Another Life

20

I was picking at the skin on my thumb when I heard the door to the room slide open. I had only been on my own for a few minutes - Adam and Kevin had stepped outside when the doctor came in to do an exam and had yet to come back in, and Kim had just stepped outside to try Jay's cell again so chances were it wasn't her and instead was the doctor coming back in to see how things were going.

I was surprised to see Will coming through the door, sliding it shut again behind him. He was in his scrubs, so clearly he was still on shift and meant to be working right now. "I just heard, how's it going?" He questions.

Not well to put it lightly.

My shoulders shrug as I switch my gaze to the machine beside the head of the hospital bed before back on my hand as I continue to pick at the bend of my thumb. "They're just monitoring him, monitoring the contractions, but I haven't heard anything just yet."

Will steps further into the room, but still stays relatively close to the door. "Have they said anything about the contractions?"

I look up to him with a shake of my head. "Only that they're irregular and that we might have caught the labor early with enough time to stop it, if it even is labor."

"Are you here on your own?" He asks, raising his eyebrows and taking another step closer to the bed.

There's another slow shake of my head as part of my response. "Kim, Adam and Kevin are here, but they all went out for different reasons and they haven't come back in yet, they're trying to get in to contact with Jay, but he's still in his exam and will be for another twenty minutes or so yet," I say and then watch him sit down on the stool Kim had been sat on until she left and I tilt my head to one side as I look to him. "You don't have to stay."

Will scrunches his face up as if what he was about to say was obvious. "Of course I'm staying, I'm on a break and you shouldn't have to sit in here on your own. You're family, there's no way I'm leaving."

I can't help the weak smile that appears on my face when he says that, when he refers to us as family, because it just reminds me of the first time he did it, after one drink too many at Molly's about two months into Jay and I's relationship, him drunkenly stumbling the words, making me blush because I hadn't been expecting it and making Jay shy his head away from his older brother to try and avoid the conversation, me later finding out most of the stuff Will said to us that night were things Jay had told him in confidence.

"Thanks, Will." I mumble, taking my gaze away from him again and back on my hand, which was no longer picking at my skin, rather just placed on top of my exposed bump between the gap of skin left that wasn't covered in straps.

************

About half-hour after Will came into the treatment room I could hear a familiar voice coming from outside, the voice filling the ED and it even brings Will's attention up from his phone. The curtain to the room was shut, but I knew who it was. Suddenly the loud voice stopped and I presume he was cut off by someone at the nurses station and then all goes quiet for a beat before the door slides open again.

Jay rushed in, coming straight over to the bed whilst putting his hands out, one landing on top of mine over the bump, the other cupping the side of my face. Now that he was standing still I was able to get a good look at him, his eyes red and it looked like he had been crying, a terrified look plastered on his face. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there, I should have been."

I take the hand that had been resting on my belly for a while now and bring it out from under his, layering it on top instead and lacing my fingers with his. "No, we didn't know this was going to happen, I'm just glad you're here now."