Winter in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance)

by Anderson, Cindy Roland

Caitlin was halfway up the stairs when Rayna suddenly screamed. She nearly dropped the tray. Hurriedly setting the tray of food onto the landing, she raced the rest of the way up.

  “What’s wrong? Are you alright?”

  Rayna didn’t answer. She stood in the middle of the bedroom floor, panic-stricken. Slowly, she looked down at her feet.

  A puddle of water seeped into the carpet.

  “What is that?” Rayna asked, fear on her face.

  “Your water broke,” Caitlin said.

  Chapter 16

  Dread rose up Caitlin’s throat. The roads were closed. All public buildings were closed. Schools had been let out that morning when it had begun to snow hard.

  All power was out across the town. She couldn’t see a single light in the distance when she looked out the windows. It was a world of black.

  She had heard earlier by radio that the hospital was working with half staff and generators.

  “I don’t feel so good,” Rayna whispered.

  Caitlin raced forward, catching her cousin by the arm to lead her to the bed before she fainted. Her face had gone pale and her skin was hot.

  Hurriedly, Caitlin took her temperature and blood pressure. Both were elevated, higher than they should be. “Stay with me, Rayna,” she ordered. “Don’t you dare faint or pass out!”

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” she whispered. And then immediately retched over the side of the bed.

  Caitlin lifted Rayna’s legs up onto the coverlet and went into action, stripping the damp sheets. Getting Rayna into a dry gown and a cold compress on her forehead to bring down the fever. She took her blood pressure again. Not good. Rayna needed a hospital as soon as possible.

  Instead of fainting, Rayna was now shivering and curling up into a ball. “Contraction,” she moaned.

  Caitlin pressed a hand to her belly which was tightening hard as a rock. She glanced at her watch and noted the time. “I’m calling an ambulance.” Before she took her next breath, she had dialed 911. There was no answer so she hit the Off button and punched the numbers again. A busy signal now. The emergency number was probably overwhelmed with calls from the storm. Power outages. Potential lightning strikes.

  “Contraction over,” Rayna whispered.

  “Good girl,” Caitlin said, nodding. The contraction had lasted about thirty seconds. Even if her water hadn’t broken, this was real labor. This baby was coming.

  She took some deep breaths, forcing herself to remain calm for Rayna. This was what she was trained for. Unexpected onset of labor—three to four weeks early.

  Calling again, she finally got through to an emergency operator. “I need an ambulance at Starry Skies Bed & Breakfast at the east end of town.”

  “What’s the emergency?” the woman said.

  “Rayna Kinsella has gone into labor.”

  “How many weeks is she?”

  “Thirty-six to thirty-seven, but she’s got high blood pressure.”

  “Contractions?” the operator asked.

  Rayna nodded, overhearing the conversation while she tried to breathe through the next one.

  When Caitlin looked at her watch, she saw that they were already four minutes apart. Not good. The baby was coming fast. She wanted to yell a curse word, but bit her tongue instead.

  “Four minutes apart and her water broke.” Caitlin barked into the phone. “How soon can you be here?”

  “All our ambulances are out. There are some trees down and a concussion.”

  “Will you please dispatch a message to come and get us? Mrs. Kinsella can’t deliver out here. She’s now officially high risk.”

  “Your name, please?” the dispatcher asked.

  “Caitlin Webster. I’m her cousin and midwife.”

  Caitlin turned away when she said that, hoping Rayna wouldn’t hear what she’d said and begin to panic.

  “I’ll try to get in touch with the ambulance, but you may have to ride this one out. If you’re a midwife, she’ll be in good hands.”

  “Aren’t there any other ambulances?”

  “We only have two. The other ambulance is out at Westwood ranch. A child was hurt out there and he’s being brought in now.”

  “Please, if there’s anyone that can help, we could really use it.”

  Caitlin gave her their number and clicked off. “Right now, I’d take the Ides of March any day of the week,” she muttered.

  “Another contraction,” Rayna said between gritted teeth.

  Two and a half minutes! Slow down, she wanted to scream.

