Coda Books 06 - Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding (MM)

you do what you need to do. I’d be screaming for drugs by now, I guarantee it.”
    “Can you hand me the remote?”
    “Of course, sweetie. What else do you need? They have ice chips, Lord knows why. I’ve never really understood what good they do. Maybe some Jell-O?”
    “I’m fine. Really.”
    Not like Cole would listen. He fussed over her for the next twenty minutes, until Larissa returned. I figured we’d leave then, but Taylor didn’t let go of Cole’s hand. “You may as well stay,” she said. “The nurses know this baby is yours, not mine. I’ve talked to them, and they know what to do.”
    He smiled and squeezed her hand. “I appreciate that, but it doesn’t mean you want us here for….” He gestured toward the swell of her stomach, underneath the blankets.
    Taylor laughed. “Any sense of modesty I ever had has long since disappeared.”
    “All right, honey, but if you want us gone at any point, you say the word. You won’t hurt anybody’s feelings.”
    We settled in, Cole and Larissa on opposite sides of the bed, me on the bench on the side of the room. Taylor was watching Halloween . I thought it was an odd choice for a delivery in February, but it was her party. I doubted she was seeing much of it anyway. It mostly seemed to be a way to distract her from her contractions. The doctor only appeared occasionally, and for a minute or two at a time, which infuriated Cole.
    “Where does she think she’s going?” he asked, the third time it happened. “You should be her primary concern!”
    “There are four other women in labor right now.”
    “And you’re sharing one doctor? Oh honey, I wish I’d known!” He turned to me. “How much would it cost to have another doctor come in?”
    “How would I know? Is that even allowed?”
    “We’ll find out.”
    Taylor reached out to grab his hand before he could leave the room. “Please don’t! I’d be so embarrassed!”
    “But Taylor—”
    “It’s fine. The nurses know what they’re doing, and they’re taking good care of me.”
    Cole wasn’t convinced, but he agreed to let her do things her way. For once, I agreed with Cole. I thought the doctor should pay more attention, but as I watched, I realized Taylor was right. The nurses were on top of it. They knew exactly what was going on.
    For myself, I was surprised at how slowly things were progressing. There was no sense of alarm or urgency. Just Taylor, watching bad slasher horror as her contractions grew marginally more frequent and more painful. She became more agitated, and even I could see that the pains were becoming intense. The rest periods in between seemed to help her less and less. Two hours after our arrival, she was exhausted.
    “How long does this usually take?” I asked one of the nurses when the opportunity arose. We were on the side of the room, out of the earshot of Taylor and Cole.
    “For a first birth? There’s no telling. It could be hours.”
    “When should I call my dad?”
    “When she starts to push.”
    “When will that be?”
    “When she’s fully dilated.”
    “But—” I suddenly felt ridiculous. I was a grown man. How could I know so little about something as common as childbirth?
    The nurse gave me that same smile—amused and indulgent. She patted my arm. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
    I sat back down and resigned myself to being ignorant.
    It was a long night. Halloween ended, and some poorly made sequel began. Taylor’s contractions grew stronger and closer together. The nurses came in frequently to check her dilation.
    “Well,” one of them finally said, around one in the morning, “you’re finally at ten! It’s about time, girl!”
    Ten was apparently the magic number. The activity in the birthing room grew more animated. Not frantic, though. They’d done this too many times to be concerned. They dismantled the foot portion of Taylor’s bed and got her set up the way I’d expected her to be all along, with her legs in stirrups. I stayed off to the side, closer to her head than her elevated feet. I was anxious and extremely aware of her nudity and her vulnerability.
    I was also doing my best to stay the hell out of the way.
    The doctor came in without ceremony. She perched on a stool between Taylor’s legs.
    “Okay, Taylor. This is where the real work begins. Are you ready?”
    In truth, Taylor looked like she was near tears. “No,” she whimpered.
    The doctor smiled as if she’d heard her wrong.