Another Life

26

The ambulance arrived in minutes. The paramedics burst through the door behind Jay and they had a similar reaction to how Will and Natalie had, their faces dropping and the color draining from it in an instant when they saw the scene in front of them. They lead me down the stairs and into the back of the ambo, Jay jumping in and sitting on the bench beside me, one of the paramedic's following in closely afterwards.

Natalie waves to us. "We'll be right behind you." She says, making a point toward the car her and Will had used to get to the house over an hour ago.

Jay nods but doesn't get the chance to say anything else, the ambulance door slams shut and the second paramedic disappears out of shot.

On the way over to Med the paramedic in the back with us asks a bunch of questions, ones like if I was already having contractions and how close they were, if I could feel the baby, if I was lightheaded or nauseous but I couldn't give her straight answers. My head was spinning, I couldn't think straight. All I could focus on was remembering back to how much blood there had been on the sheet. Eventually she got the message that I wasn't able to properly respond so she stopped, instead just watching over the monitor I was hooked up to.

Jay's hand hadn't left mine since he sat down on the bench, and despite the fact he tried hiding it I could see the panic clear in his eyes. Halfway there he forced a reassuring smile on his face when I met his gaze, attempting to push away the fear so I didn't see it but it didn't work. "You're both gonna be okay, everything's gonna be fine." He whispers and I nod, trying to get the words into my head, to tell myself everything was going to be fine, but I couldn't convince myself of that.

In a strive to distract us, the paramedic puts a smile on her own face, making small talk. "Do you guys know what you're having?"

I look down to the bump, nodding slowly as my eyes sting with tears begging for release. "A boy." I reply, the words choked at the back of my throat.

The smile on the paramedic's face becomes a little more genuine. "Nice, you have a name ready?"

I couldn't form an explanation sentence, the muttered words revealing the sex to her had been the only words I had said since the house, so Jay took over, giving a tight squeeze to my hands as he did.

"Yeah, we're just calling him by it now, to see if it fits." He replies.

The paramedic then asks what the name was, if we wanted to share it and after a look between Jay and I, Jay said the name out loud, the word falling out naturally as if we had been calling him it the whole time. It just fit.

At this point I felt as though that was the name, that it was the one that was perfect for him, but I had been yet to say my thoughts to Jay, in case he wasn't so sure on it.

I then cut in, my head jumping to one thing and I look up to Jay. "What about Macie? She's still at school."

Jay shakes his head. "We'll figure it out, we could get Kev or Kim and Ruze to pick her up, she'll be fine."

The paramedic's curiosity peaked up again, still trying to keep us distracted and thinking about anything other than what was currently going on. "Who's Macie?" She asks.

There's finally a smile that comes up on my face as I respond, the words still mumbled however. "She's our daughter."

Then the paramedic's eyebrows widen. "So this is baby number two?" She asks, gaining a slow nod from both Jay and I. "Is big sister excited?"

Jay smirks. "Very excited." He says with a slight chuckle and then I'm reminded back to last night when Mae had been jumping around right before bed, babbling on and on about all the things she couldn't wait to do with the baby, listing all the activities she was looking forward to do.