“Squeeze my hand,” Bryan said. “Squeeze down as hard as you can.”
It felt like I was hardly gripping his hand even though I was trying to bear down with all my might. My head was pounding, and the ambulance was swirling around. I could feel my legs shaking with exhaustion as my back continued to try and rip my body in half. I thought labor was supposed to happen to the front of the body.
Why didn’t I feel any pain in my abdomen?”
“Second IV set,” someone said.
“Check her vitals,” another voice said.
“Baby’s vitals are dipping,” someone else said.
That was the statement that caught my attention.
“What?” I asked breathlessly. “What ... what’s wrong with—?”
Another contraction rendered me speechless as I cried out in the back of the ambulance.
“How far away are we from the hospital?” Bryan asked.
“Two minutes out,” someone said.
I bore down on Bryan’s hand as he grimaced. He didn’t get to be in pain. He didn’t get to complain. My body was about to be ripped to shreds because I was carrying his damn child between my legs. I was about to shove a fucking human being through the pinhole between my legs. So, unless he ever gave birth through his penis hole, he needed to grow a pair of balls.
“I’m sorry,” I said breathlessly.
“For what?” Bryan asked. “You did beautifully today.”
“No, no, no. For my thoughts,” I said.
“Why are you apologizing for those?”
“Because they want to kill you for being a pussy,” I said.
The entire ambulance giggled at me as Bryan smiled. I took a chance and opened my eyes, risking vomiting all over myself. I found Bryan’s smile as he leaned forward and kissed my lips. I felt the warmth of him as the trickling sensation began to die down.
“I love you so much,” Bryan said.
“I need this baby out of me,” I said.
“One freed baby, coming right up,” he said.
The ambulance came to a halt and the doors flew open. I was being moved into the sun, and I had to shield my eyes. My back was aching, and my legs were shaking, but I still felt no pain in my abdomen.
That wasn’t good, right?
There were voices talking all around me as I was wheeled down a bright white hallway. Bryan’s hand was still in mine, but I could tell he was jogging instead of walking. They turned me into a room as I closed my eyes, trying to keep my nausea at bay.
“Baby’s vitals?” a doctor asked.
I opened my eyes and saw someone with a white coat standing beside me.
“Heart rate’s fluctuating pretty rapidly. Still can’t pinpoint the source of the bleeding,” a nurse said.
“What caused the labor?” the doctor asked.
“I threw myself on top of her after a gun went off in her art gallery,” Bryan said.
“Okay. We need to figure out why the hell she’s bleeding so much. Everyone move to the side.”