By the next morning, the beautiful snow of the previous day has transformed itself into something a bit more threatening.
"Jack, do you think we could get to town right now?" Sam asks emerging from her morning shower.
Jack surveys the sight outside the window. It's still coming down in unreally large snowflakes (almost snow balls though light and fluffy ones). It's doubtful they would start the plows until they did, especially with all the wind and the resulting blowing snow. His remote cabin is not exactly first on the list of things to be plowed even if they did get started.
"I don't think so, but don't worry, I brought enough food to last a lot longer than the blizzard is going to."
"My water broke," Sam says.
"Shit," Jack says standing and blinking at her.
"There is no way we're getting out of that driveway is there?" Sam asks nervously.
"No, and there is no way the emergency responders are getting in either," Jack tells her.
"Then let's not even call them," Sam pleads.
"Sam, honey, they can still give us advice."
"Jack, if I have to have this baby through teleconference, I don't want it to be with strangers. Call Daniel."
"You mean Janet."
"Daniel has delivered babies before."
"Janet is a doctor."
"I know, but she never actually delivered a baby before."
"Really?" Jack asks.
Sam nods.
"Okay honey. Let's get you settled down on the bed, and we'll get the phone in there."
"No, the bathroom floor."
"Sam, labor can take a really long time. You're not going to be laying on bathroom tile the whole time! That's absurd!"
"Jack, this is going to be very messy. I do not really want to be worrying about whether or not I am staining anything the whole time that I am in labor."
"Okay, so just don't worry about that. If you think I care about my bed more than I care about this baby then you are crazy."
"Jack, I'm going to worry about staining stuff. There is no way to avoid it apart from my plan. So go get your least favorite pillow, and a couple towels and meet me in the bathroom. I'm going to find a scissors and some clamps. I assume you do have rubbing alcohol."
"Already in the bathroom."
-0-
"What did he do?" Daniel asks as soon as Sam greets him on the phone. He has become rather familiar with smoothing things over between his two friends. He knows that without him their fights can get pretty creative, and oftentimes he would almost rather let them get their fight out, and hear the story afterword than to actually save them from the fight.
"The baby is coming," she says.
"What? Really? You're at the hospital already?"
"Daniel, there is going to be no hospital. There is a giant storm right now, and there is no way that we're going to get out."
"I'll talk to the general, maybe we can get in a helicopter," Daniel says frantically.
"What? No. Daniel I don't want people to risk their safety for this. I'm fine. We're fine. I just called you for your midwife services."
"Seriously? Sam, I'll find you a doctor."
"Daniel, I want you to help me, okay?" Her words might not have been so convincing if she hadn't had a contraction right then. It was the first one that she hadn't confused with Braxton-Hicks, and it takes her by surprise. It knocks the air out of her for a second.
"Whatever you want, Sam," Daniel pledges.
"You got Daniel on the phone?" Jack asks entering the room. His arms are absolutely full of bedding. Sam gives him a glare before selecting a few things out of the array and making herself a resting place on the floor.
"Jack, you're going to have to check how dilated she is," Daniel says evenly.
"No," Sam objects, "The first time he sees me it's not going to be for a gross medical reason."
Jack takes her hands in his, "This baby is not gross, Sam. Okay. I love you with my whole heart. We are going to have years to enjoy that area of your body in a romantic fashion. Right now, I need to make sure our son is okay, right? The most important thing is helping that baby into the world."
"You said our son," Sam repeats.
"Not okay?" Jack asks concerned.
"Very, very, very, okay, Jack," she says.
He smiles at her, "Okay, Sammy. Now which one of us is taking off the pants?"
"Eww guys," Daniel objects from the phone.
"It's a purely medical baby related question," Jack shoots at him. Then to Sam he says, "Are you absolutely sure that Daniel is old enough to handle this?"
"He's fine," Sam says standing up once more to ready herself for the examination.
A few seconds later as she lays on the floor she feels exposed, as well as cold. Jack drapes a blanket over her lap which takes care of both of the unpleasant feelings. Then, the gentle probing with chilled fingers brings her back to discomfort.
"It's like, an inch and a half," Jack says.
"You're supposed to give dilations in centimeters," Daniel corrects.
"What do you want from me? I went to school before they started all that metric system crap," Jack says with a shrug.
"Please do not point out how much older you are then me when your head is between my legs," Sam says causing both of the men to giggle.
"That's about five centimeters probably. We're about half way there already. This thing probably isn't going to go on too much longer," Daniel says.
"Fast labor, that's what we wanted to hear," Jack says giving the outside of Sam's leg a little tap. She lowers her knees to the floor, and Jack leans against the wall. "Anything I can do to make this easier?" the question is addressed to both Daniel and Sam.
"It's a bit of a waiting game at first," Daniel replies.
"Sanitize the stuff for cutting the umbilical chord," she commands.
"Right," he says, dutifully beginning the work.
