Together

Chapter 6

Jacob ran into the hospital with Grace stopping at reception. "Noel where's Connie?" "She's been taken into resus-" "Jacob."

He spun round facing Charlie before walking forwards with Grace. "Charlie, where is she? Tell me she's okay..." "She's in the best hands." Jacob turned away from him bringing his hands up to his face. "Why won't anyone tell me what's going on? I just want to know she's okay."

Charlie placed a hand on his shoulder and lowered his voice. "Right now I think you need to reassure someone else. I don't want to promise her things that I don't know." Jacob glanced from Charlie to Grace before nodding.

Grace was standing a little distance from Jacob feeling smaller than ever in the department. Knowing that she was here because her Mum was a patient and not in charge wasn't something she was used to or enjoying.

"Grace? Hey, come on let's go to your Mum's office for a while." Jacob took her hand as they walked back the way they'd came settling down while Charlie disappeared.

In resus Connie was surrounded by several people all rushing around. "Charlie-" "It's alright Connie, everything's going to be alright." She held onto his hand as soon as he reached her bedside. "It hurts-" "I know, I know but it'll all be over soon."

He offered her a warm smile before feeling the grip on his hand loosen. "Connie?" He looked up to the monitors before squeezing her hand. "Connie? Can you hear me? Zoe she's not responding and BP's dropping." Charlie stepped back as Tess and Cal moved to her side.

It didn't matter how medically trained he was, or how long he'd spent in this place, right now nothing had prepared him for standing helplessly in resus. All he could do was watch and hope that she would be okay. Connie had become like a daughter to him, a stubborn one at that but still a daughter.

"Okay she's lost output." Cal looked to Zoe who looked across a set of test results she'd been given. "Zoe we need to get this baby out, they're extremely stressed." "She's only 30 weeks."

Tess moved to stand beside Zoe speaking quietly. "If we don't we could lose both of them. There's too much happening to Connie which might affect the baby." After a few seconds considering their options Zoe nodded.

"Okay someone call maternity, tell them we have a premature birth and get someone down here urgently. Someone call theatre and get them on standby. I need 10mg of-" "Got it." Zoe smiled towards Cal knowing that they were all doing whatever they could.

Charlie glanced towards the window to see Jacob standing there, worry written across his face. He turned back watching as Tess and Zoe began with the procedure while Cal monitored her stats.

Minutes had passed and resus was full of people from all over the hospital. "Okay, I'm almost done... Tess I need you here." Zoe put down the scalpel before carefully moving around. She lifted the small baby passing her over to Tess. "You have a baby girl Connie, congratulations..."

As soon as Zoe had spoken Connie began to crash. Tess walked away checking the baby over who was yet to cry. Everything from that point happened in flashes. Jacob pushed the doors to resus open and came into the chaos.

He tried moving forwards but Charlie turned around stopping him. "Charlie-" "You can't be in here. Jacob go to Grace, you can't do anything for them right now." He stopped trying to move past Charlie but remained where he was for a while.

"Why aren't they crying?" Charlie looked towards Tess and the baby who was being pushed from the room. "I don't know, she's pretty early Jacob-" "She?" Charlie smiled nodding. "A little girl."

Jacob stepped back until his back hit the wall. He dropped his head as he slipped down the wall. "Everything was fine. She was fine." Charlie sat down beside Jacob never having seen him like this. "You know as well as I do, things can change quickly. Especially when stressed."

Zoe continued moving about quickly with Cal when the beeping stopped. "Okay she's stable for now, get her upstairs." Jacob jumped to his feet watching as Connie was rushed out of resus. That was when he saw Grace standing on the other side.

He walked out and bent down before her. "It's my fault Mum's like this-" "Hey. This is not your fault. None of this is your fault Grace." He pulled her into a tight hug which she responded to, beginning to cry into his shoulder.

"Come on you, I'll phone your Dad-" "No please don't Jacob. I want to be with you. I want to be here for Mum and the baby." He smiled sadly before she hugged him again. Jacob picked her up before looking to Charlie.

"We'll be in the on call room if anything changes." Charlie nodded before they turned away from each other. "Let's get some rest you."

Charlie headed in the direction of theatre deciding to wait for news on Connie. He didn't have to wait long until somebody was with him. "She's fine. They're just moving her into a room now."

Grace was lying asleep wrapped in Jacob's embrace. Her face was red and puffy from crying but exhaustion had taken over. Jacob was drifting but couldn't settle not knowing how his other girls were.

Charlie sat beside Connie for a few hours before she began coming round. "Charlie?" "I'm here, how you feeling?" Connie laughed slowly before coughing. "Like I've been hit with a bus, twice... What happened?"

Connie opened her eyes looking around the room before settling on Charlie. "You went into labour and there were complications Connie-" "My baby? Is she okay." Charlie nodded solemnly. "It didn't look good downstairs but she's being monitored in ICU. It'll be a while before they know the extent of everything but you already know that."

Connie went quiet for a moment taking everything in. "You heard Zoe tell you it was a girl?" Connie smiled nodding. "Amazing what you can hear... I heard... I heard Jacob downstairs, is he okay?" "He's got Grace keeping him company so I'm sure he's alright."

"Grace is here?" Charlie nodded holding Connie's hand. "They were talking when everything happened. He was trying to set things right for you." Connie closed her eyes, a small content smile on her face.

Connie struggled to keep her eyes open during the conversation with Charlie. She was just happy to have somebody there with her so she didn't drive herself insane. "I'll let you sleep. I think that there's someone who'll be happy to hear you're okay."

Charlie stood up before Connie held his hand stopping him from leaving. "Thank you Charlie, if it wasn't for you-" "You're welcome. It's no trouble." He smiled before laying her hand back down and letting her rest.