Page 57 of One Night with the Doctor

Sebastian was back in record time handing her some gloves which she donned. Next he handed over the towels and Callie placed several thicknesses of them beneath Ginny, covering as much of the lounge as she could.

‘Where do you want me?’ he asked.

Callie nodded at the arm of the lounge. ‘Slide in behind her, give her something solid to lean against.’

Personally, right now, she’d kill for that solid wall of muscle behind her too. Steady and reassuring. Someone to lean on as the events unfolded.

It was a strange realisation. She’d learned from an early age to be independent, to rely only on herself. To have Sebastian’s calm, commanding presence was a surprising windfall.

To actually want it was a miracle!

How would it be to have it forever? To have him always in her corner. To be able to rely on someone else for a change?

Callie watched as Sebastian positioned himself as requested, Ginny’s back propped against his front, his hands resting against her sides, where the swell of her belly began, her elbows resting on his thighs.

Ginny shifted obviously uncomfortable, her body and mind restless. She looked at Callie. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve delivered a baby before?’

‘Nope.’

Callie wished she could quantify that somehow to make her denial more palatable to a labouring woman. Nope, but. Nope, but I’ve assisted at several. Or, nope, but it’s a special-interest area for me and I’m really well read on the subject and up on all the latest practices.

Because the truth was her interest had been exactly zero. She’d never been interested in any of it. Not babies or the birth process or whether pink unicorns trumped yellow ducks.

Zack had come to her as a two-year-old; the mechanics of how he’d got to that age hadn’t been something she’d had to worry about.

Ginny looked over her shoulder at Sebastian. ‘Don’t suppose you have either?’

Sebastian shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’

Ginny looked like she was about to lose it so Callie pulled back from her own thoughts and hastened to reassure her. ‘Look, Ginny, babies that are too impatient to be out, these home deliveries you hear about on the news? They practically deliver themselves.’

‘I don’t want a bloody home delivery,’ she cried. ‘I want to be in a hospital where there are doctors and nurses. People who know what they’re doing. And epidurals. I want drugs. Lots of drugs. I want a fully prepped operating theatre and NICU!’

Sebastian smiled over Ginny’s head and winked at Callie but she didn’t find anything light-hearted about the situation. Witnessing labour at first hand like this, in an uncontrolled environment, she couldn’t blame Ginny for wanting the security of obstetric professionals and some pharmaceutical backup.

She’d want nothing less for herself when it was time.

Callie sucked in a breath. No, no, no. This was not about her! She did not want this for herself.

‘I understand that,’ Callie soothed. ‘I know this isn’t what you planned. But your body knows what to do, Ginny, it’s already doing it. I’m just here to catch should it happen before the ambulance arrives.’

Ginny shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she wailed. ‘It’s too hard. I can’t do it.’

‘Yes, you can,’ Sebastian assured her hastily. ‘Your body is doing an amazing thing, Ginny, a truly wondrous thing. And Callie’s right, birthing is a natural process. Your body knows. It knows what to do.’

Callie glanced at him and knew the words were not for Ginny alone. His gaze captured hers for a moment, seared right to her core, and it was as if there was just the two of them there.

‘Why is this happening to me?’ Ginny’s wailed demand broke the connection between them. ‘I’ve done everything right – everything. I’ve read all the books, I’ve been diligent with my meds, I’ve eaten all the right stuff. I even gave up cheese which is my favourite thing.’ Her face crumpled. ‘I haven’t even done the ducks yet.’

Sebastian rubbed his hands up and down her arms. ‘The ducks can wait.’

But his reassurance got totally lost in Ginny’s ‘Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God’ as she dug her elbows into his thighs and braced for another contraction.

‘Just try and breathe through it, Ginny,’ Callie murmured as a little more of the head was exposed.

She tried not to think about what would happen if the baby got stuck or Ginny tore or if she haemorrhaged. A veritable conga line of worse case scenarios rattled through Callie’s head but the ambulance was coming and she had faith that they’d be able to deal with any complications.

But mostly she tried not to think about the baby she was carrying inside her. And the man who’d put it there being calm and composed as his quads bore the brunt of two elbows being mashed into them and he mastered a situation that’d test most men’s mettle.