"It's time."
James looked up from the notebook that lay open on his lap. He'd been going over his notes and reading through one of the textbooks he'd purchased a month ago. He'd already graduated med school and completed a five year internship. The doctors he worked under during his internship praised his steady hands and his quick thinking. He learned fast and was able to assess a situation and make split second decisions. He'd been a surgeon for about 4 years now, but he liked to stay on top of his education. He knew that no amount of studying and reading textbooks could prepare him for everything he might encounter, but he also knew that he needed to keep up with medical advancements.
Martha noticed his blank stare. "It's time," she repeated. "My water just broke."
"Oh!" James exclaimed, slamming his notebook shut and throwing it on the couch cushion beside him. "I'll call Natalie!"
Natalie was James' sister. She lived just two houses down. James and Martha had arranged, some time ago, for her to come over to watch Eric, their two year old son, when the baby came. James took his cell phone from his belt clip and dialed Natalie's number.
"Hello, Natalie speaking."
"Nat! Hi, it's James."
"Jim! Is it time? That little one coming?"
"Yes, yes it is," he replied, referring to the baby as "it" since Martha didn't want to know the gender of the baby. She hadn't found out with Eric either. She said she liked the surprise. Personally, James didn't care one way or another if they found out the gender ahead of time, so he just let it be.
"Okay, I'll be right over!" Natalie exclaimed, barely finishing her sentence before hanging up the phone.
James chuckled. "You know, I think she's more excited about this than we are," he said to Martha.
Martha just smiled at him through the mask of discomfort that suddenly made its way across her face. She was a rather small and petite woman, standing at only 5'2" tall. She was thin, but she was fairly toned. She wasn't athletic by any means, but she stayed active even throughout both pregnancies. Her small frame just made her pregnant belly seem all the more exaggerated. She wore a light-blue, long sleeved maternity shirt that seemed about stretched to its limit. She also had a pair of gray sweat-pants, since most of her jeans no longer fit, along with a pair of white slip-on shoes. Her face was normally well defined and narrow with high cheek bones and big bright hazel eyes beneath shoulder length brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. James always teased her about looking like an elf. Now, however, her face was slightly rounded from the water she had started retaining during the pregnancy. Despite the discomfort from the onset of labor, her face still shown with a visible excitement. She was ready to meet their newest addition. Not to mention she was exhausted and just ready for the pregnancy to be done. They'd decided that two was a good number and didn't plan on having any more children. Both pregnancies were easy as far as pregnancies go. She didn't experience much morning sickness, but she just didn't think she could handle carrying around another kid for nine months. She wasn't so fond of having hands and feet jabbed between her ribs.
James was about six or seven inches taller and only slightly bigger. He was thin as well, but was better toned and had slightly more muscle mass. He was a runner (when he wasn't studying) and as such his legs were very well toned and his endurance was great. His face was slightly more rounded with less defined features. His eyes a dull blue-gray. His hair was a dark, dishwater blonde and was kept relatively short. Not too short, just short enough that he could easily tuck it all in the hair net he needed to wear while at work. He intentionally left it unkempt so he had a sort of beach bum look about him. He wore a pair of loose blue jeans and a plain gray t-shirt, his preferred type of outfit when he wasn't running or working. He'd just put on a dark gray zippered hoodie. It was a fairly warm September day, but there was still a little chill in the air.
After about five minutes, the doorbell rang. Without waiting for anyone to answer it, Natalie opened the door and walked in, huffing from having practically ran to James and Martha's house. She was a slightly heavier set gal, though she'd recently gotten into a more active lifestyle and strict diet and had lost a lot of weight. She wore a pair of black jogging pants that might have been just a little too small and her bright blue and white fall jacket. She was a couple inches taller than Martha, but still shorter than James. She looked a lot like James in terms of facial features, but with a slightly smaller nose and a more feminine appearance. Her hair and eyes were the same color and she usually kept her hair in a bun. It was easy to see that they were siblings.
