Chapter 17

Lula looked at Carl, who looked at Eddie, who shook his head.

"Not, yet, but we are still looking. He's on assignment and it's pretty confidential. Everyone knows you are here, it's just a matter of time before we track him down." At that, my feet hit the pavement and stopped the wheel chair in full motion, I stepped up and out, turned around as if possessed. I looked at Carl, Eddie, and the others and started to breath heavily. Lula took a step backward out of my path, as did Connie - guess they knew the look. Carl stepped forward to help steady me - his worst mistake. I grabbed him by the arm and started to squeeze and pull down as a contraction hit. Eddie stepped in to help and I grabbed his arm in a similar fashion. They both let out a yelp trying to pry my fingers off their arms.

"Geeze, Stephanie, Breath, breath. Let go of my arm. UUUGGGHHHH STEPHANIE!! Breath, breath. There, in, out, in out, in out. Now, sit down. Don't worry, we will find him." Carl turned to the other policemen "Find Joe. Find Officer Morelli NOW. Do whatever you can or you will be sitting next to her next. Do you hear. Go, go GO!!" The other officers took off like a bat as Carl and Eddie tried to help me back into the wheelchair. I guess all our commotion caused the nurses and orderlies to come out to see what was going on.

One nurse, who must have graduated from the Miss Nicey Nicey school of dreams rushed over with a sickly smile on her face.

"Now, calm down, we cannot have you delivering that baby out here, now can we. Here let me take the chair and go check you in." As she tried to put her weight into my chair to push me up the ramp, I heard her say the wrong thing. "My, my, you've had one too many ding dong's haven't you. I may need some help."

I was in no mood for this sickly sweet talk and was ready for another drink. I put my feet to the ground again. "Look, Nurse Cratchet, for your information I have two ding dongs in here, and right now they want to come OUT! So just shut up and get me into the building. Carl, Eddie, take the wheel. I need someone with some muscle to get me up this ramp. Thank you." With that I started to sniffle. "I'm so sorry I'm being such a bitch. I don't know what's the matter with me. I am so scared and this is so overwhelming and I feel so alone here, and . Lula did you get my bag out of the car? Where is Joe anyway Carl. What is he doing that's more important than this? I just don't understand why he's with Terry. Is it because I've gotten so fat? It just isn't fair. It, it, it .."

I heard Lula whisper 'oh shit here comes another one. Watch out.' With that Carl and Eddie started to run and pushed me through the emergency doors yelling for help. Even though I was breathing, the pain was unbearable. I looked over at Lula who was looking at me doing the He He He He Ho Ho Ho thing, and I just wanted to slap her. A different nurse tried to help me out of the chair and gave me a gown to change into. She also tried to usher everyone out of the room. "No. No, I need them here with me. They all NEED to stay." I was leaning on the side of the bed, breathing, trying to maintain my control when I started to cry.

"Stephanie, honey, it will be okay. We will find Joe. Don't worry. Just concentrate on what you are doing and everything will be okay. Now, come on, Eddie and I are going to leave the room so Connie and Lula can get you changed. We will be right outside if you need us. Okay? Okay, let's go Eddie."

"You can do this Steph. Shirley got through it twice so I know you can. We will find Joe. Don't worry."

Lula and Connie helped pull my clothes off and put the gown on. I wanted to leave my underwear on, but Lula and Connie thought that would defeat the purpose. "Oh, yeah."

Dr Wheeler hadn't arrived yet, but the on-call doctor showed up. He was oriental and I couldn't quite understand what he was saying. I looked at Lula and Connie, they shrugged their shoulders all the while patting mine. Finally we began to understand that he wanted me to lay back, scoot down on the table, and put my feet in the stirrups. As soon as I did, Connie and Lula both moved down to take a look. Nurse Cratchet had come in to translate since I was becoming very frustrated.

"Okay, we've only dilated to five. You have five more to go before we can start getting those two out."

'FIVE! After all that, I've only dilated to a five. Where is my doctor? Where is Dr. Wheeler? I need drugs!"

"Now, calm down, she is on her way. As soon as she gets here, I'm sure she will give you something. Now, why don't you get down off the table and walk around the hospital. Walking normally gets things moving. That and sex, but since the sperm donor isn't here, I think you should just walk. Unless, of course, one of these women is your significant other? We could draw the curtain?"

