"Where are you taking me?" Donna panted out in the middle of a contraction as she realized they weren't taking her to the elevators to go up to the obstetrics unit.
"Ma'am, we just want to examine you down here quickly and then we'll get you straight up to OB," a male doctor who looked young enough to be Donna's son told her as she was wheeled into a room. "Is she having more than one baby?"
"Yes I'm having twins," Donna herself told him.
"All right, well your contractions are pretty close together. We'll check you here real quick and then we'll get you upstairs."
"Can I still get drugs?"
"I don't know yet, you may have to tough this one out."
"Oh great," she whimpered.
"Are you both family?" he asked Nicole and Toby.
"Yes," she quickly replied as her sister was situated on a bed and they began the process of getting her into a hospital gown.
"Well why don't one of you go up to OB and check her in so they'll be ready for her when we're done."
"Okay I'll go," Nicole said, rushing off before a decidedly green-faced Toby knew what was going on. Fifteen minutes ago, he'd been leading his girlfriend away from the bar before she embarrassed herself and now he was standing in an emergency room, watching his boss's wife writhe in pain.
Feeling helpless, he hesitantly walked over to Donna's bedside. "Are you in a lot of, you know, pain?" he asked dimly. Huffing and puffing as if her life depended on it, her face contorted in torment, Donna simply looked over at Toby in astonishment. "Right. Okay, sorry." As the contraction reached its peak, her hand flew up and grabbed onto Toby's shirt collar, wailing in agony.
"Excuse me, sir," a nurse asked over the noise, tapping Toby's shoulder as if a screaming woman wasn't trying to maim him. "I need your name for the form, sir."
"Uh Toby Ziegler," he said off handedly, busy with other things at the moment.
"And the mother's name?"
"Why do you need to know my mother's name?"
"I meant her name," the nurse corrected, pointing to Donna.
"Oh Donna, this is Donna. Do you have any idea when she'll be moved upstairs?"
"Not until we get this first baby out," the doctor proclaimed, materializing at the foot of the bed.
"Excuse me?"
"What?!" Donna exclaimed, in between contractions.
"Donna, you're at ten centimeters, there's about a minute between the contractions, and the first baby is crowning," the doctor declared. "On your next contraction I want you to push as hard as you can. Any questions?"
"Yes, who the hell are you?"
"I'm Dr. Paulson."
"Well Dr. Paulson, I really don't want to deliver in an emergency room," Donna begged, sitting up as best she could. "I want to be upstairs in my birthing suite with my doctor and a whole lot of drugs if you know what I mean."
"I understand that, ma'am but you will never make it up to OB so unless you'd rather deliver in an elevator I suggest you get ready to push."
"No you don't…Oh God!" she screamed when the contraction hit, bearing down against it as best she could by instinct.
"That's good, Donna, keep pushing!" Dr. Paulson directed loudly. He looked over at Toby and told him, "Take her hand and help her to sit up." Toby immediately did just that, the adrenaline of the situation taking hold of him. He didn't even care that Donna was basically breaking his hand or that the sweat covering him was ruining his tuxedo; he just let himself get caught up in it all, in this whole insane process of bringing life into the world. "Hey man, get a look at this," the doctor smiled at Toby.
Not being able to help himself, Toby peered down slightly in between Donna's legs and saw a dark, bloody ball emerging. "What the hell is that?" he asked, aghast yet fascinated.
"That's the head," Paulson told him over Donna's screams as more and more of the tiny creature slowly slipped out. "We've got the head and shoulders. One more big push, Donna."
"I can't," she sobbed loudly, her entire body trembling with exertion. "I can't do it. Please, it hurts so bad!"
"Sure you can do this, Donna," Toby found himself telling her supportively, wiping her sweaty hair back from her forehead. "Come on now, you've waited nine months for this. Don't you want to hold your daughter in your arms?"
