Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction (8 page)

It took a second for the words to sink in but when they did, Riley had that same deer-in-the-headlights look that Nat had minutes earlier. Instead of doing anything, though, he stood like a statue, afraid of what was coming next.

I didn’t have time for him at the moment. I grabbed my keys and headed for the truck, placing Cassie safely in the backseat and strapping her in before running around to the driver’s side and hopping in.

“Alex! Alex!” Nat came barreling out of the house. “You forgot a shirt, dude.”

In my haste, I had forgotten to put a shirt on. I tried to smile, silently thanking Nat before throwing the shirt over my head. Nat jumped in on the passenger side and then we were off. I knew that speeding was really the last thing that Cassie needed at the moment, that safely arriving to the hospital was much more important, but I couldn’t help it. It seemed like every couple of minutes she was letting out that harrowing scream that put ice in my veins. She was all but dying in the backseat, and there was really nothing that I could do about it.

“She’s going to be fine, Alex,” Nat assured me, placing her hand on top of mine.

I looked down pointedly at her hand on mine, prompting her to quickly remove it, then said, “I know. I just want the pain to end. The faster we get her there, the sooner this shit stops.”

We barreled down the road, our headlights the only illumination on the dark, deserted roads. We rolled on through the base’s front gate, quickly arriving at the hospital emergency lane. Nat went and snagged a wheelchair, and I grabbed Cassie from the backseat, placing her in the chair and wheeling her in while Nat took my truck and parked it.

As I pushed Cassie through the door, I called out, “My wife is in labor. She’s yelling and screaming every couple of minutes.”

Thankfully, the night receptionist, an older civilian woman with salt and pepper hair and piercing green eyes, appeared slightly less bored than the guy had earlier. “Okay .
 . . okay. Calm down. Can I have her name?” she said soothingly.

“Cassie Cruz. Lance Corporal Cruz.”

I tossed our IDs on the counter, assuming they would be needed. The receptionist took them and checked us into the system, then called for someone to meet us and take us up to the third floor.

She pointed down the hallway to the elevators, and said warmly, “You’re headed up to labor and delivery. The next time you leave this hospital, you’ll more than likely have a little baby with you. Congratulations.”

As much as I appreciated her sentiments, Cassie was bowing over in pain again, and I couldn’t care less about what she was saying. A corpsman met us on the entry level floor and wheeled Cassie over to the elevators, pressing the button for the third floor. I followed behind him, trying hard to listen to what he saying but unable to focus on anything other than Cassie, her pain-laden screams, and the death grip she had on my hand.

Instead of being taken into the room we had been taken to the day before, we were taken to an actual labor room. Front and center was a large bed that had stirrups on the end. Monitors blinked and beeped everywhere, and there was a baby station for when our little one finally made her way into the world.

“Go ahead and get her undressed and into the gown,” the nurse told me. “I’ll come back to take her vitals, check her, and get the IV started.”

The sight of Cassie’s cheeks wet from her tears made my throat close up as my chest tightened. “Don’t cry, Blondie. You’re about to do something truly fucking amazing.”

She nodded her head but gripped my arm while biting down on her bottom lip, grimacing from a fresh wave of pain. As much as I knew that all of this shit would ultimately be worth it, I couldn’t stop feeling responsible, as if I deserved some sort of punishment for bringing my wife such incredible pain. I loved Cassie too much to ever have her feeling anything less than stellar, and yet, here we were. I needed this shit to hurry and pass so we could hold our baby in our arms, smiling together, laughing at the bullshit that it took to bring her into the world. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

The corpsman walked in and said, “Staff Sergeant, I’m going to check your wife now and see how far she has dilated.”

I shot him a dark frown. “You’re not going to send her home again, are you? I can’t handle this back and forth anymore.”