I looked at Connie and then at Lula and we all squiggled up our faces. "My husband is on assignment. My friends out in the lobby are trying to locate him. I think I'll try walking. Please let me know as soon as Dr. Wheeler gets here so I can have something for the pain. I don't like pain. I don't like being shot at. I don't like being chased. I don't like . Lula, Connie, come on, follow me, I don't like being alone either."

Reluctantly, Lula and Connie followed me down the hall. "Hum, Stephanie, I think you need to wrap this other gown around you from the back."

"Why?"

"Because the one you have on doesn't reach to tie in the back. You have a mighty find butt, but I don't think the other people in the hospital will appreciate watching it walk down the hall."

As I craned my neck to see, I caught my reflection in the glass mirrors. There I was, bold as life, butt naked. "Oh, geeze, hand me the towel. Can it get any worse than this? Don't answer that, lets just walk."

And walk we did, up and down the corridor, around one wing and into another. Lula and Connie were taking turns until Mary Lou turned up for her round. Every once in a while I would stop, grab my back and the wall, or whoever was closest and start breathing and cussing Joe's name. "That SOB I swear, I swear I am going to kill him when I see him. Who the hell does he think he is? Maybe I chose the wrong man after all. Maybe I should have believed Ranger. Maybe I should have tried to, oh shit, what am I saying, I'm crazy. I love Joe. Who am I kidding. Have they found him yet? Where is he. Hey, Eddie, any news? Come here, Eddie, walk with me. Talk to me. Get my mind off of what's not happening. Eddie, please."

"I don't know Steph. You are a great friend, but if I come home with any more bruises, Shirley is going to start questioning where I've been. Carl, you've got the bullet-proof vest on, why don't you walk with Stephanie for a while." Carl looked up from the dog-eared magazine he was looking at.

"What? You want me to walk around with Stephanie?" Gulp "Alone?"

"Carl, get your ass off that chair and come with me. It's not that bad. Really. I just don't like pain. I'm headed down to the west wing this time if my freakin' doctor suddenly shows up. Has anyone checked on her? What's keeping her so long? I must be close to the breaking point, I, I, I, eyyeyeyeye oooowwwwweeee Geeze that hhhuuuurrrtttsssss!"

Carl was on my right side and Eddie was on my left holding onto my forearms. The pain had started down by my rear end and quickly moved to my abdomen. I was breathing, and screaming, and breathing all the while trying not to mess my pants. As soon as the contraction passed I opened my eyes to see Carl and Eddie pasty white, Lula and Connie holding on to each other against the wall, and Miss Cratchet on the "red" phone. "It's okay, everything's okay, just a bit harder that time. I need to go to the bathroom. Carl, Eddie, you can let go of my arms now."

"Stephanie, I think you can let go of us now." I looked down and I had a death grip on each of their forearms. Along with their faces being white, my knuckles looked the same. "Oh, sorry. How'd that happen. I thought you guys had hold of me. Any news on Joe?"

"We've been leaving messages everywhere. His pager, his cell phone, his home phone, and other assorted numbers from his rolodex at work. Either he is really under cover, or this assignment has him really, um, busy. Everyone is on the look out for him. He'll be here, he will."

Just then my doctor appeared down the hall. "Stephanie, how are you dear? I came as quick as I could. Now, we really never did discuss how you wanted to proceed. You did want to go with natural child birth, right?"

The room got deathly quiet as all heads, including Nurse Cratchet, turned towards Dr. Wheeler and then back to me.

"What did you say? Natural Child Birth? You mean as in no drugs, no local, no pain medication, NOTHING!!!!! No, no, no. No way. I want drugs and I want some now!" Everyone in the room was nodding their heads murmuring "Yes, now, please."

"Oh no, here comes another one, oooohhhhhh ggggeeeezzzeeee ."

"Breath, Stephanie, remember your breathing, think of a happy place, think of cool water, a trickling brook, birds singing."

"Fuck the happy place! My happy place is on drugs not feeling anything from the waist down! Right now I want to drown your face in that cool brook and throw rocks at the birds to shut them up! Now am I going to get drugs, or not! I have friends here who can legally shoot you, and I think they will, in order to get me medicated." Deep breath, "Now, Dr. Wheeler, can you please give me some drugs."

Dr Wheeler backed up with her hands flat, palms out. "Ooookkkkkay, lets see what we can do." She turned around and started to confer with the nurse. She turned back around with the largest hypodermic needle I've ever seen. "Okay Steph, this will take the edge off but keep you lucid to help deliver these kids. It's too late for an epidural. Guess we should have discussed this sooner. But, oh well, here goes, roll over. Nurse, I want her in one of the delivery rooms now. Preferably the one at the end of the hall. Now. Lets go. Everyone else, out. Those allowed in the delivery room can come, but the rest of you to the waiting room."

