Fall To Pieces: Broken #2 (The Broken Series) (19 page)

“Kyle,” she cried out.

I could hear the fear in her voice and rushed to her.

“I’m here, baby, I’m right here,” I said. “Lee, I need you to lie down on your back for me. Can you do that, baby?”

She nodded, whimpering as she slowly turned herself around to lie down.

“Good, baby, that’s perfect. You’re doing so damn well,” I praised as I crouched at the car door.

“Someone needs to go check for a signal, so we can get some help,” Cam said from behind me.

I shook my head.

I wasn’t moving more than an inch away from Lee.

“We need to call an ambulance,” she repeated.

“Kyle, please don’t leave me,” Lee begged, clutching at my shirt.

I held her hand tightly and leaned inside the car, kissing her forehead.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I vowed. “Cam, you go. I got this,” I said, finally finding my balls again.

This was my girl lying on the seat, and my baby, trying to get out. Mine.

I could do this.

Hell yeah, I could get my baby out, if I needed to.

Lee smiled at me for a brief moment before her face twisted in pain.

“Okay, I’ll be as fast as I can,” Cam said as she jogged up the road quickly with her phone held out in front of her.

“Stay with them
, Derek. Kyle needs your help more than I do,” she said to a dismayed Derek.

Lee cried out, drawing attention back to her.

“I think I need to push,” she hissed, scrambling backwards, trying to spread her legs wider.

Oh
, holy fuck.

Derek, who’d come back to the car, said the stupidest fucking thing I’d ever heard in that moment.

“Can you like, hold it in?” he asked. “Just until Cam gets back or preferably until we get an ambulance.”

“Shut your face, dipshit. I
f you can’t deal, then fuck off,” I grumbled, as I leaned into the car and hiked her dress up to her waist.

“Turn around,” I told Derek, as I tugged the edges of her panties, tearing them off.

Settling in-between Lee’s legs, I braced myself for the unknown, while I coaxed and praised her.

“That’s it, baby, you’re doing amazing. I’m so proud of you.”  I rubbed her thigh. “You can push, baby, if you feel the urge, go with it.”

My calm voice betrayed my true feelings.

“Derek, go to the other door and rub her back,” I instructed, not wanting that douche anywhere near Lee’s crotch.

“Dude, I’m gonna be paying for years’ worth of therapy after this,” he muttered, moving away.

He opened the door behind Lee’s back, and slid in behind her.

“What do I do?” he asked in a choked voice.

“Ahh, Jesus Christ, it burns,” Lee screamed, as she threw her hand back to grip Derek.

I peeked up, and held in a chuckle.

She had Derek gripped by the ear.

He was gone snow white, and in any other situation his face would have looked comical. But the seriousness of the situation sobered me.

“It burns,” she yelled, once more before
she leaned forward and started pushing.

“Great, that great, princess,” I encouraged. “Keep going.”

I ignored the blood and everything else, focusing only, on getting my baby out, and easing Lee’s pain.

She bore down and pushed, and this time I could see something. “Good, baby, I can see the head, keep pushing.”

“You can?” she asked breathlessly, panting.

I nodded, not having the heart to tell her that the minute she’d stopped pushing, it had popped back up.

Her face reddened as she began to push once again, and holy shit, I could see it clearly now.

“Great job, Lee. Go for it, push hard, baby.”

I held her legs apart, and scrambled to grab some clean towels.

“Derek, can you pass me the first aid kit,” I ordered.

Lee screamed and the baby’s head popped out.

Holy fuck. Sweet Jesus Christ.

A head of dark hair was all I could see. Hair plastered in clear, bloody jelly gunk.

I would never eat jelly again…

“Oh, that’s the most disturbing fucking image I’ve ever seen,” Derek muttered, tossing the first aid kit at my feet.

“Is there supposed to be that much blood?” he continued covering his mouth with his hand. “Dude…I can’t. You’re on your own.”

With that, I heard him retreat, and a few moments later, the sound of loud vomiting.

“Ignore him,” I said gently, focusing on Lee. “One more big push, princess, one big one and we’ll meet our baby.”

Lee whimpered, throwing her arm over her face.

“I’m so tired, Kyle,” she cried, tears falling down her face. “I can’t push anymore.”

Oh hell no, she’d gone so far, she’d practically run this whole show by herself. No way, was she going to start doubting herself now.

Her cries turned into grunts as another contraction rolled through her.

“Do it now, Lee, push him out.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. I know you can. Push this little guy out right this instant, or so help me, I’ll go in there and get him myself.”

Lee braced herself, pushing down, growling in sheer concentration.

Everything happened so fast after that…

Lee screamed and there was a gush and suddenly, I was holding a small bundle of blood and goo.

The most perfect creature I’d ever seen in my life, with a head of dark curls, and the most beautiful blue eyes, I’d ever seen.

“We have a daughter,” I choked out, blinking back the tears as my eyes roamed over the every inch of my daughter.

“Is she okay?” Lee asked anxiously.

Her body trembled from the incredible amount of work she’d just done.

“She’s perfect, just like her mother.”

With trembling hands, I wrapped her in a towel and leaned over
, to hand her to her momma.

“Thank you,” I whispered as I carefully placed her on Lee’s chest.

Leaning down I brushed my lips over Lee’s forehead. “You did it, baby. You did it. I love you so much.”

“We did it. And I love you more,” was her reply, and Lee’s beaming smile was enough to kick start the tears, I thought I

had stemmed.

