"Jane."
Lisbon's voice, soft and sleep-rasped woke Jane from a lovely dream about the woman herself.
He blinked himself awake. It was early Saturday morning. He was in his hotel. Lisbon was on the phone—he'd answered while still half asleep.
He smiled sleepily. "Lisbon. To what do I owe this early morning pleasure?"
"The puppies are coming. Do you want to come over?"
Jane sat up. "I'll be right there."
Xxx
"That," Jane said when he got to Lisbon's apartment, "is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen."
Lily had given birth to three tiny, wriggling, slimy brown tubes by the time Jane let himself into Lisbon's condo twenty minutes after she called.
"Yes," Lisbon agreed. She was sitting with Lily's head in her lap, in a refrigerator box on the living room floor that Jane had found for a whelping box the week before. "But it's kind of beautiful, too, isn't it?"
"Yes," Jane said, closing the door and crossing the room to stand in front of the whelping box, which was positioned in front of the couch. He gestured to a spot on the floor in front of the box. "Will Lily mind if I sit here?"
Lisbon shrugged. "I don't know. The vet said she might want to be on her own or have me with her, and I should take my cue from her. Lily was really agitated earlier, but she calmed down when I got in here with her. She might be happy to have another familiar person around."
"I'll take my cue from Lily, then," Jane said. He knelt down cautiously, keeping his eyes on Lily. "Hey, girl," he murmured. "Look at you. You're doing great."
Lily lolled her head to one side and gave his hand a weary but welcoming lick.
Encouraged, Jane sat down cross-legged in front of the box. He'd helped Lisbon line it with newspapers and old towels several days before, and he was glad to see it serving as a cozy nest for Lily.
"Three puppies already, huh?" Jane said to Lisbon. "That's awfully fast, isn't it?"
"They've been coming a few minutes apart," Lisbon said. "The vet said they could come quickly like this or she could take up to twenty-four hours to deliver all of them."
"I hope the rest come quickly, for Lily's sake," Jane said, watching Lily lick the little wriggling blind blobs.
Lisbon stroked Lily's neck. "Me, too."
The next puppy came without fanfare, but the next one followed so soon after, Lily was still tearing off the membrane of the fourth and didn't have attention to spare to the fifth and—oh, the sixth, too.
"Help me," Lisbon said to Jane. "We've got to get the membranes off and cut the umbilical cords."
Jane followed her instructions and together, they freed the fifth and sixth puppies from their sacs and umbilical cords. Lisbon handed Jane a rag. "Make sure its airways aren't obstructed by any mucus from the membrane."
Jane did as she bade him, carefully cleaning the sixth pup while she did the same for the fifth. "You know a lot about this," he remarked. "You must have really grilled the vet."
"I didn't grill her," Lisbon protested, her attention still focused on the tiny puppy in her hands. "I just asked a few questions."
"Ah, I see," Jane said. "Only a light interrogation after hours of research, then."
"Something like that," Lisbon admitted.
"Looks like it's paid off," Jane said. "I'm sure Lily couldn't have asked for a better midwife."
"Midwives," Lisbon corrected him. "You're helping, too."
Jane was pleased by the title. "I never imagined a career in midwifery for myself," he said. "It's a marvelous occupation so far."
"It's nice being a witness to new life rather than to the end of one for a change," Lisbon commented, settling the pup at Lily's side.
"I couldn't agree more," Jane said, following her example and placing his pup next to its siblings.
Lily bore two more puppies, bringing the total for the litter to eight.
After they checked that all the puppies were breathing okay and had successfully started nursing, Lisbon looked down at herself and declared, "I need a shower. Do you mind sticking around a bit to keep an eye on Lily and the puppies?"
"Of course I'll stay," Jane said. "I'll fix us breakfast while you shower."
"Thanks, Jane," Lisbon said gratefully. "I'll be down soon."
Jane cleaned himself up in the half bath downstairs, then headed into the kitchen to see what Lisbon might have in the way of fixings for breakfast.
Fortunately, Jane's more frequent visits to Lisbon's place in recent weeks had had an improving effect on her grocery shopping habits. He found bread, eggs, cheese, and vegetables, and set about making a frittata with toast. He made Lisbon a cup of coffee while he was at it, humming a little to himself. Maybe one of these days he could add 'Teresa Lisbon's personal barista' to his resume in addition to 'consultant' and 'puppy midwife.' He quite liked the sound of that.
He tried his hand at making one of those little leaf shapes with foamed milk and was quite pleased at the effect. Surely this was strong evidence of his suitability to the post of personal barista to Teresa Lisbon.
"Mm, thank you," Lisbon said when she came downstairs, accepting the coffee and inhaling deeply. She looked down at the little leaf in her cup. "Where'd you learn to do that?" she asked, impressed.
Jane shrugged. "Just thought I'd try it."
"That's very sweet. Thank you."
They ate breakfast together, then lay on the floor on their stomachs and watched Lily nose over each puppy in turn, cleaning them and nudging them towards her if one of them managed to blindly wriggle away from the pack.
They spent much of the day like this, marveling over the puppies and Lily in turn. The puppies spent most of their time sleeping, waking only to eat, but to Jane and Lisbon, the sight of Lily with her pups was somehow endlessly fascinating.
"We must be really starved for cuteness and adorableness in our lives," Jane said to Lisbon as he watched one puppy with a little white blaze on her head yawn and kick out one tiny pink paw in her sleep. "We've spent practically the whole day just watching them sleep."
"They are pretty adorable," Lisbon said, reaching out and stroking one furry brown lump with a gentle fingertip. "But I think you're right. We are overdue for some adorableness in our lives, aren't we?"
"I don't know," Jane said, turning his head to look at her. "You're pretty adorable, too, now that I think of it. This might be an embarrassment of riches."
Lisbon swatted him on the shoulder. "Don't tease," she said, but she was blushing as she said it.