“Fuck you!”
He shot the woman and pushed her from the short staircase into the front yard.
Lucy screamed from the shock and surprise of Dobleman’s sudden violence.
He aimed the gun at the cops in front of him, but didn’t get off another shot. Multiple gunshots rang out and Dobleman fell backward against the house, dead.
“No!” Lucy didn’t know if she’d spoken out loud or if the shout was simply echoing in her head. She jumped up but Noah pulled her back down.
“Don’t be stupid!”
She stayed low. Noah was right. But dammit, she couldn’t just sit here. Maybe that poor girl was alive. Lucy had to help her. She was practically crawling toward the fallen woman, Noah at her side.
“House secure! Multiple casualties!” SWAT called over the radio. “Every medic inside, stat!”
Lucy jumped up again and this time Noah followed her.
Lucy, Noah, and one of the SWAT officers surrounded the woman on the lawn. The bullet had gone through her upper right shoulder just below the back of her neck. She was bleeding profusely. She opened her mouth over and over but no sound came out. Her hands flailed about and she suddenly grabbed Lucy’s arm.
“Bebé, por favor, bebé.” Her voice was weak. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and her body began to convulse.
The SWAT medic said, “I can’t stop the bleeding.”
“Put pressure on it!” Lucy took off her jacket and folded it, putting as much pressure as she could on the wound. In seconds the jacket was wet and sticky with blood.
“She’s not going to make it, Luce,” Noah said.
“She has to! Her baby.”
Lucy put her other hand on the woman’s stomach and felt the baby kick multiple times. She bit back a sob. “No. No. No!”
Noah said, “Can you deliver it?”
“I—maybe.” She had to try. “Where’s the paramedics? We need someone!”
The SWAT medic called in the ambulance that was waiting down the street. “House is secure. We need a paramedic stat.” He then pulled out a small emergency kit from his belt. He cut open the woman’s dress and liberally sprayed an antiseptic over her skin. “I’ve assisted in one emergency C-section when I was an EMT. We have to do it fast. She’s gone. I have no pulse. The baby won’t survive more than a couple minutes, if at all.”
He took out a scalpel and said, “This is all I have.” He hesitated.
“Do it,” Lucy said. “We don’t have much time.”
“I can’t. Not without authorization.” He looked pained.
Damn rules!
Lucy took the scalpel, took a deep breath, forced her heart rate to slow. She’d never cut into a living person before, but she’d cut into the dead. She knew how the body was designed, how the uterus expanded and thinned during pregnancy. It was a strong muscle, it needed a sure and firm hand.
At the top of the belly, she pushed down with the scalpel until she felt the muscle give. Then she made a smooth vertical incision down, across the large stomach, all the way down to her pelvis.
Thank God she’d cut through the uterus on the first try. She pulled it apart, separating it. There was very little blood. She saw the baby in the amniotic sac. She carefully punctured the sac, reached in and took hold of the infant.
“Scissors—we have to cut the umbilical cord before the toxins from the mother reach her. We need a clamp. Something to seal it.”
“Scissors?” The medic held surgical scissors in his hand.
Lucy nodded and without hesitating pulled the baby out. The medic cut the umbilical cord. Then he twisted the end still attached to the baby around the scissors and created a temporary clamp.
“She’s not breathing.” Lucy turned the small infant over, supporting her stomach with her hand and arm, and spanked her lightly. She was so small. So tiny. But she was perfect.
“She could have a blockage,” the medic said. He reached over and rubbed the infant’s back, then gave one light slap below her shoulder blades. He did it again. The legs kicked and suddenly a faint cry came out.
“Oh God,” Lucy said. “Oh God, thank you.” Noah took off his jacket and put it over the baby. Carefully, Lucy wrapped her up. “She’s small, about four pounds. We have to get her to a hospital.”
The paramedics rolled up with a gurney. They first saw the woman on the ground. “She’s gone,” the SWAT medic said. “But we have her baby.”
The paramedics ordered Lucy to put the baby on the gurney. Quickly, they wiped out her mouth then wrapped her in clean towels. “We’ll take her to the children’s hospital in Laredo,” one said. “Do you know anything about the mother? The infant?”
“No,” Lucy said. “The mother was dying, the baby would have died if we didn’t get her out. She wasn’t breathing at first…”
“That’s common in an emergency C-section. Good work.” They strapped the baby in.
“I want to go with her—” Lucy said.