Turning on the radio again, Brenna ran hot soapy water into the sink. The familiar repetitive task was soothing though the mood was soon disturbed by a worsening forecast and the crack of branches splitting from the trees around the house. She had decided to leave the dishes and stay away from the windows when she heard a loud knock on the back door. Startled, she ran to open it.
Adam and Max stood on the porch, dripping wet. She pulled them inside.
"What happened?"
"There's a big tree down across the road about a mile away."
She handed Adam a towel and started drying Max with another. "It took you this long to go two miles?"
"I had to keep jumping out and moving branches." Adam motioned at Max. "He got soaked just running to the truck and back."
"Oh my god." Brenna smiled. "Speaking of God, I was praying for your safety. God must want you here tonight."
He laughed and shook his hair "Yeah, maybe a tree will fall on my trailer or something."
"Don't joke like that!" She slapped his arm. "Go in by the fire. I'll make some coffee."
Brenna took a deep breath of the fresh coffee grounds, one of her favorite smells, and then finished making the coffee. While the hot liquid poured steaming into the carafe, she realized there was a silly smile on her face. She was delighted Adam was back and not because she was afraid of the storm. She was thrilled to be able to spend more time with him. Helena was right, the smallest measure of love was important. Time was not given to be wasted. At the reminder of Helena, Brenna frowned. She hoped the rest home was weathering the storm all right. It had looked fine earlier today, but this storm was definitely worse than last night's. Pouring the hot coffee into mugs, she went to sit by the fire with Adam and the menagerie.
Adam sipped his coffee carefully. "I hope the fire department doesn't need me tonight. It's kind of nice to know I can't go anywhere for a change instead of always having an ear toward the pager. Then again, I feel terrible when there's an emergency and I can't go."
Brenna was quiet.
"How are you doing with this fire stuff? You've kind of been thrown in the middle of it between Mr. Rodriguez and Vince and Wendy."
"I'm doing better...it was hard after Wendy. But I've been doing a lot of thinking and I believe I can live with it. I mean, it's stressful, but you're worth it."
He smiled. "Gee, thanks."
The phone rang, pausing their conversation. "Well, at least the lines aren't down yet." She got up to answer it. "Hello?"
"Hey you, how's it going up there?" Molly's cheerful voice came over the line.
"Are you calling me from work?"
"Yeah, on my calling card. We hardly have any patients. It's really you-know-what."
"The Q word?"
"Exactly. Anyway, guess what? Tony already called and left a message on my machine, asking if he could see me again when I come up. I thought that was pretty brave of him since he's so dang shy. Then again, it's probably easier to talk to a machine."
"Hey, this is Memorial Day. I forgot because we've been so busy storm-watching. You're getting time and a half to talk on the phone, huh?"
Molly chuckled. "This can be one of the breaks I never take. Besides. it balances out all those other nights-from-hell when we can't eat or go to the bathroom."
The phone began to crackle.
"Molly?"
"Yeah, I can still hear you..."
The phone crackled again and went dead. Brenna looked at the receiver. "Can you hear me now? I don't think so." She turned to Adam. "We finally lost the phone."
"Hey, it's almost like being on a desert island; we're marooned."
"I'll take the island, thank you. If it's tropical, that is," Brenna said ruefully.
The radio station also quickly gave up the ghost as the storm released its full fury on the coastline. Brenna put some soft jazz music in the CD player and turned the volume just loud enough to hear over the wind. Pulling her few parlor pillows down on the carpet, they lay down and settled comfortably spoonfashion in front of the fire. Brenna had thought if they were fortunate enough to end up here tonight, they wouldn't be sleeping, but after the stress of the last couple days, they were both exhausted. It was only moments before they started drowsing off.
A knock on the front door...Brenna thought she was dreaming, but then it came again louder. Adam shook himself awake as she got up to see who could possibly be out there. Maybe it was just a branch.
Peering through the windowpane and dripping roses, she saw Gary standing on the porch, looking frantic. She opened the door quickly.
"Is Adam here?" Gary nearly had to yell over the noise of the wind and rain.
"Yes, come in." She opened the door wider, wind whistling into the room, but Gary remained in the doorway.
Adam quickly got up and came to the door. "What's up?"
"Julie went into labor. There's a tree down and I can't get out." Gary was nearly crying with fright and frustration.
Adam looked past him into the night. "Where is she?"
