Andy's POV
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God where the fuck did Cath go?! What the hell was all that about? I waited for a while, trying to figure out what to do next but the only thing I could think of was leave. It was probably best that I gave Cath some space and, as much as I wanted to know what that was about, I hope she will tell me on her own later on.
I noticed there was a lot of commotion. Everyone was running around, things were beeping every 3 seconds. I went down to the E.R. and it was even worse than upstairs.
There was blood everywhere, people missing arms, hands, fingers, people with bruises on their bodies, people with their heads practically open. Doctors frantically trying to calm people down while treating 3 other patients at a time.
I looked around and I saw a familiar set of red hair. Cath was sitting on the floor and her friend had her arms around her. Cath was crying and shaking, she looked like she was emotionally and physically drained and about to pass out. I walked towards her and kneeled down beside Cath.
"Sir, you can't be here." Cath's friend said.
"What happened?" I asked talking about Cath.
"If you're not a patient or a doctor or a nurse you can't--"
"Its okay." Cath spoke up. Her voice was shaky like she was about to burst into a sob.
"But Cath--"
"Its okay Cristina. You need to go treat patients, its okay. Go." Cath said.
Cristina stood up and looked at me for a second before going into the room beside her.
I sat down and brought my knees to my chest beside Cath. My back was pressed against the wall. We both stayed quiet and stared ahead, not looking at anything specifically.
After about 5 minutes I decided to speak, to make sure Cath was okay but to hopefully distract her from whatever had happened at the same time.
"So, this is what you have to deal with daily? Its intense." I said.
Cath stayed quiet and looked down.
I was about to speak up again but Cath cut me off.
"My mom was on the plane." She said in a low voice.
"What?"
"My mom. She was on the plane. She's in that room right now." She pointed to the room behind us where Cristina had just gone in.
"I'm sorry..." Was all I could think of saying. I didn't know how to handle this kind of situation.
A man walked out of the room. He looked down at us and I quickly stood up, helping Cath up too. We stood side by side and as the doctor was about to speak Cath held on to my hand. She squeezed it and held on to my arm.
"Cath," the Doctor said, "your mom is stable." Cath sighed of relief and loosened her grip on my hand but she didn't let go. "I think you should take the day off. I'll keep you posted on how she's doing." He put a hand on her shoulder before leaving.
Cath turned around and hugged me. Warmth spread through my body at the feeling of her body pressed against mine. God, how I missed that feeling. I hugged her back tightly and I felt my shirt getting wet. She was crying again and like always, I didn't know what to do. I hugged tighter and rubbed circles on her back. I nuzzled my head on the crook of her neck and inhaled her sent. She smelled like fruity shampoo and a floral perfume.
"Hey, let's get out of here, okay?" I said once I felt her stop crying. She nodded. "Should we pick up Beth first?"
"No. I think it's best she doesn't see me like this." She said.
"Okay." I put my hand around her waist and pulled her into my chest. She wrapped her arms around my torso as we walked outside. She felt and looked so fragile I thought she might break if I touched her too roughly. We got in my car and buckled both our seatbelts. "I know somewhere we can go. But its kinda far away, we might be gone a while."
"Um..okay. I guess let me ask Cristina if she can take Beth for the night." Cath said and took out her phone.
"Okay." An hour and a half later of silence except for music blasting from the radio passed and we were finally there. I took Cath to a beach where the boys and I had a party a while back when we were in LA before our second tour. The beach was fairly private but beautiful. The water was crystal clear, the sand was almost pearl white, and the view was amazing. There were a lot rocks around so not many people knew about this beach.
"What are we doing here?" Cath asked.
"I don't know. I just thought it was a good place to relax and clear your head." The weather was okay, low 80's, some clouds but not so many that it blocked the sun.
"Okay" she said. I grabbed her hand and led her down closer to the water. We sat on a big rock and I took out my pack of cigarettes.
I was about to light mine when Cath tapped my shoulder. "Can I have one?" She asked timidly.
"What? You smoke?" I asked.
"No."
"Well then, no I won't give you one. Its a nasty habit." I told her.
She looked at me angrily and snatched the pack away from me. She took one out and held out her hand. "Give it."
I took out my lighter and she tried to grab it too but I moved my hand. I signaled her to move closer. She did.
"Put the cigarette in your mouth." I said.
She did as I said and I lit both of our cigarettes.
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Cath's POV
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I took a drag of the cigarette and smoke filled my lungs. It was a strange feeling and it burned my throat. I coughed a couple of times and Andy glanced at me.
A couple of seconds later I took another drag, this time I didn't cough, it actually felt relaxing. I stared at the horizon and the small waves.
"You okay?" Andy asked. I hadn't realized I was crying until now.