  “Breathe, honey, keep breathing, slow and steady,” Caitlin said, keeping her voice calm. “Find your focal point, or just focus on me. I’m going to get you through this.”

  Think, think! She ordered. Rayna had potential pre-eclampsia. She had the symptoms with her blood pressure and fever. Even the swelling in her hands and feet had become worse the last twenty-four hours.

  Hopefully with cold compresses, Caitlin could avoid Rayna going full-blown and suffering a seizure. She had no oxygen for her, or respiratory therapist.

  The best thing was to get this baby delivered as fast as possible, but seizures and blood pressure could occur or skyrocket even after delivery. She needed a hospital and Doctor Taggart.

  “I’m calling Wade,” she said, to alleviate Rayna’s fears. But after three attempts there was no answer. He was either at the rescue site in a harness halfway down a cliff, or his phone was down due to lack of cell towers. Probably both.

  “Dare I try to take you myself?” she wondered aloud.

  Rayna rolled onto her left side, stress and fatigue lining her face. She was getting tired. Caitlin closed her eyes for a moment. They should have put her in the hospital days ago when they knew this storm was coming. When Rayna was having more symptoms of fatigue. She should have been thinking ahead!

  It would be tough to get them both in enough clothes to survive the cold. And blankets for Rayna. Despite snow tires on her little Altima, Caitlin had never driven while it was snowing. The white stuff was piling up crazy fast.

  What if she skidded off the road? Or the car died on her? Nobody else was out on the roads tonight so leaving the house was also incredibly risky.

  Most of all, what if the baby came while they were still en-route? She’d need blankets for the baby, too. A heating pad she could plug into the car.

  Caitlin began going over everything in her mind that she’d need. Her medical bag. Water. Food. Good grief, it could take her thirty minutes just to gather everything and load it, get Rayna dressed and in the car, let alone drive to the hospital at ten miles an hour.

  The hospital was nearly ten miles away. Another hour of time. The scenario of driving the both of them was not comforting.

  Peeking through the window, Caitlin watched the snow silently fall. Eerie and unsettling. With a sick feeling in her gut, she realized that it was too late to make it out of the driveway. In the dusky light she could see that three feet of snow was stacked behind her car’s bumper. It would take time to shovel it away.

  “Dear Lord in heaven, help us,” she prayed.

  “Call Quentin,” Rayna whispered from the bed, her forehead beaded in sweat.

  “Of course, yes! Why aren’t I thinking?” Caitlin dove for her phone just as a horrible roaring sound came from outside. “Is that just wind or a tree going down? Please God, no,” she said out loud, hoping one of the big oaks wouldn’t come down on the roof.

  Racing back to the window, she yanked aside the curtains. Headlights were coming up the narrow lane to the house. A car. No, a truck. A red monster truck.

  The diesel truck pulled in, skidding to a stop and spraying snow over the entire front porch.

  Quentin jumped out of the driver’s seat and raced up the steps. Without knocking, he burst through the doors just as Caitlin was flying down the staircase. She flung herself into his arms and he held her tight against the bulk of his chest. “You’re here, you’re here!” she cried in relief.

&n
bsp; “How’s Rayna?” he immediately asked.

  “Not good. Baby’s coming fast and I’m afraid she might go into full toxemia.”

  “That’s bad, right?”

  “Very,” Caitlin said soberly. “But how did you know she’s in labor and we’re stuck here without Wade?”

  “This storm got worse than I thought it would. The roads are awful. Cars abandoned all through town. I’ve been thinking about you all day and I knew Wade would have to go out due to downed lines in nothing else, let alone a Search and Rescue. I was already loading up my truck when I got a call from Martha, the dispatcher.”

  “But why would she call you?”

  Quentin smiled and kissed her suddenly, hard and fierce. Caitlin wanted to melt into his arms. It was as though all was forgiven. All the anger, the fears, and uncertainty between them melting away, too.

  “Don’t you know, Just Caitlin? Me and my obnoxious red truck are Snow Valley’s emergency ambulance.”

