by Nancy Martin
The officer hustled out, and everybody else hurried to help Nora back into position, whereupon she made an unladylike noise of anguish.
“Come on, Lib,” Emma said. “You, too, Father Jerry. We’re out of here.”
“But—”
“No,” Emma said. “We’re not needed here.”
“But I want to know if Nora has a Childbirth Orgasm.”
“A what?”
Already halfway out the door thanks to Emma’s insistence, Libby cried over her shoulder, “Let it happen, Nora! And tell me all about it when it’s over!”
Nora gave another non-orgasmic groan, and then the door closed. They barely had time to get out of the way as Dr. Stengler ran out of Zephyr’s delivery room and barreled into Nora’s.
The policeman joined them in the middle of the hallway. “I thought Nora was going to drop that baby right on the floor. Good work, Father.”
“Yeah,” Emma said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out some cash. A considerable amount. She peeled off several bills and handed them over to Father Jerry. “Here you go, Jer. With a few extra bucks so you can take a cab back to rehearsal. Thanks for everything.”
“Thank you, dear child. You’ve given me material I’ll be able to use for years.”
“Uh-huh,” she said. “Well, good luck with Falstaff.”
He saluted her. “I’ll send you some tickets. Maybe you can attend with Hart.”
When the priest walked away, Libby said to Emma, “Hart? Is he back in town?”
But the policeman said, “Rehearsal? What kind of shady priest was that?”
Emma grabbed the policeman by the front of his shirt. “See here, Ricci. This is a serious family matter. And just because you’re the law doesn’t mean you can blab a secret.”
“What secret?” he demanded. “Hold your horses. That was no priest at all!”
“He’s an actor,” Emma snapped. “He’s playing Falstaff at some community theater down the highway. I hired him to give Mick what he wanted—a wedding.”
“And,” Libby cried, “you gave Nora what she really wanted, too, right? Not a real wedding, so the Blackbird Curse isn’t activated. Emma, you’re brilliant!”
The policeman said. “The Blackbird Curse? Mick told me about that a while back. Something about how your husbands die? So you can’t ever get married?”
“That’s it. Our husbands don’t last long. We don’t want that to happen to Mick. But he’s been pushing for a wedding for years.” Emma released the policeman. “Are you in, Ricci? You going to keep this a secret?”
The policeman considered the matter for a long moment. Arrest and incarceration danced in Libby’s imagination as the seconds ticked by.
But the cop shrugged. “Sure, why not? Seems like you found a way to make everybody happy.”
Libby looked down at the wide awake baby in her arms. “Don’t listen to any of this, Allie. Your parents are going to be very happy together. All of you will be happy. You never heard what your Auntie Emma did to help her sister.”
12.
Mick held Nora’s hand, then her shoulders, then her whole body while she worked to bring their baby into the world. Nora applied all her strength and courage without a whimper. There was no time for an epidural. Barely time for the doctor to get into position to catch their little girl. She came out howling, and Nora burst into happy tears.
The doctor offered Mick a set of horrible scissors and said he could cut the cord. Just as she had offered across the hall when Zephyr’s baby was born. But he couldn’t do it. Not either time.
The doctor gave him a withering glance. “Not so tough after all?”
“I’m a marshmallow,” he replied and kissed his wife.
In a moment Nora was cradling the baby against her bare skin, touching her head with gentle fingers. “She’s a redhead, too! Michael, look.”
He couldn’t help brushing the newborn’s hair. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. The more redheads, the better. What are we going to call her? Are we going to name her after your grandma?”
“Yes, please.” Nora couldn’t take her eyes off their daughter. “Amelia Clare.”
“Perfect.”
They were allowed to hold her for a few minutes while the doctor attended to Nora. Then the nurse took the baby away to be wiped down, weighed and assessed. “Everything looks great,” she said over her shoulder. “She’s very alert.”
Amelia gave a wail, and the nurse shushed her, saying, “You can go back to your mama in a minute. Be patient.”
