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She squeezes my arm. “Me too.”
When we get to the hospital, a nurse takes us to a private room where we change into scrubs and wash our hands. Once we’re finished, she says, “Follow me.”
I’m not sure what to expect. I don’t know much about labor other than movies, so I brace myself as we walk in the room. Elizabeth’s sitting in her hospital bed, attached to all kinds of machines – laughing. Hard.
She wipes her eyes and then smiles brightly as soon as she sees us. James pauses something on the iPad. She’s still chuckling a little, and then says, “Oh we were watching that new stand up special online.”
I feel my eyes grow wide. “Wait? You were just watching standup. Aren’t you in labor?”
She laughs again. “I just had the epidural. I’m feeling great. This is the slow, boring part.”
She pats the bed for us to sit. James moves out of the way.
“Are you having contractions?” Celeste asks looking around the room.
“Yes, frequently. I still feel them, but they aren’t painful now. The epidural is like some sort of miracle. Before the epidural – yikes. It was getting rough.”
James just coughs in the corner. “She nearly crushed my hand during one of them. She was squeezing it so hard.”
She grins. “I did, but now – now I hardly feel a thing.”
“That’s amazing,” Celeste says.
“The doctor said he’d come back to break my water in a few minutes once the epidural has fully kicked in. That’s when things will start to get exciting.”
I squeeze her arm. “You’re going to do great.”
“She already is,” James calls from the other side of the room.
“Will you stay?” she asks.
My eyes dart over to James. “During the delivery? You want us here.”
Celeste and I both look from James to Elizabeth and back again.
James holds up his hands. “Don’t look at me. She can have the entire Senate in here for all I care. It’s up to her, not me.”
“Well?”
“Of course, we won’t be in the way?” I ask.
“It’s a big room. I’d like you here.”
Celeste kisses her cheek. “I’d be honored.”
“Me too.”
Elizabeth takes both of our hands. “I always pictured Mom being here, and...”
She blinks back tears. We all are.
“I’m lucky to have you.”
I wipe a tear away from my eye. “Mom would be so proud of you.”
“Of all of us,” Elizabeth says.
“Can you imagine what she would have thought of Elizabeth being First Lady?”
