“Williamstown?” Griffin barks, already pacing. His boots echo against the linoleum in the room like a warning bell. He hasn’t left my side. Not once. The first glow of morning is beginning to bleed through the blinds, casting long shadows across the floor. We’ve been here all night, and nothing is happening, other than pain lacing through me constantly.
I blink hard, trying to sit upright. The room tilts slightly, my body swaying with exhaustion.
“There’s no other option. The baby’s heart rate is too low for my liking, and the Williamstown Hospital is better equipped for neonatal care. I know you wanted to deliver here in Whispers, but it’s safest if we get you to Williamstown,” Hudson confirms as he and the nurses here all run around, gathering things, preparing me to leave already.
“Griff?” His name is barely formed before another contraction slams into me like a tidal wave. “Ahhhhhhh…” I double over, gripping my belly.
Griffin is at my side in the next second, his hand catching mine, his other arm bracing my back. His face is close, eyes wild, but voice steady. “You got this… Breathe, sweetness. Just breathe.”
“I’m breathing… I’m breathing…” I pant, eyes squeezed shut, trying to ride it out.
“I’ve got an ambulance ready.” Hudson’s voice fades behind the rush of people in the room who are unhooking my bed, and then they start to wheel me down the hallway.
“What’s happening?” I say through a gasp, my eyes finding Griffin’s. I need him to anchor me.
“The baby’s just as stubborn as its mom.” His jaw is tight. “We’re going to Williamstown so they can help encourage the little one to come out.”
“I’m scared… Don’t leave me, Griff,” I whisper as the lights on the ceiling whizz past my line of sight, one after the other, almost rhythmically.
“Never, I’ll never leave. I’m right here.” He walks quickly beside me, his hand still in mine. And I believe him.
As panicked as I am, the fact that Griffin holds my hand and never lets go while my bed is pushed down the hallway, then outside and into the ambulance, gives me the support I need and the support I’ve lacked my entire life.
“I’ll meet you there!” Hudson yells out as the doors close us in and we start to move instantly. Griffin is at my side, still holding my hand. He looks comically large, squished into the back of the ambulance next to me, watching me closely before looking at the paramedic with a gaze that would make any grown man tremble.
I feel another contraction, and I squeeze my eyes shut and groan, gripping his hand tight again, squashing his fingers together, but he never once complains or winces.
“You’re doing good, Savannah. So fucking good. I’m here, I’m right here… Breathe, sweetness. Keep breathing…” I flop back onto the bed as the pain subsides, the vehicle moving rapidly through the roads to Williamstown.
“Can’t you drive any faster?” he grits out to the paramedic. I have no idea how quickly we’re moving, but it feels fast.
“We’ll get you there as fast as we can.” The female paramedic doesn’t offer him anything else as she watches the heart rate monitor and ensures the drip in my arm is still connected.
“I bet a few months ago you never ever thought you’d be in this situation.” I look up at him through teary eyes, trying to lighten the mood. His gaze is laced with a mixture of fear, protectiveness, stress.
“The app didn’t really prepare me for this bit.”
I smile, my head lolling around a little with the movement of the vehicle, my body spent. I’m almost at total exhaustion and the baby isn’t even here yet.
“I meant what I said. I want you to live with me. I want to take care of you… and the baby…”
My heart skips a beat, feeling the most secure in my life with this man by my side.
“You’re taking pretty good care of me now.” I give him another small smile, knowing he feels a little out of his depth. We both do.
Griffin leans closer, brushing a damp strand of hair from my cheek with a touch so gentle it almost undoes me. “Savannah… look at me, baby.”
I force my eyes to meet his.
“You’re not doing this alone. Not now. Not ever.”
Another contraction curls through me, sharp and hot, and I gasp, fingers clawing at his as I tense. He squeezes back instantly.
“I’ve got you. I’m right here. You hear me? They can move us, they can poke you, prod you, wheel you through every damn hospital hallway in this state”—his voice cracks, just barely—“but I’m not letting go.”
A tear slips down my cheek, my emotions, the pain, my whole body feeling out of control. “Promise?”
He leans his forehead on mine, breath shaking. “Sweetness… you’re the only thing I’ve ever been sure of. I’m not going anywhere.”
