Chapter 6

"Michaela!" he exclaimed, totally unprepared for the sight of his wife barely sitting up in the small clearing. Her forehead shone with light perspiration, and she was leaning forward intently, her arm dropped protectively around her stomach. Even before he had called out to her, he could tell she was in labor, although by his estimation, she had not been that way for long, since the screams her had heard were far enough apart to match how she behaved the first few hours in the woods when they had Katie.

"Sully?" she said, panting a little,.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you alright, Michaela?"

"Oh, Sully, I'm so glad to see you. I was coming to look for you, and all of a sudden I had a contraction. I didn't know, I didn't have any warning."

"That's okay," he said, gently, surprising even himself with the depth of love that he felt for his wife at that moment. He had to remind himself that this wasn't his baby in order to keep himself from taking her into his arms, and never letting go. "We should get you back to town, to the clinic; Andrew'll take care of you."

"It's too late. Sully, please help me," she said, barely able to squeak out the words before another contraction hit.

Sully watched in pain as she doubled over, clutching her stomach and yelling as loud as her small body could. She was obviously in agony, and he couldn't let her struggle alone. Casting aside all notions of propriety and momentarily putting his pain at not being the baby's father in the back of his mind, he positioned himself behind her, and instinctively she leaned against him.

Though she continued to cry throughout the contraction, the feeling of Sully's body behind her own gave her the sense of security that she been longing for since the afternoon's ordeal began. As the contraction ended, she breathlessly uttered, "Thank you," and a second later she added, "Hold me."

"Michaela, I can't do that—not with you in the middle of giving birth to another man's child," he said sadly, refusing his body's urge to put his arms around her and ease her pain, as she had asked.

"It's true, then…you don't love me," she sobbed, not really listening to the reason behind Sully's refusal.

"No I d…" he started to say, but then thought better of it, considering her present situation. Now was not the time to lie to her, even if doing so would protect him from incredible hurt. "I do love you, Michaela. I always will. But, you're having another man's child! You love him now. We can't be together—you know that."

"Another man's child!" the meaning of these words finally registered with Michaela. The first time he had uttered them she wasn't sure that she heard him correctly, but now that he'd uttered them again, she could not deny the truth about what he thought of her.

"Yes! Another man's child," he said, his eyes filling with tears at having to continue to repeat those words to her.

"No! No, Sully," she sobbed, "you have it all wrong. The baby … ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" she cried, as another contraction hit. Before the pain kept her from speaking, she begged, "Sully…my back…please hold me."

"Michaela," he began, but then thought better of it, and did as she asked, wrapping his arms gently above her contracting belly. As he did this, she felt her body relax, though it was still battling the contractions, he knew his simple act had at least momentarily relieved some of her pain.

As the contraction eased into nothingness, Michaela managed to finish the sentence that she had fought so hard to complete before the pain had gripped her. "It's yours," she said, panting.

It took a minute for Sully to realize the meaning of his wife's words, as he had been so focused on helping her weather the contraction that he had almost forgotten about the sentence she had begun to utter shortly before. Now the reality of her words hit him full-force. "The baby's mine? But…how? When?" Sully chided himself for not being able to contain his queries to a single question at a time like this, but he was too excited and unsure to check his own thoughts as they tumbled from him.

But Michaela wasn't listening to any of his questions. Sully hadn't noticed, but his wife was still gasping for air even though the contraction had long since past. She felt her body spinning out of control, and she panicked as she realized that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't breathe.

After a time, Sully realized that his questions weren't garnering any answers from Michaela, and he looked down to see her gasping for air in a haphazard fashion. Though she was breathing deeply, she was doing it far too quickly for his comfort. As he leaned forward to ask her if she was alright, he saw the panic in her eyes and knew that the symptoms were as terrifying for her as they were for him. "Oh God, Michaela, what's wrong?" he shouted, letting his worry increase his volume in a way he had not intended.

"I… don't… know!" she said, each word separated by a large gulp of air, air which seemed to bring no peace to Michaela's body or mind.

"Your medical bag!" he said panicked. "Where is it?"

"I…n…the…wag…on," she said, her breathing further spacing the syllables from one another as the panic increased within both husband and wife.

Sully got up from behind Michaela, and raced toward the wagon, which he could see parked a few yards away from where they sat. Once he reached it, he quickly grabbed the medical bag from the front seat and raced back to his wife. With determination, he opened the bag and removed his wife's stethoscope. As he went to use it, however, his confidence failed as he realized that even if he'd placed it to her chest, he wouldn't know what to listen for or even how to use it. For the first time, the fear that he would lose Michaela and the baby she said he fathered, assailed him. This feeling of dread threatened to overwhelm him like water around a drowning man, but he refused to lose his calm completely. Instead, he dropped the stethoscope, and looked at Michaela, who was still in the same condition, although from the screams he'd heard in between her gasps he knew she had endured another contraction while he had been retrieving her medical bag.

As he tried to figure out someway to help his wife, he remembered the words that his friend Cloud Dancing had said to her shortly before they had spent the night at his camp before he proposed. He had had the migraine, and Michaela had insisted upon staying with him, but after hours of treatments, none of her medicine had proved affective to treat his pain. Despite this, she had stood by him and vowed to care for him, the next morning, she had revealed Cloud Dancing's belief that when medicine didn't work, it was because the person was out of balance, and that medicine must treat the whole person if it is to be successful. Suddenly, Sully understood what was wrong with his wife. He slowly slid behind her again, and gathered up the courage to guide her through this ordeal and all that was to come.

"Michaela," he said. "Michaela, you're hyperventilating."

Michaela turned frightened eyes on her husband as she continued to gasp.

Undaunted, Sully said to her gently but firmly, "All of this has been overwhelming, but I'm here now, and I'm not leaving again. Ever. I love you…and the children, including the one that's coming. And I'll always be here for you, but we gotta get through this. A little one is dependin' on both of us to ensure its safe arrival, and we gotta keep that promise. Now concentrate on breathing slowly; I'll do it with ya. No matter what else happens, even a contraction, just concentrate on breathing slowly, in and out." He paused to breathe along with his wife. "That's it," he said as she tried to do as he suggested. "In and out, I'm right here."

Michaela did as she was told, and the hyperventilation episode slowly abated.

For the next several hours the couple talked about old memories, and though each was still unsure of the other's love, they tried to put that aside for the moment, and concentrate on what was happening. Sully had decided soon after Michaela had stopped hyperventilating that they needed to move her to the campsite in order to provide enough warmth for her and eventually the baby, as night fell. At the campsite Sully would be able to construct a lean-to, and make use of the fire pit to keep out of the chill of the January night. Once settled at the campsite, Sully positioned himself and Michaela under the lean-to he had rebuilt, and waited for the next contractions. When they did come, Sully did his best to comfort his wife, who alternated between sobbing and screaming, much as she had done during Katie's birth, and yet there was a distinct difference between that birth and the one they were embarking upon now. Not once in the nearly twelve hours she had been laboring did Michaela ever ask Sully to let go of her, to stop holding her, or cuddling her close. Even when the contractions were at their peak, all she wanted was her husband's reassuring embrace. Though Sully found this comforting, he also found it to be amazing considering all the hurt he had caused her. "Perhaps," he thought to himself, "this is her way of ensuring I won't leave." The thought humbled him, and as she cried out during another contraction, he cuddled her closer and kissed the top of her head.


Please review and let me know if the storyline and characters are behaving in interesting and yet valid ways consistant with the character and development of the story and show.

Thanks, Corinna