“Can you hear me, Mrs. Knights? Can you hear me? Do you think you can push?”
Tatum figured she wasn’t dead yet. She tried to respond but she was way too weak. She gave the slightest of nods as her eyelids felt like they weighed a ton each and had no choice but to shut. Please don’t take my babies…
“You wanna keep ya fucking hands, then get them the fuck off me! I ain’t going nowhere!”
“Sir, you have to step-”
“You see my wife over there? Do your fucking job!”
Tatum awoke from her momentary blackout to the sounds of shouting voices, one in particular.
“My hus…,” she tried to mumble. “R-r-r…”
“Bitch, go help my fucking wife!” She heard him yell again.
“Let him stay!” A deep voice bellowed, and Tatum recognized it as the one from earlier that she had connected to the doctor. “We’re in the middle of an emergency caesarian people! Time is crucial!”
Tatum wasn’t sure if she was drugged or just half conscious, but she couldn’t focus, and she couldn’t feel anything. Someone slipped a strong and masculine hand into hers and held a firm and semi-comforting grip, she felt that.
She fluttered her eyes over to her husband as he knelt holding her hand, she could see the emotions that he was trying desperately to fight in his face. Was this real? Was she really here? Was this happening?
A part of her expected to wake up in her bed in her Atlanta home and realize this was all a dream. Another part of her wished to wake up in their home in Jamaica and have it had been an even bigger dream with Ree never coming back into the drug business, Sasha never discovering her secret, her never becoming pregnant with babies that she couldn’t stand to possibly lose, Trinity and Johnny not being killed, none of it. Tatum even wondered if a part of her wished to wake up in her bed in her two bedroom townhouse in Newark, hop on the phone call Kim and Sasha on a three way and had never even met Ree in the first place. Him just being one huge, spell binding and earth shattering dream. One look at him made her realize that was not true though, regardless of the circumstances.
“Okay!” The doctor sounded excited. “We’ve successfully entered the womb. I see movement, breathing! These are good signs!”
Tatum’s heart skipped although her body remained numb.
“Let’s take the boy…no from the position, let’s remove the girl…the boy is…”
His voice trailed off. Tatum felt her hand drop which meant Ree had let go. She realized he was probably going to find out exactly what was happening beyond the lifted sheet that she couldn’t see past, even if she had the strength to lift her head.
“The boy is what?” She heard her husband ask. Seconds later, she felt something. It was hard to explain. It was like a part of her was gone, a disconnect, a weight lifted. Tatum’s heart paused. Was that her losing her baby? After an excruciating pause, she heard angels, she heard a cry. A faint, weak, and broken cry, but a cry nonetheless.
“Your son…your son,” she heard the doctor announce. Tatum breathed a sigh of relief but then held it in again because they were only half way.
“Get him to the incubator, he’s fighting but his breathing isn’t strong!” Tatum hated those words. She heard hustle and bustle, lots of movement. She heard Ree asking questions with authority, them giving half answers. She also heard the doctor again, “…the girl…okay, she’s almost…”
There was lots of silence, long pauses, the sound of tools being used and at work, Ree’s breathing, her heart pounding, and then…
‘Okay, she’s out! She’s…”
“She’s what?” Ree demanded.
The doctor didn’t respond. Or maybe Tatum just didn’t hear it. From a place unknown, Tatum used every bit of strength she had and put it into her small hand, pushing down the sheet weakly. She had to see her daughter.
“Mrs. Knights, no!”
Blue.
A little brown baby should never be blue.
It should be impossible.
But she was.
If Tatum had any more power, she would have reached for the scalpel herself and slit her own throat, but all she had the strength to do was to lose any strength she had left.
“Noooo….” She wailed, turning her head away from everyone. “Oh god… Oh god… Noooooooo!”
She couldn’t even focus enough to lay eyes on Ree, had she done so she would have seen the look of pure defeat, hurt, and agony in him, too strong for him to hide this time.
“I’m…I’m sorry…,” the doctor must’ve mumbled. “For your loss.”
There was a crash, a loud noise of things shattering to the floor.
“Mr. Knights! Please! P-please try to calm down.” The doctor was scared.
Ree must’ve knocked some shit over. Tatum was in too much pain to even care.
“Your son is fighting…he…he needs you! Rebecca, p-please check on the status of the boy.”
“Mr. Knights….please,” the doctor coaxed. “I know…I know…but your wife…your son…they…they need you.”
There were voices, movement, yelling, all types of background noise that Tatum was too distraught to decipher. Never had a pain been this dominant, nothing had ever hurt this bad, not even the death of her parents.
My son…I have to try to pull through for my son, she knew. And although she was in a state of complete devastation, unbearable pain, she couldn’t wallow in it. Tatum was forced to put her mourning on hold. She had to pull enough of something from inside of her to say a prayer for her baby boy. Please lord, don’t take him too. And if you do, my only wish is that you take me as well. Because I can’t feel this twice.
