by Marla Monroe
He gazed into the dying flames, wishing he had enough guts to ask for another cup of coffee. He sighed. If she had to go without, the least he could do was cut back. He ran his hand up and down the side of the mug for several more minutes. The aroma of cooking food finally galvanized him into action.
Russell stood up, and after adding a log to the fire, he joined her in the kitchen where he caught her trying to reach a platter in the cabinet standing on her tiptoes. No doubt a chair would have been next just like Abe had predicted.
“You do know you are going to end up hurting yourself.” Russell pulled the platter down for her and closed the cabinet door.
She stuck her tongue out at him and stirred the food on the stove. “If my stomach wasn’t so big, I would have been able to reach it.”
“You’re not big yet, baby. Just wait until there’s more sticking out front than what’s sticking out back.”
“You asshole!” She grabbed a dish towel and popped him with it.
Russell could tell she wasn’t too upset by the slight smile she tried to hide as she chased him around the table.
“What in the hell is going on in here?” Abe’s loud shout surprised them both.
“N–Nothing.”
“Russell. I would have thought you would know better than to let her run around like that. What if she slipped and fell?” Abe asked stomping up to where Celina stood holding the dish towel.
He snatched it out of her hand and glared at them both. Russell sighed. They weren’t running very fast, but Abe was right. She might have fallen, and they didn’t have medical care available now.
“We weren’t running very fast, Abe. I was having fun.”
“I should turn you over my knee and spank your sweet ass so you’ll think next time.” His scowl reminded Russell of how the man had always appeared when he’d first woken up from the bear attack.
He sure didn’t want him to return to that dark, miserable man he had been. If his friend thought he couldn’t count on him to act responsibly, he would shoulder all of the pressure himself and gone would be the new Abe he enjoyed being around. No, they were partners in this. He needed to keep a cool head on his shoulders and stop handing over the problems for Abe to take care of. He was an adult and should be acting like one.
“Celina. Abe is right. We shouldn’t have been playing around like that. It’s too dangerous. We need to be thinking about you and the baby’s safety more.”
Abe’s obvious relief that he was standing with him on the subject told Russell just how much he’d been undermining the other man’s authority by trying to get him to cut Celina more slack. In the world they lived in, they had to stay vigilant and take nothing for granite anymore.
She visibly drooped in front of them, making him feel like a heel, but he wasn’t going to cave. Her health and safety and that of the child she was carrying were of utmost importance.
“Dinner is almost ready. Give me another twenty minutes and I’ll have it on the table.” She turned from them and walked slowly back to the stove.
Russell glanced over at Abe and saw a flash of hurt cross the man’s face before he stoically hid it and walked back out of the room. He wasn’t without feelings. Russell had known that, but it seemed more real now that he’d seen it. Just a brief glimpse, but it reminded him that his friend had been alone for a long, long time. He was still a little skeptical that they might be able to have another chance at happiness and, just maybe, love as well.
Chapter Twelve
Several more weeks passed, and Celina figured she was getting close to her time. Though they still got the occasional snowy day, it didn’t last nearly as long. Her belly had expanded to the point that she wore all of her pants under it now and wore the largest shirts she could find to cover the giant basketball that poked out.
The men had taken to rubbing her belly any time she was close by. She swore they were making wishes when they did, as if it was some kind of good-luck charm. It had shocked her that Abe seemed to enjoy feeling the baby kick. She smiled thinking back to the first time the world-class gymnast that had been clowning around inside of her for weeks kicked Abe in the belly when he’d been asleep, pressed up against her. He’d almost broken his neck trying to figure out what was going on.
The sparkle in his eyes when he’d held his hand over her belly and felt the strong kick had melted her heart. From then on out, both he and Russell touched her belly every chance they got. Russell even talked to her belly as if a little adult resided inside of her.
They had never moved the mattress back upstairs. Abe decided she didn’t need to climb those stairs so much. If she wanted a shower or bath, one of them went with her. There was a half bath downstairs that she could use, and thank the good Lord for that. As her belly grew, her bladder shrank.
She stretched as much as she could before rubbing her lower back after drying the dishes from lunch. It seemed like she had no energy anymore, and her back ached all the time now. She tried to see her feet to check how her ankles were doing, but they hadn’t been on her radar for months now. She would have to sit down and prop them up in order to see them now.
“You need to rest, sweetness. I can tell your back is hurting again. Abe and I will do the dishes from now on.” Russell’s voice always soothed her. He never sounded anxious or upset no matter what was going on.
He ushered her out of the kitchen and into the great room, where he helped her get comfortable on the couch. That lasted all of two minutes. Then the aches were back and she groaned as she tried to readjust herself.
“Let me move that pillow,” Russell said.
