First Class Farewell

by Aj Harmon

  “Huh?” he said again.

  “Very funny!” she pouted, but couldn’t hide the grin that was forming.

  Matt swam close to her and pulled her into his arms. “Stop thinking about the needs of your son and think about the needs of your husband. I’m very needy,” he winked.

  “Yes, you are.”

  Adam watched his parents in the pool as he closed the curtains. They were like teenagers when they were alone. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. He’d seen the way Matt looked at his mom. It was a love so intense there was no way to hide it. All of the brothers had the same look. They loved their wives with a passion that was undeniable to anyone who knew them…or even just saw them.

  It’s what he wanted…for himself and for his wife.

  *****

  It was another glorious day in the Bahamas. A week had passed and in six days they would be returning home. But that meant that they still had six days to play and relax.

  As usual, mornings brought chaos in the house. Breakfast was always crazy. Kids were running and screaming, playing and laughing, crying and whining. Ben and Paul attempted to catch up on work emails and make any necessary calls, and Sophia spent most of the time running back and forth to the bathroom.

  Shelby hadn’t come downstairs yet and there was no sign of Tim and Beth. Nic and Maureen were huddled in the corner of the kitchen when Janie joined them. Within a minute or two, the group broke up and Janie walked straight to Adam and said, “I need you upstairs.”

  He followed, worried. When they reached the second floor, and far away from everyone, Janie turned to her son, a concerned expression on her face. “Can you please go and talk to Beth? She’s in her room. She’s had some spotting and is absolutely beside herself.”

  “I’m not an OB but I can certainly talk to her,” he replied immediately and hurried down the hall. He knocked on the door and entered to find Beth sobbing, almost hysterically on the bed.

  “Hey, hey,” Adam soothed and rushed to her side.

  “I can’t lose this baby,” she cried. “I just can’t!”

  “Okay,” Adam said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  Ten minutes later, Adam exited the room and went to find Matt. He needed to borrow the car. He’d decided it was necessary that Beth go to the hospital. It was probably nothing, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “Of course!” Matt replied.

  Five minutes later, Adam was behind the wheel with Tim and Beth in the backseat and they were pulling onto the main road.

  *****

  Shelby hadn’t been able to fall asleep so when the sunlight had streamed through the window, she’d gotten up and closed the curtains and gone back to bed.

  She liked Adam, she really did, perhaps too much. But it was becoming way too complicated. They were friends. Good friends, but just friends. It had to be only friends. She couldn’t handle anything more than that.

  Unable to sleep any longer, she figured she may as well get up. She needed to talk to Adam, no matter how uncomfortable the conversation was going to be. She needed him to know that they couldn’t be anything more than friends. She’d made the decision years ago. She just had to stick to it no matter how conflicted she was feeling.

  Finishing quickly in the bathroom, Shelby bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen. Within a few seconds, the somber mood told her something was wrong.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Katy.

  “Beth is bleeding. Adam’s taken her to the hospital.”

  “Oh, no,” Shelby whispered, her heart breaking. “When will we know anything?”

  “They only left about thirty minutes ago, so not for a while.”

  Shelby poured herself a cup of coffee and walked over to the small desk that had the computer. Sitting down, she watched the women trying to keep their emotions in check, a task most difficult. Most of the children had been taken to play outside, leaving the women to fret in peace.

  Opening up her email, Shelby tried to busy herself so she wouldn’t have to think about the possibility of Beth losing her baby. She imagined it would be devastating. Deleting junk mail and skipping over credit card statements, she came to one that she’d been waiting for. With her finger on the mouse, she opened the email and held her breath. Scanning quickly through the words on the screen, she silently screamed. She now knew where she would be spending the next four years of her life.

  17.

  Surprises

  Beth chewed on her fingernails, a habit she’d picked up only a couple of hours earlier that very morning. Lying in a hospital gown with Tim by her side holding her hand, they waited as the technician hooked up the ultrasound machine. It appeared to be a very complicated process, one that Tim joked, trying to lighten the mood, they should probably get used to.