And then her eyes shut.
“Oh my god, oh my god Chauncey! You have to drive faster! We have to get there. I have to get to Tatum…She needs me.” Sasha looked out of the passenger window with tear filled eyes. “She needs me,” she mumbled again as the tears then fell to her cheeks.
Chauncey looked over at Sasha, upped his speedometer by another ten miles per hour and took her small hand into his. He didn’t know what was going on with Tatum and Sasha, and why they had been having a little distance between them, but he knew the depth and love of their friendship. He knew it stood many tests.
“They gonna be alright, Princess. Stop crying.”
“You don’t know that, Chauncey,” Sasha sobbed. “What if they won’t? I’m so stupid! I should’ve been there for my friend. Oh my god…”
Chauncey stared ahead and his brows dipped low in solemn. He hoped his words were true. He couldn’t help but think of when Ree and Tatum were rushing to Sasha and himself at the hospital when their baby Aubrey had been poisoned. Aubrey had pulled through, hopefully Tatum and the twins would as well.
“They will, ma. People have babies early every day. They’re gonna be alright, I’m sure... We’re almost there.” He squeezed her hand.
Sasha swallowed hard, trying to take a deep breath and calm her nerves. She thought of Chauncey’s words, his demeanor and his comfort at this time. He was the only person in the world that offered her that strength when she needed it, besides her Daddy…the Daddy she’d known all her life.
“I love you, Chauncey,” she felt the need to say, never meaning it as much as she did at that moment. “I love you so much.”
Chauncey looked over at her with love in his eyes and squeezed her hand even tighter.
“I love you too, Princess. Always will. You better always believe that shit.”
Then he upped the speedometer by another ten miles, doing 105 all the way there.
“You look like me.”
Ree paused. He never thought he’d be here. It was just him and his son, and watching him fight for his precious life, his tiny hands balling and his small body stretching with every breath being forced into him, it made Ree feel something that he wasn’t used to – emotional.
He studied him. He was perfect. He was frail and still newborn baby pale, his skin was soft with tiny wrinkles, but
he was perfect, and he was fighting with all of his might, you could see it. He wanted to live.
Ree felt what he knew he should’ve felt with SJ before but it had been impossible, an unbreakable, intense connection.
“I mean, you got your mother’s mouth…those puckered lips. You know you can’t be puckering those lips like that tho’ little man,” Ree chuckled lightly. He swallowed hard as his son just lay there with his eyes closed, seeming to be comforted by his voice, but Ree wondered if that was even possible. “But we gonna work on that. Yeah…we gonna work on a lot, me and you. And you gonna work on me. You gonna make me a better man…no doubt about it. ‘Cause I give you my word, we gonna get you out of here. And bring you home. …And spoil you like shit.” He laughed lightly, with a hint of solemn in his voice. He wanted to touch him, but he couldn’t. So he just ran his fingers lightly along the plastic.
“You know what else you got like your mother?” He asked the question as if the baby would answer. “You got that innocence. That purity…that light.” It was what had made Ree fall in love with Tatum after all, thus making him fall into even deeper love with their offspring.
“And in case you don’t know…in case you can’t feel it yet. I’ll…” Ree paused, studying him with love and pain. “I’ll do anything for you. I love you, little man. Alright, get some rest…I’ll be right back. I’m going to check on your mother... I’ll be right back.”
Ree felt the need to repeat it, not wanting his son to feel like he was abandoning him for even a second. He doubted he even knew he was there though.
Ree turned to head out of the room, knowing he needed to go be there for Tatum. When he did, his son opened his eyes. He must’ve known.
First thing Sasha saw, which was the last thing she wanted to see, was Jayde pacing the waiting room floor like crazy, like she was Tatum’s distraught best friend instead of her. And of course her plaything Bleek was seated not too far away, a blank stare on his face until he saw Sasha.
“Have you heard anything?” Sasha asked Jayde, knowing her need to know what was happening was greater than her repulsion to speak to Jayde.
“She lost one…the little girl. The little boy is hanging on.” Jayde barely looked up from the floor. She seemed uncommonly distressed, frazzled.
“They said the little boy gonna pull through,” Bleek spoke up, keeping his focus on Sasha.
Sasha didn’t know how to feel. Lose a child, gain a child, both at the same time. She pressed her eyes closed to fight tears as Chauncey just ran his hand over his face and then wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“Where’s Tatum? I need to see her,” Sasha finally said after a brief silence. Chauncey motioned for Bleek to stand and follow him and they walked a little to talk in privacy.
“She doesn’t want to see anyone,” Jayde briefed.
“Oh please, it’s me.” Sasha waved her hand dismissively and started walking in the direction of the hall.
