Runaway: The Sequel to Secrets, a sexy and dramatic western romance (Finding Love ~ THE OUTSIDER SERIES) (16 page)

“I don’t care. I’m getting you to the hospital if I have to wrap you in a blanket and carry you naked.”

“Andy,” Jed shouted up, “Diana’s on the phone inside with her doctor. She’s on her way, but she has to drive past us. She said Laura’s contractions sound too close together. She’ll be here first if you want to wait. She also said to call an ambulance. Don’t drive, or you may be delivering on the side of the road.”

“Andy
, there’s another one coming.”

Andy had her lean against the bed rail, his hand pressed into her back
. “Come on, breathe through it. You know this. We learned all of this. Let it go; focus on your breath.” His voice and the strength in it brought her through and over the peak of the pain, his hand rubbing her lower back as if he knew instinctively where the pressure and burning ache came from.

“Andy
, oh my God, it hurts.”

“I know it does
,” Andy said. His voice was her anchor, and he spoke deeply and softly. She held on to that, just like his arm, which snaked around her front, holding her shoulders. She reached for his forearm and held tight. She felt weak and tired when it passed, but she’d only just started.

Footsteps pounded up the stairs again
. “Diana’s calling an ambulance. Her doctor’s here, Doctor Caldwell.”

Laura was still holding the bedframe when a dark
, mocha-skinned doctor with light brown eyes and dark hair pulled tight in a ponytail set a bag on the table.

“Hi
, you must be Laura. When was your last contraction, honey?”

“She just had it
,” Andy said. “I’m her husband, Andy. Did Diana and Jed tell you why she called?”

“
Quite a tale I was told. Don’t know if I believe it, but let’s get your wife settled and looked after. Laura, I want you back on the bed so I can check you and see how far you’ve progressed.”

Andy helped Laura back on the bed.

“Let’s get your pants off, too.” The doctor was short and a little on the chunky side. She had full, dark lips and a no-bullshit attitude that made Laura want to trust her. “Jed, I’m going to need some towels here, too. Laura, it looks like you’re leaking some amniotic fluid.”

“My water broke
. The bed is wet,” Laura said.

Andy slid off her pants
. “Come on, Laura. Lift your butt.”

The doctor pulled a rubber glove from her bag and slipped it on. “If you feel a contraction
, you need to tell me.” She slipped her fingers inside and stared up at Andy. Jed was just outside the bathroom. The doctor shook her head. “Jed, see if the paramedics are here. Laura, you’re ten centimeters, honey, fully dilated. I’m going to need you to start pushing.”

“Well
, how can that be? My labor started not long ago.”

“Any back pain
?” she asked and reached for the towels Jed held out to her.

“Yeah
, last night or tonight when I left, my back was killing me all the way here. That was around nine. I don’t even know what time it is!” Laura cried.

“
It’s four in the morning, way too early for anyone in their right mind to be up. Jed, also, when you’re down there to get the paramedics, tell them I need a clamp and mask. They’ll know. Just tell them Mom’s in active labor, twins early at...” She hesitated and looked to Andy just as Laura felt another contraction pull her in. The muscles tightened her back, her thighs, across her belly and went on and on.

“She’s
thirty-three weeks,” Andy said as he rested his hand on Laura’s bare hip.

“Oh
, I need to push!” she screamed, grabbing the side of the mattress and squeezing it.

“Okay
, Laura, how do you want to deliver? On your side, your back?” the doctor asked, but Laura couldn’t answer. “Andy, get behind your wife. Get her up. Laura, legs apart. Come on. You’re going to push when I tell you and push with the contraction.”

The doctor slid a towel under her bu
tt, and Andy’s shirt was pushed up.

Andy was behind her
, and he had her lean against him and took both her hands in his. He kissed her cheek. “You can do this.”

“As soon as the next contraction hits
, I want you to start pushing,” the doctor said. She rested her hand on Laura’s knee, pushing it open wider.

It was so fast
, the power of the next contraction, that they were almost on top of each other, so strong she felt as if they were ripping her apart. She screamed as she pushed, and Andy was loud and demanding in her ear, telling her to push, to keep going.

“I can see the head. Stop pushing
, Laura.”

“Oh
, it hurts,” she cried out and rolled her head against Andy’s shoulder. “Andy, I can’t do this. It hurts so much.”

“Yes
, you can,” he said sharply as he held her, his lips against her ear, his warm breath on her cheek. “I’m getting you through this. Just you and me, let’s bring this baby in.”

“Laura
, slow and easy, just a small push. Okay, stop. The head’s out.”

Laura could
hear commotion, voices, people coming up the stairs, two paramedics and Jed, and she didn’t care who saw her like this, not at this point. She just wanted her baby out, the pain to stop, for this to be over.

“Laura
, okay, push again on the next contraction.” Dr. Caldwell was sitting right on the bed, her hands gloved. “Cord’s around the neck. Okay, it’s off.”

Laura didn’t really know who the doctor was talking to, but there was a man there now
, speaking to her. The last contraction ripped through her, and she pushed and yelled, squeezing Andy’s hand hard.

“That’s it
. The shoulders are out. Stop pushing, Laura. Ah, there we go.”

Laura waited but didn’t hear anything. “I can’t hear my baby
,” she said.

T
he doctor said nothing, but her face was harried, and she clamped and cut the umbilical cord. “Mask here now!” she shouted at the paramedics, who hovered while the doctor used a suction in the baby’s mouth and then put a mask over it, squeezing it three, four times. Then the baby cried. “That was way too close.” She wrapped the baby in a towel. “Here, Mom. It’s a girl.”

Laura stared at the angelic tiny face on her naked belly and held her.
It was Andy who touched her tiny finger and asked, “What happened?”

