Page 70 of Doctor Daddy

I tried to copy him and inhale through my nose. When he blew out through his mouth, I did the same. His eyes never left mine, and at some point, his hand wrapped around one of mine.

“Good, that’s good. I’m going to check on the baby’s position. This might be a little uncomfortable.”

I gasped at the understatement as his hands invaded my already tender and sore body. I was in so much pain. I liked to think that I was fully aware of what was happening the entire time, but I knew that wasn’t the case. People moved about, had another obstetrics physician arrived to help? My baby girl was taken away and wrapped in a sheet.

Jason no longer held my knee. A woman now did that job. I didn’t know who she was. She was in casual clothes, but she seemed as competent as Mark, not panicked like Jason.

Where had Jason gone? For some reason, he had become my anchor to reality through this ordeal.

Jason held my girl nearby so I could reach up and touch her.

“She’s beautiful, Brooke.”

My strawberry girl. I couldn’t remember any of the thousands of names Angela and I had come up with over the past several months. Strawberry and Summer were all I could think of.

Time moved in strange bursts, where everything moved so quickly, and then in long drawn-out moments that lasted an eternity. I was either in a great deal of pain, or I was floating. I had to touch my baby or have someone hold my hand, so I knew how to stay grounded.

“Brooke, you need to push.” The words broke through my fog of floating and pain.

“Hang in there with me Brooke, you need to push honey, push.” Mark wanted me to push. I wanted to push, but something in me reminded me that I was pissed off at him, and how dare he tell me what to do. I wasn’t going to do a damned thing that man told me to do.

Another voice cut through the haze in my brain. “We need you to push, Brooke.”

I liked that voice, that voice made sense. Yes push, it was time to push and push hard.

I screamed through the pain.

At some point, the second baby was born, and I held another new-born against my chest. I didn’t remember her being taken from me, but I did remember two swaddled babies being placed in my arms. And the look of amazement on Mark’s face was suddenly replaced with no emotion.

Someone said something about the emergency crew finally arriving.

I looked up and saw firemen in heavy boots running toward me. I didn’t want them to take my babies, but the woman, who I later found out was indeed another doctor, assured me that it was so they could be examined. They were safe and cared for. I was so exhausted. The constant pain that had taken over my body left me limp and achy.

Mark spoke with authority and competence, but I wasn’t sure what he was telling them about me. I vaguely remembered having my temperature taken, along with my blood pressure. I watched them slide a needle into my arm with disinterest as if I was watching them do that to someone else.

I was hooked up to a line of fluids before they eased me onto a gurney.

“Where are my babies?”

“They are right here,” someone said.

My gaze followed where they were pointing. My babies were in clear plastic baskets.

“I want to hold them.”

“They’ll be safe in the baskets for the ambulance ride. You can’t hold them right now.”

It made sense. Of course, they would be safe. Mark was with them right now. Did he know they were his? I felt the urge to tell him the truth.

Memories of why I hadn’t told him flitted in and out of the fog I was still under. I hadn’t told him because I didn’t know if I could trust him. I didn’t know if I had been the only woman he had been seeing. How many kids did he have out there? How many that he knew about? How many he didn’t know about?

“How’s your pain level?” A large face blocked my view.

“What?” No one had bothered to ask about the pain before, why now?

“Your pain level?”

“Yes, pain level,” I managed to say. “Pain.”

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