10. Cora
Cora
" O kay, June, I want you to move up on to your haunches now," I direct the woman in front of me, as she lets out another haunting cry that fills the room around us.
"I can’t!” June screams back, her hair matted to her face, her voice shattered from hours of exhausting labor. "There’s something wrong, I just know it, I-"
"Elias, get more towels," I shoot over my shoulder towards her husband, who is pacing, teary-eyed and panicked, in the corner of the room.
He stands there for a moment, frozen, until he realizes that I am serious, and he takes off to run some more rags through boiling water so we can clean away the mess of blood and various fluids that have pooled beneath her.
When I got here, she’d already been laboring for at least a day – her waters had broken the night before, and she had been trying to force this baby out of her ever since.
I managed to convince her that I knew what I was doing, promised her I was trained in bringing babies into the world, and she seemed, at least, to have some faith in me.
Hell, I get the feeling that she would have taken anything she could get at that moment, if it meant she could take the pressure off herself.
Her skin is pale, her face smeared with sweat and tears, as I reach up to try and guide her upright.
"Come on, if you sit like this, you can left gravity do most of the work," I murmur to her, bringing my hand to the small of her back and rubbing gently. She is breathing raggedly, leaning on me heavily as she tries another push. She just wants this torture to be over, and I can’t blame her.
She’s doing all of this without an inch of pain relief beside my well wishes and her husband’s help, and the fact that she hasn’t given up already is a testament to her tenacity.
"I just don’t know if I can..."
But then, all at once, I see movement between her haunches, where she has dropped into a squat on the floor. Dropping down, I see the backside of her baby poking out – shit, it’s breech! Not feet-first, which is something, but this is still bad fucking news...
"What’s happening?” June gasps out. "Is it...is it...?”
"I need you to lie on your back," I tell her, guiding her to the ground. "Lift your hips. Like this..."
I guide her into a bridge position, and the child vanishes once more – it's hard to flip this late in the game, but if we can, there’s still a chance both mother and child will survive. No wonder she’s been struggling so badly, anyone would, but there’s still time.
There has to still be time.
I bring my hand to her lower back and she lets out another cry – reaching between her legs, I massage her perineum, trying to release some of the pressure and make this a little less brutal on her.
"There you go, almost there," I promise her, even though I know it’s a lie. She lets out another howl of pain, and then, all at once, I hear movement behind me. Glancing around, I expect to see Elias there with the towels – but instead, my heart stops when I see who’s standing in the doorway.
"Boone?" I gasp. His jaw is set tight, his face grim.
"What do you need?" he demands, dropping down by my side. He’s here. He’s actually here...
And I can figure out what that means later. Right now, I only have one priority, and it’s making sure this woman and her child survive.
"Go support her head," I tell him. "Get Elias through with the towels to clean her up-"
"Got them," Elias calls to me, voice strained to its breaking point as he dives back into the room. He shoots a look at Boone, and, in that moment, I can see a history between them, a history that might explain why his animosity ran so deep. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter one little bit right now.
"June, you’re doing great," I tell her, as I lift her hips again, applying pressure to her vaginal opening to try and keep things moving. "Just another couple of repetitions, and-"
And then, like the clouds have just parted above us, I see it – the baby’s head, a tuft of blonde-red hair, slick with viscera, but eyes open.
"Push, June!” I yell to her, as Boone drops behind her and pulls her head on to his lap. "Push! Just a few more seconds, I promise, and-"
June lets out another cry as she pushes again, and again, and again, and then -
And then, the room fills with the sound of a baby’s wail. And it’s the most beautiful goddamn thing in the world.
June slumps back as I swiftly cut the cord, bringing the child into my arms and checking them over – she looks perfect, a beautiful baby girl, fat rolls in all the right places, eyes bright even as she yells for her mother.
"Is she...?”
"She’s fine," I promise June, as I quickly set about cleaning her up as best I can. "You did amazing, Momma. Here..."
And, as I hand the baby over to June, I catch Boone’s eye.
And I can tell from the look in his eyes that something has changed since the last time I saw him.
Not just for him to have come here in the first place, but because this woman has not faced the same fate as his wife, nor the woman who I left bereft back home.
No, because this child is a new start.
Not just for her newfound family, but for us, too.
I don’t know exactly what that means – but I sure as hell know that I want to find out.