-0-
"Sam stop pushing!" Jack commands. Then into the phone he practically shouts, "Daniel, the cord is wrapped around his neck!"
"It's not a big deal, it actually happens about a fourth of the time," Daniel replies calmly.
"What do I do?" Jack shouts.
"Try to pull it over," Daniel says, and you can almost hear the eye roll on the other end of the phone.
Jack offers Sam a weak smile as apology for his recent freak out. Then he attempts to follow Daniel's commands.
"It's not working. It's too tight."
Sam lets out a muffled yelp of frustration. It's taking everything within her to refrain from pushing. She wants to save the energy she is wasting now in not pushing for when it comes time to push.
"All right, next we're going to try a different position. Something that will let gravity do some of the work for us," Daniel says with a voice still calm, although made more sympathetic by the noise his friend just let slip.
"What position, Daniel?" Jack asks.
"Squatting," Daniel says. Sam doesn't make a sound of protest, and she starts to have herself up, but her eyes are clearly letting Jack know that what Daniel has asked of her is not going to be easy.
"You seriously want her to squat? Daniel she doesn't have the energy for that!" Jack says.
"Trust me, this is a lot better than what is next on the list of solutions," Daniel says grimly.
"Just don't let the baby smash his head on the floor," Sam pleads to Jack getting herself into a position that she is finding far more comfortable than she thought she would when she was sitting on the floor.
"Okay," Jack says with a grunt, "I've got it. He's free, you can push again."
The pushing feels like relaxation compared to the holding in that Sam has done, and her son's head slides into the world.
"Good job," Jack smiles, "Daniel she can sit back down now right? While we wait for the next contraction?"
"She can."
"I'm actually good like this. It's easier this way," Sam says.
"Actually, most ancient cultures gave birth in positions similar to this. They found an ancient Samarian birthing stool that dates back to…" Daniel begins.
"Not the time, Danny boy," Jack says.
Then comes the contraction which brings her baby boy into the world. Jack keeps his promise of not letting the world start with a bump on the head for this little mite. He guides him gently onto the towel on the bathroom floor.
The baby screams angrily at the indignation of such treatment. Jack helps Sam get lowered back into a sitting position before putting her son, wrapped in a towel in her arms. Immediately upon receiving the child to herself she begins to bawl uncontrollably.
"What's wrong, Jack, what happened?" Daniel asks panicked on the other end of the phone.
"Happy tears, Daniel. We did it," Jack says sitting down.
"Go ahead and rest, Jack, but we've still got more to do," Daniel reminds him.
Jack looks at Sam questionly, "Placenta," she says.
"Right, can we get that done with?" he asks.
"Give me a minute with Caleb," she responds.
Sam had told him months ago that she had selected a name for her son, but that she wasn't going to tell him. She had dropped hints afterword, and pretended they were by accident, even though he was pretty sure that they had all been dropped with the express purpose of torturing him.
Now that he hears the name his heart is so full it feels like it's bursting.
"I like it. Hebrew…" Daniel begins from the phone.
"So help me Daniel, if you tell me what that word means right now I'm going to hang up on you."
Sam giggles.
"You wouldn't do that. Sam wants me on the phone, and she's having a baby, so right now you would give her anything she wanted."
"He's not wrong," Sam says.
"He's not," Jack agrees.
"Speaking of wants. I really want a steak."
"You want a steak, right now?" Jack asks flabbergasted as he surveys the blood covered bathroom and the tightly bound messy little thing in her arms.
"Well, obviously not right now. I want to finish giving birth first, and then get cleaned up. But yes, I do want a steak soon."
"Will it even be okay for her to eat?" Jack asks Daniel.
"Yes, it's fine. It wouldn't be a good idea to eat right before the birth, risk of throwing up and what not. After though, it's fine as soon as she is hungry."
"Do they normally get hungry this soon after giving birth?" Jack asks still amazed.
"Every birth is different, Jack," Daniel says.
"Would you boys mind postponing this debate? I think we're just about ready for act two?" Sam says.
"Right," Jack says getting on his bad knees with a grimace, and coming forward to take the baby out of her arms.
"I don't want him to just lay on the floor, but I'm going to need your help," Sam says.
"Don't worry. I thought of that when I was getting the blankets," Jack says reaching around the corner of the bathroom to reveal a basket. It's bright pink, and clearly served as Ava's Easter basked at some point in its recent past. It's lined with a few more towels, and will made a better makeshift bed than Sam had anticipated Caleb getting during his time in the cabin.
"Jack," she says with wet eyes.
"No need to cry tears of gratitude over this," he mock scolds, "It's the worse gift this little kid's ever going to get from me, isn't it little one? Yeah, Daddy's going to spoil you."
The words "Daddy" coming out of Jack's mouth right then have much the same effect on Sam that the naming had from Jack a couple of minutes ago.
Jack grins at her all cocky as he lays the little boy down in his nest, and turns to the woman he loves to finish the delivery.