Page 55 of Renewal After Dark

Mallory and the other two paramedics gently and efficiently moved her to a stretcher and strapped her in for the ride downstairs.

While they tended to her, Adam quickly got dressed in their bathroom and followed them down to the first floor and into the back of the ambulance.

“Shouldn’t you take a car to get us home?”

“I’ll worry about getting us home later. I want to be with you.”

She squeezed the hand he’d wrapped around hers.

“What’re you thinking, Mallory?” Adam asked his sister.

“Hard to say without a lot more info. Her BP is good, and I heard a bunch of heartbeats in there. Both of those things are great news.”

Abby winced as the pain stole her breath. She’d never experienced labor pain, but she couldn’t help but notice the spasms of pain were coming closer together and were getting more intense. She could not be in labor at twenty-two weeks. She just couldn’t be.

They arrived at the clinic within minutes and were met by Victoria, the nurse practitioner-midwife, and Dr. David Lawrence, the attending physician.

She was whisked inside, quickly attached to a fetal monitor as well as other machines and monitors—all that before anyone asked her a single question.

“She’s in labor,” Victoria said.

Adam gasped. “What do we do?”

Victoria quickly inserted an IV needle that barely registered with Abby because she was trying so hard not to panic. “We can try to stop it with meds.”

“Try to?” Adam asked. “What if it doesn’t work?”

Victoria looked him in the eyes. “We’ll do everything we can.”

Mallory stayed with them, holding one of Abby’s hands while Adam had the other.

“I’m scared,” Abby whispered. “I can’t lose them. I just can’t.”

“Let’s not think the worst,” Mallory said. “There’s a lot that can be done. The best thing you can do is try to stay calm.”

Abby hung on Mallory’s every word, knowing she was an experienced nurse who’d seen all the scenarios during a career working in a Providence emergency department.

“Just focus on breathing for now,” Mallory said. “Nice deep breaths, in and out.”

Abby did the breathing and focused on the movement of the babies, proof that they were still there, still with her, still in the fight. She vowed that if they could get through this, she would never again complain about the discomfort of carrying quads or bemoan the fact that she had to pee every two seconds.

She’d do whatever it took to safely deliver her baby boys.

Linda McCarthy droveher bright yellow Volkswagen Bug into the driveway at her son Mac’s home as her grandson Liam chattered in the back seat. His sweet, cheerful presence was keeping Linda from going crazy wanting to know what was happening with Abby.

If they lost those babies…

No, she couldn’t even consider the possibility. That couldn’t happen, not after everything those two kids had already been through trying to have a family after Abby was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, which, among other things, made pregnancy difficult to impossible to achieve. That she’d somehow conceived the quads naturally considering her condition was nothing less than a miracle. Linda refused to believe they wouldn’t see that miracle all the way to the finish line.

She wished she had the power to make it so her kids could have anything and everything they wanted and needed, but alas, even Voodoo Mama didn’t have that kind of power. As much as she pretended to despise the nickname bestowed by her beloved kids, she secretly loved that she’d intimidated them enough as youngsters to give her that name.

“Come on, my sweet boy. Let’s go see what the cousins are up to.”

“Cousins!”

Liam held her hand as they walked up the stairs to Mac and Maddie’s deck and stepped into the kind of madness only five young children could create. Toys were strewn about, baby Mac was wearing only a diaper, one of Hailey’s pigtails had fallen out, Evie was crying, while Emma sipped from a bottle that her mother held for her.

“Grammy!” Her eldest grandchild, Thomas, ran over to greet her. “You brought Liam!”

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