Macie's Story

12

(February 4th, 21 days old)

Jay's eyebrows furrow as he stares over at Hailey for a beat, her words weighing down heavily on his chest. "What?" He manages to whisper out.

There's an audible catch in her voice. "I got a call from the hospital... Macie- the nurse said something happened, we need to go over there."

He nods quickly and squeezes her hand gently but firmly, trying to shoot her a reassuring smile too but he's not sure his lips allowed him to actually do it. "Okay, let's go."

He let go of his grip and grabbed his phone from the bedside table before making his way around her to grab a shirt from the closet, throwing it over his head. The detective then retrieves his jacket and keys from beside the front door and the two of them head off out the apartment, shutting off all the lights on their exit.

The trip through the lobby was the quickest he had seen Hailey move since the shooting, he was sure if it. She almost beat him to the truck outside the apartment building and the moment he unlocked it, she climbed inside and strapped herself in.

Before he started the engine, Jay reached his hand across the console and grabbed hold of hers sitting in her lap. It brought her gaze away from staring out the front window and she sent him a short-lived smirk that seemed to be there as a way of telling Jay she was fine. The moment her hand fell into his the façade was gone, the smile dropping away in an instant.

He swallows hard and has to hold back the sting he could feel in the back of his eyes. "Hey, it's gonna be fine, she's gonna be fine."

Hailey bobs her head as if doing that would let the reassurance set in her head. She wanted it to, she wanted to believe what he said, desperately, but it wouldn't. She was bracing herself for when they got inside their daughter's room, for what they would see.

She had only been in there the day before, had managed to take her sling off and hold the infant. She had been fine then, great even. She had still been on the cannula but the nurses had told her with a smile that because of how well she was doing they expected her to be off it in the next week. She had been responsive to Hailey's voice and had been moving around, squirming and kicking. Isla had even brought up the possibility of encouraging mouth-feeding in the coming weeks too.

And now this.

The infant had been perfectly healthy as of less than twenty-four hours ago, and in such a short time it had all gone to shit.

Something had happened.

The moment Hailey had heard the words come from the other end of the phone, her mind switched to the worst and she had been trying to bury those thoughts, think good things, but she never got very far.

Jay starting the engine and steering the truck out from beside the curb pulls Hailey from her head and as her fiancé focuses on the drive, Hailey watches as everything around them flies past as they drive by.

It was still relatively dark outside and the roads were somewhat empty for 5AM in Chicago, making it both the fastest and slowest drive to Med they had ever done. The roads seemed to slip away from them and yet they also seemed to stretch on for a lifetime, the feeling only getting worse the closer to the hospital they got.

Her heart was in her throat by the time Jay pulled the truck into an empty space opposite the main entrance. He jumped out and met Hailey on the passenger side, offering his hand to help her out of the cab but she shakes her head and manages to get out with as little discomfort as possible.

Whether that was because of her appointments with Doctor Andrews and the time she spent doing the exercises at home or because her whole body felt numb, she couldn't quite put her finger on it.