They must look like drowned rats, Nick thought as Ken drove them into their driveway at about two in the morning. It had been a harrowing trip home from the airport with trees down and debris skidding across the roads as well as traffic lights out. At least the streets were greatly deserted. Headlights and the pulsating strobe bar at the top of Ken’s cruiser had been the only lights in most places. Their neighborhood was a ghost town, one being battered by the elements. The houses were all dark with the electricity out here, too.
“The latest order is that not even emergency vehicles are allowed on the roads,” Ken told them. “I know there was a huge traffic jam of people fleeing north earlier. I just hope everyone else is hunkered down somewhere safe. The storm is a low to mid-Cat 4. As for me, I hope I never have to rescue you two again, but let’s hoist a few cold ones once we get through this. I’ll bring my wife. Now get in safe and stay put. Get some sleep if you can.”
When they got out, despite the rain, Ken rolled his window down and put his hand out. Holding on to Claire and the car to keep from going off his feet, Nick grabbed Ken’s hand and shook it. Claire leaned in to give him an awkward half hug.
“We both owe you,” she told him, raising her voice over the shriek of the wind.
He shouted back, “Never know when I might just turn to crime and need a lawyer. And that job offer always stands, Claire. Man, I can tell the barometric pressure’s dropping bad because I’m having a toothache from some dental work. It’s supposed to give some people a headache, too, but I already have that dealing with you two. Take care!”
He rolled up his window, and they ran to the front door, knowing the garage door probably wouldn’t work. Nick fumbled to get his key in the lock in the darkness. Surely someone would be up waiting for them, Bronco at least.
Ken’s headlights slashed across them as he pulled out and headed slowly away. The wind’s howl had turned to a shriek. They’d been pretty sure they saw Brit’s car parked down the street away from trees, so Kris must be here now, too. They’d planned to come in the morning, but this storm was worsening fast.
Before Nick could get his key in the lock, Brit pulled the door open. Shaking water off like wet dogs, they went in while she held the door for them against the force of the wind, but he had to help her close it.
“I thought I saw headlights, then peeked out,” she told them. “I’d like to hug you, but I won’t.”
Nick saw Will’s painting had been moved farther down the hall, no doubt in case the rain and wind swept in like this.
“Glad you’re here,” Claire said. “Yes, we won’t hug you, or you might drown. Is Kris here, too?”
“Uh—yes. She’s with Nita and Bronco,” Brit said, wringing her hands.
Nick wondered if she could know what Jace had just gone through, what he’d done so heroically, but he guessed not. They’d have to sit her down and tell her. The storm appeared to be making her nervous. No doubt she was worried about the zoo animals as well as everyone here and fretting over Jace, who she thought was in Tampa with his plane and crew.
But maybe he wasn’t going to tell her all that right now, since she looked so jumpy. He was suddenly proud of Claire again. She, too, must have realized this was not the time to tell Brit about Jace’s near catastrophe. What a surprise they had for her when she calmed down.
“I’m sure you’ve been through a lot,” Brit went on, gripping Claire by her upper arms. “But—but I guess it happens sometimes when a pregnant woman is due to deliver soon, and the barometric pressure drops. We’ve seen that with the big cats at the zoo.”
“What?” Claire asked. “What are you talking about? Is Nita all right?”
“Okay, okay. I hope you’ve had your narco meds because her water broke about two hours ago, and I’m pretty sure she’s gone into labor already, though I’m only familiar with pregnant felines.”
Brit’s voice broke. Nick could see she was shaking; Claire looked wide-eyed and speechless. How much more could she take tonight?
“Before the power went out,” Brit rushed on, “they said on TV that no one is to be out on the streets, not even emergency vehicles, so we can’t call an ambulance. But yes, we have an emergency right here in this house. Claire, you’re the only one here who’s had a baby, so please take over, and I’ll help you. She says the baby’s named for you, so I hope you know how to deliver little Clarita!”
Bronco was going berserk, but Claire didn’t feel much better. Nita was definitely in labor. And her contractions were only ten minutes apart already. At least she said she had no desire to push yet.
Bronco kept insisting he could still drive her to the hospital. Claire finally told him no and got Nick to back her up. “What if a tree crashes down in front of your car or on your car?” she told the big, nervous guy. “And palm trees don’t have a good root system. Even if your car wasn’t damaged, do you want to have to deliver your baby, exposed to the elements, in the middle of a hurricane?”
He backed down a bit and quit raving after that. Claire later heard Nick speaking to him in the hall outside the guest bedroom they were using as a delivery room. “Listen to me, Bronco. The very best you can do for Nita and the baby is to keep calm, hold her hand and remain steady while Claire, Brit and Kris help her deliver this baby. Everything will be fine.”
As exhausted as she was after spending some time comforting a frightened Nita, Claire washed up, ate and drank something to sustain herself and tried to bring some sanity to the birthing scene. She told Brit where to get some extra plastic pads she used for Trey’s crib, and they put three of them on the double bed under Nita with an extra shower curtain under all that.
Trying to think all this through—remembering her so-different hospital deliveries of Lexi and Trey—she gathered dry towels, sanitary pads and sterilized scissors. Trey’s waterproof pants and clothes would be too big for a newborn, but she gathered some anyway. She grabbed her cell phone to use the timer on it, then assigned Brit to time Nita’s contractions—now about eight minutes apart. This was going fast, so fast, though she knew some women went through labor quickly. But a first birth? She prayed it wouldn’t turn into an emergency C-section like she’d needed with Trey.
