Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Fuck!
This is not how I wanted to explain the birds and the bees to James.
Shut it down Beckett, keep it serious.
I looked at the woman. Zoe. And noted that she was wearing a parka, which was good, but it wasn’t zipped up, which was bad.
I saw a scarf and gloves on the floor of the passenger seat.
She was going to need these. I had no idea how long her labor would last, and I wouldn’t be able to keep the heat in my truck running indefinitely.
“Dad! What’s going on?”
I didn’t hear any fear in my son’s voice. Of course not. He might be only four, but the kid didn’t even know the meaning of the word fear. If I wasn’t careful he’d be out here with a flashlight and first-aid kit in the next three minutes.
“Zoe, hold on just a second more, I have to make sure my kid stays in the truck.”
“How old is he?” She gritted out the question.
“Four.”
“Of course he is.” Her head fell back against the seat. She’d cottoned onto the fact that it would be hard to keep James out of the delivery process. At least my truck had an expanded crew cab.
I backed out of the Jeep, closed the door, and climbed out of the ditch to get to James.
“Hey, kiddo, you shouldn’t have the window rolled down.”
He gave me a serious once over, like a mother inspecting her child. I hated that for him. “I was worried about you.”
“I know you were, but I’m fine. There’s a lady in the Jeep who needs our help. She’s going to have a baby.”
James frowned. “Are we taking her to the hospital?”
“There’s no time. We’re going to have to help her have the baby here in the truck.”
James’ blue eyes went wide. “A real live baby? How?”
“It’s going to come out of her tummy,” I explained. “Look, James. I’ve got to go get her, and bring her up here, and I need you to stay inside. Okay?”
He nodded slowly, his eyes still wide.
“Dad, this is going to be so cool.”
I gave him the best smile I could, which wasn’t much, and nodded.
“Yeah. Cool.” I ducked out of the truck and headed back to Zoe as fast and carefully as I could.
When I got back and opened the door, I found that she was out of her seatbelt, her scarf was on, her gloves were on, but she looked wedged between the console and dashboard.
“Uhm.”
“Don’t uhm me,” she snarled. “Help me out of here.” I watched as her ass wiggled toward me. Under normal circumstances, I would take a moment to admire the view, but now was not the time.
“How stuck are you?”
“I’m not sure. I think it’s just gravity and an inability to get this body to do anything I ask, rather than being actually stuck. If you could find a crane somewhere, we’d be in business.”
I laughed.
“No laughing!” She groaned, long and loud. Her pain was evident.
“Jesus,” I mumbled. “Take a deep breath, Zoe, then let it out slowly. I’ll lift you out of here, and then we’ll get you up to my truck.”
I heard her release her breath slowly. Good. She’d been to classes. That would help things. And we needed all the help we could get.
“Zoe, it looks like your tummy is what’s stuck, am I right?”
She turned her head. All I could see was one dark eye glaring at me through a mass of dark hair. “Give the man a prize.”
I laughed again.
“I told you. No laughing.”
“Then stop being a smartass.”
“That might be a bit of a problem,” she muttered. “And yes, it’s the beachball that has me stuck.”
“Okay then. I’m going to grasp your hips and pull you straight up. You holler if anything I do hurts. Promise me?”
“Adam, there is nothing you can do that will hurt more than what mother nature is currently putting me through. You wouldn’t happen to have an epidural shot you can give me in your truck, now, would you?”
“I wish I could say I did. Now I’m going to put my hands on you. Are you ready?”
I watched her body begin to shudder, and she hissed out a string of more colorful swear words than I had ever heard in my time in the military. I would have been laughing again, except for knowing how much pain she was in.
“Those contractions are coming pretty close together.”
“Yeah,” she wheezed out. “And that’s not pee in my jeans, my water just broke.”
I didn’t ask her again if she was ready for me to help her out of the Jeep, we were past the point of niceties. I just put my hands on her hips and pulled her up. As soon as she was able, she turned around and gulped in air, her face red, her big brown eyes round and determined.
“Thanks. I think I should have waited for you to get my gloves.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “Are you ready for the climb to my truck? I think we only have about three minutes before your next contraction is going to hit.”
“You’re right. Let’s get this show on the road… Literally.”
I looked at her again. Behind the determination, I saw fear.
