EPILOGUE PART TWO
Niamh – August
Niamh is incredibly calm. Much calmer than she thought she would be when the time came. The same cannot be said for Paul, or Cal, or Ethan who are running around like headless chickens. Niamh doesn’t think she has ever seen Paul Cassidy this nervous before – not even when his own children were being birthed.
But this is different. This is his baby having her baby. He just wants everything to go well for her. As does Niamh, but she knows that now is not the time for her to let her true emotions bubble to the surface. So she exudes calm, allowing only the faintest traces of her excitement and nervousness occasionally to escape.
Jodie – well, Jodie looks young, and nervous, but Niamh knows that her daughter is absolutely ready to meet her baby. They stand together in their kitchen in the early hours of the morning, Jodie’s face devoid of make-up, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and wearing joggers and a hoodie. She is circling her hips as Niamh rubs the small of her back.
‘I think they’re getting closer, love,’ Niamh says, tenderly. ‘I think we should think about going to the hospital now.’
Sitting at the kitchen table behind them is Adam, his face sheet-white, while Becca rubs his hand and a very eager Daniel – absolutely delighted to be out of the house at this insane hour – nuzzles his head into Adam’s lap, looking for a cuddle.
‘It will be fine,’ Becca reassures him, and Niamh can’t help but smile. She knows just how excited Adam is to become a father, but how he is absolutely shit-scared of what’s about to go down in the delivery room. He made the fatal error of watching one too many YouTube clips of birth – all taken from an up-close-and-personal angle. On one occasion, Jodie had ended up comforting him as he came round from a pretty impressive faint. It’s something she hasn’t let him live down.
‘I know, Mum,’ Adam says. ‘I’m just scared.’
‘ You’re scared?’ Jodie laughs as she breathes through another contraction. ‘You’ve got the easy job. Stay up at the business end, hold my hand and allow me to call you bad names and you’ll be fine.’ She winces as the pain peaks and Adam looks to his mother for some sort of reassurance.
‘She’s right, pet,’ Becca says. ‘Just be there for Jodie, and when it’s all done with, bring her flowers, chocolates and whatever she wants. And for the love of God, when the midwife brings her tea and toast afterwards, don’t be like your dad was and try to steal a slice.’
‘You never told me that!’ Niamh says, although when she thinks about it she probably shouldn’t be surprised that Simon Cooke would prioritise his own desire for toast over the needs of the woman who just birthed his babies.
‘Oh, yes. Then he asked the midwife if she could pop another couple of slices in the toaster. You can imagine the response he got,’ Becca says, but she’s laughing.
‘Dad already warned me not to do that,’ Adam says. ‘He said under no circumstances was I to even attempt it.’
Wow, Niamh thinks. Simon gets it right for a change.
‘Do you want to call him to let him know what’s happening?’ Becca asks, and Niamh thinks for a moment how lucky she is to have Paul under the same roof as her, by her side. Not that Becca would want Simon by her side. Oh, no. She is very happy indeed with Conal. It’s almost, but not quite, sickening. The pair aren’t long back from a long weekend in Rome and her friend is sun-kissed and glowing with happiness. Between Conal and her magazine work, Niamh isn’t sure she has ever seen her best friend this happy.
‘I already messaged him,’ Adam says. ‘He said to let him know as soon as there is news.’
Niamh is watching this exchange while continuing to rub Jodie’s back, only for her daughter to let out a little yelp.
‘Shit, what is it? Did I hurt you?’ she asks as Jodie springs up to standing.
Daniel immediately darts to her side and Niamh doesn’t have time to fully process how lovely it is that Daniel is so intuitive before she notices him lapping at the floor.
‘Oh, you dirty wee shite!’ Becca calls just as Niamh registers the darkening stains on Jodie’s joggers and the increasing puddle of fluid on the floor.
‘Mammy!’ Jodie squeaks. ‘I think my waters have just gone!’
‘Paul!’ Niamh shouts. ‘Let’s go!’
Within five minutes, and not before Ethan has made a badly timed joke about Jodie wetting herself, only to be handed a mop and told to clean it up before Daniel makes himself sick, two grannies, one grandad and two parents-to-be are all crammed into the one car on their way to hospital.
In the back of the car, Niamh sits on one side of her daughter while Adam is on the other. It’s amazing how quickly her daughter’s contractions have ramped up since her waters went. It’s also amazing, and not in a good way, how they are managing to hit every red light on their journey.
