Free Flashback by Ted Wood

it now, I don't want you passing out on me.'  
    Well, the instructor had warned me, so I thanked her and ate, gratefully. Then I washed up and changed into a hospital gown. They provided a locker so my gun was safe, but I took the bullets out anyway and put them in my left pocket. They were uncomfortable but a lot less so than they might have been fired into somebody from my Smith and Wesson.  
    Fred was in the delivery room, lying back, her face beaded up with sweat. I kissed her and made nice noises, as per instructions, then wiped her face with a damp cloth and fed her an ice chip to moisten her mouth.  
    The contractions were coming thick and fast and I wasn't able to do as much as I'd have liked because she had a pair of monitors attached to her abdomen but I did manage to turn her on her side and give her a back rub, which made me feel useful at least.  
    Every few minutes the nurse came in to check her drip and the monitors. After a while she started tuning in the baby's heartbeat on the Dopptone and we listened to the galloping noises that told us everything was all right so far.  
    About three o'clock the doctor turned up and things got hectic for Fred. She's got a lot of guts and she didn't make much fuss but it hurt me to see her in such distress. And then, at three-thirty, the miracle happened.  
    'A fine big girl,' Dr Rosen said happily. He turned the baby upside down and slapped her back gently and she cried. She wasn't alone in that.  
    Fred squeezed my hand very hard and I bent to hug her, and the room started to swim. The nurse grabbed me and steered me to a stool. 'Caught you,' she said brightly. 'Why is it always the big tough guys who fall apart.'  
    After a moment I felt better and moved the stool over beside the bed and took Fred's hand. 'Sorry about that.'
    She squeezed my hand. Already she had her strength back, and her control. She pulled on my arm and I leant over and kissed her.  
    'You big suck,' she said gently. 'She's perfect. We did it.'
    'You did,' I told her and sat there until she judged I was fit to hold the baby. She was red and wrinkled but I said, 'She reminds me of my kid sister.'  
    'We'll call her Louise. And Ann, for my mother.' Fred said.
    After a while I was shooed away and I went and showered and got back into uniform and reloaded my gun again.
    The same nurse was at her desk and she got me a cup of coffee, insisting on sugaring it but leaving it black. She found out which floor Hanson was on and I thanked her for everything and left.  
    My world had changed. Fred was well, and at thirty-eight I was a father for the first time. The nagging anxieties of the last few months were gone and I felt whole again. It was like coming back to the world from 'Nam.  
    One of the Parry Sound men was on duty at Hanson's bedside. Hanson was awake, his eyes wide. I saw the strap over his chest, buckled low to one side where he couldn't reach it. The cop yawned. 'How'd it go? Your wife OK?'  
    'Yeah, fine, thanks. Had a little girl.'
    He shook my hand and congratulated me. 'They reckon the baby's the same sex as the bossiest parent,' he said. 'Look at me, I got three girls.'  
    In my euphoria I laughed with him and said, 'Why don't you take a break? I'll sit with this guy a few minutes.'
    'Wouldn't mind,' he said. 'He's been quiet. The doctor says he's not damaged any.'
    He left and I stood at the foot of the bed looking at Hanson. 'Hi, how're you feeling?'
    'Sore,' he said. 'My gut hurts.' His voice was different from what I remembered. He had dropped the roughness of his accent and he was a quiet, well-spoken kid again. Well, maybe not a kid, in his twenties, perhaps close to thirty. Had he been wearing make-up that morning? I wasn't sure.  
    'Feel like talking?' I wasn't going to force him. After what had happened upstairs the milk of human kindness was overflowing in me.  
    'Why not? I'm wide awake.' He seemed in control of himself so I put the