“A GIRL,” THEA WHISPERS. She sounds as exhausted and amazed as if she’s taken a trip around the entire universe.
I don’t know how she can be so calm when I’m on the edge of panic. This situation is way over my head. Thea has an actual, live baby snuggled against her chest. The tiny girl has still got the umbilical cord attached and a motley layer of waxy stuff on her skin, but she’s out. She’s breathing. I have no idea what to do next, but I am certain of one thing. We need help. Fast.
“Thea,” I say gently. “I’ve got to get help. Just hold on and I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t leave me,” she says.
“I have to,” I say. I know this tunnel can’t be clean enough for Thea or the baby. There’s more blood, too. Things are oozing and pulsing in ways that can’t be right. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
“Don’t go!”
But I have to. I know I do. I leave her the flashlight, and I bolt out of the tunnel. I charge up the stairs of the dairy barn. Nobody’s there but cows. When I try my phone, it has a real signal again, and I punch in 911.
“My friend’s just had a baby,” I say. “We’re in the dairy barn in Forgetown. Down in the basement. We need help fast.”
The dispatcher wants names and details. She asks if the baby’s breathing. She asks about the afterbirth.
“What afterbirth?” I ask, alarmed. “I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s all right. Stay calm.”
I am not calm. I scan around the barn as if medical supplies might appear before my eyes and magically tell me what to do with themselves, but I’ve got nothing, nothing at all. Thea still needs me. Empty-handed, I bolt back downstairs. I grab an old mop and bucket to prop the door open so the medics can find us, and then my reception cuts out as soon as I’m in the tunnel again.
“Rosie!” Thea calls, her voice husky and weak.
“It’s okay. Help’s coming,” I say.
Thea’s hunched and moaning. With feeble fingers, she pushes the baby toward me, and I take her, feeling helpless all over again. All I can do is nestle the baby against my shirt and tell Thea it will be all right, but I have zero guarantees. I’m listening for voices, hoping the medics will find us soon, when Thea reaches out a shaky hand and grips my arm. Her gaze is fierce, but at the same time, her focus is wrong, like she isn’t seeing me.
“Thank Thea for me,” Thea says. “Tell her to look after my baby.”
A cool, light shiver passes over me. “You’re Thea,” I say gently.
“Tell my parents and Grampa I love them,” she adds. Her voice lifts higher and softer. Her Texas accent is clearer. “They did right by me.”
My throat tightens. Who is this girl talking to me?
Her hand slips loose from my arm. Her eyes close. Her head tips limply back.
Pure panic rises up in me. “Thea!” I scream. “Rosie! Althea!” I grab her shoulder. I’m still holding her baby and don’t know what to do for her. I can’t tell who she is anymore. She’s not responding.
I’m still screaming when the medics charge in. They bring light and supplies and a stretcher. Four medics surround Thea at once, and I watch in horrified awe as they work over her. Another medic takes the baby from me with gloved hands. I’m backed against the wall, clutching my hands into my shirt where the baby just was. I’m trying to see Thea between the medics, but I can’t get a straight view. When Thea moans, I almost burst into tears at that sign of life.
“Is she going to be okay?” I ask. “Tell me!”
One of the medics looks over his shoulder at me. “Are you the one who called?”
I nod.
“Don’t go anywhere. The police are going to have some questions for you.”
“Just tell me she’s going to be okay,” I say.
“She’s lost some blood, but she looks like she’ll make it,” he says. “Her heart’s strong. She’s young.”
He doesn’t know anything. He thinks Thea’s a normal girl. He has no idea that she was in a coma, and I don’t know where to begin explaining.
“Do you know when she was due?” he asks.
“She still had four weeks to go.”
He nods and turns back to Thea.
We need to call her parents, I think. And Tom. Someone should call him, too. Thea still looks awful to me despite the medic’s reassurance. They’re hooking up blood.
Another team of medics jostles in, and it finally hits me the police could be next. I don’t want to talk to them. I have no way to explain why Thea and I are in the tunnel, and I don’t want them calling my guardian, either.
May he rot.
I pick up my jacket and Thea’s from the ground. They’re both bloodstained and filthy. My hands aren’t much better. I take a step back, torn. I hate to leave without saying goodbye to Thea, but this might be my only chance to get away. Then again, someone should tell the medics about Thea’s past. What if the birth sends her into another coma? Could that even happen?
I get another glimpse of Thea’s insensible face, and then I grab one of the medics nearby. I leave blood prints on her white sleeve.
“You shouldn’t be down here,” she says, and then frowns. “Are you injured?”
“I’m her friend. I was helping her,” I say. I thrust Thea’s jacket into her hands. “She used to be in a coma a few weeks back. She’s really fragile. She was talking really strangely before she passed out.”
“Wait here,” she says, and plunges into the group surrounding Thea.
I can’t wait. I can’t be caught down here. Already one of the other medics is looking at me like he recognizes me. I take a last, agonized look at Thea. Then I slip out of the tunnel and go up the stairs to the main floor. As soon as I get a phone signal, I call Linus.
“Thea’s had her baby,” I say. I push out the barn door into the fresh, cool air and veer away from the ambulances. “Call Tom and let him know. The medics are with her at the dairy barn. Tell Tom to call her parents and get them here as fast as he can.”
“Is she all right?” Linus asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’m afraid.”
“Where are you?” he asks.
I’m already heading back to my car, the one Burnham loaned me. I feel like I’ve been in the tunnel for years, like this air on my face belongs to a new planet. The sky is the gray of pre-dawn. I need to run. I need to think.
“Rosie!” Linus yells.
I can’t talk to anybody anymore. It’s too much, all of it. I ought to be thrilled that I helped a baby be born, but I’m not happy. I’ve failed, somehow, and the truth is agonizing. Thea came looking to save me, and now she might be dying. Between Berg and Thea, I’ve lost something. Something huge.
I shove my phone in my pocket and run.