Time Of My Life (A Forever Series Spinoff)

Chapter 8: Coughing

I had finally gotten used to being a mom. Alec was 5 weeks old today and he was starting to get used to me messing everything up, so together, we were starting to find a rhythm. Every time I looked at him I saw a little more Chaz in him. His blonde hair had already began to darken and his eyes had turned almost black. He looked so much like his dad it made it feel like Chaz was here in a weird way.

My dad came by once a day to make sure I had everything I needed. I was extremely grateful for him and his seemingly endless stream of money. He didn't seem to mind spending money on me, not that I could complain. I needed things for Alec and I didn't have any funds.

As I bounced Alec in his small bouncy seat, Dad prepared us lunch. The baby was all smiles all the time, so I would have said he's a pretty great kid. I couldn't have asked for a more easy going baby.

He let out a tiny cough and I smiled at how he crumpled up his nose and squinted his eyes shut.

Until I had become a mother, I thought all babies looked the same, but now when I looked at my son, there wasn't a baby in the world that could ever compare to him. He was my perfect little boy.

"Have you gotten any sleep lately?" My dad's voice echoed into the room. I bent over, picked Alec up and walked into the kitchen to stand near the sink, watching as dad scrambled something.

"Not really, but I don't mind." I looked down at the baby in my arms and his eyes were wide open. He coughed again and I frowned, "Does he sound like he's getting a cold?"

My dad stepped towards he and pressed the back of his hand against Alec neck, "He might have a fever. Do you have a thermometer?"

I started at the infant and shook my head, "No, should I take him to a clinic?"

He shook his head and brushed a thumb across Alec's forehead, "If he's not a little better by tomorrow then you should. It might pass."

I nodded in agreement and bent over to kiss his tiny forehead as he coughed again.

******

Waking up at 4:00 in the morning was a normal thing to me now. Alec woke every few hours during the night, usually close to the same time, but today wasn't like normal. My internal clock woke me up, not the sound of his crying. I wondered if maybe he was sleeping through the night but figured that he was still way too young for that so I pushed myself out of bed and walked across the bedroom to stand over the crib. He was sleeping, but tossing and turning like he was having a nightmare. I quickly bent over to pick him up and noticed the slight fever he had yesterday had been amplified.

Panic filled my chest as I scooped him up, not caring if he woke. I carried him to my bed and grabbed my phone, sitting down and listening as he didn't cry, but instead began coughing. Now the cough sounded wet and every time he exhaled his tiny body shook.

I dialled my dad's phone number and waited for him to answer. He always answered, even if I called him at 4:00 AM.

"Gabby?" His voice was croaky and quiet because he had just woken up, "What wrong?"

I took a deep breath, trying my best to calm down, "Alec is burning up. I don't know what to do."

I heard some shuffling on the opposite end of the phone and knew he was getting up, "I'll be over in ten minutes."

"Okay."

I watched the clock from the second he hung up to the second he showed up at my door. It was the longest ten minutes of my entire life and I spent every one of them listening to my heart racing and my baby hacking until my front door opened and my dad walked straight into my bedroom.

"Dad," I whispered, taking my eyes off the baby for a second, "Something wrong with him. He's sick."

My dad took the baby from me and barely looked down at him before nodding to my dresser, "Get dressed. We're taking him to the hospital." His words made me panic and I jumped up to get dressed. If he thought it was that frantic, I shouldn't question him. I knew his fever was high, but how high was it dangerous for a baby? I didn't have a thermometer, so I didn't even know how high it was.

I suddenly hated myself for not being more prepared for something like this.

My clothes were on faster than I had ever thought was possible and I threw on a pair of slip on shoes, not wanting to waste time tying laces. By the time I left the bedroom, my dad already had Alec tied into his carseat. We didn't waste time in getting to my dad's tiny station wagon and climbing in.

I had always hated where I lived because it was close to the hospital. We heard ambulances every night and a lot of the time, it woke Alec up when the drove past our apartment, sirens wailing. Today, I was grateful we were only 5 minutes away.

It took a few extra inputs to find a parking spot, but once we had we rushed into the emergency room. It must be an unspoken rule that if a baby younger than 6 months come into the room, they're rushed right in, because I had never gotten through the triage list so fast before in my entire life, and as a hockey player I had been in my fair share of emergency rooms.

The most we had to wait was 5 minutes for a doctor to be available to see him, but as soon as the doctor walked into our little room my heart began racing faster.

"Whats going on this morning?" He mumbled. I could tell he was exhausted.

I opened my mouth to speak but words didn't leave. My chest was so tight it hurt to breathe and I looked over to my dad for help.

"He's coughing like crazy and burning up." My dad answered for me.

The doctor nodded and lifted the carseat onto the small bed to inspect him closer. I leaned closer in the chair to watch. He had barely touched the baby when he took a step back, "I need to get him upstairs right now." He looked over at me and my dad, "I don't have to touch him to know his fever is getting dangerously high." Without any further words, we were being rushed up to the paediatrics unit with a posse of people following us. Alec had been moved to a stretcher and stripped of his clothes, a few IV looking bags placed around his body to try and cool him off.

Once we were in the right section, he was rushed off to an intensive unit and we were sent to a waiting room while doctors worked on him. They said that he needed bloodworm and his fever needed to go down before they could start addressing his cough.

Seeing the frantic look on everybody's faces made me feel sick to my stomach. He was barely 5 weeks old and he was already sick enough to have a hospital worried for him.

I buried my face in my hands and pulled my knees to my chest, hoping I could evade the world and turn invisible because I didn't want to deal with this side of parenthood. I had hardly gotten used to the easier part.

"Alec Stevens?" I jumped out of my chair and looked for the source of the voice. Finally, my eyes fell on a young woman with beautiful straight hair. She wasn't wearing a white coat, so she was probably a nurse.

"Is he okay?" I had been holding a breath and as I spoke my chest relaxed.

She sighed, "His fever is going down but he's sill coughing. We're running a few tests now but we won't know anything definitive until we get blood work back. You can go see him now if you'd like, but he is attached to a lot of cords."

I didn't care about cords, "I want to see him."

She nodded, "Follow me." So I did. She led us through a handful of corridors and hallways before stopping in front of a room that was full of other babies. Immediately, I saw mine and she had been right. He had an iv in his arm, tubes wrapped across his face and chest, a wrap around his thigh, ad his chest looked glossy.

The longer I stared at him the weaker my legs got. Eventually, I fell to the ground and covered my face with my palms as my body shook and I cried in horror of the countless possibilities that lurked in my near future.