He sat down at the edge of the bed and worked his hands up to Cassie, watching the ceiling as he felt around. A slight smile spread across his lips, pissing me off. I knew he was only doing his job, but a part of me felt like he enjoyed what he was doing. I was the only guy who was supposed to be in my wife’s pussy, and here was this dickhead, feeling her up. I wanted to wipe that smile right off his face.

“Cassie, you’re four centimeters and definitely in active labor. I’ll have the doctor come in to see you soon. In the meantime, I am going to place this monitor on your belly and get your IV started.”

The corpsman took care of everything he had to do, but Cassie was still clamming up in excruciating pain. The doctor who was supposed to come and see her still hadn’t made his way into the room, and Cassie’s pain was tearing me apart. There was no reason she should have been lying there so long with no help in sight.

Finally there was a knock on the door, making me jump to my feet in anticipation of some relief for Cassie.

“Hey. We’re here,” Nat said, walking through the door with Cassie’s best friend, Dalton.

It was nice that they were here to support Cassie, but my anger was ready to fucking blow. I charged out of the room and headed straight for the nurses’ station.

“My wife had been in there in pain forever. When is someone going to come and see her?”

“What room is your wife in, sir?”

“Room six.”

The nurse, a petite brunette, typed something into the computer before looking up smiling at me with a mouthful of braces. “Commander Johnson is the OB on the floor today, and she’s on her way to your wife’s room. Give her a couple more minutes.”

“My wife is damn near dying in there,” I said through gritted teeth. “We’ve been waiting long enough.” Trying to rein in my emotions, I turned around and stalked back to Cassie’s room.

When I returned, Dalton was sitting in the chair closest to the bed, holding Cassie’s hand as she grimaced and screamed her way through another ungodly contraction. With every scream, a piece of me died. I had no idea the level of pain that she was experiencing, but my heart hurt at the thought of it. I wanted to ease her pain, but I couldn’t. I wanted to wipe away her tears but they just kept coming.

Finally, there was a knock on the door and the doctor stepped into the room. She looked young as hell, not quite what I had in mind.

“Hello, Lance Corporal Cruz. I’m Commander Johnson. I’ll be delivering your baby today. How are you feeling?”

I wanted to snatch this chick up by her hair and scream in her fucking face to take one guess as to how Cassie was feeling. Her shrill screams could be heard up and down this labor and delivery floor, so that was a stupid-ass question to ask her, given the circumstances.

Commander Johnson sat at the edge of the bed and once again, someone had their fucking fingers up in my wife. Cassie took in a sharp breath, panting it out in quick little spurts. Loose hairs stuck to her sweat-coated forehead as she held firmly to my hand on one side and Dalton’s on the other.

“Lance Corporal—”

“Just Cassie,” I corrected her. This was no time for formalities. I wanted Cassie to be seen and treated as any other woman who came in to have a baby.

“Cassie, you’re now five centimeters. Would you like anything for the pain?”

Yes!” I blurted out, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “She’s practically dying. What are the options?”

“Alex! I can speak,” Cassie blurted out, shooting me some vicious eye daggers.

“I know, babe. But I—”

“I can speak.” Cassie turned to the doctor and calmly replied, “I’d like to get an epidural.”

Commander Johnson smiled. “I’ll send the anesthesiologist right in.”

When she left the room, I pulled up a chair and sat down, looking down on Cassie with concern. “Blondie. That epidural thing is a big fucking needle. You can get something in that IV, can’t you? Isn’t that what they told us in those classes?”

“Alex! I can’t deal with this pain any longer. I haven’t slept well in weeks, and I’m just physically tired. The epidural is my best bet.”

“She’ll be fine, Alex,” Nat chimed in. “My sister got that and it was a breeze.”

I looked from Cassie to Nat, making sure I gave her a dirty look, and then back to Cassie. For the first time in what felt like forever, I saw a smile caress her beautifully pouty lips.

“Alex. I’ll be okay.”

A new doctor and the corpsman came back into the room with a tray full of instruments and one long-ass fucking needle. Seeing that thing on a TV screen was one thing, but seeing it in person was another; it made me sick just looking at it.

