Suddenly Wills was there beside us. “I’ve got the Dodge warmed up and waiting right outside the door. Let me take the bags.”
Finally we were on the first floor, out and down the steps.
“I…I think I’ll lie down on the backseat, if you don’t mind?” Samantha said through gritted teeth.
We helped her into the car. Wills got behind the wheel, I buckled up in the passenger seat, and then we were on the road.
How could he be so calm? He drove his Dodge with his usual competent care and with just the right amount of speed that he caught every green light.
We arrived at the hospital, and Wills left me with Samantha in admitting while he parked the car.
“Where’s Mr. Matheson?”
“He’s—”
“Here I am.”
“Good. We’re going to examine her. You can get dressed.” They hustled Samantha away and escorted Wills to a room where he could change, but they stopped me.
“But….” They weren’t going to let me in the delivery room with Wills and Samantha? I stood there in the corridor at a loss.
“What’s going on, Theo?” Wills asked as he came back out. He was dressed in scrubs with those paper booties on his feet and a shower cap on his head.
“Only family is allowed.” One of the nurses curled her lip at me.
“You don’t understand,” Wills said as Samantha was wheeled into a room. “Theo is family. He’s this baby’s other father.”
“That’s disgusting,” she sneered.
“Is it.” And Wills wasn’t asking a question. He was challenging her. He got that stone cold look on his face and made a phone call. Ten minutes later the nurse, her mouth in a pinched line, ushered me into a room where I could change into blue scrubs.
“Sterilize yourself,” she snapped.
“Excuse me?”
She nodded toward a sink. “Use the disinfectant soap and scrub your hands for five minutes.”
The witch. Couldn’t she have said that to begin with?
When I was finally ready, another nurse led me in. After a single, horrified glance at Samantha, with her legs in the stirrups, I swallowed and wondered if this had been a good idea.
“Where would you like to stand, Mr. Bascopolis?” At least she knew my name.
“Um…I think next to Samantha’s head?” She was going to need support.
“Certainly. You can help her when she needs to push.”
Okay, I could do that. We’d gone to the natural childbirth classes, and Samantha and I had practiced during the day while Wills was at work.
Wills was at the foot of the bed, filming.
I realized something at that moment. My lover, my husband—the man I intended to spend the rest of my life with—was out of his fucking mind. Who would want to watch that?
I pushed that thought from my mind, took Samantha’s hand, and patted it. “Soon now, Samantha.”
“You know something I don’t?” she snarled.
This was also something they’d told us about in those classes. I didn’t take it personally. Much.
“All right, Samantha.” Dr. Hung peered over the sheet that covered the bulge of Samantha’s belly. “You can start pushing now.”
“Thank fucking God!” Her nails dug into my hand as she reared up, tucked her chin to her chest, and began to push.
Either Dr. Hung was a liar or Teodore William was in no rush to enter this world. It was another hour before Wills set aside the camcorder and Dr. Hung had him catch our son and put him on Samantha’s abdomen.
“It’s a boy. No surprise there, from what you’ve told me.” Dr. Hung looked up and smiled. “We’ll give the cord a minute or so to stop pulsing, but would you like to cut it, Mr. Bascopolis?”
Wills grabbed up the camcorder again and resumed filming.
I looked from the scissors to our son to the pulsing cord. My head was nodding while my brain was screaming, Are you out of your fucking mind? My feet weren’t listening to my brain either. They took a step toward the bottom of the bed. My stupid hand reached for the scissors.
And that was the last thing I remembered.
* * * *
I came to on a hospital bed, so mortified I wanted to bury my head under the pillow. “Oh God, I feel like an idiot.”
“It’s okay, babe” Wills ran his fingers through my hair. “I caught you in time.”
“You did? But what about the camcorder?”
“Oh, it’s in one piece. I managed to hold onto it, and I got some interesting shots of the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and our feet. I’ll show you later.”
“The baby! How’s the baby?”
“He’s fine. He’s a ten on the Apgar Scale, and if I say so myself, he’s beautiful.”
“When can I see him?”
“We wanted to wait until you were with us again. I’ll see if the nurse will bring him in now.” He stepped out of the room, and I sat up.
I was still wearing scrubs, but the shower cap and the booties were gone.
Wills came back in with a carton of orange juice. “Drink this. They’ll bring him in a minute.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s almost three. In the afternoon.”
“No wonder why I feel so woozy.” The last time I’d eaten was dinner the night before. “Did you eat anything?”
“I had some juice earlier. We can go down to the cafeteria later.”
A nurse wheeled in a bassinette and smiled at us. “Here’s your son.” She put a little bottle on the bedside tray table. “See if you can get him to drink a little of this.”