At the mention of finally seeing her child, a child she'd yearned for and prayed for, she somehow took in a deep breath and held it in, leaning forward and letting loose a ferocious scream of anguish as she pushed with all of the strength left within her. When at last, her wailing stopped, it was immediately replaced by a wailing of a different kind, the kind that brought a huge smile to her tear-stained face.
"Say hello to your daughter," Dr. Paulson said happily, holding her up for view before laying the quivering, crying child on top of her mother's stomach.
Instantly, Donna engulfed her baby girl in her arms, every ache in her body immediately forgotten. Holding her to her breast and rocking her slowly, she looked down into the squished, red face that was still covered in her own bodily fluids. "Hello my love," Donna whispered to her reverently, stroking the miniscule little fists that flayed about. "Hello Audrey Joan."
"She's…cute," Toby commented, swallowing back a bit of bile at the sight of the shriveled little body covered in a wash of substances that Toby didn't particularly want to know about.
"No, she's a complete mess but they'll clean her up," Donna laughed at him, still utterly entranced by Audrey.
"Would you like to cut the umbilical cord?" Dr. Paulson asked Toby, holding up a pair of surgical scissors to Toby in one hand and the bloody, stringy mass of body matter in the other.
All of a sudden, it was too much for the poor Mr. Ziegler. "No I…I think I'll pass…out," he mumbled before he collapsed onto the floor.
"Oh God!" Donna shrieked as she watched her friend go down before erupting in giggles as the whole crazy night began to sink in. "You're gonna take care of him, right?"
"Yes we will," a nurse said, gently extracting the baby from her mother's arms to have her vitals checked and to wash her up. Donna didn't take her eyes off her baby for a second; not when she delivered the placenta a minute later or when they took her legs off the stirrups and covered her up or when the doctor said that her room was ready upstairs or as a couple of orderlies heaved Toby into a wheelchair to be examined in the next room. At that moment, she only had eyes for Audrey.
"Is she all right?" she asked the nurse when they finally laid the swaddled bundle back in her arms.
"She's perfect," the nurse replied kindly as Donna lovingly stroked her daughter's cheek. "Officially, five pounds, eleven ounces and seventeen inches long."
"She's smaller than my other daughters were."
"She's a good size for a twin. Speaking of which, they're going to move you upstairs now."
"Can I hold her on the way up?" Donna asked innocently, not willing to let go of her daughter so soon. The nurse glanced at Dr. Paulson, who nodded after a few seconds. "Thank you," she told them, finally tearing herself away from Audrey.
"All in a day's work," the doctor answered as she was wheeled out the room. "Congratulations and good luck with the next one."
"Yeah," Donna sighed happily, kissing Audrey's forehead as she was put into the elevator to get ready for the second leg of her journey.
Before the elevator doors had even opened on the obstetrics unit, Donna could hear her husband's panicked voice.
"My wife is supposed to be up here! She's tall, blonde, and, oh yeah, having twins!" he cried, presumably to the medical staff. "She was practically delivering in the car on the way to the hospital!"
"I understand that, sir," someone tried to explain to him. "But your wife is not listed as being-"
"I want to speak to the Chief of Staff of this hospital right now!" Donna saw Josh scream as the doors opened and her bed was wheeled onto the floor. And though it was probably just an involuntary reflex, Donna could have sworn she saw Audrey try to turn her head towards the sound of Josh's voice. "I am a United States Senator for God's sakes, how the hell is it possible that you people could just lose my wife?!" he exclaimed, pacing in frustration.
"Please just check your computers one more time before we start going room to room," Nicole explained to the haggard nurse, calmer than Josh but not by much. "She has to be up here, I've been up here for ten minutes and they said they just wanted to check her over quickly in the ER. Now I left for a couple of minutes because I saw a needle and needles are evil tools of the Devil so maybe she was brought up then and you somehow missed her."
"Maybe it just took a little while to examine her," the nurse replied sensibly.
"Okay, you go left, I'll go right," Nicole told Josh, pointing down the hallway.
"There will be no need for that."
