Miracle Baby For The Midwife

The woman had a private life. At least she said she did. One where she wore dresses like that for parties he knew nothing about.

He’d heard about a broken engagement, but never bothered much with gossip, so he didn’t know the circumstances. Not that it was any of his business. It wasn’t like he had a stellar track record in the relationship arena. He’d left that to his brother, who was now married and hoping for children of his own. It seemed that Adem’s attempts to shield him from his parents’ fights might have paid off.

The image of Carly in a slinky blue dress that he knew would play up that fair skin and red hair swam in his head. Damn.

It wasn’t like the dress had just made him aware how attractive she was.

He’d already realized. And noticed. More than once. And was now wishing like hell that he hadn’t.

Carly hung the dress next to the three bridesmaids’ dresses. She was really glad it had worked for Esther. She and Harry made a great couple. And it wasn’t like Carly was jonesing for a white dress with frothy layers. Not anymore. Thank God she’d never gotten around to actually purchasing her own during her engagement. She’d been too busy structuring her life around getting pregnant.

No, she was happy that some of her childhood and university friends were finding the love of their lives.

Did Kyle’s exit from her life mean there was no one special for her? Her heart twinged, but nothing stronger than that, which was good after all that had happened. Maybe she’d been more in love with the idea of marriage and a family than in love with him, which in retrospect made her realize that marrying him would have probably been a huge mistake.

She had a full life. Maybe Carly was more like her mom—who’d worked hard to raise her after her father’s untimely death—than she realized. Her mother had never remarried and seemed to find her fulfillment in her work. She was independent to a fault.

Like Carly? Probably. But it served her well now. She didn’t need anyone else’s company. At least not permanently. For the first time since the breakup, she realized she was free. Free to do what she wanted with her life, with no interference from anyone. Free to make her own choices about who to sleep with and when.

She glanced at the blue dress, once again seeing the surprise that had splashed across Adem’s face when he’d realized it was hers. Oh, how she wished he really could see her in it.

Not going to happen, Carly.

She closed the door with a firm click. If all went well with Esther, it looked like Carly might be adding another dress to her collection before too long. And her other friends from university? The ones who still weren’t attached?

She and Izzy Nicholson had met at the international school, along with Raphael Dubois, who was one of the hospital’s obstetricians, while she knew Esther McDonald and Chloe Larson from the midwife track at university. Life had sure given all of them some twists and turns. Chloe had a three-year-old daughter now. School had cemented their bond, and they’d all remained close over the years.

It made her glad of the decision to remain in the UK and build her life here.

Her mind swung back to Adem. They had at least two things in common. They were both in England because of their parents. And they’d both decided to stay here as adults.

So did lots of people. She’d worked at the clinic for a year now—ever since her breakup—and Adem had been there ever since Victoria Clinic opened five years ago. He’d done her interview, in fact.

Ha! That interview process had been kind of agonizing actually. His dark good looks had made it hard to think, even as he asked questions about her experience, her right foot doing a little dance as he’d detailed the job requirements. She’d had to uncross her legs to make it stop. At the time, she’d chalked it up to the stress of having her relationship implode in her face.

But it happened again. Several times, and when he followed her into her dreams one night, she decided maybe she’d better actively avoid him. Which had been almost impossible.

Well, she could no longer blame her reaction on her breakup, because at the meeting in the canteen, her foot had done its twitchy little best to keep pace with her heart. She’d uncrossed her legs again, planting both of her feet on the ground under the table. Her pulse hadn’t been quite as easy to control.

And to find out he found her too dull—or unadventurous—to pull off a sexy dress...

Well, if the chance ever presented itself, maybe she would have to prove him wrong.

Lord! This was ridiculous. She needed to either get past this or figure out what to do about it. Doing nothing wasn’t an option. One thing her father had taught her at an early age was to pursue something until you figured it out. It was what she needed to do now.

But how was she supposed to do that when there were these weird itchy emotions popping to the surface one after the other?

She wasn’t sure. But she’d controlled what she now called the Adem Twinges for the last year, so whatever was happening, she could just push those suckers back down until they got the hint and disappeared for good.

Her cell phone buzzed on her dresser, making her jump. She swallowed as she walked toward it.

It’s not him. He has no reason to call you at home.

She picked it up, and then frowned. Naomi Silver, one of her patients. Naomi was almost nine months pregnant and so far had had a normal pregnancy—even if the events leading up to it hadn’t been. Like Carly, Naomi had had her own fertility problems. She’d had adhesions that had kept her from getting pregnant for the last five years. She and her husband had even adopted a daughter, thinking they’d never have a biological one. And then, out of the blue, she’d gotten pregnant.

