Anchor - M. Mabie Page 0,75
don’t know. Ow.”
Casey, get your shit together. This is not a drill.
I sprang from bed and started throwing things in a duffel bag. Clothes. Her iPod. Shower stuff. I grabbed some clothes for myself. I made sure I had cash in my wallet. I found shorts, and slipped on my tennis shoes.
“Blake, what do you need, baby?”
“Don’t call me baby. Oh my God, my water just broke.”
Everything was going too fast. Water was breaking. I knew we were forgetting everything we’d read we should expect.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said as I started pacing.
“Ow. Come here,” she told me. I sat down next to her and she grabbed my hand. I thought it was sweet until she damn near broke it. “Casey, listen to me. We can get stuff later. Ow. We need to go now.”
Stuff later. Go now. That made sense.
I helped her stand up and she found her legs, although they didn’t seem so sturdy.
“Can you grab me some new pants and a bra?”
I went to the closet and found what she needed. I helped her dress and I tossed the wet clothes in the bathroom on our way out.
She took a few steps, then she’d stop. I rubbed her back. I felt so damn helpless.
When we were in the car, I felt better. I felt like I could do something. Driving her to the hospital was my purpose. The dashboard said 1:50, so I guess we actually had fallen asleep, it just didn’t feel like it.
Did I tell you how fast everything was going?
I dialed the number I had programmed in my phone under Go Time.
“Hello, labor and delivery,” a female voice answered. “This is Janel.”
“Janel, my wife is in labor. We’re coming in.” I said quickly. I didn’t want to be on the phone long. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but I needed to drive. I had more than my boner and cheesecake to protect.
“Okay, what’s her name and who’s her doctor?”
“Blake Moore and Dr. Garcia.”
“All right, how far away are you?” she asked calmly.
Didn’t she understand we were having a baby? Then again, she did this every day.
“I’ll be there in five minutes.” I wished it were faster though. At that point, Blake was breathing and hanging in there, but I could tell she was in a lot of pain.
Janel chuckled. “Okay, Mr. Moore. Drive safely. We’ll be down there waiting for you.”
She wasn’t joking. When we pulled into the lane, a nurse was waiting for us. I slammed the car in park and ran around to help Blake out as the nurse came to us with the chair.
“Mr. Moore, you can park your car around the side of the building. Have the desk let you up to the third floor. Someone will tell you where we are when you get up there,” she instructed.
“No. I’m not leaving her. Fuck that car. They can tow it,” I stated. No fucking way was I leaving her.
“How will you bring baby home without a car? It’ll only take you a minute.”
Blake winced as another set of contractions hit. I saw her zone out and focus. She was a lot different than Micah in labor. Blake was a quiet fighter, where Micah almost murdered me. I was kind of expecting it to be more like that.
“Casey, please go park. It will only take a minute. Please.” She drew a long breath in through her teeth. Pulling the car around didn’t sound so bad when she asked me.
“Okay,” I said and kissed her. “I’m right behind you.”
I whipped that motherfucker into the first spot I came to that wasn’t designated for every other person on the damn planet. Doctors. Emergency patients. Inpatient. Outpatient. I just needed a spot.
Then I sprinted back to through the doors.
“Three, please,” I said to the person working the desk. She buzzed the doors open for me to pass on my way to the elevators and I rode up. The damn thing was slow. I’m pretty sure I heard the whole Michael Bublé Greatest Hits album in my ride. It took that damn long.
I walked off and found another nurse sitting at a desk.
“I’m Casey Moore. They just brought my wife up. She’s having my baby.” The last part was redundant, but it just came out.
“She’s right down this hall in room 315.”
My mind flashed back to the night we met.
Honeybee: Room 315.
But I didn’t stop to write it in my journal or anything. I had shit to do. She was having