Page 54 of JoJo

Chapter 18

Mommy is going to be just fine, bud. I need you to stay here with Aunt Keys though, okay?”

“Otay,” my little man finally agreed even though he was slightly teary-eyed at the prospect of both of his parents leaving him behind after hearing his mommy yell so loudly. I glanced up at Keys, and the worried look on her face, before I had to turn away.

“I’ll let you know as soon as…” I didn’t have any other words, and I didn’t wait to hear hers. I just took off in the direction they’d wheeled JoJo a few minutes ago. A nurse stood in front of the doors I needed to go through, blocking my way. “I need to get in there, my wife…”

“What is your wife’s name?” The nurse’s cool tone implied she didn’t think I belonged in there.

“Cynthia-Jo Briggs,” I responded while still trying to move past her.

“I’m sorry sir, but I can’t let you back there until I check it out. Who are you?”

“Obviously her husband, since I already told you she’s my wife. You need to get the hell out of my way!”

“Joanne, call security, please,” the nurse called out to someone over my shoulder. Just then Nurse Stacey came barreling out of the double doors I’d just been trying to get through.

“There you are!” She called to me. “We need to hurry up and get you suited up to get in there with her. She’s screaming her poor head off that she won’t do it without you.” Stacey chuckled. “Not like she has much choice in the matter.” Stacey seemed to notice the other nurse who was still impeding my forward movement. “Get out of the way, Reba, and we’ll be chatting about this later.” The woman who had been blocking me just stood there and glared, but Stacey grabbed my hand and tugged me around her.

Once I was properly suited up, as Stacey put it, she led me into a scary damn room. This was nothing like the labor and delivery suite our son Killian had been born into. It was a big sterile room with too much equipment all around for my liking. I quickly dismissed all of it though when I saw JoJo’s eyes watching me. I went to her immediately. They already had some sort of tent thing in place dividing her body in half so we couldn’t see past her boobs, which were huge now that her milk had been replenished.

“Where were you?” She asked, unable to take the fright out of her voice.

“I was just making sure Keys had Killian taken care of, babe. I’m here now.” She reached out for my hand, and I took hers in mine. “Everything’s going to be fine, Jo.”

“No, it’s not. They’re cutting me open, Steel. I’m bleeding, and…”

“Shhh,” I whispered into her hairline as I leaned in and kissed her. “You’re going to be just fine and so is the baby. Dr. Mac is here, and Stacey just scared the shit out of some nurse that wouldn’t let me back here. It’s all good, babe.”

Dr. Mac looked up at that. “Who wouldn’t let him back?”

“Reba,” Stacey responded curtly making me believe this wasn’t the first time the woman had stopped a man from seeing his baby born. “I already told her we’d deal with her in a bit.” Dr. Mac nodded, and then looked around the tented part of the sheet to see both myself and JoJo.

“I’m going to get started. You will feel plenty of pressure and tugging down here, but if at any time you feel actual pain I need you to let me know, okay?” JoJo only nodded and squeezed my hand a little harder.

After a few minutes of the staff doing their job I heard the doc chuckle. “Well, no wonder,” he proclaimed as he finished pulling my daughter out of her mother’s belly. “She’s quite the chunker,” he offered up as the fat, wiggly baby that was now in the nurse’s arms started wailing with everything she had. The smile on my face spread ridiculously wide at that. I wasn’t about to admit it to JoJo, but when we rushed her to the hospital after she started bleeding heavily, I thought for sure she was going to lose the baby, or I was going to lose her, or both. “Okay, I’m just going to work on closing everything up,” the doc said as he pulled something else out of my wife and plopped it into a little pan thing. He noticed me watching. “Just the afterbirth. It’s good you got her to us so quickly. That placenta was almost completely detached.”

I knew what he was talking about, and I didn’t want to hear anything more about it right now, especially not where JoJo could hear too. Instead I looked back over at my wife, who had her eyes closed, but the most beautiful smile graced her face as our daughter cried yet again.

“Here she is,” Nurse Stacey announced as she brought our burrito wrapped bundle over to us. “Perfect little,” she huffed out a laugh then. “Not so little girl.” I helped hold our daughter up near JoJo’s chest as she gazed down on her with more love than one person should be able to hold. “She was ten pounds even.”

My startled eyes shifted then. “Are you serious?” Stacey just laughed again and nodded her head. “Jesus babe, were you trying to grow a toddler in there?” The whole room burst out laughing at that.

“Shut up, she just has your enormous head,” JoJo breathed out.

“Do you have a name for her yet?” The neonatal nurse, who had been on standby, asked.

“Charlene Willow Briggs,” JoJo answered before closing her eyes.

“Is she okay?” I asked Dr. Mac. He was busily doing something to her lower half still so Nurse Stacey glanced up at her vitals before answering.

“She’s fine, honey. Just tired. We’re giving her some blood, because she lost quite a bit before you got her here, plus the procedure. She’ll be fine in a bit. She just needs some rest.”

“Okay.” I know I sounded unsure, but I lifted my baby girl off of JoJo’s chest all the same and cradled her to me. The same nurse who had just asked her name came and tried to take her from me. I didn’t allow it though, and she just laughed.

“We just have to take her to clean her up and run a couple tests to be sure everything’s all clear. You can follow along with us, or stay here with your wife.” That was the worst kind of torture. Now, I was being pulled in two different directions. JoJo had begged me to follow them after she gave birth to Killian, but that was different. She’d done everything natural then. Now, she was lying there being sewn back together and tired from blood loss.

“Go,” she whispered before I could make the decision. I handed the baby to the nurse and moved back over to give JoJo a kiss before leaving.

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