Page 62 of Prognosis Temporary

Callie’s heart thumped madly as she held the blinking newborn in her hands. The baby girl was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen and an emotion she’d never known before bloomed in her chest. A giant mushroom cloud welling up and up and up. Making it hard to breath. Hard to move.

And she knew in that instant that she would love and protect the fragile life inside of her forever. She glanced at Sebastian. Just as she would love the man who had given her such a precious gift.

‘Why isn’t she crying?’ Ginny asked. ‘Callie, what’s wrong?’

Callie dragged herself back from the overwhelming emotion of the moment as the siren was switched off and vehicle doors could be heard slamming.

‘N-nothing,’ she said, reaching for one of the bunny rugs Sebastian had given her earlier. ‘She’s just a little stunned, that’s all.’

Instinct and experience kicked in and Callie rubbed the rug vigorously over the baby’s face, pinching her nostrils hard and sweeping downwards to clear any mucus. She rubbed the fabric briskly over the baby’s torso and blew on her face, just as she’d seen a midwife do all those years ago.

A long, sharp, angry cry pierced the air just as the paramedics tramped up the steps and Callie passed Ginny’s bawling daughter, umbilical cord still attached, up to her.

It was the sweetest thing Callie had ever witnessed. A mother and father meeting their child for the first time. There was a reverence in their movements as they gazed at the newborn, who’d hushed as if instinctively knowing that these two people were going to be the most important people in her life.

A tiny fist waved in the air and the profound wonder on Ginny and Brad’s faces was humbling. It was as if neither of them could believe they’d actually created this amazing complete miniature human being.

Callie glanced at Sebastian, who had eyes only for her. ‘You did it,’ he mouthed, and Callie choked back the thick clog of emotion lodged in her throat.

‘She has your eyes,’ Brad murmured, stroking his daughter’s cheeks as the paramedics entered the room.

‘Well, well, well,’ the first one said. ‘Looks like someone was in a hurry to be born.’

And then it was action stations as the paramedics took over. Sebastian slipped out from behind Ginny and Callie relinquished her post, and they stood watching the proceedings. One of paramedics double-clamped the cord and let Brad cut between the clamps, and the other slipped a saturation probe onto Ginny’s finger and took her blood pressure.

Neither Callie nor Sebastian said anything to the other but Callie was hyper-aware of him. His biceps occasionally brushed hers, the feather-like touch coursing electricity through her entire body until it was practically humming. And his male scent blasted towards her on the waves of heat radiating from his body, intoxicating her already elevated mood further.

How had it taken her so long to figure out what was now patently obvious? Had determination alone so blunted her to the possibility of falling in love that she hadn’t even recognised it when it had slapped her in the face?

She could pinpoint the exact moment it had happened. That night in the restaurant. Facing down a superior yuppie to champion a homeless man.

Her hero.

No wonder she’d gone home with him.

Although maybe it had happened even before that. Earlier that day, on the bridge. There had been an unmistakable connection as they’d clashed. An instant awareness of him that she’d never had with another man. It had been easy to dismiss as irritation given his steely resolve that day but maybe, even then, deep down she’d known something in her gut.

The baby protested as it was taken from Ginny to be snugly wrapped by one paramedic as the other expertly sited an intravenous cannula in the back of Ginny’s hand.

Callie slipped her hand over her abdomen. Deep inside her, beneath her palm, her own baby grew.

Their baby grew.

Another, more intimate connection with Sebastian.

And her love for him intensified again. She’d only been aware of it for the last ten minutes but just like that it had doubled...trebled.

She’d been so busy pretending they were having an adult relationship that didn’t need romantic, messy things like love and happily-ever-afters to define it that she hadn’t realised she’d gone and fallen in love anyway.

Deep, foolish, messy love.

‘Okay, let’s rock and roll,’ the paramedic said as they helped Ginny onto the trolley and strapped her in. Brad passed the swaddled baby to Ginny and she took the bundle as if she’d just been handed the secret to eternal life and the Holy Grail combined.

‘What are you going to call her?’ the paramedic asked.

Ginny looked at Sebastian and Callie. ‘Well, I think after all that’s happened we’re going to have to name her after our impromptu midwives, Seb and Callie.’ Her gaze switched to her husband and she held out her free hand to him. ‘What do you think about Sallie?’

Brad took her hand and smiled. ‘I think that’s really pretty.’

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