She helped Nita take a cool shower, sitting on a lawn chair she had Bronco bring into the bathroom from those they’d brought in from the backyard. After they got Nita back in bed, Claire finally took a quick shower herself.
She made Nita drink water and Brit sponged her off when her pains came closer together, and she continued to sweat—but weren’t they all too hot between the humidity and stress and no air-conditioning? Both Kris and Brit took to fanning Nita with folded newspapers.
Claire tried not to look at the clock. She hadn’t slept well since Darcy was taken or at all tonight, so she was running on fumes. Finally, she cleared the bedroom but for Brit and Kris. Claire had Kris hold the biggest and brightest of the two flashlights they had here, lifted the sheet, propped up Nita’s knees on two pillows and looked at her dilation.
“What do you see?” Nita asked. “Any sign of Clarita’s head yet? Years ago, I witnessed my older sister have her first son. Ah, ah—coming, another bad one!” she cried, and tugged hard at the padded ropes Kris had strung above her head from tall chairs on both sides of the bed after insisting she’d seen a prehistoric petroglyph where an ancient woman was shown delivering a baby that way.
Nita was already exhausted, but so was Claire, relying on her narcoleptic pills that were stimulants, and downing lukewarm bottled tea for the caffeine to get herself through her emotional and physical exhaustion. She fought to keep calm and keep Nita calm, so she wasn’t letting Bronco back into this room until she had to.
“Tell me—tell me the truth about what is happening,” Nita cried. “My body is doing its own thing! Tell me—ah!”
“You’ve expelled a bit of prebaby discharge, but no head yet. Yes, I’m going to tell you exactly what I think is happening so that you can help.”
“I can help between the hits of pain. Mi amiga, what would I ever do without you? Our plans for the doctor and the hospital—aaahh! Well,” she gritted out through clenched teeth, “this how my mother had me, no doctor.”
Between the closer contractions and during a quick bathroom break, Claire gave a hug and more reassurance to Bronco, who was pacing up and down with Nick sitting farther down the hall on a chair he’d dragged out of their bedroom, sound asleep.
Claire peeked in for the second time at the girls. Lexi and Jilly must’ve been wakened by the howling wind and a fierce clap of thunder; both were in Lexi’s bed. And—this touched her deeply—it appeared they had netted several butterflies to save them from the brutal winds and brought them inside. On the top of Lexi’s dresser, they rested on a leafy branch in an old, empty aquarium with a screen across its top.
“Our Sleeping Beauty night-light went out!” Lexi cried, her little voice shaking.
“I’ll leave you this flashlight I have. I’ll put it on the dresser, see, and turn it on so it will be just like a night-light.” At least they had an extra stash of flashlights in the birthing room. She decided again not to tell them what was going on across the hall unless she had to.
Looking at the girls’ frightened faces, she couldn’t help but recall Will’s tearful expression when he had gazed at the sleeping Jilly with tears on his face. He would probably never see his beloved Darcy and her children again, but with Will, you never knew. He’d chosen to go on the run now, so did that mean he was sacrificing a life with them because he knew he could be found guilty of Larry’s death and abducting Ralston—then blinding him?
Lexi said, “Mommy, that wind is screaming, but did I hear another scream? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, sweetheart, but let me explain something to both of you.”
So much for keeping these two in the dark. As Claire sat down on the edge of the bed, she saw the doll was not with them, but was on the floor, wrapped in a blanket head to foot so that even her face didn’t show. That was a small victory, a first step toward getting rid of it.
“Don’t either of you worry if you hear another scream. Nita is going to have her baby right here in this house during the storm. And sometimes, when a baby is born, it hurts the mother a little, but then she is so happy to have her baby, she forgets the pain.”
Jilly said from the other side of the bed, her voice slow and sleepy, “I hope my mommy didn’t hurt when I was born, ’cause she went through a lot when she was away last week, but she’s okay now.”
“She sure is going to be,” Claire said, kissing Lexi’s cheek, then Jilly’s. “Now, listen, you two. I am going to be with Nita so I want you to stay in here even if you hear a scream or two. Both of your dads are here—and your daddy, Jace, is just fine, too, Lexi—so you please help me by keeping calm and getting more sleep. We have a strong house to withstand the storm. Lots of people are here at the house, but tomorrow, we might just have a new baby for you to see.”
“Good,” Lexi said, “’cause I don’t want—” she lowered her voice so much that Claire could hardly hear her “—that other doll anymore. I would give it to little Clarita ’cause Nita said she’s real sorry she gave it to me, but I don’t want it spying on Clarita or Bronco or Nita, either. But when Heck was here earlier, I think he turned off her insides.”
“Then I think she is fine right where she is, all bundled up. Now, listen to me. I love both of you and Darcy does, too. If you need someone, you call for your dads, but try to get some sleep now.”
Outside their room, Claire went down the hall and, hating to do it, woke Nick. “I know you’re trying to keep an eye on Bronco,” she told him, “but make sure you occasionally look in on the girls and Trey, too.”
“Will do, captain. Didn’t mean to nod off. Claire, you okay in there? What can I do?”
“Pray and try to keep Bronco from coming in until the head at least crowns. I’ll let you know. I just don’t want something to go wrong with the delivery because I’m scared. But I’ve been scared before.”
He shook himself more awake, then stood and embraced her. “Remember,” he said, his lips in her hair, “she’s named after you, so that baby is a fighter. I’ll keep an eye on Bronco. I think he just went to get something to drink.”
As she hurried back to Nita’s bedside, Claire told herself that surely Jace’s safe landing tonight had set the precedent. Dark storm or not, more good news had to be on the horizon.