divulgence // luke hemmings au

4

The recovery process following this near-fatal accident was long, slow and awkward.

The first insane thing that happened was Luke nearly coded a second time, probably do to the stress and tension.

Loads of people came running in the room pushing Sabrina and Elsie out of the way. In order to stabilize Luke they had to pump him full of medications keeping his blood pressure and heart rate up and in the normal range until he was able to maintain them on his own.

There was some bleak moments here and there but things gradually improved.

Now the father and son duo were home, Elliot stayed in his bedroom upstairs while Luke stayed in his and Sabrina's bedroom downstairs.

Luke and Elliot hardly interacted, maybe Elliot was secretly traumatized by the entire ordeal. Anytime Elliot got upset he would just shut down and shut people out. Trying to press any information out of it usually made things worse so a lot of people learnt to stay away.

Around the sixth day of being home, Luke got a visitor, appearing in his bedroom carrying a car seat was Sierra with Maisie. Maisie was finally able to come home after spending nearly four months in the hospital.

Somehow Sierra and Felicia kept this news secret about Maisie getting discharged. "She's such a big girl. Her cheeks are so full and she's full of curiosity." Luke commented seeing the baby looking at her surroundings.

"Yes she's a very big girl now, she's just a tad bit over eight pounds. She's able to tolerate bottle feeds quite well now. We've had a lot of practice."

"That's great, sometimes you just got to give the littlest ones some extra time they'll come around."

"Yeah, they say she's got a touch of asthma so now we gotta do some breathing treatments at home three times a day." Sierra explained, but Luke was a bit distracted by the baby's cuteness.

"Her lungs were probably a bit underdeveloped from being so tiny and being brought into this world so early. Did they ever find out who left her? Did they find out how preterm she was?"

"It looks like there's going to be a lot of unknowns for a long time. But the neonate specialist say Maisie was an estimated 28 weeks. As you said your self you were unsure how long she was without oxygen since she most likely came out of her birth mother pulseless — but as of right now she seems to be on schedule with no obvious delays."

Luke got up gripping his side, even though he was in pain from the accident, he wanted to see the baby up close and wanted to hold her. "May I?" He asked politely, "of course!"

Luke undid the buckle and picked up Maisie from underneath her arms having her head rest on his shoulder. "Remember me Maisie?" He tried looking at her and tried talking to her but she was pre occupied by something else. "I'm your Uncle Luke, I'm going to spoil you forever."

Sierra watched in awe seeing her best friend interact with her daughter. "We never get to see outcomes like this. This is a rare treat. Not only did she live beyond a day, she's grown, has her own self awareness and is already giving everyone so much love." Sierra giggled because her daughter was loving the way her uncle was holding her.

"She's a sucker for snuggles Luke. I know they make her feel so safe." At this point she was latched onto Luke's shoulder going from small little laughs to drooling on his shirt. "Having her in my arms brings back to many memories."

"What are you talking about?"

"Holding Maisie just makes me remember when Elsie was born and the doctor was like , here's your daughter do you want to hold her? Granted Sabrina just had a c section and was getting stitched up so she couldn't do much so I took her in my arms and I just knew that she was going to be a daddy's girl for life and that I'd do anything for her. Nearly sixteen years have gone by since then, she's all grown up now. I miss the olden days." Sierra was able to tell that Luke was reminiscing just by the way he was now cradling Maisie and looking into her eyes.