Jess introduced herself to Aimee and got her medical history as she washed her hands and then wrapped the blood-pressure cuff around her patient’s left arm. This was her first pregnancy, Aimee told her, and she’d had no complications. Her blood pressure had been fine, no gestational diabetes, no heart problems. ‘I’ve had some back pain today and now these contractions but otherwise I’ve been fine.’
‘Sharp pain?’ asked Jess.
‘No. Dull,’ Aimee explained, ‘more like backache, I suppose. Ow …’
‘Is that a contraction now?’
Aimee nodded and Jess looked at her watch, timing the contraction. She could see the contraction ripple across the woman’s abdomen as the muscles tightened. This wasn’t Braxton-Hicks.
‘Your waters haven’t broken?’ she asked, and Aimee shook her head in reply.
Once the contraction had passed she checked the baby’s size and position, pleased to note the baby wasn’t breech. But she wasn’t so pleased when she discovered that Aimee’s cervix was already seven centimetres dilated. Aimee was in labour and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
‘Where is your husband?’ Jess asked. She’d noticed a wedding ring on Aimee’s finger but wondered where Mr Bertillon was.
‘He’s out skiing,’ Aimee replied. ‘Why?’
Jess smiled. ‘I thought he might like to be here to meet your baby.’
‘It’s coming now?’
‘Mmm-hmm.’ Jess nodded. ‘You’re about to become parents.’
‘Oh, my God.’
‘Does your husband have a mobile phone with him? Would you like me to call him for you?’ Jess asked.
‘No. I can do it. I think.’ Aimee put a hand on her distended belly as another contraction subsided. ‘If I hurry. Jean-Paul will be surprised. This was supposed to be our last holiday before the baby arrived and it wasn’t supposed to end like this.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘Maybe we’ve been having too much sex. Is it true that can bring on labour?’
Jess couldn’t remember the last time she’d had too much sex. She could barely remember the last time she’d had any sex. She nodded. ‘But not usually at this stage. I think your baby has just decided to join the party.’ She concentrated on Aimee. Thinking about sex always made her think about Lucas, especially since she was in Moose River, but now wasn’t the time for daydreaming. Aimee needed all her attention.
Aimee’s cell phone was beside the bed. Jess passed it to her and then picked up the hotel phone and asked for an ambulance to be sent. Aimee needed to go to the nearest hospital that had premature birthing facilities, which meant leaving Moose River.
Another contraction gripped Aimee and Jess waited as she panted and puffed her way through it. Jess checked her watch. The contractions were two minutes apart. How long would the ambulance take? She had no idea.
Once that contraction had passed and Jess saw Aimee press the buttons on her phone to call her husband she went to gather towels from the bathroom. She stuck her head out into the corridor and asked Margaret to fetch more towels from Housekeeping.
‘How did it go? Did you reach Jean-Paul?’ Jess asked when she returned to Aimee’s side.
‘No. It goes straight to his message service.’ Aimee gasped and grabbed her belly as another contraction ripped through her. ‘He’s gone skiing with a snowcat group so I can only assume he’s out in the wilderness and out of range.’
Margaret came into the room with an armful of towels and Jess asked if there was any way of getting a message to Jean-Paul.
‘Yes, of course,’ Margaret replied. ‘Will you be all right on your own with Aimee while I organise that?’
Jess nodded. Margaret wasn’t going to be of any further use. It was the ambos Jess wanted to see. Jess tucked several of the towels underneath Aimee. She knew it was probably a futile exercise but if Aimee’s waters broke she was hoping to limit the damage to the hotel bedding. Another contraction gripped Aimee and this one was accompanied by a gush of fluid. Fortunately it wasn’t a big flood and Jess suspected that meant the baby’s head was well down into Aimee’s pelvis.
Jess used the time between contractions to check Aimee’s cervix. Eight centimetres dilated. This was really happening. If the ambos didn’t hurry she would have to deliver the baby. What would she need?
She’d need to keep the baby warm. She put a couple of the clean towels back on the heated towel rail in the bathroom.
Aimee’s cries were getting louder and she had a sheen of perspiration across her forehead. ‘I want to push,’ she called out.
‘Hang on,’ Jess cautioned, and she checked progress again.
Oh no. The baby’s head was crowning already.
Jess felt for the cord. It felt loose and she just hoped it wasn’t around the baby’s neck.
‘Okay, Aimee. This is it. You can push with the next contraction.’
Jess saw the contraction ripple across Aimee’s skin. ‘Okay, bend your knees and push!’
The baby’s head appeared and Jess was able to turn the baby to deliver one shoulder with the next contraction and the baby slid into her hands. ‘It’s a girl,’ she told Aimee. Jess rubbed the baby’s back, checking to make sure her little chest rose and fell with a breath and listening for her first cry before she placed her on Aimee’s chest and fetched a warm towel. She took one-minute Apgar readings and clamped the cord just as the ambos arrived. Relief flooded through her. She’d done the easy bit, now they could finish off.
‘Congratulations, Aimee.’
‘Thank you.’ Aimee’s smile was gentle but she barely lifted her eyes from her baby. She was oblivious to the work the ambos were doing. Nothing could distract her from the miracle of new life.
Jess could remember that feeling, that vague, blissful state of euphoria. She tidied her things, packing them into her bag as she thought about Lily’s birth. Like Aimee, she’d done it without the baby’s father there.
She hadn’t wanted to do it alone but she hadn’t had a lot of choice. She hadn’t expected their relationship to end so suddenly. She hadn’t expected a lot of things.
By the time she’d discovered she was pregnant the ski fields had closed for the season and Lily’s father had been long gone, and despite her best efforts she hadn’t been able to find him. So she’d done it alone and she’d done her best.
She snapped her medical bag closed with shaky hands. Now that the drama was over her body shook with the adrenalin that coursed through her system. She stripped the bed as the ambos transferred Aimee and her baby onto a stretcher and wheeled them out the door.
She could hear voices in the hallway and assumed that Jean-Paul had been located. That was quick. She could hear an Australian accent too. That was odd. Jean-Paul didn’t sound like an Australian name. She listened more carefully.
A male voice, an Australian accent. It sounded a lot like Lucas.
Her stomach flipped and her heart began to race. She was being ridiculous. It had been seven years since she’d heard his voice, as if she’d remember exactly how he sounded. She only imagined it was him because he’d been in her thoughts.
It wouldn’t be him. It couldn’t be him.
But she couldn’t resist taking a look.
She picked up the