The Cowboy And The Baby

Chapter Two

Devon’s face had turned a bright shade of red. In Cody’s estimation, she was pushing too hard and too long. She had to take a break. Otherwise he had a feeling that she was going to rupture something.

“Okay, now rest,” he told her. She didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes were screwed shut and her face was growing even redder. “Stop pushing!” Cody ordered more loudly.

Worn-out, Devon fell back against the seat, her hair damp and plastered against her brow. She was panting really hard.

“You...tell...the...cow...that...too?” she gasped.

Devon couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted. She’d pushed so hard, she was seeing spots dancing before her eyes.

“No. I saw this on a medical drama on TV,” he confessed. It was the summer he’d broken his leg and was laid up with nothing else to do. He’d picked up a lot of miscellaneous information that came in handy at the oddest times. Like now.

“Better...and...better,” Devon retorted. This would have been funny if she wasn’t so scared and in so much pain.

The next second, she went rigid again as another scream pierced the air. Without waiting for him to say anything, she began to bear down again.

Cody knew better than to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary, so he counted the seconds off out loud.

When she’d gone past the limit, he ordered, “Stop!”

This creature inside her—she’d ceased thinking of it as a baby—had taken charge of her body and she couldn’t control the urge to push it out.

“I...CAN’T!”

“Breathe through your mouth.” When she didn’t seem to hear him, Cody put his hands on either side of her face and made her look at him. “Listen to me, unless you want to start possibly hemorrhaging, breathe through your mouth!” he ordered. “Like this.”

And he proceeded to show her, recalling what he’d seen on that program he’d watched during his summer of forced confinement.

He could only pray he got it right.

Cody saw anger in the woman’s eyes. Anger mingled with fear, but then she began to do what he’d told her. Blowing air out of her mouth, she stopped pushing for a moment.

And then he felt her growing rigid again. Her whole body looked as if it was in the throes of another contraction.

“Another one?” he asked.

It was a rhetorical question, but she answered anyway. “YES!” she hissed as she dug deep into her core to find the energy to expel this child out of her body once and for all.

“I see the head!” Cody declared in wonder as he tried his best to encourage her.

“Isn’t...there...any...more?” she cried sharply.

She was going to die like this, she was certain of it. She could feel herself growing weaker and weaker as she seemed to float in and out of her head.

“There’s more,” he assured her. “There’s more!” This time he said it because she was pushing again. Pushing and screaming. “You’re almost there,” he encouraged.

“AAAARRRGGGHHH!”

The word shattered the atmosphere as it accompanied the emergence of the infant who was sliding out of her body.

Euphoric, exhausted and close to delirious, Devon panted hard, trying to regain her breath. Trying to hear something beyond the sound of her heart, which was pounding like mad.

“He’s not...crying,” Devon said, panicking. “Why isn’t...my...baby...crying?”

Cody didn’t answer her. He was too busy trying to get the tiny human being he was holding in his arms to do just that.

Turning the infant over so that it was facing the ground, Cody patted the baby’s back, then turned it over again to check its airway.

Quickly clearing it with his forefinger, he held the baby in one arm while unbuttoning his shirt with the other.

Devon attempted to use her elbows to prop herself up so she could see what was going on. She didn’t have enough strength left to manage it.

“What—what are you doing?” Devon demanded weakly. Why was this man getting undressed? Fresh fear vibrated through her.

Parting the tan deputy shirt, Cody pressed the baby against his bare skin, all the while still massaging the tiny back.

A tiny whimper just barely creased the air. And then there was a cry. An indignant, lusty cry, followed by another one.

Cody breathed a sigh of relief. His own heart was racing in triumph and elation.

“She’s going to be all right!” he declared.

Confusion slipped over Devon’s face. “She?” Devon questioned, unable to process the deputy’s words for a moment.

Shrugging out of his shirt one sleeve at a time, he passed the infant from one arm to the other as he did it. Once he had the shirt off, he wrapped the material around the newborn.

“Your baby’s a girl,” he told Devon. She was also the first infant he’d delivered and he was filled with a warm glow he couldn’t begin to describe.

“Michael’s a girl?” Devon asked, confused and happy at the same time. It was over. The baby was out and it was over! She realized that she was crying again.

“You might want to think about changing that name,” Cody advised. Looking down at the infant, he smiled. “This is your mama,” he told the baby as he transferred her into Devon’s arms.

Her head spinning, feeling like someone in a dream, Devon carefully accepted the swaddled infant into her arms. She felt completely drained as she held the infant against her.

