ELEMENT

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Avoidance of Lawsuits

On this day in the past, August 8th, Eileen Keynote had gone into labor with her second child.

The waiting room was nearly empty, and there was only whispered chatter echoing down the hall.

Sage, Ethan, Robin and Meadow sat on the benches, waiting for something, anything to happen.

Sage was sharing chocolate circle candy with Ethan, a candy by no specific name and therefore you should know exactly what I'm talking about because as a teenager I'm not planning on getting sued we're moving on.

"Here, you like blue, right?" Sage passed a blue candy to Ethan.

"And you like green," Ethan responded, smiling as Sage popped a green candy into their mouth.

"Obviously."

Robin had their knees up in the chair, sitting next to Meadow. "Macaroni, you okay?"

"Uhhhhh. Well. I'm being born in the other room."

Robin nodded. "Fair answer. But you're here, everything will be fine."

"Anything can change, Robin."

"Yeah. I know. But still, I don't doubt it will go great."

"We are baaaack!" Rose came in, young Cole behind her. She was carrying a basket with baby things inside. "How's it going, kids?"

"Meadow's nervous."

"Robin!"

"Aw, that's natural." Rose sat next to her, holding Cole. "But hey, Eileen's resilient. And there have been no problems that we've seen."

Meadow nodded. "Still. I'm worried."

"Hi!" Little Cole smiled brightly, waving.

"Hi!" Meadow returned the wave.

Little Cole shifted to her, tightly wrapping his arms around Meadow's neck. She laughed in response, almost forgetting this was her older brother.

"Man, you are just a natural with kids." Rose smiled. "Cole really likes you!"

"Aw, I like you too, buddy." It was weird for her, but she pressed on.

Then, a strange noise, as a man burst through the swinging doors. Peter had sweat beading from his forehead.

"They're--they're girls!"

Rose stood up. "GirlsSSSS?"

"As in, plural?" Sage turned around.

"Twin girls! Come on!"

All six of the group came rushing down the halls of the hospital, following Peter as he burst into the hospital room. Eileen was on the bed,

in tears, and carrying one baby.

Meadow sucked in, her chest feeling heavy. "Is everything okay?"

"Where's the other girl?" Peter bent down to his wife's side.

"She was, uh—" Eileen's voice was tired, and heartbroken. "She didn't survive."

The air went still. Meadow was unable to comprehend what happened, her mind taking in so many things at once.

Little Cole was in the room, and he never told her about this. Her stillborn sister.

A doctor came in, holding a clipboard. "The other girl is perfectly healthy, but there are... some odd things about her."