Part 19 (2/2)
”Can't!” Erik shook his head. ”Gotta get it off the road. Doc's coming. Probably the medevac crew, too, since the best place to land the chopper is-”
Sam didn't wait to hear what else Erik had to say. Throwing the Jeep into gear, he plowed through the underbrush to get around the disabled pickup. As he hit the road, he shouted to Erik, ”Get that truck out of the way if you have to take it apart to do it!” And then he was flying.
”Katie! Where are you?” Sam stopped inside the front doorway of the derelict wooden building, listening for an answer.
It came, faintly, down the long hall that led past the stairs. ”Here! At the back of the hall off the kitchen!”
He raced down the hallway, through the large kitchen, and into a narrow corridor of rooms. Slowing, he heard Katie speaking in that calm, gentle way she had, and he let her voice guide him toward the open door at the end of the corridor. As he approached, he heard her say, ”Try to take it easy, Lynn. Pant as much as you can. I know it's hard, but-”
She broke off when he swung to a halt in the doorway, his hand gripping the frame. His gaze went straight to hers, locking briefly-long enough for him to read the fear in her dark eyes, fear he understood the instant his gaze fell upon the woman lying on the bed.
”G.o.d Almighty . . .” Nothing he'd faced before had prepared him for this. It wasn't only the blood- and there was enough of it, soaked into the pile of towels and gauze pads on the floor by the bed. It was seeing what should have been a natural, life-giving event turned into a nightmare. Mostly it was the helplessness, the utter vulnerability, of the young woman suffering the nightmare.
Quickly, Sam crossed the room, stopping at the foot of the bed, his hand going to Katie's shoulder to give her a gentle squeeze, though his gaze never left the young woman.
”Tell me . . .” he said quietly.
Katie murmured a response. ”She's not in shock, but she's close. The baby's small, and he's coming fast, but I've been trying to hold her back from pus.h.i.+ng because it seems to make the bleeding worse. But the baby's probably losing oxygen with the bleeding, and if I can't get him out soon, he's-”
”Give me a minute.”
Moving slowly to the side of the bed, his gaze skimmed the young woman's blotchy face, the dark hair plastered to her head with sweat, the rounded belly that even to him didn't look as big as it should be. She couldn't have been a day over twenty, and as he saw her face contort with pain and effort, as he listened to the sounds coming from deep within as she worked to give birth, it occurred to him that he was being given yet another lesson in courage today.
Suddenly, she went all-over limp, her breath rus.h.i.+ng out and her face turning ghostly pale. When her dark blue eyes opened and she saw him standing over her, she drew a quick breath, her look instantly becoming wary.
Careful, he thought. You can't go bulldozing your way into this one. She might be bleeding to death, but if you want to help her, you're going to have to win her first.
”Who . . . Kate?” Her hand fluttered in embarra.s.sment over the blanket covering her from shoulders to hips.
”It's all right, Lynn,” Kate put in quickly. ”This is Sam. He's a friend of mine, and he was in the Navy medical corps, so he's going to help me. Okay?”
The medical corps? That was a good one. He shot Katie a quick glance, but she didn't meet his gaze.
Making sure he kept his eyes glued to Lynn's face-not wanting her to be any more embarra.s.sed than she obviously was at having a strange man see her in this state-he folded a leg beneath him to sit at her right side, his hand covering hers where it was clutching the sheet. ”Hi, there, Lynn. You've been having a bad time of it, haven't you? But Katie and I are going to take care of things, now.”
Her frightened gaze searched his face. ”Where's Erik?”
”He's down the road, waiting for Doc.” Carefully moving a hand to her brow, he smoothed the hair out of her eyes. ”He'll be back soon, and meantime-”
He broke off when her eyes glazed; a second later, she squeezed them shut and let out a hoa.r.s.e groan, her back curling forward. The instant the contraction hit, he saw the trickle of blood coming out of her become a stream. And his response to the sight of it was as instinctive as hers had been to the contraction. Without volition, he slid his hand lightly across her rounded belly, over the blanket at first, then slipping under the edge until he was feeling her tight, smooth skin.
Watching her face closely, he said, ”Easy. Easy, now. Does it hurt to be touched like this?”
”No,” she croaked, her eyes still tightly closed. ”Feels . . . nice, but . . . Oh, G.o.d. How can it . . . feel good when . . . it hurts so much?”