  Adam had been in communication with Beth’s doctor, Dr. Ringer in New York, and between the three of them, the attending doctor at the hospital included, they knew how to proceed. The Fetal Doppler had picked up something, but inconclusive, so the next test would be a vaginal ultrasound.

  “I’ll leave,” Adam said.

  “No!” Beth grabbed his arm. “I need you to stay.”

  Adam nodded and pulled up a stool and sat next to her, holding her hand, with Tim on the other side of the gurney. They all watched as the technician squeezed gel onto the end of the probe and then, smiling at Beth, lifted the sheet and began the procedure.

  “Breath normally,” she said, noting Beth holding her breath. “Am I hurting you?”

  Beth shook her head. Undergoing years of fertility treatments had left her almost numb to the poking and prodding of doctors and nurses. This was certainly nothing worse than anything she’d been through. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time she’d been subjected to this same machine.

  After several minutes, doing all kinds of thing on the machine that Beth had no understanding of, the kind woman patted Beth on the knee and said, “I need to go and talk to the doctor and we’ll be right back, okay?”

  Beth nodded and as soon as the door had closed she turned to Adam, panic written all over her face. “What’s wrong? Tell me what you see!”

  “This is not my area of expertise, Beth.”

  “But you know something! I see it in your face!”

  Adam tried to remain blank in his expression, but he needed to tell her something. It wasn’t fair to leave her so panicked. He couldn’t be entirely sure of what he saw on the computer screen but he had a pretty good idea. “I see a strong heartbeat,” he smiled.

  “You do?”

  “I do,” he confirmed. “Now, let’s wait for the doctor, ok?”

  *****

  The Lathem women remained vigilant in their worry. Huddled in the kitchen, the tension was so thick it could be cut with the proverbial knife. The men, although also concerned, stayed outside on the beach with all the children, knowing that standing and wringing their hands would do nothing to help and accomplish nothing.

  Shelby was anxious for Beth. She’d seen the heartache infertility had brought to her life and wished her well. But the clinical side of her brain seemed to win the battle in her head as she watched the nervous fidgeting and useless chatter that filled the room.

  There’s no point to all of this, she thought. It isn’t as though all their worrying and stressing is going to help Beth in any possible way. “Why don’t you all sit down and I’ll make another pot of coffee,” she suggested.

  Nods and mumbles of agreement ensued and within seconds, Shelby was filling the pot with water and pulling cups for the cupboard.

  “I just can’t even imagine,” Janie said. “It must be agonizing for her.”

  Lindsey nodded. “It’s the worst moment in the world. So helpless to do anything even though it’s your own body.”

  “And it’s not as if she hasn’t already bonded with that baby,” added Sophia.

  “Huh?” Shelby was shocked. “How? She only found out she was pregnant a couple of days ago.”
>
  All eyes swung to her and she suddenly felt stupid for voicing her thoughts. But the response was in no way harsh.

  Janie smiled and nodded. “I know, but…I haven’t met a woman who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with their baby the second they found out it existed. When I was pregnant with the boys, I would sit and rub my tummy and sing to them and talk to them like they were sitting on my lap. And Matt did the same thing with Ella and Christopher. He would kneel down and kiss my belly, believing that somehow that emotion and love was being felt by his child still safely inside me.”

  “Paul did the same thing,” smiled Nic, recalling the memories. “Actually, the last few weeks before Gregory was born, he read all the Harry Potter books to him,” she chuckled.

  The woman laughed, knowing that their own husbands had done much the same thing, Sophia adding, “Ben tells this one to stop making mommy so sick,” she said as she rubbed her growing belly.

  Shelby was mystified by the conversation around her and her face obviously showed it.

  “It all seems so strange to you, I know,” Maureen smiled. “But one day when you find out you’re pregnant, you’ll completely understand.”

