The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (65 page)

They wash their hands while trying to
stay calm. His sister is nervous. He can tell.

“
Girls, why don’t you
prepare the room and collect the things we’ll need?” Simon
orders
softly
as they enter her room again.

This is something that he and Sam
would do together, but since he’s the lead doctor tonight, it’s up
to him to ask for the items they’ll need and take a leadership
role. It’s not a misogynistic move on his part. Doc and Reagan
expect him to take the lead. His sister also needs some busy work
to keep her mind occupied.

Sam has always acted as a nurse in
their practice and has never wanted to go any further than just
that. She doesn’t prefer to get in the trenches other than in an
assistant’s role. She is sublimely talented with keeping patients
calm and distracted from their woes. She’s a people person through
and through. Simon’s not so much. Reagan is great with people, too.
As long as they don’t mind her being direct to the point of being
rude or using a whole lot of inappropriate swearing and sarcasm. So
she is basically horrible with people.

“Anita, I’m going to check you now,
ok?” he asks permission as he closes in on her bed. He pulls on
short latex gloves and positions himself beside her hip.

“Yes, Simon. That’s fine.
Just get this kid out of my body!” she says
on
a long groan.

Her contractions are strong and
forceful already. After he ascertains that she is only dilated to
about a four, Simon tells her that it would be preferable if she
rose from the bed and walked some. It will help her labor to move
along and progress instead of slow down or stop.

“Stay
here
and I’ll get your
husband,” he offers.

“No, wait, Simon. I want you to help
me. He’s a wreck. This is his first kid, you know. Let me just walk
with you for a while.”

“Sure, Anita. That’ll be
just fine,” he says complacently. This tactic is something he’s
also learned from Doc. Appease the pregnant woman at all costs.
Promise whatever they request, even if it is ridiculous. They won’t
remember it in a few hours. It also helps to ensure one’s personal
safety and
to get
out of the birthing room alive. “Let me just run
out and let him know what’s going on, that you’re doing
fine.”

Simon finds Kelly
with Anita’s husband on the front lawn razzing each other about
whether or not Rangers or Frog men are better.
He recognizes that Kelly is trying to take her husband’s mind
off of the situation at hand. Simon knows that Kelly and John were
a part of an elite unit called Delta, but not everyone in the
family knows.
Frog men
was a nickname for Navy Seals. There is always a
lot of good-natured taunting that goes on between the Rangers on
the farm and the Seal in the condo community.

It takes just a second to allay her
husband’s fears and return to Anita, who he helps rise from her
bed. He, Sam and Paige take turns walking with her. The room has
been set up by him and Sam, and prepped for an emergency should one
arise. Anita already has other children, but she’d delivered those
pregnancies by cesarean section. They are staying across the street
with Selena and her family. Derek, John and Reagan had found the
two women, Selena and Anita and their children, alone and being
brutalized by the same types of men who’d inhabited the Target
store. He’s so glad that they are safe and healthy with the help of
the Rangers and Paul, who John had sent along with his family to
secure the condo village.

Doc says that it’s been quite a few
years since Anita’s last C-section and that she should be able to
deliver naturally. He had even checked her just a few days ago and
declared that the baby is presenting head first, which is good
since he or she is not in the breech position which would make
things considerably more dangerous and complicated.

His sister is a ball of
nerves, which Simon tries his best to quiet and also instill a
sense of serenity in her. She’s never been witness to a live birth.
She told him that she’d been forced to watch a video of it in high
school, one of those P.S.A. type documentaries to discourage teen
pregnancy. He knows how badly she handled the situation at the
clinic the day it had been shot up. She hasn’t been back there as a
nursing volunteer since. She works on the wall build or out in the
reception room of the clinic or stays at the farm with Hannah to
help out there. She’s squeamish to the ninth degree. She’ll have to
get over it tonight. New life waits
for
no man or
squeamish
young woman.

Shortly after three
a.m.
Simon declares that Anita is ready to
begin pushing. She declares that she is more than ready. She is
fully dilated and in incredible pain.

“We’re going to the bathroom for just
a moment, Anita,” he tells her. “We’ll all three be right back in.
Let us get scrubbed in. We want the environment to be as sterile as
possible for you and the baby.”

“Do whatever you need to catch this
kid, Simon!” Anita says on an uncomfortable moan.

Paige’s hands shake as she
pulls on her surgical gown in the master bathroom. Sam ties it
for
her;
then his sister returns the favor. Simon turns his back, and
Samantha
ties
his and pulls his face mask strings to the back, securing them
as well. Next, she assists him with his gloves. Paige’s hands
tremble still as she tugs on her own rubber gloves.

Simon places his hands over hers and
says, “It’s going to be fine. Just take a breath. Relax. Remember
who’s really in charge here, sis.”

Paige asks in all seriousness,
“You?”

Simon smiles gently and shakes his
head.

“Let’s pray like Grandpa always does,”
Sam suggests smartly.

Simon nods and leads them in a quick
prayer, surrendering up their hands and talent into His. If God
wills this child into the world, then it will be by His grace
alone. Simon and his two helpers are only the vessels of His work
tonight.

His sister’s hands still just slightly
in his, which helps to in turn motivate Simon. They collectively
return to the bedroom.

Anita’s bedding has been replaced with
recycled, yet sterilized sheets from the farm, all other bedding
removed. Plastic sheeting and buckets are near Simon’s feet below
the end of her bed. Sam sits near her head, assisting Anita with
leaning forward since they don’t have an actual adjustable hospital
bed. Her husband waits outside the bedroom door as per Anita’s
request. His sister stands beside him near Anita’s spread
legs.

