Chapter 57: The Winner Is…

Astrid was the first to react, and Morgan the second.

They stood on either side of Jasmine and pulled her away from the fight or the tail end of it. Both men scrambled over each other, trying to catch up to her when they realized what happened.

“Wait, I’ll take her,” Nick said.

“No, you aren’t,” Aaron said as he tried to throw Nick down.

“Jesus Christ, you two, she’s going into labor. You can settle your bullshit while we get her to the hospital,” Astrid snapped.

Jasmine nearly crumpled as a contraction hit her hard. “It’s too soon,” she said. “I still have 10 weeks. It’s too soon.”

“Honey, it’ll be okay. We’re right here now. I’ve got you,” Morgan cooed, encouraging her to put one foot in front of the other to the car.

The gravity of the situation hit Nick. He took one more glance at Aaron, doubled over and panting hard, then sprinted past them.

She wanted to know where he was going, but another contraction consumed her every thought. She bit her tongue back to stop from screaming, while they inched forward towards wherever the car was. Aaron tried to approach, his hand on her back for split second before Morgan slapped it away.

“He’s. Not. Yours. You touch her again, and I cut the hand off.”

Merrick stepped between them, glowered down at Aaron.

He grimaced, and then took off in a different direction from Nick.

“He’s gonna be there, right?” Jasmine asked, hoped they knew who she meant.

“Don’t worry, honey. He’s never going to leave your side again. I told him I’d disown him if he did,” Astrid reassured her.

They made it to the curb when Nick pulled up in an SUV and opened the back door.

“Come on. I’ve already called the hospital and let them know.”

Gingerly, they loaded her into the car; Astrid took the front passenger seat, Morgan and Natalie crammed next to Jasmine in the second row, and Merrick took the back row. Morgan and Natalie offered their hands, which they almost immediately regretted when they felt her death grip.

“Time the contractions,” Jasmine said between gritted teeth. Morgan nodded and pulled out her phone timer.

“Careful, Nicky!” Astrid yelled. His driving was erratic, panicked, but it was hard for Jasmine to focus on anything but the pain.

Once two contractions had passed, Morgan stopped the timer. “About five minutes apart. Nick, how far are we from the hospital?”

“With traffic, ten minutes. Please tell me we have enough time.”

Natalie said, “We should. If they get under three minutes we might be in trouble.” She smiled at Jasmine. “I learned everything about labor in case a certain someone decided to not step up.”

“Can we not bring up my poor decision-making right now?”

“It’s your own fault,” Merrick called from the back.

It was hard to remember everything her OBGYN and nurses had told her, what the articles she read said to do, and how to breathe. Behind the pain, she was terrified for her child. He would survive at this stage, theoretically, but how strong would he be? How many weeks would he need to spend in the NICU? Would he ever be healthy? And God forbid, what if he didn’t survive?

In a blur of motion and terror, they pulled up to the hospital. She was quickly put into a wheelchair, and they started to wheel her to the Labor and Delivery unit.

“It looks like you’ve got a lot of support. We can only let one person in the room with you, though. Who do you want?” an older nurse with kind blue eyes asked her.

“Nick,” she said, and pointed at him.

A grin spread across his face, and he took a step towards her.

A hand appeared on his shoulder, flipped him around, and punched him so hard and fell backwards.

Several of the nurses gasped at the sudden violence in their hospital. Aaron stood over Nick. “I’m not leaving until I see the paternity results myself,” he said.

Nick stood up and hit him with an uppercut to his stomach. “You will never lay a hand on my son, do you understand?” he said, then turned to the nurse. “Look up paternity results for Jasmine Thornton’s child.”

The request didn’t faze Aaron in the slightest, and, taking the momentary distraction, he punched Nick square on the nose. It started to gush, and Jasmine could do nothing but scream and cry for them to stop.

The whole foyer was covered in splatters of blood in under a minute. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two men who looked like they were security running to the fight.

“Nick!” she screamed, “I need you!”

He looked at her, looked at the security rushing them, smiled, and then punched Aaron one more time. It landed on his temple, and he fell to the ground like a bag of rocks.

