That Blue Gibson: Another Round

twenty-seven

Everything was moving so fast. The nurses flitted in and out of the curtained room, checking and rechecking the monitors that were stuck to Liz. Some were monitoring her vitals, but most were focused on the babies currently jostling for position in an attempt to force their way out of his wife.

"Breathe, dude."

His eyes snapped off the monitors and onto her face as he dutifully took a deep breath. "It doesn't hurt?"

"It's not too bad, just a little uncomfortable. Not like last time," she admitted. "They'll give me the good stuff before it gets worse. Why don't you go remind the nurse that you still need scrubs before Taylor and Al get here?"

He only nodded, amazed that she could stay so calm when she was about to be taken into an operating room where she would be fully lucid while they cut open her body to remove two actual humans, then they'd sew her up and send them on their way like it was a typical Wednesday afternoon. He suddenly had the urge to call and thank his mother for everything she had gone through with him and his sister.

"Room's ready!" a nurse cheerfully swept past the curtains and started unhooking Liz from her various attachments.

"Oh... the parents aren't here yet," Liz said, looking over at Dave with a bit of panic in her eyes.

The nurse only frowned and continued working. "Room's booked, honey. Plus, we only allow one extra in the room. Your parents have to wait in the waiting room."

Liz sighed and flopped back onto her pillow, too tired to explain to yet another person that she was just a vessel for someone else's kids. She gave Dave a look that made him stand to rest his hand on her shoulder and she played with the ring on his finger while he checked his phone.

"They're on their way," he told her, reading Taylor's text just as the doctor hurried into the room.

"They just couldn't wait, huh?" he quipped, giving Liz a tired smile and then frowned at Dave. "Where's your scrubs, Rock Star?"

"They didn't give him any," Liz shrugged and abandoned his ring to weave her fingers with his knowing he hated that nickname. "Taylor and Allison are almost here."

"I saw them in the hallway, they're dressed and ready to go," the doctor smiled and pointed at Dave, "I'll get you scrubs, don't go anywhere."

"Yeah, David," Liz teased through a forced laugh, "Don't leave."

*

Several minutes later, Dave paced the little hallway outside the OR next to an equally stressed Taylor and Allison. Liz had been taken in without them for her spinal and the thought of her being alone and scared while a massive needle punctured her spine made Dave feel like he might puke or faint or scream or-

"You can come in now," a nurse called to them from the large swinging door and his Vans squeaked on the linoleum in his rush to get to her.

The OR was cold, so cold that Allison immediately put her arms around herself. The operating table lay before them surrounded by doctors and surgical techs, giving Dave only a little glimpse of the guitar tattooed on his wife's foot.

"You're over there," the nurse muttered to Dave, pointing to a generic metal folding chair by the head of the table and turned to Taylor and Allison. "You two can watch from over here. Once the babies are out, you can step forward and cut the cords, but if you faint we have to take you straight to the ER," she showed Taylor and Allison a yellow box taped off on the floor next to the two warming tables waiting for their boys. They had heard the instructions, but the sight of the OR table and stark environment had frozen them all to their spots.