Marie Ferrarella - An Abundance of Babies

“You’re shouting,” she said hoarsely, each syllable throbbing in her head, making it ache. “Why shouldn’t I be able to hear you?”

Relief spread over him in one huge, overwhelming wave. She was conscious. Maybe the cut on her forehead was the worst of it.

Sebastian squatted down beside her, looking into her pupils. He saw no remarkable dilation. “Do you know what day it is?”

Someone was pounding on her head with an anvil. She touched her hand to the pain and felt something sticky against her fingers.

“Third worst day of my life.” She felt Sebastian remove her hand from her forehead. “Maybe the second,” she amended.

Concerning himself exclusively with her condition, he didn’t allow himself to speculate about what she was referring to. With sure, quick movements, Sebastian examined the cut on her forehead and decided it was minor, then passed his hands over each of her limbs to check for any breaks. There were none.

Stephanie found she had to fight to remain conscious. Her head insisted on sending things swirling around. Vaguely she felt Sebastian’s probing hands.

“Hell of a time to get fresh with me, Sebastian,” she rasped weakly. “There’re witnesses.”

His eyes met hers for a moment. She was teasing. For a second, he was propelled across the years, to another time, when teasing had reflected the easy feelings between them.

“Just making sure nothing’s broken,” he assured her. His hand on hers, he sat back on his heels. “There doesn’t seem to be.”

It took two beats before her breath returned to her lungs. That had been a particularly bad one.

“Wrong, Sherlock,” she managed to say. “I think my water just has.”

Damn it, she was going into labor. He could see by the white-knuckled way Stephanie was clutching at his arm. He should have guessed as much. “You’re due?”

“Actually,” she gasped, bracing herself, afraid of another wave of pain, “I’m two weeks early.”

Grabbing onto the steering wheel, Stephanie tried to drag herself out of the car using leverage. To her surprise, she felt Sebastian suddenly taking hold of her arms and easing her out of the vehicle.

Her knees buckled and she would have sunk to the ground if he hadn’t been holding her.

This was it, she thought, trying vainly not to panic. Her heart began to hammer erratically.

Ignoring the people around them, ignoring the recent past, she returned to a place in her life when all she had was Sebastian and looked to him for help. She had no other choice.

“Oh, God, Sebastian, I think they’re coming.”

“They?” His eyes darted toward her belly. Multiple births? He’d thought she’d looked too large to be carrying just one.

She nodded her head and instantly regretted it as fresh pain assaulted her temples. “Twins. I’m having twins.”

Great.

He wouldn’t allow himself to emotionally dwell on it any longer than that. Looking over his shoulder, Sebastian singled out an older woman who was standing almost directly behind him.

“Call 911,” he instructed her. “We need an ambulance.”

“We need a lot more than that,” Stephanie cried, digging her nails into his bare forearms as she struggled to keep from sinking into the pain again. “They are really coming.” She couldn’t emphasize the word enough.

It was common for first-time mothers to panic, Sebastian thought, and Stephanie had just had an accident to strip away her composure and compound her fear. Still holding her, he did his best to sound reassuring.

“Your contractions must have only started a couple of minutes ago.”

She would have laughed at that if she’d had the strength. “A lot you know. They started early this morning.”

She’d actually made a mental note to call Dr. Pollack as soon as she picked up the prescription she’d forgotten to get yesterday. She couldn’t seem to think clearly these days. Everything had gotten all jumbled ever since she’d received news of the car accident that had taken Holly and Brett out of her life and the lives of the children she was carrying.

Now it looked as if making the call was a moot point. If these contractions racking her body were any indication of what was to come, these babies were going to be born long before Dr. Pollack could manage to get here.

She realized that Sebastian was asking her a question and tried to focus on it.

“What?”

“I said, how far apart are they?” he repeated, raising his voice. “The contractions,” he added for good measure. She looked so dazed he wasn’t sure if she was following him.

“Why?” She stared at him blankly. “Are you going to boil some water?” The sarcastic question came out of nowhere. In pain, angry, she just wanted to lash out at someone. His sudden reappearance after a seven-year absence and his close proximity made Sebastian the likeliest candidate.

“I’m a doctor,” he told her simply, his mind working feverishly as he calculated the chances of his forgetting about waiting for the ambulance and just driving to the nearest hospital with Stephanie himself. “An ob-gyn.”

A doctor.

The news stunned her enough to make her forget her pain, at least for a moment. He’d made it. He’d become a doctor. Pride slipped its arms around her, reaching across the bridge of years back from a time when such knowledge would have given her immense pleasure.

Clamping down on her pain, Stephanie looked at him. This is what he’d once told her he wanted to be. Something her father had jeered he would never become. “So, you finally made it.”

The words were whispered, and at first he thought he’d imagined them. Raising his eyes, he looked at her. She’d always been the one who had faith in him. She and his mother.

“Yes, I did.”

And then she was sinking against him, her energy obviously stolen by the force of the latest contraction. Balancing his medical bag in one hand, Sebastian scooped her up in his arms and looked around. He had to find someplace to make her comfortable.

Turning, he saw the woman he’d instructed to call 911 holding up her small cell phone in the air. “They’re coming,” she announced.

“Good.” With any luck, they wouldn’t get here after the fact. But he was beginning to strongly doubt that.

As if reading his expression, a young redhead in tight jeans and an even tighter T-shirt waved to get his attention.

“Here,” she called to him. “You can put her down inside my van.” Hurrying around to the rear of a light blue van, she unlocked the double doors and threw them open. “The floor covering doubles as a mattress,” she said proudly.

As people moved out of his way, Sebastian lost no time in crossing to the van. He managed to place Stephanie on the floor just as she sank all five nails into his arm again. He could almost feel the impact of the contraction right along with her.

“You rip my arm off, I’m not going to be able to use it to help you,” he warned, trying to summon a smile for her benefit. The result barely curved his mouth.

Getting into the van beside her, Sebastian crouched on his heels and reached for the doors. Stephanie was going to need privacy. His eyes met the woman’s. It was, after all, her van.

“Thanks.” He indicated Stephanie beside him. “You want to come inside…?”

But the woman was already backing away, her face growing slightly pale beneath the bold makeup she wore. As if afraid he’d pull her inside, she shoved her hands into her back pockets.

“That’s okay, I’ll just wait for the paramedics and tell them where you are.”

To forestall any further debate, the woman then closed both van doors herself, locking out the curious stares of the people who had not dispersed.