Who in the hell could blame her? It was a terrifying situation.
But this was workable. Marie’s delivery had been long, and she’d cursed the hell out of me, but it had been textbook.
Based on Zoe’s attitude and pain levels, she should be able to handle this.
Bad was watching your wife of eight years die slowly of cancer. That wasn’t terrifying, it was gut-wrenching.
Shut that shit down, Beckett!
That’s the past, this was the present.
One minute at a time. Just take it one minute at a time.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I looked down at Zoe. She was staring up at me with her big brown eyes, and now she wasn’t looking at me with either fear or determination. She looked almost concerned.
“I’m fine. Just figuring out the logistics. I’m going to want to get you into the backseat. I have an older Ford 150, it has a bench seat.”
“Great, all the coolest midwives are using those these days.”
Another laugh let loose. Zoe looked satisfied with my response.
“You’re intent on keeping me laughing, aren’t you?”
“I’m the only one allowed to panic during this rodeo, so yeah. It’s my job to keep you laughing, and it’s your job to be all hero-y and competent and let me break every bone in your hand when the serious pain starts.”
“If you smash all my bones, I won’t be able to wipe your fevered brow,” I said as I got her situated in the most comfortable position I could, before leaving her.
“Brow wiping is over-rated.” The last word came out as a squeak. Another contraction was coming.
“Shit, Zoe. I have to go to the truck and get things settled. I have some things that’ll come in handy, but I need to get them into position before I situate you. I’m going to have to leave you for a few minutes. Can you handle that?”
Her brow was furled, and despite the cold, it was beaded with sweat. She looked up at me with fierce determination. “Go be an Eagle Scout, then come back for me.” She bit her lip and hesitated.
“What?”
“I’m so damn sorry, Adam. I’ve put you in the shittiest situation imaginable, and you are being wonderful.”
She was biting her lip so hard, I thought she might draw blood. I brushed my thumb against her bottom lip, rescuing it. “Don’t worry about me. Because out of the two of us, I think you’re the one who drew the short straw.”
She blew out a breath. “I think you might be right about that. Okay, go build me a nest and don’t forget to come back for me.”
“I won’t.”
I backed out of the Jeep and closed the door, then climbed up out of the gulley and got to my truck. Adam had escaped his car seat and had climbed into the front passenger seat. He knew better than to sit in the driver’s seat.
“Where’s the lady?”
“She’s still in her car. We’ve got to get things ready for her to come over here so she can have her baby, and I’m going to need your help.”
“I can help.”
That was my boy. He always wanted to help. I leaned over and snagged my James’ Bag from the backseat and handed it over to him. “The first thing I need you to do is to find your iPad and pick out a movie you want to watch.”
He frowned up at me. “That doesn’t sound like helping.”
“James, things are going to be really busy for the next few minutes before we get the lady into the truck. Can you trust me that everything I ask you to do is very, very important?”
He gave me that considering look that was all Marie, then nodded. “Okay-doke.”
James started pawing through the bag as I climbed out of the Jeep and opened the back door.
I unhooked the car seat and tossed it into the truck bed, then went back to the backseat to assess every damn thing I had in all the storage areas.
I knew I had a fully-stocked first aid kit, plenty of water, and some leftover shit from the last time James and I went camping.
I had my fingers crossed that I was remembering right about what was left over.
I put my hands on the road flares. They wouldn’t do much in this snowstorm, and I was pulled over on the shoulder pretty well, but the last thing I needed was someone plowing into us as Zoe was having her baby.
“What are those? Are they fireworks?”
“Road flares, kiddo. I’ll be right back.” I stepped out of the truck again and ignited the four flares and placed them forty yards, thirty yards, twenty yards and ten yards behind my truck, hoping that would do the trick.
Fuck, it was cold. I needed to hurry my ass up and get back to Zoe.
Back in the truck I found a grounding tarp from the camping trip, a heavy wool blanket and two pillows with spiderman pillowcases.
Perfect.
I spread everything out, figuring that Zoe could lay across the bench seats and I would kneel on the floor while she did what she could to make me laugh.
“I want to watch the Minions movie.”
“Good choice. Did you find your headphones?”
“You didn’t tell me to look for those.”
“I’m telling you now.”
