Max shook his head. He couldn’t think of such earthly things now; not when he was in danger of losing his precious babies and the woman that held his heart. “Come on, I’ll walk with you,” said Beth. “I need to exercise my legs.” She turned to Max, “Will you be okay for a minute or two, son?”
Max shook his head and stared up at the ceiling. His chest hurt and he couldn’t breathe properly. He watched the two women walk down the corridor and through the swing doors arm in arm. When he was sure they were no longer in hearing, he walked to the wall and punched it hard, so hard that the plaster cracked under his knuckles. “Fuck!” he hissed. He pulled at his hair and turning, slid down the wall and dropped to the floor hard. He didn’t feel it. He rested his head on his knees and tried to catch his breath. “Please, God. Please don’t let them die.”
Polly returned, slowly approaching him and settling down next to him. She pushed a cup of coffee in his direction. “Max! She’s going to be okay.”
His lifted his head and turned in her direction. All the color had drained from his face. “How the hell can you be sure of that, Polly?”
Her hand touched his. “Because it’s Susan; she’s fought all her life to get what she has, and she won’t give up on it now. Trust me.”
Susan’s eyes shot open; she lay in the hospital bed opening her mouth to speak but no words came out. She pulled the cover back and felt for the floor with her feet. There was no pain. She felt empty inside. She cried out for Max, but the room was silent. She could hear a faint cry on the other side of the door – it sounded like babies crying. She dashed over to the door, but it was locked, and she couldn’t get out. Her fists pounded uncontrollably on the door, but she was trapped. The more she hammered on the door, the more they cried.
She fell to the floor sobbing. She could hear footsteps outside, and the crying stopped. She could hear a man’s voice... His voice. She stood up on her tiptoes and peered through the glass. She could see him in the distance, even with his back turned to her, she knew it was Max. He held something bundled in his arms. Her heart jumped in her chest. “Max!” she screamed, “I’m in here!” He turned but he didn’t take his eyes from the bundle in his arms. “It’s okay, Hope, daddy’s here.” Tears tricked down his face and landed on the tiny baby wrapped in a blanket.
‘Hope!’ she whispered. It had been the name they had chosen together the night before…
Another cry came from a second cot in the room and Max turned his attention to it. Susan banged as hard as she could on the glass, but he could not hear. As he bent his head down into the cot, the crying stopped. “Ssh, Jacob!” A tiny collection of fingers wrapped around his finger.
Frantically she ran around the room, throwing the chair at the door and kicking and screaming in hope of him hearing her.
“Ssh, child!” A voice came from the corner of the room. A woman sat on the end of the bed. She was beautiful, an angelic vision in white. “It’s no use, he can’t hear you, Susan.”
“Who are you?” she asked tremulously.
The woman shook her head. “You know who I am. I’m here to help you.”
Susan backed away from her. She knew that if she let this woman too close, then she would never hold her babies in her arms – she would never go home.
Three hours had passed, and Max never moved off the floor. At last they heard the swing doors go and through bleary eyes he could make out a figure? Polly and Beth reached to comfort each other on the seats. A man, dressed in theatre robes, his mask dangling from his ear, walked over to them and cleared his throat waiting for Max to stand. “Mr Taylor?”
Max nodded but he couldn’t find the strength to lift himself up. He saw from the expression on the surgeons face that things were not good.
“Mr Taylor. You’ll be relieved to know that we managed to deliver both babies safely...” the surgeon hesitated, and Max felt his throat turn to sand.
“W…what about Susan? Is she…Did she make it?”
The doctor’s face contorted as he chooses his words carefully. He coughed and cleared his throat. “You have to understand that she sustained quite a serious head injury and a broken leg, but, apart from that, she was very lucky. We believe she went into labor causing her to lose control of the car…”
“So, she is okay? Can I see her now?” Max ran his fingers through his hair.
“If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you to her. Now before you go in I need to warn you that she hasn’t regained consciousness just yet and she is very wired up. We can’t quite understand why she’s not come around yet, but it’s not unheard of for it to take a little while. We are waiting for her scan results but up to yet there is no reason that we can ascertain.”
“What do you mean ‘no reason’? You said she had sustained a head injury, is she in a coma?” Worry flashed over his face – he could still lose her.
The doctor smiled apologetically, “I’m afraid she seems to have given up. It’s like she’s gone somewhere else for a while. We did everything we could and it’s now down to her.”
Max stood in the doorway afraid to enter. He could hear the machines before he could see them. “Doctor, tell me the truth, do you think she is going to make it?” Max felt her slipping between his fingers.
The surgeon sighed heavily, “That is out of our control now.” He pushed open the door and let Max through, “I’ll leave you for a while. I’ll be on rounds in about an hour.” He turned and walked away down the corridor.
