Brett and Elizabeth Ch. 02

"Alicia, take him down and make him eat." Elizabeth tried to sound stern as another contraction tore through her. "Goddamnit!" she hissed through clenched teeth and gripped Dave's arm. She tried to remember to breathe, but this one felt different for some reason.

"Come on, Brett, let's go. You won't do her any good if you pass out." Alicia led him away.

Brett lasted ten minutes before he was dragging Alicia back to the maternity ward. He couldn't be away; something was calling him back.

Dave intercepted them in the hall outside Elizabeth's room. "Thank God. I was just coming to find you guys."

There was a multitude of people rushing in and out of the room. Brett's eyes flashed to his best friend's. "What's going on, Dave? What the hell happened?" Brett didn't wait for Dave's answer; he pushed on past him.

Elizabeth was lying in bed, looking tiny and frightened. Her heart monitor was racing, Brett could see, and all color was gone from her face. She seemed to be fading fast.

Dave came up behind Brett and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. "They hooked her up two minutes ago, said they didn't like the way she looked." He spoke as fast as he could. "They put the monitors on and then you showed up. And she's started to bleed, Brett. Heavily, it seems."

All hell broke loose then. Suddenly there were a hundred people in the room, throwing phrases around like "uterine rupture," "fetal distress," and "emergency section."

A kindly, middle-aged looking nurse came in and ushered Dave and Alicia out the door, then came back for Brett, who refused to leave Elizabeth's side.

"What the hell's going on!" Brett demanded, trying his damndest to remain calm, but was rapidly losing the battle. He allowed the nurse to take him gently by the arm and lead him away from Elizabeth's bedside.

She spoke quietly, "Elizabeth's uterus is rupturing. She's going down for surgery right now." The nurse, bless her soul, must have seen the look of panic cross Brett's face right then. She put her arm around him and led him back to his sister. "You can walk down with her."

"What the hell does that mean!"

Before the nurse could answer, Elizabeth was whisked out the door. Brett had to nearly run to keep up.

"Hey baby," he grinned with false cheerfulness as he jogged along.

Elizabeth reached for his hand. Brett took it and held on as best he could. "What's going-"

"It's OK, Sprite, everything's fine. You'll be fine."

"But Brett, the baby-"

"Hush, love, it'll be fine."

They were at the swinging doors. Brett kissed her and she was gone, but not before he saw the look of desperation on his sister's face. It nearly drove him to his knees.

Alicia appeared at his side and took him by the arm. Brett looked down, seeming to not recognize her. "Brett, come on." She tugged at his arm.

They entered a small, cozy room just across the hall from the surgical unit. It appeared to be a private waiting room. Dave was already there, staring out the window to the landscape beyond.

Dave turned away from the window when he heard the door. His little sister walked in with Brett in tow. He strode to them and wrapped his arms around them both.

Almost immediately the same nurse that had talked to Brett in Elizabeth's room entered. She sat the trio down on one of the couches and explained Elizabeth's precarious situation.

It was rare, but uterine ruptures during labor did happen. She couldn't tell them yet how extensive the damage was, or even what the outcome would be.

"But Elizabeth, is she OK? The baby?" Brett didn't even know what to ask, what to say. He was desperate for some tiny bit of reassurance his sister wasn't going to die.

The nurse didn't tell him that the fetal survival rate of a ruptured uterus was low. She herself had only seen three, and of the three, two had died. The mothers, however, had all survived. That she did tell him.

The nurse excused herself from the room, saying she'd be back, and to use the phone to page the desk if they needed anything, anything at all.

Brett, Dave and Alicia sat together on the sofa, Alicia sandwiched between their huge shoulders. They barely spoke. Time passed, but not nearly fast enough for them. Brett got up and paced, then sat, then paced some more. Still nothing. He was ready to go looking for the nurse when she appeared in the doorway.

She smiled at Brett and said, "You have a daughter." She obviously didn't know Brett and Elizabeth's true relation. "She made it." The nurse herself was stunned.

Brett could only nod. He swallowed hard. "Elizabeth?"

"She's still with us, Brett. You need to know, though, the surgeon is having some difficulties. I'm sorry, but I don't know anything more than that."

Brett's world rocked. He reeled back, and would have fallen had Dave not been standing right behind him.

Dave grabbed Brett's shoulders. "She'll make it, man, she's tough." Dave's voice was low, Brett barely heard him.

The nurse left them alone again, but not for long. "You may come see your daughter now, Brett, if you'd like. She's a trooper."

Like her Mom, Brett thought. God, please let Elizabeth be OK. I can't live without her. He thought, briefly, about calling their parents, then shoved that thought aside. They'd made their choice, and so had Brett and Elizabeth.

Brett followed the nurse to neonatal where the baby was being kept for observation. It was a short walk from maternity through a single set of doors.