"How you doing, Steph?" Lula asked. "I think I'll go out and check the status of Joe. Who do you want with yeah? Hon, listen, it's going to be okay. Steph, Steph? Are you home? Guess that drug took a little more than the edge off."

*******

The nurse wheeled her off to the delivery room while the procession followed down the hall. The small group had started to grow to a much larger congregation including Mr & Mrs Plum, Mrs. Morelli and Bella, Grandma Mazur, Mary Lou, Connie, numerous aunts, and co-workers. Suddenly the emergency room doors burst open and in came Tank and Lester with Joe pinned between them. Terry Gilman followed screaming and yelling trying to get the two men to let go of Joe. Suddenly they stopped and looked at the group of people in the waiting room. Terry ran into the back of Tank with an "humph" and fell flat on her ass. Nobody bothered to help pick her up. "So what's the big emergency that you had to drag Joe away from our, um, assignment?" she asked as she stood up dusting herself off.

"Lula" said Tank, "Here he is. Where is Stephanie. We have orders to deliver him to her room. If she wants him that is."

"Is he drunk?"

"I think he is drunk"

"What's he doing drinking now!"

"Terry, what kind of assignment have you too been on??"

Everyone was now staring at Terry who seemed a little tipsy herself. "Well, it was a special thing that we were working on. Daddy said it would be okay. Besides, why would he want to be here with that fat pig when he could be with me? I was just trying to help him work things out. And I would have if these two hadn't of shown up when they did. Geeze, a girl can't have any (hiccup) fun." There were a lot of eye rolls in the room. Meanwhile Tank and Lester had led Joe to a chair and Carl had brought him a cup of coffee. His mother came up taking both of sides of his face in her hands and pinched his cheeks. Really Hard.

"Maaa whatda do that for. What's everyone so upset about. Why are you all here. Where are we. What's going on??"

More eye rolls and lots of "JOE! You stupid fuck!"

"Joe" it was Lula, "Your wife is down the hall about ready to give birth to your children. She has been trying to find you all morning. She don't deserve a slime ball like you. I know that somewhere in the world it is after noon, but drunk, with another woman, while your wife is in labour. What are you thinking man? I just oughta reach down and slap you silly."

"What are you talking about? Terry said that Stephanie called and said it was a false alarm and not to pay any attention to my pages. Terry, what do you know about this? Terry? Terry? Where did she get off to? Geeze, you mean Stephanie is here? Now? Where? I need to be with her. She'll never forgive me if I'm not there to help." Joe was trying to get up; however, Tank and Lester were holding him down.

"Not yet. Drink this coffee first. Then go into the restroom, wash your face, clean up before you go in there to help. Carl, do you have a clean shirt in your car?"

"Wait, Stephanie's bag. I know she said something about having a change of clothes in there for everybody, let me get it." Lula rummaged through the bag which was left in the waiting room. She came back with a pair of pants, a shirt, socks, and briefs. "Here you go. Now finish your coffee and go get cleaned up. She needs you. Don't know why, but she does. Now, go. Go before I bitch slap you across the room."

In a few minutes Joe reappeared looking much more alive. "Which room is she in? Where is she?"

"This way, come on, she's waiting." Lula lead Joe down the hall, followed by Tank, Lester, Mary Lou, Connie, Carl, and Eddie. They were all giving him tips and hints on how to handle the delivery. Don't do this or that, listen to the doctor, give her pieces of ice chips, encourage her, help her breath, yada yada yada.

"Okay, okay, okay. Now, leave me alone," and he walked into the room. Stephanie was laying propped up on the bed with her knees up, grunting and breathing. The doctor and nurse were talking to her about how well she was doing, to breath and to bear down. It appeared that the contraction was ending and she was laying back on the pillow. "Stephanie. I'm here Honey. I didn't know. Terry told me you called but that it was a false alarm. They… she..."

"Just shut up Joe and get your ass over here and help. I cannot do this without you. Just don't stand there, get your ass over here, NOW!" Joe was there in two steps, while the others waiting outside the door sighed deeply and went back to the waiting room.

Two hours later, Joe emerged from the room carrying two small bundles. Everyone was quiet awaiting his entrance, as they could only see a shadow coming down the hall and footsteps.

