“Bye. Go… be a doctor,” she said, clearly flustered.
He waited again, and this time she hung up. Lee stuffed the last of his wrap into his mouth and headed for LDR No. 5.
Ella Rose Knight was born thirty-two minutes later, and as soon as Lee got cleaned up from her delivery, he was called to LDR No. 2 with a patient he’d never met.
She looked like she was twelve.
“Meredith Ryan. Age eighteen. Thirty-eight weeks. Ten centimeters. One-hundred percent effaced,” Bev told him as he entered the room. Lynne, another nurse, finished breaking down the bed while Ashley, his OB tech, moved the instrument tray in place.
An older woman was at the head of her bed, but instead of holding the young mother’s hand, she stood with her arms folded.
Lee brought his eyes back to his patient and extended his hand. “Hi, Ms. Ryan. I’m Dr. Hawthorne.” He watched as her eyes drifted to his, and she raised her hand. Her look was empty, her hand clammy and limp. She had to be scared out of her mind.
“Meredith,” she managed.
“How are you feeling, Meredith?”
Her mouth opened just before her eyes cut to the fetal monitor, which signaled a contraction. “Numb…” she said.
Lee didn’t like the lost look in her eyes. He shifted his grip to her wrist to take her pulse. “Vitals okay, Bev?” he asked softly.
“All normal, doc.”
When he was satisfied with the strength of her pulse, Lee set her hand down on the bed and turned to the woman behind his patient. “Are you Meredith’s mother?”
The woman raised an offended brow. “I most certainly am not.”
Uh oh.
Lee cut his glance to Bev, who gave him a barely perceptible eye roll. “A relation, then?”’
“To the child,” she said, glaring down at Meredith’s belly, disregarding the girl completely.
Oh, crap.
A hostile force in the delivery room always spelled trouble. Labor usually stalled, and Lee wondered how long Meredith’s had taken so far and why he hadn’t seen her already tonight. Bev spoke up as if she read his mind.
“She was just admitted about an hour ago. Dr. Faulk had just enough time to administer the epidural.” She gave him a meaningful look. “Things progressed rather quickly after that.”
Lee understood immediately. Mercer had sent the unpleasant woman out while he’d performed the epidural, and he’d probably taken his time letting her back in.
“What’s your name?” he asked the woman.
“I’m Mrs. James McCormick,” she said with a sneer.
Lee ignored her ugly look and turned back to Meredith. “Is it your wish to have Mrs. McCormick in the delivery room?”
The girl’s eyes went round at his question, but it was Mrs. James McCormick who responded.
“My Jamie said I could be here, so I’m damn well staying,” she hissed. “Who do you think is going to be raising this child, anyway?”
One look at Meredith’s miserable face, and Lee felt his jaw set.
“Dr. Hawthorne, perhaps you should check her progress,” Bev suggested, her usual sass gone. “She was at station one two contractions ago.”
“Right,” Lee muttered. He crossed the small room to put on a gown and gloves before returning to his patient. The bed had been broken down, and a stool was positioned between the young mother’s legs. When he approached her, fear and helplessness crimped her brows.
“I’m just going to check you, just like at your prenatal appointments.”
