licking their whiskers at the unexpected feast.

  While they were watching, the sheriff pulled his car into the driveway and parked.

  Lane aimed the camera and caught the look of surprise on Dan Holley’s face when he accidentally stepped on an egg hidden in the grass.

  “Oh, shoot,” Dan said, stopping to clean off his shoe. “These are my new boots.”

  “What do you suppose he wants?” Justin muttered as he limped up beside Lane.

  “Here, you do the honors and I'll go find out,” Lane said, handing Justin the camera.