Chapter Twenty... Hanging In Between Life And Death
It had been three hours since we'd arrived at the hospital after the accident that had left members of my family seriously injured. I had remained in the arms of my husband, whilst Jenna took comfort in Nathan's arms as her fiancée wasn't there, and neither was Nathan's girlfriend, who was working.
We sat in the room they had moved our father to, all huddled up in the corner. I had cried until my eyes were dry and stinging. All I kept thinking was what if my dad dies tonight? I wasn't ready to lose a parent yet. Well, I never would be. Nobody ever would.
I must have dozed off, because next thing I knew the sun was shining on my face. I slowly opened my eyes to see a group of doctors gathered over near dad. Nathan seemed to have fallen asleep, too, as he quickly leapt out of his sitting spot to greet the group. I hadn't noticed this before, but he was wearing scrubs. He must have been on call when our parents came into the hospital...
"Good morning, Fisher family," one of the doctors greeted us. Cameron stirred from underneath me. He'd obviously just woken, too. Jenna was sitting in a chair besde dad, which meant she'd woken up recently.
We listened to the medical words that came out of the mouths of the doctors, most of whom were surgical and orthopedic interns. I planned to become a doctor someday, but attending college anytime soon wasn't gonna happen. Nathan translated for us, though I'd been reading some medical textbooks at random and understood most of it.
They said that since my father lived through the night, he's got a bigger chance of surviving. The downside? If he did, he had a long recovery ahead of him, and he'd suffered some pretty extensive spinal damage, which meant he'd probably be paralysed. That brought a massive flow of tears on from me, and Cameron had to comfort me and take me from the room.
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After I'd calmed down, I went and seen my mom. She was awake, and had just been told by Nathan all about dad and Adam. Adam had been in surgery for several hours the night before, but they had controlled his internal bleeding. They did have to remove his spleen, but he would be alright, apart from the sixty stitches he had from deep metal and glass cuts all over his body.
Apparently he'd cried when he heard sixty stitches. Typical Adam. He might be a man but he's the biggest girl when it comes to being injured. Good luck mom...
I was glad to see my family alive. Cameron encouraged me to return home, pointing out that my daughters needed me, and that for now my parents and my brother were alright. I reluctantly went home, picking up our daughters on the way.
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That night I couldn't sleep. We'd put the girls to bed, and Cameron could tell I was restless. I kept tossing and turning, and eventually I got up and stormed off down to the kitchen. Cameron followed, noticing how irritated I was.
"Rose, you have to sleep," Cameron sighed. "The girls are depending on you to be alert, honey."
"I should be at the hospital," I said, standing up.
"The doctors said there's nothing you can do, babe," Cameron said slowly, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Yeah, well they're wrong," I snapped.
"Rose, why are you being so unreasonable?" Cameron asked, getting annoyed.
"I'm not," I snorted. "I just want my family to be alright."
"They are alright, for now," he frowned. "So come back to bed, and we'll sleep... and I'll take you there first thing in the morning."
"Fine," I answered bitterly, walking out of the room and storming up the stairs.
I managed to go to sleep after a while, but Cameron had gotten so annoyed by my tossing and turning, he slept on the couch. I didn't seem to notice that he wasn't there, considering since we'd lived together we'd only ever not shared a bed when Cameron was away for work.
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I awoke in the morning to Becca's little kiss.
"Mommy, get up!" she said, slapping my forehead lightly.
"Mmmmmmm..." I groaned sleepily.
"Rose? Honey?" Cameron soothed.
"Oh, now you wanna talk to me?!" I snapped at him, my eyes still shut. I opened them to see he had Addy in his hands.
"Rose, I'm sorry," Cameron sighed. "I couldn't sleep..."
"Yeah," I scoffed. Then I felt bad. "I'm sorry, Cam," I said apologetically.
"You had like, a hormonal blowout last night," Cameron chuckled. "I guess being pregnant with triplets has really made you a moody person."
"Mommy, are we going to school today?" Becca asked.
I gasped when I realised it was now Monday.
"Oh!" I said, getting out of bed quickly. Oops, too quickly... I had to grab the mattress to avoid falling over.
"Dizzy spell?" Cameron questioned.
"Yeah," I sighed.
I sat down until the dizziness passed, then got up and got the girls ready. Addy was nine months' old today, and had started walking along furniture. At the moment, she walked around our bed until she couldn't no more.
"Mommy, Addy's walking!" Becca said, surprised.
"Huh?" I frowned, and looked to see Addy let go of the bed and fall simply to the ground.
"Momma," Addy said, looking at the floor. Addy had never said 'mom' before...
"Oh, my God!" I gasped.
"Addy, did you just say 'momma'?" Cameron said, surprised.
Addy had said 'bub' 'dad' 'booboo' and 'no' before, but to say 'mom' was a first. Her tiny little voice rang beautifully in my ears, and I couldn't contain my smile of happiness. She sat on the floor, looking at me with her wide brown eyes.
"Addy, you're a cutie," I smiled, beaming.
"Momma." she said it again.
"Addy, say dadda!" Becca encouraged her.
"Dadda," Addy said, laughing.
"Wow..." Becca gasped. "Mommy, my little sister's growing up! She's getting so big! She's gonna be walking lone soon!"
"Yeah. She sure is growing up," I said, tears of joy coming into my eyes. Becca beamed at her little sister, a bond I'd never seen between the two before.
As we got in the car and took the girls to school, Becca continued to encourage Addy to talk. They were quite rowdy, and I had a thought... our car would not be big enough for five kids.
"Cam, we're gonna have to get a new car before the triplets come," I whispered.
"I know," Cameron sighed. "But I've found one. We'll look at it tomorrow, if you want."
"Yeah," I smiled happily.
My life was so perfect again. My family were all alive... my daughters were bonding (which I think it was due in big part to Addy being old enough now that Becca could play with her)... and we were soon expecting triplets.
I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.