16. Push
Push
“S on of a bitching… grrr,” Zoe growled as another one squeezed her entire uterus. How was one tiny organ so freaking strong? After all those Braxton-Hicks the past few months, she figured she’d have the equivalent of soccer player quads for a uterus.
“Good one?” Evan asked, cringing as he smiled hesitantly at her from the driver’s seat of his Jeep.
It gripped her solid and she grabbed the armrest. Words impossible, she glared at her brother.
“Breathe, Zoe, breathe,” he said, half-laughing and Zoe almost appreciated his attempt to be helpful. Almost.
She squeaked as the contraction started to let up. “What are we at?”
“Seven minutes. Making progress.”
The ride seemed interminable, bend after bend and so damn many trees. Foothills shared the regional hospital instead of a smaller local hospital, thus anything big necessitated a stupidly long drive. Contractions whilst buckled up and stuck sitting sucked.
Her phone buzzed again.
“Ryder on the plane yet?” Evan asked.
Found a flight out. Taking off in twenty minutes.
“Twenty minutes,” Zoe repeated. Two or three contractions. Then three hours on the plane, then two to four hours drive time… “Maybe you should have come to those birthing classes with us,” she grumbled.
“Pops right behind us, and Finn and Haley are on the way, after they drop Emerson off with Trace. You have any or all of us there to be with you, if Ryder doesn’t… you know.”
Just thinking about the next one even her nod was tense. “He’ll be here,” she said, both of them looking pitifully at each other.
“Of course,” Evan said quickly.
Finally, they pulled into the hospital lot, and straight back to the labor and delivery entrance.
At least the birthing class had walked them through all this, so she didn’t have to wander the hospital until someone would admit her.
As she started to move, she felt another small gush of fluid.
“Ugh. It just keeps coming,” she grumbled as she shifted off the many towels that had hopefully saved the upholstery.
One foot out of the car, and the wave of it threatened. “Fuck,” she growled, and quickly stepped out and turned to lean on the seat to brace herself.
Evan yelped and ran over. Helplessly, he said, “What can I do?”
“Nothing, argh,” she growled, and buried her face in her hands.
Evan rubbed her mid back, and she focused on the distraction. “Progress,” he said softly. “Almost done with this one.”
As it started to let up, she slowly stood, and reached for her bag.
“I got it,” he said quickly, and plucked up the bag.
Zoe waddled next to her brother, and a truck came roaring up and parked next to them.
Pops jumped out and halted when he saw her already looking haggard, and slowed his hug to more of a pat. “Still ten minutes apart?”
“We had a seven, but that was back up to nine,” Evan offered, and they both fell in line walking next to Zoe.
Zoe pouted over the numbers, and kept walking, knowing they were with her.
At the desk, the receptionist requested her insurance card—ignoring that she’d already done all this stuff online, and her driver’s license, and took her sweet time doing whatever she did. She looked again at Zoe, and asked, “Do you want a wheelchair?”
“No,” Zoe growled, then followed the woman’s eyes down to the puddle.
“Because… you probably need a wheelchair…”
Gooey wetness had long ago overflowed the useless pad she wore, and Zoe nodded pitifully. “Okay.”
Taking even longer to get checked in, she was now in a damn wheelchair with a pile of towels under her butt.
As soon as they wheeled into triage, the nurse calmly welcomed her and looked back and forth between Evan and Pops. “The triage rooms are pretty small…”
“They both stay,” Zoe growled. Wow, she was feisty. “Sorry. I’m gooey.”
“You are gooey,” the nurse said sweetly. “They can stay. Just warning you. Do you need to pee? I could use a sample. And, I need to check for… although, I think it’s safe to say that is definitely amniotic fluid.”
“It gushed. And it keeps gushing.”
“It happens,” the nurse said with kind reassurance, and handed a cup for Zoe. “I’m Olive. We’ll see how everything looks and get things moving.”
Zoe nodded pitifully. She filled her sample cup, already used to the procedure from the doctor appointments, and she changed into the pitifully unsexy hospital gown and robe. At least there was a robe, so her bare ass wasn’t flapping out the back.
Olive had a bunch of gear already and started strapping straps around Zoe and getting monitors going. “We made introductions without you. Sounds like a party coming?”
