Finally I have gotten around to writing this pretty important chapter, I hope you all enjoy it and didn't mind the wait. If anybody feels there was a better way I could have gone about this issue please let me know. Feel free to review.

Chapter 29 Against the clock

(This is set at the same time as the previous chapter, it will jump to the present shortly.)

Jim paced up and down the hallway of his house waiting for an idea or something to pop into his mind. He had called the police and they were searching for his wife but he remembered what Mel had told him, he knew that no one was going to get there in time and this completely freaked him out.

"Dude we have to find her." Jim said desperately to one of the police men in his home.

"I know Jim, I know; the guys are doing everything they can for the moment but there just aren't any leads as to who might have taken her or where they might have taken her. All we have is a sign of a struggle." The officer replied in a very calm and unintentionally patronising tone.

Jim knew who had taken her but he couldn't exactly tell anyone they would just assume him crazy and then stop helping. He couldn't just stand here and pace either so he grabbed his jacket and car keys, jumped in his vehicle, and drove off toward the home of the one person he believed may be able to help him.

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Jim arrived outside Emma's house and began frantically pounding his fists on the door until she answered.

"Jim what, what's wrong." Emma said a little groggily but she knew.

"Mel… Mel's gone and I need your help to try and figure out where she is." Jim replied frenetically.

Emma didn't know what to say, she had seen this coming but not in enough detail to be of any use to Jim so she just held out her arm and placed a hand on Jim's shoulder in a bid to comfort him, instead she was pulled into a vision.

It was dark and cold, really cold. There was a tall man with dark hair pacing up and down the room waiting for someone, no he was waiting on something. In the corner of the room was a woman who looked to be in pain. When Emma looked closely she saw that the woman was Melinda.

Concentrating hard now Emma tried to get a look at the outside of the building and she did, she came up with the street name to 'Barker street'. Emma then quickly resurfaced from the vision as quickly a she had been pulled into it.

"Are you okay?" Jim asked a little worried but hopeful that she had seen something useful.

"Fine, I'm fine but you need to go to 29 Barker street, I'll call the police and an ambulance." Emma replied seriously.

Quicker than he could even think Jim was in the front of his car and on his way to his wife, nothing could get in his way, nothing at all.

Jim sped down the road at lightning speeds not bothering to take note of any speed limits or other items that may otherwise hinder his chances of getting to Melinda in time.

It wasn't long before he arrived outside the house, he only hoped that he had gotten there in time.

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Jackson paced up and down the room in anticipation, he knew that the baby wasn't going to be long now, all he had to do was get the baby out alive and everything else would fall into place. His one problem at the moment was that Melinda was being less than cooperative; little did he know that his problems were going to get far worse.

"Oh my God." Mel screamed as her contractions got more painful, they were much closer together now too.

"Will you calm down I'm trying to think." Jackson spat as he fiddled with the tools in his bag anticipating which ones he would need to use for what.

"No, if you are going to force me into delivering a baby in this shit hole without my husband I am going to scream as much as I like." Melinda replied then resumed her breathing technique which really wasn't doing a whole lot of good.

Jackson wasn't impressed by her comment and stood up, his full height towering over her. He was just about to strike her when a familiar voice caused him to freeze on the spot.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY WIFE!" Jim screamed as he launched himself at the man and smacked him in the face. Jackson immediately fell to the floor and placed a hand over his now bleeding mouth.

Jim bent down on the floor next to his wife and took her hand. "Oh God Mel are you alright, I was so worried." He said as he used he free hand to wipe the droplets of sweat from her forehead.

"Jim I'm scared, it really hurts." She replied allowing the tears she had been holding in to freely fall from her eyes.

"Everything is going to be alright the ambulance is on its way, just keep breathing." He said comfortingly.

Melinda did her best to keep up the breathing technique that she had been focusing on since the labour started but it was wearing, she had no idea how women id this whole child birth thing without pain killers and she wasn't even at the worst part yet.

Another contraction hit her like a wrench in the stomach and she instinctively squeezed Jim's hand in response causing him to grimace a little but she was glad he was there and so was he.

The couple could here the faint sound of sires moving closer to them and realised that everything was going to be alright now.

