Nicole had fallen asleep smiling, with a strange fuzzy feeling of fulfillment and she knew that her own mother and grandmother were looking down and were proud of her.
However as the night went on, Nicole’s dreams turned to nightmares, vicious rapids and wind storms were tearing everything from their path – uprooting trees from where they stood, their life force being torn out as well.
Drenched in a cold sweat Nicole was wrenched from her dream and she sat up suddenly as a sick cramp tore across her lower stomach taking her breath away with the intensity. Clutching at the bedsheets Nicole gasped again as she felt a ripping sensation inside her, this time felt the downwards ripping bring out a flow of blood that pooled around her lower body.
A primal scream ripped from her body and Joseph woke to see his new wife in a pool of blood, shaking and too terrified to move. “Joe, oh god, Joe it’s the baby, I’m losing her, I’m losing her Joe oh God”.
Joseph’s face whitened to the colour of her dress that was quickly becoming crimson. He whipped his blackberry to his ear, shouting at the emergency response unit to hurry over the phone even as he could hear the siren wailing down the street towards their apartment. J
oseph threw down the phone and picked up Nicole in one fell swoop, emerging from the elevator as the ambulance and fire trucks swerved into the parking lot. Nicole’s pupils had dilated enormously and looked at Joe for reassurance as tiny gasps and breaths of air tore from her lips as her body fought both to save and expel the baby in her.
Like some sick scene from an opera, the train and hem of Nicole’s dress soaked in the blood, the life force Nicole was trying to keep inside of her. They whisked Nicole into surgery and despite Joseph’s furious tirade in a mix of French and Italian at the nurses, he was not allowed in, he could do nothing but sit and wait in the emergency waiting room as he heard her piteous pleas to save the baby become fainter as she disappeared behind the swinging doors of the surgery.
“Take care of, of my wife” he called after them. The nurses tried to tend to Joseph as well, offering him tea or coffee but he could do nothing but sit in the grey plasticky chairs, his eyes closed and his hands, still covered in Nicole’s blood, clasped together as his lips moved silently in desperate prayer.
“Lord my faith is in you, save Nicole and this baby, Lord even if you take our daughter home to your kingdom I cannot live without Nicole, lord keep her safe. Please God please, please, please. Hail Mary, Sante Maria et angelus…”
The chief obstetric surgeon pushed though the doors several hours later and motioned for Joseph to come into his office. “Doctor”, he said his voice still hoarse with terror, “tell me is she? is the baby?”
The exhausted surgeon pushed up his glasses and sighed, “both your wife and the baby are stable – for a while we thought we would have to deliver the foetus to save your wife although the baby is not yet viable outside of the womb at 26 weeks.
It would have meant aborting the fetus. However, by what I can only call an act of God, oxygen flow was re-established to the placenta and umbilical cord. The lack of oxygen caused by your wife’s high blood pressure and sugar levels was effectively starving the placenta to save the mother and so was contracting as it became more oxygen starved until the placenta entered a state called placenta previa.
She went into a form of diabetic seizure and shock. And as I said, miraculously, there is no medical reason for this, but although the baby’s heartrate became tachycardic, there is no lasting damage and both your wife and baby are resting comfortably. She’s lost a lot of blood though. Look Joseph I’ve known Nicole since she was a little girl and there is no one and no thing on this earth that can make her stop working, but I think this scare has shaken her up enough to realize that something needs to change.
What she needs most is to go somewhere where work cannot find her and she cannot find work or stress, anything that will raise her heart rate– a babymoon if you will before the baby comes. She’s in her 6 month right now and she can safely deliver at a little after 8 months. If you plan on flying somewhere as long as you fly her first class or with plenty of leg room and are able to fly back before she is 38 weeks pregnant, I think that is the best chance we have to ensure…well to ensure both their survival, the optimal situation would be to keep her in hospital but the worry it would cause her to have is a risk we cant afford with her heart and blood pressure”. He broke the news gently to Joseph.
“Paris” he said, I’ll take her to Paris for the next two months. May I see her now?”
Tight lipped Joseph nodded curtly at the ob/gyn and halfway bolted to the ICU recovery rooms. As he entered the first sight he gave thanks for was the rise and fall of his wife’s chest.
Second was the dual bleep of the of the monitors showing hers and the baby’s strong and regular heartbeats as well as Nicole’s still swollen belly that rose underneath the blue hospital issue blankets. He sat down at the edge of the bed and took one of her hands and winced as he felt the number of needles, IV’s and finger clips over her unconscious body.
As Nicole’s eyes fluttered open, Joseph closed his eyes against the image of last night when her eye’s had rolled back in her head as she seized in his arms and her shuddering body seemed to bleed out the life force of the two things he geld most dear.
Through cracked dry lips she whispered croakily – “Joseph”. “Nic Oh God Nicole I thought I was going to lose you, oh darling can you ever ever forgive me God I’m so sorry Nicole, God thank you”. His muffled sobs escaped from where he had pressed his lips to her forehead and she lifted her arm weakly to stroke his hair.
“And Nic – I’m saying this because of how much I love you – we need to get away from the city and from work for awhile”. Nicole opened her mouth to speak and Joseph braced himself for an argument but instead she only nodded as her shaky hands found her stomach.
She seemed to shrink even more into the bedcovers as her shoulders untensed and fell back with relief when she realized she was still carrying the baby.
“Joe I never meant to hurt the baby she managed. I thought I was doing everything I needed to. But I guess this pregnancy is a little different from the norm then huh? I suppose life just caught up with me”. Her brow furrowed again, “but who’s going to take care of the flat and finish construction and where will we go and make sure we get back before the baby’s born?”
“To Paris love”, he smiled for the first time in what felt like years. “I own and lease a flat on the rue de rivoli overlooking the Seine. I’ve had Melanie book two first class returning flights for us and Sherri is back at the flat packing your things. The doctor recommended flying instead of taking a boat despite the fact that we have weeks. I keep a staff at the Paris flat and she will take care of all the chores, laundry, cooking etc. His eyes grew serious once more.
Nicole you are a fierce and successful business woman and the most stubborn person I know and I love you for all of this – but to continue refusing any and all help and doing everything for yourself, you’re going to have to put everything on hold for the remainder of this pregnancy”.
Nicole took a deep breath in, “I know that now. I’ll do whatever it takes to let this baby grow safely”. Now he brushed at his eyes and continued on in a voice that was more like himself, caught up in careful planning. “The doctor says the sooner we can get you out of the city the better. And after one more night in observation he can temporarily discharge you from hospital until September 12th, which is the latest he wants you back in the country by to ensure you don’t go into labour overseas”.
“Mmhmm”…she mumbled as her head rolled to one side as she succumbed to the drugs being pumped into her body through the IV. Pulling the tiny and lumpy sofa to the side of the hospital bed and making a makeshift pillow out of his evening jacket he positioned himself to watch over Nicole.
And so he lay there, switching his gaze from Nicole’s face – all pain and worry washed away by the blissful numbing waves of sleep and from her face to the monitors that reassured him and assuaged his fears that both his wife and unborn child were safe. He watched the tiny bouncing line of his baby’s heartbeat on the monitor beneath Nicole’s until the regular beeps of the machine sent him into a restless sleep. “I’ll protect you butterfly”.
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Okay guys, pleaase keep commenting. I hate hate hate having to beg, doesn't have to be long - just want to know you're out there and reading. It's only because of my one or two loyal commenters that I'm uploading again so please! Restore my faith I beg of you!!