"Why the hell not? Sounds like a plan to me," Josh said sarcastically, stopping in front of the desk.
"Because I believe your wife and one of your babies just got off that elevator," the nurse answered, pointing to an amused Donna and a surprisingly quiet Audrey. They both whipped around quickly to meet a smiling Donna's eyes.
"Aww," Nicole gushed sweetly, striding over to her sister without hesitation. She peeked into the bundle of blankets to get a look at her newest niece and kissed Audrey's capped head. "She's beautiful."
"Yes she is. You just couldn't wait to get out though, could you?" Donna said to the baby as a tiny hand clasped around her finger, glancing up to find her husband who was still frozen in his place at the desk. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes looked twice their normal size as he looked over at his wife and their child. "Come on, Josh," she said tearfully. "Don't you want to hold your daughter in your arms?"
That snapped Josh out of his funk and in two steps he was by Donna's side, gazing into his daughter's perfect, tiny face and grinning like the idiotically proud father he was. "Hey sweetheart," he murmured gently, leaning down to kiss her tiny hand as he fell even more in love with her than he had been in the past several months. "It's Daddy, by the way." He nuzzled his nose into the side of Donna's neck, breathing her in. "Thank you," he mumbled into her ear.
"No problem," she replied, kissing his hair before groaning quietly as a gentler but uncomfortable contraction began. "But we still have one more to go."
"Right," Josh said casually, still taking in Audrey's features. "One more to go." Something caught his eye then and he looked at his wife curiously. "Donna?"
"What?"
"You aren't, by any chance, subconsciously suppressing any feelings of love or passion for Toby, are you?"
"No," she shook her head slowly, not knowing what he meant.
"Okay, just making sure this was a hospital error," he smiled, lifting Audrey's ID band up for Donna to see. In perfect black script, the name "Ziegler" appeared.
"Oh poor Toby," Donna laughed, hugging the baby closer. "First he passes out, then he becomes a father. What a night for the poor guy."
"He passed out?" Nicole asked, concerned. "When?"
"When I was delivering, he stayed in the room with me. He actually made it through the birthing part okay but as soon as the doctor put the umbilical cord in front of him, it was over."
"Is he all right?"
"Probably, they're were just checking him out in the ER. You can go see him, I'll be fine from here."
"Okay, I'll see you later. I love you," she kissed Donna's head, "and I love you," she said kissing the baby's head, "and at this moment, I even kind of tolerate you," she joked, kissing Josh's head as well before beating a path down the stairs.
"Sorry to break this up but we need to get you into your room," another nurse said to Donna, "and this little one needs to go down to the nursery."
"Okay," Donna agreed begrudgingly, loathe to let the baby out of her sight but knowing that both Audrey should be in the nursery and that Lexi needed to make her entrance as well. She gingerly passed Audrey over to Josh, who promptly hugged her tightly and kissed her again until the nurse got her hands on her. "Bye-bye honey," she waved weakly to the baby as she was wheeled into her room. "Your little sister is gonna be with you soon."
"How are you feeling?" Josh asked his wife as she settled onto the bed while she was hooked up to several monitors for herself and the baby.
Donna shrugged her shoulders. "It hurts," she admitted, "but it's worth it."
"She's beautiful."
"I know," Donna agreed without a trace of modesty.
"Well, well, big surprise," Helen said as she came into the room. "Figures on my first night off in three weeks the Lyman twins would decide that they were sick of being cooped up," she continued as she sat on a stool in front of the bed and motioned for Donna to move forward and spread her legs for examination.
"Hey Helen," Josh said lightly. "Took you long enough to get here, you already missed the first one."
"As did you from what I hear so I wouldn't be lecturing." She slapped on a pair of latex gloves and checked Donna's cervix.
"Did you get a chance to see the baby?" Donna asked, staring up at the ceiling while trying not to focus on the added discomfort of the probing fingers. Josh, naturally, turned his head away to avoid the squeamishness he felt for things of that nature.
"Not yet but according to the chart, everything went perfectly fine, just really fast. Now when did labor start exactly?"
