Caught in the Undertow

Helpless

The days passed by and Nikki still remained lifeless in a critical state, Jack stuck to his word of protecting her. He would have many meetings with the surgeons about Nikki's condition making vital decisions on her care and also towards the operations she has recently had in the coming days. 
Nikki had just returned from her fifth surgery, this time to remove her appendix which was infected and about to rupture. Things were looking good for Nikki until an hour after the surgery when her blood pressure took a dangerous turn, unsure of what caused the sudden drop apart from the septicemia Nikki had developed a week ago. 

Along with her body going through all this while she is still in an induced coma, Nikki was pregnant. Jack is currently sat beside Nikki holding her hand as he watches the ventilator breathe for her, "...Thomas sends his regards... Clarissa thinks I'm mad for coming to see you every day. I love you, Nikki, please don't go," He responds as he sits forwards leaning on the railing, and kisses her hand again, careful not to knock the drip going into her hand. 

Most of Jack's conversations with Nikki had been him telling Nikki she is strong enough to pull through and that he loves her, as well as telling her that they're going to be a family and raise their own child despite the odds not being very strong for the baby. Jack looks over at the monitors after a few minutes of watching Nikki as the sound of her heart rate raising brought him from his daydream. 

"Nikki?" He quizzes watching everything suddenly rise.
Jack watches as the fall again and he relaxes slightly thinking it was just a blip, he stands up and smiles as Faith comes over to Nikki with a small bowl of hot water, "I'm going to give Nikki a wash, you're welcome to stay..." Faith says. 

Jack shakes his head and steps out the bay as Faith pulls the curtain around Nikki's bay and washes her down, even though she was in a coma the critical care staff took pride in making the patients look and feel presentable. 
Around ten minutes later, Faith pulls back the curtain and smiles cheerfully at Jack allowing him to go back to Nikki. "How are her stitches looking?" Jack quizzes the nurse.
"Healing well, just need to give the one on her leg a wipe down, the infection is definitely clearing too which is good."

"That's good, hopefully, the medication works and helps to fight the infection now," Jack smiles. 
"Yes, fingers crossed. I shall run a few more blood tests for the doctor later, and he will be able to give you a bit more of an idea of what is going on, the on-call gynecologist also wants to go a fetal scan..." Faith smiles. 

Later on that day, the blood samples had been taken from Nikki to determine if the infection was getting worse or better. Jack had stepped outside for five minutes of air to keep himself awake after a long day. Soon a nurse he hasn't recognized before comes to his side as he sits on a bench with a coffee and smiles at him, "Mr. Hodgson?" the young male nurse asks. 
Jack nods and looks up from his coffee, "Dr. Emmerson would like to see you, as you are Nicola's next of kin" He speaks up, and Jack nods downing his now cool coffee and following the male nurse back to critical care. 

The men walk back to the unit in silence which makes Jack worry that something is wrong, but something was telling him it would just be simply routine like always. Jack walks over to Nikki's bay and notices Dr. Emmerson stood over Nikki. 
"Hi, what's going on?" Jack quizzes as he realizes Faith is stood injecting something into Nikki's cannula. 

"Ahh, Jack... glad you were around, Nicola's blood results have come back, we have a few things to discuss with you," Dr. Emmerson smiles. 
Jack raises an eyebrow and looks down at Nikki for a moment before gaining eye contact with the doctor again and nodding indicating for him to go ahead. "Dr. Phelps our on-call gynecologist performed a fetal scan, and unfortunately we couldn't detect a heartbeat..." He begins, Jack's heart plummets the doctor had continued talking to him about how they will go around the miscarriage,  Jack takes hold of Nikki's hand and strokes it. "... The results from the blood tests came back, Nicola does still have septicemia although the infections are clearing up... although, in a more serious matter, we would like to stress about Nicola's brain activity, which is been less these past few days than weeks before. This is going to be a hard subject... but we do not think Nicola will recover, and medically we would like to turn off her ventilator and life support in the coming hours or days." 

Jack's heart shatters, his best friend and the woman he loves the most is about to slip away from him in a matter of hours. He knew they were speaking truthfully and wouldn't turn off someone's life support for no reason, Jack bites his lip and holds back the tears forming in his eyes. "Can I have some time with her first?" He quizzes.
Dr. Emmerson nods with a sympathetic smile before leaving the bedside and allowing Jack some time to spend with Nikki before the moment he dreads comes.