Labor
Taylor rushed into Zac’s bedroom and found Shiloh sitting on the bare mattress, a slightly perplexed expression on her face. She had broken out into a sweat, it seemed, and he didn’t know if that was from the exertion of packing or from what else her body was going through. Either way, he suddenly felt very guilty for even making her work at all.
“I thought you weren’t due until Friday,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she replied, snarling. “Did you really expect your child to do anything that was expected of them?”
Taylor laughed in spite of his nervousness. He hurried to the bed and wrapped his arm around Shiloh, ignoring the way she attempted to shrug him off. After a few seconds, she quit fighting and let him help her up off the bed and guide her back through the apartment. They paused only for a moment by the door so that Taylor could grab her purse.
It occurred to Taylor that they hadn’t really discussed how this was going to happen. She had seemed so dismissive of the idea of a birth plan, aside from agreeing that he could be there if he wanted. Other than that, Taylor had no clue what to expect. He settled Shiloh into the passenger seat of his car and was backing out of the parking lot before it even occurred to ask him what hospital she wanted him to take her to.
He was definitely in over his head, but he didn’t care. He was going to be a father in a matter of hours. Nothing else but Shiloh and that baby girl mattered.
They arrived at the hospital in what Taylor was pretty sure was record time, thanks to his lead foot. Every time Shiloh whimpered or starting breathing heavier, he sped up just a little bit more. He pulled right up to the front of the hospital, not caring if he was actually allowed, and had barely even put his car into park before springing out and running to the other side to help Shiloh out of her seat.
“You can make it inside, right? While I go park?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m having a baby, Tay. That’s all. I’m not injured. Last time I checked, my legs still worked just fine.”
“And so does your bad attitude,” Taylor remarked, smirking. He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as I find a place to park.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she replied, but gave him a tiny smile before waddling toward the hospital door.
It took Taylor far longer than he would have liked to find a parking spot, and once he did, he had a long walk back to the hospital doors. He walked inside and saw that Shiloh was sitting in a chair filling out some sort of forms while also cradling her cell phone between her face and her shoulder. He approached her quickly, but quietly, since he didn’t know who she was talking to.
“Yeah, I know,” she said. “Yes… Taylor’s here. I’ll… I’ll have him call you and keep you updated, okay?”
Taylor blinked, but didn’t speak a word. He waited as patiently as he possibly could while she said goodbye to whoever was on the other end of the line. After a moment, she slid her phone back into her purse and glanced sheepishly at Taylor.
“That was my mom,” she said. “She’s umm.. well, she wanted to drive up from Texas, but I told her that was ridiculous. You’ll call her, right?”
Taylor nodded. He hadn’t even thought about what Shiloh’s family would think of everything that was happening. She didn’t really have a lot of family besides her mother, who Taylor vaguely recalled having met a few times, but she lived several hours away in Texas. Shiloh’s family was a lot different from his; whereas his was large and constantly in contact with each other, even if they didn’t always get along, her was small and seemed to get along better if they didn’t talk all that often. Taylor didn’t understand it at all, but he was glad, at least, that she was talking to her mother.
“So,” Taylor said, clearing his throat. “What’s the plan? I mean, what’s going on?”
“Well, I have to finish filling these forms out so that I’m officially checked in. Then they’ll take me back and starting monitoring my–” Shiloh paused and winced. “Oww. Those. My contractions. And they’re calling in my doctor, too, so we can be ready to really get this show on the road.”
“And me? What about me?”
Shiloh shrugged. “Whatever you want. You can come back and stay with me as long as you want, or you can stay out here the whole time. I can’t guarantee that I, or the whole thing, will be very pleasant, so… you may want to steer clear.”
Taylor chuckled. “How about this. How about I go back there for now, and if I want to step out, I will?”
“Yeah, okay,” she replied. “Just… wait until they get me situated and everything? I’ll tell the nurse to come get you then.”
Taylor wasn’t totally sure he trusted Shiloh to do as she said, but he figured it was best not to argue with her at that particular moment. He settled back into his seat and tried not to look horribly impatient as she finished filling out her forms and took them up to the front desk. Shiloh only offered him a tiny smile as a nurse helped her into a wheelchair and carted her off down the hallway and out of sight.
It was exactly seventeen minutes before the nurse came back into the waiting room to get Taylor. Shiloh looked roughly the same, despite being in a hospital bed in a pair of pink scrubs. She looked totally unimpressed by her surroundings, but Taylor was pretty sure that was her natural expression.
“I’m fine,” she said, before Taylor even had a chance to ask.
“I know,” he replied. “I mean, I’m sure you are. And I’m sure you wouldn’t tell me if you weren’t.”
Shiloh gave him a little smirk. “Probably not, no. So you’re really gonna stay back here, huh?”
“I guess so,” Taylor replied with a shrug. “We’ll see how long I make it.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess we will.”
The next seven hours passed by in a blur. If he hadn’t checked his watch, Taylor wouldn’t have even realized that much time had passed. He only left the room to get coffee and stale potato chips from a vending machine when his body began to protest the fact that he hadn’t eaten all day. Otherwise, he remained right by Shiloh’s side all the way. There were moments when he thought he might pass out – both from the sight in front of him and the strength with which she was squeezing his hand, but still he remained by her side. He hoped she would realize just what that meant when she looked back on that day later.
Finally, the doctor handed his baby girl to him. She was tiny and wrinkled and bright red, but she was his. Her hair was a shade of brown that wasn’t really similar to either his or Shiloh’s, but her eyes were bright blue – the same blue that he knew people always commented on when they talked about his looks.
“She’s beautiful,” he said, no other more profound words coming to mind.
“Yeah, I guess we’re lucky she doesn’t look any more like you,” Shiloh replied, smirking.
Taylor rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. “What are we going to call her?”
“Stella, like Zac wanted,” Shiloh said.
“Stella Mae,” Taylor cut in. “Charlotte’s middle name.”
Shiloh smiled and nodded. “Stella Mae Hanson it is.”
Taylor didn’t think he’d ever heard a more beautiful name.