Free Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction by Dominic K. Alexander, Kahlen Aymes, Daryl Banner, C.C. Brown, Chelsea Camaron, Karina Halle, Lisa M. Harley, Nicole Jacquelyn, Sophie Monroe, Amber Lynn Natusch

Cassie needed at the moment, that safely arriving to the hospital was much more important, but I couldn’t help it. It seemed like every couple of minutes she was letting out that harrowing scream that put ice in my veins. She was all but dying in the backseat, and there was really nothing that I could do about it.
    “She’s going to be fine, Alex,” Nat assured me, placing her hand on top of mine.
    I looked down pointedly at her hand on mine, prompting her to quickly remove it, then said, “I know. I just want the pain to end. The faster we get her there, the sooner this shit stops.”
    We barreled down the road, our headlights the only illumination on the dark, deserted roads. We rolled on through the base’s front gate, quickly arriving at the hospital emergency lane. Nat went and snagged a wheelchair, and I grabbed Cassie from the backseat, placing her in the chair and wheeling her in while Nat took my truck and parked it.
    As I pushed Cassie through the door, I called out, “My wife is in labor. She’s yelling and screaming every couple of minutes.”
    Thankfully, the night receptionist, an older civilian woman with salt and pepper hair and piercing green eyes, appeared slightly less bored than the guy had earlier. “Okay .  . . okay. Calm down. Can I have her name?” she said soothingly.
    “Cassie Cruz. Lance Corporal Cruz.”
    I tossed our IDs on the counter, assuming they would be needed. The receptionist took them and checked us into the system, then called for someone to meet us and take us up to the third floor.
    She pointed down the hallway to the elevators, and said warmly, “You’re headed up to labor and delivery. The next time you leave this hospital, you’ll more than likely have a little baby with you. Congratulations.”
    As much as I appreciated her sentiments, Cassie was bowing over in pain again, and I couldn’t care less about what she was saying. A corpsman met us on the entry level floor and wheeled Cassie over to the elevators, pressing the button for the third floor. I followed behind him, trying hard to listen to what he saying but unable to focus on anything other than Cassie, her pain-laden screams, and the death grip she had on my hand.
    Instead of being taken into the room we had been taken to the day before, we were taken to an actual labor room. Front and center was a large bed that had stirrups on the end. Monitors blinked and beeped everywhere, and there was a baby station for when our little one finally made her way into the world.
    “Go ahead and get her undressed and into the gown,” the nurse told me. “I’ll come back to take her vitals, check her, and get the IV started.”
    The sight of Cassie’s cheeks wet from her tears made my throat close up as my chest tightened. “Don’t cry, Blondie. You’re about to do something truly fucking amazing.”
    She nodded her head but gripped my arm while biting down on her bottom lip, grimacing from a fresh wave of pain. As much as I knew that all of this shit would ultimately be worth it, I couldn’t stop feeling responsible, as if I deserved some sort of punishment for bringing my wife such incredible pain. I loved Cassie too much to ever have her feeling anything less than stellar, and yet, here we were. I needed this shit to hurry and pass so we could hold our baby in our arms, smiling together, laughing at the bullshit that it took to bring her into the world. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
    The corpsman walked in and said, “Staff Sergeant, I’m going to check your wife now and see how far she has dilated.”
    I shot him a dark frown. “You’re not going to send her home again, are you? I can’t handle this back and forth anymore.”
    He sat down at the edge of the bed and worked his hands up to Cassie, watching the ceiling as he felt around. A slight smile spread across his lips, pissing me off. I knew he was only doing his job, but a part of me felt like he enjoyed what he was doing. I