No, what made her feel spectacularly dense was that she hadn't clued in when she'd stopped at the Days Inn twenty miles back and been told there was no room.

Really, this should have been obvious, even before the contractions had started. Blindingly obvious, even, which made her briefly wonder if she'd been... influenced, a bit, not to see it. Briefly she considered yelling the question skyward, but eventually she decided not to. After all, she might get answered.

Besides, if things were following convention, she'd come out of the whole event fine, if possibly with a closer appreciation of livestock than she'd ever really wanted. It still wouldn't be any worse than some of the things she'd lived through. So Bethany crept forward for as long as her car could run, grateful that at least she wasn't in any pain yet --she'd had periods worse than this--and peering through the snow, looking for the barn that she was sure had to be there.

As it happened, she was wrong. There was no barn.

There was, however, a Wal-Mart.