Her phone buzzed again. Naomi never called her at home, so her belly tightened.

She pressed talk. “Hello?”

There was no sound, except some kind of weird snuffling sound.

“Naomi? Are you okay?”

“I—I’m so scared.”

Fear struck her heart. “What’s going on? Where are you?”

“I’m home.” A broken sob hit. “But my head hurts so much. I’m... Could I be having a stroke?”

Oh, God. A million possible diagnoses went through her head. Migraine. Preeclampsia. Eclampsia. Fetal demise. Her speech didn’t sound slurred, but Carly wasn’t willing to take any chances.

“Can you get to the hospital?”

“The clinic?”

She ran through the possibilities. The clinic could do C-sections in a pinch, but it wasn’t set up with an MRI or other of the more expensive diagnostic equipment. “No. The Queen Victoria.”

“Yes, I think so. My husband can bring me.”

“Good. I’ll meet you there.”

The second she got off the phone, she tore out of her yoga pants and nightshirt and dragged on a black skirt and blouse, shoving her feet into low wedged heels that she normally wore when she was at the main hospital campus. Then she gritted her teeth and did the one thing she wasn’t thrilled about doing. She called the man she’d just been trying to forget. It went to voice mail, but she left a quick message asking if there was any way he could meet her at the hospital.

And if he was with some woman?

She swallowed. Images she couldn’t banish swept through her mind.

Dammit. Now was not the time.

She glanced at her watch. It was only seven o’clock. If he didn’t get her message, there would either be a neurosurgeon present at the hospital or on call. She dialed the hospital number as she scooped up her car keys. Before she got an answer, her phone buzzed.

Adem.

She hung up on the hospital and answered his call. “Hey, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I have a patient coming into the Queen Victoria with some troubling symptoms.”

“Like what?”

He didn’t ask why she was calling him—a neurosurgeon for a pregnancy issue. For that she was grateful.

“She has a terrible headache, and she’s really scared. And Naomi isn’t one to panic without a good reason. Any chance you can ask someone to meet us there? I’m on my way in.”

“I’m five minutes out. Headed back now. See you soon.”

The line went dead. And if Naomi’s problem turned out to be a simple migraine?

She grimaced. Simple migraine. That was an oxymoron if she ever heard one. It could be that a change in blood pressure had set one in motion. Except that many migraine sufferers experienced a lessening of symptoms during pregnancy due to the change in estrogen levels.

Well, she could hope that’s all it was. And since Adem had volunteered to come without her specifically asking him to, it wasn’t like he was changing plans just for her.

She hoped, anyway.

But he could have passed her off to a colleague, if that were the case.

It took her a little longer to make it to the hospital, since she had to come across town. By the time she arrived, Adem was in the A&E waiting area. He was in jeans and a white button-down shirt, the mixture between ultracasual and business attire a stunning combination that made her mouth go dry. She did her best to shake off her familiar reaction to him.

“Sorry to ask you to come.”

“You didn’t.”

She frowned. “Sorry?”

“You didn’t ask me to come, so don’t apologize. It was my choice.”

He was right. It was. But she still felt guilty. “I appreciate it.”

“Were you on your way out?”

“Out?”

“You’re dressed up.”

She glanced down. Ah, she normally had a lab coat on over her blouse when she was working, and at the clinic she dressed a lot more casually, so maybe she did look different. “No. I tend to wear a skirt when I come in here, since the atmosphere is different from the clinic.”

“I should have figured.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Before he had a chance to respond, Carly spotted her patient walking up the path, one arm wrapped protectively around her belly, while her husband gripped her other hand, their daughter, Tessa, perched on his hip.

God. Naomi would be devastated if something happened to this baby. “That’s her.”

Grabbing a wheelchair, she rushed out the doors, not waiting for Adem. She had Naomi sitting in a flash.

“What’s happening to her?”

Her husband Douglas’s eyes were full of concern. Although they were from a deprived area of the city, they did their best to provide for their daughter and unborn baby. “I’m not sure, but—”

Adem went down on his haunches, a penlight in his hands. “I’m Mr. Kepler. I hear you have quite the headache.”

“Yes. It’s horrible. I called Douglas home from work. I never, ever do that.”

Adem glanced up at the other man. “I’m glad you came. We’ll get you inside in a minute. Can you follow the light?” He flicked on his penlight and took her through a set of commands right there outside of the hospital.

“Your pupils look good,” he said. “Let’s put you in an exam room. Douglas, you and...”

“Tessa.”

Adem smiled. “You and Tessa can come in with her, if you’d like.”

