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And this was the result.
“We’ll make it to the hospital,” Emmie said, forcing her cheeks into a cheerful smile. “That’s a relief, isn’t it?”
“A relief,” Theo agreed, but his handsome face was pale beneath his tan. Going to the galley, he returned with a bottle of cool water and handed it to her as she smoothed her sundress back over her knees, sitting up on the leather sofa.
“Thanks.” She drank the water in gulps. “It’ll be a funny story to tell our son someday. That we went into labor halfway over the Atlantic.”
“Funny,” he said, but he didn’t meet her eyes.
An ambulance was waiting on the tarmac when they landed at Teterboro thirty minutes later. Emmie was whisked off the plane on a stretcher and placed in the back of the ambulance as the concierge doctor spoke quietly to the paramedics, handing over care.
“Come with me,” Emmie called to Theo, who was lingering behind, his shoulders hunched, his handsome face stricken.
“Not enough room. He’ll have to follow us, ma’am,” one of the paramedics said and closed the ambulance door.
By the time Emmie arrived at the Midtown hospital, the one closest to their house and where she’d planned to give birth, her body was racked with increasing pain. She’d turned in the paperwork weeks before, so was quickly wheeled to a private room in the maternity ward on the tenth floor. By then, the contractions were so bad she couldn’t breathe. She nearly threw up from the pain.
“Epidural,” she croaked when she saw her obstetrician in the door.
After checking her, the doctor shook her head. “Sorry, Mrs. Katrakis.” Nurses came closer, putting monitoring equipment on her belly to check the baby’s heart, and on Emmie’s finger to check her oxygen levels. “It’s far too late for that. You’re at nine centimeters. It’s almost time to push.”
“No—it can’t be already—” Emmie couldn’t go into labor now, not yet. Not without her husband.
Where was he?
Even without the flashing lights and siren of a speeding ambulance, the drive from Teterboro should have taken forty-five minutes, an hour in bad traffic. Where was he?
“Now, Mrs. Katrakis,” her obstetrician said and positioned herself between her knees, “push!”
Emmie gasped for breath and cried and retched, and she pushed. She pushed most of all, bearing down with all her strength, until she thought she might pass out or die and wasn’t even sure that would be a bad thing—except her baby...her baby had to live.
When it was finally over, she took a full gasping breath as the doctor turned away with the precious bundle. Emmie craned her head around the doctor, but she couldn’t see her baby. Why was it so quiet? What was happening?
“My baby... Why isn’t he crying? What’s wrong?” She turned, sweaty and crying. “Theo.”
But it wasn’t her husband she’d heard coming through the door, just a nurse to begin the afterbirth protocols. Emmie turned back to the doctor.
“Give me my baby. Now or I’ll...”
A sudden small cry, weak at first, then louder and heartier. The obstetrician turned back toward her, holding a tiny baby wrapped in a clean towel.
“Mrs. Katrakis,” she said gently, “I’d like you to meet your son.”
The tiny newborn was placed in Emmie’s arms, against her bare skin, and she felt a rush of joy she’d never known. The baby blinked in confusion, yawning, looking up at her sleepily with dark eyes. But as their eyes met, Emmie felt a strange recognition. Her son. Hers.
She caressed the baby’s cheek, marveling. “And he’s all right? He’s okay?”
“He took a minute to decide to breathe, but yes. He’s fine. Seven pounds, six ounces. A healthy baby boy.”
“Thank you, Dr. Sanchez.” Her son was born. And he was healthy. He was fine.
But Emmie had given birth alone. Her husband had never arrived. He’d missed the whole thing.
The kindly nurse helped Emmie wash up, helping her into a clean hospital gown. As she was checked by the obstetrician, a different nurse washed her baby, before he was placed back in Emmie’s arms.
For long moments, as nurses and doctors buzzed around them in the room, Emmie just sat in the bed holding her baby, wondering at his beauty, touching his skin, holding him close. When he started to whimper, with the nurse’s encouragement Emmie tentatively placed her baby to her breast. As he instinctively started to suckle, she watched his tiny face turn blissful and felt relief that was like joy.
But where was Theo?
