Happy New Year--Baby!

by Marie Ferrarella

  The nurse looked at Nicole compassionately. “That’s what I like to hear,” she said soothingly, “Everybody sticking to a nice, orderly procedure.” With a maternal smile, she patted Nicole’s arm as the physician removed the blood pressure cuff. “We’ll have this baby in your arms before you know it.”

  “Two,” she corrected with a tight whisper. Every muscle in her body tensed as another wave of pain swept from her toes, up her legs and through the rest of her. “I’m having two babies, not one.”

  The nurse took the IV bag from the paramedic and held it aloft. With her other hand, she held on to the tube to keep it from getting tangled.

  “Save your strength, honey, you’re going to need it.” With well-practiced steps, she moved with the team as they quickly transferred Nicole from the ambulance gurney to one of their own.

  The paramedics receded into the background as the hospital team hurried down the corridor toward the elevators.

  Satisfied that she was stable, the physician detached himself from the circle. “Your wife’ll be fine,” he assured Dennis.

  The nurse, still holding the IV aloft beside the gurney, took charge. “This one’s going all the way to the fifth floor, gentlemen,” she told the orderlies. They reached the bank of elevators and the nurse turned to Dennis. “Did you call her doctor?”

  “Yes.” He had reached Dr. Pollack’s answering service, and they promised to page her immediately with the information.

  A smile crinkled the generous mouth, its warmth softening the spidery wrinkles. The elevator arrived. The orderlies moved the gurney onto the empty car.

  “You’ve got yourself a good one, honey,” she told Nicole.

  Dennis heard Nicole murmur, “Finally.” The single word rubbed against his conscience like new shoes against a blister.

  “Shh,” he chided Nicole, taking her hand again. “The nurse said to save your strength.”

  Nicole stared at the large, black-framed clock on the wall opposite her bed. It was ten minutes to midnight. She had been in the hospital over seven hours. Seven hours spent in excruciating pain. She felt as if there were nothing left inside her to give.

  And still they didn’t emerge.

  The minutes dragged by, outlined in flames. Her babies remained where they were, clinging to life within the womb as if they knew that the world outside was far colder, far harder than what they were accustomed to.

  As she had done every half hour since she arrived, Sheila Pollack came into the room to check on Nicole. Inside her locker outside the delivery room hung a short, silver dress she’d worn at the New Year’s Eve party she’d been attending when her service had called to tell her that Nicole had gone into labor.

  It wouldn’t be long before she couldn’t fit into that dress anymore, she mused as she gave Nicole a reassuring smile. Within a few months, she was going to be as large as her patient.

  Well, almost as large, she amended. She was only carrying one child. But until she began to show, Sheila intended to keep the matter a secret.

  She supposed it was a matter of pride. She didn’t want her patients to feel uneasy, knowing their doctor might be unavailable because she’d gone into labor.

  Sheila slid onto the stool that was positioned at the foot of Nicole’s bed. She moved back the sheet to see how far Nicole had dilated. “So, how are we doing?” she asked cheerfully.

  “Awful,” Nicole complained.

  “She’s in a lot of pain, Doctor,” Dennis told her.

  She sympathized and empathized with what Nicole was going through. “I know, but it shouldn’t be too long now.” She drew the sheet back into position as she rose to her feet.

  “Well?” Nicole asked anxiously.

  Sheila shook her head. “Not yet.” Disappointment moved across Nicole’s face like a dark rain cloud. Sheila placed her hand over her patient’s and gave her a compassionate squeeze. “If you’re not fully dilated within the next half hour, I’m going to perform a C-section.”

  “No.”

  The vehemence in the word surprised Dennis. He thought that Nicole would have welcomed the end of the ordeal. He noticed that the doctor looked unfazed.

  Sheila continued speaking in a soothing cadence. The last thing Nicole needed right now was an argument. “I would have thought you’d want to have this over with, Nicole.”