The security tackled Nick down as well, and he didn’t struggle.

“Let him go,” the nurse said. “The other man started the fight, and this woman is about to give birth to his kid. Please.” A chorus of agreements echoed the sentiment.

Security took one long glare at Nick, then let him up. “I’ll get your statement later. Congrats,” he said in a gruff, annoyed voice.

Nick turned back to her, and she wanted to cry. His left eye was swollen and a dark-black color, his nose bled profusely, and there were several other gashes on his face.

The nurse restarted their journey to the delivery room with Nick by her side. “We’ll take care of the nastiest stuff once she’s comfortable,” she said, and handed him a tissue from seemingly nowhere.

“I’m sorry,” Jasmine sobbed, seeing how much blood the little piece of paper soaked up.

“Don’t be. I would take on the world for you,” he said. She knew in her heart he was telling the truth.

They finally made it to a room, but now it felt like the contractions were barely separated at all. Nick effortlessly placed her on the bed, and what she assumed was the doctor on call came into her room.

“Let’s see where things are, Jasmine. That’s your name, right?” he said. She nodded. He was far more relaxed than she was, which conversely added to her stress.

She put her legs in the stirrups, and the doctor did his assessment while the nurse attached an array of wires and needles to her.

The doctor looked up the nurse. “A tiny bit over 9 cm. This baby is coming in the next hour. We’ll get preparations made and check every five minutes until it’s time to push.”

Jasmine tasted blood in her mouth as she struggled not to scream.

“Can’t we get her an epidural or something to help the pain?”

“We can try. When did she go into labor?”

“A little less than an hour ago.”

The doctor’s eyes went wide. “Your baby is wasting no time. This might be the fastest labor I’ve ever seen. Did something happen that might have put stress on your system?”

“What about the epidural?” Nick yelled as Jasmine held onto him for dear life.

“If she’s moving this fast, it won’t have enough time to kick in to have any benefit.” The doctor looked Jasmine in the eye. “You’re going to need to do this without the epidural, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure it goes smoothly.”

She nodded and then screamed.

He put on gloves and called for additional nurses, then checked her cervix again.

“10 cm. Okay, Jasmine. It’s time. I need you to take a big breath and push.”

She looked at Nick and could see how much he believed in her. He squeezed her hand as hard as she squeezed his and psyched herself up.

With a big breath, she pushed.

Why did anyone decide to have children? The first several pushes were pure agony.

“You’re doing great, peach,” Nick said, petting her head as more of a comfort himself than her.

“They’re crowning!” the doctor shouted. “Come on, just one more big push.”

“I can’t!” she screamed.

“You can, you will,” Nick said and kissed her. He must love her, she thought, because she was disgusting, and he chose to kiss her anyway.

In a split second, it was over. She heard Asher’s cries for the first time.

The doctor told her it wasn’t quite over, but all she could focus on was what the nurses were doing with her baby. Every second the baby wasn’t in her arms her panic grew.

“Jasmine, stay calm. You’ve got some hemorrhaging, and if you panic, it will make it worse,” the doctor warned.

“Asher, let me see Asher,” she mumbled.

The nurse walked over and placed the bundle of joy in her arms. “He’s a big boy for being born so early. He’s stable, so you can cuddle for a few minutes, then we’ll take him and make sure he’s 100% healthy.”

Jasmine beamed at her baby. She’d done it, with Nick at her side. She never thought the day would come.

His face showed a joy that equaled hers. “So, you picked Asher as his name?” he asked.

She nodded. “Do you like it?”

“I love it. Hi, little Asher,” he said. He placed his finger just underneath Asher’s tiny hand, and the baby held it.

Her vision suddenly became fuzzy.

“Most of the placenta is out, but part of it won’t disconnect, and I can’t get a handle on the bleeding.”

It was getting hard to hold up her head. With an expert grasp, the nurse grabbed Asher before Jasmine’s arms felt weak.

“Hey, Jasmine, stay with me.” Nick put his hand on her cheek, and the untold joy was replaced with equally intense fear.

The voices of the doctors and nurses started to wash away. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said in a daze, and the darkness took her.