Jim checked to see how close Mel was to actually giving birth, he was no gynaecologist but he was sure that there wasn't much time left, certainly not enough time to make it to the hospital.

"Jim… W..whats happening, is everything al…right?" Melinda asked in-between breaths.

"Yeah as far as I can tell everything looks fine but the baby will be here soon." Jim replied, he didn't want to let her know that she might not make it to the hospital she was a woman in labour and could quite possibly kill him.

Melinda took quick, shallow breaths to ease her way through the increasing pain coursing through her body, Jim offered sweet words of support as she breathed and squeezed his hand.

It took 5 minutes for the ambulance to pull up outside the house, 2 paramedics and a midwife came bounding out of it and into the room where Melinda and Jim were situated.

The paramedics bustled around the room pulling equipment out of their bags and whispering incoherent words to each other so that Jim and Melinda wouldn't hear what was going on. The midwife came over to where Melinda was and started pressing on her stomach in various different places.

"W..what are… you… d…doing?" Melinda asked between breaths holding tightly onto Jim's hand.

"Sorry Ms Gordon I was just trying to get an idea of how long it will be until the birth, I don't think we have time to make it to the hospital." The skinny woman replied.

A look of horror swept across Mel's face as she looked at Jim, panic in her eyes.

"Hey Mel it's going to be okay, you can do this here, we can do this." He replied giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Okay Melinda I need you to keep breathing and when you get your next contraction I want you to try and push, okay?" The woman said calmly.

Melinda just nodded then turned to face her husband who was just standing supportively at her side allowing her to hold his hand as tightly as she wanted.

A contraction soon came and she cried out as she used as much force as she could to push whilst squeezing Jim's hand tightly.

The look on his face was a picture but he still smiled at Melinda and dabbed her forehead with a damp cloth.

"You're doing really well honey." He whispered as she breathed quick shallow breaths.

"Alright Melinda I can see the head, I need you to keep pushing." The midwife said he words extremely focused.

Melinda did as instructed, she worked with the contractions as best as she could and fought the pain.

"Okay just one more push." The woman said supportively.

"I can't." Mel whimpered she was exhausted, after the kidnapping and the lengthy labour she felt as though she had no more energy.

Jim looked as his wife and gave her hand a small squeeze.

"Come on Mel I know you can do this, you have to do this it will all be worth it in the end." Jim said comfortingly then leant to kiss her forehead.

Melinda did her best to muster up some energy and with one last push the baby was born, and the reassuring sound of the baby's cry made Mel let out a tired sigh of relief.

"Congratulations you have a beautiful baby girl." The delivery woman said.

Jim was allowed to cut the umbilical chord then the baby was handed to him and she almost instantly stopped crying.

"She's so beautiful." Jim cooed as he walked over to Melinda and handed their new baby daughter to her, a small tear of joy in his eye.

Melinda held out her arms and took their daughter into them, she was so tiny but beautiful and Melinda too began to cry as she held her.

"Right I'm sorry guys but we have to get you and the baby to the hospital to make sure everything is alright. The baby seems pretty healthy but she is small so we need to check everything over." The midwife said.

Two paramedics then entered the room with a gurney and Melinda was placed onto it, Jim holding their daughter that was wrapped in a warm, yellow blanket. She opened her eyes and looked at him, they were perfect blue eyes and Jim knew there were now going to be two women in his life he couldn't say no to.

Jim climbed into the back of the ambulance with Melinda and handed the baby to the midwife who took good care of her.

"Mel you did good." Jim said and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Mmm, she's so beautiful." Mel replied glancing over at their new daughter.

"I know just like her mother." Jim said sweetly.

Melinda smiled a little but she was so exhausted that she was almost falling asleep.

"Now we j….ust need to think of a name." Mel spoke between yawning.

"I know, I know but we can do that later, now you need to sleep." Jim said softly and stroked her forehead.

The ambulance drove towards Mercy West where there was a bed waiting for the new family, Mel finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

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Sorry it took ages and sorry for making you all wait, you are all fantastic for reading this far but like I said the end is near. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if the childbirth part wasn't that realistic I apologise, I've not got around to having a baby yet (still at uni) so next time I will do better. Name ideas please, I want to do something different rather than call her Andrea like a lot of other stories. Thanks for reading please review.