  More than anything in the world. “I do, but not like that. I—”

  Was she afraid? Sheila wondered. When she had first come to her, Nicole had said that she hadn’t been to a doctor in years. “There’s nothing to it.”

  Nicole turned her head and watched the blips on the fetal monitor. They were strong, steady. “I don’t want a scar.”

  So that was it. Sheila smiled. Vanity at a time like this. Who would have ever thought it? “The incision is a lot smaller now than it used to be.”

  Nicole’s gaze shifted toward Dennis. When the time came, she wanted to come to him whole, unmarred. She moved her head from side to side. “No.”

  Sheila thought she understood. “We’ll see.”

  As much as possible, she acquiesced to her patients’ wishes. But she drew the line when she thought it interfered with their safety. So far, there was no sign of fetal distress, but it would be inhumane to allow Nicole to suffer much longer.

  Sheila glanced at the clock. It was almost midnight. She thought of the party she had left. It was better for her to be here tonight, working. It helped her not to think.

  She wondered where he was and what he was doing before she could lock away the thought.

  She forced a smile to her lips. “Looks like you’re not going to have a tax deduction for this year after all.”

  Sheila looked at Dennis. The nurse had referred to him as Nicole’s husband. She knew he wasn’t, but whoever he was, he was helping Nicole through this and that was all that really counted.

  “I’ll be down the hall for a few minutes if you need me.” There was a candy bar in the vending machine with her name on it.

  Dennis nodded, then stepped in to take the doctor’s place beside the bed. He waited until the woman left the room. He wondered why Nicole was so adamantly against the procedure. What did a little scar matter when she was obviously suffering?

  He leaned over the bed. Nicole looked so flushed. “Maybe you should let her perform the C-section.”

  Nicole looked at the IV tubes in her arm. They were there to replenish the blood she had lost and to guard against infection. There was a monitor strapped to her stomach and one snaking into her womb to monitor the fetal heartbeats. She watched them whenever the pain didn’t seize her, taking comfort in the fact that the heartbeats were steady, strong. If it was a matter of the babies’ survival, she would have agreed to the cesarean, but if it was just to curtail her own agony, she would hang on for as long as possible. Somehow, she would find the strength.

  “It’s going to be all right.” Each word was framed in exhaustion. She couldn’t tell him why she didn’t want the cesarean, so she turned to backup reasons. “I don’t want to be put under. I want to have my babies naturally.”

  It was a noble thought, but made before reality arrived. She just couldn’t go on like this indefinitely. “It’s not natural to have this much pain.”

  She didn’t have the strength to argue with him. Another contraction was coming, harder, faster than the last.

  Dennis saw the contraction’s approach on the monitor before it had a chance to take hold. He tightened his hand on hers. “Breathe, Nicole, breathe.”

  Her lungs felt as if they were shaking as she panted. When the contraction left, she sank deeper into her pillow. She smiled weakly at Dennis, so grateful that he was here.

  “I guess I didn’t keep up with the family tradition after all. This is a hell of a lot longer than the half hour Marlene took to have Robby.” She closed her eyes and for a moment, Dennis thought she had fainted again. But then she opened them, searching his face. “Did you call her?”

  He said yes, he
had, just the way he had told her twice before when she’d asked.

  He had called Marlene as soon as the nurses had taken Nicole into the labor room. They’d asked him to remain outside while they prepared her. He had used the time to make telephone calls in the lounge.

  “I’ll be right down,” Marlene had said as soon as he told her about Nicole. “But Sally’s gone to visit a friend, so I’ll have to get someone to stay with Robby.”

  He heard a baby crying in the background and remembered that she was a new mother herself. “There’s no need to hurry. It looks like it might take a while. Why don’t I call you when she’s delivered?”

  He could almost hear the hesitancy. “You’re Dennis, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nic told me about you. I’m grateful for what you’re doing. This was a very tough time for her.” But he probably already knew that.

  More gratitude to mingle in with the guilt. “I haven’t done anything special.”