“Okey-doke.”
“I’m going to go get the lady. Her name is Zoe.”
“That’s a funny name.”
“Work on finding your headphones, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I got out of the truck and got to the Jeep fast, but not so fast that I’d land on my ass. When I opened the door, Zoe glared at me. “Did you stop for dinner?”
“Found some Goldfish crackers and apple juice.”
“No can do, Hero-Dad. I’d just barf it all up according to all of the baby literature. Ice chips only. Which shouldn’t be a problem. You just have to scoop up some snow occasionally.”
“Hero-Dad, huh?”
“I’ve got high hopes for you. So, are we ready to roll?”
I could see how much she was hurting. “Zoe, are you okay? I mean is everything normal, or is something abnormal going on?”
She took a moment to consider my question. “I think this is just the normal joys of ‘giving birth.’ I really think we’re going to be fine, Adam. But have you checked your phone? Can you get a signal?”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I hadn’t looked at it since I’d found her on the side of the road. I looked down again. “Nope, still no service.”
“Fuck.”
“Yep,” I agreed. “Okay, let’s get a move on.”
I hovered as Zoe pushed herself out of the car seat, then when it was clear she had done all she could do, I held out my hands, and she grabbed them.
“I hope you’ve been eating your Wheaties.”
“I think I can handle a little thing like you.” I pulled her gently the rest of the way out of the Jeep. As soon as she was on her feet, she peeked around me, and looked at the side of the ditch as if seeing it for the first time.
“Damn, Adam, I was never going to make it up to the road on my own steam.”
“I don’t know, you seem to have grit.” I put my arm around her back and she did the same.
That way I could do most of the climbing and pull her along.
What had taken me less than a minute, took us fifteen.
We had to stop for three contractions. Each time, I worried that she was going to fall, but she kept standing.
The snow was still coming down like it had only one winter’s night to get it all done, and even with my truck’s headlights on, I had a hard time seeing it when we got to the road.
“I can’t see a thing.” Zoe’s teeth were chattering.
“Just a couple of yards, and we’ll get to it. I’ve created quite the warm nest for you,” I promised.
She gripped my waist tighter, and I guided her to the rear door of the truck. I hit the key fob and unlocked the truck. When I opened the door, blessed heat shot out and engulfed us. “Let me lift you in.”
Zoe just nodded.
I got her situated into the backseat, and I came in behind her and shut the door.
She was panting.
“Hi! I’m James. Your name is funny.” My mini-extrovert was standing on the passenger seat with his head hanging over the top, looking at Zoe. Zoe didn’t respond, and I could see she was having another contraction. He frowned. “Are you okay?”
Zoe nodded, and tried to smile, but her grimace looked like a perverted clown’s smile.
“Whoa. You look scary.”
Zoe huffed out a grunt. I thought it was a laugh.
Finally she started breathing normally and looked up at my son. “Hi James. Yeah, everybody always teased me on the playground because of my name.”
James considered that. “That wasn’t nice. Did you beat them up?”
“No. My big brother did.”
“That’s good. My dad says you have a baby in your tummy and it’s going to come out. How does that happen?”
She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. It didn’t seem to matter that she was shivering and in pain, giving someone shit was still her default mode.
I gave my head a small shake.
“I’m not touching that question. You’re his father,” she whispered.
“James, did you find your headphones?”
He disappeared, then popped back up holding a set of headphones. “Got ‘em right here, Dad. I need you to make it so the Minions movie plays in the headphones.”
“Hand me your iPad.”
He thrust it over the seat. I queued up the movie, setting the volume a little higher than normal, then handed it back to him.
“Cool! Thanks, Dad.”
“You’re welcome. Now settle in and watch the movie, okay? Zoe and I are going to be busy back here, and we need to concentrate, so it’s going to be a big help that you watch your movie and not interrupt us.”
“Gotcha. I won’t ‘rupt you.”
“Good boy.”
I watched through the front seats as my son settled in, and soon he was immersed in the world of yellow hell. All things considered, sitting through another showing of Minions or helping Zoe deliver her baby, I was thinking I was getting the better part of the deal. I turned to her.
“You ready?”
“Me? No. My niece, however, is all sorts of ready.”
“Well, then, let’s get you comfortable.”