Missy's Gentle Giant (33 page)

“Don’t worry, the doctor says the
baby has to sleep too.”

Missy prayed for strength. 
Now came there ongoing argument.  One more reason for him to want to hire
a nurse.  Every time something changed they went through the battle. 
Near noon, Missy won another round.

The doctor had to tell Ben about
the multiple birth when she was five months.  For one thing Ben became
suspicious when the doctor stepped up Missy’s visits.  Sure she was
getting too big and must be having problems, Ben went to ask about Missy having
surgery rather than suffer through labor.  After hearing the news, Ben sat
in stunned silence for nearly fifteen minutes.  During this time the
doctor lectured him how Missy was perfectly normal and doing just fine.

All through the ride home, Missy
expected some kind of reaction from him—anything from anger to joy or laughter
or screaming.  She got silence.  She expected Ben to launch into his
“hire a nurse” argument, but he didn’t.  When they got home, he dropped
his jacket on the sofa and wandered into the library.  When Missy passed
several minutes later, she saw him on the phone and stopped dead in her tracks.

“Mom, please tell me again what the
doctors said about Connie’s birth anomalies.”

Tears filled her eyes and she ran
upstairs.  Oh, how he was suffering!  It was quite late when Ben
finally came up, stripped slowly and crawled under the covers.  He sat
against the headboard with his arm over his eyes for a moment, then pulled her
up into his arms and kissed her hair.  Slowly his hand snaked down to her
abdomen and touched it.

“Everything’s going to be all
right, Ben.”  She tried to raise her head to kiss him, but he held her
pressed against him.  After several moments of silence, he wiped his eyes,
released her and kissed her forehead as she looked up.

“Yes, it is.”  His tongue
touched hers.  After a hard and angry kiss, he pulled away from her. 
“I talked to Mom, and she told me again it wasn’t my fault about Connie—it was
congenital.”  He kissed her nose.  “Mom says there’s even an
advantage to twins—smaller babies and only one labor.”

Many things changed after that
night, though.  Ben finally won the battle about the nurse.  It was
either a nurse or he’d station one of her brothers constantly staying with her
at the house.  Her brothers were just about as bad as Ben now, since they learned
twins were expected, so Missy consented to the nurse.  But Missy saw
everyone’s assurances hadn’t helped Ben.  Neither one of them wanted to
think about the fact a congenital problem might be carried to one of their
babies. 

As she became more uncomfortable,
Ben cared for her without complaining.  But sometimes she’d wake up in the
middle of the night and see him standing and staring out their bedroom
window.  Missy learned from the doctor finally how Ben had called from the
office one day worried Connie’s congenital anomaly might be
hereditary—something Ben could pass on.  Neither the doctor nor Missy
could find a way to assure him this would never happen.

Chapter Sixteen

Exactly one week before Missy
reached her seventh month, they went to her parent’s home for an anniversary
celebration.  Her parents had been married forty years, and they had planned
a small family dinner since her father was still a little under the
weather.  After dinner Missy helped her mother in the kitchen while Ben
joined the guys in the living room watching football.

Missy leaned with her hands on the
counter when the first cramp hit her and her breath caught.  She chose to
ignore it.  After all, Dr. Garcia had told her there would be some
cramping here and there, especially since she was so big.  She decided she
might as well get used to it.  Smiling, she followed her mother into the
living room.  The guys were arguing over the football game and oblivious
to anything else.  Over the next hour Missy felt several harder
cramps.  A little worried, she wandered out to the kitchen for a glass of
water.  Slowly she sat at the table when another cramp hit her lower
back.  This one hurt.  Reluctantly she rose and went to the living
room.  Ben was totally absorbed in the game, but she went and sat on his
lap anyway.  He put his arm around her in a hug, and she pulled his hand into
hers.

With her hand, she told him she
wanted to go.  Ben wasn’t paying any attention.  His hand slid down
to her abdomen lovingly; he kissed her cheek and turned his attention back to
the game.  Missy sighed heavily, got up and went back to the kitchen. 
When the next cramp hit her, she doubled over and put her head on the table.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”  Ben
put his beer on the table and pulled her around in his arms.

“I—I think it’s time.”  She
fought tears.

“It can’t be; it’s too
early!”  Ben swept her up in his arms and raced through the living room.

