Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
AUDREY
She was meant to do this.
Stevie is one of the best midwives I’ve seen practice, and she’s only been here less than a month. Her bedside manner, the way she commands the room, and how calm and collected she is under pressure is beyond amazing to witness.
Being proud of her is an understatement.
She’s amazing.
Stevie stands at the foot of the bed with Beth’s partner, and asks, “Beth, I have the mineral oil we talked about in the last prenatal appointment. Do you want me to massage a little onto your perineum?”
“Please…” I grab the mineral oil from the bedside cabinet, open it, and pour some onto her gloves. I don’t know why more providers don’t use it; unless there are allergies, it should be standard.
“Bear down if you need to, don’t fight what your body naturally wants to do.”
I adjust the band on her belly to keep the baby’s heart rate on the monitor. It’s usually a lot harder to get a reading when they’re this far along into labor and the baby is sitting so low in the pelvis, but this one is doing amazing.
The deep guttural groans Beth is making are signs that the next contraction is building, and we’ll probably have a baby here in no time.
Stevie hears the same signs and starts to instruct, “Push, two, three, four.” I watch as she talks Beth through the pushing, probably out of habit, because this is Beth’s second birth; she knows what’s going on.
But in that same breath, Stevie’s soothing voice helps everyone in the room know what’s happening.
Beth takes a deep inhale and bears down one more time.
She roars as the “ring of fire” sensation is surely hitting her, but it’s quickly followed by a sigh of relief as the baby is born.
It’s the best part of an unmedicated birth, if you ask me.
We’re met with cries from the baby almost immediately, which is actually my favorite part of any delivery, because it means we have a breathing baby.
“Flip over to your butt, Beth, so you can deliver the placenta.”
Her partner places the baby on her chest once she lays back and I step beside her to rub the baby’s back to stimulate breathing. Stevie places the placenta in the metal bowl between Beth’s legs to look at after she’s assessed for tears and how bleeding is looking like.
And when Beth’s partner announces, “It’s a girl!” I can feel the emotion filling my eyes at witnessing their joy.
After getting Beth transferred to the mother-baby unit, I checked on my other two patients.
Stevie ran out of the room after the birth, and now that I have a second, I need to go check on her.
She hasn’t rushed off like that from any other birth, but this was also the first birth that I was the nurse for her.
The last thing I want is for her to be embarrassed or think there’s some kind of weird dynamic because she’s Daniella’s friend.
The midwives usually do seventy-two-hour shifts, so I’m sure she’s in an on-call room trying to get some rest. Conveniently, the rooms are between mother-baby and labor and delivery.
I walk right in without knocking, trying to be quiet in case anyone else happens to be in here or to avoid waking Stevie if she’s sleeping.
The bedside lamp is on, illuminating the back of a naked, tattoo-covered body standing in front of the bed at the back of the room.
*Stevie’s naked, tattoo-covered body.
Where have I seen this body?
My gasp is audible as I walk closer to her. “Miss?!”
Stevie spins on her heel, whipping her head around toward me. “Fuck, Audrey, you scared the piss out of me.”
“They have pelvic floor therapy for that now,” I joke, but am quick to focus again. “That was you?! At Sin’s!”
She smiles, but it’s not the smile I’m used to seeing from her.
No, it’s devious.
It’s the same smile our Domme at Sin’s wore.
Her brow rises and the smirk only grows. “In the flesh.”
It’s all starting to make sense. Her hiding from me and acting weird anytime she’s around me on shift. I thought she was pissed at something we did when she was younger, or maybe Daniella had upset her. I thought I was losing my ever-loving mind, but it’s actually because we paid her for sex.
We paid her for fucking sex.
My daughter’s best friend.
A goddamn twenty-something-year-old.
“I’m gonna be sick.” I bend to place my hands on my knees and try to breathe through the panic.
“Come on, Audrey, nobody has to know.”
“I should be saying that to you.” I murmur under my breath, “Fuck, why didn’t you run out of that room when you saw us?”
I stand back up once I’ve regulated my breathing, but I’m met with her body pressing closer to mine. She shocks me as she spins us so my back is toward the bunkbed. Slowly, she backs me up until my calves press into the mattress.
“I always wanted to fuck my friend’s parents… have you seen the two of you?” She doesn’t give me any time to answer, just raises her brow again and continues. “Plus, knowing I was your first experience with a woman? You couldn’t have drug me by my hair from that room.”
“My only experience with a woman,” I add.
“Still?”
I give her a shy nod.
“Good.”
Fuck... My cunt is throbbing.
Go ahead and reserve my spot in hell for this.
My hand finds purchase on the back of her head, and I pull her lips to mine. All I can hope is that no one comes in looking for either of us because the door isn’t locked. But the thought is quickly forgotten when she melts into me for a moment, but way too soon, she pulls away. “Audrey…”
“I know.”
* milk & honey - Ella Boh