But Alex’s voice wouldn’t let her. “Don’t, Charlotte, don’t! Our baby will die.” His voice was rasping with agony, but it was fiercely commanding as well. Charlotte opened her eyes again.

“Oh, God, Charlotte,” Alex said. He cradled her face in his hands. “I love you, do you know that?”

And Charlotte, looking at him with pain-drenched eyes, saw agony and tenderness and unbearable guilt in his eyes, and nodded, once. She smiled a little and turned her face against his hand, sliding back into the warm nest he had pulled her from.

Alex roughly pulled her into a half-sitting position. Charlotte groaned, but she was looking at him again.

“Our baby,” he was saying, “our baby, Charlotte!”

Slowly it came back to her. Her baby … where was her baby? Right on cue, another bone-shaking contraction crept up her abdomen. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Alex was gently caressing her shoulders. The pain passed and she opened her eyes.

He was looking at her, his eyes wild and desperate. Charlotte blinked. “Charlotte, on the next contraction, we’re going to push the baby out, do you understand?” Alex’s voice was so commanding that she answered.

“I tried.” Her voice was a wisp of sound.

“This time we’re going to push together. You were alone before; now I’m going to push with you. Feel how strong I am, Charlotte?” She nodded. He was gripping her hand as if he would never let go.

The door opened and Dr. Seedland slipped through, alone. His eyes went instantly to the bed.

“All right, Doctor,” Alex said without turning his head. “On the next contraction Charlotte and I are going to push the baby out. Because we want our baby to live, Charlotte. And if it doesn’t come out, the baby will die.” He kept his eyes fastened on hers, as if he could hypnotize her into strength.

Charlotte took a deep breath. She was fully back now, back in her pain-racked, exhausted body. Somehow logic had come back as well. She had to get the baby out. Yet logic, in fact, had deserted her, because as she explained later, Alex said he was going to push the baby out, and she agreed. She was too tired; it would be good if he could take over now.

So when the contraction started, instead of trying to control the pain Charlotte just relaxed into it and when Alex’s hands tightened and his voice beat at her head, saying, “Push, push!” she thought about the baby dying, and that Alex was pushing, and she wrenched her whole soul down to her stomach. And pushed.

“I see the head,” Dr. Seedland said unemotionally. He looked at Alex with a gleam of approval. “We need one more like that, my lord.”