The tiny baby was swaddled tightly in a pretty pink receiving blanket, all four pounds, thirteen ounces of her. Several nurses and aides were fawning and cooing over her when Brett walked in. Each one looked up and smiled at him.

"Here she is," one whispered and handed the little bundle over to him. "You're daughter." Brett didn't bother to correct her. He swallowed, or tried to, over the lump in his throat.

One of the nurses guided him over to a glider. He sat and automatically began to rock. Everyone else quietly faded away.

Tears fell shamelessly down his cheeks. In his arms he held his sister's daughter, his niece, yet he loved her as if she were his very own.

Little blue eyes slowly blinked open. A rosebud mouth stretched in a wide yawn.

Brett smiled. "Hi," he whispered.

The little blue eyes focused intently on him for several seconds, then drifted shut again. Brett leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her perfect nose.

The door to the nursery opened. Brett looked up to see Alicia standing there with a nurse. They both entered.

"Hey Alli," Brett greeted her.

"They said we could come down, Brett, and see the baby. Dave's outside," Alicia jerked her thumb towards the door. Brett looked over to the window that faced the corridor to see his best friend waving at him.

"Is he coming in?"

"I think he's scared," Alicia whispered conspiratorially. She walked over to where Brett was seated, rocking the baby. "Oh, Brett, she's so sweet!"

"Yeah she is," Brett smiled. "Would you like to hold her?"

"Really? Can I? You don't mind?" Alicia's brown eyes sparkled.

"Of course not." He stood, let Alicia get settled in the glider, then handed her the precious little pink bundle.

Alicia took the baby and stretched up to kiss Brett's cheek before he stood. "Thanks Brett. She's going to be OK, you know. Elizabeth, she'll make it."

Brett straightened. "I hope so Alli, I can't lose her."

Alicia looked at him quietly for a moment, working something over in her mind, then turned her attention back to the baby. She began to rock and sing to her.

Brett ventured out into the hall to see Dave just as their original nurse came looking for them. She'd begun to think of the trio as one unit.

"The surgeon wants to speak to you, Brett. Elizabeth pulled through, but not without some complications. He's waiting for you."

"Oh God, thank you," Brett whispered, then found himself engulfed by Dave's hug.

Dave released him and said, "I'll get Alicia, go see the doc."

The surgeon told Brett that because he'd been unable to stop the bleeding and, considering there was so much damage to the uterus, he'd had to do a hysterectomy. Elizabeth would recover fully, but would never bear another child. Brett could go see her, though she was still under.

Elizabeth looked like death warmed over, but Brett had never seen a more beautiful sight in his life.

Back in the little waiting room, Dave held Alicia in his arms as she cried. The relief had nearly overwhelmed her and she'd come close to fainting.

"Shh, Alligator, it's OK. It's all OK." He made a clumsy attempt to mop up her tears with the hem of his t-shirt, but it wasn't enough. Her nose streamed twin rivers, and the tears only kept coming. He got up and grabbed the roll of paper towel over by the small sink in the corner.

She quieted eventually, much to Dave's relief. They sat there together that way for a long time, until the nurse walked in and saw them.

"Oh, I didn't realize you two were still here. Elizabeth's starting to wake up. Would you like to see her?"

"It's OK?" Dave asked, surprised they'd be allowed in while Brett was still in there.

"Sure. Come on." She directed Dave and Alicia down the hall and pointed out Elizabeth's room. "Just don't stay too long."

The door to the private room stood open. Dave and Alicia paused just inside and watched as Brett held the baby in front of Elizabeth so she could see her.

"Still want to name her Samantha?" Brett asked.

Elizabeth nodded. "How about Samantha June?"

"I like it. Samantha June," he repeated. Brett bent his head to Elizabeth's and kissed her softly on the lips, unaware they had an audience.

Dave pulled Alicia back out of the room. "Shit, I think we just walked in on something we weren't supposed to see," he whispered to his sister.

Alicia shrugged. "So what?"

"Isn't that, like, weird?"

"You're weird. Don't be such a prude, David."

Dave opened his mouth to protest, then snapped it shut. What the hell could he say to that? He'd just never thought of Brett and Elizabeth that way before. He'd definitely never thought of Alicia that way.

"Come on, let's go in and see them." Alicia grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the room.

It was a sweet moment, the two sets of siblings together with little Samantha. Alicia sat in the corner holding her, singing softly. Dave thought his sister had a pretty voice; he'd really never noticed it before. He stood off to one side, taking in the scene in front of him.

Dave did notice his best friend couldn't take his eyes off Elizabeth, nor could Elizabeth take her eyes off Brett. He wondered when that had all come about, and how? And did it even matter? He guessed not, not in the big scheme of things, anyway.

Brett was laughing and saying something to him, but he'd missed it, as lost in his own thoughts as he'd been. He pushed away from the wall he'd been holding up and went to join his sister and his friends.

To be continued...