He pointed to Brenna's driveway. "She's in the car."
"Okay, let's go get her." Adam disappeared into the dark with Gary while Brenna ran upstairs to gather all the pillows and clean sheets she had. Her mind raced, trying to translate her hospital knowledge into a home birth setting. I knew it, she thought, I knew I'd get stuck with this delivery somehow. Murphy's Law. Grabbing her stethoscope out of a dresser drawer, she remembered the thermometer was in the bathroom. She raced down the steps just as Adam carried Julie through the door, Gary holding back the veil of wet roses.
"Here, here, wait," Brenna said. She threw down pillows and a couple sheets, creating a makeshift bed close to the fire. Adam carefully laid Julie down as she began to cry out with another contraction. Max and Zoe quickly trotted into the dining room, sensing something was not right, and curled up under the table. Brenna ran past them into the kitchen for tin foil and plastic wrap and grabbed the digital thermometer and some towels from the bathroom. Running back to the parlor, she knelt down to help Adam assess Julie. They had just finished breathing through another contraction together.
"Okay, Julie. How many weeks are you?" Brenna asked.
"Thirty two," she answered, tears and sweat running down her face.
"Okay, I'm a nurse. I need to check and see if the baby's head is showing yet."
Julie looked at her as if she'd lost her mind, but at a nod from Adam, complied. Brenna put a sheet over her and helped her slide her maternity pants off. Adam had run out to his truck for his jump kit and now handed Brenna some gloves which she gratefully put on.
She asked him quietly, "Have you done a delivery before?"
Adam whispered, "I saw one last year, no hands-on experience."
"Good enough. How much oxygen do you have?"
"A full bottle."
Brenna helped Julie get into a proper position to be examined, though she felt like a stiff doll, unable to relax. Brenna was relieved to see the baby was not yet visible.
"No baby yet. Julie, do you know if your water broke?"
Julie began to cry harder as the next contraction swept over her. "I don't think so."
"Adam, can you get some water boiling? Everyone has a job here. Julie, your job is to try and calm down as much as possible and go with the flow. Instead of holding your breath or crying, I want you to concentrate on breathing slowly in and out. I know you'd like to smack me for that," Brenna continued, seeing the fire in Julie's eyes, "but you've got to do it for your baby. He knows when you're upset and you've got to get as much oxygen to him as you can."
While speaking, Brenna had her hand on Julie's belly and felt how rock-hard the contractions had become. "It looks like this punkin is serious about having a birthday today." The contraction faded away. "Gary, your job is to hold Julie's hand and remind her to breathe slowly and deeply with contractions for now. If she screams or swears at you, don't take it personally. It's part of hard labor." She laid the towels on the hearth to warm, shooing away
Olivia, the one cat not fazed by the circumstances.
Adam had returned from the kitchen and was talking to Medical Control on his radio as he pulled the oxygen bottle from his kit. He explained the problem with the downed tree as Brenna rummaged through his kit to see what they had to work with.
"What kind of nursing do you do?" Gary asked, his voice slightly calmer.
Brenna looked back at him and smiled. "I'm a baby nurse."
Julie started to cry again. "Oh, thank God. It's too early, isn't it? Can he live?"
"It's dangerous, especially in these circumstances; I won't give you false hopes. But he should make it, yes." She could tell by Julie's face that another contraction was starting. "Okay, just do what I told you, in and out..." She looked up at Adam questioningly.
"The ambulances are both out on calls, but com center will send a road crew out right away to start moving the tree. It's our only chance. A helicopter can't land in this," Adam said.
"I know. Let's put a mask on Julie, low flow in case we need more for the baby."
As the contraction ended, Adam explained the oxygen to Julie and positioned the mask over her face.
"This stinks, I don't like it!"
"It's not the oxygen that smells, it's just the mask," Adam said calmly.
"Then you wear it!" she snapped.
"Julie, honey, they're just trying to help," Gary said, kissing her hand.
Tears filled Julie's eyes again. "I know. I'm so scared..."
Brenna smiled at her as she checked her pulse and blood pressure. "Hey, Julie, do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?"
"No, we wanted to be surprised the first time."
Damn. "I can understand that. Do you have names picked out?"
"Jesse for a boy, Victoria for a girl."
"I bet it'll be a girl."
"Why?" Julie asked her.
"Just a hunch."
