Dilating
It was a race against the clock… At 10am, Brooks took a flight from El Paso to Dallas where he landed at 2pm. He would get on his next flight two hours later to his final destination. During that time, the doctor told him that his wife was already dilated to 5cm. This meant that Brooks probably wouldn’t be there in time for the birth.
What made things even worse was that his flight was delayed. The flight to Jackson that was supposed to leave at 3:55pm wasn’t going to take off until 5:45pm. This was the final confirmation for the soldier: he wouldn’t be there to welcome his daughter into the world.