  Chapter 17

  Caitlin laughed at his description of his truck. “You’re a miracle then, because I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”

  “I hope it’s for more than just my monster red diesel truck,” Quentin teased.

  “I’ll love your truck forever.”

  “Is that a promise?”

  She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him, pulling at his coat collars to bring him close.

  “Don’t get carried away now,” he added. “We got a baby to deliver.”

  Caitlin nodded. “Check on Rayna, I hate to leave her alone for more than a couple minutes. I’ll grab my medical supplies, water, and wipes from the kitchen. Yell down at me if anything changes with her.”

  “Get towels and blankets, too,” Quentin added.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Hey, I occasionally watch doctor shows on TV. Oh, and cookies.”

  She snorted. “Cookies?”

  “In case Rayna gets hungry.” Quentin grinned at her.

  All of a sudden, the strangest feeling came over Caitlin. A swell of love filled her chest as she looked at this incredible, selfless man. With a sense of humor no less! She couldn’t imagine Stefan during a crisis. He’d probably be uselessly wringing his hands.

  The urgency of their situation crashed over her full force. “Hurry!” She yelled to Quentin, running down the dark hallway into her room to grab her coat and medical bag. In the kitchen, she found a cardboard box and threw in bottled water, sterile hand wipes, and a stack of towels. Three thick blankets went on top.

  She left it all at the front door and raced back upstairs.

  Quentin was sitting on the bed, holding Rayna’s hand and breathing with her through another contraction. Just having him here, his presence was so comforting. He was strong and solid and so perfect in an emergency.

  “How far apart?” she asked Rayna, getting her into warmer clothes.

  “Still three minutes, no longer.” Rayna’s arm suddenly went limp and she closed her eyes.

  “Is she okay?” Caitlin said, alarmed.

  “Just exhausted,” Quentin said. “As soon as you get her dressed, I’ll carry her to the truck.”

  “All the supplies are by the front door.”

  “I’ll take them out now and come back for you in two minutes. I don’t want you to have to wait in the truck longer than necessary.”

  Caitlin helped Rayna pull a heavy sweater over her head and then double-layered her socks.

  “Even though it’s cold outside, we’ll forgo long johns so we have easier access to the baby.”

  Rayna gave her a weak smile. “I caught what you just did there.”

  “The realities of delivery, right?”

  “What would I do without you, Caitlin?”

  Before she knew it, Quentin was bounding back up the stairs. The man was so strong; he lifted Rayna into his arms and carried her all the way out to the truck while Caitlin ran after them.

  With slow movements, Rayna crawled onto the long bench behind the front seat and Caitlin covered her in blankets, sitting beside her, crouched on the floor of the vehicle to hold her hand and breathe with her.

  The truck was toasty warm because Quentin had never turned off the ignition. Now they roared back down the driveway and within moments they were flying toward Main Street. If any vehicle could drive these roads, it was his truck with dually tires and four-wheel drive.

  Caitlin smoothed Rayna’s hair of her face. She was sweating, but also shaking with chills. A contraction came on and Rayna gripped her hand like a vise.

  “I don’t want to scream in front of Quentin,” she said with a chuckle when it subsided. She’d bit her lip and it was bleeding a little. Caitlin dabbed at it with one of the moist wipes.

  “Scream all you want,” Caitlin told her. “I’m sure he’s used to it.”

  “I have six younger sisters,” Quentin said, overhearing their conversation despite the heat blasting on high and the noisy diesel engine. “It’ll feel just like home to me.”

  That brought a weak smile from Rayna who began to take deep breaths again in a fresh contraction. She held her belly with both hands and let out a loud groan, gritting her teeth not to scream in the presence of Quentin. While she panted, Caitlin checked her watch. One and a half minutes apart. They’d left the house just in time.

  Main Street soon got slippery. “Black ice under the fresh snow,” Quentin said. “But the hospital is up ahead in about a mile.”

  “I gotta push!” Rayna suddenly said. “I can feel the baby. It’s right there.”

  “Okay, honey.” Caitlin did several things at once. Checked her temperature with her wrist, did a quick blood pressure check, which was rising a little, and then laid her head on Rayna’s abdomen. The baby was moving down the birth canal, but Caitlin could feel small movements from the baby, which reassured her that the baby wasn’t in distress. At least not yet.