“Youch,” Zoe growled as this one hit hard and fast, and she gripped the rails.
Evan was on alert, but Pops was next to her and rubbed her back. “Sounds like a first down,” he said, teasing her unremorsefully.
“Feels like unsportsmanlike conduct,” she grumbled as it started to ease.
As Zoe settled back in, Olive started readjusting straps, as if nothing had happened.
“Hello?” she heard Finn call as he eased back into the triage area. “Zoe? Can we come in?”
“Here,” Zoe said, and breathed for the few minutes of relief available. “Come on in. We’re having a party.”
With her brothers and father in the small room, Haley in the doorway, a bit more quietly polite in her entrance thanks to that Mallory upbringing, Olive lightly jumped as she turned and face the crowded room. “Whoa. I think you’re my first to bring a whole football team with you.”
Despite her aching belly, Zoe erupted with a belly laugh. “Oh, you have no idea.”
“Is this one the dad?” Olive asked.
“Another brother,” Zoe said, and sank into the reclined hospital bed to rest before the next wave. She beckoned for her phone from Evan, and read the screen. “Ryder is on the plane.” She turned just her head to face the nurse. “He had a meeting he couldn’t miss, in Phoenix.”
“Let’s check to see how far you’re dilated, and how much time we’ve got.”
Without enough time to rest after the last contraction, Zoe felt another rising, and searched for something to grip down on.
Finn moved in next to her and she grabbed him by the shoulder.
Evan moved into rub her back again, but she grabbed his hand and clenched down as the contraction hit harder than the ones before.
T he extra cost for parking his own car, the unstoppable SUV he’d picked up for precisely this sort of eventuality, sort of, it had all been worth it.
Snow was accumulating fast. Visibility waned as the sun sank early in the winter sky.
It took every scrap of survival instinct Ryder had left to not fly down the roads.
His phone buzzed again, and the car Bluetooth read off Evan’s message. Eight centimeters. WTF are you?
Ryder quickly voice typed, Parking lot.
Fucking hell, he was going to make it.
Too damn late anyway, he’d already blown it.
Why in the fucking hell hadn’t he had the guts to tell off his boss before he dragged his ass down for a meeting no one cared about anyway?
Already at dangerous levels, his pulse hammered faster. Had he really quit his job? No notice, no negotiating, no next job lined up.
Quit. Done.
Snow had covered the parking lines, and the hospital plows couldn’t keep it clear enough. They probably wouldn’t let a new-dad-in-a-hurry use the valet.
He finally found a spot, parked, and jumped out.
Foresight was in his favor, at least, and he’d kept a to-go bag in his car in Phoenix, so on the flight up, he’d been able to change into jeans, sweatshirt, and, most importantly, beefy hiking boots.
Not that he’d owned beefy hiking boots this morning.
With an hour to kill at the airport, he’d found a sporting goods store near the Alaska gates, and stocked up in case the roads were shit and he had to literally run the last few miles to get here.
Despite the shoes, he did a few slip-slides before reaching the de-iced areas, and then took off at a sprint.
Down the stairs, toward reception, exactly as the birthing class had showed them.
Evan was waiting at the desk, eyes wide, and shook his head at Ryder as he ran up to meet him.
The receptionist had clearly already gotten an earful from Evan on the urgency, and opened the door.
Evan slapped a sticker nametag with the room number on it onto Ryder’s chest as they moved, and led the way down the hall. “You really like to cut things close,” Evan said, just as breathless.
Ryder wiped the sweat and melted snowflakes off his face and huffed a heavy breath as they ran down the hall. “Never again.”
The door was open a crack, and Ryder rushed in.
He slowed the second he walked into the chaotic mess.
Zoe’s legs were up, the doctor at the foot of the bed. The nurse was standing to the side, another nurse waiting by a contraption that looked like something to keep food warm like Zoe had in the kitchen.
His throat instantly tightened, swollen and his eyes burned red. Fuck, he should have been here sooner. Sweat was caked into her hair, but it had been tied back. A few strands had slipped free, but clung to her damp forehead. Her hospital gown was a wrinkled, sweaty mess.
