And when she woke up two hours later, feeling exhausted and sick, the bed was soaked around her. Her water had broken, and she realized a contraction had woken her. She was in labor and didn’t want to be. She didn’t want to see Zack, or have the baby right now. She was too upset.
She got up and went to the bathroom and took her dress off, wrapped herself in towels and lay down on his side of the bed where it was dry. She knew she should call the doctor, but she didn’t want to do that either. She didn’t want to have this baby now. She wanted the contractions to stop.
They got stronger as she lay there, and she could tell they were closer together. When they finally got too strong to ignore, she went to find the baby nurse to tell her, but she was out. She must have taken Kendall to the park. They only had a small staff, and one maid was on her day off. The other one was on vacation. Ruby was alone in the house. She timed two of the contractions, and they were two minutes apart. She had to get to the hospital, and she was going to have to drive herself. She didn’t want to worry her grandmother, and Zack was too far away to help. It would take him forty-five minutes or an hour to get home, and she didn’t want to see him anyway. She wondered if he was with the pretty blonde.
She got up to get dressed and she couldn’t walk during the contractions. They were too close together now for her to dress, leave the house, and drive herself to the hospital. And suddenly she was scared. She thought about calling Zack, but all she could think of was the blonde on his desk.
She picked up the phone to call the hospital, and suddenly she heard someone running up the stairs, and a minute later, he was in her room. It was Zack. They looked equally surprised to see each other.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him between pains.
“I live here. I came to talk to you.”
“I’m in labor.” She grimaced as she said it. The pain was already unbearable, worse than she remembered. How could she have forgotten this?
“Why didn’t you call me? Why aren’t you at the hospital?” He was panicking.
“Because you’re a shit and I hate you,” she said and then couldn’t talk again. He grabbed the phone, and dialed 911.
“What are you doing?” She looked frightened.
“I think you’re having the baby. I think you waited too long.” She thought so too. But everything was wrong this time. She heard him tell the operator that his wife was having a baby, and gave their address, and then he ran to the bathroom, and came back with a stack of towels, and he looked her in the eye.
“Whatever happened, whatever you saw today, whatever you think, this is our baby, and I love you. Can we just forget about that whole mess long enough for you to have this baby? I love you, Ruby. I won’t be a jerk anymore.” She didn’t answer him, she was in too much pain, and it felt like the baby was forcing its way out and there was no way to stop it. It had all gone so smoothly last time, and this time it was as wrong as their marriage was, and as painful as what she’d seen that morning, and getting rapidly worse.
“I think I’m having the baby,” she said, and started to cry. The doorbell rang, and Zack left her, as she lay in misery and sobbed. A moment later, there were firemen, and a paramedic and a policeman in the room. The paramedic stood over her and spoke to her gently. He took off the towels she was wrapped in, and Zack’s face was next to hers and she didn’t know if she hated him or loved him. The room swam around her and she felt like she was drowning. She heard someone scream, and then she heard a baby crying from the deep blackness where the pain had pushed her, and then the paramedic was holding the baby, and he said it was a boy, and Zack was crying and telling her he loved her, and for a minute she believed him, and then she remembered, and she cried too.
“We have a boy,” Zack kept saying to her, and someone