Page 59 of Prognosis Temporary

CHAPTER TEN

‘I have gloves in myhandbag. A stack of clean towels from the linen cupboard in the hallway. Something from the nursery to wrap the baby in.’

‘No, no, no,’ Ginny moaned. ‘I can pant. I promise I’ll pant.’

‘I know, Ginny,’ Callie soothed, rubbing her palms up and down Ginny’s arms as Sebastian left the room again. ‘You’re doing so well and the ambulance will be here soon but I don’t know if they’ll make it before the baby. I just want to be prepared.’

Sebastian was back in record time handing her some gloves which she donned. Next he handed over the towels and Callie placed several thicknesses of towels beneath Ginny, covering as much of the lounge as she could.

‘Where do you want me?’ he asked.

Callie nodded at the arm of the lounge. ‘Slide in behind her, give her something solid to lean against.’

Personally, right now, she’d kill for that solid wall of muscle behind her too. Someone to lean on as the events unfolded.

It was a strange sensation. She’d learned from an early age to be independent, to rely only on herself. To have his calm, commanding presence was a surprising windfall.

To actually want it was a miracle!

How would it be to have it forever? Joined in marriage. To be able to rely on someone else for a change?

Callie watched as Sebastian positioned himself as requested, Ginny’s back propped against his front, his hands resting against her sides, where the swell of her belly began, her elbows resting on his thighs.

Ginny shifted obviously uncomfortable, her body and mind restless. She looked at Callie. ‘Have you delivered a baby before?’

‘Nope.’

Callie wished she could quantify that somehow to make her denial more palatable to a labouring woman. Nope, but. Nope, but I’ve assisted at several. Or, nope, but it’s a special-interest area for me and I’m really well read on the subject and up on all the latest practices.

Because the truth was her interest had been exactly zero. She’d never been interested in any of it. Not babies or the birth process or whether pink unicorns trumped yellow ducks.

Zack had come to her as a two-year-old; the mechanics of how he’d got there hadn’t been something she’d had to worry about.

Ginny looked over her shoulder at Sebastian. ‘Don’t suppose you have either?’

Sebastian shook his head. ‘Sorry.’

Ginny looked like she was about to lose it so Callie pulled back from her own thoughts and hastened to reassure her. ‘Look, Ginny, these babies, these home deliveries you hear about on the news, they practically deliver themselves.’

‘I don’t want a bloody home birth,’ she cried. ‘I want to be in a hospital where there are doctors and nurses. People who know what they’re doing. And epidurals. I want drugs. Lots of drugs.’

Sebastian smiled over Ginny’s head and winked at Callie but she was not amused. Witnessing labour at first hand like this, in an uncontrolled environment, she couldn’t blame Ginny for wanting the security of obstetric professionals and some pharmaceutical backup. She’d want nothing less for herself.

Callie sucked in a breath. No, no, no. This was not about her! She did not want this for herself.

‘I understand that,’ Callie soothed. ‘I know this isn’t what you planned. But your body knows what to do, Ginny, it’s already doing it. I’m just here to catch should it happen before the ambulance arrives.’

Ginny shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she wailed. ‘It’s too hard. I can’t do it.’

‘Yes, you can,’ Sebastian assured her hastily. ‘Your body is doing an amazing thing, Ginny, a truly wondrous thing. And Callie’s right, a woman’s body knows. It knows what to do.’

Callie glanced at him and knew the words were not for Ginny alone. His gaze captured hers for a moment, seared right to her core, and it was as if there was just the two of them there.

‘Why is this happening to me?’ Ginny’s wailed demand broke the connection between them. ‘I’ve done everything right - everything. I’ve read all the books, I’ve eaten all the right stuff, I’ve been diligent with my meds.’ Her face crumpled. ‘I haven’t even done the ducks yet.’

Sebastian rubbed his hands up and down her arms. ‘The ducks can wait.’

But it got totally lost in Ginny’s ‘Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God’ as she dug her elbows into his thighs and braced for another contraction.

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