Chapter Two #2
Jim swallowed. He didn’t want Heather to be ready to deliver. He also didn’t want to have to look to find out. “Be right back with you,” he said, and let go of the phone.
“What is it?” Heather asked.
The hem of her cotton dress rested on her thighs. Two hours ago, he hadn’t even met this woman. He couldn’t possibly do this. “The doctor wants me to check on the baby. She thinks I might be able to see the head.”
Heather’s big eyes got bigger. “I can’t believe I’m going to have my baby right here in an elevator!”
“Tell me about it.”
He braced himself for tears. Instead, much to his surprise, she smiled weakly.
“Talk about a great story when she’s growing up.
” Then her humor faded. She looked at him, then down at herself.
For the first time since her labor started, color stained her cheeks.
“I don’t think I can get my panties off on my own. ”
“Right.” He cleared his throat. This would be easier for both of them if he pretended this was a completely normal situation, something that had to be done but wasn’t the least bit personal.
Without looking, he reached under the full skirt of her dress and peeled off her underpants.
He folded them neatly and set them in the corner.
“Uh, I’m supposed to check on the baby,” he said, not able to meet her gaze.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“I feel like I do. You sure didn’t ask for this.”
Her voice was so small he couldn’t help looking at her face. She bit her lower lip, then panted through another contraction. This time, he could see her stomach twisting and rippling as her body truly labored to bring forth life. Her face contorted in a grimace.
“Under normal conditions, you might have trouble explaining how you came to be with a strange, half-naked woman in an elevator,” she said, gasping. “So you’ll have a story to tell, too.”
“I can’t wait,” he told her.
Another contraction ripped through her. She screamed out, then gripped his hand with a strength that nearly snapped a couple of bones.
“If this doesn’t scare you into practicing safe sex, nothing will,” she managed to say, her face covered in sweat. “Look, Jim, I’m in way too much pain to be embarrassed right now, so go ahead and look for the baby. I just want to make sure that my child is safe. Please?”
He nodded, then steeled himself against the inevitable. He peered around the side of her knee. “I can’t see anything.”
A sharp sound filled the elevator. He looked at Heather. Despite the pain and her gasping breath, she was laughing. “You kept your eyes closed. You’re going to have to open them to see something.”
He felt like a moron. “I don’t think I can.”
“Of course you can. Pretend I’m a giraffe and this is National Geographic.”
She didn’t look like a giraffe, but he didn’t intend to let her down. He knelt between Heather’s feet, then pushed back her dress and studied her body.
He straightened and grabbed the phone. “I think I see the top of the baby’s head.”
“Damn,” Dr. Moreno muttered. “She’s determined to deliver quickly. Wouldn’t you know it? Okay, Jim. Tell Heather not to push even though she wants to. As the baby begins to appear, apply a very gentle pressure to keep the head from coming out too fast. Don’t force anything, don’t pull.”
He repeated the instructions back to make sure he understood them, then did as the doctor had instructed. She took him step by step through the process. Heather resisted the urge to push, working hard to control her reaction to the intense contractions.
“I can’t,” she screamed. “Make it stop. Let me push.”
“Don’t do it!” Jim ordered. “Stay with me, Heather. We’ve come this far. Just trust me. You’re fine. Relax and breathe. Breathe with me. I’m right here. I’ll catch your baby, Heather. I’ll be right here. Just a little bit more.”
Ten minutes later, he set a tiny, red squalling baby on her mother’s belly.
“It’s a girl,” he said, not quite able to believe he’d actually helped bring a child into the world.
Heather tried to raise her head enough to see, but she was too weak. “Is she okay?”
“Ten fingers and ten toes,” he said as he stared at the messy, naked, incredible creature squirming and squawking with life. “And she’s just as beautiful as her mother.”
The doctor gave him a few final instructions and said that she would be standing by when they finally got the elevator working.
As Jim hung up the phone, Heather started to cry.
For once, the sight of a woman’s tears didn’t bother him.
He understood completely, and if he hadn’t been so tired and excited at the same time, he might have shed one or two himself.
This wasn’t a moment either of them could have described to someone else.
They’d done something extraordinary together and there weren’t any words to explain it.
