Page 56 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

I’m contemplating going for a nap on my break when I get an alert from a nurse that I’m needed. Suddenly any sleepiness vanishes from me, and I snap into action.

I rush over to the woman who needs me. She’s in labor. “Hey, there,” I say. “I’m Doctor Liam. I’m here to help.”

I examine her, quickly figuring out the problem. The baby’s in the wrong position. I tell her this and add, “It looks like we might have to perform a C-section.”

“No, please. I don’t want to. I want my baby to be natural.”

As gently as I can, I explain that it won’t make it less natural, but it might just save her life. But she desperately doesn’t want to do that, so all I can do is sit with her, supporting her, keeping an eye on all of her vital signs to see if there’s any way that we can give her what she wants without costing her dearly.

The hours drain by and she’s not getting better.

Her husband comes to sit on the other side of her, telling her he loves her, that she’s brave and strong. He might be right, but I feel like I’m facing the inevitable here.

“I’m sorry,” I say in the end. “I want to help you, but it’s getting critical. I need to get you to the operating room as soon as possible.”

The patient is exhausted, weak and drained, and she turns to her husband. They discuss it in low voices, and then with tears in her eyes, she turns back to me and nods. “If it’s for the best, I trust you. Look after my baby.”

I prepare everything to go, and when we wheel her away, her husband gives us this terrified look, like he’s preparing himself for all the ways it could go wrong. Like he would lose everything if he were to lose his wife.

That face lingers with me as I perform the surgery, moving more quickly than normal now that the situation is urgent. When I pull the baby from her womb, alive and healthy, I breathe a sigh of relief that I’m not going to have to deliver bad news to this family today.

The feeling when, finally, I can put the baby in the husband’s arms and watch as his face splits into complete joy, total delight is like nothing else. Tears spill down his face as he clutches his baby to his chest. “Thank you, doctor.”

“It’s my pleasure,” I say, and I get that ecstatic pang deep in my chest, which reminds me why my job is worth it.

Seeing this shows me just what a family can be. I have made a difference to them. I have changed their lives.

And without knowing it, their love, their bond… it’s changed mine.

I leave the family for some alone time, and for the first time in hours, I allow myself to think about Emma. I walk to the break room, and I allow myself to imagine my own baby in my arms, holding her hand as she undertakes the miracle of life. Looking into my baby’s eyes.

For the first time, I let myself imagine losing her.

That’s the moment when I’m sure, surer than ever, that I’ve made some terrible, horrible mistake. I should never have let Emma Rodriguez go.

I don’t want her to raise our baby alone. I don’t want to be the kind of parent that mine were. I want to be better.

I haven’t known Emma for very long, but she’s shown me how to be better. Because of her, I’m so much more than I was before. As all these realizations hit me, I sink down to the floor, cradling my head in my hands. I’m so exhausted that the tears can’t help but flow.

Being a family isn’t asking me to give up on my job. I can see that now. It’s asking me to be a part of something bigger than I am.

Emma’s shown me that she’s willing to be patient with me, to keep giving me chances, but I don’t want her to have to keep forgiving me. I want to prove that I’m worth all the chances she’s already given me.

I don’t want anything more than I want her.

Now I have to find a way to prove that to her. I just hope to God that she wants me back.

CHAPTER 29

LIAM

It takes a few days to get my thoughts in proper order. I’m still not certain exactly what to do with all these feelings, but the one thing I know for certain is that I have to see Emma again. Even if she doesn’t want to see me, even if she really does want me out of her life forever, we should at least talk about it like adults.

I have to explain to her that it was the surprise that got me when I saw her that day, more than anything. It’s not that I don’t want her. It’s that I wasn’t expecting to see her, and her dropping the baby bomb on me made me panic.

That I’m sorry.

And though her words at Phoebe’s house seem to suggest that this is what she wants to hear, I don’t want to take anything for granted. I need to think my game plan through. I need to do this right.

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