He stopped short and his eyes narrowed. “Like what?”
Her lips tightened in annoyance. “It can wait” was all she said. “I have a patient.”
Nate shrugged. “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
She waited as he kicked off his sneakers, pulled on the waders that Junior had found in the trunk of his cruiser and then tied his sneakers around his neck, as she had done. She turned to Junior. “Thanks for the gear, but how are we going to get across the bridge?”
“We can’t risk driving, even in the cruiser, because we can’t have a vehicle getting stuck and blocking the bridge. Once the water goes down, we’ll need to clear the structure of debris as fast as we can. So for now, we’ll have to tie ourselves together and walk across, then I have to come back and continue on my idiocy prevention duty.” He nodded toward a pile of rope curled up beside one of the steel supports. “Let’s go.”
It took only a few minutes to tie the three of them together, then they stepped onto the bridge. Junior glanced back and saw her nervous look. “Don’t worry, Gemma. The doc’s got me on a diet, but I’m still hefty enough to keep you from falling in.”
Nate chuckled, but she ignored him and prepared to move out. Junior was first, leading the way, and she was right behind him, holding on to the railing with one hand, clutching her medical bag in the other and moving slowly.
At one point a huge tree limb, caught by the rushing water, crashed against the bridge, sending branches flying over their heads. Instinctively, Gemma ducked and felt her feet slipping, but Nate’s arm came around her. His medical bag banged against her hip, but he gave her a moment to get her footing. When she was steady again, she made a point of moving away from him.
Grateful for the protective gear Junior had provided, Gemma looked down at the mounds of debris that had caught against the supports and the railing. She tried not to imagine the damage that could have done to frail human flesh if someone was unlucky enough to get caught up in that water.
She glanced back at Nate and wondered if he was thinking the same thing, then recalled how furious she was with him, and concentrated on moving in lockstep with Junior. When they reached the other side, they quickly stepped out of the waders and put their own shoes back on.
“Will you be okay going back by yourself?” Gemma asked.
“Yeah. Go see if Cole’s wife is okay.”
Impulsively, she stood on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re a great guy, Wayne Fedder Junior. If you ever run for sheriff, you’ve got my vote.”
He laughed. “I can think of easier ways to secure a vote. Better not kiss me, though. The doc is getting jealous.”
Gemma gave him a look that said, “Yeah, right,” but when she glanced at Nate, he was frowning.
Pointing to a lane that was a few hundred feet away, she said, “That’s their driveway. Come on.”
They followed the paved lane and were soon at the Burleighs’ front door.
Cole threw the door open as soon as they knocked and looked at them with terrified eyes as he said, “Thank God you’re here, Gemma. I don’t know what to do. We’re pretty sure Yvette’s in labor.” Looking past her, he saw Nate and said, “And Nate’s here, too. Thanks for coming.
“Yvette’s in the bedroom. We think the baby’s on its way because her pains are coming every couple of minutes. I started to take her to the hospital, but the pains were so bad by the time we got to the bottom of the driveway, we were afraid we wouldn’t get there before the baby came. We called the paramedics, but they can’t get here because of the flood and accidents, and everything. The dispatcher said I’d have to deliver the baby. Me? I can’t do it. I just can’t do it,” he babbled. “I’ve never delivered a baby—or anything else for that matter. Do you think she’s going to be okay, Gemma? I can’t lose her.” Frantically, he grabbed Nate’s arm. “I’m not going to lose her, am I?”
“Of course not,” Gemma answered.
Before she could say anything else, Nate asked, “What’s the matter with your arm, Cole?”
For the first time, Gemma noticed that he was holding it up against his chest.
“Ah, I think I sprained my wrist.” He told them about paddling a canoe across the lake to be with his wife. “Everything was okay until I got caught up on some rocks behind my house. The canoe was knocked sideways and I tried to keep it from turning over but jammed my wrist. That was another reason we couldn’t make it to the hospital. I was in no shape to drive.”