She did her best to smile at her daughter. “Hi, baby.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Devon thought she saw the man who had come to her rescue pull a knife out of the sheath within his boot. A wave of new fear shimmied through her.

“What are you going to do?” she asked in a horrified whisper, unable to gather the strength for anything louder.

Having struck a match—he always kept a book of matches in his pocket, although he rarely used them—Cody was passing the blade of his knife back and forth over the flame.

“The umbilical cord is still attached,” he told her with an easy smile. “I figure it might get in the way after a bit.”

Even though it was hard for her to focus, Devon was watching his every move. Her arms weakly tightened around the baby. “Will it hurt?”

“Can’t really say for sure,” Cody told her honestly, “but I don’t think so.” He looked up at her. “Got any alcohol in the glove compartment?”

Was he looking to toast the successful birth? Now? Had she not felt so exhausted, she might have seriously considered trying to get out of the truck with her baby.

“No,” she cried.

“Too bad.” He carefully lifted the umbilical cord at the baby’s end. “It might have been good to disinfect the area, but this should be okay for now.”

And then, just like that, before she could ask Cody when he was going to do it—he’d separated the infant from the cord. She felt the remainder, no longer of any use, being expelled out of her own body.

Sweating profusely, Devon didn’t realize that she had taken in a sharp breath until she released it.

“That’s it?” she asked.

Cody nodded. “As far as I know.”

The reality of the situation and what he had just miraculously been a part of finally hit him. It took Cody a moment to get his breath back. The tiny infant nestled in the crook of Devon’s arm looked at peace, as if she had always been a part of the scene rather than just newly arrived.

“How are you feeling?” Cody asked Devon, concerned. The color seemed to be draining out of her.

“Woozy,” she answered. “Wonderful, but really, really light-headed.”

“Well, you did good,” he told her. Very carefully, he reached out and, ever so lightly, stroked the baby’s downy head. “Feels like peach fuzz,” he commented quietly with a warm smile.

“It’ll grow,” Devon told him, struggling not to slur. “My mom said... I was bald until I...was one, now it grows like...crazy.”

She sounded exhausted. He didn’t blame her. He was feeling a little depleted himself. He just had one more question for her. “What are you going to call her?” he asked.

She barely heard him at first, and then his words replayed themselves in his head.

“I don’t know,” Devon answered honestly. “I was...really sure I was having...a boy, so all I have...are...boys’ names.”

A thought hit him. It seemed almost like fate, he thought. “My mom’s name was Layla. I always thought that was a pretty name.”

“Layla,” Devon repeated weakly. “You’re...right... It...is...pretty.” She looked down at the baby in her arms. Her daughter was looking up at her with wide, wide blue eyes. A peacefulness was descending over Devon. Her mind began to drift, but she did her best to focus. “Layla,” she repeated again to see if the name fit. It seemed to.

“You like that?” The infant made a tiny noise. It wasn’t in response, but Devon took it that way. She glanced up at the man who had been there for her when he could have just kept going. “Looks...like it’s...unanimous.”

“What were you doing out here by yourself?” he asked. If he’d been in her place, he wouldn’t have been driving around in the middle of nowhere. Where was the man who belonged to that ring? To that baby?

“Looking...for a cowboy...to deliver...my baby,” she told him weakly.

She wasn’t going to tell him, he thought. Well, that was her business, he supposed. He could respect that. Cody was just glad that he had been running late this morning. If his Jeep hadn’t decided to die, who knew what might have happened to the pregnant woman?

He glanced at her face. She appeared frighteningly pale. “You need to be checked out by a doctor,” he told her. He would have suggested it even if she looked fine, but, at the moment, she didn’t.

“You have...one of those...with you, too? In...your...pocket?” He was so resourceful, she thought, she wouldn’t have put it past him. But he’d have to have big pockets...

“Not with me,” he said wryly. “But in town, we do. We’ve got two of them, actually. They’re both at the clinic,” he told her. “Along with a couple of nurses. All really top-notch. They’re certainly not in it for the money.” He glanced over to the backseat. “Why don’t I make you and Layla more comfortable in the backseat? There’s more room to lie down there. And then I’ll drive your truck into town.”

Even if she’d wanted to protest, she didn’t have the strength to do so. Devon felt way too tired.

“Whatever...you...say.”

It was the last thing she recalled saying to the man who had come to her aid. In the next moment, everything suddenly and dramatically turned pitch-black.

She lost her hold on the world.

“Ma’am?” Cody asked uncertainly when he saw that she had shut her eyes. He got no response. “Devon?” he questioned more urgently, seeing her head nod to one side.

