He didn’t need to ask her how far along she was. Unless she was carrying quintuplets, the woman in the car was at term with every indication that she was in the verge of exploding.
She also looked stuck. How the hell had she gotten herself in that position?
“Water break?” he asked.
She tried to nod her head and found she couldn’t. “A hundred years ago, when I started…started…out on this …trIPPPP!”
This one was the worst, she thought, the very worst. But every pain that had assaulted her since she’d left the shop and begun her trip home had been greater than the last. Which meant that the worst was yet to be. It wasn’t a comforting thought.
“How did you—never mind.” He could see she was in no condition to have an extended conversation or even offer any explanations. Maybe she had just fallen over trying to reach for her purse, which he could see was on the floor. How she got here didn’t matter. That she was here did.
Kneeling, J.T. found the mechanism that controlled the seat’s various positions. He tried to push the seat back farther, only to discover that it was already as far back as it could go. He sat back on his heels, studying the problem. He heard her vainly attempt to muffle the next scream.
“I’ve got to get you out of the front seat.”
Madeline turned her head toward him, surprised that she could. “No…kidding…” she gasped.
Damn it, why did this have to happen now? Why not an hour from now? She’d be ready for this an hour from now. She would have gotten home and if the contractions had begun then instead of when she’d been on the road for less than five minutes, she would have been able to make a few calls, place her suitcase in the car and go to the hospital in style instead of feeling as if she was about to be torn apart from the inside out.
She wasn’t even due for another week and a half. This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
“You wouldn’t…happen…to have…the…jaws of…life…with you…would you?” When he shook his head, she pressed her lips together to keep from screaming again. “Then…you’d better…be… Superman.”
J.T. said nothing in response. Instead he pressed another button that allowed the back of her seat to go down until it was almost in a reclining position. Very carefully, he drew her back into a sitting position, then turned her so that her legs were out of the car.
The woman was small, but her center of gravity was low. J.T. braced himself. This wasn’t going to be easy for either one of them.
“Put your arms around my neck,” he instructed.
“Are…you…asking me…to dance…?” Maddy quipped, trying hard to keep her wits and humor about her. Otherwise, she was going to dissolve in a flood of frightened tears. The policeman was only trying to help her, she told herself. It wouldn’t be fair to him if she became hysterical.
Fair.
None of it was fair.
She swallowed the lump that made a sudden appearance in her throat.
The pregnant woman’s flippant question took him by surprise. She was probably hallucinating, he decided. He needed backup. Fast.
“Maybe later.”
As gently as possible, he drew her up to her feet. When she swayed, his arms tightened around her, drawing her to him. Damn it, he could remember holding Lorna against him just like this. A bittersweet feeling swept over him.
He fought off the wave of sorrow.
“Right now,” he said to her, “it looks like you’ve got a baby to deliver.”
A line from Gone with the Wind suddenly materialized within her fevered brain. “I don’t…know nothin’ about…birthin’…no babies,” Maddy managed to exhale as she struggled against the darkness that threatened to engulf her.
She was vaguely aware of a sinking sensation. The policeman had eased her onto the back seat. His arms were strong. Protective.
Maddy sank down, struggling not to cry out against his ear.
Chapter 2
“Birthin’ babies.” The words echoed in J.T.’s head. What the hell was she babbling about?
The woman was out of her head, J.T. judged. Pain did that to a person. He should know.
At least he hadn’t dropped her when he’d placed her in the rear of her car. Grateful for small favors, he straightened. As he began to leave, he felt his wrist being seized in a steel grip.
He looked at her in surprise. She didn’t look capable of exerting such strength. Her fingers tightened around his wrist, cutting off circulation.
“Where…are you…going?” she gasped. He couldn’t just leave her here, could he? Maddy thought frantically. She couldn’t do this alone.
“Just to my car.” He pointed with his free hand, even though he knew she couldn’t see. “I’ve got to call for an ambulance.”
“Too late.”
This baby wasn’t about to wait for any ambulance to make its appearance. It was trying to make an entrance. Now.
Scared, still holding on to his wrist with one hand, Maddy dug the nails of the other into the upholstery in an effort to somehow ground herself. She arched her back, trying to ease the pain.
He felt sorry for her. Even with her face contorted with pain, she was a beautiful woman. What the hell was she doing out here alone at this time of night? Where was this woman’s husband?
“Look, you need professional help.” Help he didn’t feel qualified to give. “I’ve got to call for an ambulance. They’ll be right here.”
She was afraid. Afraid of being alone. Until he had found her, she’d been struggling to fight off encroaching terror. Her car had died just as she’d felt herself going into hard labor.
Maddy looked at him, her eyes beseeching him. “No…don’t go… Please.” Gritting her teeth, she tried to raise herself on her elbows, and only marginally succeeded. “You’re…part of…911, aren’t…you?”
J.T. didn’t see what that had to do with it. “Yes, but—”
Oh damn, here came another one. Maddy began breathing more rapidly. “Then…do…what you were…trained to do… Help me.”