Mrs. Sanchez jumped up. 
“Missy, is it—”

“Yes Mama, I think so.”  Missy
tried to smile.  The door slammed and Ben pushed her into the car. 
When he screeched away from the house, her brothers looked up in shocked
surprise.  Then all hell broke loose.

Fifteen minutes later Ben rushed
into the hospital screaming like a madman.  The nurses called Dr. Garcia,
who told them he’d already been called three times, and he was on his way.

The patrol car Ben flew past
started his blue lights rolling and was bent in hot pursuit when four cars
passed him.  The officer called for reinforcements, turned on his siren
and pulled all of them over.  While the officers yanked speeding tickets
from their pads, Dr. Garcia flew by.  Gonzalo was nearly arrested for
telling the officer off.  Instead he yanked the ticket from the officer’s
hand, jumped back in his car and took off like a bat out of hell.  The
other three cars followed him.  Officers lunged for their cars and began
pursuit again.

When Dr. Garcia arrived, the nurses
were screaming at Ben, and he was yelling at them.  Dr. Garcia took a deep
breath and waved his way through. 

“Everyone shut up!”  He
yelled.  There was instant silence.  He smiled at Missy.  “How
many cramps have you had?”

“A couple of dozen.”  Missy’s
dimples showed.

“Fine.”  Dr. Garcia’s eyes
flashed toward Ben.  “Now if you think you can be quiet Mr. Spinelli, I
will allow you to stay with Missy as long as possible.”  His angry glare
shot to the nurses.  “Do you agree Mr. Spinelli?”

“I’ll be quiet.”  Ben glared
at the nurses.

“Fine.”  Dr. Garcia motioned
for the nurses to leave.  “Missy, I’ll be back in a moment.”

Missy smiled but she saw Dr.
Garcia’s frustrated look.  While Ben tried to assure Missy of his love,
all the pain and worry he was going through showed in his eyes and drawn
face.  Shaking his head, Dr. Garcia turned and went to deal with the angry
nurses.

“All right ladies, we have a
multiple birth coming up, and a very worried father, and I’ll need your
cooperation.”

The doctor finally got the nurses
to agree to be patient and went in to check Missy.  During the doctor’s
examination, Ben paced outside the room and followed the nurses’ every move
with worried eyes.  It became obvious he couldn’t stay for the delivery. 
Dr. Garcia talked to Missy about not having Ben stay in the delivery room and
suggested her mother would be better.  Missy agreed.

Suddenly the nurses were greeted
with a crowd of ten men and one woman hurrying into the waiting room followed
by four very angry policemen.  Dr. Garcia came out of Missy’s room and
smiled.  Thank God, the troops had arrived.  Now he could get on with
this delivery.  After the officers issued more tickets and left, an
anxious quiet descended on the waiting room.

For four more hours Ben continued
to be cooperative.  The doctor had checked Missy several times and said
she was progressing normally.  In the meantime he made some phone
calls.  One was to have Missy’s most recent sonograms brought up by his
assistant.  Another was to have another sonogram done.  And last, he
called for a pediatrician.  By now Missy was really hurting and couldn’t
hide it.  She groaned with a pain and shoved Ben’s hand away when he tried
to rub her abdomen.  He groaned like an injured animal.

“Damn, honey!”  He bit his lip
in anger.

“It’s all right.”  Missy tried
to talk some sense to him.  “Dr. Garcia says there’s never more than
twenty.”

“Twenty hell!  He should put
you to sleep.”  Ben fumed.

“It will hurt the babies.”

“I’m worried about you.”  He
tried to hold her through another pain.  “Where the hell is the bas—”

Dr. Garcia smiled in the doorway
and went to the waiting room.  “Mrs. Sanchez, Missy’s doing just fine and
will deliver soon, but I need to get Ben out of there.”  He glanced at her
sons.  “Do you think your boys could get him?”

“You mean carry him out?”  Her
eyes opened wide.

“I certainly do, and keep him out.”

Mrs. Sanchez turned a wary eye to
her sons and shook her head.  “Missy will have to tell him to leave. 
I don’t think my boys want to take him on again.”

Dr. Garcia’s mouth dropped
open.  “Again?”

“Gonzalo come here.”  Mrs.
Sanchez beckoned.

“Yeah, Mom.”

“Dr. Garcia needs to get Ben out of
there.  See if you can help me.”  The doctor watched in stunned
silence as Mrs. Sanchez and her son walked into the labor room

“It’s time for me to take Missy to
the delivery room, Ben.”  Dr. Garcia’s voice was shaky.