The doctor called the nurse back to help get Nora finished, and she left the baby in a plastic warmer.
Nora had begun to shiver. The doctor moved purposefully beneath the sheet over Nora’s knees, and Mick was suddenly aware of blood all over the floor. The nurse was swiftly handing supplies to the doctor, who kept silent as she worked. Then the nurse hurried across the room to grab some blankets from a box that looked like an oven. When Mick moved to help wrap Nora in the blankets, they were hot to his touch. Nora gratefully pulled them close, but her hands were trembling too hard to control.
“You okay?” Mick asked.
She nodded, but her face had turned an ashy white that scared him.
The nurse checked the IV and turned a knob on one of the tubes.
“Stick with us, Nora,” the doctor said from under the sheet—a command that struck Mick’s heart like a poisoned arrow.
Nora whispered, “The curse. Did we do something wrong?”
“Of course not.”
“Getting married … was it wrong?”
“No, no, it was absolutely right. You’re okay. We have a beautiful child, a whole family. It’s going to be great.” He had his arm around her, pulling her close to warm her up. “Sweetheart? Nora?”
Nora couldn’t answer. She was shuddering with cold, and suddenly her eyes fluttered. Her left hand came up and touched his face. Hardly audible, she said, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” But then her hand slipped away, and Nora went limp.
“Hey,” he said to anyone who’d listen. “What can I do? She’s passing out.”
The doctor didn’t answer. Neither did the nurse. They were working fast, trying to stop something—he wasn’t sure what. One of them must have hit an emergency button because suddenly the room was full of people moving with swift purpose.
They came with a cart full of medical equipment—at least four nurses in scrubs and another doctor with a stethoscope around his neck. A guy pulled Nora’s gown away from her chest and began slapping round stickers on her skin. He attached wires to the stickers and then flipped on a machine that began beeping erratically. The new doctor intently watched the machine’s screen. Another nurse hung more clear plastic bags on the IV pole and began attaching more tubing in Nora’s lifeless hand.
“Nora?” Mick’s heart was pounding faster than the machine could beep. “Sweetheart, are you with me?”
His throat was closing, but he said, “Nora, please. Don’t do this. Don’t go.”
13.
Emma kept Libby under control as they waited outside Zephyr’s room while the cop went inside to check on the prisoner. There was a bunch of shouting in the room.
Libby said, “I bet that Zephyr tried to escape.”
“Well, Ricci caught her in time.”
A team of nurses and a doctor came zipping down the corridor like a platoon of soldiers headed for a skirmish. They hustled into Nora’s room.
Emma didn’t like the look of that. “Hey, now what’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” Libby looked up from the granddaughter she held in her arms. She had been babbling nonsense to the child for a couple of minutes, but she stared after the team that disappeared into Nora’s room. “That doesn’t look routine, does it?”
“Nope. Think there’s something wrong with the baby?”
“Or with Nora? All of my deliveries were com
pletely normal, but maybe she has a problem. She’s always been sensitive, you know.”
“Believe me, I know.”
Okay, there was more traffic in the corridor than before—maybe nurses changing shifts or more patients coming in to deliver babies, but the crush of people rushing into Nora’s room gave Emma a very bad feeling. And then Libby’s head just about swiveled off her head when one particular nurse went by.
“What’s wrong?” Emma asked.
Libby kept her voice low. “That’s the nurse I was telling you about. The pregnant one.”
Emma only caught sight of the back of her head as the woman ducked into Nora’s room, but something clicked in her head. “Yeah, that’s the one I saw in the stairwell.”
“What’s she doing?”
A second later, the pregnant nurse came out of Nora’s room. And she was carrying a baby. Nora’s baby.
“Hey,” Emma said. “What are you doing?”
The nurse barely paused but kept going down the hall. “I’m taking this child for tests. Routine.”
