Danielle had told them she was allowed to take care of two patients simultaneously by hospital ratio but that Laura was her only patient at the moment and that, unless the department became seriously inundated by delivering mothers, this would remain the situation throughout. Jake suspected that his discussion with Margaret the manager before leaving earlier had a lot to do with this decree and Danielle’s assignment to them. He did not feel guilty about this or that he was taking advantage of name-dropping or his celebrity status. He had just played the cards that life had given him to play in response to the hand he had been dealt.
The result was that Danielle absolutely doted on them and treated them like royalty. She spent a large amount of her time in the room with them, checking on Laura frequently, and always keeping them updated on what was going on. Over the next few hours, they got to know the young nurse fairly well. She was married to a Department of Forestry firefighter who worked at one of the stations near Jake and Laura’s house. She was due to deliver their first baby—also a girl—in late March. She even hinted about the talking-to that Judy the grump had been given by the manager of the department about her attitude. She shared that Judy was not well-liked in the department and that pretty much everyone was looking forward to when she retired sometime in the next year. She also shared that she had a younger sister named Meghan who had been a junior at Cal Poly working on her degree in psychology before deciding she did not want to go into that field after all and dropping out to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.
“What is she doing now?” asked Laura, who was between contractions currently and temporarily out of pain (though not discomfort).
“She’s working at the KinderCare daycare center over by the campus,” Danielle said.
“Does she like that?” Laura asked.
“She likes taking care of kids,” Danielle said, “but they don’t pay very much. Just a little over minimum wage. She’s still living with my parents. She’s starting to think about maybe getting into nursing like I did. She’s already got about half of the prerequisites for the program. I think she’d be good at it. She’s a good kid, smart, has her head on straight.”
Jake and Laura looked at each other for a moment and then back at Danielle. They were able to pass a little silent marital communication between them despite the circumstances. Is this some kind of a setup? Laura asked. Jake shook his head a little. No, I don’t think so, was his reply. And he truly believed this. The conversation about Danielle’s sister had come up because of something Celia had asked, not because Danielle herself had brought it up. And, though Danielle seemed smart—they had learned that nurses tended not to be dumb—she was very young and probably not experienced enough with life to manipulate on so advanced a level.
“You say your sister is a good kid?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, she really is,” Danielle said with a smile. It was obvious that she was close to her only sibling. “She’s just drifting a little right now is all. She’ll find her way.”
“And ... uh ... she likes taking care of kids?” Laura asked.
“Oh yes,” Danielle said, obviously with no hint whatsoever what they were driving at. “She loves them.”
“Hmmm,” Celia said with smile, easily picking up where they were headed with this.
“Why do you ask?” Danielle enquired, now starting to realize their odd interest in this subject.
“Uh ... well ... I think maybe we’d be interested in meeting her after Cadence is born,” Jake said.
Danielle’s look of surprise could not be construed as anything other than genuine. “Meet her? What for?”
“We’re going to need a nanny at some point,” Laura explained. “Not until after we’re done recording up in Oregon, but certainly after that.”
“A nanny?” Danielle asked.
“Yes,” Laura said. “Someone to ... oh my God! Here comes another one!”
They all looked up the monitor. Sure enough, another contraction was rippling through Laura. Cadence’s heart rate stayed steady throughout, hanging in there at 136 beats per minute. Laura gripped Celia’s and Jake’s hands hard enough to hurt. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes tightly.
“Breathe through it,” Danielle encouraged gently, patting her bare leg just above the knee. “It looks like a good one. Still going up. Breathe ... breathe.”
“Oh ... fuck me!” Laura grunted. “I don’t ever want to do this shit again, sweetie.”
“I know, hon,” he said comfortingly. “Just breathe through it. Keep on top of it.”
“Keeping on top is how I got this way!” she barked.
Jake had to suppress a laugh as he heard this. So did Celia and Danielle.
Finally, the contraction peaked and eased off. Laura, a little sweaty, panted for a few moments. She then looked back over at Danielle. “Anyway, like I was saying,” she continued as if nothing had happened, “once we get back from Oregon, Jake and I will both need to spend a lot of the week in Los Angeles. We could haul Cadence there and back with us every day if we have to, but if we had a nanny who could take care of her during the day, it would make things a lot easier on her and us.”
“Wow,” Danielle said. She could not seem to think of anything to follow it up with.
“Do you think your sister would have the slightest interest in something like that?” Jake asked. “I know that a lot of people don’t care for us. They don’t know us at all, but they still don’t care for us based on reputation and rumor. We would understand if she said no on that basis.”
“I would have to ask her,” Danielle said, “but I don’t think she would be opposed. She loves your music Jake, both Intemperance and your solo stuff. Oh ... she loves your stuff too, Celia. She was always stealing my CDs when I lived there.”
“Well, all right then,” Jake said. “We’re not promising her a job or anything right here and now, but we would like to meet her when we can.”
“I will give her a call tomorrow,” Danielle promised. “I think she will be absolutely thrilled to meet you.”
Dr. Jacobs, the anesthesiologist, installed the epidural in Laura’s spine a few minutes later. This served to reduce the pain of the contractions down to a mere uncomfortable pressure. He then put a little fentanyl into the epidural. This served to put Laura into a happy, euphoric mood that was much closer to her actual personality.
“This stuff is all right,” she said dreamily as she watched an episode of Seinfeld on the television set.
“I am definitely jealous,” Jake said.
The hours rolled on and her contractions continued to slowly become longer in duration and closer together. About once every hour, Danielle would stick a gloved hand up inside to see how the cervix was doing. By the time midnight ticked past and November 30 gave way to December 1, she was dilated to seven centimeters and was seventy percent effaced. Her contractions were now three minutes apart and lasting nearly ninety seconds.
“Okay,” Danielle said. “I’m going to call Dr. Niven in now. We’re starting to get close.”
Dr. Niven arrived at 12:35 AM. She came in dressed in green scrubs with one of those hairnet caps on and blue covers over her shoes. She immediately apologized for the behavior of Judy the nurse.
“You heard about that, huh?” Jake asked.
“I heard about it,” she said sourly. “Absolutely unacceptable behavior and I will be composing a complaint about it once I hear the details from you.”
“That’s okay,” Jake said. “What’s done is done. Danielle here has more than made up for Judy.”
Niven smiled. “Yes, Danielle is the best,” she said, making the young nurse beam. “I enjoy working with her tremendously.”
She then went about doing her own internal exam of Laura’s cervix.