The Love We Choose

Chapter 38

A/N: Hey there lovelies. **Warning!**This chapter deals with infertility issues. Where there are no graphic descriptors of the process, it can be triggering to some. If you or a loved one have dealt with fertility problems in your lives, I am sending you warmth, love, and positive feelings. It is not a subject to take lightly or one given its proper respect in any community. Also it must be noted that when a child is lost, no matter at what stage of gestitation, it mattered in the lives of both parents when love is involved.

Hopefully, it will be a topic not ignored, glossed over, or one encouraged to 'get over' for much longer in our collective history.

Hectic yet festive was the best way to describe the hospital's emergency room on Christmas Day. Decorated in red, green, gold, and silver, the waiting room was crammed with the common influx of flu patients, tinsel and tree mishaps, assortment of abdominal issues, and both standard and food poisonings. A radio was playing a local station of constant Christmas music on a low setting.

Huan felt lucky that he wasn't assigned to the emergency room, but simply sent down to evaluate whether a patient needed immediate surgery or if they could hold off until later. After he checked the patient, her chart, and bloodwork, it was deemed fine for her to wait a couple of hours to see if the repairs the doctors made initially in conjunction with the medications they were giving her would prevent any unnecessary surgery. On his way back up to the surgical floor, Huan felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Opening his text message he saw a picture of Elisa and Lynne smiling at the camera as they chomped on expertly decorated cupcakes. The message attached said, Belgain chocolate and Tahitian vanilla marble cupcakes with hazelnut frosting and white chocolate reindeer. Very tasty. Be jealous.

Cheeky. Huan slipped his phone back into his pocket as he went about his rounds. He'd send her a response later. Now he had post-op patients to give a little Christmas cheer.

XXX

Later on, Lynne excused herself to take a nap before dinner was served, having fulfilled her good daughter duties by helping out with the large family dinner that night. All of the collective festivities of that day plus the left over exhaustion of the past few nights had sapped her energy reserves. More importantly, she needed to get out of the kitchen before the mixing smells wreaked anymore havoc on her stomach.

In the hallway outside her childhood bedroom, she saw Kris leaning up against the door adjacent to hers. Caught in a moment of vulnerability, her normally unflappable brother looked as though he held the universe on his heavily muscled shoulders.

"What's up K?"

Scrubbing a hand over his face, he sighed heavily.

When she didn't get a vocal answer from him, she opened the door to her bedroom and pointed inside, "you want to talk about it?"

Resolutely, he walked into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. Closing the door behind her, she sat down next to him, and waited for him to speak first. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and his hands covering his face. The two sat in companionable silence for a long while, shoulder-to-shoulder. Eyes closed, Lynne had almost drifted off to sleep when Kris finally spoke.

"Nat had a miscarriage on Monday."

Snapping her eyes open as she registered his words, she turned to look at him. "Oh K, I'm so so sorry." Reaching out a hand she rubbed his back in the same soothing way their mother had done for them growing up.

"Yea. It's been really rough this time. Plus being around all the kids. She was just so excited that this time everything would be ok. And I guess at some point I believed it would be ok too. But she woke up Monday morning spotting and...she just know the baby was gone."