I moved away from them both.

I needed a moment to breathe.

I stood outside the car, my body shaking, bawling like a baby.

I didn’t even realize Derek was beside me, until he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and shook his head in awe.

“You two… are incredi
ble. I’m sorry I didn’t do more…”

I slapped him on the back. “You did what you could, man. Thank you.”

“Kyle, look at this.”

I crouched down once more fascinated to find Lee nursing our baby.

“She latched on,” she said amazed. “Oh, Kyle, I need to push the rest out,” Lee whispered suddenly. “And we need to clamp the cord.”

I stared at her dumbfounded, as reality slowly dawned on me.

It was one thing to deliver a baby; I had no fucking clue what to do with anything else.

The sound of a siren coming closer
, was my saving grace.

Thank you Cam
.

*****

Lee

“Lee, baby, the paramedics are here. They’re gonna get you all cleaned
up and take us to the hospital,” I heard Kyle say from behind me, as he wrapped his arms around me, but I couldn’t turn my face to look at him.

My
attention was entirely focused on my baby, lying in my arms.

I felt so many emotions in that
moment, that I thought I might burst.

The unconditional love, the raw, undiluted purity and strength of my feelings for this tiny person in my arms, was almost too much to bear.

I loved her so much in that instant, and it was effortless and unequivocal.

She was so beautiful, so tiny and perfect, with wisps of dark curls, eyes the color of the ocean, just like her daddy.

I knew babies eyes changed color, but I hoped hers, would stay the same.

I didn’t want to change a hair on her head. She was perfect.

Giving birth on the back seat of Kyle’s new Mercedes, on the side of the road, had to top the list of most terrifying experiences of my life.

The fear I’d felt in those moments
, had been crushing. But Kyle…Kyle had been amazing. 

I had been sure, absolutely certain, that something terrible was going to happen to my baby.

Even when I’d heard her cry, I’d been petrified that the overwhelming sense of euphoria flooding through my heart, would be snatched away.

“Say cheese.”

I looked up at Derek, just as a bright light flashed in my face.

“Perfect, now how about one with a smile, Kyle?”  Derek coaxed, before blinding us again with another flash.

I was extremely thankful, that Kyle had covered me with a blanket, now that it was apparently picture time.

“Jesus,” Kyle muttered as he nuzzled my neck. “He’s worse than a woman.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I heard that,” Derek retorted, snapping away like a mad man.

“You were supposed to. Now, stop flashing that damn thing in my daughter’s face. You’ll blind her before she’s an hour old.”

I looked down at her, alarmed.

Her little face was scrunched up in distaste. I discreetly covered her face from Derek’s harassing camera.

“Oh, my god, Oh, my god,” Cam cooed
, from outside the door.

Pushing Derek out of her way, Cam leaned over my legs, gazing lovingly at my baby.

“She’s so perfect,” she fussed, stroking her head, and cheeks.

“And so beaut
iful,” she gushed. “Oh hey, look Kyle, she has your nose. But we won’t hold that against you, will we, gorgeous? No, we won’t. Cause you’re just too pretty. Who’s a pretty girl? Yes, you are. I told them that you were a girl. Derek, give me the damn camera, she’s opening her eyes.” 

I leaned further into Kyle’s chest, as little
, tremors of aftershocks rippled through me.

“Hey ya’ll, I came to deliver a baby, but I se
e you guys have had all the fun,” a female paramedic with a southern twang-
I couldn’t place
said, interrupting Derek and Cam’s photography session. 

Her smile was so broad and friendly that I couldn’t help but return the gesture.

Cam reluctantly moved out of the way for the paramedic.

“So
, sweetie, it looks like you and your husband have done a great job, so I’m just gonna get you cleaned up, then transfer you both to the hospital. My name’s Sarah, by the way.”

I introduced myself and
Kyle, but didn’t correct the husband comment, and neither did he.

Kyle sat behind me
patiently, stroking my arm, kissing me repeatedly on the shoulder and the top of my head, whispering words of praise and love.

Sarah proc
eeded to clamp and cut the cord. She injected me in the thigh, before delivering the after-birth and cleaning me up.

It saddened me that Kyle hadn’t been allowed to cut the cord, but I guessed the circumstances weren’t ideal and I was just so glad that my baby was okay.

I then, rather reluctantly, handed my baby over to be checked over. 

“Wow, she’s a stunner, and look at all that hair. I bet you had a lot of heartburn?” 

Kyle chuckled against my neck, as I nodded at the paramedic.

It definitely hadn’t been the
easiest of pregnancies, but so incredibly worth it.

Every moment; good, bad, and heart breaking, was worth it to hold her in my arms.

“Wait, where are you taking her?” I asked alarmed, as I watched Sarah place my baby in the arms of another paramedic.

“Don’t worry
, sweetie, Larry here is just gonna check your little girl over and get her cleaned up, she’ll be back in your arms in a jiffy.”

I sat forward, watching every step Larry took away from me, but Kyle pulled me back against his chest.

“It’s okay, princess, they’re just doing their job. She’s perfectly fine.”

I sighed, and waited, impatiently, as Sarah left to get a wheelchair.

Kyle helped me into the chair and again onto the gurney.

Those small
movements left me shattered and I struggled to keep my eyes open. 

The last thing I remembered, before my eyes closed, was Kyle’s soothing voice in my ear. “I’ll hold her. I’ll keep her safe. Sleep,
princess.”