‘Mum! What if I have this baby in the car?’ Jodie asks.
‘You won’t. You’re a first-time mum. It will be ages yet,’ Niamh soothes, but she has also noticed that the contractions are now only two minutes apart and lasting longer and longer. She doesn’t want to scream at Paul to drive faster but she really bloody wants him to drive faster. She had fully expected to have to tell him to slow down, but instead he is driving like an eighty-five-year-old with glaucoma and a car that doesn’t go above third gear – and is more comfortable in second.
‘Paul,’ she says, trying to keep her voice calm. ‘Any chance we could just, you know, reach the speed limit?’
‘It’s a limit, not a target,’ he retorts. ‘And I have very precious cargo in this car. I want to make sure we all get there safely.’
Jodie lets out a wail as another contraction hits, and Paul swerves the car just a little.
‘Paul,’ Niamh repeats. ‘Do you hear that? That’s a woman in labour. We need to get there as quickly as possible.’ Niamh doesn’t want to alarm anyone, but that was only ninety seconds since the last contraction and Jodie is wriggling around in the seat as if she’s about to star in the creature-bursting-out-of-her-tummy scene from Alien .
Adam is doing his very best to comfort his girlfriend and keep her calm. Becca is clearly rigid with tension.
‘We won’t be long,’ Paul says, not changing his speed at all. ‘Better to get there safe rather than sorry.’
How Niamh wishes she was driving instead. They’d already be there. Jodie would be on the ward and sucking on gas and air by now.
When Jodie unbuckles her seatbelt and starts to try and turn around so she can kneel on the car seat, Niamh starts to feel the panic build.
‘Jodie, love,’ Paul says. ‘You need to sit down and put your seatbelt on. Precious cargo.’
‘No offence, Dad,’ Jodie growls in a voice that sounds positively demonic, ‘but this precious cargo is about to force its way out of my vagina, so if you don’t mind I’ll do what I fecking well want.’
‘Okay! Okay!’ Paul says, finally picking up speed.
‘Muuuuuummmmm!’ Jodie growls. ‘The baby is coming! I think it’s coming.’
‘ Pull over !’ Niamh yells as Jodie, her face flushed with sweat, her knuckles white, looks at her and is unable to stop her body from pushing.
Adam seems frozen to the spot, his eyes wide with terror.
Niamh knows she has to take control. ‘Becca, phone an ambulance. Tell them we’re just outside the hospital but this baby isn’t going to wait any longer. Paul, grab Jodie’s bag and get the fresh towels out of it. Adam…’
Adam blinks at her.
‘Adam, you hold your girlfriend’s hand and you be there for her. It’s going to be okay.’ She then says a quick prayer to herself, before twisting in her seat and gently easing down her daughter’s joggers.
The sight of a baby’s head is not what she was expecting to find. Not so quickly. ‘Holy shit, Jodie. You’re doing it!’ she says, trying to stop her voice from breaking. Her car door opens and Becca hands her towels.
‘Paul’s hyperventilating on the roadside,’ Becca says. ‘Ambulance is on its way.’
‘So is the baby,’ Niamh says, as she places her hands under Jodie, ready to catch her grandchild.
‘Oh my God,’ Becca says.
‘I know!’ Niamh takes a deep breath. She can hear Jodie’s shaky breathing and can feel the trembling of her legs. ‘Jodie. Listen. I can see a little face. You are so very close now to meeting your baby. Take a deep breath for me and we’ll get ready to say hello.’
Jodie nods, while Adam declares his love. And then, well, then Jodie pushes and a beautiful, perfect baby girl slides into the world and into her granny’s waiting arms. Clara Niamh Cassidy. The baby they have already named and have been waiting for.
It’s a moment that Niamh wants to freeze forever. Her baby’s baby. She falls immediately, and totally, in love.
Only the sharp cry of this most precious newborn, followed by tearful elation from both Jodie and Adam, brings her back to the here and now.
She guides the baby up to her mum as Jodie turns to sit down, and as Adam and Jodie stare at their daughter, she slides out of the car. This is their moment now.
Unable to speak, she gives two thumbs up to Paul and watches as he starts to cry. Then, just as the ambulance pulls into the layby, she catches Becca’s eye. They grin through their tears. This is it. They are both in their granny era. And they are going to rock it.