"Uh, about 8:10 is when my water broke."
"Any pain or discomfort before that?"
"I had some cramping that started late last night but they were really mild and I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks."
"Apparently not. You were lucky to get to the hospital as quick as you did; Audrey was born at 8:31 and I imagine President Hoynes and Prime Minister Abbot would not have been pleased had they been upstaged by a White House delivery." She finished up with Donna and took the chart, making some notations. "Okay, good news or bad news. Which first?"
"Good news," Josh answered, taking Donna's hand.
"Good news is that you and this baby are both healthy. You're blood pressure's fine and the baby has a strong heartbeat. All of that is news that we in the medical field deem to be good."
"And the bad news is…?"
"Well it's not necessarily bad," Helen started, sitting on the side of the bed, "it's just sort of going to be a major inconvenience for you."
"Just spit it out already," Donna groaned as a contraction started. Josh immediately felt her squeezing his hand with surprising strength and he had a flashback to Natalie's birth when she ended up breaking one of his fingers.
"Your cervix has shrunk, which is not totally uncommon in twin deliveries. It's not a problem, I assure you."
"How much longer until I deliver?" Donna growled.
"There's no way to tell really--"
"Helen!" Donna wailed, hunched on her side. "Spit it out!"
"You're back to just five centimeters and the contractions are about nine minutes apart," she finally admitted.
"What?" Donna moaned. "I'm at five? How is that possible?"
"It's not uncommon for your cervix to shrink down in between deliveries," Helen repeated reassuringly. "It just means that labor might take a little longer this time, depending upon how quickly you progress this time."
"How much longer exactly?"
"Put it this way: Audrey and Lexi are probably going to be twins with different birthdays." Her beeper started going off then and she patted Donna's hand supportively. "I've got to take this. I'll be back in a little while to check on you," she told them before leaving them.
"Oh God," Donna whined, leaning back against the pillow. "Why the hell is this happening?"
"It's not a bad thing, Donna," Josh tried to reason with her. "It just means that Lexi doesn't want to be rushed, that's all."
"Oh please be quiet. I know you mean well but please be quiet."
"Okay," he said, shrugging off his jacket and sitting by the bed.
They sat in silence for minute as they absorbed what had happened to them in the past few hours until Donna asked, "Did Nicole call the house?"
Josh cringed slightly as he realized the gaffe. "I don't think so," he replied, reaching for the bed phone.
"I'll do it," she said, taking the phone from him and dialing their number.
"Why?"
"Because I'd rather you and my brother not get into a fight right now."
"What makes you think--" He stopped talking when she gave him a look and held his hands up in defeat. "Okay, fine. Will you be all right if I go grab some coffee?"
"Sure." As he got up, she took his hand and pulled him down, kissing him full on the lips. "I love you."
"Love you too," he smiled before leaving, squeezing her shoulder lovingly.
Donna waited on the phone for a minute until someone finally answered. "Hello?" T.J. said loudly over noise in the background.
"T.J. its Donna. What's going on?"
"Bath time," he answered over the splashing and sloshing of Natalie in the water.
"Everything's okay there?"
"Yeah we're all fine, Natalie just decided that her body made a better canvas than some paper. So what's up?
"I need a favor, T.J."
"Sure, shoot."
"I need you to spend the night at the house watching the girls."
"What's going on?"
"Emma's with you too, right?"
"Yeah."
"Promise not to shout when I tell you?"
"Maybe but most likely not. What is it, Donna?"
"I'm in labor. I'm at--"
"You're having the babies?" he cried out to Donna's annoyance.
"Mommy's having the babies?!" she could hear Emma squeal excitedly on the other end.
"Babies!" Natalie chimed in, splashing happily.
"Thank you, I appreciate that," Donna told her brother exasperatedly.
"Are you okay? Did you have either of them yet?" he asked, ignoring her irritation and the excited shouting of his nieces.