"Mom, Mr. & Mrs. Plum, Grandma's, everyone, I'd like to introduce you to, Tegan Stephanie and Daniel Joe. Stephanie is just fine. She's tired, but fine. The doctor will be finished with her shortly and she would like to see everyone, but she wanted you all to meet the babies first. Lula, she wants to see you first." Joe was then swarmed by the group of people that were mingling in the waiting room, all excited to see the new babies. Lula, scooted on down the hall, with a big smile on her face.

"Steph" she asked as she peered into the room. The doctor had her head buried in her crotch sewing up her wounds. "You okay, girl?"

"Lula, did you see them? Aren't they beautiful? I just wanted to tell you thanks. I couldn't of made it without you here with me the whole time. You are a true friend." A tear came down Lula's eyes as she bent down to hug Stephanie.

"Girl, you are too much! But, now, you are going to have to get your skinny white ass out of that bed and back to work soon. Things just won't be the same without you, and how on earth am I gonna continue my training without you??"

"Well, there's always Tank… You know he likes you, a lot"

"I know, he, um, kinda asked me out earlier"

I squealed, "If I could get up, I'd dance around with you"

"Hell, that's not all, Lester asked out Connie"

"Ohmigod, this is fantastic"

We chatted for a few more minutes, and Joe came back into the room.

"I had to fight to them away from our parents and grandmothers. How are you?" he asked leaning to kiss my forehead and handing me our perfect babies.

"Good, um, Lula can you leave us alone for a minute please?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you soon"

After she left, I looked at Joe. "Where were you? I called and called. I was really, really scared, and I needed you."

"I know, and I'm really sorry, I honestly don't know what happened, Terry and I were doing surveillance, and then I got the first call, I left you a message, did you get it?"

I nodded, "I *69'ed and called you back, only I spoke to Terry…"

"She told me that it was a false alarm, and not to worry about you. I guess that was when she started to ply me with beer after beer, and before I knew it I was on my way to becoming smashed and Terry was all over me. The next thing I really remember is Tank and Lester dragging my arse out of Terry's house to here…"

"Do you have any idea how close I was to leaving you, Lula and I practically had my bags packed, and I was going to move back in with Mom, Dad and Grandma."

We were both silent for a moment before Joe spoke up. "I'm going to take some time off, paid leave, at least 2 – 3 months to help you with Tegan and Daniel. But by the number of people who are outside, I really don't think we're going to need a lot of help. Just think of all the babysitters we've got"

The nurse came in them to take the twins to the nursery, and she told us that the crowd outside had doubled, and that none of them were leaving until they saw me.

"I guess we'd better get this over and done with, do you want me to stay?" Joe asked

"Yeah, please"

"Ok, who do you want to see first? He asked

"Family first, I guess"

"I'll get them" Joe replied, kissing me on the forehead.

*******

Around 5pm that afternoon, everyone had gone home, Joe stayed with me through every visitor, until my doctor came to check me over, and I told him to go and get something to eat.

*******

Making my way down to the cafeteria I thought abut how wonderful life was, and how close I came to screwing everything up. Man I felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"Joe?"

I spun around and came fact to face with Terry.

"Hello, I thought you would have gone home by now"

"I just wanted to talk to you, make sure fatty-bomba was what you really wanted"

"Terry, are you still drunk?"

"No"

"Because, I wouldn't touch you with a forty foot pole, you nearly ruined my life, if I were you I'd leave Trenton, because I also heard what you did to her a couple of months ago. Just get the fuck out of my life and out of Steph's"

I think I actually saw tears in her eyes, before to turned and ran down the hall. Behind me I heard a round of applause.

Behind me was Lula, Connie, Mary Lou, Tank, Lester and Bobby.

"Shit man, you really, really told her" Tank said.

"I know, I screwed this up a lot over the last couple of months, but I'm really going to try ad fix things. Hey, why are you guys all still here?"

"We've been at the nursery, just keeping an eye on Tegan and Daniel"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, so we knew Terry was still here, and we were looking for her, but I guess you just beat us to her" Connie replied.

"How's Steph?" asked Mary Lou

"She was with the doctor when I came down here, But hopefully she's asleep now. Anyway, I was going to get something to eat, then I'm going back to her room, I'm going to stay here the night"

"Ok, we'll were going now, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll be here" I replied.

*******

30 minutes later I went back to Steph's room, and she was still awake waiting for me.

"Hey"

"Hey"

"You know what, I think I just found god parents for Tegan and Daniel" she told me.

I smiled, "You know what, so did I"