And Then There Was You (Chris Evans AU)

June (Part 4)

  The maternity floor waiting room of the hospital looks a bit  more crowded than normal for a weekday evening in June. But the crowd gathered this night isn't exactly waiting for a baby to make their grand entrance. No, they're waiting to  make theirs. 

  The elevator doors open once more, revealing another wagon load full of gifts being pulled by James while Ollie's hands falter with the large wrapped box he's holding. "Is that everything?" Laura asks, rushing to help Ollie before he drops and breaks whatever the gift might be. 

  "Yeah," James tells her. He pulls the wagon over closer to the table they'd set up against the wall of windows, the sun setting over the St. Johns River casting a nice orange glow amongst the stark white and navy blue waiting room. 

  Renee unfolds a cheap pink tablecloth with the help of Hazel, laying it over the top of the table before reaching further into the bag of decorations. Each of them women take on a role in order to get the room looking more festive within the small window of time the nursing staff has granted them. 

  Adam helps his sons unload the wagon, placing the gifts that won't fit on the table around a chair that Hazel had already deemed the extra 'gift table' that will be close enough for Daphne to reach from her wheel chair. 

  Down the hall and around the corner, Daphne is near tears as she waits for Chris to show up. It's already 6:15 and he's never once walked in later than 6:01. Trying to hold back her emotions as much as possible so as not to disrupt Juniper, she reaches for her phone again. Looking for some type of a message or missed call to let her know he's alright. 

  She drops her phone when the door opens, feeling a sense of relief at the turning of the handle. But it fails once she sees it's another nurse. "Mrs. Evans, are you alright?" she walks over checking the monitors and the leads attached to her chest and belly. "Your alarms were going off at the station so I wanted to check on you. What are you feeling right now?"

  "Anxious," she whispers, her breath beginning to become shallow. 

  "Why is that? Maybe if you talk through it you'll be able to calm your blood pressure down." She offers to listen while instructing Daphne to turn over onto her side. 

  "He's not here. He's never late. Something must've happened," she starts, feeling the dam of her emotions teetering. 

  The nurse adjusts the monitor wrapped around Daphne's lower abdomen, looking for which direction the baby moved as the heart beat fades out. She does all of this while keeping her composure, and doing her best to get Daphne's mind on other things.

  "How did the two of you meet?" she asks, pulling the band down a bit more.

  Daphne closes her eyes at the memory. "The first time was through a car accident. He's a paramedic and got called to my accident, but I was too out of it to even remember his face. About a month later he came to the school I taught at for a community helpers day that we hold. When he spoke, I recognized his voice. We went to breakfast the next day and have been together ever since."

  The nurse tugs on the monitor, moving it back and forth a bit while applying slight pressure to Daphne's womb with her opposite hand. "Sounds like a real fairy tale if you ask me." She concentrates a bit more on the pressure in her hand until she feels a gentle nudge from the baby giving her the spot to place the monitor. As soon as she does the sounds of a healthy beating heart comes back over the monitors. She presses a couple of buttons and starts the process of reading Daphne's blood pressure.

   It's still reading a bit higher than they'd like. She instructs Daphne to stay on her side as she begins to softy massage her back to try and relieve a bit of tension. "Just breathe for me, Mrs. Evans."