"I'm okay and yes, I already had Audrey. She's fine and we're just waiting on Lexi but the doctor thinks that she'll take longer so Josh can't get home, Nicole and Toby are with us here, and Helen's obviously here too so I need you to watch the girls tonight."
"I'm your fourth choice for caring for your children?" he asked, sounding a little wounded.
"Oh just shut up and tell me you can watch Emma and Natalie."
"Yeah, yeah, no problem. Do you have anything here you need me to bring over?"
"No, hold on for a second." A young woman in bright pink scrubs and an older man in blue scrubs with a tray full of equipment were coming into the room. "Who are you?" she addressed them.
"I'm Heidi, I'll be your nurse for the rest of your labor," the helium-voiced woman said, "and this is Dr. Sterling, the anesthesiologist. Dr. Harrington said you'd been planning to get an epidural and requested that we administer one if you still wanted it."
"I can still get one?" Donna asked in amazement.
"Absolutely. Dr. Harrington cleared it, she said we should do it now before your labor progresses any further."
"Goodbye T.J., tell the girls I love them and they'll see us tomorrow," Donna threw out, hanging up the phone before he could respond. Immediately, she sat up on the side of the bed and leaned slightly forward, assuming the proper position.
"You sure you don't want to do this naturally?" the doctor asked as he set up behind Donna.
"Doctor, do you have reproductive organs?"
"Uh, no ma'am."
"Then please be quiet and give me the damn drugs."
About fifteen minutes later, Dr. Sterling had left and Heidi was checking Donna's vitals when Josh came back into the room with his coffee. "Sorry, the machine up here was broken and I had to go to the cafeteria and there was a long line--" He noticed the lazy smile on his wife's face and became suspicious. "Are you okay?" he asked her, taking his seat.
"When I grow up, I want to be Mrs. Dr. Sterling," Donna drawled out happily, lying on her side.
He looked up curiously at the nurse. "Is she--?"
"Epidural," Heidi explained and Josh instantly understood, smoothing back Donna's hair. "I'm her nurse, Heidi. Everything appears normal, she's at six centimeters and Dr. Harrington will be by later. I'll be out at the nurse's station if you need anything, just press the call button."
"Thanks." He folded his arm on the guardrail and laid his chin on it, playing with strands of Donna's hair with his free hand. "Is the house still there or did T.J. rent it out to some graduating high school students while we were gone?"
"Was the coffee machine really broken or were your mooning over your new daughter?" she teased him.
"Yes," Josh answered seriously, still stroking her hair. "I just… I just cannot get over how beautiful she is."
"You were the same way with Natalie," she remembered fondly. "Every time you weren't hovering over me, you were just standing there outside the nursery window and staring at her for hours."
"How'd you know that? You were asleep most of the time."
She touched the hand that was mussing up her already ruined hair. "Leo told me once," she admitted, hoping after tonight that mentioning Leo's name wasn't a faux pas as it had previously been. "He said one time he found you there, you were sound sleep and when he woke you up, you had this huge red indentation on your forehead from the glass."
"Yeah," he smiled as he flashed back to the memory and to the man. "He was always there when I needed him. I used to trust him more than anyone else in the world to watch out for me." He cupped her cheek and ran his thumb across it. "But then I met you and I realized that you were the only one I wanted taking care of me, watching my back for me."
"I'd rather watch your ass, to tell you the truth," she smirked.
He crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. "I'm doing that thing when I'm all mushy and emotional and you're going to just throw out sexual innuendos?"
"Forgive me but in addition to being on drugs right now I've also given birth once tonight."
"Of course, the "A Child Has Just Sprung from Uterus" defense."
She sighed heavily. "Its just such a shame."
"What is?"
"Well I wanted more children after these two but since you apparently have absolutely no interest in ever having sex with me again…" She kissed the palm of his hand, showing she was only teasing before getting serious again. "You're the only one too by the way. The only one I trust enough with my heart."
Josh gave her a thoughtful look. "Since when did we become such complete and utter saps?"