That was what he was trying to do, but he couldn’t accomplish that by just talking to her. He felt her loosening her grip for a moment and took the opportunity to peel her fingers away from his wrist. He could feel the flesh throbbing, could see the imprint of her fingers on his skin. He thought labor was supposed to make you weak. Labor had apparently turned this woman into some kind of superwoman.
“Maybe we can get you to the hospital.” Harris Memorial was less than fifteen minutes way. Eight if he broke a few speed rules. He glanced toward her ignition and saw that there was no key in it. “Let me have your car keys—”
Maddy moved her head from side to side frantically. “Car’s…dead.” And so would she be in a few minutes if this pain didn’t stop, she thought. How did women do this?
He could carry her to his car, J.T. thought, as long as she didn’t fight him. The distance wasn’t that far, and except for her belly she was a petite woman. “Then I’ll get you into mine—”
But even as he reached for her, Maddy scrambled back against the upholstery. She couldn’t stand the thought of being moved, wasn’t up to it.
“This…baby’s…coming…now.” Her words were framed in short, melodious sounds as she practiced the breathing exercises she’d learned. She was desperate and completely out of options. To her surprise, the exercises helped.
But not enough. She felt like a lobster being cracked open.
J.T. knew he had no choice. He was going to have to deliver the baby. He’d been in this position once before. There’d been a huge storm the November before Lorna had died. They’d been coming back from a concert when the woman’s husband had flagged them down. He’d tried to drive her to the hospital, only to find the roads impassable. The man was practically babbling, saying something about there being no time to circumvent the eucalyptus tree that had fallen directly in the path of his car.
In what turned out to be almost the most incredible twenty minutes of his
life, he and Lorna had delivered the couple’s baby. He’d never felt closer to Lorna. Or more convinced that he wanted to begin a family himself.
He remembered how he’d felt, delivering the tiny baby girl born that night. Being the first to hold her in his hands. She’d been such a tiny bit of a thing, her eyes bright, alert. He remembered looking at Lorna over the baby’s head.
The bittersweet memory overwhelmed him for a moment, cutting through the past and the present until he wasn’t sure just what was real.
Why was he just standing there like that? Maddy wondered frantically. Why wasn’t he doing something?
Another contraction seized her in its tight jaws, sucking her breath away so that continuing the exercises became impossible. She was vaguely aware of grabbing his hand, nearly breaking his fingers as she bent them in hers.
“Help…me,” she pleaded.
He saw the terror in her eyes. All thought of racing to his car to make the call for assistance vanished. He couldn’t leave her alone.
“All right.” J.T. climbed into the car with her.
“What’s…your…name?” A woman should know the name of the man picking up her dress and tucking it up around her hips, she thought.
Intense concentration as he tried to remember procedure momentarily blocked her words. J.T. looked up at her. “What?”
“What’s…your…name?” she repeated with effort. “I…need…to know…the name of…the man…delivering…my baby.” She tried to smile, but the look dissolved into a grimace as she fought another contraction.
He raised his voice, knowing she wouldn’t hear him otherwise. “J.T.”
Her lashes were damp from tears or sweat, she wasn’t sure which. “That’s…not a name…that’s…part of…the…alphabet.”
He’d always been J.T., to Lorna and to everyone else. The only person who’d ever called him by his full name had been his mother. He’d been named after both of his grandfathers.
“John Thomas.” When she looked at him with a silent question, he went a step further. “John Thomas Walker.”
Maddy nodded. It was a good name, an unpretentious name. Her husband’s name had been John. Johnny. Oh Johnny, I wish you could be here.
“John Thomas,” she repeated, her lips dry, her body damp. “I…hope you’re…not…the type…to panic…because…I am.” It was all she could do to keep the panic at bay now.
He tried to assure her as best he could. The woman looked to be fully dilated. It shouldn’t be much longer now. “Piece of cake.”
“Right…with…a big file…stuck…in it.” A sharp, pointy file with inch-long teeth that were slicing across her flesh with every breath she took. “Here…comes…another one!”
J.T. grasped her hand, letting her hold on as tightly as she could.
“It doesn’t last,” he promised, her, leaning over so that he could wipe her forehead.
She barely felt his touch. It was too gentle to register. “Easy…for you…to…say.”
There was nothing easy about this for him. He felt as if he was reliving one of the most important nights of his life. And none of it was actually real.
They made eye contact for a split second and his eyes held hers.
“No,” he told her firmly, “it’s not.” He sought for a way to distract her. He vaguely remembered it was supposed to help at a time like this. Lorna had sung to the woman, some ancient Irish lullaby that had helped soothe her. J.T. hadn’t even attempted to join in. He had a voice that could crack eggs. “What’s your name?”
“Mad—” Maddy began giving him her nickname. But Maddy wasn’t the name of a woman who was about to give birth. The name belonged to the madcap person she’d always been, but she couldn’t be that way anymore. She was going to be someone’s mother. Mothers were supposed to be regal, not childish. “Madeline Reed.”
He could see the baby’s crown. The ordeal was almost over for her. “Well, Mad Madeline Reed, looks like you’re about to be a mother.”
