Page 83 of Not the Bodyguard's Widow
“Kimberly, I need Alex to tell me if he sees the head. Alex, don’t be a prude.” Mrs. Capps voice grew fainter with each sentence.
To his surprise, Kimberly pulled up her nightshirt. “I don’t care, Alex. Just get it out!”
“I see the head!”
“Do you see anything resembling a cord?”
“No.”
“Good.” Mrs. Capps pushed herself up on one elbow. “Kimberly, if you feel like pushing with this next contraction, push.”
Kimberly grabbed Alex’s hand, her nails biting into his skin as she bore down, but Alex forgot about his own pain when the head appeared.
“Good job. Breathe, and the next contraction will be your last... okay, push! You’re doing great.”
Alex put one hand under the baby’s head, the other under its back.
“It’s a boy.” Alex stated the most obvious.
“Wrap him in one of those blankets. Cord can wait. Kimberly, sit up if... you...” Mrs. Capps’s voice faded.
“Mrs. Capps!”
Alex looked over at the unconscious midwife, then back at Kimberly.
“Go.” She nodded toward Mrs. Capps. Alex turned the recliner around so Kimberly could sit down with the baby.
A voice in his ear reminded him Alan was still listening. “Paramedics one minute out. Police and FBI in three.”
Alex checked Mrs. Capps’s pulse. “I think she fainted.”
He could hear the sirens blaring.
“Give me a blanket! I don’t want to be so exposed.”
Alex hurried to comply as red-and-blue flashing lights lit the room.
* * *
Kimberly held her baby tight as a flurry of activity erupted around them, the medical personnel and police calling out to each other across the room and throughout the house. After being in the low-wattage emergency lighting for so long, the high-powered flashlights were blinding. Her baby cried, and the shouting stopped.
Alex knelt by her side as he spoke to the EMTs. “See to Mrs. Capps first. I think he threw her against the wall. She said she couldn’t get up. I tied the perp up in the bathroom. He will tell you he’s FBI, which is technically true, but he’s responsible for hurting Mrs. Capps and for whatever happened to the bodyguards out front.”
A paramedic paused in front of Kimberly, then turned to one of the police officers. “Order a second ambulance.”
Kimberly grabbed Alex’s arm. “No, I don’t want to go.”
“Look, ma’am, with Mrs. Capps unconscious, it’s your only option. If we didn’t have so many calls tonight, we could stay here while you delivered the placenta and maybe get Mrs. Capps’s daughter out here, but that isn’t possible.”
“You know her?”
“Delivered me twenty-three years ago. We will take good care of both of you,” the paramedic said, then wrapped a blanket around Kimberly’s shoulders.
Alex smoothed her hair. “I won’t leave you.”
“I know,” she said as the lights blinked twice, then came on.
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