When Piper gets the call.
It comes right after she wakes me up at three a.m.
The certainty in her voice is undeniable.
“Reeve,” she says in between puffing breaths, her hand on her belly. “It’s time.”
Both of us have rehearsed for this moment, but nothing except for maybe the thrill of hand-to-hand combat comes even a tiny bit close to that moment when your wife tells you that the baby you made together is coming.
I don’t even need to ask her twice, her eyes tell me everything.
It’s time. On your feet Marine.
But what I don’t expect is the phone call from her mom.
The same tone of urgency spilling out from Piper’s phone as I double-check we have everything.
“Really?” I ask.
I have to ask.
“The one time Rhys is called away and the exact same moment you go into labor?”
Piper smiles, giving me a shrug, only interrupted by the sudden cry of a contraction she lets out at the same time as her mom on the other end of the line.
“She’s thirty minutes away,” I reason aloud with myself. “Tell her to be ready in fifteen,” I tell Piper, knowing I can make it in good time, and faster than an ambulance.
Plus, she’s on the way to the hospital.
“Keep her on the phone,” I tell Piper, who apart from showing her own struggle is equally concerned for her mom.
“We can do this.” I remind them both as I kiss Piper before helping her up out of the bed and into her robe.
All her bags, everything she and the little one will need are already packed and waiting in the closet by the front door.
Clara and Rhys have the same setup, ready to go.
“Rhys knows,” Piper tells me once we’re mobile.
“He’s on his way back right now,” she adds, comforting her mom on the phone as I hold her hand.
Feeling it grip tighter at times than I ever thought possible.
I call ahead to the hospital and then to Rhys.
He’s an hour away at the best, two at worst.
It feels like something it’s not, and by the time we pick up Clara, who’s been through it all before, I realize it’s not as bad as I imagine.
We’re not in combat anymore.
This is life, it's living.
It’s beautiful and amazing.
I’m gonna be a dad. Holy shit.
Rhys? Get your ass back down here now, buddy.
To my surprise, Piper joins her mom in the back seat, both of them clutching hands and doing their breathing.
It’s almost like they’re having the same baby for god’s sake. Each of them huffing and suddenly shrieking with contractions at the same time, every time.
“You’re doing fine,” I tell them both, deciding to focus on driving when I get the look from the pair of them.
It’s a look we’ll laugh about later, I hope.
But there’s a definite vibe of ‘you did this to me’ in Piper’s eyes as both she and her mom cry out with another contraction.
They’re closer now, the contractions, and the hospital is still a good fifteen minutes out.
Just hold on, Piper. Hold on, baby.
I try not to drive like a maniac, but lucky for me traffic is light at this hour.
The one hurdle we all face, the lights and sirens of a cop pulling us over soon turns into a police escort once he grasps the situation.
“Your wife and your mother-in-law are about to give birth?” he questions me, looking from my license to the back seat then back to me with his flashlight.
“Yes sir,” I growl, eager to get moving.
And in no time we’re at the hospital, wheelchairs waiting and Rhys phoning to let me know he’s on his way and making good time.
“Just get here Rhys,” I tell him, somehow just knowing this is gonna be a night to remember.
When the doctor finally arrives, she glances from Piper to Clara in their beds, and then to me.
“You daddy?” she asks, shifting her mask up and securing her hairnet.
“Yes. No. I mean…” I stammer, suddenly tongue-tied in the presence of real experts on the topic.
Women.
“He’s with me,” Piper huffs.
“And I’m with him,” Clara says at the same time, puffing and drawing a surprised look from the doctor.
“Well, they’re both about to pop, so I suggest you get up on the head end if you wanna stay out of my way, Casanova,” the doctor says dryly, my mouth full of cotton as I struggle to explain.
Only making myself sound dumber by the second.
With Piper gripping one hand, following the doctor’s instructions when to breathe and when to push, I feel for Clara who must feel so alone right now.
Before I know it I have each of their hands in mine, the strength between the pair of them almost frightening me.
What great Marines pregnant women would make.
My own mettle is put to the test and it’s not my Marine training that gets me through.