  “Yes, you have.” Marlene paused, weighing her words. She made it a policy not to interfere, but this was Nicole. Just this once, she had a right. “Don’t hurt her, Dennis. She’s very fragile.”

  He chafed at the warning. “I have no intentions of hurting Nicole.” No intentions, but it would happen, he thought. There was no way out.

  She certainly hoped he meant what he said. Nicole had been through enough. “Call me as soon as they’re born.”

  “I will.” He hung up. It took him a minute to shake the heavy pall that had fallen over him.

  The next call had gone to Winston.

  Winston had listened as Dennis quickly filled him in. He’d had a hunch Nicole was in labor when Dennis didn’t return to the apartment.

  “Then she’s okay?”

  He thought of what Marlene had said. “For now.”

  Winston relaxed. Though he’d had no personal contact with Nicole, he’d grown fond of her during the time he had been monitoring the apartment.

  “Boy, there’s no end to the excitement on this job, is there?” Winston’s tone was deadpan, but Dennis was certain he had detected a note of envy in his partner’s voice. Winston didn’t relish being cooped up in the van. He couldn’t say that he blamed him.

  Dennis watched the entrance to the room down the hall, but no one had come out looking for him so far. He shifted the telephone against his other ear and lowered his voice. “I want you to see if you can find Laura Bailey.”

  The monitors remained blank in the van. No one had attempted to enter the apartment while Nicole was gone. He was going stir-crazy and welcomed any diversion. “Who’s Laura Bailey?”

  “Nicole’s mother.”

  “Why?”

  The scene in the apartment flashed through Dennis’s mind. Nicole’s voice echoed in his head. “She wants to see her mother.”

  Winston’s voice was quizzical but agreeable. “You have a number?”

  “It’s not that simple. The woman walked out on the family about twenty years ago. According to Nicole, she was paid off by her husband to leave the kids alone.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a family that would be any competition to the Waltons.” Dennis heard the faint clicking of the computer keys, and knew Winston had accepted the challenge. “Boy, you don’t ask for much, do you?”

  Dennis knew Winston was grinning. “Not from you. You’re the best.”

  Winston laughed. It had almost a sinister sound. “You’re only saying that because you know I was going to ask Sherwood to stick you in the van on the next assignment.”

  That would never happen. Though he complained otherwise, Dennis knew Winston was far more at home with his electronic gadgets than he was interacting with people. Dennis saw a nurse emerge from the room. The woman looked up and down the hall, then seeing him, she beckoned.

  They were ready for him. “See what you can find, okay?”

  “What do I tell Sherwood? What are you going to be doing while I hunt for the mother of the year?”

  Dennis was impatient to get off. “I’m going to stay with Nicole.”

  “I don’t think Standish is going to try anything while she’s surrounded by nurses.”

  “It’s not Standish I’m thinking of.” They’d been partners too long for Winston not to have figured that out for himself, Dennis thought.

  “Sure you’re thinking?”

  Probably not. This just got him deeper into a situation he had no business being in in the first place. Not in this capacity. But it was to late to be logical. She needed him.

  “Just see what you can find, all right?”

  Winston sighed. “Will do.”

  Dennis looked down at Nicole now, wondering how he was ever going to tell her the truth. There didn’t seem to be a right moment to confess that everything he’d been telling her was a lie. A lie he was hoping would continue to go on for a little while longer.

  A contraction started, following on the heels of the one that had just ebbed away. Dennis kept talking about anything that popped into his head, trying to get Nicole’s mind off the pain that was turning her inside out. This one seemed to last forever. When it was finally over, she tugged on his hand urgently.

  “Call her.” Nicole panted, trying to gather enough energy to continue talking. “Call the doctor. I’m ready.”

  This had to be hell for her. “But she just examined you,” Dennis told her gently.

  She shook her head. The pillow beneath it was soaked with her perspiration.

  “I don’t care, call her. I’m ready. I can feel it.” There was an urgency in her face he hadn’t seen before. “I have to push, Dennis!”

  “Okay, I’ll call her.”

