Page 22 of Deadly Rescue
Sophie’s lower lip quivered. “I don’t understand.”
“Breach means the baby is turned feet down. If so, I’m going to have to go in and manually turn it into the correct birthing position.”
“I know what breach means,” Sophie snarled. “I mean, I don’t understand how that happened. My last ultrasound showed both babies were head down.”
“Not to worry,” Leo assured her easily, though his smile didn’t reach his eyes.
He was worried, Celina could tell.Please God, she prayed,please don’t let us lose this baby.
“What’s happening?” Nelson demanded.
“The baby’s head isn’t down, so it can’t come through the birth canal like a normal birth,” Leo explained loud enough for Nelson to hear. He grimaced when a sob rose from Sophie. “I’m going to turn the baby to a head-down position.”
If they were going to have any chance at all of delivering the baby safely, this was their only option. The words hung heavy in the air, not needing to be said.
“Soph,” Nelson’s voice cracked over the line, and Celina swallowed, a fresh wave of tears filling her eyes at the fear in his voice. Cooper met her stare, his own worry evident all over his face.
“We’ll be fine, Nelson,” Sophie assured her husband. Needing to be strong for him, she seemed to have mustered some renewed energy. “We’ve got the best doctor in town delivering our babies, don’t we, Dr. Garland? I have faith.”
Celina pressed her lips together and hoped that faith was enough.
6
Sweat trickleddown his spine as Cooper watched the scene unfolding in front of him.
Nelson should be the one here watching the miracle of his children being born.Sophie should be safe, in a hospital, where a problem like a breach baby could be easily taken care of.
This was wrong on so many levels, and Cooper was pissed that it was even happening. His hands itched to put a fist through the person responsible for the bombing.
“Once I get the baby turned, I need you to be standing by with the suction tube,” Leo told him quietly, face grave. They had stepped to the improvised incubator to check on the baby boy lying there asleep. “Sophie’s been in hard labor for a little while now, and there’s a chance with the baby turned, it has fluid in its lungs that I’ll need to clear right away.”
Lowering his voice to a near whisper, he asked, “How certain are you that you can do this?” Not only was the baby’s life on the line, but Sophie’s as well. If anything happened to either of them, Nelson would never recover.Fuck.
“Honestly,” Leo murmured, “it depends on how far down the baby is. I really won’t know until I get in there.”
Cooper lifted his gaze to Sophie, then to Celina, who was doing her best to comfort the mom-to-be. Polly, their cheerleader, was also trying to buoy her spirits, but Polly’s face was as fearful as the rest. Even Nelson was silent, waiting to hear something,anything, that would give him an indication things were going to be okay. The tension in the room was thick.
This was a nightmare, and Cooper was helpless to do anything more than stand back and assist Leo however he could. Flashbacks to Via’s birth and feeling helpless to relieve Celina’s pain crawled over him.
“Okay, Sophie, you ready?” Leo clapped his hands, fresh gloves in place, and went back to his spot at the foot of the bed.
Sophie took a couple of deep breaths and nodded. She called “I love you, Nels,” to the phone.
“No matter what happens,” Nelson called back, “we will get through this, Soph. You and me. We’ve been through hell and back before, and we will get through this too, you hear me? You are an amazing woman and you have a fantastic team there with you. You can do this.”
Tears fell from Sophie’s eyes, but she clamped her jaw, not wanting her husband to know how scared she was. “Everything is fine,” she ground out, convincing herself along with the rest of them, it seemed. She took another deep breath and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Leo’s hand disappeared under the sheet, the other massaged her belly, as he spoke in low soothing tones to her. She cried out a couple of times and Leo stopped, everyone holding their breath, before he resumed his quest.
Sophie’s face pinched in pain but told Leo to keep going, no matter what. Cooper inched closer, the suction tube gripped tightly in his hand like it was a lifeline.
In a way, it was, especially if Leo was correct and the baby had swallowed any fluid.
Leo nodded. “Okay, okay. That’s it. Just a little bit more…”
This was it, the moment of truth.
“The baby isn’t turned too far out of place, which is great. I almost have it,” Leo promised, a bead of sweat slipping down the side of his face.
