Running From The Flames

Mon Fils

Of all the plans we had in place for the birth none of them prepared me for how quickly the time would come. One moment we were in the ambulance, the sirens blaring as it left the circuit and raced through the city to the Women's Hospital that was preparing for us.

The drive seemed to take a lot longer than it really was as waves of pain lacerated my abdomen with every contraction. Yuki had quickly climbed into the front seat when Amber started to lift my skirt up but I was past the point of caring who saw me naked as long as I got good news. Pierre wasn't though as he thanked Yuki for the privacy when he passed by him.

"I'd say you're around 7cm dilated. And there weren't any signs of labour earlier?"

I shook my head as Pierre bit his lip waiting for an answer. "I've had a sore back for weeks. It didn't seem any worse than usual this morning and then I was distracted by the race. I should have paid more attention."

"Hey, don't think that," Pierre said softly before his hand was squeezed tightly with another contraction and he winced. "How far away are we?"

"We're here," Yuki answered as the van turned into the complex and I finally felt a little of the fear dissipate as we came to a stop and the back doors were opened.

The world blurred as I was wheeled through the hospital to the surgical ward and then Pierre's hand was suddenly torn from mine. With every second we continued down the hall his raised voice was fading and he asked Yuki for help telling the staff he needed to be with me.

"I'm coming, Bri, I promise!"

"Amber, what's happening?" My voice was broken and she held me still as I tried to look for Pierre.

"They are getting Pierre changed into scrubs so he can come into the theatre," she assured me and I breathed a sigh of relief. "He'll be there in a minute."

I wished I could understand what the doctors were saying but without Yuki I was clueless to what they were deciding about my baby and it left my palms sweating. I could do nothing but entrust our lives to them as we passed another set of doors and suddenly I was in an operating room. I might have been in a different continent but these rooms looked the same all over the globe.

—

Pierre's POV

"I need to get in there," I all but shouted as I pointed to the doors my wife had disappeared behind. "That's my baby, I need to be there!"

Yuki's head snapped back and forth between me and the nurse as he copied my actions and translated my frustrations. "You have to follow her and get changed. You can't go in like that. It's unsanitary for the baby."

I looked down at myself, feeling the damp sweat from the race soaking my overalls and knew my hair was just as bad. "Okay, let's go, hurry, please."

"And you have to sign some forms."

"Fuck, yes, whatever it is, I'll sign it dammit."

Too many pages, it never seemed to end, and I couldn't concentrate on any of the words. Paperwork wasn't my forte, that was all Bri, and she was the one that was more organised to handle this sort of thing. But she was waiting for me, relying on me to finish this so the surgery could begin so I rushed to fill out her details and sign my name as the authority.

My patience wore thin as I flipped the page and saw I needed to pretty much repeat it all over again and the pen threatened to crack in my grip. The pen only just survived the last signature before I thrust the documents into the nurse's waiting hands.

A pair of scrubs were handed back in exchange and the nurse pointed to a bathroom, and I didn't need Yuki to help with that instruction, I was already unzipping my overalls as I ran across the hall. I had never changed faster in my life as I stripped my fireproofs off and pulled on the pale blue scrubs, only sparing ten precious seconds to wash my face in the basin before abandoning my gear as I left the room.