“If tests are routine,” Libby said, still holding Allie, “how come this one didn’t get any?”
The nurse didn’t answer but kept going.
Emma said, “I don’t like this.”
“Her name tag, the one around her neck. I don’t think the picture matched her face. I know her hair color certainly didn’t!”
“You would know.”
“Emma—”
“Yeah!”
Emma took off after the nurse.
She ran headlong down the corridor, turned the corner just in time to see the nurse carry Nora’s baby through the door to the stairwell. Emma shouted and raced after her. She reached the door just as it closed, so she had to yank it open before bolting through. On the landing, she looked up, then down. The nurse was headed down, ripping a pillow out from under her scrubs to change the way she looked.
“Hey! Stop!”
The nurse who wasn’t a nurse glanced up and saw Emma. She didn’t stop but doubled her speed.
Emma heard Libby shouting after her as she started down the stairs.
The nurse was fast but not fast enough. Emma caught her on the landing.
“Stop right there, bitch.” She yanked the nurse by her scrubs.
The nurse aimed a kick at Emma but missed. She bobbled the baby.
“You drop that kid,” Emma snapped, “and I’m gonna tear your head off.”
“Let me go!”
“Gimme the baby.”
The nurse squished the baby to her chest and tried wriggling out of Emma’s grip.
At that moment, a raccoon came charging up the stairs like it had been shot out of a cannon.
The nurse screamed and made a scramble as if to climb up the wall to save herself from the animal. She let go of the baby. Emma made a lunge and caught the kid before she hit the floor. The baby gave a piercing cry.
The raccoon kept going, and the nurse turned to do battle with Emma for control of the kid.
Emma reared back and gave the nurse a kick that sent her reeling backward. She hit the railing and flipped over it. With a shriek, she went flying over the rail and down the stairs.
Baby in her arms, Emma headed back upstairs.
Libby was holding the door open with her butt. Her eyes were wide. “Good work, Em.”
“Which way did the raccoon go?”
Libby pointed up. Below them, they could hear the hospital security team pounding up the stairs. Voices shouted.
Emma said, “Let’s get back to Nora.”
14.
Mick stayed right with Nora as someone unlatched her bed and laid her flat. Then one of the male nurses climbed up on the bed and straddled her body. While the rest of them got their equipment ready, he put his hands together on her sternum and began pumping.
It was all wrong. A crazy nightmare. One minute she’d been overjoyed about the baby, and the next minute she had fainted. And now? Now they were acting as if her heart had stopped.
Dr. Stengler had finished her part of the job, and she came over to Mick. She put her hands on his arm and pushed him back from the bedside. “Give them some room. They know what they’re doing.”
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“She lost a lot of blood. And Nora has a history of losing consciousness—”
“She faints, that’s all. She’ll come around in a second.”
“Let them work.”
It couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not ever.
“It’s just a fainting spell. They don’t need to do CPR. They’re hurting her.” But reality hit him like a tidal wave. To the doctor, to all of them, he said, “Don’t let her die. She doesn’t deserve this. Don’t let her go.”
“Let’s see to your baby,” the doctor said to him. “The baby needs you.”
He resisted her pull. “The baby needs her mother. She needs Nora.”
“Come on.” She led him around Nora’s bed to the plastic box where the nurse had placed Amelia. But the baby wasn’t there. Dr. Stengler turned around and said to everyone, “Where’s the baby?”
The original nurse glanced over her shoulder. “What?”
“The baby. Did someone … ?”
“She was there a minute ago.”
“Did she have her security bracelet yet?”
“No, I didn’t have time before—”
The doctor said to Mick, “Don’t worry. It’s just a … a thing. She’s probably outside. Come with me.”
Mick held back again. “I can’t leave Nora.”
“Give them the room they need to help her. Come now.”
Mick turned back in time to see someone shoving a tube down Nora’s throat. They were still pumping her chest. Against every instinct, he let Dr. Stengler pull him out into the corridor.
