Chapter 12
'Neal… I don't think I can do this…' Diana moaned, clearly discouraged and fighting for breath.
She'd been pushing for over thirty minutes now and Neal was becoming increasingly concerned that the baby might be in distress if he didn't make it out soon.
He looked down at Diana's face, glistening with sweat, her eyes narrow, deep lines on her forehead and he let himself fall back against the wall, joining her there as she struggled to push herself back into a semi-sitting position. One thing he knew for sure was that the body was an amazing instrument and it knew instinctively what it needed to do; he had to trust that Diana's body would tell her when it was time to rest and when it was time to push.
'Do you want to take a minute to rest?' he asked, breathlessly.
Diana nodded and let out a loud sob that tugged at Neal's heartstrings, bringing him back to those amazing, albeit scary, moments in the delivery room as he'd witnessed the arrival of his two beautiful children.
'Diana…' he said as she turned to look at his face. 'You have to believe me, everything's going to be alright. Your beautiful little baby is coming any minute. You just rest for a while, okay?'
Neal put an arm around Diana's shoulder and was surprised when she let her head drop on his shoulder, weeping softly. Finally, her breathing seemed to slow down and Neal unwittingly let out a long, slow sigh as he felt her momentarily relax against him.
Diana let out a couple of uneven breaths before speaking. 'You know, Christie and I had it all figured out. We had a birthing room at Bellevue and… we were going to have a soak in the large tub, she was going to rub my back and it was all going to be so… calm and so... organic.'
Neal let out a shaky breath as he laughed. 'Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans' he uttered.
'Who said that? Bob Dylan?' she asked with a soft giggle.
'Actually, I think it was John Lennon…' Neal corrected as he straightened out, feeling a nagging kink in his back. 'But it's true… we think we have stuff all figured out and then life just decides what's best for us - even if we don't necessarily agree.'
Diana looked up at Neal's face, noticing the faraway look in his eyes. 'I guess you'd know all about that, huh, Caffrey?' she said.
He let out a sardonic laugh. Life had held many surprises for Neal Caffrey, some good, some not so good including a lengthy detour in the slammer and a long, tortuous road to an amazing life he would never have dared imagine.
'Yup. For better…and for worse' he admitted as he let his head drop back against the wall. 'You know, I always thought I had everything figured out, thought I could manipulate things to go my way… get people to do what I wanted them to do… thought I could always stay a step ahead of everybody else. And then I met Peter Burke…' he said with a laugh.
'Yeah… he's definitely something else' Diana agreed, her voice faltering as she continued to breathe loudly.
Neal laughed softly. 'Yeah, well, Peter didn't always follow the little script that was running around in my head - and that drove me nuts.' Neal admitted. 'And then, there was Sara - didn't see that one coming, either. She didn't let me get away with anything, she called me on all my crap… and before long, I was along for the ride and I didn't know what hit me.'
Diana groaned and moved in order to get more comfortable and Neal prepared for another marathon wave of pain but Diana just settled and kept breathing slowly, no doubt trying to rebuild her strength for the next big push.
'So, what it is that turned things around for you in the end?' she asked as she thought of the changes she'd witnessed in the man over the last several years.
'Sara… but mostly Hope. There's just something about finding out you're going to be a parent that puts everything else in perspective. Once I laid eyes on Hope for the first time, her beautiful little face, her sweet innocence… well, I couldn't imagine not being there for her every minute of every day and the thought that I might mess it up somehow… well, it just made everything so clear.'
He snapped out of it and glanced back at Diana who, despite the pain and discomfort, was studying his face.
'And now, you're about to embark on this amazing adventure. You'll see… nothing will ever be the same again for you and Christie after this' Neal added with an encouraging smile.
The soft smile on her face dissipated and the tension returned with a vengeance as she let out a scream.
'AWWWW! Now, now I need to push again!' she shouted. 'Help me get up on my knees!'
Neal took a deep breath and did as he was told.
WCWCWC
Peter Burke tucked away his phone and took off with lightning speed as Sara and the young maintenance guy watched in awe; he sure could move for a guy who spent most of his working hours sitting at a desk.
'WHAT?!' Sara called out after him as she followed him to the stairwell and up towards the fifth floor.
'Jones might have found something' Peter yelled back without bothering to slow down.
The trio arrived up on the fifth floor in seconds flat to find Jones and Christie scrutinizing the elevator door, Clinton on all fours tugging insistently on the piece of fabric they'd discovered there.
'What have you got, Jones?' Peter asked as they got closer.
Sara peeked out from over Peter's shoulder, and let out a gasp as everyone turned to look at her face; it was as white as a ghost and her hand went to her mouth as she looked on in horror.
'Th-that's Neal's tie' she stuttered as all eyes moved back to the tiny piece of material protruding from the jaws of the elevator door.
