Free Bear With Me by Vanessa Devereaux

you’re doing, okay?”
    Bear
put on his mask, pulled on his latex gloves, and examined Charlotte. There’d been
hardly any change and things weren’t progressing as well as he’d thought. He
knew it was time to make a decision that Charlotte probably wasn’t going to
like. He pulled up the blanket and her gown and listened to the baby’s heartbeat.
Just as he suspected with this long of a labor, it was getting weaker.
    “Charlotte,
your labor’s not progressing as well as I’d like, so I think we need to think
about a C-section,” said Bear, pulling up a stool and sitting down beside
Charlotte. He took her hand.
    “No,
I want a regular birth,” said Charlotte. “I’ve already let the natural no
painkillers thing go out the window.”
    “Honey,
listen to Bear ,” said Aiden.
    “I
think it’s best for both you and the baby. You’re getting tired and the baby’s
going to struggle too.”
    Charlotte
burst into tears.
    “Oh,
honey, don’t cry, please don’t cry,” said Aiden, leaning over to kiss her.
    “Really,
Charlotte, it’s no failure on your part,” said Bear. “And your next baby will
probably pop right out. These things happen all the time. I did at least one
C-section a week at the hospital in Vancouver.”
    A
tear slid down Charlotte’s face. She nodded. “Okay, I guess I have to listen to
my doctor, right?”
    “You
better do that or there are consequences.” Bear smiled at her just as Aiden’s
phone rang.
    “Hi,
Lilly,” said Aiden. “No, no baby yet. Charlotte’s
going for a C-section.”
    Bear
could hear Lilly’s voice on the other end of the line.
    “No,
no, you and Christopher don’t need to come here. Charlotte’s dad is here and
you have Kaitlin to think about at this time of the night. Sure I’ll do that
and I’ll call you as soon as the baby arrives.”
    Bear
stood. “I’ll send someone in here to get Charlotte ready and I’ll scrub up.”
    “I
can be with her, right?” asked Aiden.
    “Absolutely,
you can be right by her side.”
    ****
    Bear
looked at the clock on the wall as he went into the OR. It was almost 4 a.m. He
walked over to Charlotte.
    “You
okay?”
    She
nodded. “Just really scared.”
    Aiden
squeezed her hand as the nurse put an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth.
    “Be
over before you realize it,” said Bear.
    Bear
had chosen Mia to be one of his assistants. She was going to be a nurse, and he
thought this would be ideal for her to learn about handling instruments and
assisting the doctor.
    “Scalpel,”
Bear told Mia. She passed it to him.
    “Okay,
Charlotte, you might feel me pulling at you a little, but it’s perfectly
normal.”
    Bear
had always been good with surgery and in no time he had Charlotte opened up and
could see that the baby’s arm was close to the surface.
    “Baby’s
coming out any minute and you’ll feel a big tug but nothing to worry about,”
said Bear.
    He
knew from the ultrasounds that this was going to be a big baby. He pushed his
hands down and gently eased Little One outside of Charlotte’s body.
    Bear
lifted it out and held the baby up to check it out.
    “Charlotte,
Aiden, you are now the proud parents of a girl.”
    “You
hear that, honey? It’s a girl,” said Aiden.
    Bear
lifted her higher so that they could take a look. “Daddy, you want to cut her
cord?”
    Bear
clamped off the cord and Mia handed Aiden the scissors. His hand shook as he
cut his daughter’s lifeline to her mother.
    “You
have a name for her? We can’t keep calling her Little One,” he said, handing
her to Mia as he began to close Charlotte up.
    “Bridget,”
said Aiden. “Bridget Anne. It was my mother’s name.”
    “Welcome
to the world,” said Bear.
    “Nine
pounds, two ounces and she’s twenty-two inches long,” said Mia.
    Bear
walked over to where Mia had placed the baby on the scale and checked Bridget’s
heartbeat.   A little slow but nothing to
worry about. Her fingers and toes were longer than the average human