Gary talked to his wife quietly for a minute as Brenna and Adam readied the resuscitation equipment for the baby.
"We want it to be a girl, right?" Adam asked in a low voice.
"It'd help; they're usually stronger," Brenna whispered.
Adam had a pediatric resuscitation bag, too large for a newborn, never mind a preemie. They could injure the baby's face or cause a collapsed lung if they weren't careful enough. Pray God it wouldn't come to that. Gary and Julie started breathing through the next contraction.
"Julie, while you have this contraction, I'm going to look and see if it's pushing the baby down at all." Nothing visible. "Nothing yet."
"I want this over," Julie moaned as Gary wiped her face with a washloth.
Brenna felt sorry for her. "Actually, Julie, we want that punkin to stay in there as long as possible. This storm is keeping the ambulance away and it'd be nice if he could be born in a hospital." Understatement of the year.
"But you're a nurse; you can take care of him, right?" Julie asked, her voice muffled by the mask.
"He'll need more care than I can provide here, but I hope we can keep him going okay. We'll do our best." She turned to Adam. "Hey, do you carry IV fluids in your kit?"
He shuffled through another pocket. "I've got a bit."
Brenna looked over his supplies. "No D10W. Normal saline, do you have some D50 we could add?"
"Right here."
"Great. It's elementary though without a 24 gauge catheter. Aha, one, I can't believe it. Hopefully, we won't have to use it." She put the supplies in a small pile where she could reach them easily.
Another contraction began. Julie was having a harder time staying in control. Brenna tried to make eye contact with her and help her through.
"That one was bad," Julie panted. "I think I need to use the bathroom. Bad timing, huh?"
"No, that's probably the baby moving down. Adam, you want to make a little oxygen hood with that tin foil? Julie, let's check you again."
"Another one..." Julie was holding her breath. She ripped the mask off her face. Gary wiped her forehead, but it only irritated her. "Stop that! I want to push!"
"Adam, hand me those towels and turn the oxygen up a bit and put plain tubing on it. Julie, I can see the top of his head, he's almost here." Brenna pushed back the sheet over Julie's knees and laid a towel under her. "You can push when you need to."
Julie held her breath and bore down as Gary sat helplessly at her shoulder, whitefaced.
"Aaaah!" Julie cried.
A tiny baby came shooting out into Brenna's hands.
"It's a girl!" Adam announced.
Brenna quickly wiped the fluid off the baby, who took a deep breath and wailed. Julie laughed and cried simultaneously. Brenna wrapped the infant in warm towels and put her into Julie's arms. Gary stared at his wife and child, speechless, as Adam clapped him on the back and said, "Congratulations, Dad."
Leaving several inches of cord on the baby, Brenna tied it in two places and cut in between. She looked closely at the baby's respiratory effort and color and was satisfied for now. "Okay, mom. Let's take care of you."
"How big do you think she is?" The baby alternately looked at her mother or stuck out her bottom lip and wailed.
"Oh, about three pounds."
"Is that big enough?"
"Well, size isn't necessarily a determining factor. The baby's lungs need to be developed enough to breathe on their own or she'd need a ventilator, things like that." Brenna paused as the placenta was delivered and put it in a plastic bag. "Here, Adam, stick this in the frig."
Hearing that, Gary looked a little sick. "Why are you doing that?"
"Sometimes the doctors like to have them checked for problems that could have caused the early delivery. Okay, Julie, I have to rub on your tummy now to help stop the bleeding."
Julie nodded and looked back at her baby, but exclaimed and pushed Brenna's hand away when she massaged her abdomen.
"Sorry, gotta make sure your uterus is staying firm. How's your sweetie doing?" Brenna asked, redirecting Julie's attention to her baby instead of the pain.
"She still looks good, don't you think?" Julie picked up one tiny hand in hers and she and Gary stared in amazement at the tiny fingers.
"She looks great." Brenna counted her respiratory rate. Sixty. "It's okay for now. We'll keep a close eye. Let's get her temperature." She slid the thermometer under the armpit closest to Julie as Gary stroked the top of his daughter's golden head.
Adam gave an update to Medical Control and heard a resounding cheer from the personnel on the other end, but made it clear this was still an extreme emergency. They let him know the progress from their end.
Adam turned to Brenna. "The road crew almost has the tree off the road and the ambulance is on its way back from Port Evan going code 3."
