Page 58 of Prognosis Temporary

And she had calm in spades.

‘Sebastian is going to stow it in our car. Then he’s going to ring Brad and ask him to meet us at the hospital.’

‘Check,’ Sebastian said, smiling at Ginny and Callie could have kissed him for so quickly putting aside their stuff and prioritising their client’ needs.

‘Brad.’ Ginny’s chin wobbled slightly.

‘It’ll be fine.’ Callie patted Ginny’s hand. ‘He’ll be at the hospital in a jiffy. We all will. Now, while Sebastian does his thing, we’re going to get you changed and then we’ll go, okay?’

Ginny sniffled. ‘Okay.’

Ten minutes later Callie had helped Ginny into a fresh set of clothes and thrown some towels from the linen closet on the pool of fluid sitting in the hallway. Sebastian was waiting for them at the front door, holding it open.

Ginny made it halfway to the door when she stopped abruptly and screwed up her face.

‘Contraction?’ Callie asked.

Ginny bit her lip. ‘Yeah.’

‘That’s fine. We’ll wait till it passes.’ She motioned to Sebastian to time it with his watch.

The contraction was long and painful and Callie rubbed Ginny’s back as the mother-to-be panted. When it passed they started towards the door again but after two paces Ginny had to stop again.

They were nearly at the door when the third contraction hit and Ginny cried out, ‘I need to push.’

‘No!’ both Sebastian and Callie said in unison. Callie had seen a few babies being born during an obstetrics rotation — twenty years ago. But even she remembered that the urge to push was a sign of very advanced labour.

‘Oh, God,’ Ginny wailed, her eyes bulging in her head, reaching for both of them for support. ‘The head, it’s there, I can feel it. It’s right there.’

Callie’s heartbeat thundered in her ears at Ginny’s calamitous statement. It was so urgent, so desperate that Callie didn’t doubt the truth of it for a moment.

She glanced at Sebastian, who raised an eyebrow at her over Ginny’s downcast head. Right. Change of plan.

‘Okay. No problem. Let’s go into the living room and see what’s happening down there.’

‘No, no,’ Ginny wailed. ‘We need to go to the hospital. I need Brad. The baby’s coming now,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s coming now.’

‘Ginny,’ Sebastian said, his voice firm and calm, ‘it’s not safe to take you in the car. Callie’s going to be with you and I’m ringing the ambulance. They’ll be here pronto and will be able to get you to the hospital much quicker and more safely than we can. Then I’ll ring Brad and let him know the change of plan. Just don’t push, okay? Do not push. Do you understand?’

It worked, his voice carving through Ginny’s rising hysteria and, despite the turmoil of the last few days, Callie had never been more pleased to have him by her side.

Ginny nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Come on,’ Callie directed. ‘Let’s get you comfortable.’

They went left through an archway into the living room and Callie positioned Ginny on the couch. A brief examination revealed that Ginny was indeed right. The head was there, just starting to stretch the vaginal opening. Another contraction hit and Callie urged Ginny to, ‘Pant, pant, pant.’

Which she did — splendidly. Despite the obvious overwhelming dictates of her body telling her to push, push, push. But at the end of it more head was revealed and Callie knew that the arrival of Ginny’s baby girl was imminent.

Sebastian entered the room. ‘Ambulance ETA is eight minutes,’ he announced.

Callie looked at him. She didn’t have to say a word for him to know that they didn’t have eight minutes.

‘What do you need?’ he asked.

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