“Hello, Cassie. I’m Dr. Myers and I’ll be administering your epidural today.”

He went on and on about how he would place it, what she would feel, and so on. He asked for the room to be cleared out, but I stood my ground. No way in the fucking world would he and this shithead kid, that I didn’t know from a stranger on the streets, be left alone with Cassie to push this ridiculous-ass needle into her back.

I made sure he knew that I was staying right where I was, and there would be no discussion about it. Whether he relented because he didn’t want to fight about it, or if he saw the sincerity in my eyes, it didn’t matter. Cassie was my number-one priority, and I would be there to protect and nurture her any way that I could.

Cassie leaned forward, resting her head on my chest. I held her tight, closing my eyes so I didn’t see the needle as it went into her back. She tensed a bit, causing the doctor to stop what he was doing. When she relaxed again, he continued his work. All in all, it was about fifteen minutes later when I laid her back down, and the doctor and the corpsman left, allowing Nat and Dalton to reenter the room.

“How ya doin’, buttercup?” Dalton asked, inching into the room with a candy bar in hand.

“I’m already feeling better. Thanks,” Cassie replied, her eyes slowly but surely shutting.

I wanted her to rest because I knew when the time came, she’d have a hell of a lot of work in front of her.

Dalton, Nat, and I struck up lighthearted conversation but kept our voices low, effectively taking my mind off of Cassie and allowing her to finally get uninterrupted sleep. The corpsman came back a few times, checking to see if she had dilated any further.

An hour after her epidural, she was already at six centimeters. Another hour later, she was at eight to eight and a half. She was moving along rapidly, and the more she progressed, the more nervous I grew.

“Hey, Alex! She’s okay. This is a good thing.”

Nat’s voice broke my nervous rocking in my seat. I hadn’t realized what I was doing until I became aware of it.

“I know.”

“You’re like Chris. That’s why I told him to just stay home.”

“I’m stoked,” Dalton excitedly chimed in. “My little godson will be here any minute now. This is exciting as hell.”

My narrowed eyes rested on him, wiping away his little shit-eating grin. “It’s a girl, Dalton. I know what I put in there.”

He dismissed my words with a wave of his hand. “Whatever that baby is, it’ll be here soon and I’m excited as hell. I’m glad this happened on a weekend, too. I’d be pissed if I had to be at work and I missed this.”

I finally allowed a smile to shine his way. Dalton was everything Cassie had always told me he was, a true, loving friend who loved her with everything he had. I was happy that he was in her life, and would ultimately play a part in our child’s life. Like my own godson, Abel, I wanted my kid to have good, strong influences in her life.

“Shit! Did anyone call my sister, and my
abuelita
?” I asked in a panic.

“I texted Adriana shortly after I got to the hospital,” Nat calmly answered. “She said Abel is sick, so she won’t bring him out here, but to let her know as soon as Cassie has the baby. And your grandmother won’t drive here without Adriana.”

“Okay, but they know? That’s all I care about.”

“Oh, and I called Emmalyn also.” Nat squirmed a little at that admission. She knew that woman was a sore subject for me.

My eyes widened and I sat up straighter, hating the thought of Cassie’s mom being anywhere near us when such joy was about to enter our lives. She had gone to rehab, then checked herself into a more intensive program. For all intents and purposes, she was working hard on not being such a heinous bitch, but after everything she had put Cassie through, I couldn’t see her as the loving grandmother she was attempting to be. She would always be a stain on my mind, a permanent reminder that awful fucking people really do exist in this world. I prayed that something—anything—would keep this woman away.

“What did she say?”

“She asked to be kept in the loop and when Cassie has the baby, she’ll try and come out.”

I couldn’t help the sudden happiness that overcame me. Emmalyn wasn’t going to come and taint the biggest day of our lives, and for that, the woman deserved a fucking medal.