Page 68 of Doctor Daddy

“Brooke, when I tell you to push, I need you to grab your knees and really push. The baby is almost here.”

I placed my hand on her so I could gauge when her next contraction was.

“Push now.” I directed.

She screamed as she curled up over her belly and pushed. I checked her progress. Everything looked good. With a gasp, she released her knees and fell back.

“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.” Her head fell back as she panted.

“You’ve got this. You’re doing really well. I need you to push again.”

Brooke screamed in agony again. She curled up as instructed.

It was hard to see her in this much pain, sweat streamed down her face. Hair plastered to her skin. Jason lifted his hand and brushed the hair away from her face. I shot a glare at him. Who was he to her? I closed my eyes and shook off the sudden and uncalled-for jealousy. He was her co-worker; he was helping her with this delivery. The rest was none of my business.

“You’re doing good, you’re doing good,” I kept saying. “Do you want somebody to call the father?”

She was in the middle of pushing and she managed to open her eyes and glare at me with the fury of a thousand suns.

She laid back with a sob. I checked her progress, and she was doing well but she was in a lot of pain.

“Do you want somebody to call the father?” I repeated myself.

“There is no father,” she panted.

“Brooke. You didn’t get this way from immaculate conception.”

She gritted her teeth and bore down on another contraction and when it was over, she panted hard. “I didn’t get this way with any help from you,” she bit out.

She was right, I wasn’t the one who got her here. But I was here now, she would have to deal with that.

She lay back, exhausted, panting hard.

“On this next contraction, I want you to try to breathe through it instead of bearing down.”

“What do you mean, breathe through it? Isn’t that what I’ve been doing?”

“You haven’t attended any birth coaching classes, have you?”

“What the hell is a birth coaching class?”

“You mean like when they tell you to breathe like this?” Jason asked and then demonstrated fast breathing through puckered lips. “Like they always do on TV?”

I nodded. “Yeah, like that. Only not so fast.”

I had my hand back on her belly. I felt the muscles harden. “Brooke, look at me, breathe.” I let out a long slow breath. I exaggerated my motions, inhaling, and then blowing another breath out.

She kept her eyes locked with mine as she mimicked my breathing.

“Good, just like that.”

She lay back and looked up. This was hard work, and she was doing an excellent job.

“Is that emergency crew here yet?” I asked.

The staff members I looked at just stood there and shook their heads. They probably didn’t know what to do in an emergency situation. I needed answers.

“Well go find out,” I barked. I returned my attention to Brooke. “Are you ready to do this again? This time, you need to really push.”

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