Fragmentation

The Sixteenth Hour

The Sixteenth Hour

Darcy was beginning to grow bitter as she went through more contractions. 

“This is your fault,” she pointed at Simon. Simon raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“Oh?”

Darcy let out a breath through gritted teeth. “Yeah, I don’t know how, but I am sure that somehow you did this.”

Simon put his hand on Darcy’s and curled his fingers around her hand.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be an ass,” she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead, “you think this is funny.”

“Not the pain,” Simon protested, giving her hand a squeeze, “just the things you’re saying. How could this be my fault?”

“Your child, your fault,” she told him. Simon chuckled.

“My child?”

“Well, our child, but since I have to deal with becoming the size of a planet, you have to deal with the blame of me being in labor for fourteen hours.”

The nurse came in, one that hadn’t been around before, and put her hand on Darcy’s knee catching Darcy’s attention. She brought her hands up and re-tied her blonde hair in a ponytail, giving Darcy a sweet smile before fiddling with her purple scrub shirt and sitting down at the small stool placed at the foot of the bed.

“Hello mommy, I’m your nurse Anika, I will be helping you today.”

Darcy didn’t seem to like the woman’s sugary tone, her eyes widening when the woman said “mommy”.

“I thought my nurse was Sharon,” Darcy said, pushing herself up a little to look Anika in the face. Simon pushed her back down gently by her shoulder.

“You’ve been in labor for fourteen hours honey, and Sharon warned you that her shift was done in six hours.”

Darcy hit Simon in the chest causing Simon to cough. She pointed at him.

“Your fault,” she blamed him. Simon nodded.

“Yup,” he popped the ‘p’. He put his hand through her hair, trying to get her to calm down.

“So, on the topic of an epidural…” the woman seemed to grow sheepish and Simon grabbed the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

“Yeah, when’s that going to happen?”

“Well, see, at this point sweetie, the epidural may not be able to be safely administered. I’m afraid you might not be able to have one in time,” she told Darcy so sweetly that Simon felt bad for what was about to happen.

“Why?” Darcy asked, her eyebrows raised. 

“Well, see—“

“No, I think I must have said,” she took a deep breath, “the question wrong. More of, why is this happening?" Anika opened her mouth to answer, but Darcy kept going. "Why couldn’t I get it in time? What time? I’ve been in labor for hours, how far along am I?” Darcy was firing questions at this nurse faster than the woman seemed to want to register. She eventually just nodded and tapped Darcy’s knees.

She inspected it and by the frown on her face, pursing her thin lips into a curving line. She let out a laugh and tensed up.

“Well, it appears that you’ve got a few more centimeters before you even get into transition,” she said, a smile on her face. She looked at Darcy whose green eyes were alight.