  “Uh, oh,” Quentin muttered.

  Caitlin glanced up. There were two pick-up trucks sideways in the middle of the road. One with a trailer filled with hay. A man wearing a heavy coat, boots and hat waved his arms and Quentin eased on the brakes to stop without sliding, cranking his wheel to the right to avoid the other vehicles.

  He rolled down his window and icy air rolled in. Caitlin shivered, shocked by the depth of the cold, making sure the blanket around Rayna was tight around her neck and arms to keep her from shaking, despite the fact that she was already trembling with pain and the pressure of the baby so close to birth.

  “Everybody okay here?” Quentin yelled out the window.

  “Yeah,” one of the men shouted back. “Nobody’s hurt. Gonna push the cars off to the side and call a tow truck in the morning.”

  “Need a ride?”

  “Wife’s coming soon. We’ll huddle under the eaves of Big C’s and wish he was open and serving.”

  Quentin yelled to the men, revving the gas pedal with a brief wave of his hand. “Hospital! We’re having a baby!”

  A whoop and a holler came from behind them as Quentin shifted gears and roared forward. The lights of the hospital soon came into view and Caitlin breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “The baby’s coming,” Rayna said, agony in her voice. “I have to push.”

  “Keep panting through the last of the transition,” Caitlin ordered, squeezing her hand. “Shallow breaths. No pushing. We’re almost there. We want the doctor before that boy pops out.”

  “We’re having a boy?” Quentin called from the front seat, swerving around another abandoned car. Miraculously, his truck hardly strayed from the road.

  A second later, there was a big dip and a bounce as the truck went into the hospital driveway. Rayna let out a scream of panic, beginning to writhe side to side on the truck seat.

  “We’re at the Emergency Entrance, honey,” Caitlin said, wiping a towel across Rayna’s sweating face. “We’re here.”

  Quentin pulled up at the glass doors. Lights blazed in the deep
darkness surrounding them. “Thank the Lord for a generator,” he said, jumping out to open the back door.

  “I’ll grab a wheelchair,” Caitlin said, running for the automatic doors. One was just inside and a nurse jumped up from the desk further down the hall when she spotted them.

  “Emergency delivery,” Caitlin called out, pushing the wheelchair through the double sliding doors and out onto the sidewalk.

  Thankfully, there was an overhang so the walkway next to the doors was dry, despite snow piling up on either side.

  The nurse nodded and ran back to her station to telephone for more help.

  At the curb, Caitlin put the brake onto the wheelchair to hold it steady while Quentin lifted Rayna out of the truck.

  Rayna was unsteady, her eyes almost crazed. “I can’t stop it,” she blurted out, staring at Caitlin with sheer panic on her face.

  With a single loud scream, Rayna bent over and groaned so loud, the entire overhanging structure echoed with the sound. She tried to take tiny steps forward to the doors, but was clutching her belly so hard she couldn’t move very fast.

  “We have a wheelchair,” Caitlin said, rushing forward so fast she fell, sliding to the ground at Rayna’s feet as if she was going into first base.

  Rayna was tugging at her over-large sweat pants while Caitlin yelped, “The baby’s crowned!”

  Another deep moan came from Rayna and the baby slipped out, right into Caitlin’s arms.

  “Blankets!” she yelled. Blood and a trickle of amniotic fluid rushed out onto the ground.

  Quentin shoved a blanket toward Caitlin who wrapped the baby into it, just as Rayna collapsed, falling limp into Quentin’s arms.

  Chapter 18

  While the nurses got Rayna settled into a room on the maternity ward, Quentin held Caitlin’s hand tight in both of his as they sat in the empty waiting room. Doctor Taggart had already been in to see Rayna and ordered an IV and blood tests. Thankfully, her blood pressure had come down once the baby was born. She’d fainted due to exhaustion and an iron deficiency.

  Nervously, Caitlin tapped her foot up and down. Quentin reached out and touched her knee.