The Baby (bump) Blues [FINISHED]

The Baby Blues (Part 6)

Racing to the Hospital-

Nobody spoke. The car was absolutely quiet, now, if only the rambling in my head would subside. I was trying to not be too eager, or too hopeful because that had happened before with my father and she ended up just slipping back into the coma. Don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up. But saying it was easier than doing it.

Libby's car screeched to a halt outside of the hospital doors and I jumped out of the car. "Thanks." I told her but before I could take off, Jamie said, "Would you like me to come with you?" I looked back at him, his hopeful green eyes, his sincere smile, and his loving intention, but when it comes to my mom and her situation I'm a very closed off person, so I did what I know how to do best, I pushed.

"No Jamie, I'd like to go alone. But if you don't mind," I looked over at Libby. "Could you have David hold onto Hayden. I don't know how long I'm going to be here. Bye guys." And with that I took off through the automatic doors.

If you've never been to the emergency room in the 'Patient Recovery' unit, then you have no idea what I went through pacing the waiting room, waiting for some information on my mothers condition. I realized that everyone was watching me, and probably more because of the dress I was wearing and less because the fact that I was pacing, because in a place like this people tend to pace a lot.

I don't know how many hours passed before Kelsie came through the double doors and found me, by that point I had taken residency to a chair and had my head between my legs. "Cheyenne." She called, my head snapped up and I jumped out of the chair. "How is she? Is she awake? Has she asked about me?" Kelsie had a stricken look on her face. "What?" I asked her. "Kelsie, damn it, tell me what's wrong." She shook her head and said, "Nothing, she's awake, she's responsive, it doesn't seem like she has any brain deterioration from the coma she was in. Like the doctor said when she first fell in, it was like she was merely in a prolonged sleep..." "But?" I asked. "Why don't you come back and see?" Kelsie suggested and then disappeared behind the double doors again. I grabbed my purse and followed her.

Meeting mom-

Kelsie had gone in before me and told my mom I was coming, but I still hadn't dragged up the nerve yet to actually go through the doors. Hell, I hadn't even peeked through the window yet. I took a couple deep breaths and then pushed back all my fears and went into the room.

The bed was empty, which at first shocked me, but then I saw her, sitting in a wheel chair, by the window. She didn't turn when I came in, but I did see her body tense than relax.

"Mom?" I asked, my voice cracked. Her long, brown hair was messy and resting on her shoulders and behind the wheelchair. She didn't move so I moved to her. "Mom, are you alright?" I didn't stop walking until I was directly in front of her, and then I realized she wasn't looking out the window, she was looking down at a stack of pictures that her pale, thin fingers were clinging onto.

She looked up when she saw me and smiled faintly. "Cheyenne, you came." I fell to my knees in front of her and reached up to touch her cheek, "Of course I came mom. Of course I did." She put the pictures in her lap and reached her hand out to touch my cheek as well. Her hand was cool and very frail-like, almost like a porcelain doll. I leaned into her hand affectionately, god how long I have wanted to do that. When I opened my eyes again, she was smiling, her hazel eyes were brimmed with tears.

"The doctor says I've been out a long time." She whispered, still clutching the pictures with her free hand. I nodded and moved closer to her. "But all that matters now is that you're awake and you're well. The doctor says you're very responsive." My mom nodded and looked back down at the pictures. "I have to take physical therapy to regain control of my muscles, I couldn't walk." She informed me, her voice cracking like mine had earlier. I hadn't realized this before, but this must be so hard on her. Before she had gotten ill, my mother was a strong, powerful, independent woman and now she was going to have to rely on other people to get around for a while.

"Yea well, at least the cancer is gone. The surgery was a success." I said, trying to cheer her up. She looked up at me with her delicate face and I saw the tears that were pouring out of her eyes. "Oh mom, what's wrong?" The tears kept coming, running down her bony cheeks and into her messy hair. "Where is he?" She asked me. "Where is your father?"

I felt the tears brim my eyes now, but I held them in, I would be strong, for her. "I-...mom he-he's um..." She lifted both of her hands to her face and began sobbing. I wasn't sure what to do so I leaned over and hugged her until she got it all out. My mom was a very intelligent woman, she understood that if my father was okay he would have been there the moment she opened her eyes, that's how in love they were. She knew, in her heart, that something was wrong, I just wished I didn't have to tell her.

When she finished crying, I pulled her back and told her everything that happened between dad and me after she had slipped into a coma. About him quitting his job, about his picking up drinking, about him worried about her all the time, missing her, and then finally about his accident. I didn't want to tell her those things, god only knows, but it felt wrong, somehow, keeping it from her. She didn't cry again, instead she pulled me into another hug, cradling my face in her chest, and said, "I love you."

Three hours later-

The doctors shooed me out of my moms room an hour after she fell asleep. I looked down at my phone and realized the time, 3:30am. My mother and I had stayed up for a long time talking about the house, school, the singing competition. I never brought up Hayden, though I don't know why. For some reason I guess I thought it would be better to explain that situation when she was home and could see her granddaughter first hand.

I didn't who to call or where to go. I could take a cab home, but then I would be alone in that house with no one but myself or Delia, who was probably asleep, to talk to. If I went to Jamie's I would wake up his sisters and mom and I knew that I didn't want to do that, and then there was Libby's house. Hayden was there and so was Lib and David, and Crystal, who had been so much like a mom to me recently. I called her cell phone and prayed that she wouldn't be upset.

"Cheyenne?" She asked. "What's wrong?" "Could you come and get me? I'm at the hospital." She didn't ask any questions, instead she said 'okay' and I was in her car twenty minutes later. I held myself together, not thinking about everything that had been going through my head as I held my mom and talked to her, I held myself together because I didn't want Crystal to see me break down. I held myself together until we were inside and David came out of his room to greet me; I held myself together until I ran into his arms and broke down like I never broke down before. I cried because I hadn't cried like this in so very long. I cried because I had let myself hope, I cried because I was happy, I cried because I had let myself believe she would be perfectly fine, I cried because the little girl that still lived in my heart thought that mommy would wake up and then everything would be back to normal, I cried over the possibility that she would slip back into a coma while she slept tonight, and I cried because tonight I had to loose my father all over again when I watched my mother break down.

By the time I got it all out, I realized that I was in David's room, wrapped in his arms, still in that damn dress. David touched my face, pushing the hair off that was sticking to it, and kissed my forehead. "Happy Birthday." He told me, and then I fell asleep.

Okay, so there is was, the next chapter. What do you guys think?

Vote/Comment and let me know.

:]

Picture to the right is what her mom looks like-sort of.