“Cord was around
the baby’s neck. We were lucky. Let’s get her to the hospital now. I’m not chancing anything else going wrong. I’m operating blind, and I don’t like that.” She turned to the paramedics. “Can you bring the stretcher up here?”

“I’ll carry my wife down. Jed
, take our baby.” Andy reached for their tiny daughter, who just fit in his large hand. He watched her for a second and then kissed her forehead before setting her in Jed’s arms.

“I’ve got her. Get your wife down to the ambulance
,” Jed said.

Andy grabbed the quilt at the foot of the bed and wrapped Laura in it
, lifting her and carrying her down. The paramedics had already gone down first and had the back door of the ambulance open. The doctor and Jed followed. Diana was outside by the ambulance now, waiting in her housecoat, and she looked tired, worried, and scared for Laura.

“Laura
, we’ve got Gabriel. Don’t you worry,” Diana said to her as Andy stepped into the ambulance and laid her on the stretcher.

Jed handed the baby to the doctor.
“It’s a girl,” he said to his wife, and as she peeked at the baby the doctor was holding, her face lit up.

“Oh
, she’s so beautiful,” Diana whispered.

“Laura
, how’re you doing?” the doctor asked as she handed the baby to the short, balding paramedic in back with them, who set the baby in the crook of Laura’s arm on the gurney.

“I’m sore
, but I haven’t had another contraction like I did. Is that normal?” Laura gazed into the face of her daughter. She was moving her tiny mouth, and it looked so much like Andy’s.

“Having twins
, there is nothing normal, but it happens where contractions slow. Let’s get going. I want to get an ultrasound on the next one.” The doctor climbed in and sat beside Andy on the bench.

The back doors shut
, and the ambulance started moving. Andy caressed Laura’s cheek, pushing back her damp hair, and the expression on Andy’s face, in his touch, was filled with so much love that she thought her heart would burst. When he looked down on his daughter, she knew without a doubt that not one of them would ever be an afterthought.

Chapter
23

“My leg
’s wet. I feel wet. I’m not feeling so good,” Laura said and then searched out Andy. “Andy, take our baby. Don’t let her go.”

The doctor had pulled back the blanket
, and Andy slipped the baby in his arms. Laura’s face paled. The pink cheeks and all the color she’d had moments ago appeared to drain away.

“Okay
, she’s bleeding. I’m blind, here. She could be delivering the placenta for the first one. I need some light here. Andy, do you remember what Doctor Richardson said about the twins? Are they sharing the same sac? Fraternal twins, identical?” The doctor spoke fast, but there was an edge of urgency to her voice.

“They have their own sac
. She said they’re not identical. I remember she said fraternal twins. What’s going on?” Andy asked sharply as he watched over Laura, who had beads of sweat on her forehead and was lying so quietly, watching him as if she wanted to go to sleep.

“ETA, five minutes to the hospital
!” the paramedic driving shouted back. The other was monitoring her vitals, her blood pressure, shining a light in Laura’s eyes.

“Radio ahead
. Tell them to get an OR prepped for an emergency C-section. I want everything ready and standing by for when we pull in, and have them call the blood bank, too. I want her typed and cross-matched. Andy, what’s Laura’s blood type?”

“O negative. What’s going on?”
Andy was holding his daughter. She was so tiny he was afraid of hurting her. Watching Laura, he could feeling her slipping away, and for the first time, fear of losing her, of his daughter losing her mother, had him feeling a sense of helplessness he’d never once in his life experienced before.

“
Dammit, prolapsed cord. Get her legs up. Laura, this is going to hurt, but I have to keep the baby off the cord.”

“
Ohh!” she screamed and cried as the paramedic held her leg back and the doctor put her hand in. There was blood everywhere.

“Laura
, it’s okay. Hold my hand.” Andy slipped his hand in hers. It was weak; she could barely hold him.

The sirens blared
, and the ambulance braked and pulled into the hospital. The back door opened, and emergency room nurses and doctors, all gowned up, were there waiting. The doctor was shouting orders, her hand still inside Laura as the gurney was lowered down. Andy climbed out and followed, carrying his daughter wrapped in a towel. A nurse grabbed his arm and brought him into a room filled with equipment.

“Let’s get a look at that baby
,” a nurse said, taking the baby from Andy and setting her in the warming bed.

Andy looked around
. “Where’s my wife?” he shouted.

A
slim, blond-haired doctor with pink scrubs and glasses said, “Your wife’s on the way to the OR for an emergency C-Section.”

“I need to be there
. I promised her I wouldn’t leave her.” Andy was frantic. “I want to make sure no one comes near my daughter or tries to take her.”

“Sir
, everything is going to be fine. Your daughter’s small. She’s got great breath sounds for a preemie, four pounds and six ounces. Let’s get her up to the neonatal unit and monitor her. You can follow your daughter up there.”

Andy couldn’t leave his daughter
. He watched as they fastened an ID bracelet on her ankle and then followed the nurse and doctor to the elevator. He froze when he glimpsed Dr. Richardson heading straight for him with an expression of concern on her face. His only thought was that if that woman took one more step toward his baby or him, he’d put his hands on her.

“
Stop right there. Do not come near my baby or Laura. Why are you here?” Andy growled, and the doctor appeared to stumble just as the elevator dinged.

“
Mister Friessen, we need to take your daughter up.” The young doctor beside his baby pushed the small bed his daughter was in onto the elevator with the nurse. Andy stepped in, and Dr. Richardson set her hand on the door.

“I need to talk to you
, Andy. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think there may be a misunderstanding somewhere. My God, I am a doctor, and my patient and her babies are my primary concern.”

“You mean doing a
C-section that you planned with my mother, taking our babies and not letting Laura see them? I mean to have your medical license revoked and you sent to jail,” Andy barked.