"Hi, Jim!" she said, still trying to catch her breath, "Hi, Martha!"
"Oh, are you ready to come out and see the world?" Natalie said to Martha's belly, bending down so her face was level with it. She rubbed her hand across the belly, causing Martha to shoot a disapproving glance at James. She really hated it when anyone other than James or Eric touched her belly.
Natalie stood back up and glanced around, peering into the living room. "Where's Eric?" she asked. "He's sleeping. It's 8:30 already, Nat," James replied. "Oh, it gets dark so early now, I didn't realize it was that late already!" Natalie responded. "You two better get going. That little one's not going to wait around! You know how quickly Eric came!" she said as she started shooing James and Martha out the front door. James grabbed the car keys off the hook next to the door and said, "Yeah, we're going. We're going!", a slight chuckle in his voice.
Just then, Martha scrunched her face into a grimace of pain and clutched her stomach. "What's wrong?" James asked, concerned. "Nothing, just a contraction. We need to go," she replied.
"Oooh, Eric is going to be so excited when he hears that his new brother or sister is on the way!" Natalie shrieked, waving her hands in the air like a teenage girl about to meet her favorite boy band.
"Nat, he's two. He doesn't really know the difference," James said, half grinning. "Oh, quit being such a sour puss," she shot back with a smirk, "Now get going! Shoo, shoo, shoo!"
James and Martha hurried out the door. James opened the door to their blue Impala, and helped his wife get in the passenger seat. Once in, he shut the door and walked around to the driver's side. He climbed in, stuck the keys in the ignition and started the car. It was a nice car. Loaded with features and very few miles. It was a 2012 so it wasn't brand new and it wasn't the most luxurious car on the market, but James was never one to go overboard on things just to have a status symbol. It served the purpose and provided a few nice conveniences and that was all he cared about. Besides, he had a lot of student debt to pay off yet.
It was only about 4 miles from the small suburb in West Warwick where they lived to the hospital. And this time of night, traffic was relatively calm.
"Ok, here we are," James said as he pulled into the parking lot. He parked the car in the closest space to the main entrance he could find. He got out and helped Martha out of the vehicle, who was bracing against another strong contraction.
"You alright, Hun?" he asked again, for about the thirtieth time.
"Yeah, fine," she said, breathing heavily, her face twisted in pain. "Just contractions, you don't have to keep asking."
"I'm just concerned about you, is all," he replied with a slight grin peeking out from behind the mask of genuine concern. The first pregnancy was perfectly normal all the way through delivery and this one had been so far, too. He had no reason to worry, yet he still did.
James heard an ambulance approaching, but paid it no mind. After all, it wasn't exactly a strange thing to hear in a hospital parking lot. They were about halfway to the door, when the ambulance came zipping up the emergency lane. James could see through the windshield and noticed the look of sheer panic on the driver's face. "Oh boy, that doesn't look good," he muttered to himself, wondering if he might get roped into working while his wife delivered their baby.
He thought it looked like there was some commotion going on in the back, but couldn't quite see exactly what was going on. Just then, a man burst into the cab of the ambulance and violently attacked the driver.
"Holy shit!" James shouted, startling his wife.
"What is it?" she asked, suddenly concerned. She'd been looking at the ground in front of her, relying on James to guide her. Truthfully, she hadn't even noticed the ambulance.
She looked up to see the ambulance swerve and smash into several vehicles in the parking lot, setting off a number of car alarms. The impact sent the attacker through the windshield, skidding across the parking lot and leaving a bloody trail on the pavement.
"Oh!" Martha shrieked, covering her mouth and forgetting about the reason they were there. At least until another contraction nearly doubled her over. "James..."
"I know, Hun, I know," he replied, unsure of exactly what to do next. He desperately wanted to see if he could help the driver, but there was no way he could leave his wife's side.
Just then, the man who'd skidded across the pavement, got up and looked around furiously. He spotted James and Martha and charged at them, screaming and shouting, his eyes seemingly glowing eerily red.
