Chloe turns sharply, keeps walking so that their precious gazillionaire client can’t see the look on her face.
In the room, Penny is thrashing on the bed, screaming, clawing at her IV.
“Get this fuckin’ thing outta me!” she wails, striking the nurse, and as she flops, a white breast falls out of her hospital gown, the nipple seeming to stare blankly at the ceiling.
“You have to calm down, or I’ll call security.” The nurse, surprisingly strong for her size, kneels on one of Penny’s arms and fixes Chloe with a look. “Perfect timing.”
“Penny,” Chloe says evenly, putting the folders and her small purse down on a nearby chair. “Hang in there, hon, tell me what I can do.”
“For one,” Penny huffs like a spooked horse, “get this bitch off me, and for two, you can tell her”—she gestures with her stubborn chin at Francie—“to go the fuck home. We’re not giving him up.”
Chloe doesn’t look at Francie but can picture her, standing like a little girl on her first day of kindergarten at the edge of the playground, her big stuffed animal in hand.
“Okay.” She keeps her eyes on Penny’s. “First things first, let’s get you covered up here…” Chloe speaks soothingly, tugs Penny’s gown over her stray breast. At the same time, the nurse quietly dismounts, efficiently and purposefully adds another band of tape to her IV. “Now what’s going on?”
“She told me the doctor wants her to add something to this needle to make me hurt worse, and she won’t give me pain drugs yet.” Penny’s chin juts out even farther, and she looks out the windows at the sky streaked with orange.
“She’s not even three centimeters,” the nurse jumps in defensively. “It’s the policy. If we give her the pitocin, get her into a good pattern, get her dilated a little more, then we can do an epidural. Otherwise, as I was trying to explain to her, it could stop the labor. And you want to have this baby today, am I right?”
“Where’s Jason?” Penny says.
“You remember, he said he needed a smoke.” Chloe is gently smoothing Penny’s short hair off her sweaty forehead. Surprisingly, Penny lets her.
“I’m going to go see if we can get Penny some fentanyl. You got things here?” the nurse asks Chloe, who nods gratefully. An ally, for now.
Penny is faking sleep, and Francie is standing miserably by the sink, the diaper bag clutched to her chest, irises drooping. Chloe takes a deep breath, decides to honor Penny’s charade, and speaks in low tones to Francie. It takes her back to days of babysitting, trying to make peace between difficult children.
“Okay, Francie, why don’t you grab a seat here?”
“She’s not staying,” Penny says, eyes still closed.
“Remember, we talked about this in the birth plan? Do you want to talk to me privately, Penny?” Chloe has to ask this, though she suspects Penny is bluffing.
“Where’s Jason?”
“He went out for a smoke, remember?”
“Longest fuckin’ cigarette ever.”
“You know,” Chloe says, thinking how much worse this could be with Jason here, “sometimes it’s hard for guys, powerful guys like Jason, to see the woman they love in pain, and not be able to help her. Sometimes they need to take a break.”
Penny opens her eyes, sits up awkwardly, scratches at the tape near her IV, but absently.
“Yeah.” Penny is smiling faintly now, nodding at the idea of Jason being in anguish for her. “Where’s your man?” She juts her chin at Francie.
“Um, he’s, uh, he’s on his way to Singapore. Business trip. I’ve been trying to reach him; I can’t get through.”
“Oh.” Penny frowns. “Didn’t he know I was having the baby?”
“It’s a long flight,” Chloe jumps in. “And you can’t turn your cell phone on on the plane.”
“You can’t?” Penny asks.
“No. It messes up the plane’s radar.”
“Oh. He’ll have to come a long way back.”
“Yes.” Chloe nods.
“He might miss it.”
“Yes.” Chloe is wondering where this is going.
“Maybe Jason could cut the cord, then?”
It had been in the birth plan, a standard in the agency’s papers, that the adoptive parents would do it together—Judith liked the symbolism.
“Yes, fine,” Francie says, too quickly. “I’m going to try John again.” She jumps up, rushes out to the hallway.
“Penny, it’s just you and me now. Are you changing your mind? Should I go home?”
“I need Jason.”
Chloe looks at the monitor; it’s been eleven minutes since the last contraction. They’re going to be here a while. She stands up, purposefully crossing the room.