“Yes and you’ll have to wait with
us.”  Gonzalo spoke up.

Ben’s head whirled around to glare
at Gonzalo.  “No way!”

“Yes, Ben. “  Missy’s dimples
shined for him.

“Honey?” 

“Go with Gonzalo.  I’m fine
and Mom will be with me.  Please go, Ben.”  She could feel another
pain coming and tried to hide her eyes.

“I’ll stay with her, Ben.” 
Mrs. Sanchez swept over to the bed and began soothing words to Missy.

“Missy?  Honey?”  Ben’s
eyes grew frightened.

“Please Ben, go with Gonzalo and
tell him why you’re so worried.  I’ll be all right.”

“You want me to leave you?” 
Ben fought tears.

“Yes please, I’m fine.”  She
forced a smile before the urge to push hit her, and Gonzalo quickly grabbed
Ben’s arm.  Stunned Missy didn’t want him with her, Ben allowed himself to
be led from the room.  Nervously he fingered the bracelet he’d worn on his
wrist since his trip to New York.

Gonzalo walked with Ben clear to
the end of the hall and back several times before Ben finally talked about
Connie.  Up until then no one but Missy had known about her.  Gonzalo
listened in stunned silence and suddenly understood what Ben was going
through—why assurances the babies would be normal wasn’t enough—why Ben feared
losing Missy during labor.  How Ben worried he’d passed on an anomaly to
these babies.  Behind Ben’s words he saw also some of the complexities
which made up his friend Charger, the giant who could be so wild and violent
one moment and so gentle with his sister.  Gonzalo could think of nothing
to say to make Ben feel better, so he silently listened and kept Ben walking
and talking. 

Off in a corner at least six other
guys paced in a circle too.  Beads of sweat formed on Gonzalo’s forehead
every time he glanced at the clock.  It was taking too damn long! 
Once he signaled for someone to bring some coffee.  He tried to keep Ben’s
eyes averted when a doctor rushed out of the elevator and into the delivery
section, then charge to the nursery.  If Ben noticed the doctor, any of
the nurses running back and forth or the sudden rush of nursery equipment, he
didn’t show it.  He seemed determined not to see anything and kept his
eyes locked on the floor, and Gonzalo was glad for it. 

Exactly two and a half hours later,
Ben stopped in front of the clock and refused to budge.  Gonzalo felt
total relief when Dr. Garcia came into the waiting room all smiles followed by
Mrs. Sanchez who had tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Missy?”  Ben’s eyes showed
nothing but fear and pain.  He fingered the bracelet.

“She’s fine.  You’ll be able
to see her in a few minutes.” 

Gonzalo watched relief wave through
Ben and tears flood his eyes.  Everyone waited for Ben to ask the next
question, but he couldn’t.

“And the babies?”  Gonzalo
asked for him.

They’re fine.”  Mrs. Sanchez
grinned.  “Tiny as can be, but so far they’re fine.”

“Yes, the pediatrician says they’re
doing amazingly well.”  Dr. Garcia laughed.

“Pediatrician?”  Ben’s head
jerked up.  “Was there some problem?”

“No Ben, since they’re premature,
we wanted to be sure with them.  And since they just weigh over two pounds
each—”

“Only two pounds?”  Ben’s eyes
opened wider.  Missy had been too big.

“Two beautiful boys—”  Mrs.
Sanchez smiled.

“Boys?”  Ben’s heart raced.

“Yes, and two beautiful little
girls.”  She smiled through tears.

“Girls?”

Dr. Garcia looked at Ben with a
wide grin.  “Yes Ben. two sets—identical twins.”  To everyone’s
surprise, Ben’s huge body fell with a thud on the floor.  “I’ll be
damned!”  Dr. Garcia laughed.  “Who’d have thought he’d faint?”

Gonzalo grinned at the
doctor.  Then he signaled for his brothers to come and help put Ben in a
chair before he awakened.  Not one of the Sanchez family would ever dare
say a word about this.  No need to make an issue of such a little
weakness.  After all, how many men find out they have just become the
father of four just like that?  

Two hours later Ben sat on Missy’s
bed gently caressing her by brushing hair away from her sleeping face. 
His eyes showed nothing but love.  Slowly she opened her eyes, turned her
head to kiss his hand and then turned back to smile at him.