26. Camden #2
"Very good," she replied. "Joey, can you take these young men to the dressing room, then into birthing unit B?"
Remy bounded into the room, dramatically - everyone turned - but once he saw Austin and the other guard near David and Isaak, he appeared to relax, but not before staring daggers at Austin.
"You ready?" I got Austin's attention back, but his face was red. "You okay? You look warm."
"Just excited for the baby. Let's go."
Joey led us to a small locker room and explained, "This room is exclusively for your family’s use.
It stays locked from the hall, so your belongings are safe in here.
You can put the scrubs over your clothes or take off what you're wearing and put the scrubs on instead.
It can get cold in there, so the layers may help, but I'm always cold.
" He chuckled. "When you’ve got the booties, the pants and shirt, and the scrub cap on, you can enter the birthing suite through that door. "
He pointed at a solid violet-colored door in the corner. “If you have any questions, you can pick up that phone. It will automatically connect to the desk outside. Good luck!”
I didn’t wait for him to leave before I started taking my clothes off.
I slipped the scrubs over my briefs, the booties over my bare feet, and put the cap on as I made my way to the door.
Austin was still fumbling with his jeans, mumbling something about wearing his tight pants to look good for O today.
“See you in there.” I didn't wait for a response before plowing through the door.
“Cam!”
My eyes adjusted to the muted light in the perimeter of the room, but were drawn, of course, to the action in the middle and Erika’s outstretched hand. I walked quickly, careful to avoid the staff, to grab it. Her mother was opposite me, holding her other hand.
“He’s not born yet?” I said with a smile, earning a hard squeeze from Erika.
“Go fuck yourself–aaah! He’s doing his best.”
“Everything good so far?” I asked the room.
“Normal so far,” Rebecca answered, and one of the staff agreed, “Yes, moving along nicely, and Dr. Cosgrove should be here momentarily.”
I leaned in to whisper, “Is that the one you’ve been seeing? The one you like?”
Erika nodded. “Where’s Austin?”
“Chang-”
“I’m here!” Austin hurried over to stand beside his mother.
“You look good in scrubs, baby bro. Maybe you should be a doctor?”
“Don’t get mom started on all that again, Erika. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’m pushing a baby out of my vagina.”
I thought that would fluster Austin a little, but he just said, “Yup, that’s why we’re all here.”
“How–aaah–was the medal ceremony?”
“Great,” Austin answered.
“Did Cam cry?” Erika asked.
“Of course.”
I rolled my eyes at Austin’s answer, but Erika squeezed my hand. “My cute little emotional bestie.”
“How dilated are you?” I changed the subject.
“We’re really going to talk about this, aren’t we?” she asked.
“Kind of hard not to when it’s the reason we’re here. I wanna know if I need to grab some snacks, maybe a milkshake,” I teased.
“Shut the fuck up, you’re making me hungry. I don’t think I can eat anything.”
One of the nurses spoke up. “I can ask Dr. Cosgrove when he gets here. He may allow a light snack - it’s not likely - but we’ll wait for him to make that call. We can definitely give you some Gatorade now, or water if you’d prefer.”
“Seriously?”
The nurse nodded.
“Can we order food too?” Austin asked, followed by his mother cuffing him on the head.
After the nurse finished chuckling, she said, “Guests are welcome to eat in the cafeteria on the ground floor. It’s open twenty-four hours.”
Erika only let go of my hand to reposition herself or to take a sip, and the company changed throughout the rest of the day and into the evening - Orion, David, even Isaak had another turn.
I stayed there to get her through each contraction.
Even though she didn’t say so, I could tell they were getting worse for her because she’d squeeze harder each time.
At some point, Luke slipped a protein bar into my pocket and left two bottles of Gatorade on the table behind me. I ignored them until Erika said I should eat or drink something, which I then did quickly.
Dr. Cosgrove arrived just after eight, apologizing for his lateness, but Erika didn’t seem to care. In fact, I felt her relax when he entered the room.
I could see why she liked him. On the surface, he was handsome, but he also projected a confident aura and his voice was very soothing. Without being introduced, he knew everyone’s names, so a nurse must’ve told him at some point, or his memory and deductive powers were just that good.
“Well, Erika, I can’t say I’ve ever delivered an Olympian’s baby before, so I thank you for the privilege. And to be surrounded by so many other Olympians,” he mused, “it feels like I’m competing at the games myself.” He chuckled at his own joke.
“What’s the scoop, doc?” Erika asked, between breaths. “Did he miraculously slip out somehow already?”
“I’m afraid not, but you are at nine centimeters, that’s really close. We’re going to start pushing at ten, okay?”
It was like the baby heard the doctor, because it was like a switch went off.
The contractions intensified, lasting a lot longer than they had before, and Erika grimaced with each one.
They were either getting more painful, or she lacked the strength to pretend they didn’t bother her anymore.
Either way, I felt for her - it was a different kind of pain from anything I had ever seen before.
“Just breathe through it. You’re doing great,” I said. “Each contraction is a hug of love for your baby.”
Erika burst out in laughter, which turned into the next contraction. After she regained her breath, she asked, “Where the fuck did you get that line, a Hallmark card?”
I shrugged. “Google.”
“You googled what to say to me?”
“It’s not like this happens every day. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Look what happened to Isaak.”
“You couldn’t say anything wrong. He’s the one that did this to me.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it. It takes two people to make a baby.”
She screamed through the next contraction, squeezing my hand. “I know that! But it felt good to yell at him at the time.”
It was dark out now. I was the only one in here with her, mostly because everyone had fallen asleep. Luke said they actually had guest rooms with beds. Austin and Orion had crashed hours ago, as had Rebecca and David.
I glanced at my phone. It was nearly midnight. I had texts from Noah and Cecilia. It looked like she, Warren and Nia left some time ago. I heard the door to the changing room open and my mom was there.
“My babies,” she said, approaching us. “How are we doing?”
“Hanging in there,” Erika answered.
My mom pushed the hair out of Erika’s face and leaned in to give her forehead a kiss. “You look beautiful.”
Erika laughed, but said, “Thank you.”
“Are you taking pictures? Is Cam? You can always delete them later, but you can’t conjure them out of thin air.”
“I’ve taken one or two,” Erika said, “But I’ll take your advice.”
“She’s close, almost ten,” I added.
“Oh, the fun part.”
My mom held her other hand through the next few contractions, and during the next lull, added, “You’re going to make a great mother. You’ve had a great role model.”
“Role models,” Erika corrected her.
“Well, I don’t know about-”
“Heather–aaah!”
This one lasted over a minute, but as soon as it was done, she continued, “I’ve spent as much time at your house when I was a kid as my own. Plus, look at Cam. You’re a wonderful mother.”