Max took a deep breath as he approached the bed. He took hold of her hand. “Susan, baby!” he leant over and whispered into her ear. “Baby, you need to wake up. We need to go and see our babies together. You can wake up now. They need their mummy.”
He heard Beth gasp behind him. Her hand rested on his shoulder. “Max!”
“It’s okay, Mom, she will wake up. She has to.” He looked over his shoulder at Polly. “It’s okay, Polly, I know she will be fine. Like you said, she will fight this.”
Polly approached playing with the bottom of her top. She perched on the bed and took hold of her other hand. “Come on, honey, you have two babies that need feeding. You’ve got to wake up, I’m not babysitting! I’m rubbish with babies.” Max gave her a smile as the three of them sat talking to her as though she was awake.
Time passed and there was a tap at the door. A head popped around the corner. “I hope you don’t mind?” the women stepped into the room wheeling a crib “I just thought that you would like to meet these two!”
Beth jumped up, “Oh my! Can I?” she moved forward stretching out her arms.
The nurse laughed kindly. “Of course, you can. Go ahead, I’ll pop back in half an hour to take them back up to the baby unit.”
“Oh, Max come here, they are gorgeous!” Beth snuggled one of the tiny babies up in her arms. “You have your mummy’s eyes, yes you do, don’t you?” Polly bent down and carefully picked up the other baby.
Max sat still on the bed, refusing to look at them. How could he look at them without her? “I can’t. I can’t see them until she wakes up – we are meant to look at them together. We are meant to meet them together. Take them out, please, we’re not ready.”
“Max!” Beth said, shocked. “You can’t turn away from them. They need you just as much as she does. How do you think she would feel if she found out you turned your back on them? I don’t care if you’re not ready to meet them, they’re ready to meet their daddy.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, “Please, just take them away.” Max felt his gut snap; it killed him inside not to look at them, but he couldn’t bring himself to move from her side. He couldn’t bring himself to love them without her.
“You don’t mean that!” Polly shouted furiously from the back of the room.
Max stood up. “I can’t... I just can’t. I… I want you both to leave, right now!”
Polly carried the baby over to him. “Look at your, son Max! Look at him. He needs you.” She held him out for Max to hol
d. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel anything.”
Max tried to look away, but the baby let out a little mewl and he couldn’t help himself. He stared into the tiny blue eyes – her eyes - and his stroked over the think brown hair on the tiny head. His face twisted with pain and sorrow. Tears started to brim his eyes.
“I don’t…I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry.” He fell into the chair. Polly bent down and passed the baby into his arms. Beth walked over carrying the other baby and carefully placed her into his other arm, which took a certain amount of awkward readjustment. She nudged Polly’s elbow signaling for them to take their exit.
Max couldn’t take his eyes of the two strangers in his arms. “Daddy’s here!” he whispered. When he heard the door click shut, he couldn’t hold back the tears. “Susan, open your eyes – I need you to see how beautiful they are.”
He sat back in the chair sobbing uncontrollably, his heart torn between his children and the love of his life.
“I can’t do this without you.”
He stood up and laid the babies at Susan’s side. “We are going to be right here when you open your eyes baby. All three of us.”
THE END
Almost.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Four-year-old Hope ran along the beach towards Max. She threw her arms around him. “Jacob won’t let me play with Granny.” Tiny tears fell over her cheek as she pointed down the water.
“Oh, sweetie, it’s okay.” Max tenderly ran his hands under her eyes, wiping away her tears. “Let’s go and get some ice-cream, yeah?” He stood up, holding his hand out for her.
“Daddy, should we get Aunty Powy one too?” The little girl danced along beside him, her hand wrapped in his.
Max laughed. “Yeah, we can get Aunty Polly one too, and Uncle Dillon.”
“No, he smells funny!” She let go of his hand. “Look, daddy, I can ballerina!” She danced around him, twirling around.
“You mean you can dance like a ballerina, Hope?” He crossed his arms over his chest and watched as she danced.
She stopped, stomping her foot. “That’s what I said, daddy, I can ballerina.”
With a handful of ice-creams, he walked down the beach towards Beth who sat building sand castles with Jacob. “Hey, Jacob, let Hope play with granny too!” “But daddy, she just wants to do dancing,” the tiny voice protested.
Beth giggled, looking over her shoulder at Max.
“Here you go, you two.” He passed the ice-creams over to Polly and Dillon.
“Thanks, Max – I think this little one is craving ice cream. I’m eating it by the bucket load.” She laughed, pressing her hand over her belly.
Two hands pressed over his eyes and he felt his heart skip and dance at the feel of her touch. Both children fell into fits of giggles. He turned around to kiss her, but Susan ran off across the beach laughing. As Max caught up with her, he pulled her onto the sand. He kissed her hard. “I love you, Susan.”
She took hold of his face with both hands examining his expression. “Take me home and show me how much Max…”
Something Missing (The True Love Series Book 1) Page 16