The next second, he quickly took the baby from her. Devon’s hold had gone lax. The baby would have fallen if he hadn’t moved fast.

“Damn,” he mumbled. “New plan, Layla. We buckle your mom in where she is in the front seat and I drive into town, holding you in one arm. That okay with you?” He added under his breath, “Good thing Connor was always on us to multitask.”

Getting out of the cab with the baby in his arms, Cody came around to the other side of the passenger seat to secure the seat belt as best he could around the unconscious woman.

He continued to talk to the baby, keeping his voice at a soothing level, the way he did when he worked with spooked horses or cattle.

“Connor’s my big brother. You’d like him. He’s kind of bossy, but he had to be. He stuck around to raise my brother and sister and me when our dad died. Our mom died some years before that. Old Connor, he always came through.” As he talked, he found that the sound of his voice was not just keeping the baby calm, but it was helping to do the same for him.

This wasn’t exactly something that was covered in his deputy’s manual. He was fairly certain that as far as his duties went, this was all brand-new ground he was crossing.

Slipping the metal tongue into the seat belt receptacle, he secured it. When he looked to make sure it would hold, that was when he became aware of the blood. There was a great deal more of it than there had been just a few minutes ago when Devon was struggling to push out her daughter.

Adrenaline spiked all through his veins. This was serious. Really serious.

He had to get this woman a doctor and fast or the baby in his arms was going to be an orphan before the sun set.

It took him a split second to make another decision. Running around to the rear of the truck, still holding the baby, Cody untied his horse. If he drove into town at a normal pace, the horse could easily keep up. But this was now a race for time. He intended to go as fast as he could. If still attached, the horse would be dragged in the truck’s wake.

He spared the stallion one look and shouted a command. “Follow the truck, Flint. Follow the truck! Town, Flint. Town.”

Telling his stallion the destination—a command he’d given often enough, except then it had been from the vantage point of a saddle astride the horse’s back—he raced around to the driver’s side and got in.

He didn’t expect Flint to keep up, but, with luck, the horse would follow and reach town sometime after he did. If the horse didn’t reach town by the time Cody would be able to look around for him, at least he knew that Flint wouldn’t just run off aimlessly. Cody had spent long hours training the stallion. He was completely confident that, since the terrain was familiar to both of them, the horse would eventually find its way to Forever.

Climbing into the cab, still holding on to the baby who was now whimpering, Cody awkwardly buckled himself in. A quick check told him that, mercifully, Devon had left the keys in the ignition.

He started the truck, stepped on the gas and they were off.

Driving with one hand while holding the baby against him with his free arm proved to be tricky and definitely not something Cody had ever even remotely prepared for. But he didn’t have the luxury of doubting that he was up to it or of looking around for an alternative method. There was no time for any of that. A woman’s life—Layla’s mother’s life—depended on him being able to handle both the emergency and the baby.

Cody felt like he was running out of time.

He spared Devon an apprehensive glance. She was still unconscious, but he did see her chest rising and falling. At least she was still breathing.

“You hang in there, you hear me?” he ordered Devon. How could he have missed that she was still bleeding? How could he not have seen all that blood soaking through her dress? he upbraided himself. “I’ve never lost a mother after she gave birth to her calf and I sure as hell don’t intend to start with you.”

Cody stepped down harder on the gas. He could see Flint trying to keep up in the rearview mirror, but the stallion was falling behind.

“I’ve got a feeling that you’re all this little girl has, so don’t even think of checking out. You’re going to live, you understand? You’re going to live! We’re almost there,” he told her, saying anything and everything that came into his head.

If he stopped talking, he was sure he was going to lose Devon.

“The town’s just over that hill. It’s not all that much to look at, but Forever’s got really good people. People who take you in and look out for you. They don’t care what your story is—although Miss Joan’ll ask. Miss Joan, that’s the woman who runs the diner. She’s like a mother to all of us. Acts all grumpy, but she’s got a heart as big as the state. She’ll make sure you’re warm and fed—she did with the four of us after our dad died. Did it so that it didn’t seem like charity because Connor, he wouldn’t have accepted any charity. Ever,” Cody said. “He’s way too proud. But Miss Joan, she always found a way to get around that. She’ll just melt when she sees this baby of yours, even if she tries not to show it. And she’ll give you advice you’ll think you don’t need—but you will.”

The road ahead was wide open and empty. One hand clutching the steering wheel, he allowed himself to look in Devon’s direction.

She was still unconscious. Her head was moving ever so slightly because of the vibrations caused by the increased speed.

Fear clawed at him. Fear that he wasn’t going to make it to the clinic in time.

