Born In Death

“But I need my bag.” Tandy rubbed her belly, breathed out in little puffs. “I have to have it. It has my music and my focus – ”

“Me, too, me, too.” Mavis pressed a hand to the small of her back. “If we don’t have our bags – ”

“And here’s what we’re going to do next. I’ll get Peabody and McNab to go by both your places, get both bags. But we’re going. Now.”

“Ladies, you need your coats.” Roarke stepped up, laid a bolstering hand on Eve’s shoulder. “Sorry, I clutched,” he said to her. “Ah, Summerset, just who we need. We need a vehicle brought around right away.”

“Are you in labor, Tandy?”

“My water broke, and Mavis is having contractions.”

“Isn’t that lovely,” he said with a calm that made Eve want to punch him even harder than she usually wanted to. “You’ll have your babies together. Mavis, how far apart are the contractions?”

“I forgot to time.” Ripe panic bubbled out of Leonardo. “I forgot to time.”

“It’s all right. Did you just start to have contractions?” Summerset asked her.

“I think I’ve sort of been having them off and on for a couple hours. Maybe three.”

“A couple hours.” Eve heard that same ripe panic come out of her mouth. “Jesus, Mavis.”

“It’s perfectly fine.” Summerset shot Eve a damning look. “Tandy, when was your last contraction?”

“Um. More or less now.” She took a slow breath.

“I need to time!” Leonardo threw his long arms in the air. “I need to time.”

“No.” Eve pointed a finger at Leonardo. “We need to go.”

“Has anyone contacted the midwife?” Summerset asked.

“Shit.” Eve pulled at her hair. “You call her,” she ordered Summerset. “Tell her we’re heading in, carrying two. And contact Peabody, have her and McNab pick up the baby bags in Tandy’s and Mavis’s apartments. Apparently if we don’t have them, we’re doomed. And you need to contact Aaron Applebee.”

“Oh, yes, please.” Tandy beamed.

“Tell him where we’re going and why.”

“Certainly, now, ladies, sit down.”

“Sit down! No sitting,” Eve snapped. “Going.”

“These things take time. You be comfortable while we get your coats and the proper vehicle warmed up for you. Tandy, wouldn’t you like to speak to your Aaron yourself?”

“Yes. Yes, thank you, I really would.”

Summerset took a ’link out of his pocket, offered it. “I’ll just contact the midwife, and I’ll be back in a moment with your coats.”

Whatever his legion of faults, Summerset was efficient – Eve had to admit it. Within fifteen minutes they were driving through the gates. All of them, including Summerset, at Mavis’s and Tandy’s insistence.

There was constant chatter – about dilation, contractions, focus points, breast-feeding. Eve thought nostalgically of the last time she’d ridden with a crew on a mission. The chatter of cops, the possibility of death or injury.

It had been a lot less stressful.

Twice on the drive, Leonardo had to put his head between his knees. She couldn’t really blame him.

“I’m going to drop them off at the entrance, then park.” Roarke slid a glance toward Eve. “I’m not going to keep driving until I get to Mexico. I’ll be right along. My word.”

“Just remember, if you’re not, I’ll hunt you down, disarticulate all your limbs, then feed them to small, ugly dogs.”

“Noted.”

They were greeted inside by two bright-eyed, cheerful nurses, but Eve’s relief in passing the burden was short-lived.

“You have to come with us.”

“Come with you?” She goggled at Mavis. “Leonardo – ”

“He has to check us in.” Mavis grabbed Eve’s hand and clung. “You have to come. Uh-oh.”

Recognizing the signs now, Eve looked at Summerset. “She’s having another one.”

“Yes, that’s how it’s done. Go along with her. I’ll bring Leonardo and Roarke.”

It didn’t seem fair, it didn’t seem right, that she should have to take any part of this solo. But Mavis’s hand was glued to hers, and the nurses were leading them all away.

“You’re not going to shoot anything out before the rest of the team’s in place, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Plenty of time.” Mavis’s nurse smiled at Eve. “I’m Dolly, and I’ll be taking care of you, Mavis. Randa will be here soon.”

“I’m Opal. We’ll just get both of you settled in your room and see how far you’ve progressed. I didn’t see your bags.”

“Somebody’s bringing them.” Tandy found Eve’s free hand, grabbed it. “We weren’t home when we started. My boyfriend – fiancé – the baby’s father, he’s coming.”

“We’ll make sure he’s sent right up to you. Don’t worry, Mommy. It’s the first for both of you, isn’t it? And you’re friends, having babies at the same time. Isn’t that fun?”

“A barrel of monkeys,” Eve muttered.

22

SHE HATED HOSPITALS. IT DIDN’T MATTER IF they put pictures of angelic babies on the pastel walls, arranged small, gardenlike seating areas, and wrapped the staff with rainbows. It was still a hospital – a place where doctors and machines took over your body, and there was usually some sort of pain involved.

It was no doubt due to Mavis’s celebrity status that she was taken to a birthing room that was appointed like a high-end hotel suite. Bathed in the spillover glory, Tandy was settled into a plush room across the hall.

Eve’s hopes that all she’d be called on to do, for the moment, was get her charges where they were going were quickly dashed. The only way Mavis would release the vicelike grip on her hand was with the promise Eve would go over, check on Tandy, and come right back.

“Leonardo and I were going to be with her. And now we’re at countdown, too. She doesn’t have anyone until Aaron gets here.”

Since Eve was prepared to treat both women as she would a dangerous, wounded animal, she patted Mavis’s white-knuckled hand. “Sure, no problem. I’m on it.”

She walked over, pushed open the door, and found herself staring at a completely naked, enormously pregnant woman being helped into a short blue gown.

“Jesus.” Eve slapped her hand over her eyes. “Sorry. Mavis wanted to be sure you were okay.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” Tandy’s voice was cheerful and bright. “You need to be with her now.”

“No problem. I’m going.”

“Oh, oh, Dallas. Do you think you could reach Aaron again? Make sure he’s on his way.”

“You bet.” She turned, went back over, and was flashed with a naked Mavis. “Please, in the name of all that’s holy and good, will someone cover these women?”

Mavis giggled as Dolly slipped a gown in mad swirls of blue and pink over her head. “Is Tandy all right? Is Leonardo coming? Is Aaron?”

“She’s fine. I’ll check.”

Desperate to escape, Eve darted into the hall. There she determined that Aaron had finally gotten into a cab, and Leonardo had just completed the check-ins.

“Courage,” she reminded herself, and went back into Mavis.

“Hey! I’m wired!” She was sitting up in bed, flushed with excitement. “See, that’s the baby’s heartbeat, and that one’s to measure contractions.”

Dolly snapped on a protective glove. “We’re just going to do a cervical check.”

God have mercy. “I’ll be in the hall.”

“No, don’t leave!” Mavis shot out a hand. Resigned to the idea there was no God, Eve took it as Mavis assumed the position.

“Leonardo’s on his way up,” Eve told her, careful to keep her eyes trained on Mavis’s face.

“About three centimeters,” Dolly a

“Yeah.”

“What can I get you?”

“A huge glass of wine.”

Dolly laughed. “Now, now, no alcohol until the toast after baby. How about a nice cup of tea?”

Eve started to ask for coffee, then remembered hospital sludge was as bad as cop coffee. “Got Pepsi?”

“Of course.”