POWER BACK

Chapter 46: No Time to Die

Chapter 46: No Time to Die

April

When we return to the front desk, Margie informs us that Gram and Ma are in the labor and delivery waiting-room.

"I should be going now," Peyton says. "It's after midnight."

I don't want her to go, but I get it. "How will you get home?"

"Marshall's been waiting in the parking lot," she says. "Here's Bree's purse." She holds the tiny handbag out to me.  

"He found it?"

"It was under the table."

Can always count on Batman.

"He didn't tell anyone, did he?"

The corner of her mouth twitches up. "He never tells anyone anything, Chaplin."

"True."

"Okay, text me tomorrow and let me know how everything goes."

I stare off in the distance. "What if there isn't a tomorrow?"

"There will be." She touches my arm. "It's not their time to die."

I look into her eyes and see assurance. Truth.

God I hope you're right.

She tilts her head and studies my expression. "It's going to be okay."

I nod.

She hugs me. "Anything you need, just text me."

I nod again. 

*****

"Any updates at all?" I ask Ma and Bree's Gram when I finally find the waiting room.

"Jack!" Ma runs over and throws her arms around me. "Nothing, Bud. What time did she go into surgery?"

"Around ten-thirty, I think. It's all a blur."

Gram looks up from the paperwork. "Jack," she says, "do you happen to know if Bree was using alcohol or tobacco during the pregnancy?"

I think back to the last time she vaped or drank. It was homecoming, the night the baby was conceived. "I don't think she was, no."

She nods and continues writing.

Ma signals for me to come sit next to her. "What happened tonight? The nurses said she's lost quite a bit of blood."

I shake my head. "I don't really know. She said she was fine, but then we found her on the floor of the bathroom doubled over in pain. We didn't even know she was bleeding until we got here. The doctor said something is wrong with the placenta."

"Abruption?" Ma asks.

"I think so. What does that mean?"

"The placenta pulls away from the uterine wall. So the blood that feeds it pools inside the womb. It's very dangerous."

I close my eyes and drop my head into my hands. "Are...is it...fatal?"

She squeezes my arm. "They can save them," she says.

"But it's so early. What if he's not ready?"

"We just have to wait and see." When I look up at her face, tears fill her eyes.

The doors open, and the doctor walks towards us, his expression impassive. "Congratulations, son," he says. "You got yourself a baby boy."

"Is he okay?"