“No one!” Jayde spoke up. She held her hand out stopping Sasha and Sasha shot her the look of death.
“Bitch, if you don’t get your hands off me,” Sasha hissed through clenched teeth.
Jayde laughed, her regular demeanor returning.
“Wow. Either you got a death wish or you just may know how lucky you are, Sasha.”
Sasha squinted at her, not taking a liking to being threatened.
“Lucky? Please. Lucky for what? That we’re friends, Jayde?” Sasha thought it was funny because if they were really friends, Jayde would have been told her about Mickel. She wouldn’t be so sneaky.
Jayde snickered.
“No. Lucky that you’re family.”
Sasha’s dropped her mouth slightly and then slowly pressed it into a tight scowl. Jayde must’ve known that she knew, she must’ve figured out why Sasha was throwing her shade, and now she was taunting her with it.
“Bitch!”
Sasha shoved Jayde hard and instantly a security guard stepped up, right when Jayde was reaching for her hip.
“I’m gonna have to ask y’all to leave!”
“I’m not going anywhere, make her leave!” Sasha shouted. Chauncey and Bleek hurried over.
“Yo, what the fuck is going on?” Chauncey based. Lately, everything had been going nuts. Sasha and Tatum, Sasha and Jayde, Sasha and him. Sasha just seemed to be a ticking time bomb.
“This bitch won’t tell me where Tatum is!”
“She doesn’t want to see you, Sasha,” Jayde stated calmly.
“Yo, kill that Jayde. That’s not your place,” Chauncey dismissed knowing Jayde was trying to hurt Sasha’s feelings, and he wasn’t having it.
“She did say she didn’t wanna see nobody though,” Bleek spoke up, stating the honest.
“Yeah, well both of y’all mothafuckas don’t know shit about they relationship, so both of y’all need to shut the fuck up,” Chauncey barked.
“Yo, wit’ all due respect, C. You ain’t gonna be chumping me like you do ya old lady in public.”
Sasha dropped her jaw at Bleek’s insult and Chauncey turned to him eyes ablaze with fire.
“Nigga fuck did you just say?”
Chauncey’s jaw tightened in anger and he stepped to Bleek, fingers inching to his waistline.
The guard called for backup and another approached as he reluctantly stepped to block Chauncey.
“I’m saying you might not respect your broad, but you gonna respect me shawty.”
Chauncey chucked and after a few seconds, he nodded and tapped his hip calmly, smiling at Bleek.
“I respect that. But yo I got something you gonna respect too, B. Let me holla at you outside for a minute.”
“No, Chauncey!”
Sasha stepped up. The absolute last thing she wanted was for Bleek and Chauncey to blow up and Bleek reveal their affair to him. She couldn’t let Bleek ruin her life like that.
“I’m with that. I been meaning to holla at you anyway,” Bleek stated confidently.
Sasha pressed her eyes shut and her heart pounded. This all got too real, too fast.
“No, stop. Please… don’t kill him. Don’t kill him Chauncey!”
Chauncey looked at her like she was crazy. But she wasn’t. She knew after that statement, the guards would not let them outside together at once.
“Whoa whoa listen! Before you all go to jail, let’s get this under control. You and you!” The guard pointed at Jayde and Chauncey. “Leave!”
“No please sir, he’s with me. My friend just lost her baby, I just need to see her. Please!”
The officer looked at Sasha’s gorgeous face and her brick house body in her jeans and tank top, he had to oblige.
“Okay, Nurse, can you go see if her friend wants visitors. You and you, let’s go.” He motioned for Jayde and Bleek to go with him. Jayde didn’t budge.
“Now! Before we call the police.”
“Can you tell her it’s Sasha!” Sasha screamed to the nurse.
The guard went to grab Jayde but she snatched her arm away.
“Don’t do that, sweetheart,” she warned. “Bleek baby, just go wait for me in the car. We got business to handle anyway. We gotta do that for Ree, and I can’t disappoint him.”
Sasha sneered at her, not liking how she said the last statement and Jayde returned the sneer which proceeded with a sinister smile.
Bleek nodded, cooling down a bit, he shot Sasha one last look and then walked out.
Chauncey had his eyes on his now ringing phone and didn’t notice. When he looked up, another nurse gave him the look. He was not supposed to have it on. But this call was crucial and couldn’t wait, it was business, in fact the business he had just discussed with Bleek a few minutes ago and he and Jayde were now going to handle. Chauncey stepped into the male restroom to take the call not caring about the rules. For once he’d put his issue with Bleek on the backburner and handle business first like a real boss. He’d have to spank his ass later though, for real. Jayde used the opportunity once he was gone
to say some parting words to Sasha.
TTW 3 ( Thicker Than Water 3 ) Page 23
