gripping contraction.
“The very top of it, yes.” He put a hand on her abdomen, another on her thinning perineum. “I want you to pant or blow while I apply a counter pressure here to help the baby’s head come out gently and gradually.” Working with her to guide the baby into the world, he said gently, “That’s it, Kate, nice and slow. You’re doing great. Keep panting,” Michael said as the baby’s head began to emerge. Just a little at first, and then, several contractions later, all the way.
“There. Okay,” he said victoriously, glad all was okay so far. “The head’s out, and as soon as I get the baby’s mouth and nose clear—” Michael stroked downward on the baby’s nose, cheeks and throat “—he’s going to test his lungs for us.” Michael and Kate both grinned as the baby let out a choking, startled cry.
Knowing there was no time to lose, Michael continued to kneel between her thighs, both hands supporting the baby’s head, one above, one beneath. “Okay, Kate, I want you to push now.” Again, he supported and guided the slippery, squirming infant. “We’ve got one shoulder out,” Michael said, using gentle continued traction. “Now two. And here he comes.” Laughing exultantly, Michael lifted the kicking, screaming, healthy pink baby and placed him where she could hold onto him.
“We’ve got a boy, Kate. A beautiful baby boy. And he’s not too pleased about this,” Michael continued as he swiftly clamped the cord three inches from the baby’s abdomen. He cut the cord and carefully wrapped their squirming baby boy in Kate’s soft cotton workout pants.
“We’ll make it up to him,” Kate promised thickly as tears of joy streamed down her face. Laughing and crying simultaneously, Kate held their baby close to her heart. “Oh, Michael, he’s just perfect, isn’t he?” Kate whispered, looking as overwhelmed with the joy of the experience as he was.
Michael nodded. “He sure is,” he said thickly, aware of the love and pride welling inside him even as he checked their newborn son’s heart rate and respiration and did a routine medical assessment of the infant’s condition. “And he looks as healthy and strong as they come,” Michael said, as he touched the baby’s face, then Kate’s.
Kate caught Michael’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Thank you,” she said gratefully. “Thank you for being here.”
Michael swallowed around the rising lump of emotion in his throat. “My pleasure.” Heaven knew there was no other place he would have wanted to be at this moment than with Kate and their baby.
She grimaced as another pain hit her.
Michael coaxed her through the spasms until the after-birth appeared. “Okay, we’ve got the placenta out.” Michael wrapped the placenta up, too, made both Kate and the baby as comfortable as he could, then retrieved the cell phone. “I think it’s time we called Dr. Gantor and the hospital, too.”
AS IT TURNED OUT, there was a fire station with an ambulance some fifteen minutes away from them. Deciding the sooner they got the two of them to the hospital the better, Michael drove Kate and the baby to a midpoint, then helped the EMS personnel transfer Kate and the baby to the stretcher and the waiting ambulance.
Realizing he was planning to follow them in the van, Kate reached out to grab him. “Stay with us,” she urged quietly. Incredible as it was under the circumstances, the two of them had bonded during the birth, and she didn’t want to lose that bond any more than she wanted to ride the rest of the way to the hospital alone.
Michael nodded. “Just let me close up the van,” he told her huskily.
By the time he got back, the EMS workers had started an IV in Kate’s arm. “So what are you going to name the baby?” the EMS worker asked.
Good question, Kate thought, looking at Michael, knowing this involved him, too. So much had changed in such a short time. “I was thinking about Timothy for a first name,” she told Michael quietly as he sat on the bench beside her.
“That’s nice.”
“And for a middle name?” the EMS worker prodded as he filled out the paperwork on Kate, and Michael continued to watch Kate and the baby.
“Initially, I was thinking about naming him after my grandfather,” Kate said softly, “but now I don’t know. I think maybe his middle name should be Michael. Timothy Michael Sloane-Montgomery. Or Montgomery-Sloane. What do you think?”
Michael’s eyes darkened as myriad emotions crossed his face. “I think nothing would make me happier.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think something was going on between you two,” the EMS worker teased.
Michael and Kate flushed simultaneously.
“Whoa,” the EMS worker said.
Exactly, Kate thought, as heat crept into her face. When word of this got out, people were going to think she and Michael had made this baby the old-fashioned way. And to tell the truth, they’d shared so much intimacy in such a short time, it almost felt as if they had. Except she didn’t even know how he kissed. Might—because of circumstances—never know.
Michael looked at the EMS worker. “If you wouldn’t mind moving up front with your partner—” he nodded at Kate and the baby “—maybe we could have a moment alone?”
“Sure.” Knowing Michael was a physician from the Chapel Hill emergency room, the EMS worker easily granted the request. “No problem. Take all the time you need.” He smiled at the happy trio, his glance resting on the blissfully sleeping baby nestled in Kate’s arms. “I’ll just radio the hospital and let them know both mother and baby are doing fine.”
Michael waited until the EMS worker was out of earshot then turned to Kate. He knelt beside her and took her hand in his. “Kate, this is a big step.” He searched her eyes. “Are you sure?”
Kate nodded. “Yes. If you hadn’t been there to bring my—to bring our—baby into the world—” Well, she didn’t even want to think about what might have happened. “Michael, I owe you so much,” she said softly, meaning it. “Timmy and I both do.”
It was swiftly apparent gratitude was not what he wanted from her, but it would do for now. “I’m the one who owes you, Kate,” Michael told her softly. “Not just for now.” Again, he looked at their sleeping newborn son and released a wistful sigh. “But for a lifetime.”
Thinking about it, Kate knew he was right. Through Timmy—and fate—she and Michael were going to be connected forever.
“IT’S ALL OVER the hospital,” Kate told Michael an hour later, after she and Timmy had been settled into a private room in the maternity ward.
“No kidding,” Michael drawled, even as he marveled at how pretty and together Kate looked after all she’d been through. “It’s bigger news than the original virgin birth.”
Kate sighed, her full breasts rising and falling beneath the soft cotton of her hospital gown. Her lips thinned to a soft, rosy line. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell my parents.”
Michael paced to the Plexiglas bassinet beside Kate, where their baby slept. Because she had requested the rooming-in arrangement, Timmy would be with her as much as possible during her stay in the hospital. Reassured their son was undisturbed by their low voices, Michael edged to