"Yea, Yea. I'm fine. Well as fine as I can be in a situation like this." I said. "I didn't know she was coming, and I don't know why either." I said quietly. "I haven't seen her since I found out I was pregnant. She kicked me out. I had to live with Jackie for a while, until we started college." I laughed bitterly at the memory of my mom's reaction when I told her the news.
"So, I don't want to, I mean.. I don't mean to make you mad or uncomfortable but... When we talked you said them instead of Beth. What did you mean by them?" Andy asked.
I sighed. "Okay, I guess I should start from the beginning. Before you left, I had already been having symptoms. I didn't want to say anything because I thought it was nothing, and you were leaving for tour. I became depressed after you left. I would eat two meals a day, maybe less. I didn't want to speak to anyone. As you can imagine, not eating and having morning sicknesses was not healthy. I lost a lot of weight. About a week after you...left, Jackie came to see me and finally got into my room after days and days of persistence. Then I told her I had a feeling I was pregnant.
She went to the pharmacy and got some tests, Danny saw the tests, he found out that way. I took the test and of course, it was positive. I told my mom soon after and she got mad, called me names---she had been drinking again. She kicked me out. So I had to live with Jackie for a while. I moved here about two weeks before school started. I was already 3 and a half months pregnant and went for a regular check up. I thought I was a little big for 3 and a half months. During the ultrasound I could hear two heart beats. Then, the doctor told me, they were twins." I smiled at the memory and looked at Andy. He was smiling too, and he had a twinkle in his eyes, I don't know how to describe it. I took out my wallet and handed him a picture of the ultrasound. There, two babies could clearly be seen. "This was at 5 months."
Andy's eyes watered a little, as did mine. He smiled and exhaled staring at the picture.
"They said everything was fine, so I went home. I had a crappy apartment and I worked at a local restaurant cooking; wasn't exactly living the life." I continued. "Anyway, when I took that ultrasound," I said pointing at the picture in his hands, "they told me something was wrong. You see the way he's positioned?"
"He? It was a boy?" Andy asked and I nodded. "Yea. He's seated like a little Buddha." He said and we both chuckled.
"Yea, he is. Well he hadn't moved since the first ultrasound. They ran a couple of tests. Turns out he had Osteogenesis Imperfecta stage two, or OI. Brittle bone disease." I said taking a deep breath, trying not to start crying again. I took another drag of the cigarette but Andy had thrown his to the ground and stomped on it already.
"Its a disease that... Its...sorry." I choked on my own words not being able to keep tears in. "Its a disease that causes people to have defective connective tissue, or they don't have the ability to make any. So their bones are weak. His..." Tears rolled down my eyes and my breathing became heavy. Andy put a hand on mine and lightly squeezed it. "His bones.. Were breaking, inside me." I sobbed even more. Andy closed his eyes and bit his bottom lip, a tear escaped from his eye.
"The doctors said there was next to no possibility of him surviving, so I had the option of abortion or giving birth. Neither one was safe since they were twins. If I gave birth to them, both of them could die. Even though I knew he would be suffering... I decided to at least wait a little, until they both had a chance of surviving." I exhaled before continuing.
"So, when I was 8 months pregnant, I decided to finally do it. I went through a medically enduced labor and gave birth to two beautiful little babies..." Andy wrapped his arm around me and I rested my head against his shoulder. "I decided to give him his best chance, I thought maybe he would survive. I didn't leave the hospital, not even for a minute. I would sleep next to the incubator, I wouldn't eat, I didn't leave their side. Beth clearly got a lot better. She became a fairly healthy, happy baby. But Michael was slowly deteriorating. He was small and boney and barely breathing. After a few weeks the nurses told me he was suffering, and he should be let go. It took a lot of thinking but I decided he shouldn't suffer, I wanted him to survive, but not like this. If he survived he would have to have multiple annual surgeries done for the rest of his life. I didn't want that. So they unplugged him and I held him as he took his last short breath." Tears were literally pouring from my eyes at this point.
"Michael, I like that name." Andy said. He sniffed, he was now crying too.
"Michael Dennis Reed..." I whispered and weakly smiled up at Andy.
"Michael Dennis..." He kissed my forehead and rested his head on top of mine. We stayed like that for a few minutes, then my pager beeped.
It was closer to Andy so he grabbed it and read what it said. "Code Blue?" He asked.
"Oh my god, we have to go, we have to go. Take me back to the hospital. NOW!" We stood up and ran to the car.
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I'm so bad at updating so here, a 2,000 word chapter this time. (My chapters are usually 1,000)
I cried writing this oohhhhh maaaa goooddd
Comment your reactions, emotions, opinions, predictions etc. Vote and share!!! :)))