  Once again, Shelby decided to keep the thoughts running through her mind to herself.

  *****

  “Holy shit!” Tim exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

  “We can see here, here, and here, three distinct heart beats.”

  “Three,” Beth whispered. “Three?”

  “Three,” Adam confirmed. “Not necessarily unheard of in IVF pregnancies. I have several sets of twins and a set of triplets as patients.”

  “Well, add another set,” Tim beamed.

  “I’d be honored,” Adam smiled.

  The doctor left the examination room to call Beth’s doctor in New York, Adam following behind him, leaving Beth to get dressed.

  Tim couldn’t stop grinning. “Three babies! Wow! When we do something, we go all out, don’t we?”

  Beth seemed to still be in a state of shock. “Three,” she said again. “Three!”

  “Let’s help you up and back into your clothes,” Tim said as he pulled the sheet from her legs and moved around the bed to grab her clothes that were lying on the chair. He gently helped her to a sitting position and untied the gown at the back. “Okay, arms up,” he ordered.

  Beth obeyed, her mind still on the fact that there were three babies growing inside her.

  “Right arm,” Tim said. “Good girl. Left arm.”

  A few minutes later they emerged from the room, Adam waiting with a wheelchair.

  “I don’t need that,” Beth stated, but Tim guided her to the chair and forced her into it.

  “Get used to it,” he grinned. “I assume triplets is considered a complicated pregnancy?”

  Adam nodded. “Your doctor will be sending you an email this afternoon with some instructions and you’ll need to see him as soon as you get home.”

  “Do we need to leave early?” Tim asked. “Today?”

  Adam smiled. “No. Beth needs to take it easy…very easy…and she and the babies will be just fine, although it’s still very early, so you don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”

  “No! No risks!” Beth agreed.

  *****

  The news of triplets was welcomed with shouts of joy and complete surprise. An impromptu party ensued with dancing and champagne, none of either for Beth, however. But she didn’t mind. All but swaddled in a blanket and carried to the couch by her doting husband, Beth’s heart was overflowing as her hands unconsciously lay across her stomach, protecting and guarding the precious babies growing inside her.

  Shelby came and sat beside her and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay. Everyone here was going out of their minds with worry.”

  Beth sighed. “Me, too. After all these years to finally be pregnant and then…well…thinking that it was all over before it had really even started. I’ve never been as scared in my whole life.”

  “Can I touch your babies?” Amanda asked, as she came and stood in front of Beth.

  “They’re still in my tummy,” Beth replied. “And they won’t come out for a long time, but you can touch them when they do.”

  Shelby chuckled as Amanda skipped off happily. “And to think, you’re going to have three of those!”

  Beth smiled. “Yep! And I’ll do anything…everything it takes to get them here safely. You know, I made a deal with God this morning. I told him that if one of us had to die, I’d prefer it be me. I love this baby, well, babies, with all my heart and I’d gladly give up my life if it means they’re healthy. Gladly!”

  The statement shocked Shelby. “But if you die, they die, too. That makes no sense.”

  “Well, yes, technically that’s true,” Beth grinned. “But the fact is, I get it. Loving someone so much that you would risk your life bringing them into the world. No questions.”

  Tim arrived with a plate of food for his wife. Shelby hugged Beth again, told her again how happy she was for them, and left an empty place for Tim to claim and sit next to Beth. She wandered out to the pool and beyond to the garden.

  “What a concept!” she said to herself as she stepped on the rock pathway that led to a small wrought iron bench. A mother would be willing to risk her life to protect her child. She’d had no such mother. Yet, here she was, in a family where the concept was the norm. Anatomy classes, biology, neuroscience, and pathology lab had done nothing to educate her in the ways of a mother’s heart. “I’m at a disadvantage,” she muttered to herself. “I have no personal experience here.”

  “Personal experience in what?”

  The voice startled her, making her jump.

