Chapter 27: Bean Arrives

"I didn't have an accident," I told him. "Go get your mom. Then get Fergus. Walk, don't run."

He ran.

His mother came through the door first, took one look at the floor and grabbed my hospital bag off the hook without being told.

Every mother in the Kitchen knew where I kept that bag.

Fergus came second.

He came through the door so fast the bell nearly flew off its spring.

"Is it..."

"It's early. It's fine. Thirty-six weeks is fine." I gripped the edge of the exam table as the first real one rolled through me. "Get the van."

"The van's got two cases of eggs in it."

"Then the eggs are coming."

Ciara was right behind him with the Thursday list.

She'd been at the front counter running sign-ups, and she still had the clipboard in both arms.

"Who's going to do the list?"

"Bring it," I said. "You can call everyone from the car."

She climbed into the back seat beside the egg crates and started calling families in a loud, official voice.

"Hello, this is the Kitchen. Dr. Luna is having a baby. You're rescheduled. Yes. Right now. Bye."

Fergus drove the fifteen-minute trip to University in eight.

He drove like the van was full of eggs, because it was.

At every red light he reached over and held my hand until I squeezed it too hard, and then he kept holding it.

"Breathe, Doc."

"I'm a doctor. I know how to breathe."

"Then do it louder so I know you're doing it."

My landlady was waiting at the maternity entrance when we pulled in.

Nobody had called her.

She'd seen the van go from her window and taken a cab.

"I've got the girl," she said, and took Ciara by the hand. "Go."

Ciara looked back at me over her shoulder all the way down the hall.

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