Two of a Kind

Gone

It had now been nearly half an hour since Joyce gave birth to their baby girl. She was growing impatient and Hop called a nurse in to ask how she was doing.

"I'll go check on her for you. I'll be right back."

Joyce sighed. She wanted to hold her baby right away, and now she was starting to get worried.

"Do you think she's okay, Hop?" she asked.

"Of course she is, honey. I'm sure it's just some standard tests they have to run. Especially since she had to be born early," Hop replied, rubbing her hand.

"I didn't even get to touch her," she said.

"Don't worry honey, you will soon."

Five minutes later Dr. Brenner came back in to their room without the baby. Confused, Hop asked what was going on.

Dr. Brenner sat down and looked upset. Joyce's heart sunk into her stomach. She had a feeling that he had bad news.

"I'm very sorry to inform you two, but the baby didn't make it," he said frowning and folding his hands.

"WHAT?! What the fuck do you mean she didn't make it? I heard her cry!" Joyce screamed.

Hop was silent. He dropped Joyce's hand and looked forward with an empty gaze. Every sound in the room faded out and he just heard ringing in his ears. He started to dissociate, and he felt dizzy.

"Her heart just wasn't strong enough. I'm so sorry. We did everything we could," Dr. Brenner said.

"No. No, she's not dead. Bring her to me. Now!" Joyce demanded.

"I'm afraid that isn't possible, ma'am. You signed a waiver that she would be an organ donor, and we had very little time to transplant her kidneys to another dying baby."

Hop came back to reality just in time to hear the last thing Dr. Brenner had said. "Are you fucking kidding?! I don't care what a damn piece of paper says, you need to ask us first!" he boomed.

"Unfortunately these decisions are very difficult for parents to make in the moment, which is why we use the form," he tried to explain.

"NO! I am gonna sue your ass into prison, asshole! Why couldn't you take the other baby's heart and give it to our daughter instead?!" Hop yelled. "Do you think you're God or something?!"

"I'm afraid it was too late. She wasn't getting proper circulation and her other organs were compromised. It wouldn't have been successful and both babies would have died."

"That makes no sense!" Joyce sat up, screaming at the doctor again. "She wasn't blue or anything, I saw her! You mean to tell me this all happened in under half an hour?! And NO ONE could come and tell us so we could say goodbye?! That's bullshit! BRING HER TO ME NOW!"

The doctor spent ten more minutes with the couple, trying to explain why she didn't make it, and then he left the room once they both started to sob into each others' arms.

Hopper felt so utterly broken. He couldn't lose another child. He couldn't lose his baby with Joyce. He didn't want to live in a world where this happened to him again.

Joyce was heartbroken, but also was worried for Hop. She knew that his heart couldn't handle another loss this big, and that he would always blame himself and he would fall apart and drink himself to death. She couldn't accept that this was true. This wasn't supposed to be how this happened. She was so excited for their family to be whole, and now that was all being ripped away from her.

Another ten minutes went by of the couple crying together, and then their nurse came back in.

"Oh, uh, hello?" she asked awkwardly.

Hop sniffed and wiped his face on his shirt, then turned to look at her. "What?" he said coldly.

"I, uh, was coming to check on you guys. Wh- what happened? Is everything okay?" she asked slowly, extremely confused.

"No we aren't fucking okay. You didn't hear?" Joyce snipped back.

"No, ma'am. I didn't. What happened?"

"You fucking evil assholes killed our baby, that's what happened!" Hop snapped at her.

The nurse looked between the two broken, angry people in bed with a look of pure shock and confusion. "I don't understand. I didn't hear anything about that. I just checked on her like ten minutes ago and she was fine."

"What do you mean? You better not fucking be messing with us," Hopper said through his tears.

"I would never, sir. Let me go check on her again. I'll be right back."

Now the two were confused and outraged. "What kind of fucking hospital is this? That had to be the most cruel thing anyone has ever done. Giving us false hope like that because she can't keep up with what's going on?" Joyce said.

Hop just squeezed her hand and hoped that the doctor had made an awful mistake, and that he got the parents of the baby wrong.

The nurse came back in after about ten more excruciating minutes and said, "I don't know how to tell you this, but Dr. Brenner is nowhere to be found. There was no record of any surgery or death, like he had told you guys. We don't know what happened to your baby, but it seems like he took her. We called the police already, and they're on their way. I am so sorry."

"The police? I am the fucking police," Hop said. "Joyce, wait right here. I'm gonna go get our daughter back."