She sat up with his help as he plumped the pillow and moved it over for her. As she leaned back with a sigh of relief, she caught sight of her bloated ankles and feet. Not good. Not good at all. She had a slight headache as well. That meant her blood pressure was probably up. If Abe saw them before they went down some, he would be upset.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to relax so that she could rest and maybe lose the headache before he came back inside. She could hear Russell moving around in the room.
“Are you thirsty, honey?”
“No, but thanks. I’m fine.” She didn’t open her eyes.
“I don’t think you’re drinking enough water, Celina.”
“Russell. I’m fine. I’ll drink some more in a few minutes. I’ll have to get up and go to the bathroom again, and I just got comfortable.” She winced when she realized she had probably spoken harshly.
“I’m leaving a glass of water on the table next to you. I’ll be back inside in a few minutes to check on you again.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. She was just too tired to worry about anything right then. If only her back would ease up some. She was sure being on her feet so much wasn’t helping either the swelling or the throb in her back. Maybe she should relinquish one of the meals to the men. They had offered often enough. Celina was afraid of appearing too fragile and needy. If she was more trouble than she was worth, they might change their minds about wanting her around.
In all the years she and Roger had been together, she had always pulled her own weight and made sure she wasn’t a burden on anyone. Her husband had never complained or said anything to worry her about it, but she could remember how some of the men would harass their women about being lazy and not working hard enough. She never wanted to hear someone say she was worthless.
Slowly the pain in her back eased and she was able to relax enough that she fell asleep to thoughts of not being good enough for Russell and Abe.
* * * *
Abe heard Russell’s call over the pasture. An uneasy feeling pricked at the back of his neck as the man’s voice grew louder. Abe didn’t wait for the other man to draw closer. Instead he raced across the uneven ground and climbed between the fence posts just as Russell jogged to a stop in front of him. His face appeared pale but it was the fear in the other man’s eyes that had his stomach churning.
“What’s
wrong?” Abe grabbed the other man’s shoulder and shook him.
“Celina. She’s unconscious, and there’s blood.” Russell’s voice broke before he cleared his throat and started again. “I can’t wake her up. I went to pick her up and carry her closer to the fire and there was blood between her legs.”
“Fuck!” Abe didn’t wait for more.
Together both men ran across the back and into the open area in front of the lodge before throwing open the door and racing into the great room. He only slowed up when he approached the mattress where Russell had left her covered up to her neck.
“Get a basin of hot water and all the towels and cloth scraps you can find.” He didn’t bother looking up to see if Russell was following his orders.
When he touched Celina’s face, it was hot and dry. He pulled the covers down to her feet and began pulling her pants and underwear off. By the time Russell had reappeared with the basin of hot water and an arm load of towels, Abe had her stripped down to her skin.
“Her feet and ankles are swollen all the way up her calves. She shouldn’t have been on her feet at all today. Damn, why didn’t I check them?”
“She was complaining of her back aching when I made her lie down after breakfast. I tried to get her to drink something then, but she said she would later. She was tired of having to pee all the time.” Russell’s voice wavered.
“Get a fresh glass of cool water and try to get a little down her. Wet her lips with it if that’s all you can manage.”
Abe used the warm water and towels to clean away the blood and decided that she wasn’t actively bleeding any more. Neither was there any evidence that the baby was coming early. At least he assumed it would be early. They really didn’t have a clue how far along she was. He cursed under his breath. If she lost the baby this far along, they stood a good chance of losing her as well. She could easily bleed to death.
“She swallowed some but not a lot,” Russell said.
“Keep her lips wet and try again every few minutes. We need to get more water in her somehow.”
Once he was satisfied that she was as clean as he could get her, Abe covered her up and carried the water and bloody towels to the room behind the kitchen where they did laundry. He was worried to death that Celina was dying. He needed to search through some of the books in the office and see if any of them would offer an explanation of what was going on.
By the time he had returned, Russell had managed to get half of a glass of water down her. He didn’t look any better than he had earlier. Worry had etched lines across the man’s face. He was sure his wouldn’t look much better. As he gazed down at Celina’s pale face, Abe had to accept that he was a little bit in love with the woman. He had been fighting it for weeks now, but there was no use fighting it any longer.
“I’m going to look through the books we have and see if I can figure out what is going on with her and the baby. Stay with her and keep giving her water every few minutes.”
“She isn’t bleeding anymore now, is she?” Russell asked.
Abe watched as his partner gently stroked Celina’s cheek. As much as he wanted to be the one touching her, he needed to find out what to do to take care of her first.
“No. The bleeding had stopped. Yell if you need me.”
Abe hurried down the short hall and opened the door into the office they rarely used. The temperature in the room had to be close to freezing. They kept all the unused rooms closed off. Now he left the door wide open in order to be able to hear Russell if he called for him. The wooden doors in the lodge were all thick and sturdy. It would be much harder to hear the other man if he closed the door.
