Page 68 of Dubious Match
Turning, I see Brice stand and walk over to me.
“Are you okay? I mean, you don’t look hurt. Why are you here?” he asks.
“I have a client who is having some distress,” I explain. “I’m basically going to be living at the hospital until she gives birth.”
“Oh good,” he says, looking relieved. “Not that she and the baby are in distress, but that you’re okay.”
“Brice?” I ask. “Why are you here?”
I wasn’t going to ask, but he looks miserable. They’ve always been so kind to me, I want to try to help if possible.
“Someone really special to us was beaten at an event we were at today,” he says. “Malcolm is with her now. We’re waiting to see how bad it is. There’s definitely broken ribs, and she was covered in blood.”
My jaw drops and I look back at the swinging doors as if I can see her. I just…wow.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “What happened to the people who did that to her?”
“Dead,” Brice grunts. “They didn’t make it more than a few steps from my understanding before they were shot on sight.”
He says it without emotion, and I don’t know if he’s saying that a police officer did it or someone else.
“I’m so sorry,” I breathe. “I really do believe in the power of positive thoughts. It sounds dumb, but I promise it helps. Think of her well. She sounds really special.”
“She is. Somehow she was able to still speak right up until she passed out,” he says.
“Ready, Nova? I can take you back now,” the nurse says.
Torn, I look between them and Brice reaches out and squeezes my hand.
“Duty calls. Go do your thing,” he says. “It looks like we’ll be here for a while too.”
Nodding, I say goodbye and follow the nurse.
“Okay, you’re going to stay in emergency for a bit until she’s cleared to go up to maternity,” the nurse explains. “We just have to monitor her.”
“Of course,” I say, nodding.
I expect all of that, and as long as the bleeding is controlled and the baby and Katee are safe, I’ll advocate for her to be able tomove around. She’s not a fall risk currently, so I’ll just play it by ear to see what the hospital will allow.
I honestly feel better being here just in case we need emergent care.
The nurse shows me to the “room” which is a cordoned off area and I smile reassuringly at Katee as I step inside.
“How are we?” I ask, coming to put the bags down and sitting beside her.
“Trying to breathe,” she says. “It feels like the pain is on top of each other.”
“Let’s time them,” I suggest, pulling out my phone to use my contraction app. “Tell me when it starts?”
My other hand moves to her stomach, because I can feel how it relaxes and tenses. Katee manages a deep breath as her stomach releases its tension and then moans as it almost immediately goes rock hard.
Umm. Okay then. The timer says that they’re forty-five seconds long and in fact on top of each other. I once had a client this happened to, and it was because nothing in her life felt right. Everything was chaos, I was the back up travel midwife so she didn’t know me, and she informed me that I was to not enter the room without permission.
So, I sat outside and listened to her labor, and watched her pack take damn good care of her. As soon as I was gone and things began to feel a bit more stable, the contractions began to show progression. Mom swayed, labored on the toilet, and then finally tried to nap when things got really rough.
By the time I was asked to check on her, she was fully dilated and ready to get up and push.
I’m just here as the catch-fail sometimes. I love when I’m not needed outside of small checks.
