Addicted

Seventeen

"You got anything yet?" Jax asked Kip, who was typing furiously at his computer. Kip was the next best thing to Juice, who was out of commission at the moment.

He smiled,"I just got all of the street camera footage from that day downloaded on my computer."

Jax laughed,"Look at ya go brother. Let me know when anything else is known.

With that being said, Jax went off to call Chibs. "How is he?"

Chibs sighed,"He's stable. He made it through the night. They said that was the most critical. Have you called his old lady?"

Jax let out a breath as he noticed just that person pull up on the lot,"No, and I'm about to get my ass chewed. Call you later."

===============
"Mr. Ross? Your wife is awake if you'd like to see her now," a nurse, poking her head in the nursery told him.

He nodded before going to the room she directed him to.

"Oh my God Alex, where's the baby?" She asked in a panic.

"Baby, shh.the girl's in an incubator two doors over. I gotta talk to you," Tig said, taking her hand in his. "We gotta say we don't remember anything. The cops are gonna question you, me and the guys. We don't know nothin'."

"Can't the cops help?" She asked him, confused as to why he'd want her to lie.

Tig sighed," We wanna handle this. The cops bein' involved is going to get more people hurt."

The doctor came in, quickly ending their discussion.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"Like I've been hit by a truck, but how's my baby?" She asked, never removing her hand from Tig's.

The doctor shook his head and sighed, "The bullet that went through your abdomen also tore your child's bowel duct. I was able to salvage it and put it back together,but the infection had already spread beyond repair. There is an extremely low survival rate with injuries such as this one."

Elizabeth begin to tear up,"What are you telling me?"

The doctor looked down,"I think it's time to discuss the possibility of AND, or allowing natural death."

Elizabeth whimpered,"What does that mean? I need to hear you say it."

"We would allow you and your husband to come in and say goodbye, then we'd unplug the machine breathing for her.If you choose, you two could stay in there with her," he explained before closing her chart and looking up at her,"I'll give you guys some time to think. Take all of the time you need."

After he walked out, Tig gathered Elizabeth in his arms as she sobbed. She sobbed for the loss of the baby mostly, but a small piece of her was sobbing at the decision she had made to leave Tig.

She looked up at him,"Have you seen her?"

He nodded with a small smile,"Yeah, she's gorgeous."

"I'm sorry," she began before he cut her off.

"Don't be sorry. You did what was best," he said, shrugging before tightening his arms around her.

"What do we do Alex?" She asked him.

He shook his head,"I'm not sure. She's attached to so many wires."

"Do you think we should let her go? My God,  I feel like a horrible mother for even considering it," she admitted, putting her face in her hands. "I wanna see her. I can't make a decision like this without even looking at her."

He nodded before moving to retrieve the doctor from the hall.

With the same warning he sent Tig with, Elizabeth was rolled into the NICU room that held her baby.

"Oh my God, she's so tiny. Her hair's dark like yours," Elizabeth said, sending a small smile Tig's way. She turned her attention toward the doctor who was standing silently in the corner,"Is that the thing keeping her alive?" He nodded. "So if we unplug it, she dies?" Again, he nodded with the saddest of looks on his face. "She doesn't have a chance does she?" Elizabeth asked with tears in her eyes.

"No mam, I do not believe she stands a chance at surviving without that machine to breathe for her," the doctor explained.

"Can I hold her?" She asked.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," the doctor began before Tig cut him off.

"Let her hold our kid. If we have to say goodbye, you're gonna let her hold the kid," he said.

After maneuvering with the chords and monitors, Elizabeth looked down at her baby girl. "Oh my god, Tig look at her."

"I'm lookin'," he told her with a smile. "What did you name her?"

She shrugged,"I thought about Maggie, but we can discuss other names."

Tig shook his head,"Maggie's perfect."

Hours passed when the doctors came back in. "Have you came to a decision?" He asked.

Elizabeth nodded at Tig to speak.

"We'll do the AND," he told them, choking back tears.

"What's going to happen is, we will shut off the monitors and remove the tube. Her heart will stop beating. It could take seconds or hours for the process to be complete," the doctor told them, moving to take her out of Elizabeth's arms, but she pulled her back.

"I want to hold her while you do it," the doctor nodded before completing each step he had listed off to them.

Tig wrapped his arms around both mother and child as Elizabeth silently sobbed.

They looked up at the monitor every so often until it finally showed her heart had stopped.