Page 93 of Possessed By You

“This baby is waiting for no one, honey. It’s time to push.”

“It’s okay, Darcy,” Doris says, rubbing my hand with her gloved one. I stare at her, wild with exhaustion as the professionals prepare the tray, and the table, helping place my legs into stirrups. “He’ll be here soon.”

***

The volume of my wails far exceed Doctor Trigiani’s orders, which she must bark out in order to retain my attention. My head is heavy, my chin pressed into my chest as I push, feeling as though unconsciousness is only a few seconds away. I drop my head back to breathe when there’s a commotion at the door.

Tears spring to my eyes and I blubber at the sight of Benjamin in his suit, drenched head to toe. Someone comes to force him to leave, and I panic.

“No! What are they—”

“Focus, Darcy. Focus. Another contraction is coming.”

“He has to change before he comes in,” Doris says comfortingly in my ear, calm as hell. “It’s procedure.”

“I need him here!” I sob, losing hold of myself altogether. “I need him—”

I crush Doris’s fingers, gritting my teeth enough to hurt when the doctor’s warnings hit me full swing, stealing the breath from my lungs.

I don’t know how anyone can bear this.

I want to force them to give me the drug. Ineedthe damn drug.

“Oh god! Oh god! It hurts!”

I moan, tasting my tears. Doris’s fingers slip from my grasp, and someone else’s replace them. Benjamin is suddenly right there, right next to me, inches away from my face. There’s no fear in his eyes. I can’t imagine how much is in mine.

In no control of my emotions, I sob loudly, relieved when he pushes the wet hair from my face, whispering to me.

“I’m here, baby. It’s going to be okay.”

“I’m scared, Ben,” I tell him, my body pulsing with pain. “I’m being torn in two. I wasn’t before, but I am now. I-I…don’t know if I have it in me.”

“We’re at the finish line, baby. You’re almost there. He’s almost here.”

I close my eyes, my body warning me of more.

“We’re close, Darcy. You’re beginning to crown,” the doctor says. “I need you to push big here. Push!”

I do as she says, and my growl of pain crescendos into a war-cry kind of bellow.

“The head is out!”

I sigh with relief and drop my head back. Benjamin laughs nervously, kissing my cheek. “Breathe, Darce. You’re almost there.”

“Push! Push!”

I’m blind. Everything is a static, gray, blurry mess.

A tiny infant’s wail fills the room, the pain having reached its peak. I’m on the decline now. I sink into the mattress in sheer exhaustion.

“Oh my god,” Benjamin says in awe, kissing my flushed skin tenderly. “You did it. Holy shit, baby.”

It’s when I try to laugh and nothing comes out that I begin to sense something is wrong.

“Darcy?”

I hear the change in his tone, a slight hint of fear in his voice. Suddenly, Doctor Trigiani’s speaking over him, ordering the nurse, “Get him out of the room.”