Page 146 of The Forever Vault

It was like the baby heard the doctor, because it was like a switch went off. The contractions intensified, lasting a lot longer than they had before, and Erika grimaced with each one. They were either getting more painful, or she lacked the strength to pretend they didn’t bother her anymore. Either way, I felt for her - it was a different kind of pain from anything I had ever seen before.

“Just breathe through it. You’re doing great,” I said. “Each contraction is a hug of love for your baby.”

Erika burst out in laughter, which turned into the next contraction. After she regained her breath, she asked, “Where the fuck did you get that line, a Hallmark card?”

I shrugged. “Google.”

“You googled what to say to me?”

“It’s not like this happens every day. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Look what happened to Isaak.”

“You couldn’t say anything wrong. He’s the one that did this to me.”

“That’s not fair, and you know it. It takes two people to make a baby.”

She screamed through the next contraction, squeezing my hand. “I know that! But it felt good to yell at him at the time.”

It was dark out now. I was the only one in here with her, mostly because everyone had fallen asleep. Luke said they actually had guest rooms with beds. Austin and Orion had crashed hours ago, as had Rebecca and David.

I glanced at my phone. It was nearly midnight. I had texts from Noah and Cecilia. It looked like she, Warren and Nia left some time ago. I heard the door to the changing room open and my mom was there.

“My babies,” she said, approaching us. “How are we doing?”

“Hanging in there,” Erika answered.

My mom pushed the hair out of Erika’s face and leaned in to give her forehead a kiss. “You look beautiful.”

Erika laughed, but said, “Thank you.”

“Are you taking pictures? Is Cam? You can always delete them later, but you can’t conjure them out of thin air.”

“I’ve taken one or two,” Erika said, “But I’ll take your advice.”

“She’s close, almost ten,” I added.

“Oh, the fun part.”

My mom held her other hand through the next few contractions, and during the next lull, added, “You’re going to make a great mother. You’ve had a great role model.”

“Role models,” Erika corrected her.

“Well, I don’t know about-”

“Heather–aaah!”

This one lasted over a minute, but as soon as it was done, she continued, “I’ve spent as much time at your house when I was a kid as my own. Plus, look at Cam. You’re a wonderful mother.”

“I hate to interrupt, but you are officially ten centimeters, Erika,” Dr. Cosgrove said. “I’ll have you start bearing down during each contraction now and we’ll go from there.”

“I’ll go get Isaak,” my mom said. “Love you both.”

Ten minutes later and she was close.

Cam: GET THE FUCK IN HERE!

“Alright, Erika, this may sound weird, but I need you to relax as much as you can. At this point, the baby is close enough to come out when he’s ready. Pushing can do more harm than good right now, okay?”

Erika nodded, then hissed, “Where the fuck is he?”