Father In Secret

By the time lunchtime came she was ready for a break. But she didn’t get one.

‘Savannah. In here, please.’ The urgent summons from Julia in cubicle three had all thoughts of food banished immediately.

The very young woman behind the curtain was large all over and shapeless in a thick jumper. Tears rolled down her cheek and there was real fear in her eyes.

‘Let me go to the toilet. I’ve got to go.’

Savannah took one look at the ungainly woman struggling to sit up and remembered another large young woman from her previous hospital whom she’d never forget.

‘Can you hang on for one more minute while Sister fills me in?’ Savannah looked at Julia.

‘This is Carly, she’s fifteen. I can’t get much of a history but wondered if she had an acute appendicitis, except the pain comes and goes.’

‘I’ll bet. Carly, let me have a very quick feel of your tummy, and then we’ll talk about your pain.’ Savannah lifted the baggy jumper and shirt underneath and ran her hands over the girl’s round but not bulging stomach. She felt a definite kick from the baby within. The top of the uterus was palpable as being consistent with a full-term baby. She caught Julia’s eye and nodded at the incredulous look on her face.

‘Get her a trolley and over to Maternity Ward, and ring to say we’re coming. She’s ready to...’ Savannah stopped and sought another way to say it. ‘Be transferred. Ask Theo to come in, please.’

Julia scooted out the door. Carly was between contractions at the moment and Savannah needed some information. She might have two minutes before the next one.

‘Carly, have you been to see a doctor in the last year?’

‘No.’

‘Where’s your mum?’

‘She’s in the waiting room with Dad.’

‘Are you bleeding down below?’ Savannah was aware of Theo’s feet stopping outside the curtain. The curtain parted slightly and his eyes met hers. She held her finger up for a second and he stood back. Savannah looked back at the girl.

A pink flush rose in her cheeks and the girl looked away. ‘I think I might have my period, but I only ever had one so I’m not sure.’ Baby blue eyes looked up at Savannah with relief. ‘So that’s why I have pains. It’s a period.’

‘I don’t think it’s a period. Carly, I’m sorry to ask you this, but are you a virgin?’

This time the cheeks stayed pink. There was a silence and Savannah willed the girl to answer before the next contraction.

Carly swallowed. ‘I’m nearly a virgin. I only did it the once and that was a long time ago.’

‘About nine months?’ Savannah smiled softly down at the naïve young woman beside her.

Carly’s lip quivered and she turned tear-filled eyes up at Savannah. ‘I’m having a baby?’ She sniffed. ‘I really hoped I wasn’t.’

Savannah reached for her hand. ‘Very soon.’

Her eyes widened. ‘I don’t know how. Don’t you have to go to classes or something to learn how to breathe?’

Savannah couldn’t help the smile this time. ‘No. Your body will let you know what to do. Don’t be scared and just do what your body tells you.’

‘Mum and Dad will kill me.’ Her eyes widened and she groaned. ‘My body’s telling me I want to go to the toilet.’ She squeezed her eyes shut, crushed Savannah’s hand and grunted.

Theo stepped from behind the curtain and into the cubicle. ‘I gather we’re having an unplanned baby.’

‘I was hoping we’d get her to Maternity first but she must have been in second stage when she came in.’

‘How could you tell if you haven’t examined her?’

Savannah gave him an old-fashioned look. ‘Let’s say my experience tells me.’

Savannah leaned her face close to the girl’s and stroked her cheek. ‘Carly, the doctor’s here. It’s OK, sweetheart. Do you want your mum?’

At the girl’s tentative nod, Savannah straightened. ‘What’s her name?’

‘Ruth.’

‘I’ll be back in a tick.’

Theo looked up. ‘You’re not leaving me here?’

‘Yeah, wish I could be a fly on the wall.’ She saw him frown and she smiled. ‘I’ll be quick.’

She closed the curtain and glanced up the corridor. The orderly was coming to push the bed to Maternity. With a bit of luck they might make it there yet. She picked up a prepackaged emergency delivery set and tucked the paper-covered bundle under her arm—description side down—just in case.

Savannah turned the other way into the waiting room. There were only two people left in there—a large-boned woman who could be none other than Carly’s mum, and the other a thin, bald man turning his hat in his hands. Both stood up when Savannah entered.

Worried blue eyes searched Savannah’s face. ‘How’s my Carly?’

‘She’ll be fine but she needs her mum. Can you follow me, please?’

Ruth touched her husband on the arm and gestured for him to take her handbag. ‘What about her dad?’

‘Perhaps it’s better if he stayed here for the moment. He can come in if you want him, too, shortly. The cubicles are very small.’

They strode quickly back towards the cubicles. Ruth caught Savannah’s arm. ‘What’s wrong with her?’

Savannah tried to imagine how she would feel as a mother in this situation. Procrastination wouldn’t help.

‘Carly is having a baby.’

The breath puffed between Ruth’s lips. ‘When?’

‘Today. Now.’

Ruth stopped walking, closed her eyes for a second and then started to walk again. ‘Then we’ll leave her father in the waiting room.’

* * *

Theo was sweating. He’d specialised in orthopaedics, not obstetrics. He had no doubt he could deliver a baby, despite the five years or so since the last one, but he had to make the decision to stay or go to Maternity. He didn’t want this child, with no antenatal care, born in a corridor between the two wards.

