Heroes Are My Weakness(95)
His voice was soothing, but the look he shot Annie told her if she even thought about moving from the room a terrible fate would befall her followed by an even worse fate, followed by total annihilation. Annie reluctantly went to the head of the bed, even less anxious to see what was going on than she suspected Theo was.
Kim was beyond modesty, and Annie doubted that she even noticed how carefully he slipped the bed pad under her hips and arranged the sheet across her knees. She moaned as an especially hard contraction claimed her. As Theo timed it, he gave Annie a series of softly spoken instructions detailing what he expected would happen and what he wanted her to do.
“Fecal matter?” she whispered as he finished.
“It happens,” he said. “And it’s natural. Be ready with a clean pad.”
“And a barf bag,” she muttered. “For me.”
Theo smiled and returned his attention to his watch. While Kim labored, Annie stayed by the head of the bed, gently stroking her hair and whispering encouragement. Between contractions, Kim apologized for bringing Theo out in the middle of the night, but she didn’t once question his obstetrical skills.
After about an hour, things got serious. “I have to push,” she cried, kicking the privacy sheet away and letting Annie see more than she wanted.
Theo had already slipped on the latex gloves. “Let’s take a look.”
Kim moaned as he examined her. “Don’t push yet,” he said. “Hold on.”
“Fuck you!” Kim screamed.
Annie patted her arm. “Attagirl. You’re doing great.” She hoped that was true.
Theo concentrated on whatever it was he was doing. With the next contraction, he encouraged her to push. “You’re crowning,” he announced, as calmly as if he were reporting on the weather. At the same time, Annie saw the beads of perspiration on his forehead. She hadn’t imagined anything could make Theo Harp sweat, but this was doing it.
The contraction eased, but not for long. Kim gasped.
“I can see the baby’s head,” Theo said.
A growl caught in Kim’s throat. He patted her knee and encouraged her. “Push . . . That’s great. You’re doing great.”
Annie’s reluctance to see the birth was gone. After two more strong contractions and with more of Theo’s encouragement, the baby’s head appeared. Theo cradled it in his hand. “Let’s get the cord out of the way,” he said softly, slipping his opposite finger inside and sliding it around the baby’s neck. “Annie, have a blanket ready. Okay, little one . . . Let me see that shoulder . . . Turn. That’s the way. There you go.”
The baby slid into his strong, competent palms.
“We’ve got a boy here,” he announced. He tilted the tiny, messy newborn to clear his airway. “Let’s give you an eight, little guy.”
It took her a moment to remember what he’d said about calculating the baby’s Apgar score in the first minute after birth and then again at the five-minute mark to assess the infant’s condition. The baby began to cry, a soft little mewing. Theo placed him on Kim’s abdomen, took the towel from Annie, and gently rubbed.
Kurt finally came into the room. He went to his wife, and they started to cry together as they took in the sight of their newborn son. Annie would have smacked Kurt in the head for not being there through the ordeal, but Kim was more forgiving. As she gathered the newborn to her, Theo massaged her abdomen. It wasn’t long before she had another contraction, and the globby mass of the placenta slipped out.
Annie tried not to look as she handed over the red disposal bag from Theo’s kit. He clamped off the umbilical cord and exchanged the soiled pad for a clean one. For a guy with a big trust fund and a lucrative book contract, he didn’t mind getting down and dirty.
The baby was a little small, but as a third-time mother, Kim handled him with confidence and soon had him nursing. Theo spent the rest of the night in an easy chair while Annie slept fitfully on the couch. She heard him get up several times, and once when she opened her eyes, the baby was asleep in his arms.
His eyes were closed, and the newborn curled protectively to his chest. She remembered the gentle way he’d dealt with Kim, saw his tenderness with the baby. Theo had been thrust into a daunting situation and handled it like a champion. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any complications, but if there had been, he would have kept a cool head and done what he needed to. He’d been a hero, and heroes were her weakness . . . Except this particular hero had once nearly killed her.
IN THE MORNING, KIM AND Kurt thanked Theo effusively as their older children—after Annie had fed them breakfast—climbed on the bed to check out their new brother. With the baby safely delivered and Kim doing well, there was no longer a need for helicopter evacuation, but Theo wanted Kurt to take his wife and the newborn to the mainland that morning to get checked out. Kim flatly refused. “You did as good a job as any doctor, and we’re not going anywhere.”