“Stay here.” She backed him into the wall. “I’ll be right back with your daughter.”
Mick had to lean against the wall to keep from falling into the darkness that had started to churn around his knees. He was aware of the doctor hurrying away. But he slid down the wall and hunkered there, head in his hands. He closed his eyes and prayed. Take me instead. Don’t let her die. Not now, just as she was getting the family she wants. Take me.
“Michael? Everything is crazy in this hospital tonight.”
He tried to look up into the blinding light overhead. Into his vision swam the tall, slim figure of Lexie Paine, Nora’s best friend. She had a big bundle of flowers in her arms, but her smile had faded.
She said, “The baby? Did something go wrong?”
He shook his head, drunk with something awful inside. “It’s Nora. She fainted again. Or something. They’re trying to bring her back.”
Lexie looked shocked. “Bring her back?”
His grief burst, and he couldn’t answer, couldn’t make himself say what was happening on the other side of the door.
Lexie dropped the flowers and knelt down beside him. Her grip was sharp on his shoulders. “Sweetie, where’s the baby?”
“Both of them,” he managed to say. “They were both born just … not long ago. Libby and Emma have Allie somewhere. The doctor … she went to get Amelia.”
“All right,” Lexie said decisively. “All right. When you called me, they hadn’t been born yet. And when I saw you here, I was afraid … No, never mind. It’s Nora we have to worry about now.”
The memory of calling Lexie just a couple of hours ago felt distant and surreal. His world had changed—no, it wasn’t the same world at all. Nora was on that awful bed, people pushing on her, stabbing her with needles, hurting her. He had to shake his head to get rid of the mental picture of what they were doing to her.
“I can’t let her go,” he choked. “She saved my life. I don’t know where I’d be now if not for her. I can’t live if she … if she—”
“Don’t say it. It hasn’t happened.”
He put
his head in his hands again.
Beside him, Lexie pulled herself together and shook his shoulder. “You can’t do this. Michael, dear. You can’t give up hope. You should be with her. We both should. Nora saved me, too. Let’s go.”
She was right. He couldn’t give up on her. Nora would never give up. He let Lexie pull him upright again, and she wrapped her arm around his waist. She didn’t hesitate at the door but pushed through. Inside, she gasped at the sight of the team still working on Nora, at all the blood on the floor. But she pulled him to the bed, edging through the people there and putting his hand on Nora’s, the one with the IV taped to her flesh. Her hand felt cool, but her wedding ring gleamed. She felt alive, and that realization woke him up. Lexie was right. He needed to be here, not outside where surrender was the only option. He put Nora’s hand against his own cheek, put his fingers in her soft auburn hair and crouched beside the bed so he could see her face. If she was going to leave him, he would go with her. Wherever she went, he would go, too.
But maybe he could will her back to life.
Lexie appeared in his line of vision on the other side of the bed. She had Nora’s other hand in hers. “Nora, sweetie,” she spoke clearly. “Sweetie, you’ve got to come back to us. We need you too much. Your children need you. Come on, darling.”
While the nurses worked around them, Lexie said, “We all need you, Nora. Emma and Libby. Michael and me. Your baby girls. Come back, sweetie. We love you. We love you more than you know, Nora.”
“Nora,” Mick called. He kissed her hand. “Nora.”
15.
Libby had watched as Emma wrestled the tiny bundle from the fake nurse, and, for good measure, kicked the woman.
Together, each holding a baby, they turned back to the stairwell door, and that’s when Dr. Stengler burst through. She spotted Libby and Emma, and she sagged with relief against the door.
“Thank heavens. Something has gone terribly wrong with security tonight. I thought somebody had stolen Nora’s baby.”
Emma opened her mouth to say that was indeed what had happened, but for once Libby had the clearer head and elbowed her into silence. There was no use making it public that tonight was business as usual for the Abruzzo family. Kidnapping wasn’t far from loan sharking and illegal gambling.
