Her Mother's Daughter (46 page)

Gertie jumped around. “So what do I do?”

“You get dressed and tell Ashley to get dressed and I'll get dressed and we'll go.”

“I'd better call Matt.”

Peter put his hand on Gertie's arm. “I'll call Matt. You'll frighten the life out of him.”

Ashley appeared at the bedroom door, dressed and carrying her suitcase.

“Why are you two still in your pyjamas?”

When they were ready and about to leave, Gertie looked at Jeffrey. “I forgot to feed the cat!”

“I think we should go,” Peter said.

Gertie booted it down the hall and grabbed the mega-sized bag of cat chow, but in her rush, she spilled it all over the kitchen floor. “Oh my God!”

“Forget it. Let's go.”

Gertie rushed back down the hall and they trooped out to the car. Peter put Ashley in the front seat and tucked a blanket around her.

“You're not having any pain, are you?” Peter asked quietly.

“Only when I breathe. Is that bad?”

He shut the car door and shouted at Gertie. “Get in the car now!”

She climbed behind the wheel and it was amazing how fast Peter got into the back seat, cast and all. As Gertie sped down the highway, she fretted. “Jeffrey's going to blow up if he eats all that food.”

“I'll buy you another cat.”

“Peter!”

Ashley cried out and leaned over in her seat. “Oh, this is getting worse.”

“It's getting worse!” Gertie repeated.

“You're fine,” Peter said. “This is supposed to happen. Take deep breaths in and out.”

Ashley began breathing but another pain hit her. Again she cried out and then reached over the seat to grab Peter's hand.

“Call my moms.”

When the phone rang, Bay wasn't surprised. She'd had a funny feeling all day and was lying in bed thinking about Ashley. But just because she wasn't surprised didn't mean she was prepared.

“She's having contractions?!” she shouted into the phone at Peter.

“Don't worry, Bay. We're ten minutes out of Sydney. We'll get her there in time.”

“What do I do now?”

“Get dressed and come to the hospital.”

Bay paced by the bed. “I don't think I can drive. I'm shaking.”

“I'll call Dermot. He'll drive you and Tansy to the hospital.”

“Yes, yes. Good plan.”

Bay ran around her bedroom opening and closing bureau drawers. “What do you wear when you're about to be a grandmother?” Because she couldn't think, she threw on the clothes she'd taken off just hours before. Then into the bathroom to splash water on her face and brush her teeth. A quick brush through her hair and she was ready. She was halfway down the stairs when she realized she'd forgotten her purse. Did she need her purse? Yes. You always need your purse. It was on the dresser and as Bay grabbed it, her eyes fell on the picture of her mother. She reached out and took it with her.

Bay was bundled up outside in the frosty air when she saw headlights come along the main road. When they turned up her street, she ran down the driveway and jumped up and down until Dermot pulled the truck up to the curb. Tansy opened up the door for her and Bay hopped into the truck.

“It's happening!” Bay said.

“I know!” Tansy said.

They both looked at Dermot. “Hurry up!”

Matt was waiting outside the hospital doors with a wheelchair when Gertie and Peter pulled up in the car. Matt opened the passenger door and was met with a screech from Ashley. “This is all your fault!”

Peter and Gertie got out of the car and helped Matt put her in the chair.

“How did you get here so fast?” Gertie asked him.

“He didn't stop to feed a cat,” Ashley yelled. “Peter, don't leave me!”

“I won't.” He took Ashley's hand and limped beside her into the hospital, with Matt pushing the chair.

Gertie wrung her hands behind them. “So what do I do?”

Peter looked back. “Go park the car and wait here for Tansy and Bay.”

Ashley shouted over her shoulder. “I don't want to see them. Not until I say so. Have you got that?”

“Got it.” Gertie ran back to the car.

When a doctor checked Ashley she was almost fully dilated. Matt was with her in the room while Peter paced outside. Then the door opened and Matt appeared wearing a hospital gown, holding Ashley's hand as the medical team wheeled her to the delivery room. He looked like he was about to faint. He mouthed, “Help me.”

Once Ashley laid eyes on Peter, she held out her other hand. “You have to come with us! I can't do this without you.” She gasped when another pain hit.

A nurse approached him with a hospital gown. “Here, put this on. We don't get many fathers in the delivery room. It's usually the moms.”

“She's got three of those downstairs.”

“You get all sorts these days.” She helped him into the gown.

