The Flashbacks

Chapter Fifteen Part 2: Accidents Happen

I walked into work the next morning, happy that the gender reveal had gone so well, but also satisfied because of a sleepover with Ethan. When I stepped off the elevator, Elyse's office door was open, which meant she had beat me here today. I put my stuff down at my desk and went to tell her good morning. Her chin was resting on her hands which had been folded on top of her desk. She was looking down at one of the professional pregnancy tests, probably waiting for the results to come in.

"Haven't you and Alex only been trying for like a week?" I asked, sitting across from her. She smiled slightly, nodding her head.

"I'm just excited." She tucked some hair behind her ear and looked at me. "It's been 10 days. That's what I was waiting for." She pressed her lips together. She looked down at the test again and I saw her eyes start watering. The test was most likely negative and she was disappointed. It had taken Tyler and I a while to get pregnant with Jax. "It's positive." She whispered. I jumped up and looked down at the test. She was right. It was positive. Her hand went over her mouth and she started crying. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. I'm sure she was expecting the test to be negative.

"Congratulations!" I told her and she smiled. "I should go get the computer booted up, but we're definitely celebrating today. This is amazing news." I didn't want to fall behind on patients.

"Yeah, of course. Thank you, Steph." She wiped her eyes and started to compose herself. I went out and turned on the computer. What an eventful morning

Today, the boys brought us Chick-fil-A for lunch. We sat on the floor behind the reception desk as usual.

"Do you wanna get Chinese for dinner?" Elyse asked Alex. She told me that she wanted to put that they were pregnant in a fortune cookie for him to open.

"Sure." Alex was mixing the dressing into his salad. His eyebrows were pulled together slightly. He was making sure that he didn't drop anything on the carpet.

"Do you want to join us, Ethan?" She asked. Ethan smiled slightly, shaking his head. I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"You and I are going out to dinner tonight," Ethan smirked at me, taking a bite out of a grilled chicken nugget and salad.

"I hate to bother you guys, but do you think you could watch the kids? Ryan's working the next three days and it's getting harder for Sarah to do stuff since she's 7 months along with twins." I hoped I wasn't imposing on their own special night.

"We'd be happy to. Jax can sleep in Luna's bed with her, there's room. We can put the pack-and-play in there for Ava." Elyse smiled slightly, tucking some hair behind her ear. She put some macaroni in her mouth and looked down into the bowl. I could tell that she was really excited to tell Alex, but she wanted it to be special. Ethan's work phone buzzed on the carpet next to him.

"Officer Manning." He pressed the phone between his ear and shoulder so that he could keep eating. "Okay, we'll be right there." He sighed and hung up the phone. "We got to go. We're needed back at the precinct to help with some witness interviews." He looked at me. "Meet me at the house at 7? That way you can bring the kids?" He asked and I nodded my head. He kissed my cheek and jumped up.

"See you later, Mrs. Stone." Alex smiled, pressing his lips to Elyse before getting up. They left the hospital and I looked at Elyse. She was smiling like a little girl.

"Thank you for agreeing to watch the kids. I had no idea that Ethan was going to ask me out tonight." I smiled over at her and she smiled back.

"No problem. I'm sure Luna will be ecstatic to have Jax over for a sleepover." She was probably right. We talked about what she wanted to do differently and the same this pregnancy, if she wanted a boy or a girl, and how she thought Luna would react. We spoke and ate until lunch was over. She went back to her office to get ready for patients to start coming in. Our first appointment was still about 20 minutes out. The elevator opened and I heard Jax's screaming, causing me to drop the cup that was in my hand. Sarah pushed the double stroller onto our floor and I could see Jax's head was bleeding.

"Sarah, what the hell happened?" I asked, panicking, as I picked up my poor baby out of the stroller. I rubbed his back, but it didn't seem to comfort him.

"He-he was playing on the monkey bars outside. He fell and hit his head. It was an accident." Sarah was crying too. Elyse came out of her office when she heard the commotion going on.

"Steph, take him into Exam Room 1. Sarah, go ahead and take a seat in the waiting room." She put herself between us.

"I can't believe you let this happen." I took Jax into Exam Room 1 as Elyse told me to. Elyse talked to Sarah for a couple of minutes before joining me.

"Okay, let me take a look here." She put on a set of gloves. She took a look at the cut on Jax's forehead. "He's gonna need stitches. It's going to be okay, Steph. Deep breaths." She gave me a small smile. "I'm going to have to flush out the sand first. Let me grab him something to cover his eyes. She grabbed a special pair of glasses and had me lay him down. Once she had flushed out the cut, it didn't look as bad. There wasn't blood everywhere anymore. She put in the 5 stitches, put on the iodine, and then added a bandage. "See, good as new." Elyse smiled slightly at me. I knew she was just trying to help keep me calm.

"Thank you," I whispered as she gave Jax an otter pop popsicle that she kept for special patients. She cut it open for him and he finally stopped crying as he took it.

"You should go home. I'll be alright here. They have temps we can call in case of emergency. Take care of Jax, and spend some time with him. You'll see that he's going to be okay and that you can still go on your date tonight." Elyse put her hands in her pockets. "He's gonna be okay. Just keep an eye on him for the next couple of hours for signs of concussion, okay?"

"Okay," I whispered, nodding my head. "Thank you again, Elyse." I picked up Jax and he gave me a little wave.

"Let me walk you out." She opened the door and followed me out. The person who sanitized the rooms came in as soon as we walked out.

"Oh good, he's okay." Sarah jumped up, but I just took the stroller and walked past her. "Steph?"

"You should have been watching him more closely, Sarah. This could have been so much worse." I put Jax down in the stroller. "I'm going to Ethan's apartment. I need some time alone with my kids. I need to know that they're safe." I looked at Ava who was sucking on her binky and just watching everything. "Where's Luna?" I asked, just realizing she wasn't there.

"Alex came and picked her up. I told him we had an emergency." She followed me to the elevator and she took a deep breath.

"It might have been comforting to Jax to have his friend with him." I was being snippy and I knew it but my poor baby had a giant gash in his head. I took the kids out to the car without saying another word to Sarah. I just needed to be alone for a little while.