“Okay, can you tell me what’s going on there? You said a woman has had a car accident and is in labor, correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Is the woman conscious and breathing?”
“Yes, to both.”
“Great. She can talk and speaks English?”
“Yes, to both again.”
“Can you ascertain what injuries she has, if any?”
“Juniper, are you injured at all? Juniper?” She had pushed off from the tree and was heading away from the road, down a slight embankment, into the scrub. He followed her, feeling a stab of fear. She seemed to be in a daze. Maybe she’d hit her head? She stopped, holding onto a tree branch as she rubbed her back., “Juniper, honey, you have to talk to me. Are you injured at all?”
The urgent note in his voice got her attention and she turned and looked back at him. “No, I don’t think so. My neck hurts a bit.” She rubbed at her chest. “Maybe my chest, from the seatbelt, I think.”
“She says she has no injuries but her neck hurts,” William said into the phone.
“Ok, that’s good news. What about the labor? Has her water broken?”
He checked, Juniper said no. “No.”
“Can you ask her how far along she is in the pregnancy?”
He relayed the question to Juniper. “She says about thirty-six weeks.”
“Any complications or contraindications?”
He followed Juniper, who seemed to be wandering aimlessly through the bush. He didn’t think it was a good idea to get too far away from the road, but he couldn’t see how he could stop her, short of manhandling her, which he definitely wasn’t prepared to do. “Juniper, the dispatcher wants to know if you’ve had any complications or anything?”
She shook her head, her back still to him as she walked.
“She says no.”
“A truck ran me off the road.” She’d stopped in a small clearing, turning and looking up at the sky as she spoke. William followed her gaze. The moon was rising, just floating on the edge of the horizon, bright white against the night sky. “He came around the bend, halfway over on my side of the road. I swerved, hit the gravel, then hit the tree. But I’d been having contractions, on and off all day. Just thought they were Braxton Hicks.”
He relayed all of that information to the woman on the other end of the line.
“Right, I’ve sent an ambulance, but they’re going to be a while. The nearest available station is Blessed Inlet, so you’re looking at forty-five to fifty minutes. Can you tell me how far apart her contractionsare?”
His worst fears realized; William forced himself to stay calm as he tried to figure it out. From when he’d first stopped to standing in the clearing, she’d had two contractions. “Maybe four or five minutes.”
He could hear her typing on the other end of the line. “Ok, I’m going to stay on the line with you until the ambulance arrives. If you like, put me on speaker and put the phone down. You might need both hands.”
William swallowed convulsively as he hoped desperately that she didn’t mean he might need two hands to deliver the baby. He put the phone on speaker and put it in the top pocket of his shirt, thanking the heavens that it was fully charged. “Okay, Juniper, the ambulance is going to be a while, so it’s just you and me for now.”
She nodded, both hands cupping her bump as she gazed at the moon and swayed gently, back and forth. The silvery light of the moon caressed her face and toyed with the riotous curls falling over her shoulders. His breath caught in his throat. She looked so beautiful, like an earth mother. Then her face scrunched up in pain and he stepped forward, instinctively putting his arms around her before her knees gave way. She brought her hands up to his shoulders, gripping on tight. As the contraction passed, she rested her forehead on his chest and her grip eased. “I’m so scared.”
William rubbed both hands up and down her back, desperately wishing he could give her some genuine comfort. “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?” Well, if that wasn’t the most ridiculous thing he could have said. They were out in the bush, miles from any meaningful assistance and she was in full blown labor. It was difficult to imagine a worse situation. She raised her head and looked at him for a long moment. Her pale green eyes were luminous in the moonlight, and he felt like she was seeing straight through to his very soul.
“Okay.” He felt a surge of surprise, but then she smiled at him. She knew damn well he was offering her cold comfort. He smiled back. “Talk to me. Distract me,” she said.
“Right, okay.” He racked his brains. What did you talk about with a woman you didn’t know, who was having a baby in the bush, to distract her from said baby? He couldn’t think of a single goddamn thing, so he went with, “Where were you driving to, tonight?”
“I was going to stop overnight in Eden. I’m heading to Byron Bay, to visit my grandmother. She’s going to help me have a water birth…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that was no longer an option. She sighed. “Maybe I should have stayed in Melbourne.”
“You’re from Melbourne?”