She wished she had posts to cling to, something to give her leverage. “Tell…me…something I…don’t…know.”
“Boy or girl?”
She blinked, trying to make sense of the question. “I…get…to…pick?”
“No, do you want a boy or a girl?”
“What I…want…is…for it…to…be…over!” She wasn’t going to be able to make it. Exhaustion was beginning to claim her.
“Almost,” he promised. “All you have to do is push when I tell you.”
“Tell…me…now,” she begged. Maddy didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to stand this. She hadn’t been prepared for anything this intense. But then, she hadn’t planned this pregnancy, it had just happened. But she was glad that it had, because now at least she was able to have a part of Johnny. “I’ve…got to…push.”
It had to be structured, regulated. Otherwise, he was afraid she would rupture something.
“Not yet,” J.T. warned.
His mind scrambled as he tried to remember everything he’d ever learned about deliveries under adverse conditions.
“Now?” she pleaded. Whether he said yes or not, she was going to start pushing. She had to.
“Now. One—two—three, push!”
He got to three, but there was no point to it. Maddy had begun pushing at one. Pushing with all her might, pushing so hard that she felt everything inside her body was on the verge of coming out.
Exhausted, Maddy fell back against the seat like a rag doll. Any second now, another contraction was going to come rolling in, determined to flatten her. She struggled to draw together what tiny scraps of energy she still had left.
“Good.”
Why was he patronizing her? Wavering, Maddy pulled herself up again. “No…it’s…not. If it…was…good, there’d…be a…baby…here.”
“Almost,” he promised.
How could he say that to her? She felt as if she was doomed to push forever, with no results. “Want…to…take…the…next…shift?”
The baby was practically here. Just a little more, he thought, excitement pulsing through him. Just a little more.
“Not possible.”
“Spoilsport.”
Here it came again, pain. Leaping at her like a panther about to take down a fleeing gazelle. “Oh, God—”
He heard the panic in her voice and moved her face until her eyes were forced to take in only him. “Push,” he ordered. “Harder.”
She didn’t think that was physically possible. Scrunching her eyes shut, envisioning the baby sliding out of her, Maddy pushed with every fiber of her being. And when she was finished, she collapsed, gasping, unable to suck in enough air to keep herself from suffocating.
It wasn’t over.
“Almost there.”
His voice came to her from a distant haze. Why wasn’t the baby here yet? She’d pushed and pushed—it was supposed to be here.
“Something’s…wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he told her firmly, his voice deliberately harsh to keep the panic he heard in hers at bay. “This is a baby, not a can of soda in a vending machine that drops down as soon as you insert the right amount of change. Now you’re going to have to push again. Ready?”
“No.”
He looked up at her. It was hard to tell, but she looked pale. Damn, but he wished he had called for backup the moment he had seen the stalled car. “Come on, you can do this. Close your eyes and push, Madeline.”
“Maddy,” she corrected. She needed to hear someone call her that. Needed to cling to something that was stable in her life. She’d been Maddy when she’d met her husband. And Maddy at his funeral.
“Maddy,” J.T. repeated. It fit her. “Let’s get this baby born.”
Closing her eyes, praying, Maddy pushed until she was completely inside out.
A minute later she heard the cry of a baby.
Chapter 3
He didn’t want it to happen.
He had no choice in the
matter.
Just holding the newborn in his arms forced the feeling upon him. It was a deep sensation that began in the center of his chest—it was almost a pain, really, but not quite—and then spread out to his extremities until all of him was encompassed in the spiraling warmth that was being generated.
The widest pair of blue eyes looked up at him with wonder, placing him at the center of a universe that would only continue to grow. But for now, he was it. The beginning, the end and the middle.
This was the look he’d envisioned in his own child’s eyes. His and Lorna’s.
The heart that had been frozen over and immobilized within him began to stir. And defrost.
He didn’t want it to happen.
But it was happening anyway. J.T.’s mouth curved as he smiled down at the child.
It was too quiet, too still. Madeline wasn’t hearing anything. Was there something wrong with her baby? A newer, sharper panic began to overtake her.
“Is…it…all right?”
Her breath was beginning to return to her in small snatches, but there still wasn’t enough for her to be able to form a complete sentence, even a small one, without gasping. Her chest burned and every other part of her felt as if it was throbbing with pain, but the pain in her heart was the worst. Her baby had to be all right, it had to be.
J.T. was only vaguely aware of the sound of the woman’s voice or the question that she was asking him. His eyes stung and he was barely holding his own against the onslaught of feelings that were threatening to overwhelm him completely. He’d forgotten what this had felt like, to hold a new life in his arms. To feel the wonder.
“More than all right,” he told her softly. “He’s beautiful.”
He wouldn’t lie to her. She had no idea how she knew that, but she did. “He?”
J.T. looked up at Maddy, upbraiding himself for getting so distracted that he’d forgotten about the woman who still needed his help. He nodded even as he looked around for something to wrap the baby in. “You have a son.”
A Mother's Day: Nobody's ChildBaby on the WayA Daddy for Her Daughters Page 11
