Chapter 119

Present – Liz, Bernie, Jens, Ben and Ira – At the hospital

Jens walks into the room right as I go into another contraction so I begin my Lamaze breathing. Bernie smiles and greets them, “Good that you guys could make it in time.”

Jens smiles and replies, “I’m glad that we were in time.”

The contraction finishes and I comment, “That was a pretty damn strong.”

Jens replies, “It seemed like it from the look on your face.”

I smile and answer, “I’m not sure a woman my age should be having children.”

Jens laughs and replies, “Come on Liz, you know better than that - you’re not that old.”

Bernie who’s the official clock watcher announces...

I’m taking my job seriously so I announce, “And it was faster than the last one, this one was at four minutes thirty seconds.”

Jennifer smiles at Liz, comes over, takes her hand and asks, “Liz are you doing okay?”

Liz is being a trooper and replies, “Yeah Jens, I know I can take something for pain if I need to but I don’t want to do it unless it’s necessary.”

Ira walks over and whispers something to Jennifer. Jennifer shakes her head and says...

Ira asked me if I could take away Liz’s pain like I did for Mira, but labor is different than the abortion so I reply, “No Ira, not this time.”

I smile at Liz and tell her, “Liz you look beautiful.”

Liz laughs and counters, “Yeah right! I know I look like Bernie’s been beating on me.”

Bernie complains, “Liz my wife, I would never do that!”

Almost as if on cue, the preacher walks in, sees Ben and me and says, “Good you two are finally here since I need your signatures as witnesses to the marriage.”

He hands us the marriage license then I almost make a mistake and sign Jennifer Donaldson, but catch myself in time. Ben of course has no problem. I look at Liz and ask, “So are you now Ms. Townsend?”

Liz smiles and says, “For now I will keep Liz Morgan for when I do reports, but yes I’m really Ms. Townsend.”

Ben remarks...

I remember something so I ask, “Bernie, are you any relation to Peter Townsend?”

Bernie looks up from his timing task and asks, “Who?”

I laugh and reply, “That’s right! Peter Townsend the guitar player for the music group The Who.”

Bernie replies, “No Ben, that group was English and I’m not English. But I do wish I had some of his talent and money.”

I reply, “Well, the station is doing great so money shouldn’t be an issue.”

Liz begins another contraction and Bernie instructs, “Liz, don’t forget your breathing.”

Liz begins breathing funny so I move beside Jens and ask, “What’s Liz doing.”

Jens smiles at me and explains, “Liz and Bernie took an online Lamaze course. In the class they teach breathing methods to cope with the pain.”

I continue to watch and remark to Jens, “It sort of reminds me of Kapal Bhati Pranayama.”

Jens remarks, “Kapal is forehead, Bhati is shining and Pranayama is breathing...”

I interrupt, “ ... That’s right - skull shining breathing.”

Jens counters, “Ben, that involves using the abdominal muscles to pull in the stomach and Liz isn’t doing that. She’s just focusing on the breathing instead of the pain. However the rhythm of it is the same.”

Thom walks into the room and announces, “What? No baby yet! I was hoping to win my bet.”

I remark, “Thom, we never agreed on what the winner was going to win.”

Jens agrees, “That’s right. With both of us not drinking anymore it can’t be Knob Creek.”

Liz’s contraction is over and she complains, “What are you guys betting on?”

I look at her and explain, “The sex of your baby. I say it’s going to be a boy and Jens and Thom both bet it’s a girl.”

Thom remarks, “Yeah, from the way you were carrying the baby I still think it’s going to be a girl.”

I laugh again and comment, “Yeah we know you’re some sort of baby expert.”

Bernie says, “We don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl...”

Liz adds, “ ... As long as it’s healthy.”

Jens suggests, “I think the bet should be for a nice dinner.”

Thom adds his two cents, “I like that idea.”

I shoot them both down by saying, “Where do you plan on finding better food than what Mabel cooks.”

Thom laughs and agrees, “Yeah your right. I still don’t have any idea how you’ve lost weight Ben.”

I look at Jens, she blushes and Liz goes into another contraction and says, “Bernie, I want to push.”

Bernie looks at the nurse and the nurse says, “I need to find the doctor.”

She leaves, I look at Jens and then say, “Thom, I think that’s our cue to leave.”

Thom agrees, “You’re right.”

Jens teases, “You bunch of cowards!”

I smile at her and say, “No, I just don’t think Liz would appreciate us seeing everything.”

Bernie agrees, “I know I don’t want that.”

Ira states, “Mr. Blaine I cannot be with you and Ms. Blaine simultaneously.”

Thom solves the problem when he suggests, “Ira, we will go back to the Cobra where Mira is standing guard.”

We head out of the room and back to the garage. Thom’s phone rings, he answers it and says, “Ben, it’s Gretchen for you.”

I take the phone and Gretchen says, “Ben, I think we’ve finally found a phone that will work for you and everyone else. What were the names of the applications you need to run on the phone’s computer.”

I reply, “Thank God, I was getting tired of not having a phone! The two applications I need should be in the Google Play store and are called Shooter and Strelok.”

Gretchen replies, “Okay, I have one of the phones here and will make sure the applications can be installed on it. But I have no idea how to run the applications.”

I reply, “Don’t worry, when we get back to the tunnels I will make sure they work correctly.”

I hang up, hand the phone back to Thom and he comments, “I wondered why you guys didn’t have phones.”

I reply, “Samantha’s phone was hacked and because of that Gretchen wouldn’t let us use an Android phone.”

Thom asks, “Do you know who hacked her phone?”

I shook my head and reply, “We don’t have any firm idea. We did keep the phone but it’s in the Faraday cage in the control room.”

Thom asks, “If I could get that phone, we could probably find out who hacked the phone and charge them. But I bet it’s Stacy Summers who did it.”

I shake my head and complain, “What in the hell did I ever do to that bitch to make her so fucking crazy.”

Thom laughs and suggests, “It’s what you didn’t do to her. I bet you never slept with her.”

I grumble, “That’s right. I never did and I certainly never will!”

Thom says, “Women like that are used to getting whatever they want: She wants you and you don’t want her so that’s the problem.”

I ask, “Please tell me this time that you’re locking her away for good.”