Premise: 1 month later (Lydia is 6 months)-- also sorry if her puking all the time is kinda gross, but it's important to the story and her condition
JJ woke up, noticing Lydia's side of the bed was cold. So, he made his way out onto their porch, knowing Lydia enjoyed sitting out there.
"Good Morning Ladies" JJ chirped to Lydia, Kie and Sarah
Lydia merely waved before continuing to puke in the trash bin that they moved outside. Kie sat beside her, holding her hair back, while Sarah sat in front of her, holding her hands.
"How are my girls this morning?" JJ asked, before pressing a quick kiss to Lydia's forehead and replacing Kie
"Oh now you think it's a girl?" Lydia raised her eyebrows, they had decided to ultimately wait until the birth to know the sex of the baby
"It changes every week" Sarah giggled, having spent a lot of time with them this past summer
"Lydia called around 5:30, we were in the bathroom for I think two hours and then we've been out here since" Kie answered JJ
"Babe, why didn't you wake me up?" JJ asked rubbing her back
"You take care of me all the time, you need to sleep at some point" Lydia, throughout the entire pregnancy has taken every challenge with grace. She chose to see the bright side of things, despite the fact that she's so sick.
"Mhm, so when do you sleep?" JJ continued
"Um, somewhere between the hours of 9:30 and 5:30?" Lydia chuckled, before hunching over again
"Why don't we go make that smoothie you like?" Sarah and Kie suggested to Lydia, knowing she still needed to try and eat
JJ nodded, answering for his wife, who was still preoccupied. When Lydia finished, she leaned back, breathing heavily and JJ wiped her face with a cool washcloth that Kie had brought out.
"Here" Lydia grabbed JJ's hands quickly, placing them on her stomach. He felt the slight kicks of their little baby and he almost cried, despite having felt them kick before.
"We have a little soccer player on our hands" JJ smiled
"Yeah if they could stop karate chopping my bladder, that would be nice" Lydia giggled
"Hey baby, it's your dad. Momma says you've been a little too crazy with the kicks. Do you think we can tone it down a little so momma can get some rest? We can't wait to meet you" JJ talked softly to her belly, placing a kiss where they had last felt a kick
"Okay, but I do need to pee, so can you help me up?" Lydia mumbled, trying not to ruin the moment
"Yup, come on" JJ stood, holding both his hands out
As Lydia stood, she felt slightly dizzy but brushed it off, thinking it was just from sitting hunched over too long. Nevertheless, she paused, and grabbed JJ's forearm, to steady herself
"You okay, love?" JJ's other arm instinctively holds her waist
"Yeah, you know, stood up too fast" Lydia shrugged before going inside
After Lydia went into the bathroom, JJ stopped into their kitchen to talk to Kie and Sarah, "I'm worried about her"
"We are too. She keeps saying she's fine but we all know that's not true" Sarah admits
They hear the door to the bathroom open, and Lydia's footsteps leading to their bedroom. The three continued to chat for a few minutes, before JJ decided to bring her the smoothie that Kie and Sarah made.
"Hey babe? I have your smoothie" JJ called but as he opened the door to their room, he realized something was wrong. He knew Lydia went into the bedroom but she's not on the bed or near the closets. JJ quickly sat the smoothie down before rounding the corner on the bed, where his wife was unconscious on the floor.
"Kie! Sarah! Call 911! It's Lydia" JJ called
*******
JJ paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room, running through all the possible scenarios, just praying that Lydia would be okay. They would be heartbroken if they lost this baby but losing Lydia would be devastating. They can always get pregnant again or adopt but he was terrified of losing the one person that understood him most in this world
"JJ, come sit" John B stopped JJ momentarily from pacing. JJ was about to angrily yell about how he couldn't sit if he didn't know she was okay but a nurse came out looking for him.
"Mr. Maybank? Follow me, please" The nurse called, definitely freaking JJ out way more than he already was. When they walked into a little room with a couch and some tables, he was met with the familiar face of the OBGYN that has been monitoring Lydia's pregnancy.
"Can somebody tell me what's going on? Is Lydia okay?" JJ asked, looking between the nurse and the doctor
"So JJ, we talked about Lydia's condition and how it could cause complications for both her and the baby. Lydia is fine, she's still a little groggy due to the sedative we gave her and you can go see her after this. We were forced to deliver the baby and unfortunately she was too premature to survive. We did everything we could. I'm so sorry for your loss" The doctor explained
JJ wanted to punch anything and everything and also break down into tears at the same time, but he knew how badly this was going to hurt Lydia and he needed to be there for her.
"I'm just going to let our friends know, then will you take me to see her?" JJ ignored his voice crack and the tears rolling down his face
JJ felt like he was on auto-pilot, just simply going through the motions. He told their friends who tried to comfort him but his sole focus was on going to see Lydia. As he approached her room, he tried to stop the tears. He cracked open the door and saw how small Lydia looked in that bed. Her back was towards him but he could tell by the way her whole body shook that she was crying. He wordlessly climbed into bed next to her, pulling her close, as they cried together. It felt like they had been crying for hours when they simply ran out of tears.
"I'm so sorry, JJ" Lydia whispered
"No, no, no, absolutely not. You are not apologizing for this, it was not your fault. There was nothing we could've done." JJ quickly shut down that thought. He refused to let Lydia blame herself for something that was out of their control.
a/n
hi, I know this is short and sad but I promise I'm done ruining things for Lydia and JJ-- they will be finally getting their happily ever after which unfortunately means we only have maybe 3 at most chapters left. that makes me super emo but we aren't going to talk about it
the next chapter will also likely be short but I didn't want to include the 1 1/2 year time jump in this one
also shells has officially reached the 8.8k mark which means it has matched the last trashy book I wrote so at least my writing isn't getting worse?
let me know what you think!
xo
Haley
YOU ARE READING
Shells
Romance"You and I both know you haven't been okay in months" "So what? It doesn't matter. Not with all the other things we have to worry about." "See that's the problem Lydia. You don't give a shit about yourself and it's going to end up killing you. You...
