“Six,” Sabrina said.
“What are the bones of the hand?” David asked, still too close for Hue’s comfort.
“What?” Amanda asked in confusion.
“And point to them. Grace, make sure she’s right.”
The woman’s face became visible to them for the first time.
To Hue’s surprise, she actually let go of her tight grip on his hand and started to point at each one and named them. Her hand was shaking a little, but she was scared about what was happening. And happening so quickly.
“Grace?” David asked.
“No shock,” Grace said.
“You can stop,” David stated.
Instantly, her hand found his again.
“Pretty high, but I can feel that,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Does it hurt a lot of or a little?” David asked as Sabrina held Amanda’s other hand.
“A lot,” she whispered as she bit her lip hard.
Unable to do anything but hold her hand again after the bone count, he leaned down, pulled off his mask, and kissed her forehead.
CHAPTER19
Her blue eyesflew to his, and she whispered, “Put the mask back on.”
“Put the mask back on. Twelve.” Sabrina didn’t say it nearly as nicely as Amanda had.
“Boy. Breathing. Cruz. Grace.” By the time the doctor had said the last name, he had to be on the other side of the room.
Grace turned as the doctor walked away and decoded the words for them. “It’s a boy, and he is breathing. David has him, and Dad needs to follow me now. Cruz will finish here.”
Hue turned to Amanda. They hadn’t discussed this. They hadn’t discussed anything. He was there for her, though, whatever she wanted. She let his hand go before Grace finished talking and pleaded, “Go with him, Hue. Be with him.”
Kissing her lips with his mask on, he turned and quickly followed the nurse out the door. Though she was shorter than him by a nearly a foot, he had a hard time keeping pace with her. Watching her, he realized this had been Amanda until last year. She would have been the one following the doctor as fast as she could. Hue wondered if Amanda missed the fast pace she left behind.
“What was the counting for?” he asked as she started to rip off the plastic gloves she was still wearing. He followed suit, though not as gracefully as her.
“Dr. Bennett wanted a count up from when the epidural was placed. The baby came out during minute six.” She stopped at a sink and started to wash her hands and indicated for him to do the same.
“Is that normal? Does it usually happen that fast?” he asked in confusion. He knew nothing about any of this.
“No, just in an emergency. Only twice have I even seen it before.” Her hands clean, she pulled a towel to dry them. Looking up at him, she said, “She had to have felt a lot of it. I can’t believe she didn’t scream.”
“She had almost no reaction,” he admitted, doing the same.
“She was scared for the baby. That takes over. We checked for shock.” She pulled on new gloves with a speed he hadn’t seen before. “She knew it was going to happen fast.”
“She just said it would be a C-section.” He pulled on the new gloves way slower than she had.
“This was the plan. It’s in her file. Both knew it without looking at it. I worked under her for three years. She knew everything happening to her, even if David didn’t say a word about what he was doing.” She chuckled as she said, “Cruz is in there with her, not wanting to touch her for another ten minutes at least.”
“Will he?” Hue asked, wondering if she would be in more pain as she waited.