The duty nurse’s head appeared round the door. “There’s a call for a Ms. O’Donnell,” she said.

“Would you please tell them she’ll call back later?” said the nurse.

“I’m afraid,” said Maggie, “I’ll have to take that.” She started toward the door.

“Would you please sit down?” The nurse’s voice was rising in anger.

“Sorry,” said Maggie as she reached the door.

“This is your baby,” screamed the nurse.

Maggie turned, glanced lovingly at Gorham, and gave the nurse a brilliant smile.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’re a great team. He’ll breathe, and I’ll have the baby.”

“Breathe … two … three … Push,” said Gorham and the doctor. “Breathe … two … three … Push.”

“Push now …” said the doctor. “Good girl … that’s it … almost there … push … hard as you can …”

“Aagh,” screamed Maggie.

Dr. Caruso wasn’t talking now. He was busy. He was pulling the baby out.

“One more time,” he called. Maggie gave another scream …

Gorham stared. Dr. Caruso took a step back. The baby cried out. Caruso smiled.

“Congratulations. You have a son.”

So that was it.

A few minutes later the doctor remarked to them both: “I see you both went to the breathing classes. Good job.”

Gorham looked at Maggie, and Maggie looked at Gorham.

“Absolutely,” said Maggie.

So everything was all right. After a while Maggie wanted to rest for a few hours, so Gorham decided to go back to the apartment. He took off the scrubs and the nurse told him to drop them into the chute that went down to the laundry. He got his things together, and prepared to leave. He was just about to walk off the floor with Dr. Caruso when he realized what he’d done.

“Shoot. I left my watch in the pocket of the scrubs. It’s gone down into the laundry.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Caruso. “Was it a Rolex?”

“Oh no. Nothing expensive. All the same …”

“You can tell the nurse, and she’ll let the laundry know. They might find it.”

“Do you think this happens quite often?”

“Probably.”

“Do they ever find the watches?”

“I couldn’t say. I believe the jobs down there are quite popular.”

“Right.”

“Look at it this way,” said Caruso cheerfully. “You may have lost a watch, but you’ve gained a son.”

When he got home, Gorham called Maggie’s parents and his mother. Then he opened a bottle of champagne, and made Bella have a drink with him to toast the birth, and told her she should come with him when he went back to the hospital, so that she could see the baby. He wanted Bella to bond with the baby too.

But first there was some time to kill. He was too excited just to sit down and look at television. He certainly couldn’t do any work. He started to pace about the apartment.