Stuck With Him

5. Is there a doctor in?

   Panic and chaos is what you could only describe the situation in the lift. On one hand you had a pregnant woman going into labour and on the other, you had a grown man freaking out by rocking himself to and throw, chanting. James’s eyes were wide and red and he looked as if he’s seen a ghost. He just looked like a mess; a hot mess.

   “This shouldn’t be happening,” he chanted religiously as sweat now started to scurry its way down his forehead, making a wet patch on his light blue business shirt. Clearly for whatever reason, James was traumatised by this sudden situation; as if we needed another problem at hand. Erin was screaming more violently now, squeezing my hand as if she were trying to drain my blood. It was killing me and I honestly thought that by the end of this whole ordeal, I’d lose my left hand. But of course I didn’t say anything, out of courtesy.

   “Holy mother fu-,”

   “Now’s not the time for cursing!” Ms Ruskin’s face was red, a complete contrast to her incredibly pale face earlier. Her eyes were red too and her wrinkles even more defined.    “And you!” she spat, directing her glance, and her index finger at James giving him a full on finger waggling. “Man up!” This attempt to rectify and order everyone around was a total failure. We were all ignoring her. Well, at least I was.

   “We need to get this baby delivered,” Chris urges as he places himself behind Erin to support her back. Chris shifts his eyes to all of us, a silence starting to suddenly make the room smaller. Chris’s gaze suddenly swifts towards James and then shakes his head. “Clearly he’s out the question...,”

   “She’s having a baby?” Luke implodes his eyes big with his mouth hanging slightly open.

   “No shit mate, she’s just screaming cause she’s gone insane,”

    “Seriously Tom, enough with the crap,” I spit, looking at him wildly. Honestly, if I could gut him right now, I would. My eyes shoot to Luke as I waggle my finger at him and point him towards James. “Luke, deal with James will you?”

   “Who died and made you charge,” Luke shoots. I honestly couldn’t take his shit anymore. I growl at look and immediately he scurries over to James, probably cussing my under his breath as his mouth was making all sorts of shapes. Without even a second thought, I shuffle closer to Erin and place my hands on her knees, pulling them further apart.

   “Chris, pass me your coat,” Chris looks at me for a second, his cheeks red from all the heat. He grabs his khaki coat from beside him and passes it to me.

  “What on earth are you doing?!” I hear Ms Ruskin shriek from beside me and I swear from the corner of my eye, I could see her flailing her arms about. Silly woman.

    “Delivering this baby, duh,” I say bluntly, whilst draping Chris’s coat over Erin’s knees.

   “Really? You know how to deliver babies?” There was something about the way she made out as if I was an idiot. And with both Luke and Tom in this lift, I took this as a big dig at my IQ, something I was hundred percent sure that I had triple the amount of with the two combined.

   “Listen ok,” I start, extenuating my sass levels. “If you must know, my mother delivers babies practically every day, I’ve read the books and this baby is going to come out whether you like it or not so I don’t think we have much choice here,” I breathe out, feeling my face go all red. I notice that I breathe heavily, probably due to all the built up frustration I kept inside from the old hag picking on me from the moment this lift shut its door. Ms Ruskin’s face fell slightly, her eyes slightly wide and big.         

   And for a moment, I regret everything I say. I’ve always been told to be nice to the elderly, no matter how annoying some of them were. Or so I remember my parents telling me after a long lecture about how to be a good human being, after I may or may not have pushed through a crowd of old folk to get to the bookshop.  I suddenly felt something squeeze my shoulder and I turn round, Ms Ruskin giving me a slight smile and nodding her head at me. I smile back. Now the guilt was sure to haunt me. I turned my focus back to Erin, who was being supported by Chris and Tom, Tom’s own face red from Erin’s grasp on him.

   I looked at Tom and Tom looked back at me and for the first time since we got in this lift, he gives me a small smile. After our last exchange, I still didn’t feel the need to smile at him. I was still angry, still hurt but we all had something way bigger to worry about and we had to work together. I nod back at him and look towards Luke who was supporting a nearly unconscious James, using a leaflet that he managed to scrounge from Erin’s handbag and fanning him.

  I exhale heavily, readying myself. Erin’s knees were already apart I knew that was rule number one for sure. I bite my lip, trying to not allow myself to panic. Think Emily, think. What would Mum do? I quickly tie my hair up in a rough bun, and chew on my lip even more, thinking. Erin was practically screaming at this point so that didn’t leave me much time. I felt my own sweat sliding down my forehead, making me even more nervous than I already was.

   “Emily?” I hear Ms Ruskin say from behind me. Her voice now had a slight warmth to it but I noted the urgency in her tone. “We need to do this now dear,”

   It was the first time she had addressed anyone with any form of sincerity since we were all stuck here. My mind drifts off back to when I was with Sara and Jess as we were shopping for our prom dresses just this earlier. Followed by my frantic goose chase which led me to be stuck with four complete strangers yet never in my life would I have assumed that this would ever happen to me. To be here right now in this small enclosed space with my ex, and delivering a baby.

   “Emily?”

   Something just clicked. I stop chewing my bottom lip and rub my hands together. “On it,” I say, confidently but as I slid my eyes under the coat that was used to cover Erin’s decency, my own heart was palpitating so loud that I could barely hear myself thing. My hands were shaking and I was sweating even more now that I could see a small round bob make an appearance in between Erin’s legs. Whether it was gut instinct or whether it was my mother’s genes controlling me, I knew what had to happen next.

   “One push, Erin,” I say, placing my hands in the correct position. My eyes quickly gazes at Erin’s face who looked like she was half unconscious yet screaming as she was fighting through the pain. You really had to admire her as no drugs were being used at her disposal. “One push and we’ll have the baby...,” I repeat, reassuring her.

   “Luke...,” I hear Tom say through clenched teeth. “Get ready for a lesson in child birth...,”

***

Everything happened all at once. The first thing that happened was probably that the lift suddenly stopped moving but neither of us noticed as we were all too fixated on getting this baby delivered. Erin’s face was filled with pain and tiredness as she gave one last push, the doors to the lift suddenly shot open, and various voices were now floating through the atmosphere. But one voice stood out from all the rest.

And that was the sound of Erin’s new born baby girl.

Authors Note:

  Sorry if this isn't as entertaning as the other chapters but this was the one chapter that probably needed a bit of seriousness in, not to mention Emily finally reaching the end of her tether! Just want to thank you guys for sticking around this far, especially since the next chapter is going to be the last chapter! So I'm going to be working on that in a bit and who knows what happens eh? I have a pretty rough idea...