An alarm going off had my head jerking up to see Guzman, who was standing with another guard outside of Cali’s room, rushing inside. Behind me, three nurses started cursing in Spanish and rushed past me. Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I ran after them.

46

Nova

“…the OR ready,” one of the nurses was instructing. “Call the doctor. This baby is coming now.”

My heart stopped at the chaos unfolding in front of me. Cali was lying on the bed, tears streaming down her face as she clutched at her distended stomach. She still wasn’t as big as most women who were about to deliver usually were, but that was because she was barely into her twenty-fourth week.

“Nova!” she cried when she saw me. Lifting one of her hands from her belly, she reached for me.

I ran to her side, clutching at her ice-cold hand. “What happened?”

“I started to cramp really badly, and then…” She pulled back the blanket to reveal so much blood it nearly turned my stomach. “Justice is coming, and I’m so scared. It’s too soon. She hasn’t had enough time to grow in there.”

I rubbed my thumb over her knuckles. “It’s going to be okay,” I promised, trying to keep the fear out of my voice so I didn’t scare her more than she already was. “She’s just too excited to meet you to stay in there any longer.”

The nurses were having to work around me, and then one of them told Guzman to take me out of the room. I shot him a look that told him not to even try, and he backed away, putting himself out of the line of fire.

“I’m going with her,” I told the nurses in Spanish.

“Typically, when there isn’t an emergency, we allow one person in with the patient during a C-section,” one of the women explained. “But she will be under, not awake, for this. We have to get the baby out as quickly as possible.”

I held on to Cali and stared the nurse down. They would have to kill me before I left her willingly. “I’m going with her. She’s scared, and I won’t leave her. Now, do I need to change, or am I okay like this?”

A pair of scrubs were given to me, along with a hairnet thing. I started taking off my clothes even as they began pushing Cali out of the room, changing as I ran down the hall with them. Some guy was coming out of another room and saw me in just scrub pants and my bra, but Guzman shoved him back into his room when he started to leer at me.

“Tell my mother what’s going on,” I called out to Guzman when we got to the elevators. “Watch over her for me.”

Guzman gave me a grim nod, his eyes going to Cali and lingering. “Be strong, little one,” he encouraged. “See you soon.”

“Bye, Guzman,” she sobbed, but she tried to give him a brave smile. “T-take care of everyone for me.”