Chapter 16 #4
When they were in the car, David reached for her hand. “I won’t let him get anywhere near you, so don’t worry.”
The man she loved was holding her hand, and he loved her, too. What did she have to worry about?
Janey’s first conscious thought was that everything hurt. She fought her way through the confusion, trying to make sense of the pain. Her eyes were too heavy to open, and her mouth felt thick and dry, so dry. “Joe.”
“Janey! Janey, talk to me. Oh God, honey. Please talk to me.”
“What happened?”
“You wouldn’t wake up, and you were bleeding.”
At that news, she forced her eyes open and blinked him into focus. He looked like hell, and was he crying? “The baby.” She tried to move her arms to feel the baby, but they wouldn’t cooperate. They felt like lead weights had been attached to them. “Where’s the baby?”
“Our son is in the neonatal ICU. I’ve been with him all afternoon.”
“It’s too early!” Her voice broke on a ragged sob. “It’s too soon.
“He’s beautiful, Janey. The doctors say he’s going to be okay.
He’s going to be here awhile until his lungs develop some more, but he’s going to be okay, and so are you.
” Tears rolled down his cheeks as he bent over her, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair.
“You scared me so badly. I’ve never been that scared in my whole life.
I was so afraid I was going to lose you. ”
“I don’t understand what happened. We got to Mac’s early. You wanted to get me settled before everyone started coming. I was tired…”
“Yes,” he said, his lips soft against her face.
“You took a nap, and when I went to wake you up so you could see Tiffany and Blaine come in after the wedding, you wouldn’t wake up.
You wouldn’t wake up. Thank God David was there, and he knew what to do.
He got you to the clinic and did an emergency C-section. ”
“Why was I bleeding?”
“David said you had what’s called a partial placental abruption, which is very rare and happens suddenly.”
“Did I do something wrong to make that happen?”
“No, honey. It wasn’t your fault. One of the nurses told me she’s seen instances of the mom and baby both dying from an abruption. We were so lucky that David was there and he knew what to do.”
“David… I need to talk to him, to thank him.”
“There’ll be time for that when you’re feeling stronger.”
“Where are we now?”
“In Providence. The Life Flight helicopter brought us over. Your parents are on their way with Slim. I’ve talked to them twice since we got here, but I know they can’t wait to see you.”
“They must be so worried.”
“We all were.”
“I want to see the baby.”
“You can’t get up quite yet, but I took some pictures for you.” He turned on his phone and took her through the series of photos he’d taken of the baby through the incubator.
“He’s so small.”
“But he’s perfect. See his little fingers and toes? And his nose is just like yours.”
“Can we have others?”
“We should be able to. The doctors here said David did an excellent job.”
“We owe him so much.”
“We owe him everything.” He kissed her nose and her lips and the tears on her cheeks.
She tried again to move, but the pain brought tears to her eyes. “Hurts.”
“What does?” he asked, alarmed.
“Everything.”
“Let me get the nurse.”
He returned a minute later with a nurse who adjusted Janey’s pain meds and taught her how to use the morphine pump to get immediate relief.
When they were alone again, she held on tight to his hand. “Joe.”
“I’m here, honey.”
“After seeing the pictures, I know what I want to name him.” They’d been debating names for weeks now without settling on one. “Peter Joseph, after your father and you. We’ll call him P.J. What do you think?”
“I think P.J. Cantrell is the nicest name I’ve ever heard, second only to Janey McCarthy. Thank you so much for my son and for honoring my dad with his name and for not dying and leaving me all alone to raise him. I never could’ve faced the rest of my life without you.”
“I’m going to be around to give you grief for a long, long time.”
“Thank God for that.”
Her parents came bursting into the room and stopped short at the sight of her talking to Joe.
“Oh, thank you, Jesus,” Linda said, bursting into tears.
Janey couldn’t remember the last time she saw her mother cry like that—or her dad who was crying just as hard. “I’m okay,” she said when Joe stepped back to let them see her. “And so is the baby. His name is P.J. Peter for Joe’s dad and his middle name is Joseph. What do you think?”
“That’s a lovely name,” Linda said.
Big Mac nodded in approval. “P.J. Cantrell. Welcome to the family, P.J.”
“I wanted to name him McCarthy, but Joe and I decided we have enough Macs running loose in this family.”
“Probably so,” Linda agreed.
“However, I reserve the right to use that name in the future,” Janey added.
“So you can have others?” Linda asked.
“That’s what they told Joe, but we’ll be waiting awhile. We got way more than we bargained for this time, right, Joe?”
“We sure did.” His voice broke on the last word. “I…ah, I’ll be right back.”
“Daddy, go after him,” Janey said.
Big Mac bent to kiss Janey’s cheek. “You got it, Princess.”