The Day Has Come (Counting on Hockey #4)

Chapter 12: Miracle of Life

"Meredith", Cara all but screams into the phone as I answer it at four in the morning. I wince and the pull phone slightly away from my ear. "I'm in Labor. I need you here A.S.A.P".

Cole rolls over next to me, and I feel the bed move as he sits up. Cara's a month early. This shouldn't be happening.

I think for a moment, no words coming from my mouth. I listen to Cara's deep breathing through the phone. I sit up and practically jump out of my bed. I run to find my computer and turn it on. "Okay, okay. Cara, first breathe, don't panic, you will be absolutely okay .I'll leave for the airport right now I will be there by tonight, I promise".

Signing into my account for the airline, I book my flight from Saint Paul to Detroit. "Matt", Cara screams in pain. I wince. "Holy sh!t. It hurts".

"Listen Cara. Listen to me, only me. I'm guessing you're in the car, right? Let him drive. Yell at me that it hurts. But listen to me", I say to her. Cara groans. I click away on my computer, wrapping a blanket around my almost naked body, only a sports bra and boy shorts on. "Cara. I have a flight that leaves at eleven thirty. I should be there at one, and to the hospital by one thirty. Just wait for that, you want me there, right? Focus on me. Matt is driving as fast he can, I know it. That hospital is where we were both born. They are going to take care of the pain".

"Meredith?" I hear Matt yell in the background.

"Cara, hand the phone to him. Just keep breathing and focus on that, not the pain. It will be over soon, I promise".

"Meredith", I hear a second later. "Is she supposed to be in this much pain right now?"

"Matt, you need to listen, and do not respond to this in anyway until I tell you", I start. "Both of you need to focus. She needs to make sure she is breathing evenly and have her focus on the timing of the breathing. You, you need to focus on driving. I know you're freaked out, right now, I am too. Your fiancé is about to give birth, sure, but the only way that is going to happen is if you make it safely to the hospital. Focus on the road, and only the road. You shouldn't be too far from the hospital right now, it's only a fifteen minute drive. She has to breathe, and you have to drive. Now, don't respond with anything that could scare her, she's extremely nervous right now".

"Okay. I understand", that's all Matt says.

"Okay, Matt. One last thing. Once Cara is settled at the hospital, call or text me. I just want to make sure everything went okay. I will be there around one. Just hang in there".

"Thank you, Meredith". That's all he said before the phone line went dead.

I finish the details and everything on my flight. I take a breath and sit on the couch, wrapping the blanket tighter around me, trying to calm myself. After sometime, my mind and heart slowed to normal speed, and I walk back into my room, trying to fall asleep, though I only have an hour until I'm supposed to be awake to be at the stadium.

"Is everything okay now?" I hear Cole ask me.

"Everything is perfectly fine. My flight leaves at eleven thirty. Now go back to sleep. You have a game tonight".

~~~~~~~~~~

I walk into the hospital and use my old memory of walking into the pediatrics ward when I was little, when one of my mom's friends had given birth. I go up to the check in desk and sign my name on a paper, then go up to a woman scrolling through an older computer. She looks up at me.

"Hi", I say to her. She smiles in response. "My sister, Cara Adams is in labor. I was wondering if I could go see her, or anything like that?"

The woman nods her head and types something on the keyboard, then looks at a larger TV monitor behind her. "Yes, Cara is in room three-o-two, just down the hall on your left. The doctor should be in to deliver in about twenty minutes".

"Thank you", I say before heading down the hallway painted with a mural of the jungle, just like every other children based mural I've ever seen.

Cara's room door is open. I walk in slowly and leave my bag in the corner so no one would trip over it. Cara is in the bed with her eyes closed, and Matt is reading a book in the corner. He looks up at me, placing his book down and removing himself from the chair. We walk out into the hallway.

Before I can say anything, Matt wraps his arms around me. The way my arms are, I can only put my hands on his back. He moves away from me and opens his mouth to speak. "She's ready for the birth, the doctor okayed it. It's not urgent because he said something about something that I didn't get, but she can pretty much give birth whenever the doctor sees fit, whether it's in five minutes, or as long as tomorrow. He's coming in and helping her in twenty minutes or so, and he just said she needs to sleep so that energy can go into pushing".

The doctor comes in at that exact moment and starts his clean up, putting on gloves and a scrub cap. We wake Cara up and she greets me, then the doctor. The doctor tells me to leave, and gives Matt a pair of scrubs to change into so he can stay in the room.

Half an hour or so passes when the door opens and a nurse looks around the hallway, before she sees me right next to it in a chair. "You have a perfect niece and a handsome nephew waiting".

I quickly get up and walk into the room, looking at the slowed chaos that had just happened in the room. Matt stands at Cara's bedside holding a blanket bundle in his hands. I look down in front of him to see Cara looking down at the blanket bundle in her hands.

Annabelle Grace Berg and Triston Matthew Berg.