Miracle Baby For The Midwife. Tina Beckett

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.