Tina had no time to think, so she didn’t.  She just moved.  She dropped all of her work and she never looked twice at her assistant.  She didn’t even have her coat as she ran out into the parking lot.  Like a bat out of hell, Tina was in her car in two minutes flat.  She pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.

“Move, bastard!” She shouted.  The traffic was bad as it always was Los Angeles, “My wife is having a baby!”

Tina switched lanes for the majority of her drive, pissing off other drivers as she did.

~

At the hospital, Alice held Bette’s hand while the nurses ran tests to make sure that mother and baby were going to be okay.  Bette had calmed down some, but not nearly enough.  Her doctor, Dr. Wilson, was concerned.

“Bette, you have to calm down.  You’re going to put stress on the baby.” Dr. Wilson made her way closer to the bed, “We have detected a condition called pre-eclampsia.  It’s simple, really.  It’s a condition in which your blood pressure spikes and it only happens during the second or third trimester.  You probably began having this condition recently and it causes women to go into premature labor.  Typically, we like to delay pregnancy until the baby is full term, but because pre-eclampsia is so very threatening to both you and the baby, we have to induce labor so we can get him out quicker.  So, what we can do is prepare him for an early delivery to ensure that he’ll be healthy.” Bette just nodded, “Has Tina been notified?”

“Yeah,” Alice said, “she should be here soon.”

“Okay, well, you should try to keep her calm until Tina gets here.”

“Hey, doc, can I talk to you outside?” Alice asked and Dr. Wilson agreed.

“Is the baby going to be fine?”

“More than likely, yes.  Bette has very little to be worried about.  We just have to make sure that he is well developed enough to function.”

“Thanks.”  Alice walked back in to see Bette laying on the bed, her eyes facing the ceiling.

~

Tina ran through to the maternity ward.  She ran to the desk.