She nodded again, licking her dry lips. “Can I get an epidural?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, you are too far along for that. You’re going to have to deliver these babies naturally. But you can do this, Georgia.”
She smiled weakly and then groaned again as another contraction hit her.
“Alright,” I said, stepping back and turning my attention to Melanie and Sam. “Let’s get everything ready.”
The rest of the team finished the last-minute preparations in the room, Georgia speaking in low tones to her friend. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were talking about me, and how strange it was that Georgia and I had come back into each other’s lives under such circumstances. It sure as hell was on my mind.
“OK, just call for me if you need anything,” her friend said after a time. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as she threw a furtive glance in my direction before heading out of the room.
“Hey, Alex?” Georgia’s voice was gentle, even a little hesitant.
I turned, catching Melanie regarding what was happening with a sly smile. Being tactful as always, she stepped over to the other side of the room to give me some privacy.
“Yeah?” I stepped to the side of the bed.
Georgia gave me a weak smile. “This is really weird.”
I let out a snort of a laugh. “No kidding. I never thought I was going to see you again, and now here you are in my ER about to give birth to twins.”
“Moirae,” she said.
“Fate.”
She chuckled. “Nice thing about you being Greek is I don’t have to explain it to you.”
I smiled back at her. “It’s good to see you.”
“Yeah. Good to see you too.” She pursed her lips, glancing aside. I could sense there was something on her mind, something that she wasn’t sure how to say. “I don’t know how to say this, but—”
Before she could get the rest of her words out, Georgia winced, biting down on her lip before letting out a cry of pain as another contraction took hold.
“What’s the time on that, Mel?” I asked.
“Two minutes.”
Without thinking, I reached for Georgia’s hand. Before I could close the distance between us, however, her friend came rushing into the room.
“I heardthatyell!” she announced, hurrying over to Georgia’s side and grabbing her hand. As she did, I realized how inappropriate it would’ve been for me to do something like that, how lucky I was that she’d arrived just at that moment.
“Oh, myGooddd!” Georgia cried.
“OK, OK!” her friend replied. “You need to do the breathing stuff! Remember? We did, like, five lessons on this, it should be second nature!”
“It’s not second nature when it feels like your stomach’s about to freaking explode!”
“Easy, girlie! Don’t bite my head off!”
The two of them went back and forth, their sharp comments to one another putting a small smile on my face. Her friend’s words sat poorly with me, however. She’d said that they’d gone to classes together. I’d never gone through pregnancy with anyone before, but I understood it enough to know that attending classes together was something thecoupledid.
If those babies were mine, it meant that Georgia had gone through her entire pregnancy all on her own, no help but from friends and family.
“You ready for this?” I asked. “Because these kids are coming soon.”
She nodded, pursing her lips once more. Georgia took a deep breath, then turned to me.
“The babies,” she said, her voice low enough so only I could hear it. “They’re yours.”