What was keeping Savannah? He realised he missed her calmness. Just as he decided to go for Maternity, Carly put her chin on her chest and screamed. Well, that made the decision easy. Looked like it was here.

Savannah swished through the curtains and surprisingly she was smiling. She put an emergency delivery set-up on the bottom of the bed and started to open it. Good idea!

Carly’s mum followed her. Ruth went straight to her daughter and kissed her.

‘Duffer. You should have told me. Now, stop that screaming and give it a shove, like you gotta go.’

Theo met Savannah’s eyes and both smiled. She mimed that he should go and wash his hands and waved a pair of gloves at him.

He felt the smile tugging on his lips and did as he was told. How had Savannah turned this situation into normal so quickly?

In the few seconds he was gone, Savannah had Carly sit higher in the bed, slip her trackpants off and hold herself under her thighs with her hands. The sheet across her lap gave some degree of dignity. Her mother rested her arm around Carly’s shoulders.

Theo marvelled as determination replaced the look of fear on the girl’s face and a dark crescent of the baby’s head protruded between her legs. He heard her gasp at the sensation. He winced. It was at moments like this he was glad he was a man.

Theo’s hand hovered over the bulge of the baby’s head, not touching but ready in case Carly decided to push without control. But she didn’t. Incredible girl.

The back of the baby’s dark head of hair continued to distend the vulva until it seemed there couldn’t possibly be more room, and then the head started to extend as the baby lifted its chin inside its mother.

First the top of the head and then, centimetre by centimetre, the forehead swept the perineum until the gentle rush of nose, mouth and chin completed the first of the obstacles to the outside.

They all sighed. ‘You’re doing beautifully, Carly.’ Theo’s voice was quiet and didn’t disturb the mood of the occasion.

‘It’s stinging, burning like mad.’ Carly groaned between her teeth.

‘It must be. Just relax for a moment until you get another contraction. I’m going to feel if the umbilical cord is around the baby’s neck in case it’s too tight.’

He slipped one finger next to the baby’s neck and circled it. ‘No cord.’

‘I’m getting another pain.’

‘Then push,’ said her matter-of-fact mother.

First one shoulder was born for Theo to slip his finger into the axilla and then the other, and in a rush the body and legs followed. Theo lifted the child onto Carly’s stomach by the baby’s armpits and Savannah laid a small blanket across the pair to block out any breeze.

Ruth kissed her daughter and wiped the tears from her own cheek with the back of her hand.

Carly wasn’t satisfied. ‘Well, what is it?’

They all looked at each other and Savannah’s eyes twinkled. She lifted the blanket again. Theo raised the child for Carly to say it first.

‘It’s a boy. Thank goodness. He doesn’t have to go through that.’

They all laughed.

Soon third stage was complete, both mother and child had been checked over and Theo left to write up the notes.

Ruth brought in the new grandfather. He stood there, blinked, opened and closed his mouth a few times and then sank onto the only chair in the cubicle.

‘Well?’ His wife nudged him to encourage some comment.

The older man cleared his throat. ‘Are you both well?’

Carly barely met her father’s eyes as she nodded her head.

‘That’s good.’ He sighed, stood up and leaned over to kiss his daughter’s cheek. ‘Er, I always wanted a son. A grandson will be grand.’

Satisfied all would be well with her patient, Savannah slipped out to join Theo at the desk. He looked up with a straight face.

‘Maternity rang and asked how come we did them out of their job?’

She smiled. The birth was a lovely memory to share. ‘That was a nice delivery, Theo. Maybe you should work in obstetrics.’

He frowned.

Now what was wrong with him? She felt like kicking him out of the mood.

He shook his head. ‘With no antenatal care, we’re lucky the baby had no problems. I can’t believe no one knew she was pregnant.’

‘I think Carly had an idea, but hoped it would go away.’

He snorted. ‘How?’

‘If you were fifteen, scared and not sure what was going on, it might seem reasonable. Actually, I had a case exactly like Carly’s at my last hospital—so it’s not so unusual.’ She tilted her head. ‘Haven’t you ever done something you regretted and wished the whole problem would go away?’

He froze and refused to meet her eyes. Man, had he! ‘I’m going to the cafeteria for lunch. Ring me if you need me.’

Theo spent another meal talking to himself in the cafeteria. Savannah was right. Birth was special. Yet it was just another thing Marie had excluded him from. Maybe it was time he learned to deal with it.

Driving home that night, Theo forced himself not to slow down as he drove past Savannah’s farm. Stopping by unexpectedly two days in a row would be too much.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE next day was Wednesday and Theo was a few minutes early for work.

The ward was quiet. There was a meeting being held in the staffroom, so Theo went along and leaned unobtrusively against the door of the room to watch Savannah in action. He’d spent a lot of time last night at home thinking about her and how she made him feel.

The problem was, he admired her. He had a feeling life had dealt her some hefty blows but she’d refused to go down.

She’d had a pretty rough childhood from what he could remember and there was a certain kinship in knowing everything hadn’t been rosy for either of them.

He watched the animation in her face as she addressed the on- and off-duty staff from her ward. They all seemed to like her. She was discussing plans for improvements for the department and normally he would have wandered off by now.

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