"We're getting older I guess. Older and sappier."
"Eh, could be worse," Josh reasoned, patting her stomach lightly. As soon as he touched her stomach, one of the monitors started beeping frantically, causing the both of them to jump anxiously and Josh to pull back as though his hand was a deadly weapon of some kind. Before panic could set in though, Heidi, perfectly composed, strolled back into the room.
"It just started going off," Donna tried to explain as the nurse glanced at the machine before she started adjusting the fetal monitor on Donna's stomach. "What are you doing?"
"Just trying to find the baby," Heidi said calmly, moving the device slowly and a few extremely long seconds later, the beeping stopped. The nurse secured the monitor and gave the two nervous parents a reassuring smile. "The baby just changed positions and the monitor couldn't find her. It happens a lot, there's nothing wrong at all."
"Are you positive?" Josh asked worriedly.
"Yes sir," the young woman replied. She pointed to the flashing numbers on the screen. "A normal fetal heart rate is between about a hundred and forty to a hundred and sixty beats per minute but the baby's all right if it is above ninety bpms. Right now, your baby has a heart rate of around a hundred and forty-six beats per minute, which is well within the safe limits. The baby is probably turning right now and that's why we lost the signal."
"Is that bad or…?" Donna tried to ask.
"Not necessarily. We'll keep a close eye on her to make sure everything's going smoothly and I'll find Dr. Harrington and have her come in to examine you."
"No need, Heidi," Helen herself said as she breezed back in. "I shall come to you." They got Donna's legs propped up and Helen examined her once more, although Donna didn't feel a thing this time. "Okay," she said slowly a couple of minutes later, pursing her lips in concentration. "Heidi, I want you to have someone call upstairs and have an OR ready for me in the next half hour.
"An operating room?" Donna cried as she tried to sit up. Josh wrapped an arm around her shoulder and helped support her, trying not to let his own anxiety show. "I thought everything was fine."
"It is fine right now and the baby is in a good position but she's turning so she might not stay that way and you're progressing a lot faster than we thought so I want to deliver you in the OR just on the off chance we need to do to a Caesarean." She checked Donna's chart again and glanced at the clock. "I want you guys to just sit tight and we'll see where we are in a little while."
Donna nodded shakily. "The baby's okay?"
"The baby is fine," Helen confirmed with a gentle smile and the worry lines around Donna's face relaxed ever so slightly. Josh kissed her head, rubbing her back to keep her composed while he told himself mentally that Helen knew what she was talking about but also trying to remember which medical school she had attended. "Heidi will be back to prep you for the OR. Josh, take these, go change, and wash up as best you can," Helen told him, going over to a drawer and pulling out some blue hospital scrubs.
"No, I'm good. I'll wait until we go up there."
"You can change, Josh. I'll be okay," Donna told him, knowing he was sweaty and uncomfortable in his tuxedo but that he didn't want to leave her either.
"Uh…okay," he replied, after a brief internal debate. He grabbed the clothes and turned quickly back to his wife. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."
She rolled her eyes at him. "My legs are numb and I weigh five thousand pounds. The only way I could get out of this bed is if the hospital keeps a forklift handy."
"We do actually," Helen threw out as she left the room.
"No one was speaking to you!" Donna shouted towards her. She smiled at Josh. "I'll be fine, just change before you make the dry cleaning bill any worse."
"Right," he said, hustling down the corridor towards the men's room. He cleaned up and changed with the speed of a seasoned runway pro and was back in Donna's room in less than six minutes. "What'd I miss?" he asked, still tying the drawstrings as Heidi handed him one of those surgical mushroom hats that his wife was already sporting.
"Oh nothing much just…oh!" Donna peeped, her eyes widening slightly.
"Are you all right ma'am?"
"Yes I just think my water broke again," Donna admitted a little sheepishly. "I didn't even feel it but the sheet's wet now."