So instead of speaking, he moved next to Heather and pulled her into his arms, shifting her so that she could gaze down at her baby.
As she tightened her hold on her child, he tightened his hold on her.
“Thank you for not leaving me,” she said as she cradled her infant. The baby girl quieted, safe in her mother’s embrace.
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “Is this where I point out that I had nowhere else I could go?”
“You know what I mean. You weren’t just in the room, you were helping. That means a lot to me.” She sniffed. “I’m a mess and I can’t believe I cried. I never cry.”
“I think you’ll be forgiven this one time. There was a lot going on.”
“I know, but still…” She shook her head. “Look at this poor elevator car. It looks like we shot a scene from a horror film here. They’ll have to replace the carpet.”
“Quit worrying about stuff like that. You have a brand-new, beautiful baby.”
“I know. Isn’t she wonderful?”
She was. Jim didn’t let himself think about kids too much, but when he did, he admitted that the longing to have a few of his own was still there. “Everybody says birth is a miracle,” he said, “but I didn’t get what that meant until today.”
“Me neither.”
The baby in her arms opened her tiny eyes. He knew it wasn’t possible, but he would have sworn that the child could see clear down to his empty soul. Suddenly, the elevator lurched slightly.
Heather stiffened. “Is that what I think it is?”
“I sure hope so.”
Sure enough, a second later they heard the sound of the motor, and the car began gently moving down to the ground floor. The doors opened and two medics and Dr. Moreno stepped into the car. Jim started to stand up. Heather grabbed his arm.
“I know this is asking a lot,” she said, “but would you mind coming with me to the hospital? I’m just…” She bit her lower lip.
“I know,” he said as he rose to his feet.
“I’d like to come with you. I want to make sure you and the little one are okay.
” He glanced down at his slacks and grinned.
The khaki fabric was covered in blood. “Besides, the hospital is the only place I can think of where they’ll let me in dressed like this. ”
* * *
By three o’clock that afternoon, Heather and her daughter had been examined and pronounced none the worse for their adventure.
“Next time, you might want to think about getting to the hospital a little earlier,” a nurse whispered as she finished taking Heather’s blood pressure.
Heather laughed. “I’ll do my best.”
“At least your husband was with you,” the nurse continued as Jim entered the room. “I’m sure that was a big help.”
“I couldn’t have done it without him,” Heather said honestly, figuring there was no point in explaining the fact that a complete stranger had come to her aid.
The nurse gave her a quick smile, then left. Jim moved close to the bed and looked down at her.
“I’ve only got a couple of minutes,” he said. “I need to get home, shower and change, then head back to the office, but I wanted to make sure you were feeling all right.”
“We’re both fine. They checked her out—” she nodded at the infant she cradled in her arms “—and she’s doing great. Strong heart, clear lungs, responsive. Dr. Moreno said it was a textbook delivery and she couldn’t have done better herself.”
“Yeah, like I believe that.” Jim shoved his hands into his slacks pockets. “She stopped me in the hall and congratulated me. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d been terrified the whole time.”
“You didn’t show it,” Heather said.
“That was the point. If anyone had the right to be scared, it was you. I didn’t want to add to your stress.”
“Thank you for everything.”
She’d already said the words a dozen times, but it still wasn’t enough.
She didn’t know how she’d be able to thank this man for all he’d done for her.
She stared up at him and was suddenly struck again by his good looks.
He had the kind of body that belonged in an underwear ad.
Shaggy dark hair hung to his shirt collar and fell across his forehead.
Right now, though, he looked a little worse for wear.
His clothes were wrinkled and stained, and he had the stunned expression of someone who had lived through a natural disaster or a plane crash.
They were both silent. Heather noticed Jim fidgeting slightly, shifting from foot to foot.
“Me, too,” she murmured.
“You, too, what?”
She shrugged, then brushed her finger gently across the soft cheek of her newborn child.
The child she’d fallen in love with the moment she’d seen her.
“I’m confused. I don’t know what to say or how to say it.
We’ve just shared possibly the most intimate experience of my life.
I can’t say about yours.” She smiled up at him.
“For all I know, you do this sort of thing regularly.”