“Let me have a look,” Nate said in a no-nonsense voice.
While he did that, Gemma turned toward the bedroom, glad to be away from both Cole and Nate. It took all the professionalism she could muster to keep from telling them what she thought of them both. “I’m going to check on Yvette.”
“She going to be okay, right, Gemma?” the worried father asked.
“Calm down, Cole. There’s absolutely no reason to think this won’t be a perfectly normal birth.”
At that moment, the lights flickered and went off.
“And now there’s no light. The electricity has gone off every day this week! What are we going to do? She can’t have a baby in the dark,” Cole said.
“Then let’s find some flashlights, or lanterns,” Nate answered in a calm voice. “You’ve got some, right, since the power’s been going off every day? And then I need to wrap your wrist.”
Since darkness hadn’t completely fallen, there was enough light for Gemma to find the bathroom, where she scrubbed her hands and donned gloves before going in to check on Yvette. By then, Cole and Nate had returned with battery-powered lights, which created a soft glow in the room. Gemma hoped it would soothe her patient, who was in a position similar to the one she’d been in when Gemma had left that morning.
After setting up the lanterns, Nate finished examining Cole’s wrist, told him it didn’t appear to be broken and wrapped it with bandages he’d taken from his medical bag. When Nate was finished, Cole surprised Gemma by sitting in a chair beside the bed and taking his wife’s hand. Nate waited by the door and Gemma tried to ignore him, knowing he was judging her performance as he had before, waiting for her to make a mistake. She didn’t plan to oblige him.
When she finished her examination, she smiled at her patient and said, “Yvette, honey, you’re going to have a baby tonight. You’re dilated to eight already and you were only at two this morning. Good job.”
“It’s not something I’ve been working at,” Yvette said around a grimace. “At this point, I’m just along for the ride.”
“Fortunately, your body knows what to do.”
“Glad one of us does.” When she experienced the next pain and grasped her husband’s hand, Cole looked as if he might faint from terror.
“Cole,” Yvette said. “If you don’t calm down, we’re going to have two patients here, and I won’t let you steal my moment.”
Gemma snickered, proud of the way Yvette was standing up for herself, and using humor to do it. She knew she should feel some kind of glee at Cole’s distress after what he’d said to her earlier, but she only felt sorry for him. Nate was relaxing in the doorway, ankles crossed and arms over his chest, until she gave him a steady look. He must have caught her meaning because he gestured to Cole.
“Come on, Cole, you look like you need a break. Let’s go in the other room for a minute. Gemma’s got this.” He gave Gemma an approving look that completely threw her.
Cole stood up. “Yeah, I can do that if Yvette thinks it’s okay.”
“Go,” she answered with a wave.
He gave his wife a kiss and said, “Okay, then. I’ll go...boil some water.”
As he rushed from the room, Gemma couldn’t help exchanging an amused look with Nate, who said, “Maybe he wants some tea.”
Over the next hour, Gemma was too busy to give
Nate or Cole another thought. She had Yvette up and moving so gravity could help with the birth of her son. She could hear Nate giving Cole a pep talk about being strong for his wife, not letting her down by passing out at the signs of her pain. By the time they came back into the room, the baby was crowning, Cole was able to be supportive of his wife and Gemma was in her element.
Safely bringing a baby into the world held a special joy that never got old. Whenever she assisted at a birth, Gemma saw it as confirmation of why she was on the earth, what she’d been born to do. There was always a challenge, but that’s what made it appealing to her.
“You’re doing a wonderful job, Yvette,” she said. “One more push, and you’ll be able to meet your son. Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Yvette answered. Looking up at her husband, she said, “I love you, Cole.” Then, with one more mighty push, her baby was born and the placenta came out a few minutes later.
Smiling proudly, Gemma held the baby firmly. Cole had tears running unchecked down his face. “Would you like to cut the cord, Cole, and meet your son?”