"Good. This punkin is nice and warm, 98.8. Adam, can you get Julie some juice?" Brenna looked at Julie and Gary. "So, is she still Victoria?"
Julie smiled. "Oh, yes." She looked up at Gary, who nodded in agreement. "We never did settle on a middle name. What's yours?"
Brenna blinked. "Mine? Leigh. My dad picked Maureen for my sister so my mom was determined to have something more original for me. All she could do with the middle name though was spell it differently. L-e-i-g-h."
"Victoria Leigh Boggs. Perfect."
Brenna smiled, a lump in her throat. "I'm honored." She took another close look at the baby. Julie was doing a good job of keeping her covered and close to her chest.
"Gary, can you throw another log on the fire, please?"
He got up stiffly. "I think I was frozen in place too long." He stoked the fire as Adam brought in a tray of cold juice for everyone.
Brenna handed Julie's glass to her and then downed her own juice quickly. She didn't realize until now that her back was dripping sweat. Just like at work, she thought wryly. I am what I am. I could probably go anywhere in the world and come upon a baby who needed my help. She thought of Helena and smiled. Helena would be delighted to know a healthy Victoria had been born in her house.
<
br /> Now that the situation was somewhat in hand, they noticed the storm had expended some of its energy. The wind still whipped around the eaves, but the rain had lessened and no longer drove itself against the parlor window.
Julie laughed. "I think she peed."
Brenna folded the wet towels back and Julie handed Victoria to her. This time, Brenna put Victoria right on her mother's chest and put warm towels over them both.
"Is she still okay?"
"She's doing remarkably well. She may get tired and need some oxygen, so don't be surprised if that happens. And I'll tell you now, she's most likely going to have to go to Portland. She's probably too early to breast or bottle feed and may have to be tubefed or have an IV."
Julie waved her hand. "I don't care. As long as she's okay."
Adam was listening to Gary tell his story again.
"Next time, call the ambulance first though, okay? The tree complicated things tonight, but babies have a lot more medical help if they're born in an ambulance than in a car on a rainy night."
Gary smiled. "No problem. We just panicked. Adena wasn't back yet because it's Memorial Day and she knew I'd be home. Not that she would have known what to do anyway."
Adam just smiled.
Brenna checked the baby again and became more concerned. Victoria's temperature was stable, but her respiratory rate was going up as it became more difficult for her to breathe. Pulling the oxygen bottle closer, Brenna put the end of the tubing near her tiny nose. The firelight glinted on Victoria's golden hair and Brenna found herself praying for her. She was doing well, but wasn't out of the woods yet.
Adam leaned over the couch to look out the window. "I think I hear them."
Seconds later, the flashing red and white strobe lights stopped outside the house. EMTs rattled a gurney over the flagstone walk and up the steps as Adam held the roses back.
Brenna and Adam rode to Port Evan with them, Brenna having more knowledge about sick babies than all of them put together. Toward dawn, as the weather calmed, an ambulance came from Portland to take Victoria to Molly's NICU.
As the ambulance drove away, Adam helped Brenna into Tony's truck. Tony had been kind enough to come get them after spending his own night out on emergency calls.
He let them out at the front gate and Brenna stood once again in the gateway, looking at her house. There was debris scattered over the yard and a few shingles were missing now, but it still looked beautiful to her. She looked at the front door and smiled. The curtain of roses had been pushed back often enough that it now formed a frame around the doorway instead of a shroud. A healthy Victoria had passed through the door. No more mourning here.
Adam kissed her and pushed her toward the front door. "To bed with you, Florence. Call me if you wake up some time today."
As Brenna opened the front door, Max came ran out to join his person and Brenna walked through her front door, something she planned to do more often now.
She sat in the rocker by the fire, the morning chill still in the air. Hearing a sound on the staircase, she looked up to see Helena and Martin descending, dressed for travel. Helena cradled a healthy baby girl in her left arm, bundled in soft pink blankets, a frilly white hat covering her downy dark hair. Martin frequently looked over his wife's shoulder to smile at his daughter.
She rose from the rocker to bid them goodbye. "Are you all ready to go now?"
Helena smiled and gave her a hug with her free arm. "Oh yes, we've stayed too long as it is. Thank you for everything."
"I'll miss you. Take care of yourselves and have a wonderful life."
She opened the front door for them and they walked down the flagstone path into the morning mist.
Chapter 47