“Yes, please.”

“Carly, can you get them in and registered? I’m going to check on something. I’ll be right back.”

Without another word, he walked back into the hospital. Had he found something troubling, despite his comment about her pupils?

Douglas wanted to wheel his wife inside, so Carly took Tessa in her arms, talking to the child as they made their way to the admissions desk. She went up to the window and explained the situation.

“Go on to exam room three. It’s a slow night. We’ll come in and get her information in a minute. I’ll let Mr. Kepler know where to find you.”

So Adem had stopped at the desk? There was no sign of him right now. Maybe he really was canceling plans. He was dressed to go out to a restaurant. Her heart plummeted.

Well, so what? Hadn’t he asked her why she was so dressed up?

None of your business, Carly.

Maybe not, but she was suddenly glad he thought that some man might want to take her out for a night on the town. She could have shown the neurosurgeon a thing or two, if it had been him. Especially after his reaction to her blue dress.

Really? Because you haven’t shown a man a thing or two in, like...well...ever. Even her relationship with Kyle had been...sedate. Even as they tried for a baby.

Maybe Frieda was right. Maybe she really didn’t know how to have fun.

Why the hell did she keep thinking about that?

She found the exam room and took Naomi and her husband inside. “Do you think you can get on the exam table? I want to listen to the baby’s heart.” Thankfully she’d remembered to wind her stethoscope and shove it into the pocket of her skirt before coming over.

Handing the baby back to her father and feeling a little twinge of emotion as he enfolded the child in his arms, she took out her stethoscope. “I’m just going to ease your slacks down.”

Naomi was wearing the very type of stretchy wear that Carly had changed out of, so rolling down the waistband was a simple affair. A quick kick from the baby, visible through the skin of the woman’s belly, assured her that it was alive. She breathed a word of thanks, warming the scope against her chest before placing it against Naomi’s abdomen. She listened, moving the instrument to a couple of different spots before finding what she was looking for.

There. The baby’s heart was strong. She counted the beats. Perfect. Not too fast. Not too slow. “I hear your baby.” She stood and looked down at her patient. “Other than your headache, does anything else seem out of the ordinary? Any bleeding? Signs that your water has broken?”

“No. I was doing the dishes and a pain hit right at the back of my head. I had to grab the counter to keep from falling, it was that bad.”

Adem came back into the room. “I’ve arranged for an MRI. They’re just finishing up with another patient.” He moved over to the bed. “Where is the pain exactly?”

She pointed an area just above the base of her skull.

Carly’s gut tightened. Not a good place. It was near the brain stem, the part of the brain that controlled autonomic functions such as heart rate and respiration.

“And how long ago did the headache start?”

Naomi shrugged. “About two hours ago. I called Carly when it didn’t go away.”

He shot her a look she couldn’t decipher. If he dared lecture her on giving out her phone number, she was going to give him a piece of her mind. It was what midwives did. Babies came on their own schedule. She’d delivered many in the middle of the night.

Yes, she could let another midwife go out on some of those calls, but Carly was fiercely protective of her patients and tried to follow them all the way through to delivery and beyond whenever possible. Yes, there were sometimes instances when she couldn’t—for example if two women started laboring at the same time, but that didn’t happen that often.

Naomi moaned and arched her neck. “It’s back. It comes in waves.”

Without him asking, Carly grabbed the cart that contained the blood pressure equipment, wrapped the cuff around the patient’s upper arm and pumped it tight, waiting as the tick of the needle bottomed out. “One twenty over sixty.”

“Within the normal range.”

A nurse came in and asked Douglas to accompany her outside to get some information. Things between the clinic and the hospital were shared, so they should also be able to pull up Naomi’s file with a few clicks of computer keys. Adem glanced at the husband. “If we’re not here when you come back, it’s because they’ve called us up for the MRI. The nurse can tell you how to find us, but one of us will try to catch you as we’re leaving.”

With that the pair were out of the room, leaving Adem and Carly to continue working to find the cause of their patient’s headache.

Adem’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it and then at her. “They’re ready for us.”

He was back to his businesslike self. Whatever she’d sensed in the canteen that day was gone. It had probably never been there in the first place. Just like that crazy dream she’d had. All just drummed up by her subconscious.

They helped Naomi back into the wheelchair. Fortunately her symptoms hadn’t progressed to numbness or weakness. Just her massive headache, which was still worrying due to the location. Carly ran to tell Douglas and then met up with Adem and Naomi again at the elevator. As the doors opened, all Carly could do was hope for the best and pray that everything turned out well for both Naomi and her baby.

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