Doug, what are you doing here?” Marilyn asked.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, of course not. I just wasn’t expecting you.” She hurried over and gave him a hug.
“He called me earlier,” Michele said, “and told me he was coming. I forgot to mention it.”
“Has she had the baby?” he asked.
“She did, a little while ago,” Marilyn said. “Everyone’s fine.”
“Where is she now?”
“She’s in her room, just down the hall,” Michele said. “The baby’s in with a nurse. They’re just doing some routine things.”
“Come on over and sit down.” Marilyn led the way, and everyone sat in the padded chairs.
“Has she seen the baby?” Doug asked.
“For just a moment, right after she was born,” Michele said. “But they’re going to bring her back in a little while, I think, so Christina can say . . . good-bye.” Tears formed in Michele’s eyes. In the next moment, everyone got a little teary, even Doug. But he turned his head away, just once, as if willing the tears away.
“That’s going to be so hard,” Jean said.
Times like this, it was nice being a guy, Michele thought. It was so much easier for Doug to gain control of his emotions. She looked at her mom. “I’m not sure what to say when I see Christina. Do I tell her what I’m really thinking or do I try to think of something distracting to talk about? Did they give you any training on this?”
Her mom thought a moment. Regained her composure. “I think the best thing is just to take our cues from Christina. None of us really know what she’s going through right now. But it seems obvious God is giving her grace for this. I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and guess how she’s doing, then think of comforting things to say based on those guesses. Let’s just let this play out a little, let her help us be the kind of friends she needs right now. If she says she doesn’t want to talk about something, just let it go and give her some room.”
“That sounds like great advice,” Jean said.
“Yeah, thanks, Mom,” Doug said. “When can we see her?”
“I don’t think we can go in as a group. That’ll probably just overwhelm her. Let me go find out where things are at now. I think they’ll tell me because I’m her mentor at the Resource Center. You can come with me, Michele, since you’re her birthing coach. We’ll come right back after we find out some news.”
They walked down the hall toward the nurses’ station on the right. Michele stopped briefly when they got to Christina’s room. She peeked in the little window. Christina was there, but not with the baby. Her eyes were still closed. Michele said a quick prayer and rejoined her mom, who had begun to talk with one of the nurses. By the time she reached her, the conversation had ended.
Her mom stepped away from the counter and turned toward Michele. “Apparently everything is all set. The doctors have checked the baby out, and she appears to be perfectly normal and healthy.”
“Thank God.”
“And Christina is doing very well too, considering all she went through. It was actually a fairly short labor for a first baby.”
“It didn’t feel very short. So what’s going to happen now?”
“They’re going to bring the baby back to Christina for a few minutes, so she can . . . you know, be with her for the last time.”
“Should one of us go tell her? I peeked in the window. She might be asleep.”
“You can go ahead. I’ll go back to the waiting room and tell Jean and Doug what’s going on.” They started walking back down the hallway. Her mom said, “I asked the nurse to let us know when Christina was done visiting with her baby, so we could go in and see her.”
When they got to Christina’s door, Michele said, “Pray for me.”
“You know, you don’t need to say very much right now.”
“I know,” Michele said.
She opened the door quietly. As soon as she walked in, Christina’s eyes opened.
“Hey, Michele.”
“How do you feel?”
“Beat up. I feel all beat up. But they told me to expect that.”
“You don’t look beat up. My mom and Jean are in the waiting room. Doug’s here too.”
“Doug came?” She instantly started messing with her hair. “Oh crap. I don’t want him to see me like this.”
“Why? You look good.”
“You know lying’s a sin, right?”
Michele laughed. “I mean for someone who just delivered a baby.” She looked around the room, saw Christina’s purse on a short counter in the corner. “You have a brush in there?”
“Yeah. Will you get it for me?”
Christina brushed her hair as best she could. Michele had suspected that Christina had feelings for Doug, and this pretty much confirmed it. Doug had denied he had any feelings for her in a conversation with their mom, insisting they were just friends. But Michele had to wonder, considering that Doug would leave school in the middle of the week and drive here at night to see her. They could barely get him to drive home most weekends.
“He’s not coming in now,” Michele said. “I’m just checking to see if you’re ready to see your baby.” Please, God, help me say the right things. She took a deep breath.
“So soon?” Christina said. “I thought it would be awhile before they ran all their tests.”
“I guess that’s a good thing. It means she’s perfectly healthy.”
“That’s a relief.” She finished brushing her hair. “Could you take this?”
Michele took the brush and walked it back to Christina’s purse.
“I guess I’m ready. As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Then I’ll go tell them.” She smiled feebly and walked toward the door. Christina looked so small and frail and young. Michele stopped, her hand on the doorknob. “We’ll be praying for you down the hall. People in the church will be praying too. Ray stopped by while you were—”
“The pastor?”
Michele nodded. “He said he and Julie would be praying for you tonight.”
“That was nice of him to do that, come all the way here to see me.”
They looked at each other for a moment. Michele was glad to see how well Christina was doing, but she was also trying to suppress a tinge of jealousy in her heart. She’d give anything to switch places. Not to be going through what Christina was facing, but to have a baby she had just delivered right down the hall.
Christina sat up a little straighter, evened out the wrinkles in the blanket and sheet. “Guess you better go get them, tell them I’m ready to see the baby.”