“Stop the car.” she clutched her chest heaving as she spoke.

“What?” Bette asked looking over to her with panic. “Are you…”

“Stop the fucking car! Pull over!” Tina yelled again, with her hand squeezing the door handle, she yanked on it only to see that it was locked. She banged on it until Bette frantically hit the button to let her out. Tina kicked open the door and propelled herself out faster than normal. She stood on the sidewalk bent at the waist , hands on her knees breathing heavily.

From what Bette could tell Tina was having a panic attack, she very calmly got out of her car to go to her trunk. Bette had gotten her bag out of the trunk and briskly walked up to her and placed her down back into the car facing her. She put the stethoscope to her chest listening to her breathing carefully. “Listen to me Tina. Are you in any pain?” She shook her head no. “Does your belly hurt?” she asked again moving the stethoscope to another part of her chest as she looked up at Tina again, who shook her head no. Bette reached into her bag and grabbed her mini light checking her pupils as she spoke again in a commanding tone. “Tina control your breathing, slowly take in big breaths and release them slowly.” Tina nodded her head as she centered her gaze into Bette’s eyes. Bette focused her attention on the fright in Tina’s eyes, truth be told she was frightened as well but her immediate reaction to help her patient overcame that. “In,” she took a big breath with her, “And out. Just like that.” Bette saw Tina’s shoulders drop and her eyelids came closer together as she relaxed into her skin again.

Bette was perched on the balls of her feet as she ran her hands soothingly up and down the sides of Tina’s thighs trying to bring her back into some semblance of normalcy, “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I was listening to you,” Bette’s body tensed she knew she’d done wrong by spouting out all of her fears with a newly widowed pregnant woman right next to her, ‘God, how could I be so dense?’ she looked at Tina and listened to her. “And I just couldn’t breathe anymore. I felt like my chest was caving in on me.” She said with her hand nestled in between her still heaving chest as she stared ahead at the woman crouched down at her feet. “It’s not supposed to be like this. I can’t be a mother, that’s Rick’s job.” she said with a sardonic smile that never matched her frightful and tearful eyes. “He was way more maternal than I can ever be, I watched him hold a baby all night just to keep her from waking up again. I mean he stayed up all night with his cousin’s daughter and held her to his chest,” she felt the pain clench in her throat as she fought to not let the tears interrupt her thought, but it didn’t work. She squeezed her hand until it was stark white, “He held her so close to his heart, that she buried herself into him. I could never do that, I can’t. You have no idea how motherly he was, it’s like he was born to do it.”