Page 83 of If They Knew

“Tyler, I need to say this… please,” he asks, tears forming in his eyes. “In case I don't make it, I want you to know that I love you more than anything in this world. You are going to be the best father a kid could ever ask for, much better than ours.”

I stand stunned at his words. Kelly groans, pulling my attention back.

“I love you too, but we can go over how good a dad I’ll be later when we are home,” I say, wiping a tear from my cheek. “Now get your ass over here.”

We face each other, and I look at my brother and take a deep breath. He looks at Kelly, then over at me, then nods. Kelly lets out another groan and pants, tears in her eyes, gripping my shoulders, her body trembling.

“I can do this,” she says, her voice wavering.

“Yeah, you can,” I say, as I wrap my arms around her. Theo grabs her from behind, and we brace her between us to help cushion the impact of the water.

Then we jump.

As we hit the water, both the impact and the utter cold of the freezing ocean almost takes my breath away. As we break through the surface, I thrash around looking for my brother and Kelly, and feel a little bit of relief as Kelly surfaces near me.

I look toward the raft, and everyone is shouting with their hands out to grab us. Quickly, we swim to the raft. Xander and Sara pull Kelly in first, laying her on her back. Immediately, they throw dry clothing over us to dry us and warm us up.

“The baby is coming,” Sara screams as the raft fills with a mixture of blood and water.

“We need to deliver this baby now,” says Mary as she yanks supplies out of her bag.

“Where’s Theo?” asks Karissa. My heart sinks as I realize he didn't crawl into the raft with us. I turn quickly, scanning the water, but he’s nowhere to be found. Several seconds pass with no sign of him anywhere. I can’t tell if it's the cold wind or the state of panic I'm in causing my ears to ring. Where is he? A second later, Theo's body surfaces only a few feet away, face down.

“Theo!” I shout, diving into the water. Theo is unconscious, his skin pale, his lips tinged blue. I swim back to the raft with Theo. Xander and Karissa grab his limp body and pull him up. I follow. Xander immediately begins chest compressions, but it's nearly impossible with the raft shifting like a waterbed beneath him.

“The baby, I see it!” shouts Sara. My heart is pounding so hard that I feel it in my ears. My teeth are chattering so hard that I'm afraid I'm going to chip a tooth. I grab a piece of tattered clothing to pat myself dry and try to warm up. I glance over, and Sara is pulling Kelly's pants down, and all I can see is the bloodied, purple crown of dark hair. Feeling dizzy and on the verge of fainting, I take a deep breath and slowly crawl over to help.

“What can I do?” I ask. Xander continues doing compressions on my brother, and I can hear him panting loudly. He’s gradually becoming more exhausted and out of breath as the rough ocean keeps knocking him over.

“Push, Kelly, push!” shouts Mary. Sara is between Kelly’s legs, doing everything Mary tells her to do.

Kelly screams and I watch her head fall backward. A moment later, the sound of a crying baby fills my ears.

“It's a girl!” shouts Sara.

Mary grabs the medical bag and flings it open. “Where are the scissors?” No one responds, and Kelly slowly lifts her exhausted head, smiling at me.

“Can I hold her?” Kelly asks.

“Of course,” says Mary. “Tyler, I need you to bite the umbilical cord. We don’t have scissors.” I stare blankly at Mary, not sure if I heard her correctly.

“I'm sorry, what did you say?” I ask breathlessly, because there is no way she just asked me to bite the umbilical cord. The thought alone makes me gag.

“Bite the cord Tyler, you have to do it.”

Slowly, I move closer to Kelly. I do my best to avoid disrupting Xander, who is still doing compressions. I notice he is almost falling over after each one. I take another deep breath and grab the umbilical cord, lifting it to my mouth, about to cut it with my teeth.

“Here, I found the scissors!” screams Sara. Oh, thank God! I quickly grab them and cut the cord. Sara hands Kelly the baby. Karissa rips open a bag of sheets and wraps the baby, then throws another one over them both.

On the other side of the raft, Xander lets Chris take over and collapses back into the raft. Just that second, Theo turns over, sputters, then vomits violently. Xander slumps down with a weak laugh and Chris sits back on his heels. I look over at Theo and let out a breath of relief, then I grab Kelly and kiss my newborn baby girl on the head.

Kelly smiles up at me exhausted, and I kiss her again. I feel tears forming in my eyes as I look back down at our baby girl. “What should we name her?” I whisper.

“Hope.”

EPILOGUE

MARCH 2013