'What? Are you sure?' Peter asked as Sara gave him a dirty look.
'Of course I'm sure. I gave it to him for his birthday last year. Why… why is Neal's tie hanging out of the elevator?' Sara said, her voice flat.
The horrific notion that Neal might still be wearing the necktie flashed in her mind as she instantly pushed the thought away. There had to be an explanation but one thing was for sure, Neal was - or had been - nearby and was leaving some kind of clue as to where he and Diana were.
Peter's reaction was instantaneous. His fists came up against the elevator door and he began to pound furiously.
'NEAL! DIANA! Are you in there?' he screamed as everyone waited with bated breath.
WCWCWC
Diana panted through the huge push, letting out a loud grunt as Neal counted down the seconds, his hand firmly on her back. He felt her arms faltering and he helped her down as she fell to the ground, unable to hold on any more.
Neal settled her onto her back and returned to check on the progress, noting that he could see the top of the baby's ears, something he hadn't been able to see moments before.
'That was a good one, Diana!' he exclaimed. 'Here, give me your hand.'
Diana continued panting, letting Neal guide her hand to touch between her legs as she felt the top of the baby's head.
'Oh my God! Is that the baby?' she moaned as Neal smiled back at her and nodded.
Neal tried to focus on Diana and what she needed from him although his mind couldn't help but wander to the coming minutes. He wasn't sure how many pushes would be needed to get the head out. And what about the shoulders? He remembered that the shoulders, the widest part of the baby's body, were a little tricky and how Dr. Cooper had had to place her hand inside to guide the shoulders through the birth canal so Sara wouldn't rip wide open. Would he be able to do that if he needed to?
And what would happen once the baby was out? There was the placenta still to come and the umbilical cord… he remembered how his hands had shaken as the nurse had guided him to cut the cord as Hope lay on Sara's stomach. He was feeling ill equipped to deal with all this… and then, there were all the concerns about the less than sanitary conditions on an elevator floor. There was already some blood and mucus on his t-shirt and he didn't have anything to wrap the baby in once he finally came out.
He was interrupted by a curious look on Diana's face as she stared up at him.
'Did you hear that?' she whispered.
'Hear what?' Neal responded, a puzzled look on his face.
'That!' she said again as a muffled voice was heard once again, calling out their names.
Neal's face lit up and he was instantly on his feet, looking upwards towards where the sound was coming from.
'PETER!' he yelled at the top of his lungs as he looked up to the trap door which had been left open.
'WE'RE DOWN HERE!' he screamed.
Half a floor away, Peter stood with his ear against the door, his face lighting up as everyone else stood in silence, waiting.
'I think I hear Neal's voice' Peter said as everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
Jones was instantly by his side, slipping his shaking fingers between the elevator doors as Peter did the same on the other side. The door was stubborn; it wasn't meant to be pried open without the help of hydraulics but suddenly, Ted was there, helping the two men pull apart the doors with all his might, feeling it start to give.
Sara and Christie stood, mesmerized, holding on to each other as the three men began grunting loudly as they worked to pry the doors open. Their collective efforts paid off as the door began to give, a few inches at first, then a good foot as they stopped to glance inside into near total darkness.
'Neal!' Peter called out as he leaned into the dark, open space.
'Peter! We're down here.' Neal called out as he looked up towards the gaping hole in the ceiling of the elevator car.
'Caffrey! Don't you dare leave me alone' Diana screamed, near his feet.
Neal looked from Diana back up to the ceiling; they'd come this far, this was no time to abandon Diana.
'It's okay, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere' he said reassuringly before turning his face up again towards the open trap door.
'Peter, Diana's having the baby and I don't want to leave her. We're in the elevator between the fourth and fifth floor and there's a trap door that's open up above our heads.'
Christie was instantly by Peter's side, staring down the abyss. Except for a faint light coming from below inside the elevator car, they were unable to make out what was on the other side of the door as their eyes got used to the faint light. There was open space at their feet and the last thing Peter wanted was for the young woman to go falling down the big black hole beneath them.
'Diana! I'm here!' Christie called out as Diana gave Neal a broad smile.
Diana took a deep breath. 'I'm okay, honey. I'm fine' she lied. 'Just… just get me out of here, okay?' she continued, her voice shaking.
Peter put his hand out to hold Christie back; if he hadn't stopped her, she might have just thrown herself carelessly down the elevator shaft to get to Diana.
'Jones, get the paramedics up here right now. And you…' he added as he turned to Ted, the maintenance guy '…get me a flashlight' Peter instructed before he turned to call down to Neal.
'Neal! We called the paramedics and they'll be right here. Hang on.'
'Neal!' Diana moaned, competing for his attention as she became agitated once more.
'See' he said as he crouched down beside her and took her hand. 'Everything's going to be fine. Help is on the way.'
TBC