“You’re not going to die, you hear me?” he told her. “I’ve never filled out a death report because of someone dying on my watch and I’m not going to start now. They’re too long. They’ve got to be at least nine, ten pages long. You can’t put me through that after I helped to deliver your baby, you hear me?”

Pushing down on the accelerator as hard as he could, he saw the outskirts of Forever rushing closer to him. It was just up ahead, within reach.

And then he breeched the city limits.

Keeping an eye out for any pedestrians and other cars, both of which were scarce, Cody tore straight through the center of Forever. The next moment, he was passing the town square, where the annual Christmas tree was always displayed.

Veering to the right and then to left, he didn’t slow down until he reached his destination.

He practically put his foot through the floor as he pushed down on the brake as hard as he could.

The tires screeched in high-pitched protest as they came to a halt inches away from the front of the clinic.

Chapter Three

As usual, the waiting room of Forever’s lone medical clinic was very close to filled. It was the only available medical facility for fifty miles and the people of Forever were grateful for that. It wasn’t all that long ago that the clinic had stood empty, its last physician having moved away thirty years ago. There was something comforting about having someone to turn to because they felt ill, or just because a husband or wife had nagged them into availing themselves of an annual—or bi-annual—exam.

Startled by the combined, unnerving sound of screeching tires and squealing brakes, everyone in the clinic’s waiting room turned in unison toward the noise. As a rule, Forever was thought of by its residents as a sleepy little town that no one outside of the area ever really noticed and where nothing of consequence ever happened.

That meant that no one, either out of boredom or a sense of competitiveness, engaged in car races or harrowing displays of one-upmanship.

So when the teeth-jarring noise pierced the morning air, every patient within the waiting room, as well as the one nurse manning the desk, Debi White Eagle, instantly glanced in the direction of the bay window. The window looked out toward the front of the clinic.

“What the hell was that?”

Rancher Steven Hollis jumped to his feet, verbalizing what everyone else in the room was thinking.

The question didn’t go unanswered for more than a couple of quick beats. Almost immediately thereafter, the roomful of patients witnessed what all would have readily agreed was a very unlikely sight: a bare-chested Deputy Cody McCullough bursting into the clinic with what appeared to be a newborn baby in his arms. The baby was wrapped in his uniform shirt.

Debi, a surgical nurse by vocation as well as one of the most recent additions to Forever’s population, vacated her desk and rushed over to Cody.

“What happened?” she asked.

Cody quickly transferred Layla into her arms. “The baby’s mother is in the truck. She’s lost a lot of blood and I need help.”

“Holly!” Debi yelled over her shoulder toward the rear of the clinic. “We need a doctor out here, STAT!”

It was an order she was accustomed to issuing when she worked at the hospital in Chicago. Here, however, the word left more than one of the patients looking at the others in bewilderment.

Grabbing the fresh lab coat she’d brought in for one of the doctors, Debi quickly removed Cody’s shirt from around the tiny body and rewrapped the newborn in the lab coat. Acting in the interest of practicality, not to mention cleanliness, she figured the doctor would forgive her.

“Here,” she said, giving Cody back his shirt. “You don’t want to be out of uniform, Deputy.”

With that, Debi immediately turned toward the most maternal patient available to her, Anita Moretti, who had five children and a brood of grandchildren of her own. “Anita, hold the baby,” she requested, then looked at Cody. “Where’s the mother?”

“Out here.” He threw the words over his shoulder as, shrugging back into his shirt, he ran outside, secretly almost afraid of what he would see once he opened the truck’s passenger door.

“Where is she?”

The question came from Dan Davenport, the doctor who had initially reopened the clinic and who was currently in charge of it as well as the care of the citizens of Forever.

Cody was already at the truck. He threw open the passenger door and unbuckled the seat belt that was the only thing holding Devon in place and semiupright.

As carefully as he could, he lifted Devon out of the vehicle. The lower half of her dress was soaked with her blood.

Dan attempted to take the unconscious woman from him, but Cody shook his head. He wasn’t about to let her go. “No, I’ve got her.”

“This way,” Dan said needlessly as he and Debi went back into the clinic ahead of Cody. “What happened?” Dan asked. “Did you find her this way?”

More than a dozen set of eyes looked in their direction as Cody carried the woman in.

“No, she was conscious and screaming when I found her,” Cody answered, giving no indication that he even saw the other people in the room.

“Was she still in labor or had she given birth already?” Dan asked, leading the way to the room where he and his partner, Dr. Alisha Cordell-Murphy, performed both the simple surgeries and the ones that were classified as emergencies.