Jess frowned. She opened her mouth to tell the rock chick what she thought about this disturbance, but no sound came out. Her pulse pounded faster and faster, echoing in her ears. Stars danced through her field of vision, and she didn’t know anymore where up and down were. She swayed, reaching out as if to balance on a log over a stream, then fell. Soft and fluffy darkness enveloped her, and finally, the pain in her abdomen was gone.
And then the pain roared back and chased the darkness away. It was even worse now, and her back and chest hurt too.
“Dr. Riley?” Someone shook her.
As Jess opened her eyes, the blue sky loomed above her. “What…what happened? Why am I on the ground?” She clutched her belly and moaned. After a moment, the pain passed, and she looked from one side to the other to reorient herself. A familiar figure leaned over her. Why couldn’t the woman leave her alone? She needed a minute to breathe, and everything would be okay again. “You, Rock Chick! I said I didn’t need help!”
A muscle twitched in the resident’s cheek. “That was before you fainted. Now, shut up and let me help. And that’s Dr. Rock Chick to you.” Her tone was even, direct, and full of authority.
Before Jess knew what she was doing, she nodded. Maybe she had hit her head or something.
“Can you sit up?” The woman offered her hand.
The dizziness had receded, and she didn’t need the help of the persistent resident. “I didn’t faint,” Jess mumbled, more to herself. She used both hands to push herself into a sitting position.
“Fainted, collapsed, call it what you want. You had a syncope and an irregular tachycardia.” Rock Chick played doctor, pulled gloves and a stethoscope from her pocket, and worked through a physical exam before Jess could think about protesting. Maybe she did know what she was doing. She’d seemed competent enough the last few times she’d called cardiology for a consult. What was her name again? Diana something or other?
When Diana touched her belly, it hardened with another contraction.
Oh shit, were practice contractions supposed to be this painful? How much worse would the real ones be? Instinctively, Jess gripped the hand resting on her belly, never minding Diana’s groan of protest. Served her right for barging in like this.
Once the contraction had passed, the wimp extricated her fingers and stretched them, wincing.
If she wasn’t so pissed off at everything at that moment, Jess would have laughed at her pained expression.
Diana pressed her lips together and slung her stethoscope around her neck. “If I help, can you move to the bench?”
As she tried to get up, Jess noted two things: her pants were wet, and her knees had softened to jelly. Had she slipped and landed in a puddle? That might explain her fall. Another possible explanation flickered through her mind, but it wasn’t something she wanted to consider now.
First, she had to get up, and then she had to get away from the obnoxious resident. As she couldn’t do the latter without the former, she accepted Diana’s help. It wasn’t easy, and both gulped for air when Jess had settled onto the bench.
Diana hovered over her, much too close, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet as if she was preparing for a tennis match. The intense stare matched a professional athlete too. “No way you can walk back now.”
Thank you for stating the obvious. But Jess didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of agreeing. “Just give me ten minutes, Rock Chick. I’ll be fine.” She lay down to rest and pushed her sweat-dampened hair from her forehead. She’d allow herself the short respite, and then she’d get up and face the rest of her workday.
“What kind of denial are you in? You’re in labor, and I don’t know if we have ten minutes.”
Labor? Was this really labor? It’s too soon. I’m not ready! First kids never came early. She was sure she’d heard that somewhere. She had meant to read up on the medical side of delivery but had thought she still had time. The C-section was scheduled in ten days.
“Could you unlock your phone so I can call for a stretcher? I don’t have mine on me.” Diana’s voice barely broke through the thoughts that tumbled and crashed in Jess’s mind like a washing machine filled with broken parts.
When and where had she gotten Jess’s phone? She unlocked it and handed it back. Never mind.
How could she tell if she was in denial when the whole point of denial was to protect a mind from things it didn’t need or want to know? And why was she thinking about psychological defense mechanisms when her body was being ripped apart by one wave of pain after another?
Whatever Diana said on the call, Jess couldn’t hear a word.
Jess clutched her belly and tried to breathe the pain away as if that would suddenly work when it hadn’t done her any good during the last several hours.
Heat shot to her cheeks. She had been too stubborn to accept the truth. Waves of pain. For hours. Dr. Rock Chick was right. This was happening. She was in labor, and her water had broken. Jess didn’t know if she should laugh, cry, or kick herself. Since she’d decided she needed a baby in her life, everything had fallen apart. Her work, her relationship with her mom, her body. It was fitting that her body betrayed her today by going into labor instead of sticking to the plan—a nice, pain-free C-section with all the professional medical attention a person could ask for.
Instead, she got a dirty park bench and a former rock star turned emergency resident. Just perfect.
“Dr. Riley, I need to get you undressed to see how far you are.”
Jess let her head fall back and nodded. What else was there to do?
Even though Diana’s movements were careful, she couldn’t help the fact that Jess’s wet scrub pants stuck to her
