“How often are you having these back pains?” Jim asked from behind her.
“Every couple of minutes, I guess.” She gasped and pressed her hand to her back. “Bugger!”
Cal limped across the carpet. “Are you trying to tell me she’s in labor now?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Jim steered her away from Annie and sat her on the couch, where he put his hand on her abdomen and glanced at his watch.
Cal looked wild-eyed. “The county hospital’s a good ten miles from here! Ten miles on these roads’ll take us at least twenty minutes! Why didn’t you say something, honey? Why didn’t you tell me you were having contractions?”
“Because you’d rush me off to the hospital, and they’d send me home. Most of this back pain is from that airline seat, anyway. Owww!”
Jim checked his watch. Cal’s expression was frantic. “Dad, we’ve got to get her off the mountain before the road washes out in the rain!”
“It’s barely sprinkling, Cal,” his mother pointed out, “and that road hasn’t washed out in ten years. Besides, first babies take their time.”
He paid no attention, darting to the door instead. “The limo’s already left! We’ll put her in the Blazer. You drive, Dad. I’ll get in the backseat with her.”
“No! I want to have our baby here!” Jane wailed.
Cal shot her a horrified glance. “Here!”
She sniffed and nodded.
“Wait just a minute.” His voice grew dangerously low, giving her a small thrill of pleasure that penetrated her misery. “When you kept saying you wanted to have our baby here, I thought you meant this area in general and, more specifically, the county hospital!”
“No! I meant here! Annie’s house.” She hadn’t meant any such thing until just this moment, but now she knew she couldn’t find a more perfect birthing nest.
Cal’s eyes reflected a weird combination of frenzy and fear as he twisted toward his father. “My God! She’s on her way to becoming the most famous physicist in the country, and she’s dumb as a post! You are not having your baby in this house! You’re having it at the county hospital!”
“Okay.”She smiled at him through her tears. “You’re yelling at me.”
He groaned.
Jim patted her hand. “Just to be safe, why don’t you let me check you first, honey? Is that all right? Do you mind going into the bedroom so I can see how far along you are?”
“Can Cal come, too?”
“Of course.”
“And Lynn? I want Lynn there.”
“Lynn, too.”
“And Annie.”
Jim sighed. “Let’s go, everybody.”
Cal put his arm around her and led her toward Lynn’s old room. Just as they passed through the door, a spasm hit her that was so strong she gasped and grabbed the doorframe. This one lasted forever, and only after it was over did she notice what else had happened.
“Cal?”
“What, sweetheart?”
“Look down. Are my feet wet?”
“Your feet? Are your-” He made a queer, strangled sound. “Your water broke. Dad! Jane’s water broke!”
Jim had gone into the bathroom to wash, but Cal had yelled so loudly he had no difficulty hearing him. “All right, Cal. I’ll be there in a minute. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time to get her to the hospital.”
“If you’re so damn sure, why do you have to check her first?”
“Just to be safe. The contractions are fairly close.”
Cal’s muscles went rigid. He steered her toward the double bed, while Lynn fetched a stack of towels, and Annie pulled back the wedding ring quilt. Jane refused to sit until Lynn had the bed protected, so Cal reached under her dress and pulled down the sodden brown maternity tights he’d helped her into that morning. By the time he had them off, along with her shoes and panties, Lynn had spread a piece of plastic sheeting and some towels over the bed. Cal eased her down on it.
Annie chose a whitewashed wooden chair at the side of the room and settled in to watch the proceedings. As Jim came back into the room, Jane finally absorbed the fact that he intended to give her a pelvic and began to feel embarrassed. He might be a doctor, but he was also her father-in-law.
Before she could think too much, another contraction hit, this one with double the intensity of the last. A scream slipped past her lips, and through the wrenching pain, it occurred to her that something didn’t seem right. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
Jim delivered a few softly uttered instructions to his son. Cal held her knees open during the examination. Lynn clasped her hand and hummed “Maggie May.”
“Damn, I’ve got a foot,” Jim said. “It’s a breech.”
She gave a hiss of alarm, and then another pain hit.
“Cal, get under her,” Jim ordered. “Hold her in your lap and keep her legs open; you’re going to get wet. Jane, don’t push! Lynn, run out to the car and get my bag.”
Pain and fear encompassed her. She didn’t understand. What did Jim mean, he had a foot? What did her foot have to do with it? She gazed frantically at Jim as Cal leaped into the bed. “What’s happening? I can’t be having the baby now. It’s too fast. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“The baby’s breech,” he replied.
She uttered a deep groan, then cried out in pain. Breech births were high-risk, and the babies were delivered by C-section in well-equipped operating rooms, not in mountain cabins. Why hadn’t she insisted they drive right to the hospital. She had endangered their precious baby by coming here first.
“The head was down when she went to the doctor on Wednesday,” Cal said. Ignoring his injured leg, he slid behind her.
“Sometimes they turn,” Jim answered. “It’s rare, but it happens.”
Cal lifted her onto his lap. With her back pressed to his chest, and his legs straddling her, he clasped her knees to keep them separated.
Her baby was in trouble, and all thoughts of modesty fled. Sitting in his lap with his powerful warrior’s body encircling her, she knew he would fight the world to keep their baby safe.
Jim gave Jane’s knee a gentle squeeze. “This is going to go very fast, honey. Not anything like you expected. Right now I’m going to get the other foot down, and you can’t push. Cal, we have to be careful of the cord in this position. Keep her from pushing.”
“Breathe, sweetheart. Breathe! That’s it. Just like we practiced. You’re doing great.”
Pain consumed her. She felt as if she were being devoured by an animal, but Cal made her breathe with him, all the time murmuring words of love and encouragement. Funny words. Tender words.
The urge to push grew stronger, impossible to resist, and horrible sounds came from her throat. She had to push!
But Cal, the leader of men, refused to let her give in. He threatened and cajoled, and she did as he said because he gave her no other choice. She panted as he ordered, then blew out great puffs of air that ended in a scream as she fought the natural instincts of her body.
“That’s it!” Jim exclaimed. “That’s it, honey! You’re doing great.”
She could no longer distinguish one pain from another. It wasn’t at all like the childbirth films they’d seen, where the couple played cards and walked in the hallways, and where there was resting time between contractions.
Minutes ticked by and her world was reduced to a thick fog of pain and Cal’s voice. She followed him blindly.
“Breathe! That’s it! That’s it, sweetheart! You’re doing great.” It was as if she could feel his strength passing into her body, and she drew on it.
His voice grew hoarse. “Keep breathing, honey. And open your eyes so you can see what’s happening.”
She looked down and saw Jim guiding the baby feetfirst from the birth canal. She and Cal cried out together as the head appeared. Ecstasy flooded through her, a sense of absolute bliss, at the sight of their child in his grandfather’s strong, capable hands. Jim quickly suctioned the mouth and nose with an ear syringe Lynn handed him, then gently laid the infant on Jane’s belly.