For a nation—for a world—with no trouble starting wars, and stoking fears, and standing apart, they hadn’t forgotten how to come together.
Maura
Later, by the next morning, Maura would realize that it was perfectly, almost laughably, well timed. That something, fate perhaps, had allowed them to enjoy that moment in Times Square, blissfully and without disruption, before the panic set in.
The video had ended mere minutes before, and the people in the street and the windows above were still screaming and cheering, riding the currents of revelry, when Lea’s face went ashen.
“Are you okay?” Maura asked her.
“I think my water just broke.”
Within seconds Maura had rallied the group, forming a circular shield around Lea and pushing their way through the thicket of people. But the crowd was dense and the celebrants oblivious and the pace unbearably slow. Ben was hurriedly dialing Lea’s brother and parents, and Maura glanced at her poor pregnant friend, who was trying to hold it together while contractions started pulsing through her body.
“Please get me out of here!” Lea begged. “I don’t want to give birth in the Hard Rock Café!”
“Everybody move!” Maura shouted. “She’s in labor!”
After an agonizing, indefinite number of minutes—the group would argue, that night, over how long they had actually been stuck in Times Square—they reached the edge of the mob and Carl hailed a cab.
When it stopped, Ben and Terrell gently loaded Lea into the back of the taxi.
“I can’t go alone!” she shouted.
The members of the group exchanged rapid glances before Maura, seeing the squeamish faces and terrified eyes of her friends, quickly slid into the back of the cab, giving directions to the driver.
Lea spent most of the ride attempting to stifle her screams, strands of hair already sticking to the sweat on her forehead. Without any makeup, her cheeks pink and flushed, Lea looked so young, Maura thought. Only a girl. It seemed almost unfair to put her through such pain.
“Just keep breathing,” Maura said calmly, not quite sure if that was right.
“Did someone call my . . . aghhh,” Lea’s words crumbled into groans.
“Your whole family’s on their way,” Maura answered, rubbing the top of Lea’s white-knuckled hand, which seemed permanently fused to her seat belt.
“It’ll all be worth it, once they’re born,” Lea moaned, placing her hands on her belly. “And we’re all going to love them so much.”
Maura was surprisingly moved by the girl’s sense of assurance, the love that already flowed out of her. Nothing about Lea’s current ordeal seemed appealing, but the thought still flickered within Maura. What she and Nina might be missing.
In a rare minute of reprieve from the pain, Lea whispered, “I’m so happy that I could do this for my brother. He’s always been so good to me and . . . he’s gonna make a great dad. They both are. And no matter what”—Lea tipped her head down toward her stomach—“I’ll always be a part of their story.”
But the beauty of the moment was broken by a passing contraction, as Lea clutched Maura’s hand.
“We’re almost at the hospital,” Maura said. “You’ll have pain meds in no time.”
Lea shook her head vigorously. “No drugs.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I want to feel it,” Lea said breathlessly.
“But you’re about to push two human beings out of your body!”
“I just want to know if it’s true.”
“If it’s true that it hurts?” Maura asked. “I think you already got your answer.”
Lea finally cracked a smile, her lips already chapped. “If it’s true what I’ve heard,” she said. “That it hurts like hell when you’re going through it, but once it’s over, you can’t even remember the pain.”
By the time Lea and Maura arrived at the hospital, Lea’s family had thankfully appeared, relieving Maura’s hand from any more squeezing. When she walked over to the waiting room, massaging her fingers back to life, Maura was stunned to see the entire support group gathered. Chelsea was sitting down next to Sean, her mascara slightly smudged. Terrell had somehow managed to smuggle in a bottle of champagne, bragging to Nihal about his exploits. Even grumpy Carl showed up.
And Maura joined her wife, standing now beside Ben and Amie, the three of them still in awe after the morning’s event.
“This is turning into quite the day,” Nina said.