Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

60. Loz

Saturday 3rd Aug, 3:11 PM

Everyone met up at the lake in George's Park for a late lunch. Kylie and Ali were finally feeling well enough after nursing a pair of shocking hangovers all morning. Neither of them had any recollection of what happened last night, especially when Jack brought them all back to Loz and Ryan's.

Loz had stayed up quite late with Ryan, discussing what to do next. She really was scared this time and it was showing. Ryan always became worried with each of her pregnancies after Harry but this one was doing a real number on her.

So, while Harry and Aiden threw the last chips to the ducks and magpies by the water's edge, Loz slowly started to draw everyone's attention to the reason why she and Ryan asked everyone to meet up for lunch.

Jack and Sophie were the only ones who knew what this was about and out of respect for Loz and Ryan, hadn't said a word since finding out last night.

In the last three weeks, Loz had teetered on whether or not to tell Ryan, because she knew he took this just as hard as she did, if not harder. Loz had taken a pregnancy test and was torn between elation and fear because, including Harry and Aiden, this would be Loz's seventh pregnancy. But as she got into bed two nights after doing the test, she told Ryan and held her breath waiting for his response.

What hurt the most for Ryan was that not only did he watch Loz lose four babies, but he was forced to watch on as he lost a little bit more of his wife.

There was a time when they had planned to have three kids, of having a small property with some animals, maybe even a veggie garden. Their own little paradise on the outskirts of town.

Sure, they had no problems conceiving Harry and he was born without any complications, but it was the next six years that did the damage.

By the time Harry had turned three, Loz had lost two babies within her first trimester. Devastated, she convinced herself that they were lucky to have Harry, that they wouldn't have any more kids. It wasn't any easier for her when Ryan tried to suggest the same thing. After her second miscarriage, Ryan told her that perhaps Harry was enough ... and instead watched Loz scream her heart out, throwing plates at him. She wasn't ready to be told that Harry could be an only child.

When Harry was five, Loz lost another baby. It was also when the girls found out. Sophie dropped in one afternoon and was scared out of her wits to find Loz pale and lethargic, curled up on the lounge. Her lively personality appeared to have fizzled out, which could only mean something truly awful had happened to her.

Ali also found out, when Loz started to tell her what had been happening, that she had been drinking heavily. Loz cried for an hour, explaining to Ali how she had lost three babies in the last five years. That she and Ryan seemed to be drifting apart. That as much as they wanted Harry to have siblings, Loz was just too scared to face losing another baby.

Kylie found out months later, because at the time, she was with Luke. He hated the girls with a passion because they encouraged Kylie to fight back. When he found out that something had happened to one of them, he made sure Kylie knew, as well as the fact that she couldn't go to Loz. Despite Kylie being kept away from them, Loz and Ryan were both extremely grateful for the girls.

So, for six years Harry was an only child. Never understanding why his mother appeared to just burst into tears at the drop of a hat ... then along came Aiden.

Ryan had never been so nervous in his life. Everyday of those nine months was dogged with the fear that he would be woken in the night to find Loz terrified and bleeding beside him; that he would have to watch Loz lose another baby, that he would have to watch Loz become a little less ...