Each time Nick watched Summer suffer through the pain guilt jabbed at him starting with the day he ended their relationship, up until the night a few days ago he’d left her standing alone crying in his living room.
Nick wished he could take on the pain for Summer. It didn’t seem fair her tiny body had to endure so much discomfort. He was amazed at her strength and determination not to take drugs for the pain. He too had tried to convince her to take “a little something.” Nick was relieved when Starr returned from her dinner break. Summer got through the contractions much better with Starr coaching her using the breathing exercises they’d learned during childbirth classes.
Summer was becoming more and more frustrated with how long it was taking for her cervix to dilate that last centimeter. Nick and Starr were both startled when she burst out into tears. “I can’t take this anymore! This hurrrrts too much! I just wanna diiiiie!” Summer screamed as she was hit with searing pain.
“Come on, Boo, you can do this. You made it this far,” Starr soothingly coaxed her.
Shaking her head back and forth, Summer cried, “No… no… I can’t… I can’t …take this anymore.”
“Yes, you can baby. Starr’s right, you can do this.” Nick told her as he rubbed her lower back.
Something suddenly snapped inside of Summer, as if possessed by an evil force. Neither Nick nor Starr saw it coming. Summer’s very soft genteel feminine voice dropped a few octaves, coming out in a deep tenor as she turned on Nick.
“Don’t touch me! Get your hands off me! This is your entire fault, Nick! All your fault! You did this to me!”
Nick continued to rub her lower back. He didn’t allow her outburst to shake him. “I know baby. You’re right, it is my fault.” Nick validated Summer’s verbal attack in a soothing voice as he continued to rub her.
This seemed to calm her temporarily as she collapsed against the pillows trapping Nick’s hand. Gingerly, he pulled his hand out as he looked at Starr, his eyes questioning, “What now?”
Reading the message in his eyes, Starr said, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get Dr. Neil to come back in here and check you Summer.”
“Thanks Starr.” Summer grimaced in pain. Helplessness overwhelmed Nick, as he didn’t know what to do to comfort her. Daily he handled multi-million dollar business transactions, yet when it came to comforting the woman giving birth to his child, he was clueless. He felt like a fish out of water thrashing back and forth.
With all of his resources, there was nothing he possessed that would help to ease her agonizing pain. No amount of materialism he own could comfort her. Only the delivery of the tiny life in her womb would erase the torturous contractions wrecking havoc on her exhausted body.
Nick tenderly wiped at her damp brow with a cool washcloth. “Summer, is there anything I can do for you? Just tell me and I’ll do it.”
Summer looked at Nick, tears spilling from her eyes, her voice cracking as she softly spoke. “I only wanted you to love me Nick. To love me how I’m loving you right now.”
The wind was knocked out of him as if a three hundred pound linebacker had tackled him to the ground. Immediate revelation floored him, as he finally comprehended the breadth of Summer’s love. She had loved him so severely she refused to snuff the life out of what may be the very best of him. She had made a heart decision to nurture, to care for, and to love a baby that was the very essence, the very nucleus of him. A baby I didn’t want.
The lump forming in his throat threatened to cut the air supply to his lungs. “Summer, baby −”
A blood-curdling scream likened to a wounded animal cut his words off. The scream brought Dr. Neil, Starr and two nurses running into the room. Quickly washing his hands, Dr. Neil snatched a pair of latex gloves from a box, donning them, he examined Summer. “The cervix is measuring at ten centimeters and a hundred percent effaced. Okay, Miss Summer, you’re ready to start pushing.”
“Thank you Jesus.” Those were the sweetest words Summer ever heard in her life.
Removing the gloves, Dr. Neil left the room to scrub and dress for the delivery. As the doctor was preparing himself, the two nurses efficiently and quickly transformed the ordinary hospital bed into a birthing bed. Just as the nurses were placing Summer into the birthing position with her feet in the stirrups, the doctor backed through the door careful not to touch anything as he took his place at the end of the bed on a stool between Summer’s open legs.
“Summer, I’m going to massage a little mineral oil onto your perineum to help stretch it, hopefully preventing you from tearing as you push the baby out.”