”Well, I don't know,” he answered, his fingers feathering over her, seeking the source of the bleeding. ”Ladies have told me it does, though.”
”You . . . you've seen other . . . babies born?”
”Hmm, a couple dozen, I guess. In Nam, you know. There was a lot of this sort of thing going around over there.”
It was a ridiculous lie, but it was the first thing that came to him. And it was enough to rea.s.sure her so she could stop worrying about him and put what little energy she had into push-ing-and he could do what he had to do.
His palm was already tingling as it slid downward, like a divining rod seeking water, until it settled over the lower curve of her belly. Immediately, his head started to swim, and his heartbeat slowed to pound in a steady rhythm. Within seconds, the beat of it filled his senses. His breath escaped, his eyes drifted closed . . . and he let it come.
The heat: the bright, burning heat. Let it take over his being . . . let it crowd out any thought or wish or need of his own . . . let it flood the banks of his soul until it filled every part of him, until he was lost in it and had no sense of being separate from it. He was the channel, the opening between this plane and the next, the tunnel through which, in this place, at this moment in time, the river of fiery light could flow.
And it flowed out of him, out of his hands, into the body of a woman he didn't know. Didn't need to know. The life was draining out of her, her spirit floating lightly inside her flesh, clinging to her weakening body in a courageous effort to hold on. Her will to live was strong. She grabbed at what he offered her, and a part of him, the part that remained conscious of physical realities, heard her growl with the powerful energy that infused her. She used it, put it instantly to work.
He felt the heat begin to wane, his cue that his work was finished, and he started to back off. But, suddenly, a warning signal went off somewhere inside him. It wasn't over. Her body was healed-and then it wasn't. And for a moment, he was confused.
”Katie?” His eyes opened, and he looked at her. ”I don't . . . It keeps . . .”
Her brown eyes focused on his for an instant or two, then she murmured, ”It keeps tearing?”
”Yes.”
”You probably won't be able to stop that. But if you can control the bleeding like this . . .”
”Yes.” He didn't know what she was talking about, but somehow her words made sense. Still, there was something that didn't make sense. He hesitated, his eyes losing focus as he let himself be drawn back to that other place . . . staying there for a moment, trying to puzzle it out. . . . Then, blinking alittle to refocus, he met Katie's gaze again.
”Could there be . . . another place? Something . . . disconnected? Something I can't get to, like . . .” He didn't know how to say it-but, again, he didn't need to.
Understanding-and a spark of fear-flashed through her eyes, and she spoke quickly to Lynn. ”Come on, now, Lynn. Let's do it this time. Let's get this baby born. One good push. One more. He's coming fast. Push him out. . . .”
Sam's eyes closed again, but he took Katie's voice with him, let her become part of the bond, let her guide him as she guided Lynn. . . .
”That's it. Keep pus.h.i.+ng, sweetie. That's it. . . . A little more. . . . I've got one shoulder. Now, don't let up. Keep pus.h.i.+ng. That's it! Oh, Lynn, you did it! You've got a little boy!”
”Is he . . . ?”
”Hang on a sec.”
Sam felt the change instantly-felt the draining sensation lessen, felt it ease off with the slowing of the blood, until, a moment or two later, the bleeding stopped and, without conscious effort on his part, his senses came back under his own control.
The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were the tears hovering on Katie's dark lashes as she clamped the thick cord attached to the incredibly tiny wet body lying in her lap.
”Katie,” he began, ”do I need to-”
”No.” She swiftly covered the baby with a blanket, at the same time she worked to suction his mouth and nose. ”The clamp does it. He was bleeding through the cord.” Then, in a whisper, she added, ”Come on, little one, do it for me.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lynn trying to elbow her way up to see, and he put a gentle hand on her shoulder, saying, ”Take it easy, sweetheart. Let Katie get him going.” Take my word for it-you don't want to see him yet.
But the seconds ticked by, and the baby didn't respond to Katie's vigorous efforts-and Sam wondered if Lynn might end up having to look at her boy in this lifeless state. Reaching over, he placed a hand on the baby's wet head, knowing it was useless; he wouldn't be able to heal what hadn't yet grown enough to live on its own. After a few seconds, when there was no intuitive stirring inside him, he raised his gaze to meet Katie's, letting his eyes give her the answer.
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