Heidi pulled up the bed sheet and glanced down. "Yes you did," the nurse verified, letting the sheet fall and glancing at the clock to note the time. "Perfectly clear. We'll make sure the sheets are changed before you come back--" All of a sudden, that same frenzied beeping from before started again. Heidi quickly checked the fetal monitor, only this time she did not look as calm as before. She went to the wall and pushed a black button connected to an intercom. "Dr. Harrington, stat page to room 341. Dr. Harrington, stat page to room 341."
"What's going on?" Donna asked, clutching Josh's hand nervously.
"The baby's heart rate dropped down to ninety-five," Heidi said with practiced, pretend calm. She lifted the sheets and slapped on some gloves.
"But you said everything was fine over ninety," Josh challenged, feeling his stomach knot in a thousand different places.
"What's going on, Heidi?" Helen asked again as she jogged into the room, no longer smiling or at ease. She ripped off her lab coat and put a pair of gloves on.
"Significant drop in fetal heart rate in the last two minutes," the nurse addressed her, both ignoring the tense parents. She looked carefully in between Donna's rigid legs. "Damn it! Dr. Harrington, she has a prolapsed cord!"
"What does that mean?" Donna whispered desperately, looking to her husband. "I…I don't know what that means." He couldn't answer her with words; he could only shrug feebly as he physically felt the situation spinning out of control.
But thankfully for all of them, Helen didn't feel that spinning. "Get a team together, have someone from the NICU upstairs now," the doctor instructed quickly and coolly.
"They said they wouldn't have a room ready for twenty more minutes."
"Call in a bomb threat if you need to, just go get me an operating room right now!" Helen told her forcefully as Heidi raced out of the room.
"Helen, please tell me what the hell is going on!" Donna finally shouted to get her attention while more nurses gathered in the room at lightning speed, unhooking monitors as Josh and Donna looked on helplessly. "What's wrong with her, what's wrong with my baby?"
Helen finally stopped and crouched near the head of Donna's bed. "The baby's coming now," she explained as steadily as she could to the two of them. "But the umbilical cord is coming out first instead of the head and it's cutting off the baby's oxygen supply."
"Oh my God!" Donna cried out, tears spilling down her cheeks in fear. Josh could only look on stoically, nearly fainting from hyperventilating.
"We're going to perform an emergency C-section and have her out in the next five minutes," she continued, standing up and unlocking the bed. She and the others started pushing the bed out of the room and the only reason Josh was not left there alone standing in shock was because Donna had never released her grip on his hand.
'How the hell could this happen?' Josh though mutely as they all crowded into an elevator, the nurses prattling off foreign medical terminology and Helen attempting to keep Donna as calm as possible. 'Everything was fine; they told us everything was fine and now…Audrey was fine, everything with Audrey went exactly how it should. Why is this happening to Lexi?' Suddenly, he recalled a disturbing premonition he'd had many months ago. Sitting in Helen's office the day he and Donna found out there would be two babies instead of one, he'd stared down at the ultrasound photo and he'd known that something was going to happen, something bad that he wouldn't be able to prevent. 'Why the hell do I have to be right all the time?' he thought wearily as the elevator doors opened and the group sped down the hall before bursting through the doors of an operating room.
"We just paged the anesthesiologist, he'll be here in a few minutes," Heidi told Helen as they moved Donna from the bed onto a surgical table.
"No time for it. She's had an epidural already; we'll get some morphine on standby if she needs it. I'm gonna scrub up, I want this baby out in two minutes," Helen said, rushing out of the room.
Someone pushed a stool near Donna's head and directed Josh to sit down in it. She squeezed Josh's hand tighter and looked up at him. "Josh?"
"I'm here," he said roughly, finally speaking for the first time since this whole mess started. "I'm right here with you, I'm not gonna leave."
"Promise me something," she whispered so only he could hear. He leaned down until his ear was close to her mouth and as she said the words, he felt an iron, fiery claw pierce through his heart. As he digested her instructions, he pulled back to look into her watery eyes, begging for his understanding and acceptance. Almost against his will, he nodded imperceptibly and placed a kiss on her forehead.