  “Adam! Don‘t sneak up on me like that! You’re gonna give me a heart attack!”

  “Sorry,” he grinned. “I wasn’t trying to surprise you.”

  “I was just thinking.”

  “I heard. What don’t you have experience in?”

  “A mother’s love.”

  “Well, technically no, but you certainly have the instincts.”

  She swung to look at him, irritation in her expression. “There is no way that you can know that!” she snapped.

  “Of course there is.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Adam, deciding not to rile her any further, changed the subject. “Mom needs me to run to the store to get more milk. These kids are drinking gallons a day! Come with me.”

  18.

  Maternal Instinct

  “Do we need a cart?” Shelby asked.

  “The kids are drinking five gallons of milk a day!” Adam replied. “I’m going to get ten this time.”

  Wandering down the aisle to the back of the store and the dairy section, Shelby saw a young boy standing alone just a few feet in front of them.

  “Hi, honey,” she said as she crouched in front of him. “Where’s your mommy?”

  The little boy, Shelby guessed to be about five years old, just looked up at her with big brown eyes and shrugged.

  “Would you like me to help you find her?”

  He nodded. Shelby took his small hand in hers and turned to Adam. He smiled. Heading back the way they’d come, Shelby and the boy walked towards the cashiers.

  “Oh my goodness! There you are, Israel! You scared me!” A young woman ran towards them and dropped to her knees, sweeping the boy into her arms. “Thank you so much for finding him,” she said to Shelby. “Thank you.”

  “No problem,” Shelby smiled. She said goodbye to Israel and headed to find Adam, who was filling the grocery cart with milk. “He’s safely back with his mom,” she announced stopping in front of the dairy case.

  “Good. He looked scared to death.”

  “I know, my heart broke when I looked into those big brown eyes,” Shelby frowned.

  They pushed the cart back down the aisle and paid for the ten gallons of milk. On the way to the car in the parking lot, they watched Israel and his mother walking away, hand
in hand.

  “You did a great thing back there,” Adam smiled.

  “Someone would’ve found him. He was just standing there. It’s not like he was hiding or anything.”

  “No, but he obviously trusted you.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  As they rode back to the house, Shelby thought about those big brown eyes and how relieved his mother looked when she saw him walking towards her. She was glad she could help. When they arrived home, they unloaded the milk from the trunk of the car and hauled it all into the kitchen.

  “Thank so much,” Katy smiled, as she put a few of the gallons into the fridge, the others needing to go in the fridge in the pantry. “This should keep the little rug rats going for a little while,” she said as he winked at Janie.

  “Yes,” Janie agreed. “It should do for a day or two.”

  *****

  That evening, Cynthia was grilling chicken for dinner. Maureen had suggested they eat outside, too. The kids were loud as they played and Janie and Katy were carrying silverware and plates from the kitchen.

  “Can I help?” Shelby offered.

  “Sure,” Janie replied. “Can you grab the tray of condiments? It’s next to the fridge.”

  Shelby headed through the French doors and into the great room. There stood Annie trying to lift one of the stools at the island.

  “Whatcha doing there?” Shelby asked.

  “This has to go on here,” Annie frowned.

  “On where?” Shelby asked.

  “Here!” Annie demanded, pointing to another stool.

  As Shelby walked up to Annie, still struggling with the weight of the stool, she asked, “Why?”

  “Can you help me?”

  “Okay,” Shelby answered, unsure of what the three year old was actually trying to accomplish. She lifted the stool from the ground and stacked it on top of the other stool. “Now what?”

  “Now this stool has to go on there.” She was pointing to a third stool.

  “Are we making a tower?”

  “Yes!” Annie exclaimed, delighted with the plan.

  “Why?”

  “So I can touch the ceiling.”

  “Oh, of course,” Shelby grinned. “Silly me.” But looking up at the ten foot ceilings, she knew it was going to take many more stools than were in the kitchen at present. “Um, what if we do it another way?” she offered.