by Tinnean
Shit! I got her onto the last lift.
Suddenly Wills was there beside us. “I’ve got the Dodge warmed up and waiting right outside the door. Let me take the bags.”
Finally we were on the first floor, out and down the steps.
“I… I think I’ll lie down on the backseat, if you don’t mind.” Samantha said through gritted teeth.
We helped her into the car. Wills got behind the wheel, I buckled up in the passenger seat, and then we were on the road.
How could he be so calm? He drove the Dodge with his usual competent care and with just the right amount of speed that he caught every green light.
We arrived at the hospital, and Wills left me with Samantha in Admitting while he parked the car.
“Where’s Mr. Matheson?”
“He’s—”
“Here I am.”
“Good. We’re going to examine her. You can get dressed.” They hustled Samantha away and escorted Wills to a room where he could change, but they stopped me.
“But….” They weren’t going to let me in the delivery room with Wills and Samantha? I stood there in the corridor, at a loss.
“What’s going on, Theo?” Wills asked as he came back out. He was dressed in scrubs, with those paper booties on his feet and a shower cap on his head.
“Only family is allowed.” One of the nurses curled her lip at me.
“You don’t understand,” Wills said as Samantha was wheeled into a room. “Theo is family. He’s this baby’s other father.”
“That’s disgusting,” she sneered.
“Is it.” And Wills wasn’t asking a question. He was challenging her. He got that stone-cold look on his face and made a phone call. Ten minutes later the nurse, her mouth in a pinched line, ushered me into a room where I could change into blue scrubs.
“Sterilize yourself,” she snapped.
“Excuse me?”
She nodded toward a sink. “Use the disinfectant soap and scrub your hands for five minutes.”
The witch. Couldn’t she have said that to begin with?
When I was finally ready, another nurse led me in. After a single, horrified glance at Samantha, with her legs in the stirrups, I swallowed and wondered if this had been a good idea.
“Where would you like to stand, Mr. Bascopolis?” At least she knew my name.
“Um… I think next to Samantha’s head?” She was going to need support.
“Certainly. You can help her when she needs to push.”
Okay, I could do that. We’d gone to the natural-childbirth classes, and Samantha and I had practiced during the day while Wills was at work.
Wills was at the foot of the bed, filming.
I realized something at that moment. My lover, my husband—the man I intended to spend the rest of my life with—was out of his fucking mind! Who would want to watch that?
I pushed that thought from my mind, took Samantha’s hand, and patted it. “Soon now, Samantha.”
“You know something I don’t?” she snarled.
This was also something they’d told us about in those classes. I didn’t take it personally. Much.
“All right, Samantha.” Dr. Hung peered over the sheet that covered the bulge of Samantha’s belly. “You can start pushing now.”
“Thank fucking God!” Her nails dug into my hand as she reared up, tucked her chin to her chest, and began to push.
Either Dr. Hung was a liar or Teodore William was in no rush to enter this world. It was another hour before Wills set aside the camcorder and Dr. Hung had him catch our son and put him on Samantha’s abdomen.
“It’s a boy. No surprise there, from what you’ve told me.” Dr. Hung looked up and smiled. “We’ll give it a minute or so to stop pulsing, but would you like to cut the cord, Mr. Bascopolis?”
Wills grabbed up the camcorder again and resumed filming.
I looked from the scissors to our son to the pulsing cord. My head was nodding while my brain was screaming, Are you out of your fucking mind? My feet weren’t listening to my brain either. They took a step toward the bottom of the bed. My stupid hand reached for the scissors.
And that was the last thing I remembered.
I CAME to on a hospital bed, so mortified I wanted to bury my head under the pillow. “Oh God, I feel like an idiot!”
“It’s okay, babe.” Wills ran his fingers through my hair. “I caught you in time.”
“You did? But what about the camcorder?”
“Oh, it’s in one piece. I managed to hold onto it, and I got some interesting shots of the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and our feet. I’ll show you later.”
“The baby! How’s the baby?”
“He’s fine. He’s a ten on the Apgar scale, and if I say so myself, he’s beautiful!”
“When can I see him?”
“We wanted to wait until you were with us again. I’ll see if the nurse will bring him in now.” He stepped out of the room, and I sat up.
I was still wearing scrubs, but the shower cap and the booties were gone.
Wills came back in with a carton of orange juice. “Drink this. They’ll bring him in a minute.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s almost three. In the afternoon.”
“No wonder why I feel so woozy.” The last time I’d eaten was dinner the night before. “Did you eat anything?”
“I had some juice earlier. We can go down to the cafeteria later.”
A nurse wheeled in a bassinette and smiled at us. “Here’s your son.” She put a little bottle on the bedside tray table. “See if you can get him to drink a little of this.”
Wills picked up our son and came to me. “Shove over, babe.” He sat beside me on the bed
I peered at the little face beneath the blue and white cap that covered his head. “He’s so little!”