His tools have been
sterilized in boiling water, and he wears a pair of fresh latex
gloves. The baby is crowning. Simon knows he should feel more
nerves than he does, but his only concern is for the safety of his
patient. It is important to stay cool and collected. Keeping
Anita
and
his
assistants
calm is more important than him losing his crap and freaking
out. He tells himself that women have been doing this since the
beginning of time,
literally
and that he is only here in a helping
capacity.

She pushes for about an hour. It seems
as if she’s running out of steam. Sam takes her blood pressure
periodically since they don’t have any electronic monitoring
equipment to use with their patient. Sam gives him a thumbs up to
let Simon know that her blood pressure is normal. Periodically,
Anita curses. A few times she even curses at them. Nobody remarks
on it, though. They just keep reassuring her that she’s doing great
and continue encouraging her with soothing words. It’s rather
understandable in his opinion to use foul language. He’d be ready
to use his rifle on someone if he were in her place.

The baby seems as if it
will fit through the birth canal without Anita needing an
episiotomy performed. Doc said that many times in the past doctors
would rush the situation instead of letting the birth happen
naturally. Then they would end up cutting the woman. It just meant
a longer, more
difficult
recovery for the woman. He said to be patient and
allow the labor and pushing to progress naturally with each
contraction. Don’t hurry her. Let her work at her body’s own
pace.

At nearly four thirty in
the
morning
after Kelly has retrieved Doc and Reagan from town because
their work is finished, Simon safely delivers baby girl Amelia into
the world. Her mother cries. Sam
cries
. Paige cries. Even Reagan sniffs
hard a few times before carrying the
baby
girl away to be cleaned. Doc had
allowed him to proceed without his assistance. He’d
stood
back and
observed Simon. His unwavering trust in Simon had boosted his
confidence a bit. After Anita expels the afterbirth with Simon’s
aid, she rests back on a bed of clean pillows and
bedding.

Reagan returns with the new
baby all swaddled and warm and delivers her to her father’s
outstretched arms. The Navy Seal has finally been permitted
entrance by Anita into their bedroom. His eyes are full of
unashamed tears. He sits on the bed next to his wife where he
strokes her brow in between placing kisses on his daughter’s
downy
forehead.
Reagan also helps Simon get Anita cleaned, wiped down and
cloths
pressed
against her which they’d explained to her husband will need changed
every few hours until the
heavy
bleeding lets up.

Simon excuses himself a few
moments later where he joins Sam and Paige in the bathroom again to
scrub and remove their gowns. Childbirth is somewhat of a messy
affair requiring a lot of rags, clean linens and hot water. Their
soiled gowns and anything else they’ve brought from the farm such
as cotton rags are placed in a plastic bag that will be taken home
to be laundered and scalded. Sterility is more important now than
ever before. Disease and sickness can spread so
easily
from the lack of
sanitary work conditions. He read once in one of Doc’s medical
books about Baron Joseph Lister, the first surgeon to promote the
idea of a sterilized surgical suite and sanitary surgery to prevent
post-surgical infection. The thing that Simon found surprising
about the article was the fact that it took someone an epiphany to
even think that sanitary conditions were outside of the box in the
first place.

“I can’t believe I just
witnessed
that,”
Paige remarks beside him at the sink.

“Me, either,” Sam says. “I’ve seen
quite a few births in the last few years, but they never fail to
lift my heart. What a little miracle she is.”

He’s quite sure that Doc is
giving her a comprehensive new baby examination. He’ll probably
even notate a newborn APGAR score on her chart, which Simon has no
doubt that Doc has started. Simon grins in the mirror above the
double sink at the two women. They are both
bright-eyed
and uplifted. Sam’s
color is high, her cheeks a pale pink.

“You were great, Simon,”
Paige remarks. “You’re
an
amazing
doctor. That was just….
crazy.”

He corrects her like he always does
anyone else who says this, “I’m not a doctor, sis. She did all the
work. I was just there in case of an emergency.”

Paige chuckles, “Uh, yeah right. I was
down there beside you, bro. I saw. You were doing a lot more than
just standing there.”

He changes the subject, “You did
great, too. You were helpful. And you didn’t puke or pass out this
time, so that’s an improvement.”

Paige slugs his shoulder playfully,
and he smiles.

A short while later they are
comfortably ensconced in the SUV, John at the wheel again. It’s
been a long night. Rising in a few hours for chores will be
difficult, plus, they will need to come back to town to check the
burn victims, one of whom had died according to Reagan, and to the
condo village to check on Anita and the new baby.

“Today was a good day,” Sam whispers
beside him.

Simon grins down at her and takes her
hand. She falls asleep against his shoulder on the ride home. He
kisses the top of her head and inhales the heady, sweet scent of
her dark hair. A good day.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Paige

“That’s perfect, Mr.
Harrison,” Paige says to John as he shows her some new padlocks
they’ve found on a scouting run. They’d actually taken Talia since
they have been working with her on improving her tactical
maneuvering. She confided to Paige later that day that she
does
n’t want to go
out anymore. She likes the safety of the farm better than looking
over her shoulder, and she’s content to stay there. She’s just done
being afraid. Paige, however, had teased her friend that she enjoys
hanging out on Chet Reynolds’s farm even more than the
McClane’s.