"I love you," he murmured to her.
"If you have to choose, choose the baby," Donna repeated, leaving no question about her conviction.
"All right, let's get this little girl out!" Helen declared as she charged back into the room in full surgical grab. A sheet was draped over Donna's stomach, blocking it from their view. "We're going to get from mother to baby in under sixty. Start the clock. Scalpel." The instrument was placed in her hand and she immediately put it on Donna's stomach, slicing the taunt skin and peeling it back.
"God, please save her," Donna prayed quietly, biting down hard enough on her lip to the point of drawing blood. "Please save her, God. Please save my baby." Josh kept his lips pressed to her forehead, humming softly. They didn't say a word, didn't make a move, as they listened to the hospital staff trying to get to their daughter. Occasionally, Josh saw Donna wince in discomfort but she refused to vocalize her pain if there was any.
Finally, after what seemed like hours but was really exactly fifty-seven seconds, they heard Helen say, "Okay, here she is."
Donna grimaced as the baby was literally pulled from her womb but only asked, "Is she okay?" No one answered her; no one even let them look at their child before she was handed over to another group of doctors and nurses in the corner. Josh lifted up his head and craned it to try to catch a glimpse of her. All he saw was a ball of grayish matter before it was placed on an isolate and crowded around.
"Why isn't she crying?" he asked in a childlike voice. He couldn't look at his wife; he could only stare helplessly at the daughter he couldn't even see. He took both of Donna's hands and squeezed them firmly, feeling the tension reaching a breaking point.
"She will soon," Helen promised as she was still tending to Donna. She glanced down at her friend's face and saw that her eyes were clenched shut and her mouth was moving in silent, frantic prayer. Helen prayed herself that she wasn't lying to them. God must have heard both of them.
It started off as just a tiny whimper, so small even her doctors weren't sure they heard it. Then it got a little louder, a bit like the mewling of a kitten. Then it got even louder, causing her parents to hold their breaths in a hybrid of hope and fear. Then, finally, a good forty-two seconds after she was born, Alexandria Nicolette Lyman announced herself to the world.
"WAAAAHHHH!!!!"
There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain…
Donna was dizzy with relief and she was grateful she was lying down. The thousand pound weight that had been pressing down so hard against her heart was suddenly lifted and she could do nothing but laugh, joyfully and gratefully, as the doctors wrapped Lexi up and brought her over.
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all…
Josh didn't lift his forehead up when the baby finally began to cry or when Donna started to laugh for some reason. It was only when someone tapped his shoulder and he saw the miraculous image of Lexi, screaming and absolutely furious with the world, that he allowed himself the luxury of a smile.
But of all these friends and loversThere is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
It had been a long night but sleep eluded him. His wife was resting after her ordeal and his children were being cared for in the nursery. His mind told him that he should be there with them, watching over them, but he couldn't force himself to leave his wife after what she had asked of him in the OR. As much as he proclaimed that they did, not all of the answers came easily to him and trying to imagine his life without her was unquestionably unfathomable for him.
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
She could still see them, even as she slept with the aid of some medication. They had her eyes, that pristine blue their oldest sister would brag about tomorrow, but the rest of them was all Lyman, except for the their almost ebony curls. They were absolutely perfect though, Audrey Joan and Alexandria Nicolette. They were the children that she had hoped would save her marriage but she already knew they were destined for much more than that.
Though I know I'll never lose affectionFor people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
They didn't know what it meant to be a Democrat; they had no idea who Sam Seaborn or Leo McGarry or CJ Cregg were; they didn't understand why their parents had once used to date people they had no hope with; they couldn't see the birthmark Emma had that made her just slightly different than Natalie; they didn't realize how close they could have come to have never even been born in the first place, with all the crisis and turmoil their family had faced in recent years. None of this mattered to them, this past that didn't exist for them. They had no ties to that life so they had no need to try to return to it. All they had was the future their family would build for them.
In my life I love you more