“I don't know if I can do this.”

The nurse patted his back. “Just hold her hand and close your eyes.”

When Dermot pulled the truck up to the hospital, Bay and Tansy were out the door before he even stopped. Gertie was there to greet them, stamping her feet to keep warm.

“Why aren't you with her?” Bay shouted.

“She wanted Peter.”

“Peter's in the delivery room?”

“I don't know where anyone is at the moment. I've been waiting down here for you.”

“We have to get up there.” Bay ran to the hospital door with Tansy sprinting behind her.

“Wait!” Gertie shouted.

They kept going.

A sharp whistle from Dermot stopped them in their tracks. They turned around. “Bay, Gertie's trying to tell you something.”

Bay looked at her. “What is it?”

“Ashley doesn't want to see either of you until she says so.”

Dermot pointed at them. “Have you got that? Now calm down and do as you're told.”

At that moment, Ashley was pushing with all her might. Peter was on one side of her head and Matt was on the other, both of them with their eyes closed. She had their hands in a vice grip. Their fingers were turning lovely shades of white and blue.

As the doctor told her to bear down once more, Ashley shouted at Matt, “You're never touching me again, do you hear me!?”

Peter opened one eye to see Matt look at him with dismay. Peter whispered over her head. “She didn't mean that.”

“I did so…ooohhhhhhh!!”

And then it was over.

Fred gave a little cry and the doctor put him in his mother's arms. That made his mother cry and his father cry and his uncle Peter cry. They were one big crying machine. Eventually Peter turned to Matt.

“You should go down to the waiting room and put the mothers out of their misery.”

Matt rushed down the hall and the minute he appeared in the waiting room doorway, Bay, Tansy, Gertie, and Dermot rose as one.

“We have a son.”

The three women rushed towards Matt like a tidal wave of screeching maternal love. He was enveloped in a sea of arms and lifted right off the ground. He didn't mind one bit.

It was about an hour later that Matt came back in and said Ashley would like to see them. Dermot stayed where he was.

Matt went on ahead. Tansy and Bay held hands as they approached the room, but neither one dared look at the other. Gertie was behind them. They walked in to see their daughter holding her baby as Peter and Matt stood protectively beside her. Before they had a chance to react, Ashley put up her hand.

“I don't want a huge scene. I'm tired and it's too much. I love you guys and I forgive you and I forgive Nana. But you have to promise there are no more lies between us. Ever.”

Bay and Tansy promised.

“Now if you can act like normal people, come meet your grandson.”

They tiptoed over and all three women squished up their faces in delight as they looked at the most beautiful baby in the world. They gushed quietly and hugged Peter to thank him for all he'd done. Ashley let Bay and Tansy kiss her on the cheek, and she gave Gertie a big hug.

By now Peter couldn't hide the fact that his leg was bothering him, so he sat in the chair by the bed. Ashley handed Matt the baby and he in turn put the baby in Peter's arms. It was quite a sight to see that 280-pound man hold a six-pound newborn.

Matt cleared his throat. “Peter, Ashley and I don't know what we would have done without you and Gertie this past month. You sat in an uncomfortable chair with a cast on your leg, eight hours a day for two weeks, and then sat in an apartment with her for another two weeks. That's why we'd like to name our son after you and ask you and Gertie to be his godparents.”

Well, that did it.

Any sense of decorum was forgotten in the melee of hugs and kisses that followed. Things were just calming down when Ashley made the mistake of telling them Peter's full name.

Peter Robert Ian Gillis.

Baby Peter and his mother went to live at Bay's house. Tansy went to live at Dermot's house. Big Peter went to live at Gertie's house. Matt went to live at his house but spent most of his time over at Bay's house. And Ashley was sick of it.

Not that she didn't want him there all the time, but she knew Matt suffered in silence because of his parents and their head-in-the-sand attitude. They congratulated him, of course, and had seen pictures of Peter, but that's where it stood. Matt told Ashley he heard his father on the phone one night telling a friend the baby's name and he thought his dad sounded rather proud. It confirmed what Ashley knew in her heart. Ruth was the culprit holding up the works.

So one day she bundled Peter up in his snowsuit and packed a diaper bag and two bottles of breastmilk and told her mother she'd be back in a minute. She left before Bay could ask her where she was going. When she got to Matt's house she took Peter out of his car seat, held him in her arms, and walked up to the front door. She rang the bell.