For the next thirty minutes, Abe flipped through books, looking for anything that would offer an explanation of what was wrong with Celina. In all the years he had lived so far away from others, he’d never once regretted the isolation, but he was regretting it now. Now they needed someone with more experience in birthing children than either he or Russell had. All of their children had been born in hospitals from wives who’d had prenatal care.
He slammed the book he had been browsing through down on the dusty desk and swallowed around the knot forming in his throat. His eyes stung from staring hard at small print in the dim light of the lantern. So far nothing he had found offered any information on what they were dealing with. He picked up the lantern and began searching the shelves once again. There was no order to the books on the shelves and stacked around on the floor and desk. If they ever had time, they needed to work on sorting them out. There was probably a good bit of useful information to be found in some of them if they could find it when they needed it.
He located two more books that offered information on pregnancy and childbirth stuck on the bottom of a stack of books gathering cobwebs on the floor. He readjusted the lantern and began searching the table of contents. After a couple of false leads, Abe finally found something that seemed plausible to him. The only problem was that it didn’t sound good for Celina or the baby.
Grabbing the other book, Abe hurried out of the office, closing the door behind him. He found Russell sitting next to Celina, holding her hand in his. He looked up with a hopeful expression.
“Did you find something?”
“I might have. It’s not good, though. She could be having something called eclampsia or preeclampsia. I’m not real clear on all of it yet. I brought the books in here so we could both read on it where there was more light and it wasn’t so fucking cold.”
Russell took one of the books from him and settled it in his lap. While he began to read, Abe located the same subject in the book he’d kept and sat on the other side of Celina to read. The more he read, the more he was sure she might be having some of the symptoms. Her swollen ankles and moody behavior of the last few days pointed to preeclampsia, which could lead to toxemia and seizures and death.
“Damn. What are we going to do, Abe? We don’t have any medicine to give her and we can’t do a C-section like they say in the book.”
“I know. I’m hoping that we’re wrong about it being this bad. I’m going to keep looking in this book.”
“Abe. I love her. I can’t lose her, too.”
Russell’s voice held so much pain that Abe felt as if he would break down with the other man. His own feelings were too close to the surface to be able to hold it together if his friend crumbled.
“I know. She’s strong and she’s a stubborn woman. We’re not giving up on her. How much of the water have you managed to get into her?”
“Almost the entire glass, but it’s taken almost two hours now.”
“I’m here. Why don’t you go start some soup for us to eat in here with her and then bring another glass of water? I’ll try and get some into her while you’re working on the soup. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”
Abe watched as Russell stood up and stretched before grabbing the nearly empty glass and walking toward the kitchen. It was obvious by the other man’s gait that he didn’t want to leave Celina’s side.
While he was gone, Abe quickly checked to be sure Celina hadn’t started bleeding again. He had just covered her back up when Russell returned with a fresh glass of water. He relaxed when he had returned to the kitchen. At least she wasn’t bleeding. That was a good sign if nothing else.
Several minutes later, Russell returned to check on them. “Any change?”
“No. I did check her a few minutes ago, and she’s not bleeding.”
“Good. That’s something, right?” Russell ran a hand through his hair. “Soup will be ready in about an hour. Do you want some coffee?”
“Yeah. That would be good.” Abe sighed as he continued to read.
He heard Russell’s boots scrape on the wood floor as he turned around and walked back to the other room. He wished he had something else positive to tell the other man, but the truth was, Celina was in serious shape. He watched the shallow rise and fall of her chest with each breath she took. He checked either side of her neck
to see if her veins were pulsing as if her blood pressure might be up like the book talked about. They didn’t look any different than usual as far as he could tell.
While he waited for Russell to return with coffee, Abe coaxed small amounts of water down Celina’s throat, praying he didn’t choke her in the process. He checked her ankles and felt like they had gone down some since they had placed a pillow under her feet to lift them off the mattress some. He found himself rubbing lightly over her rounded belly beneath the covers as he continued reading in the book. For some reason, it soothed him to touch her there. It was while he was smoothing over her belly that he felt the kick that told him the baby was alive. He hadn’t been very hopeful after cleaning up all the blood.
“Hey! You’re smiling. What is it? Did she wake up?” Russell hurried around the couch and handed Abe one of the mugs he was carrying.
“No, but I felt the baby kick.”
Russell grinned and quickly slipped his hand beneath the covers to cover the opposite side of Celina’s belly. After a few seconds, both men felt the baby’s kick again. They grinned at each other like fools.
“It’s a good sign, right?” Russell asked.
“I think it is. As long as it’s moving around, we know it’s alive.”
“Is something wrong with my baby?” Celina’s weak voice startled both of them.
Abe instantly turned to cup her cheek with his trembling hand. Relief poured over him in warm waves that threatened to loosen the tears that had been gathering all afternoon.