With a nod, he stumbled forward and picked up the scissors, but his hands were shaking so badly, Nate stepped in to steady him. When that was done, Gemma wiped off the baby, wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to his mother, who immediately unwrapped him to check all his fingers and toes.
“He’s perfect,” Yvette said. “I knew he would be.” Tears overflowed her eyes as she said, “Thank you, Gemma.”
As if his knees had suddenly turned to noodles, Cole collapsed into the chair, exactly as Kelvin Summers had the day before. Gemma had seen that so many times it made her smile. Even though they’d done none of the work, the fathers were often the first to need a rest.
When he had recovered a little, Cole leaned in close to his wife. Placing one arm above Yvette’s head on the pillow, and the other over hers, he cradled his family. Looking at Gemma, and then at Nate, he said, “Yes, thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Nate said. “This was all because of Gemma’s know-how.”
Gemma turned and looked at him. The joy of the past few minutes had almost made her forget his treachery. Why was he praising her now? It was time to get some answers.
Without her asking, Nate stepped forward to help her clean up. They finished at about the same time the lights came on once again. Exhaustion suddenly swamped her and Gemma sat in a chair in the living room. With her head against the cushioned softness, she closed her eyes and tried to relax and recharge.
She heard Nate come into the room, heard the movement as he sat in the chair opposite her. “You did a good job in there, Gemma.”
“Much to your surprise.”
“What? What do you mean?”
She tilted her head and opened her eyes. “I’m not going to fight you anymore, Nate. But I’m also not going to let you shut down my birthing center. I’ll talk to Brantley, and Tom, and whoever else I need to, but you’re not going to shut me down.”
He shook his head. “Gemma, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She sat up and for the second time that day, tears filled her eyes. Furiously, she blinked them back. “You can’t deny you’ve been opposed to it from the beginning.”
“I don’t deny it, but—”
“You were going to call my medical director. You said more than once that you would shut me down, and now you think you’ve succeeded, but it won’t work.”
He held up his hands. “Wait, Gemma. Stop and back up. Where is this coming from?”
“The check that Cole gave the board. The funding you insisted had to include shutting down the Sunshine.”
He stared at her. “I don’t know anything about a check.”
“Don’t lie to me, Nate, not when—”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
“I was the one who lied,” Cole said from the doorway. “It was me.”
He indicated the phone in his hand. “I’ve got to call my mom and dad, tell them about the baby, about Cole David Burleigh—we’re going to call him Davy—then I’ll tell you about what I did.”
Gemma stood up. “While you do that, I’ll check on Yvette and Davy.” In the bedroom, she took the sleeping baby from his mother and placed him in a hastily prepared bassinet, checked Yvette for any signs of hemorrhage, and monitored her temperature and blood pressure. Pleased to see that the new mother was doing well and ready to fall asleep herself, she returned to the living room.
Cole was there, shifting from one foot to the other. “My parents are on their way,” he said. “This is going to be a full house tonight. Once they get here, they won’t leave.”
“Why don’t you sit down, Cole, and tell us what this is all about?”
Cole perched on the edge of the sofa as if ready to flee at any moment. “I was the one who tore up your yard, Gemma, ripped up your plants.”
She stared at him. “Why?”
“I was mad, I’d been drinking and yeah, I know I shouldn’t have been driving. Shouldn’t have done...any of the things I did last night.” His face was lined with shame. “I’ll pay for the repairs, or replant, or do whatever you need.”
Gemma raised an eyebrow at him. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. “Yes, you will.”
Cole swallowed hard and went on. “I lied about that check, Gemma. Nate didn’t know anything about it. Kelvin Summers told me Misty heard you two fighting about the birthing center when she had their baby, so I used that. I’m sorry.”
“Was that your money?” she asked.
“Nah. I was mad at you and Nate, been mad at you since that time when I ended up facedown in the lake.”
Gemma and Nate exchanged a look. “We remember.”
