She threw a shoe at his head then started pacing.
Nixon, poor man, went a shade paler. Aw hell, looked like I’d have to step up after all, or at least offer to keep the guy from fainting like a girl.
“Nixon.” I shook my head at him and made my way over to Trace. I’d never finished medical school but I was pretty confident I could deliver her baby if the ambulance didn’t make it on time.
“I feel like I need to push. I feel…” Trace’s exhaled. “Pressure, so much pressure, and if I hold back it hurts.” Tears streamed down her face.
I looked to Nixon for a decision.
After all, he was about to be a father.
And for the first time in my life, I saw fear in my cousins eyes.
Because he would kill for this woman, over and over again; he would protect her with his life, and now it was my turn to protect her for him.
“Trace, I’m going to examine you okay?”
Nixon clenched his fists, but he didn’t move.
Val swiftly walked into the room and began pulling the comforter back and getting it ready for Trace, while Nixon stood frozen in place.
Once Val was finished, she went over to Nixon and grabbed his hand. “She’s going to do great.”
Nixon squeezed back and stood, paralyzed as Trace lay down on the bed. “Trace.” I cleared my throat. “I’m going to—”
“Ahhh!” She punched the bed. “Just do it already!”
It felt weird, checking my cousin’s wife to see how dilated she was. What was even weirder, seeing a baby’s head. “Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit?” Nixon yelled. “That’s what you say?”
“Head.” I took a deep breath. “There’s a head.”
“A baby’s head?” Nixon gasped for air, then pounded his chest.
“No. A grasshopper.” I glared. “Yes, you asshole, your daughter’s head. Okay Trace, on this next contraction I need you to push.” I eyed Val. “Get some towels.”
The sound of the ambulance became her symphony as Trace pushed twice and then rested.
“Good work.” I was touching a head. Holy shit. I was the calm one. Thus the whole medical school track, every mafia family needed one, I just quit before I could actually become one; that’s what I reminded myself as I asked her to push again.
Soon EMT’s were waltzing into the house. I could hear their muffled voices then the stomping of feet on the stairs.
“One last push, Trace,” I encouraged.
“So tired.” She sighed. “It hurts.”
“Sweetheart.” Nixon finally moved from his spot on the carpet and ran over to her, kissing her forehead. “You can do this.”
“I can.” She grabbed his hands and pushed.
“Almost there!” I said, injecting calm confidence into my voice. “Come on, Trace.”
With a scream, she pushed one last time, and a baby’s wail pierced the tension in the room. I held the little girl in my arms, shocked to the core as paramedics finally made it into the room and went to Trace’s side.
“She’s beautiful.” Val’s eyes shone with tears as she wrapped an arm around me.
“She’s so small,” I whispered, picking up a towel and wrapping the tiny infant. “So defenseless. Innocent.”
“She’s perfect.” Val kissed my forehead. “And so were you.”
One of the paramedics applied a plastic clamp to the cord and snipped it.
I stood and walked over to Nixon and Trace, carrying the child like she might break. With shaking hands Nixon took his little girl and gaped, tears streamed down his face.
It was one of the only times I’d ever seen him cry.
“My God, she’s beautiful like her mama,” he whispered reverently. “Thank you.” He brought her to Trace and kissed every inch of her face over and over again. “Thank you so much.”
Val and I quietly excused ourselves. She followed me to the bathroom and shut the door behind her as I washed my hands.
“What.” I smirked as I grabbed the towel. “You’re awful quiet.”
Arms wrapped around me, and then a mouth was sucking down my neck from behind. “You would have been a sexy doctor.”
“You’re really making me re-think medical school right now.” I groaned as she stepped in front of me and her hands moved to my pants and started undoing them.
Giggling she pulled my shirt over my head and kissed me harder.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” I whispered between kisses, “Because I do. A little more, every day.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you, Val.”
“I love you too, Doctor…”
I rolled my eyes just as a loud knocking sounded on the door. “You better not be taking advantage of my sister!”
“Go away, Dante!” Val yelled. “Don’t you have school today?”
“Don’t call it that!” he fired back. “It’s college, not school!”
“School is school!”
“I’m not going… not with her in the car.”
Val froze, her face falling as I took a step back and took over the conversation. “You will get your sorry ass in the car with her.”