Page 29 of Dirty Doctor
“This breathing stuff is bullshit,” I growl. “It’s. Not. Helping.”
“Tell me about it,” Darcy mutters. “I had seven without any drugs.”
My eyes widen as the contraction eases. “Seven?!” Shaking my head, I whine and toss my head to the right as a wave of nausea hits me.
Darcy steers us toward the elevator. “Yup. Seven kids in ten years.” I physically begin to retch from the pain, and Darcy chuckles, holding out a barf bag. “If you’re feeling sick, it means the baby is close.”
I manage to keep the vomit at bay for another minute. The elevator doors slide open, and Darcy maneuvers us inside. The nurse, already inside the elevator, gives me a pitying look, but I don’t care. I can hardly concentrate. The only thing I feel is pressure in my butt.
“I need to use the restroom,” The urgency in my voice is quite evident. “And you need to call the anesthesiologist, because I can’t go another minute without an epidural.”
Darcy smirks at the other nurse, and they share a look I lack the energy to decipher.
“I don’t think the anesthesiologist will make it in time,” Darcy answers, her voice sounding perky and chipper.
I’m about to ask her why the hell not when the elevator doors open, and Luke is there–pacing back and forth with a worried look on his face.
“Langley,” he breathes, bending down and giving me a quick kiss as Darcy ushers us down the hall to the maternity ward. Luke jogs next to us. “I left for work only an hour ago and you were fine,” he says, disbelief heavy in his voice. “How did you even get here?”
Another contraction rolls through me, and I hold a finger up as I breathe through it.
Holy mother of God, this shit fucking hurts.
Whimpering, I wait for it to level off, and once it does, I look up at Luke.
“I drove myself.”
There’s a flash of fury on his face then, but he must decide against arguing about it.
“You should’ve called an ambulance—”
I sigh. “I’m fine. It was fine.”
Luke glares at Darcy, and she raises her eyebrows and looks away. He rests his hand on my bare knee. I’d barely had time to get dressed after my water broke. I’d been having Braxton Hicks contractions for days. They were slightly uncomfortable, but manageable. About thirty minutes after Luke left for work this morning—something I had to practically force him to do, seeing as I was over a week past my due date—my water broke as I was stepping out of the shower. I expected to be in labor all day before things got bad, but about five minutes later, all hell broke loose, and I panicked. I grabbed the closest thing to wear, which happened to be a loose maternity dress. When I stormed into the ER, demanding someone find my husband, Darcy spotted me and forced me onto a gurney, and, well… here we are.
“I haven’t checked her,” Darcy chimes in. “I’ll leave that to the labor and delivery nurses.” She stops in front of a room. “This is the room. They knew we were coming, so they got it all set up. I’ll go to the station to let them know I put you in here.” She squeezes my hand. “Good luck.”
Luke nods, then helps me off of the gurney and into the delivery room as Darcy walks away. The contractions worsen, and I eventually take my dress off, walking around in just a bra. The pressure is unbearable, and to my horror, Luke tells me it’s because my body is getting ready to push the baby out.
One of the L&D nurses comes in, checking me between a contraction. Grinning at me, she discards her glove into the trash.
“You’re fully dilated, Langley. Do you want to push now, or do you need a moment to—”
A head shake; that’s all I can manage right now.. “Baby. Out.” I climb into the bed and get my feet into the stirrups, yelling as a contraction hits. Immediately after, I climb right back out of the bed. “Nope. I can’t push like that.”
A look passes between Luke and the nurse. She walks over to me and touches my arm, but I pull away. I feel like an injured animal—I only want to be left alone. Blowing the damp hair out of my eyes, I hold on to the side of the bed as I lean over.
“Just go wherever you’re most comfortable,” she says gently, then looks at Luke again. “Should we even bother with monitoring the baby at this point, or an IV?”
He shakes his head, pulling something from his pocket. I recognize it as a doppler. “No. I’ll check the baby's heart rate with this and keep an eye on Langley.”
She nods, pulling on a plastic cover, hair cap, and gloves. “Langley, do you think you want to try pushing?”
I nod. Anything to get this demonic thing out of me.
She places her hand on my bare stomach. “Okay, it feels like you’re having a contraction again.” And I just want to smack her as I close my eyes and scream,No shit.It feels like my body is being ripped in two. “Push, Langley.”
I let out a feral cry as I push, but nothing happens. The contraction ends, and I reach out for Luke. He lets me hang off of him, and I feel him kiss my forehead.