“He’s actually a big boy,” the nurse said. “He’s nine pounds.” She made sure Wills wasn’t going to drop the baby, and then nodded and draped a cloth over his shoulder. “I’ll leave you to get acquainted with Teodore.”
“Thanks.” Wills smiled at her. “Get the bottle, Theo. I’ll show you how it’s done, and then you can feed him.”
“Me?” I cleared my throat and handed him the bottle. “Me? Uh… rain check?”
“Sure.” He brushed the nipple back and forth over our son’s lips. Teodore seemed to search frantically for it, and then he latched on and began to suck. Wills rocked him gently, smiling down at him, and I felt tears well in my eyes.
“Our little boy.”
“Yeah.” Wills looked up at me, and there were tears in his eyes as well. “Before I forget, Samantha is doing well.”
I felt bad. I hadn’t given a thought to the woman who had given us this precious bundle. “Has she seen the baby?”
“No, she prefers not to. We’ll go home on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, I’ll take her to her place and make sure she’s settled in okay. Oh, the doctor wants to know if we want Teodore circumcised.”
“Does he have to be?”
“I was, you’re not… we can go either route.”
I moved aside the blanket Teodore was wrapped in, eased my thumb into his diaper, and tugged it forward gently, avoiding the plastic clip that was on what was left of his umbilical cord—was he going to have an innie or an outie?—but I couldn’t see his little penis.
Wills laughed. “Careful, babe.”
“Huh? Oh!” And I laughed myself. “Can I see him?”
“Sure. Just let me finish feeding him.” He eased the baby onto the shoulder that was covered with the cloth and began to rub circles on his back. “Oops.”
A huge burp erupted from the little body, and I couldn’t help laughing again.
He brought the baby back into the crook of his arm and used the cloth to wipe Teodore’s rosebud lips.
“He’s got blue eyes! Did they give us the wrong baby? Did they give us the wrong embryo?”
“No.” He leaned against me and
kissed the corner of my mouth. “His eyes will change.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to fall in love with him if we have to give him back.”
“He’s ours, Theo. No one gets him but us.” He placed the baby on the bed and opened the blanket. Teodore gave a little jerk and then waved his arms and legs.
I took his tiny foot in my hand—it was smaller than my thumb—and marveled at his toes with their perfect toenails.
His face suddenly turned red, and he grunted, and Wills chuckled. “Just keep an eye on him for a minute, okay?”
“Where are you going?”
“Right here.” He went to the bassinette and took a disposable diaper and some wipes from the storage beneath it. Of course he’d know how to do stuff like burp a baby and change a dirty diaper. He’d done that for Marti.
He undid the tabs that secured the diaper, and when I saw what was in it, I felt a little sick. “Wills….”
“Yeah, babe?”
“I… I can’t do this! I’m gonna be a horrible dad!”
“No.” With easy, competent moves, he cleaned our son and replaced the diaper. “You’ll do fine. Just give it some time.”
Teodore’s hand was wide open, and I stroked his palm the way I would do Miss Su’s chin. His tiny fingers closed around my forefinger.
“Wills? He’s… he’s holding onto me!”
“Of course he is. I am too. Teodore and I will never let you go! Come on, Teddy Bear. Time for you to go to sleep.” He wrapped the baby in his blanket and began to sing softly of a Poppa—me—and a Daddy—him—taking our tired little Teddy Bear home to bed.
“Can I… can I hold him?”
“He’s your son too.” Wills placed him in my arms. I knew Teddy Bear weighed nine pounds—the nurse had said so—but it was almost as if he were weightless.
“So I’m Poppa Bear and you’re Daddy Bear?” I looked down on our baby. “I guess that makes you Baby Bear.”
Wills put his arm around my shoulder and held me and our son close to his body. “My family.”
“Yes.” My family, and it was perfect.
About the Author
TINNEAN has been writing since the third grade, where she was inspired to try her hand at epic poetry. Fortunately, that epic poem didn’t survive the passage of time; however, her love of writing not only survived but thrived, and in high school she became a member of the magazine staff, where she contributed a number of stories.
It was with the advent of the family’s second computer—the first intimidated everyone—that her writing took off, enhanced in part by fanfiction, but mostly by the wonder that is copy and paste.
While involved in fandom, she was nominated for both Rerun and Light My Fire Awards. Now she concentrates on her original characters, and a recent novel received honorable mention in the 2013 Rainbow Awards.
A New Yorker at heart, she resides in SW Florida with her husband and two computers.
Ernest Hemingway’s words reflect Tinnean’s devotion to her craft: “Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.”
She can be contacted at [email protected], and can be found on Live Journal: http://tinnean.livejournal.com/, Twitter: @tinneantoo, and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tinnean.
If you’d like to sample her earlier works, they can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/tinnssinns/Welcome1.html.
The Light in Your Eyes Series from TINNEAN
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Spy vs. Spook Series from TINNEAN
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