the toddler, Taelon glanced around.
Adira peered up at the adults from thigh level.
Marcus grimaced. “Sorry.”
Seth smiled and shook his head. “You’re going to have to get past this if you’re going to have more children.”
Marcus’s eyes flew wide. “What?”
Seth shrugged. “I helped Ami through her first pregnancy. I can help her through another.”
Marcus shot his wife a look, his face full of both excitement and fear.
Ami smiled. “We’ll talk about it another time. Go.”
Marcus looked stunned as he circled around to his daughter’s side and took her hand. “I didn’t think—”
“Go,” Ami repeated, her voice both firm and laced with affection.
Nodding, he ducked his head to brush a kiss across her lips, then accompanied his daughter from the room.
Lisa’s hand tightened around Taelon’s. She began to breathe deeply, in through her nose and out through her mouth.
“How far apart are her contractions?” Melanie asked.
Taelon looked at Ami.
“I don’t think it’s even been five minutes since her last one.”
Melanie blurred. When she stilled, an electronic device rested on a rolling table beside the bed. Reaching across Lisa, she untied the gown and started to part it.
Taelon shot a hand out and gripped the side closest to him to keep Lisa covered. Seth was still in the room!
Melanie shot Amiriska a look.
Amiriska wrinkled her nose. “It’s a Lasaran thing. He doesn’t want Seth to see her.” She turned to him. “But it would be no different if she were giving birth on Lasara. Half of our medics are male. And Seth is only here in a healer’s capacity.”
Melanie smiled. “It’s okay. I can expose her belly and keep the rest of her covered.” And she did, drawing the fabric back in such a way that Lisa’s breasts and sex remained covered. “I’m just going to attach these fetal heartbeat monitors.” She used black straps to attach two devices to Lisa’s belly. Jagged lines instantly appeared on the screen of the electronic device next to her. Melanie studied them. “My ears were right. Baby’s heart rate is strong,” she announced with a smile. “Now let’s have a look.”
Moving to the end of the bed, she fiddled with the sides and unfolded two odd-looking additions. She patted one. “Put your calves up here.”
Taelon’s eyes widened when Lisa bent her knees, parted her legs, lifted her feet, and settled her calves on the raised curved surfaces. He swiftly glanced at Seth.
Leah reached up and covered Seth’s eyes with one hand, looking as if she wanted to burst out laughing. Seth smiled.
Melanie donned a pair of thin blue gloves. “Okay, let’s see what we can see.”
Taelon hastily shifted his gaze to Lisa’s.
She, too, looked as if she wanted to laugh. “You look very uncomfortable right now.”
“I am,” he admitted.
“Yep. You are definitely in labor,” Melanie said on a laugh. “You’re already dilated seven centimeters. Three more and the baby will be ready to come.”
Lisa’s hand tightened around Taelon’s again as her breathing increased. A muscle in her jaw tensed as she clenched her teeth.
“That was even faster than the last one,” Ami commented.
Melanie draped a sheet across Lisa’s lap and legs. “Okay, Seth. You can look.”
Leah lowered her hand and winked up at him.
Still smiling, Seth moved to stand at Lisa’s head and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Taelon stiffened.
Lisa’s jaw unclenched. Her hold on Taelon’s hand loosened. Relief blanketed her features. “Oh wow,” she murmured. “That’s as good as an epidural. The pain is totally gone.”
Seth smiled. “You’ll still know you’re having contractions, but this way they won’t hurt. And I can monitor your every system through touch. Everything is good.”
“The baby?” Lisa asked.
“She’s good, too.”
Taelon’s instinctual objection to the other man’s familiar touch evaporated. He caught Seth’s gaze. “Thank you.”
Seth nodded with a smile.
It seemed only a few minutes passed before Melanie said, “Ten centimeters. Okay. Looks like this baby is very eager to be born.” Then she was folding down the end of the table and what seemed like a flurry of activity began.
Taelon didn’t understand any of it. He just held Lisa’s hand, feeling utterly useless.
Then he couldn’t even hold her hand because Melanie and Ami told her to grasp the backs of her thighs near her knees and push. Melanie started to count while Lisa held her breath, raised her head and shoulders off the bed, and bore down, her face turning red with strain.
“Ten.”
Lisa fell back against the bed, breathing heavily.
“Okay. Again.”
Melanie counted while Lisa pushed, repeating the process over and over again, her face reddening, a vein beginning to