Orchards and Moonlight - a Mialotte story (TNN)

Aftermath

Winter was an absolute mess.

He didn't know what he would do if he lost Autumn. She was his everything. She was the smile on his face. She was the his reason for waking up in the morning.

That is why he was now sitting with his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face. While he waits in the waiting room of the hospital. Autumn had gone in for an MRI and he couldn't stay with her, which was causing even more stress.

"Mr. Fortune-Knight?" he heares a doctor call out for him. He jumps up immediately, almost sprinting to the doctor.

"Your wife is out of the MRI. She is waiting in room 432. You are more than welcome to go wait with her." he nodded along as the doctor talked.

"Thank you." his heart was beating like crazy, his hands were shaking and he was just about ready to run to his wife. He tried containing his emotions as he walked down the hall to the room.

"Hello, my love" he smiles at his wife as he walked into her room. She was sitting in the bed, in a hospital gown. She still looked absolutely gorgeous. Autumn smiles as her husband walks into her room. Her shoulders relax seeing him there with her.

"Do you want to tell Reece what's going on?" he asks her, as he sits down, taking her hand. She looks down at her lap, free hand playing with the blanket.

"I... Can't. I can't tell him." he has never seen his wife like this. She is always been a strong woman. Nothing would ever keep her down. But this, this terrified her. It terrified him as well, but he needs to stay stong for her.

Their attention was shifted to the doctor as he walked in. He smiled at them, as he looked through the MRI scans.

"Mr and Mrs Fortune-Knight, I have some very good news for you. According to your scan, there is only one abnormality."

Autumn squeezed Winter's hand, mostly to keep them from shaking more.

"And we will hopefully be able to remove it with one surgery. The hard thing about the surgery will be making sure we don't damage the wall of your uterus."

"What would happen if... There was..." Winter starts asking, but he he can't seem to get the words out.

"If we were to damage the uterus wall, then... You might never be able to have children."

Autumn's breath got caught in her throat. Tears stinging in her eyes. Again squeezing Winter's hands.

"We can do the surgery first thing tomorrow morning. If you are ready for it. But the faster we do the surgery, the better. It takes away any risk of it growing."

"Yes. We do it tomorrow" Autumn immediately said. Looking over at her husband, who just nodded his head.

"Right. We will get everything ready." he said before walking out and leaving the two alone.

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The next morning the nuses came in and got Autumn ready for the surgery. They were going to put her under anesthesia before taking her in.

"Winter... I'm scared." Autumn says as they place the mask over her face.

"I am too, my love. But it's going to be okay. I will be right here when you're done." She nods at him, as her eyes slowly start closing. The nurses started wheeling her away. He stopped them, grabbing her hand and kissing the back of her hand. He is absolutely terrified, but he needs to be stong for her.

"I love you" he whispers to the unconscious woman as they roll her into the operating room.

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3 hours

180 minutes

10 800 seconds

Winter was pacing in the waiting room, counting every second. He couldn't take the stress anymore. He was absolutely losing his mind. He didn't think that it would take this long.

That's it. He was calling Reece.

"Hello?" Reece's voice came from the other side. Winter tried to keep his voice stable.

"Reece. You need to come to the hospital... It's Autumn, she..."

"I'm on my way now. I'll be there in ten minutes" Reece hasn't even given Winter a chance to finish his sentence.

Reece was not lying, not even 9 minutes later, Reece was storming into the waiting room, Marjorie hot on his tail.

"Winter!" he called out when he saw his brother-in-law. He looked up at the two.

"Oh my love, you look terrible." Marjorie let out. She wasn't wrong. His hair was a mess from constantly running his hands through them. His eyes had bags under them and his face was pale.

"Where is Aut?"

"She's in surgery. The other day when we all came to visit Mia, she got sick. She hadn't been well for a few weeks by that point and I pushed her to get some tests done while we were at the hospital. That night, the doctor called. And... She has cancer. They found a tumor in her uterus. She had an MRI yesterday, and they said with the size they could do it today. So we took it. But Reece... I'm scared. I can't lose her."

For the first time. Reece actually hugged Winter. That was the moment Winter finally breaks down. He couldn't jeep it in anymore. It was too much for him, it hurt so much.

"It's going to be okay. She's strong. She will make ut through this." Winter nodded at his words, pulling away, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Mr. Fortune-Knight?"

Winter whipped his head around. The doctor stood there, a smile on his face.

"Good news?" he asked and the doctor nodded his head.

"We started with putting a small camera in her uterus to see better what we were working with. And we quickly realized that we were completely wrong. It wasn't a tumor."

Winter tilted his head in confusion, knitted his eyebrows together.

"Wasn't a tumor? Then what was it?"

"It was an embryo. It got stuck on the wall of her uterus and grew there. We could safely remove it from the wall without causing any damage to the wall or the embryo."

Winter, Reece and Marjorie connected the dots. All letting out a gasp...

"Wait... Is she?"

"Yes. She is pregnant. Congratulations."