"Martha, look out!" James shouted as he stepped in front of his wife. "Stop!" he shouted at the man charging them, but the man paid no heed. He plowed straight into them, knocking both to the ground. James twisted so as to not land on top of Martha, but this left Martha open to attack and the crazed man took advantage. He lunged at her and she defensively put her arms up to hold the man at bay. He was far more powerful, however, and pressed her arms down into her chest. He lunged again and sunk his teeth into her upper arm, just below the shoulder, tearing right through the fabric of her shirt.
"Aaaaaah! James!" she screamed.
By that point, James had recovered and delivered a powerful kick to the man's face, sending him sprawling off of his wife. "Get off of her, you damned lunatic!" he shouted.
"The asshole bit me!" Martha gasped, "He bit me!"
By this point several people from the hospital had rushed out to see what the commotion was all about. A police officer who happened to be patrolling spotted the commotion and also rushed to their aid.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked Martha.
"You mean other than the fact that he bit me?!" she shrieked in response, pointing at the man who'd attacked her.
He was starting to get back up when the officer drew his gun. The man shot a glare at the officer and suddenly rushed him, tackling him and sending the gun skidding. The officer, being larger and well trained, easily overpowered the man and pinned him to the ground. The man became further enraged and managed to squirm out of the officer's grip. He rounded on the officer again, but the officer once again countered his attack and put the man in a headlock. The officer struggled to hold the man while he fumbled trying to reach his cuffs. With some help from James and another man, the officer was able to cuff the madman and drag him, thrashing and screaming, to the squad car. He nearly threw the man into the back seat where the man continued to rage, leaving bloody smears on the windows where ever he struck them.
"What's the deal with that guy?" the officer asked, a little shaken but unharmed. "What happened?"
"I don't know...I...He just attacked the ambulance driver and the ambulance crashed. Then he attacked us," James stammered.
"And he bit me!" Martha screamed again. Between the shock of the whole situation, the pain in her arm, and the contractions, she was near hysterical.
"Calm down, honey, it'll be alright. He can't hurt you anymore. Right now you need to be concentrating on the baby," James said, trying to calm her down.
"Jim!" a woman's voice shouted. "What the hell is going on out here?"
"Barbara! My wife is in labor!" Jim shouted back. Barbara was one of the receptionists at the hospital and knew James pretty well. She was an older woman of about 50 or 60, slightly taller and heavier than Martha.
"Oh! Well, let's get you on inside, then," Barbara responded. "Oh my! What happened to you?" she asked when she noticed the bite mark on Martha's arm. Martha had just started to calm down a bit, but with that question, her eyes flared and she pointed at the squad car. "He bit me! The prick bit me!"
"Say what?!" Barbar asked in shock, staring at the man who'd now beaten himself nearly to death in the back seat of the squad car. "Oh dear!" she gasped. "E...Everything'll be just fine, dear. We'll get this cleaned up and we'll get that baby delivered, huh?" Barbara said, stuttering just a little but trying to lighten the mood.
As they walked to the main entrance of the hospital, James looked back at the crashed ambulance. A number of medical staff already had the driver out of the vehicle and onto a gurney, rushing him into the hospital. He was alive, but bleeding profusely from several wounds on his arm and neck that looked a lot like bite marks.
What the hell is wrong with that guy? James wondered.
The staff was doing their best to stop the bleeding but it didn't look good. There were two more gurneys at the back of the ambulance. Both appeared to have bodies on them covered with a white sheet. The EMTs in the back of the ambulance, James realized.
The police officer had hung the radio back in his squad car after calling in the incident. He was now busy trying to secure the area and began questioning witnesses.
Several news vans had now rolled up and James could hear multiple sirens approaching as well, most likely squad cars carrying more officers and the forensics team. As James took in the whole scene, he shuddered. He turned back and walked with his wife and Barbara into the hospital.