And Baby Makes...?

Chapter 15

Days passed slowly. Brendon and Sarah came in on the Tuesday after Samantha's accident. They stayed at her bedside all day. Sarah tried to coax Jenna home for some decent rest, but she refused. Debby and Josh were staying at the house and had brought Jenna and I some changes of clothes. Brendon and Sarah joined them at the house when we weren't all at the hospital.

Jenna absolutely refused to leave Samantha's side, and I could only coax her away when she had an appointment for herself and the baby. And she insisted on returning straight to the hospital. I couldn't get her to go home even for a minute.

As for Samantha, nothing changed. Images showed the bleeding on her brain stopped on its own and the fracture was healing, but Samantha was still in a coma and unresponsive. Therapists came to work on her joints to keep them from stiffening up and hopefully keep her muscles from atrophying. Sarah would massage her arms and legs after as well.

We played music and talked to Samantha, hoping she could hear us. Hoping we could reach her wherever she was.

The nurses were amazing and would talk to Samantha as though she could answer. They would tell Samantha what they were doing as they were doing it. Even the most mundane of tasks, like changing her IV or emptying her catheter bag. 

Erin brought Jill by almost every day, and her other friends came to visit, as well. Samantha's principal and her English teacher both came to visit as well. Samantha's class had made a get well card, which we tacked on her wall.

Jenna would sit on Sam's bed and put her hand on her stomach when the baby would kick. Jenna was due any day and she was dreading leaving Samantha's side.

"You have to wake up, Sam," she said one day. "The baby is going to be here any day, and he or she is going to want to meet their big sister."

Jenna went into labor three days later.

She tried refusing to go to the hospital she was registered at. Finally we were all able to coax her out. Brendon and Sarah promised they wouldn't leave Sam's side while we were gone.

Jenna cried through her labor. She kept saying she wanted Samantha and I kept reassuring her she would wake up to meet her sibling.

Our baby girl was born 24 hours later. 

Jenna cried when she saw her.

"She has blue eyes, just like her sister," she cried.

"And her mom," I smiled. "She's beautiful. She's my beautiful Rosie."

"I love that name," Jenna said. "Rosie Joseph."

"Rosie Robert Joseph," I stated. "After her dad."

"Excuse me. Rosie Robert Joseph," Jenna said. "Go back to Samantha."

"I want to stay here with you and Rosie a little longer," I said.

"I need you to be with Sam, Tyler. Please."

I couldn't deny my wife her wishes. I told her I would keep her up to date with everything until she was discharged and knowing her, came to Sam's bedside.

I kissed my wife, took thousands of photos of her and Rosie, and kissed the baby's soft head, and left.

When I got back to the hospital, everyone asked about the baby. I showed them pictures of her and they oohed and ahhed.

"Sam," I said. "You have a baby sister. She can't wait to meet you. But you have to wake up."

Samantha didn't stir.

I watched as machines breathed for her, tubes fed her and took care of her waste.  There wasn't a single bodily function that wasn't being taken care of by a machine or a tube. And we were no closer to knowing if she'd be okay. If she'd wake up.

Jenna was released from the hospital the next day and was told to go home to get some rest.

Of course she made me take her straight to the hospital.

"Sam," she said. "Look who's here."

She held the baby next to Samantha. Rosie had been fussing just a little, but when Jenna laid her beside Sam, Rosie settled and cooed.

"She likes you, Sam. Wake up and show her what a great big sister she has," Jenna said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Come on, Sam.  Please."

I held Samantha's hand and squeezed it.

"Sam. Come on sweetheart. Rosie wants to meet her big sister," I said.

I could swear I felt the slightest movement of Samantha's fingers.

"Sam?" I said. Jenna looked over at me.

"What?"

"I swear, she moved her fingers. I swear it."

Brendon had run out to get a nurse or a doctor when he heard me say that I thought Sam may have moved her fingers.

She came in the room and came over to Sam.

"She moved her fingers. I squeezed her hand and she moved her fingers," I said.

"Let's take a look, shall we?" The nurse said. She looked in Samantha's eyes, took her hand and asked her, loudly, to squeeze her hand, scaring Rosie.

The nurse left without saying anything but a few minutes later, Sam's doctor came in. He repeated the things the nurse had done, but he also used his knuckle and rubbed Samantha's chest. I saw her grimace.

"She made a face!  She didn't like that!" I cried. Jenna started sobbing. Brendon and Sarah both started crying, too.

"This is good, this is very positive. Keep talking to her, be gentle, but it seems she might just be coming back to us," the doctor smiled.

"Can't wait to meet you properly, Samantha," he said, as he made some notes in Sam's chart.

"She's coming back, Ty," Jenna said, tears in her eyes. Rosie was still fussing from the nurse and doctor making noise, so Jenna lay her beside Sam, in the crook of her arm and Rosie settled almost immediately.

"Rosie already knows Sam is going to be her big protector," I said.

"She loves Sam, already," Sarah said, smiling.

I took a picture of my baby daughter with her big sister. It may not be the best photo of Sam, what with the tubes and wires, but it was our current reality.