  He reached the doorway in a few strides, his eyes remaining trained on Nicole. He was afraid that if another contraction started, she was going to pull free of one of the host of tethers she had along her body.

  “Dr. Pollack!”

  Sheila came hurrying down the hall instantly. From the other direction, a nurse rushed to join her. “What’s wrong?” Sheila asked Dennis.

  “She says she’s ready.” He saw the skeptical look on the doctor’s face.

  Nicole didn’t want to wait for a debate on the subject. She was going to have her babies here and now. There was no question about what signals her body was giving her.

  “I am,” Nicole cried out. She gripped the handrails on either side. “I am.”

  Sheila knew better than to argue. By the book, it should have taken Nicole a full half hour to dilate to the next stage. But babies waiting to be born rarely read textbooks.

  It took Sheila only a moment to ascertain what Nicole already was aware of.

  “You’re right, it’s time. You’re fully dilated.” In what seemed to be record time, she thought. Sheila let the sheet drop back into place and looked at Nicole with a smile. “Nicole, you’re about to become a mother.”

  From somewhere, Nicole mustered enough energy to smile in response. “And here I thought all along that it was just indigestion.”

  Sheila laughed. The nurse began to untether Nicole from the fetal monitor. Sheila turned to Dennis as she pressed the button for another nurse. “We’re going to have to get you into surgical clothes.”

  It was time to own up to at least a fraction of the truth. “I’m not her husband.”

  A small smile graced Sheila’s lips. “I know. The point is, she wants you there.” She looked at Nicole. “Right?”

  There was no question in her mind. “Right,” Nicole whispered weakly, her eyes on Dennis.

  Sheila paused. “So, are you coming or not?”

  His immediate response would have been, no, that he didn’t belong in the delivery room. But if Nicole wanted him there, that took the decision out of his hands. He had come all this way, he wasn’t about to leave her now.

  That would probably come later, he thought, when she found out the truth. When Nicole wanted him out of her life for lying to her the way he knew that everyone else had.

 
; Another nurse entered the room. Sheila turned toward her. “Barbara, show him where he can change.”

  It wasn’t the way he would have imagined it, he thought. The delivery room was small. Along its walls were machines that stood like silent sentries, ready to be deployed at the slightest sign of need.

  A hell of a lot of things could go wrong in this room, he thought.

  Sheila watched his expression as he walked into the delivery room. He was a tall, strapping man, but right now, his complexion had a green tinge to it that rivaled the surgical livery he wore. She hoped he wasn’t the type to pass out.

  She gestured to the delivery table. “You have your choice of positions,” she told him.

  He moved close to Nicole, taking her hand in his. “I’ll take here.” He’d sooner face down the barrel of a Magnum than stand where the doctor was at the moment.

  Good choice, Sheila thought.

  “Good, then get behind her and lift her shoulders up. She’s going to need support.” She looked at Dennis to see if he understood her meaning.

  He nodded and did as instructed. Dennis slipped his hands beneath the sheet and against Nicole’s shoulders.

  Sheila turned her attention to center stage. “Nicole, I don’t want you to push until I tell you to. Is that clear?”

  It was asking for almost more than she was capable of. Nicole licked her lips. They were so incredibly dry while the rest of her was so damp. She wished she had another ice chip.

  “I really feel—”

  Sheila cut her short. “I know, Nicole, I know. Just listen to me and we’ll have your babies cleaned up and ready for college before you know it.” She brought the stool to the foot of the table and sat down. She glanced up quickly and nodded at Dennis. “All right, Nicole. I want you to bear down and push. Now.”

  Nicole squeezed her eyes tight as every fiber of her body concentrated on that one command.

  Sheila counted off the seconds in her head. “Okay, stop.”

  It took Nicole several moments before she could protest. “But they’re not here yet.”

  “Soon,” Dennis promised her. “Soon. Breathe.” From the corner of his eye, he saw the look of approval on the doctor’s face. But all that mattered was getting Nicole through this.