“Say...that...to...all...the...girls?” she managed to get out without screaming at him.
“Just the pregnant ones I find in abandoned trucks on the side of the road,” he said dryly.
Feeling somewhat awkward about it, Cody slipped the woman’s underwear off, all the while telling himself that this was nothing personal, that he had to do it in order to help her bring this baby into the world.
As he drew the material off her legs, he glanced at the hand that was clutching at him. It was the woman’s left hand and he saw that there was a ring on it. Not a wedding ring, but a rather tiny engagement ring. At least, he assumed that’s what it was. The stone at the center was missing.
He couldn’t help wondering if the baby’s father was just temporarily missing from this scene—or if there was more to the story than that.
It was a story that was going to have to wait for another day, Cody told himself. From what he saw, Devon appeared to be completely dilated and ready to become a mother.
“You’re going to have to bear down and start pushing now,” he told her.
She didn’t answer him. And then he realized why. As he saw the perspiration popping out all along her brow, she ground out a bloodcurdling noise.
Cody saw that she was already complying with his instructions.
Devon’s face had turned a bright shade of red. In Cody’s estimation, she was pushing too hard and too long. She had to take a break. Otherwise he had a feeling that she was going to rupture something.
“Okay, now rest,” he told her. She didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes were screwed shut and her face was growing even redder. “Stop pushing!” Cody ordered more loudly.
Worn-out, Devon fell back against the seat, her hair damp and plastered against her brow. She was panting really hard.
“You...tell...the...cow...that...too?” she gasped.
Devon couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted. She’d pushed so hard, she was seeing spots dancing before her eyes.
“No. I saw this on a medical drama on TV,” he confessed. It was the summer he’d broken his leg and was laid up with nothing else to do. He’d picked up a lot of miscellaneous information that came in handy at the oddest times. Like now.
“Better...and...better,” Devon retorted. This would have been funny if she wasn’t so scared and in so much pain.
The next second, she went rigid again as another scream pierced the air. Without waiting for him to say anything, she began to bear down again.
Cody knew better than to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary, so he counted the seconds off out loud.
When she’d gone past the limit, he ordered, “Stop!”
This creature inside her—she’d ceased thinking of it as a baby—had taken charge of her body and she couldn’t control the urge to push it out.
“I...CAN’T!”
“Breathe through your mouth.” When she didn’t seem to hear him, Cody put his hands on either side of her face and made her look at him. “Listen to me, unless you want to start possibly hemorrhaging, breathe through your mouth!” he ordered. “Like this.”
And he proceeded to show her, recalling what he’d seen on that program he’d watched during his summer of forced confinement.
He could only pray he got it right.
Cody saw anger in the woman’s eyes. Anger mingled with fear, but then she began to do what he’d told her. Blowing air out of her mouth, she stopped pushing for a moment.
And then he felt her growing rigid again. Her whole body looked as if it was in the throes of another contraction.
“Another one?” he asked.
It was a rhetorical question, but she answered anyway. “YES!” she hissed as she dug deep into her core to find the energy to expel this child out of her body once and for all.
“I see the head!” Cody declared in wonder as he tried his best to encourage her.
“Isn’t...there...any...more?” she cried sharply.
She was going to die like this, she was certain of it. She could feel herself growing weaker and weaker as she seemed to float in and out of her head.
“There’s more,” he assured her. “There’s more!” This time he said it because she was pushing again. Pushing and screaming. “You’re almost there,” he encouraged.
“AAAARRRGGGHHH!”
The word shattered the atmosphere as it accompanied the emergence of the infant who was sliding out of her body.
Euphoric, exhausted and close to delirious, Devon panted hard, trying to regain her breath. Trying to hear something beyond the sound of her heart, which was pounding like mad.
“He’s not...crying,” Devon said, panicking. “Why isn’t...my...baby...crying?”
Cody didn’t answer her. He was too busy trying to get the tiny human being he was holding in his arms to do just that.
Turning the infant over so that it was facing the ground, Cody patted the baby’s back, then turned it over again to check its airway.
Quickly clearing it with his forefinger, he held the baby in one arm while unbuttoning his shirt with the other.
Devon attempted to use her elbows to prop herself up so she could see what was going on. She didn’t have enough strength left to manage it.
“What—what are you doing?” Devon demanded weakly. Why was this man getting undressed? Fresh fear vibrated through her.
Parting the tan deputy shirt, Cody pressed the baby against his bare skin, all the while still massaging the tiny back.
A tiny whimper just barely creased the air. And then there was a cry. An indignant, lusty cry, followed by another one.
Cody breathed a sigh of relief. His own heart was racing in triumph and elation.
“She’s going to be all right!” he declared.
Confusion slipped over Devon’s face. “She?” Devon questioned, unable to process the deputy’s words for a moment.
Shrugging out of his shirt one sleeve at a time, he passed the infant from one arm to the other as he did it. Once he had the shirt off, he wrapped the material around the newborn.
“Your baby’s a girl,” he told Devon. She was also the first infant he’d delivered and he was filled with a warm glow he couldn’t begin to describe.
“Michael’s