Haley held one of her hands, coaching her like a pro, and Scott was at her other, seeming to be saying all the right things. Finn waited back by Haley, out of the way but right there.
“Get over here,” Zoe roared and pouted the second she laid eyes on Ryder.
Scott quickly stepped back and motioned for Ryder to step in.
Zoe growled again as another one hit.
As Ryder walked up, Scott patted his shoulder and whispered, “With how strongly her water broke, it’s been a bit rough. Glad you’re here.”
Ryder nodded quickly and kept toward Zoe.
Instantly, his eyes flooded as she grabbed his hand and cut off his circulation with her fierce grip.
“Hey, Zoe. You got this. I’m so proud of you,” he murmured, so many things flowing into his mind and he had no idea what the right thing to say was.
“Took your damn time,” she roared, and gripped him tighter.
“Last time I’m late, I promise.”
“But you made it,” she said with the most pitiful smile he’d ever seen.
He shook his head and kissed the back of her hand. “I was stupid. I should have been here sooner.”
“Hey. You made it for her. That’s what’s important.”
“I should have been here for you through all of this,” he said, aching as he searched her look. “I love you, Zoe.”
Another one hit her hard, and her attention was fully in the contraction.
“She’s crowning,” the doctor said, beaming up at Zoe. “You’re doing great.”
As the contraction eased, Zoe turned and looked at him again, smiling pitifully. “You waited until just now to tell me that?”
A weary laugh rattled in his chest, and he kissed the back of her hand, and murmured as his lips touched her skin, “Sorry. I should have said it months ago.”
“Did you want to, months ago?”
“I didn’t want to rush you.”
He leaned in, closed his eyes, and kissed her softly. As he drew back, he said, “I’m serious, that I’ll never be late again.”
She huffed a weak laugh and lifted an eyebrow.
Before she could answer, another wave hit her, and she gripped down hard on his hand, whimpering and growling.
“You got this,” he said, helplessly wishing he could ease the pain for her. “I love you,” he said again.
The contraction eased, and, sweaty and limp, she tilted toward him.
“I quit my job,” he said, and at Zoe’s other side, Haley’s eyes bugged out. Scott, Evan, and Finn all looked at him like he was the fish out of water he felt like.
“What? Like, today?” Haley asked, as Zoe kept staring at him with disbelief. “You really quit?”
“Done. I’m sure I’ll have to send in a letter or something, but it’s done.”
“But your—” Zoe growled as another contraction hit her, not nearly enough space between them to let her catch her breath.
This one was massive, Zoe’s whimpering completely tearing up whatever he had left. Ryder held her hand as tight as she needed and kissed her on the head, giving whatever support he could.
As the contraction eased and Zoe came back into the moment, she quickly asked, “How’s she doing?”
“She’s ready to be out, but she’s hanging in there,” the nurse said, and Ryder couldn’t miss the worry in her eyes. Her screens were covered in wavy lines, none of which meant a damn thing, but he didn’t like them.
“Fuck, the pressure… I want to poo, so I think I’m ready to push,” Zoe said with a sharp grimace, and looked up at Ryder.
The doctor reassuringly said, “It’s okay. If it feels right, give a little test push.”
Zoe’s face contorted, red and puffy, and her test push triggered a tidal wave.
Another contraction, and another.
Growls turned into raging roars.
Only Zoe’s screams and the beeps filled the room, the nurses busy getting ready.
It all happened so fast. One of the nurses scooped the baby up as soon as she was out, and rushed her over to the warming bed. Surrounded by a team, Ryder couldn’t see anything.
He turned to Zoe and pushed her hair off her face. “You okay?” he whispered.
Tension eased in an instant, and he heard Scott laugh at the warming table. “There she is,” he said.
“Go,” Zoe said, nodding as tears started to gush. “Please?”
He nodded helplessly, and crossed to see. Each step slower than the last, he wasn’t sure what to expect.
The little pink alien blob laying naked on the warming bed erupted in an epic wail the second he walked close.
“That’s what I like to hear,” the pediatrician said, and rubbed the baby’s head with her gloved hand. She looked up at Ryder and waved him the rest of the way over. “You made it in the nick of time.”
He nodded, his throat too tight to speak.