Page 119 of Breeding Clinic

Liam purrs, and our baby yawns, looking around with unfocused eyes and a frown on her adorable face. Now that she’s eaten and warm, she’s calm.

There’s a knock on the door that jolts us all from our tender moment. Liam goes to answer it, letting two female EMTs inside. One of them talks into the radio clipped over her shoulder, “We’re on the scene. I’ll grab the OB kit and the stretcher.”

The other one approaches us and kneels. “Seems like we’re late to the party. Hey, Momma. Is this your first baby?” she asks.

“Yes,” Gabriel answers for me. “She was thirty-seven and a half weeks. No allergies or significant medical history. She delivered the placenta intact and her bleeding’s slowed. She’s fed the baby once.”

“All right,” the EMT says. She’s older and a beta from the smell of her. “So even though this was a good delivery, we need to get you two to the hospital to get checked out.”

She reaches for the corner of the towel to check on the baby and a low growl bursts from my chest on instinct. My eyeswiden and I choke the sound off, embarrassed. “I’m so sorry.” The baby, startled, begins to cry.

“It’s perfectly natural,” she says, unflinching as she checks the baby out. “She’s nice and pink, and those are some good, healthy lungs. Here’s what we’re gonna do, Momma. We’re going to take the baby out to the truck and then we’re gonna bring you out on the stretcher.”

“I’ll take the baby,” the other EMT says after she returns with her kit.

It’s hard to hand over my daughter. All of my instincts tell me to keep her close and safe even though I know these emergency responders aren’t going to hurt us. I let them take her and watch her go.

“Let’s do blow-by until we get a sat,” one EMT says to the other. “Get a set of vitals. Bill can hold her and do the oxygen while we get Mom in the rig.”

They’re only gone for a few minutes, but it seems like an eternity until they come back inside. I’m transferred onto their stretcher and Matthew makes sure I’m covered with blankets. Then they strap me in and roll me outside through the path Liam cut into the snow hours before. The ambulance’s lights flash quietly, cutting through the darkness.

“We can fit one person,” an EMT says.

“Gabriel,” Liam says. “Go with them.”

Gabriel grabs his coat and shoves his feet into his boots, running after us and leaving Matthew and Liam to follow behind in the truck. After they load me into the ambulance, Gabriel hops in too and sits where they tell him to. They attach me to monitors and start an IV. Then they announce our departure to the hospital over their radio.

“Can she hold the baby while you drive?” Gabriel asks once we’re on the way.

“Here you go, Momma.” She hands our daughter to me andsits the back of my stretcher up a bit. “Now if you haven’t settled on a name yet, what about Lori?”

“Or Olivia,” the other one says with a smile.

“What’s the female version of Bill?” the driver asks from the front.

They laugh and bicker light heartedly. Each of them throwing out variations of their names that are more outlandish than the next as they try to come up with the best first and middle name combinations.

Gabriel holds my hand while we both stare at our little Christmas angel. “No, that’s not her name.”

Her name is Holly.

Jen holdsHolly while the baby sleeps after a feeding. “I can’t believe you went and had the baby without anyone knowing.”

I chuckle. “It’s not like we planned it.”

She sighs and hands my daughter back to me. “Ugh. You’re making me want another one. She’s stinking cute.”

I fix Holly’s pink hat and move her to the crook of my arm, using a pillow to prop her up so I can watch her sleep. “She’s kind of perfect, isn’t she?”

Someone knocks and Matthew opens the door, checking first to make sure I’m not nursing before he opens it wide for the influx of our family. The hospital kept us for a few nights, but since we both have a clean bill of health and Holly’s feeding well they’re discharging us this afternoon. That didn’t stop everyone from driving up to see us, though.

“Let me see my granddaughter,” Liam’s mom whispers,leaning over my bed and smiling. One by one, everyone gets a peek and coos over how sweet she is. I’m not sure we can fit anymore people into this hospital room. It’s a good thing that Gabriel’s family doesn’t arrive from Brazil until tomorrow.

“What’s her name?” Margaret asks.

“Holly,” Matthew answers his mother proudly.

We waited until she was born to pick a name. Holly wasn’t on our list of potential names at all, but it fits her.

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