“Since you came back to town, and Yvette got to know you, Gemma, I’ve been afraid.” He stopped, his eyes showing that fear.
“Of what?” Gemma asked.
“Of losing her. At first, I thought that if she didn’t have any friends here, she’d only depend on me, but then I knew that wouldn’t work, that having friends would make her want to stay. But I didn’t want you two to tell her what I’d been like. I thought you’d poison her against me.”
“Cole, we never would have done that,” Nate said. “And wouldn’t other people in town have told her what you were like? Let’s face it, you were a bully.”
“Nah, I’ve pretty much lived that down, and besides, one way or another, we do business with almost everyone around here.”
Nate and Gemma looked at each other, still puzzled. Cole saw the question in their faces and said, “I don’t deserve her, see? She’s sweet and good, and I never thought I’d get a girl like her. I kept remembering what my mother said—easy to win, easy to lose.”
“But she loves you, Cole,” Gemma said. “That’s obvious.”
His face reddened. “Yeah, believe it or not, she does.”
Knowing this was something the two of them needed to work out, Gemma changed the subject. “Tell us about the check.”
Cole gave her a grateful look. “Well, I went to Five Points, you know, to the casino, met a guy there named Fennerman.”
Nate sat up suddenly. “What did you say his name was?”
“Fennerman. Why, you know him?”
“Yeah, I think I do. Go ahead with what you were saying.”
Cole told them the whole amazing story, concluding with “I got the feeling he wanted to get rid of the check before he changed his mind, and I was the first person he’d seen from Reston.” Cole scratched his head. “Why didn’t he simply mail it to Mr. Clegg?”
“Because even though it’s a cashier’s check with no sender’s name on it, he decided he didn’t want it to be anonymous,” Nate said. “He wanted people to know his name and that he was the one who gave the money.”
“Fennerman.” Gemma shrugged. “I’ve never heard of anyone by that name around Reston.”
Cole said, “I guess if I hadn’t been so hungover, I wouldn’t have gone along with it, but... I don’t know, I thought it would make me look good to Yvette.” He couldn’t meet Gemma’s eyes. “Except for the lie I told you. I’m sorry, Gemma. There’s no excuse for what I did.”
Headlights flashed across the living room windows, and Cole looked up expectantly. “My mom and dad are here. Will it be okay for them to hold Davy?”
“Of course, but you’ll want them to wash up before they do,” Gemma said.
“What about if they breathe on him?”
“I’ve got protective masks if you want them.” Nate gestured toward his medical bag.
Cole nodded. “I think that’ll be a good idea.”
Margery and Bob rushed in, excited to meet their new grandson. Even though they seemed taken aback to discover that Cole wanted them to be almost germfree before holding the baby, they went along with it and were soon oohing and aahing over the tiny boy, thanking Cole and Yvette again and again for bringing him into the world.
When things had settled down, Bob came back into the living room. After praising the wonders of Davy for several minutes, he pointed in the direction of the lake. “The water level is falling fast and they’re clearing the bridge to let traffic through. I can drive you back to your cars as soon as the deputies take down the barricades.”
Gemma checked on her patient, issued warnings about a spiking fever and watching for signs of hemorrhage. She was pleased to see Margery taking careful notes. Cole’s mother was a strong-willed, pushy woman, but tonight, she seemed to have only Yvette and Davy’s best interests at heart.
“I’m twenty minutes away if you need me, but you can also call Nate or the paramedics if something happens. I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
Carrying her medical bag, she joined Nate in the living room. Cole looked as if he was ready to drop so Nate ordered him to bed. Before he went, though, he turned to Gemma. “I’m sorry for the lie I told you today, for trying to keep Yvette from seeing you and for what I did all those years ago, scaring you like I did. I was used to getting what I wanted, and I was a jerk.” He paused. “And a bully. I won’t let Davy be like that. I’ll teach him—Yvette and I will teach him—how to be a good person and how to treat people right.”
At Odds with the Midwife Page 20